E-Sourcing Forum

Are you experiencing declining yield from your Six Sigma or other process improvement projects?

2010-02-04T14:07:49Z

An article in the Wallstreet Journal provides a wonderful example of how implemented best practices and process improvement programs like Six Sigma can go astray after experts move to other projects, Managers relax accountability and excitement fades. The cartoon depicted below by Leif Parsons, gives the perfect illustration of what happens in the progression of [...]

The Rest of the Story

2010-02-02T14:22:08Z

In my April post entitled “Take A Long Term View”, I described a client facing a sourcing dilemma. They were purchasing materials from a distributor who had installed “free” equipment in exchange for a commitment to buy the related supplies. They had previously solicited bids every two years and believed their “supplier partner” was competitive. [...]

Do you know enough about Telecom Sourcing?

2010-01-28T14:48:39Z

Telecom is normally one of the largest spend categories that is over looked within large multi-national corporations. Most CIO’s don’t have the knowledge or background to understand the spend they have in Telecom. This lack of understanding leads to very ineffective Telecom sourcing projects. According to research conducted by Forester Consulting, “80% of all telecoms sourcing [...]

ITIL V3 – Bridging your ITSM and Outsourcing Strategies

2010-01-26T13:22:38Z

by Claudia Tropp, – TPI. While ITIL, the most widely accepted collection of best practices for IT Service Management (ITSM), has taken an important first step in evolving its guidance on outsourcing within the context of ITSM in its 2007 Version 3 release, it may have fallen short on providing the breadth of advice required in [...]

Leaders in Supply Chain Management who Saved the Airline Industry

2010-01-22T19:45:17Z

I recently read an interesting article at the Institute for Supply Management about the Sourcing Transformation of United Airlines. As we all know this is an industry that to this day, stays alive on thin margins. In that capacity, it is crucial that they have strong supply chain management and procurement practices. Grace Puma, who [...]

Phased Approaches for Larger Spend Analysis Projects

2010-01-21T14:00:45Z

Numerous larger organizations, such as international or holding companies with disparate global operations, often have difficulty getting an organizational Spend Analysis project launched, primarily due to the independent operations within each company in the portfolio. A typical, comprehensive Spend Analysis project would address all Spend. This is typically all AP, PO, P-Card, and Expense data [...]

Considerations for Emerging Technologies in Your Sourcing Strategy

2010-01-19T13:29:28Z

by Fred Croxton, TPI There are a number of commonly accepted models for the adoption of emerging technologies and the most effective manner for the organization to consider, test and deploy them. Generally there is a “trigger event” followed by building expectations, then disappointment and eventually a period of more pragmatic expectations and realizable productivity. Here [...]

Creating Supply Chains for Disaster Relief: Haiti

2010-01-18T20:55:42Z

—Tony Friscia, President, AMR Research The devastating events in Haiti last week have organizations around the world scrambling to help. Standing behind many of those organizations is a unique supply chain software and services organization, Aidmatrix. A non-profit that supports non-profits and relief agencies with the technology and supply chain services needed to get the right [...]

Taking The “Air” out of Packaging

2010-01-14T13:49:41Z

Have you ever considered taking the air or reconfiguring your current packaging? Many companies do not take the time to analyze their current packaging of finished product once the product has been prepared for the end-user. Many times I have walked through distribution warehouse centers and simply picked up a master carton of blister carded product and [...]

Decreasing overhead in 2010, where will banks turn?

2010-01-12T14:46:36Z

By Brian Smith The economic situation in 2009 has changed the game for banks of all sizes. Going into 2010 they are all looking for new business strategies to rebound. Across the board, banks will be restructuring in 2010, but what types of strategies will they look to employ and will they turn their eyes to [...]

Savings Where No One Dares to Look…Prescription Drug Benefits

2010-01-07T13:42:29Z

Employee benefit plans are a critical component of a company’s ability to attract and hold talent. This sacred task often puts price negotiation with service providers in the hands of outside HR consultants and internal Human Resource specialists. While these people have good intentions, they are often ill equipped to work the cost AND service [...]

Zone Skipping To Major Market Distribution

2010-01-05T13:32:20Z

More companies are looking at centralized distribution and servicing their customer base in a timely manner in order to control costs, control inventory overhead and to improve overall customer service. Centralized distribution sometimes has its own challenges and issues based on schedules, inventory and transportation network. Other factors that should be considered is the size of the [...]

Optimizing and Integrating Supplier Data Enrichment Data Into Your Spend Intelligence Warehouse

2009-12-28T13:20:19Z

Many of our customers ask us to handle their Supplier data enrichment data. This is a natural fit to add and integrate this informative data to all the supplier and Spend data that is collected. Supplier enrichment data packets build additional analytical and Spend management capabilities into the overall Spend Intelligence warehouse. However, many organizations [...]

Order to Cash Outsourcing – 5 Reasons Why It’s a Trend to Watch Today

2009-12-22T12:39:54Z

By Art Shanfeld, Senior Advisor, TPI Order to Cash (OTC) outsourcing has typically been on CFOs’ lists of “potential outsourcing opportunities,” but it has not risen to the top of the list until recently. TPI is seeing more interest and activity in OTC outsourcing this year in spite of – and possibly because of – the [...]

To UNSPSC, or Not to UNSPSC???

2009-12-16T13:38:19Z

I have noticed an interesting trend that has played out over time, and seems to be increasing in popularity. And that is, many companies are no longer looking to classify their data to UNSPSC codes. What I have noticed over literally more than a 100 Spend Analysis projects over the past 10 years, is that [...]