Procurement is a function, activity, and role that is increasingly business critical to an organization’s overall value chain. In fact, many organizations are beginning to view procurement as a primary activity to increase top-line value and marginal growth.
I’m one and a half weeks deep into 2019 and I ate half a bag of potato chips last night as I simultaneously began to lose interest in ‘book #1’ of my 2019 reading list.
As to how procurement will add value in an organization lies within defining a scope for the role of a procurement strategy: Long-Term or Short-Term? Strategic or Reactive? Savings-focused or Profit-focused?
Procurement is a business function that has undergone a lot of change in the last few years. Due to globalization, growing consumer demands on transparency, the pertinence of sustainable development and technological advancements, procurement and supply chain professionals have been highlighted as an integral part of their organizations.
Sometimes we forget that organizations require the harmonization of a lot of moving parts, and it’s seldom that the people that fill those roles receive the individualized recognition that is deserved for their work within a company.
I’m a blogger. I’m a copywriter. And, I’m going to tell it like it is. Buzzwords are the destruction of Procurement Technology.
Your procurement team is too old; face it. And, they’re not getting any younger. But, there’s a new wave of talent on the way in, and they’re about as blue eyed and bushy tailed as they come.
Millenials’ talent and knowledge may be contemporary, but their competencies aren’t as superior as they’d like to believe.
Supplier quality management is an overall evaluation of delivery and performance within the boundaries of agreed upon terms and conditions of supplier and buyer.
Supplier bases are a great source of potential innovation. But, unlocking collaborative supplier innovation requires clearly defined strategies and operations by a sourcing, procurement and/or purchasing team to ensure that suppliers’ competencies are being leveraged to their fullest potential.
A procurement strategy should be structured with a clearly defined set of goals and an overarching vision. Having clear goals in mind will allow your procurement team to backtrack, and think; ‘what do we need to do now, to reach our goals later.’
Supplier relationships should be built methodically, assessed objectively and nurtured strategically. Suppliers aren’t just your vendors, they are potential strategic partnerships, and they need to be managed accordingly.
IWAY, the ‘Ikea way of purchasing’, Ikea’s code of conduct (CoC) for suppliers was introduced to ensure that the drastic changes the organization was experiencing wouldn’t jeopardize key supplier relationships.
Blockchain technology is one of the most hyped amongst the currently developing technologies, hypothesized to make one of the greatest impacts in supply chain management — especially procurement and logistics — in the coming years.
Implementing change and managing change are no easy task, and for that very reason change requires infrastructure, processes and clearly defined actions.
With all oddities aside, I work with procurement professionals, work in an organization that services procurement professionals, market a digital procurement platform, but had I ever really challenged my knowledge of procurement?
This is an age of technological independence, and API-driven innovation, breeding procurement technologies that are more agile, scalable, integrate-able and more customizable than ever before. This is the age of smarter solutions. This is the age of User-Enabled Procurement
Procurement professionals have the same question looming over their head on a daily basis: “How do you plan on dealing with digitalization?”
Procurement is a complex business function, nuanced from organization to organization, and unconsciously tied to many facets of a company’s corporate structure. Revenue, cost, and production are direct results from procurement actions.
Strategic Sourcing is a procurement strategy for value creation within purchasing processes, focused on building mutually beneficial results for all parties involved.
Distinguishing a brand, strategy, product, or even a website is nearly impossible in this world, oversaturated with sameness. Campaigns and initiatives rise to the surface on a daily basis, taking over the headlines for a week, just to sink to the bottom of the ocean again.
While there are no absolutes in business… you can be damn sure analytics are going to play a big role in the future of procurement, and supply chain management at large.
Still, today, supply chain transparency holds a prominent position in concerns for consumer and business, alike. Transparency has become an organizational effort in business, as it can impact various aspects of a value chain, if neglected; not solely supply chain management.
The days of glacial traditional on-premise software models, and their implementation teams, are long past due. SaaS offers customers capabilities that are unmatched by the likes of traditional software.
Procurement is amongst some of the most rapidly changing business areas, and maybe for the better. Only time will tell if the coming digital transformation of various business areas, just like procurement, will make for positive outcomes. But, in the meantime, there is still a large population of procurement professionals, strapping up their boots every morning, and doing their darndest.
Brands labeled with Green Supply Chains have started becoming synonymous with sustainability, trustworthiness, quality and forward thinking.
Procurement and sourcing teams are heavily reliant upon the effectiveness of the suppliers they choose to collaborate with. Relationship management between buyer and supplier is crucial to the success rate of a partnership, and both parties must learn to give and take to create fair/shared value.
Procurement 2.0 offers a shift away from the traditional portrait of cost-driven and siloed procurement.
In the age of digital transformation and shifting consumer concerns, procurement 2.0 is a breath of fresh air.