Supply Excellence — Stepping Up Your Sourcing Performance

Stepping Up Your Sourcing Performance

February 14th, 2007 · by Tim Minahan · No Comments · Top 5 Supply Strategies, best practices, sourcing

There’s no doubt about it. The first era of strategic sourcing (and supporting e-enabled sourcing approaches) is over. Most early e-sourcing adopters focused their efforts on transparent online reverse auctions that essentially liposuctioned the fat from supplier profit margins in the most competitive spend categories.

However, the era of low-hanging sourcing opportunities is over. E-sourcing program managers are reporting both dwindling returns from re-sourcing the same commodities and inflationary pressures due to tightening supply markets. (Just ask anyone buying copper or energy.)

These dynamics are driving supply managers to employ alternative sourcing strategies and technologies that can uncover additional savings, determine best-value and lowest-total-cost awards, and extend strategic sourcing practices to a broader portion of total spend.

I am honored to have the opportunity to dig into the best practices for the next wave of sourcing when I host a web seminar this Thursday aptly entitled Advanced Sourcing Strategies: Expanding Sourcing Success. The seminar features a all-star panel, including industry luminary Tom Slaight, Vice President at world-renowoned strategic sourcing consultancy A.T. Kearney, and Cheryl Hobgood, head of strategic sourcing at media giant Cox Enterprises.

While I don’t want to steal the panelist’s thunder, I got a sneak peek at the planned topics for this session Tom will examine topics including:

What’s the right organizational structure for a successful advanced sourcing program?
Category management and collaborative sourcing approaches.
Multi-tier sourcing, low-cost country sourcing, mega- or integrated supplier programs, design for supply, and consumption management (the latter being a current favorite of the A.T. Kearney clan).

Meanwhile, Cheryl will share Cox’s proven strategies for expanding a sourcing program enterprisewide; applying e-sourcing non-traditional categories, such as labor and consulting; and using advanced surveying, optimization, and performance management tools.

I will be sharing some of the highlights from this web seminar in the coming weeks. However, I encourage you listen in this Thursday at 11:30 a.m. Eastern. By doing so, you’ll hear all these strategies first hand and get the panelists to answer the advanced sourcing questions that are most important to you. Supply Excellence readers can register for free here.

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