Supply Excellence

Entries from June 2008

Top 5 Categories to Source Now: #4 Travel Management

June 30th, 2008 · 4 Comments · best practices, sourcing, supply management

We kicked off the list last week with a recap of Pat Furey’s advice for sourcing Direct Materials in a time of skyrocketing commodity prices. So what’s next on our Category Managers’ list of current categories that provide sourcing opportunities? Travel Management.
No surprise that high fuel prices and a weak US$ are hitting companies hard [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: ·

WSJ Pushes Spend Management as a Recession Remedy

June 27th, 2008 · 5 Comments · best practices, sourcing, spend analysis, supply management

A recent article on WSJ.com profiled how some companies have increased their spend management efforts in order to weather the economic downturn. For example, PPG trimmed their number of suppliers, negotiated better contracts and wound up saving 15%. GlaxoSmithKline cut T&E expenses by rolling out new online tools that show employees their various options for [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: ·

Mid-Market: Treading (procurement) water

June 26th, 2008 · No Comments · events, mid-market/growing enterprise, sourcing

I posted here recently about a webinar I was presenting with Purchasing.com’s editor-in-chief and a panel of 3 D & C-level procurement professionals from mid-sized companies (the replay is available here if you’d like to check it out). The discussion ranged from spend management approaches to organizational challenges. But one of the most interesting [...]

[Read more →]

Tags:

Top 5 Categories to Source Now: #5 Direct Materials

June 25th, 2008 · 5 Comments · best practices, contract management, oil/energy, sourcing, supply management

Based on market conditions, research and their real-time visibility into sourcing events, Category Managers in our GSO group identified the Top 5 Categories to Source Now and presented their findings in a Sourcing Interest Group (SIG) webinar yesterday. I’ll highlight some of their key findings and recommended strategies for each of the categories here over [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: ··

Dynamic Pricing: Even parking meters are unpredictable

June 24th, 2008 · No Comments · best practices, contract management, sourcing, supply management, supply risk

Are we heading towards a future where dynamic pricing is the model for everything? Technology, particularly the internet, has changed researching, sourcing and buying products into a real-time event, even when it crosses borders and oceans around the world. How far have we already slid down this slippery slope?
The city of San Francisco is testing [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: ·