On a recent call to discuss top trends in 2010, Chris Sawchuk of the Hackett Group said that procurement departments in many companies are looking to beef up their talent this year. It seems that the value of strategic-minded, savvy procurement pros became more clear during this brutal recession, where extracting value for every penny [...]

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I attended Spend Management Day in Boston yesterday. Lots of great presentations, roundtables and insights that I’ll do my best to share in the coming days. Hackett Group procurement practice leader Chris Sawchuk teed up the day well with his talk on the wild ride we’ve all experienced in the last 18 months and how [...]

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Javier Urioste, former CPO of JP Morgan Chase, shared his thoughts on the CPO Roundtable event he hosted the night before Ariba LIVE in Paris. The topic of the roundtable was “risk” and the recession. Interestingly, Javier found many companies aren’t feeling the downturn and are therefore using the opportunity to cut costs, a strategy [...]

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Tuesday in Chicago, Mike Shane, Manager of Indirect Purchasing at Caterpillar, shared his experience motivating requisitioners to use their formalized “Preferred Suppliers” list with proverbial carrots. And if that doesn’t work…he outlined the compliance stick he’ll need.

***The video interviews from the NY and Chicago Ariba LIVE World Tour events are now in a playlist on [...]

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Chad Buchanan, the current VP & COO at Premikati and former VP of Procurement & Real Estate at Axcess Financial, discussed what he sees as good indirect spend categories to address and his experience with getting compliance. Managing procurement for 1,400 retail locations, which used their procurement system for everything from office supplies to individual [...]

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