I would really love to hear the collaborative conversations that must have gone on with the suppliers that made constructing this 15 story green hotel in China in just 2 days possible.

This is where the business world is headed. The right suppliers working with the buyer of choice to innovate.
Justin Fogarty is Managing Editor of [...]

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Today in the US, it’s National Drink Coffee Day. Now I don’t know if that’s an official holiday of any kind or just another internet meme, similar to Talk Like a Pirate Day (September 19th). But the ‘holiday’ reminded me of a recent discussion thread on Ariba Exchange about sourcing coffee, which dug into strategy [...]

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Robert Van Brederode of Ryan (a tax strategy firm that is an Ariba partner) shared his insights into the opportunity and risk posed by VAT at Ariba LIVE in Amsterdam. Robert recommends that companies look beyond income tax since there is “too much money involved” in VAT and customs duties to ignore them.

Justin Fogarty is [...]

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As many of you know, the Category Managers who contribute to Supply Excellence also create a quarterly report called SupplyWatch. The Q2 issue is posted and includes detailed category breakdowns for…

Metals
Plastics, Rubber & Raw Materials
Transportation
Electronics, Electrical & IT Hardware
Paper & Packaging
Services & Capital Goods, Construction & Engineering

This quarter’s feature article is on Working Capital [...]

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With the economic challenges many companies are now focused on concerns that key suppliers will not deliver due to financial challenges. Well what happens when a Volcano in Iceland erupts and shuts down your supply chain? That’s exactly what happened to BMW and many other companies impacted by the recent eruption.
As I sit here in [...]

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