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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We have all read about how the volcano has disrupted millions of peoples lives. It has stymied logistics systems worldwide. The economic impact to companies globally have been devastating. Especially to industries already hit hard by the economic downturn. What can we do going forward?
We need better contingency planning, that is pretty evident based on [...]

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Spring has sprung. The markets, manufacturing and perhaps even … employment may be emerging from hibernation. And while we’re all happy to see the economy awakening from a brutal recession (please don’t hit the snooze button), it will mean some changes as we shift from buyer’s market conditions. Indeed, we’re already seeing commodity prices rising, [...]

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