When I asked the Strategic Sourcing & Procurement LinkedIn group members to suggest topics for upcoming calls, there were a lot of requests pertaining to indirect spend. So, this Friday, the group’s July member conference call will be an open discussion on indirect categories (marketing and consulting will definitely be covered - if you have [...]

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The ISM NMI (Non-Manufacturing Index) came in at 53.8, which is down from 55.4 in May. The Business Activity Index was 58.1, down from 61.1 in May, and New Orders was 54.4, down from 57.1 in May. The employment index came in at 49.7, slightly below the growth threshold of 50. Here are some bullet points about [...]

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Long-time readers may remember a year ago when we interviewed Chris Stockwell, VP of Procurement at Heinz, on their efforts to really go after the company’s indirect spend and bring it under management. No doubt a major opportunity for Heinz and one which required careful planning and execution.
So, it was great to speak with Mauricio [...]

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It’s an understatement to say that the global economic recession has heightened focus of cost cutting and elevated the importance of spend management within most every organization. Yet, I have become increasingly troubled by the advice executives I speak say they are getting from vendors, analysts, or even their own IT departments when they ask [...]

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Friday’s group discussion on Vested Outsourcing led by University of Tennessee faculty member Kate Vitasek went very well. For anyone unfamiliar with her work, Kate literally wrote the book on Vested Outsourcing, a model that utilizes incentives to create more strategic relationships between buying organizations and their outsourcing vendors. So when she stepped up and [...]

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