Daily Archives: April 27, 2009

Upcoming Events from the #1 Supply Chain Resource Site

The Sourcing Innovation Resource Site, always immediately accessible from the link under the “Free Resources” section of the sidebar, continues to add new content on a weekly, and often daily, basis. Unlike many “resource”, “best of”, or “portal sites” that are abandoned almost as quickly as they are thrown together, the resource site is actively maintained (and dead links are removed on a regular, usually weekly, basis). In fact, there have been over 25 resource additions in the past week alone.

The total number of unique, active resources exceeds the 2,650 mark, and breaks down as follows:

And includes the following recent additions, among many others:

Conferences

Dates Conference Sponsor
2009-Apr-27 to
  

2009-Apr-29

ProcureCon Indirect
  

Amsterdam, North Holland, The Netherlands (Europe)

WBR
2009-Apr-27 to
  

2009-Apr-30

The Logistics & Supply Chain Forum
  

New York, New York, USA (North-America)

Richmond Events
2009-Apr-27 to
  

2009-Apr-28

Trade Compliance 101 – Back to Basics
  

Raffles City, Singapore (Asia)

Mondial Trade Compliance
2009-Apr-28 to
  

2009-Apr-29

42nd Annual SCL Conference
  

Vaughn (Toronto), Ontario, Canada (North-America)

SCL
2009-Apr-29 to
  

2009-May-1

Gartner Risk Management and Compliance Summit
  

Chicago, Illinois, USA (North-America)

Gartner

Webcasts

Date & Time Webcast
2009-May-7

11:00 GMT-07:00/MST/PDT

Survival Guide: Succeeding During Tough Times
  

Sponsor: Vantage Partners

2009-May-12

13:00 GMT-04:00/AST/EDT

Moving from Task In-Sourcing to Comprehensive Outsourcing with CROs
  

Sponsor: Vantage Partners

2009-May-14

13:00 GMT-04:00/AST/EDT

Five Plus Five: Two CPOs Offer Their Five Strategies for Driving Cost Savings
  

Sponsor: ISM

2009-Jul-29

8:00 GMT-07:00/MST/PDT

Successful Supply Chain Risk Management
  

Sponsor: QAD

Workshops

Dates Workshop Sponsor
2009-May-4 to
  

2009-May-5

Fundamentals of Supply Chain Management
  

Chicago, Illinois, USA (North-America)

CSCMP
2009-May-11 to
  

2009-May-13

Basics of Supply Chain Management
  

Chicago, Illinois, USA (North-America)

APICS
2009-May-28 to
  

2009-May-29

Delvering Value through Effective Risk Management
  

London, England, UK (Europe)

IOM
2009-Jun-2 to
  

2009-Jun-2

Advanced negotiation workshop
  

Kettering, England (Europe)

CIPS

which are all readily searchable from the comprehensive Site-Search page. So don’t forget to review the resource site on a weekly basis. You just might find what you didn’t even know what you were looking for!

And continue to keep a sharp eye out for new content and even more new content categories which will be coming on-line in the near future!

Will We See The Two-Per-Category Theory Where Supply Chain Technology is Concerned?

A recent TPMA (Trade Promotion Marketers Association) Outlook contained an article by Bob Houk (of the TPMtoday blog) that expounded on the two-per-channel theory that refers to the idea that retail channels are consolidating to the point that there will eventually be only two significant players in each channel. The article also discussed the two-per-category corollary that states that as retail channels consolidate, and as shelf-space decreases and increases in cost, the suppliers to the few remaining retailers will also consolidate.

This reminded me of my recent post on why Marketing is Not Optional and how, as a result of too much inaction on the part of too many vendors and a lack of faith by too many buyers, this prolonged recession is likely to accomplish what years of M&A activity couldn’t, namely, condense the market to a small handful of key players for each technology and services offering. And I got to thinking, what happens if the space over consolidates and we see the two-per-category theory take effect in core e-Sourcing and e-Procurement offerings? What would happen then? We already have the situation where the suite solutions offered by the big providers are essentially the same solutions offered five years ago, with a few more “bells and whistles” in the UI that really don’t offer much in the way of value improvements. Would we have any innovation at all? And more importantly, even if we don’t see the two-per-category, but only see a small handful of providers … would they all centralize on a “value system” like SAP or Microsoft? What value would there be if all the savings they offered up had to be pumped into (ridiculously?) high license fees and maintenance fees with “empty-calories“? Good questions. Scary questions!

And questions we’ll have to ask unless the more innovative vendors wake up and small the espresso, double down, show you the value, and find a way to sell it to you with essentially no up-front cost — which is very realistic with a SaaS model where they can give you a free 30 day trial and not bill you until the end of month two, giving you enough time to get your first quick wins, demonstrate value, and justify the low monthly service fee that you’ll pay for the 3, 5, 7, and 10+X ROI that these solutions will deliver.