Monthly Archives: December 2016

Twenty Score and Sixteen Years Ago Today …

… the British East India Company, which would grow in size until it accounted for half of the world’s trade, was chartered. While it hasn’t been in existence for 142 years, it made Britain a trading superpower and with the other East India Companies (Dutch, Portuguese), basically defined global trade for centuries.

The wikipedia article alone is a fascinating read, and links to many more resources for those who want a historical trade understanding.

What do you think LOLCat?

LOLCat, technically, as they were chartered, they weren’t pirates.

LOLCat seems to disagree …

Top Posts of 2016! An Analysis.


Procurement Leaders are Getting Deeper Into Sourcing Strategy

Consider that the 8th and 7th most visited posts are on aligning procurement strategies to business goals. Not only are leading Procurement organizations adopting deeper sourcing strategies, but they are looking to better align those strategies with business goals to extract not just savings, but value. The leaders are realizing, with inflation coming back, the days of savings in a mature Procurement organization are numbered.

Moreover, the fact that the 9th most visited post is on the direct procurement challenge, this indicates that not only are Procurement leaders looking for value, but they are beginning to realize that in order to capture that value, direct procurement has to be done correctly and requires more depth than just a simple auction for office supplies.

Then we have the 4th most visited post being part of the series on how Trade Extensions is redefining sourcing — again indicating that leaders want to do better.


Analytics is Taking Center Stage

The fact that the 6th and 3rd most visited posts of the year are deep dives into not only modern analytic technology, but modern analytic technology that is beginning to apply machine learning in adaptive and useful ways, means that many organizations are not only realizing that they not only need good analytics, but good analytics support.


Supply Chain Finance is On Leader’s Minds

The 2nd most visited post is our post on how the death of factoring will be highly exaggerated. Even though this isn’t really supply chain finance, it’s sold as supply chain finance, and companies that are still relying on it (and trying to figure out how to advance) want to understand what it is, where they are, and how long they have to advance.


Training is Still an Issue …

… even if the budget’s haven’t been restored. The 10th most visited post is on training a procurement team. Leaders recognize that their talent has to be trained to get top results, but with limited budget, they are starting to think about holistic team training vs. individual training.


But Technology is pushing to the forefront.

The 5th most visited post of the year is our rant on how driverless delivery is nothing more than a tantalizing theft target (and how over-investing in automation is not always going to save you money). And the foremost visited post of the year, part of our procurement sustentation series, is our post on IP and Patents. People want to understand technology, the protections around it, and how to tread the issue.

Top Posts of 2016!

Now that we’ve counted down the top posts from the archives, we’re going to count down the top posts of the year, based on direct page-views. (These could be slightly out of order as most posts are accessed by main page accesses, but, as daily visits are fairly consistent, the relative order should not be off two much.) Our expectation is that many of these posts will continue to be read in the years to come as SI posts, which focus on education and not entertainment, truly do stand the test of time (as explained in our previous posts)!

Runner Up:

Give Your Procurement Some Backbone! Part I

10. Training a Procurement Team

09. 5 Reasons Why You Need to Take the Direct Procurement Challenge!

08. Aligning Procurement Strategies to Business Goals, Part I

07. Aligning Procurement Strategies to Business Goals, Part II

06. TAMR – Trying to Tame the Data Deluge!

05. Driverless Delivery? Tantalizing Theft Target!

04. Trade Extensions is Redefining Sourcing, Part IV

03. Spend 360 – Applying Deep Machine Learning to Spend Analysis

02. The Death of Factoring Will Be Highly Exaggerated

01. Technology Sustentation 89: IP Patents

What does all this mean? Come back tomorrow for our analysis.

Top Posts of 2016 … From the Archives … Explained!

Yesterday we counted down the top 20 visited posts from 2016 from the archives, which also contained the top 11 visited posts overall. What does this imply, besides the fact that posts on SI stand the test of time (due to their educational, vs. entertainment, focus)? It means that the desire for Procurement knowledge is increasing, and, more importantly, when you dig in, that a lot of organizations are still struggling with the basics.

Third Party Vendor Reviews Are Important

The 20th most accessed post was vendor day reprise, which centralizes links to the the vast majority of unpaid vendor reviews done by SI. The 8th most accessed post was from the Best Practice Vendor Selection series, and on Part V: Stuck with an ERP? You do have options! in particular. And the 3rd most accessed post is on how BizSlate is Bringing Sexy Back to ERP. In other words, many organizations are still on ERP and trying to figure out how to take it to the next level and how to either migrate from, or, if they are stuck with it, augment their ERP.

A Basic Understanding of Sourcing vs. Procurement is Being Sought

The 12th most accessed post was on Source to Settle – The Sourcing and Procurement Kettle, which follows up SI’s classic post on how it’s Sourcing And Procurement (and advertises a paper and webinar that explains it all). The 13th most accessed post addresses the Difference Between Direct and Indirect and the 11th most accessed post provides a Strategic Sourcing Plan Outline. Then the 9th most accessed post is Smock on Sourcing Strategy, the 5th most accessed post is on Developing Category Strategies, and the 4th most accessed post is on the Evolution of Purchasing. Plus, the 10th most accessed post is on the advantages of decentralization and the 16th most accessed post is on the advantages of multi-tier supply chains, which shows that not only is an understanding of sourcing and procurement being sought, but so is an understanding of how to structure it as well.

The Talent Issue is Still Omnipresent

The 15th most accessed post is on Gen X, Gen Y, and Gen Z and the 7th most accessed post is on the importance of the job description to your talent management strategy.

Risk and Related Areas Are Always Back of Mind

The 18th most visited post in the archives was on Bank Payment Obligations (as lack thereof puts many organizations’ financial supply chains at risk), the 17th most accessed post was on common negotiation ploys used by sales teams (as not knowing them puts a Procurement department at risk of leaving too much money on the table), the 6th most accessed post was on how the purpose of a contract is easy to define (as poor definition creates high risk), and the 2nd most accessed post was on five types of supply risk and how to mitigate them.

There Are Still a Lot of Organizations Beginning Their Procurement Journey

Not only was the top post of 2016 RFX Defined, but it was accessed almost twice as many times as the next most accessed post. (In fact, it was access over 10,000 times!)

Top Posts of 2016 … From the Archives!

Before we countdown the top posts of the year, let’s start by counting down the top twenty viewed posts from the archives. We’re doing this because, believe it or not, the top eleven posts of the year, based on direct page-views (as most visits are homepage views, not direct page-views) were from the archives, going all the way back to 2006! This is because SI posts, which focus on education and not entertainment, truly do stand the test of time!

Runner Up:

The Z-Score … or ZZZ-Score

20. Vendor Day Reprise!

19. Blogger Relations Part II: Fire Your PR Company!

18. It Took 40 Years But BPOs (Bank Payment Obligations) are now Truly SWIFT!

17. Common Negotiation Ploys: Some Basic Counter-Tactics

16. The Advantages of Multi-Tier Supply Chains Come at a Price

15. Economic Damnation 04: Gen X, Gen Y, and Gen Z

14. How an Online Marketplace Can Improve Equipment Rental Procurement Part I

13. Do You Know the Difference Between Direct and Indirect?

12. Source To Settle – The Sourcing and Procurement Kettle

11. A Strategic Sourcing Plan Outline

10. The Advantages of Decentralization

09. Smock on Sourcing Strategy

08. Best Practice Vendor Selection for True Multi-Nationals Part V: Stuck with an ERP? You do have options!

07. The Importance of the Job Description to Your Talent Management Strategy

06. The Purpose of a Contract is Easy to Define

05. Supply Management in the Decade Ahead VI: Developing Category Strategies

04. The Evolution of Purchasing

03. How BizSlate is Bringing Sexy Back to ERP

02. Five Types of Supply Risk and How to Mitigate Them

01. RFX Defined

What does all this mean? Come back tomorrow for our analysis.