Monthly Archives: May 2019

Fifty Years of Monty Python

Fifty years ago today, the Monty Python Comedy Troupe formed.

A mere 148 days after the troupe formation, the first episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus airs on BBC One! And the world was never the same.

(As an FYI, This is a historic day for Canadians everywhere as it was the Monty Python Comedy Troupe that first exposed the world to the inner mind of a Canadian lumberjack! 😉

Follow the link for the Monty Python Lumberjack Song.

It may not have been the image Canadians wanted to project, but at least the world knew that there were Canadian lumberjacks after its release! [Better to have a message with some impurity than to fade into obscurity.])

(One thing the Troupe didn’t tell you is that a Canadian Lumberjack’s favourite pet is a House Hippo [and a cousin of the West African pygmy hippo], native to, and now only found in, Canada due to the changing hunting habits of the eastern wildcats.)

I am the very model of a modern Global Sourceror! (10 year anniversary)

The Global Sourceror’s Song


I am the very model of a modern Global Sourceror,
With information analytic, subjective, and objector,
I know the rights of charter, and I quote the rates historical
From Vancouver to Singapore, in order categorical;

I’m very well acquainted, too, with matters mathematical,
I understand equations, both the lin’r and quadratical,
About scenarios optimized, I’m teeming with a lot o’ news,
With many baseline costs for the choice of the blue ocean routes.

With many baseline costs for the choice of the blue ocean routes
With many baseline costs for the choice of the blue ocean routes
With many baseline costs for the choice of the blue ocean routes


I’m very good at direct and indirect spend analysis
I know the HTS codes of products electronicalculous
In short, in matters analytic, subjective, and objector
I am the very model of a modern global sourceror

In short, in matters analytic, subjective, and objector
He is the very model of a modern global sourceror


I know our mythic history, Free Markets and Markets B2E
I answer hard acrostics, I’ve a pretty taste for oddities
I quote in elegiacs all the crimes of the major analysts
In auctions I can floor peculiarities ridiculous

I can tell undoubted RFPs from RFQs from RFIs
I know the croaking chorus from the mouths of the vendor sales guys
Then I can hum a fugue of which I’ve heard the vendor’s pitch before
And whistle all the airs from that infernal nonsense we abhor

And whistle all the airs from that infernal nonsense we abhor
And whistle all the airs from that infernal nonsense we abhor
And whistle all the airs from that infernal nonsense we abhor


Then I can write a shipping bill in Babylonic cuneiform
And tell you ev’ry detail of Custom’s CBP import form
In short, in matters analytic, subjective, and objector
I am the very model of a modern global sourceror

In short, in matters analytic, subjective, and objector
He is the very model of a modern global sourceror


In fact, when I know what is meant by “Dutch Auction” and “Japanese”
When I can tell at sight a credit letter from a guarantee
When such affairs as sorties and surprises I’m more wary at
And when I know precisely what is meant by “commissariat”

When I have learnt what process has been made in modern procurement
When I know more of tactics than a novice in an internment
In short, when I’ve a smattering of arbitration strategy
You’ll say a better Global Sourcerer had never sat a gee

You’ll say a better Global Sourcerer had never sat a gee
You’ll say a better Global Sourcerer had never sat a gee
You’ll say a better Global Sourcerer had never sat a gee


For my global sourcing knowledge, though I’m plucky and adventury
Has only been brought down to the beginning of the century
But still, in matters analytic, subjective, and objector
I am the very model of a modern Global Sourceror

But still, in matters analytic, subjective, and objector
He is the very model of a modern Global Sourceror!

As posted ten years ago!

Be Sure to Check Out the Prophet‘s Treatise on Industry vs. Technology Analysts

Before you fall for the advice of an industry analyst when making a critical long-term S2P technology platform selection. (Just today I heard about a company four [4] years in to a six [6] year Ariba implementation. That’s right! Six years! Wowzers. I’m not even sure Slow Poke Rodriguez could do an implementation that slow! But I digress … )

You see, as the prophet clearly states in Industry Analysts vs. Technology Analysts, industry analysts provided company/solution-level analysis and evaluation while technology analysts provide product/module- and architecture-level focus and comparative solution analysis. That’s a big difference.

In other words industry analysts tell you about the stability and market acceptance of the company while technology analysts tell you about the stability and market appropriateness of the technology, as well as the future outlook of its effectiveness post-implementation. [Just because your hardware is obsolete the minute you open the box doesn’t mean your software should be.]

Furthermore, what’s going to give you more reliable insight into a potential platform — information gathered by phone-based customer discussions, powerpoint presentations, and the odd customer survey — or — ground-up technology evaluation through interactive, in-depth, live product demonstrations focussed around granular RFI questions and important platform elements. If you trust an industry analyst, the best you’re going to get is second hand insight from happy customers where the blush is still on the rose and a review of the UI — from static screen captures in a powerpoint presentation. Not good. Not good at all.

For more insight on what makes a technology analyst, and just how rare they are, check out the prophet‘s article. FYI: as far as the doctor is concerned, the chances of encountering a true technology analyst is less than 100 to 1. Especially when you consider the educational and experiential background needed. (FYI: operations, MBA, psychology, history, etc. are NOT the right backgrounds to understand algorithms, software architectures, and modern technology at a deep technical level.)

Digging into the S2P Tech Foundations

In our post yesterday in what makes a good foundation for S2P Tech, we noted that if you wanted to have any hope of “future-proofing” your platform, then it was critical that you acquired a platform with the following four capabilities.

  • Configurable Workflow preferably with RPA support
  • Open / Extensible API that supports integration into and out of your platform
  • Dynamically Extensible Data Model that can be extended by the customer
  • Globalization Support for language, currency, data location, and more!

And we gave some preliminary reasons, but today we’re going to dig into some of the issues that really concern us.

  • Changing Governmental Regulations as governments introduce e-commerce, they are introducing e-invoicing requirements that can change your P2P flow (like requiring invoices to be sent through government servers or payments sent through government servers) and as governments introduce more regulatory compliance, the ability to report the complete origin story of a product, to the source of each raw material, is going to require more cross-platform and cross-enterprise data collection
  • Data Bifurcation as more and more platforms proliferate across the supply chain, the data will continue to proliferate as well … and without the ability to connect all the platforms, the data will exist in separate islands
  • Increasing Supply Chain Segmentation across more and more companies across more and more companies across more and more global users
  • Platform Obfuscation because the platform can’t keep up

These issues are the main drivers for the foundational platform requirements we outlined yesterday. Without

  • Configurable Workflow
    the platform won’t keep up with changing government regulations as it won’t be able to adapt the process
  • Open/Extensible API
    the platform won’t be able to manage the data bifurcation or prevent platform obfuscation as it won’t be able to adapt as required to manage the data tracking or integrate with new modules as they come online
  • Dynamically Extensible Data Model
    as future data requirements dictated by future regulations and future applications can’t be predicted in advance
  • Globalization Support
    as your next supplier could be in a different country, on a different continent, with a workforce whose primary language is one you haven’t dealt with yet … and that could be tomorrow!

Now, these aren’t the only issues we’re worried about, but they are big ones and they are guaranteed to materialize — soon (and before your contract comes up for renewal) — which is why we’re really concerned about them, and about insuring you get the right platform for the long term.

What is a Good Foundation for S2P Tech?

A couple of weeks ago in our posts on What Elements Should You Be Looking For In A Platform (Part I and Part II) we outlined some of the key platform requirements we are looking for in the new Spend Matters SolutionMap (where Sourcing, SXM, Analytics, and the vast majority of Common Platform requirements were defined by the doctor) to give you a hint, but it’s a lot to take in.

And might be more than you need today when you just need to solve a few major pain points and advance on your S2P journey, especially if you still don’t have any dedicated modern technology or are still on Procurement 1.0 when most of your peers are on Procurement 2.0 and the leaders are starting on the Procurement 3.0 journey. (As per another recent post, while there’s a lot of talk about Procurement 4.0, we won’t see it for another 8 years based on history. 1.0 started around 97 with FreeMarkets and the emergence of stand-alone players. 2.0 started around 2007 with the first mini-suites [S2C or P2P]. 3.0 began around 2017 with the rise of the true [mega] S2P suites and integration that allowed for the pursuit of value where the whole is greater than the parts. 4.0 will began around 2027 based on the rate of historical development.)

But it’s not necessarily more than you will need in time. Especially if you want to reach the height of Procurement 3.0 with your peers when it materializes later next decade.

But we do recognize that you won’t need it all today. So what do you really need to look for in the first go-round? Especially if you can’t have it all or can’t become enough of an expert to evaluate it all?

While the most important capabilities do depend on the specifics of the technology you’re buying and the problem you need to solve, there are a few general capabilities that need to be there regardless, and these * capabilities in particular must be there in every solution you buy if you want to have any hope of “future-proofing” your platform.

  • Configurable Workflow
    Preferably with RPA support. Let’s face it, whatever process you use today won’t be the process you use tomorrow, especially as you mature in your processes and best practices, the partners you work with change, and governmental regulations continue to change the way you have to report.
  • Open / Extensible API
    that supports both 3rd parties integrating with your platform and the development of interfaces to integrate with third party platforms through their open API. Your platform will never do everything, no matter how much you want it to. It’s software, not sorcery. So the ability to extend it with ease is critical.
  • Dynamically Extensible Data Model
    that you can do, not a third party or the provider. Because you never know every piece of data you’re going to need until you need it.
  • Globalization Support
    including the ability for a user to select their language and overrides, the organizing to define new currency exchanges and projections, and IT to define where the application instances are hosted and where the data is stored (which may need to be segmented for a global organization)

This is not to say that other technical requirements are not important, but that without these, the life expectancy of your platform is limited, to say the least.