Category Archives: About us

Sourcing Innovation FAQ

Last Full Update: December 3, 2025
Last Partial Update: December 6, 2025

For general about information, see the linked page.

For privacy information, see the linked page.
For (editorial) disclaimers and copyright information, see the linked page.
(Includes, but not limited to, related information on allowed uses, licenses, promotions, reprints, and social media policy.)

Index

SERVICES		SITE		REQUESTS
Advertising / Sponsorships Consulting Services Writing Services		Disclaimers (Policies) (Editorial) Content Reviews Resource Site		Events Requests Unsolicited Offers

Contact (Spam Notice)

Full Table of Contents

Services

What kinds of consulting & advisory services does Sourcing Innovation offer? Answer
What kinds of advertising services does Sourcing Innovation offer? Answer
What kinds of writing services does Sourcing Innovation offer? Answer
What kinds of research services does Sourcing Innovation offer? Answer
What kinds of lead generation services does Sourcing Innovation offer? Answer
What kinds of event promotion services does Sourcing Innovation offer? Answer
What kinds of technology services does Sourcing Innovation offer? Answer
What kinds of speaking services does Sourcing Innovation offer? Answer
What other kind of special services does Sourcing Innovation offer? Answer

Advertising / Sponsorship

Can I (banner) advertise on Sourcing Innovation? Answer
What about text-link advertising? It’s unobtrusive and I can make it worth your while. Answer
What about sponsored links in your posts or on the sidebar? Answer
What about advertising my event? Answer
Will you do a link exchange with my site? Answer
How can I sponsor Sourcing Innovation? Answer
Can we do lead generation / revenue share agreement instead? Answer

Writing Services

What are Sourcing Innovation’s Public Label Offerings? Answer
What are Sourcing Innovation’s Joint Label Offerings? Answer
What are Sourcing Innovation’s Private Label Offerings? Answer

(Editorial) Content

Will you cover my story? Answer
Do you want to speak to our VP/CXO about ______, as (will be) announced in our latest press release? Answer
Will you post my press release on your blog? Answer
Will you publish my article? Answer
Will you do a sponsored post on a particular topic? Answer
Can I submit a guest post? Answer
Can I become a regular contributor? Answer
Do you purchase articles? Answer

Disclaimers

What associations does SI have? Answer
What are SI’s policies? Answer
What SI’s link policies? Answer
Where does SI stand on privacy? Answer
What are SI’s comment rules? Answer
Can I re-publish your material? What are your copyright rules?Answer

Events

Can I advertise my event on your site? Answer
Will you promote my event? Answer
What about a media partnership? Answer
Will you attend and cover my event? Answer
Will you speak at my conference, roundtable, seminar, or event? Answer
What about sitting on a panel? Answer

Requests

Can I link to your site? Answer
Can I subscribe to your blog? Answer
Where else can I find Sourcing Innovation? Are you on the social networks? Answer
Are you on (Social) Network X? Can I connect with you? Answer
Will you write an article for me? Answer
How about writing for my newsletter? We have X,000 subscribers on our list! Answer
I’m new to sourcing/procurement/supply chain and I noticed you have collected a great deal of solid information and resources. Where should I start? Answer
Can you help me get a job? Answer
Can you help me? Answer

Reviews

Will you review my product? Answer
Why should I have you review my product? Answer
How long do reviews stay up? Answer
When will you update my review? Answer
Will you review my service? Answer
Will you review my portal, web service, social network, or community? Answer
Will you review my online offering if I sponsor the review? Answer
Will you review my book? Answer

Unsolicited Offers

Would you like me to optimize your site for search engines? Answer
Would you like me to redesign your site? Answer
Would you like to see the great redesign I have for your resource site? Answer
Would you like the opportunity to list in our directory? It’s only $999.99! Answer
Would you like our list of X,000 buyers or conference attendees? We guarantee top accuracy for the lowest price!Answer
Would you like to be an expert in our network? It’s FREE for the first three months! Answer
Would you like our PR Agency to help you get better visibility? We have an introductory special for new clients. Answer

Resource Site

Please note that the resource site was decommissioned in March of 2024.
You can still access the archived glossary.
See the 2024 Sourcing Innovation Mega-Map for a clickable logo list of 666 vendors in the space.
A select list of blogs is maintained on the side-bar of the site.

Services

What kinds of advertising services does Sourcing Innovation offer?^Home

Simply put, Sourcing Innovation offers the following advertising services:

Lead Sponsorships
Event Advertisements
Sponsored Links

What kinds of writing services does Sourcing Innovation offer?^Home

Sourcing Innovation offers the following writing services:

Public Label Illumination and Inspiration Thought Papers and e-Books
Joint Label White Papers
Private Label Writing Services
Technology RFP Help
Market Research and Select Custom Engagements (Contact for information)

What kinds of research services does Sourcing Innovation offer?^Home

Sourcing Innovation is not a traditional Analyst 1.0 shop, nor is going to pretend that it’s a new age Analyst 2.0 shop, or a not yet defined Analyst 3.0 shop. As such, the types of research services it offers at this time are

custom market research
custom product research

and most are of an advisory, assistive, or roadmap nature. If you have a specific need, please Contact the doctor for more information.

Do you publish a research agenda?

No. Publishing a research model a year in advance is an Analyst 1.0 model that Sourcing Innovation does not follow because it wants the ability to adapt to current markets and changing needs. If you’re interested in a particular piece of research, you can Contact the doctor to find out if it’s on the current agenda and/or contract for it (which will put it on the agenda). Note that research agendas are influenced by requests to sponsor Illuminations, Inspirations, or e-Books on particular topics congruent with topics that Sourcing Innovation regularly covers and other custom engagements.

What kinds of lead generation services does Sourcing Innovation offer?^Home

Sourcing Innovation’s lead generation services revolve around it’s public label Illumination, Inspiration, and e-Boook executive style thought leadership white papers and e-Books, occasional webinar or podcast participation, and product marketing advisory services. Please refer to those services for more information.

What kinds of event promotion services does Sourcing Innovation offer?^Home

You can possibly advertise your event on the blog (sidebar). Contact for details.

What kinds of consulting & advisory services does Sourcing Innovation offer?^Home

Most of Sourcing Innovation’s consulting and advisory services revolve around marketing support, product (roadmap) planning, technology development, market/product research, or product/technology due diligence.

the doctor‘s unique background as an Enterprise System Architect in e-Commerce and Supply Chain with a PhD and as a technologist turned e-Commerce and Supply Chain business consultant specializing in Sourcing/Procurement/Source-to-Pay allows him to help a variety of clients in a number of unique ways.

His preference is

small and mid-sized solution providers who wan to build better solutions
mid-market enterprises who need help identifying the right type of solution and then finding the right vendor and/or implementation partner
small/mid-sized funds / corporate M&A departments who need help identifying the right acquisition or doing diligence at affordable costs (as you can’t spend 250K+ on a diligence for a small company < 5M in ARR)
large organizations with unique, niche needs that require his unique multi-faceted experience

Software Vendors		Buying Organizations		M&A/Private Equity		Generic Tech Services
Solution Assessment Roadmap Assessment Marketing Strategy Marketing Support Specialty		Needs Assessment RFX Preparation Solution Assessment Train the Trainer Specialty		Product Diligence Technology Diligence		Architectural Modelling Analytics & Optimization

For Solution Providers:

Total Solution Assessment^Advisory
the doctor will spend a few days to two weeks on site (depending on the depth and breadth of your product and services offerings) and/or via remote web conference and meet with your senior staff to collaboratively explore your technology offering, services offering, training and education materials, product roadmap, messaging, positioning, and current marketing strategies and then, a week to a month later, provide you with a written high-level assessment that captures where you are, how that compares to the market, and, if appropriate, what you could be doing to be more competitive. Finally, after you’ve had a few days to digest the report, he’ll conduct one or more one to two hour conference calls to assess the findings.
Many small companies overlook the importance of having an external review, which should be done at least every few years, as this not only gives them an unbiased look at how they are doing, but what they are doing (potentially wrong) that is limiting their potential. Every company has flaws. The good ones recognize this and undertake continual performance improvement initiatives to find, and fix, those flaws before it impacts the quality of service or solution delivered to the customer. Moreover, the better companies recognize that an external consultant can identify their uniqueness and unique potential that they can build on to increase attractiveness and limit competition. As a skilled enterprise solution architect and business consultant, the doctor knows first hand that just like no piece of software was ever developed bug free, no company was ever built problem free on the first try. It is the companies that recognize this fact and work on continual improvement of themselves and their solutions that win in the end.

Technology Roadmap Assessment & Recommendations^Advisory
the doctor will spend a few days to two weeks on site (depending on the depth and breadth of your product and services offering) and/or via remote web conference and take a deep dive into your technology offering — functionality, architecture, platform, and UI; compare it to the state of the practice; assess it with respect to customer needs; and then prepare a detailed written assessment that captures where your solution is with respect to the market (in general), what improvements might need to be made, and what enhancements could be made to differentiate it. After you’ve had a few days to digest the report, he’ll conduct one or more one to two hour conference calls to assess the findings.

(Product) Marketing Strategy^Advisory
If you’re a small to mid-sized solution provider targeting the mid-market, where the bulk of today’s customer base lies in supply management, then the doctor, who has been carefully following the space for longer than many analysts at the Analyst 1.0 and Analyst 2.0 shops, may be able to provide you with unique insight on how to stand out and get noticed in what may seem like a crowded market with limited opportunity when, in fact, the opposite is true. In fact, Sourcing Innovation is so intent on seeing any player with a decent solution and a drive to help the customer succeed, that it’s just giving away the base formula that it starts with in any engagement with a small company that reasonably expects 1M to 10 M in revenue over the next 12 month and understands the importance of new media in today’s Supply Management marketplace. This advice is free. If you want a tailored plan for the next 6 to 18 months, Sourcing Innovation can usually generate one in a few days, and then it’s on to …

(Product) Marketing Support^Advisory
Great marketing, despite the idiotic advice of the PR Twits, first and foremost requires great content. That’s the only way you get great copy. Sourcing Innovation excels at the generation of great content and can help you with tailored content for each phase of your go-to-market strategy. For more information, refer to Sourcing Innovation’s writing services that form the foundations of this offering.

Please note that the doctor is selective in marketing services he offers. He knows where his strengths (content) are, and where his value is. If your request or target market is not suited to his strengths, or he does not believe he could generate the value you deserve, he will refer you to another expert. (But you may need to provide them with good content, and that’s where the doctor should come in!)

Pre-Sale Diligence^Advisory
If you are planning to go to market for funding, it is worthwhile conducting an external diligence on your own before the investors hire their firms to get an idea of what they are going to find and zero in on and where you should make improvements and preparations before a diligence process starts and you have only a couple of weeks to please the reviewers where a single misstep can cost millions in your valuation. For more information on why the doctor is right for you, see the technology due diligence write-up below.

While the doctor can not guarantee in his review that he’ll find everything a major due diligence firm that assigns an entire team will find, it’s exceedingly unlikely he’ll miss anything major and when you can get an initial diligence from him for as little as 1/10th of what a big firm will charge (as he can do the entire diligence on his own). It’s a small investment that could prevent a major loss in valuation down the road!

However, as long as Sourcing Innovation is able to deliver a competent and valuable service, it is willing to consider any consulting or advisory request that you may have. Simply Contact the doctor to find out if Sourcing Innovation can help you. Sourcing Innovation wants to help in any way it can (even if that means referring you to someone else it knows is the right expert for you).

For Buying Organizations

the doctor, having chronicled two and a half decades of project failure, and studied them backwards and forwards from the technology-implementation and -centric viewpoints he started with, understands what needs to happen end-to-end for a successful technology selection project that increases your chances of success from a mere 12% to the 80%+ chance of success you should have.

The necessary process is outlined in this post on how assisted solution selection is a seven stair methodology and this post that breaks down the seven steps of vendor assessment and selection.

He also knows that selection is more than a one-person army and success requires The A-Team, and if you don’t have the individuals on staff who can fill the roles he doesn’t fill, he can help you find them, as he maintains relationships with some of the best brains, doers, and faces in the space!

On his own, this is what the doctor can do in Supply Chain/Supply Management/Source-to-Pay+:

Needs Assessment^Advisory
the doctor will meet with your team (on site and/or remote) to identify what your problems are, where you are on the process maturity curves, where you need to get to (based on your organization size and industry), your technology/infrastructure gaps, and what solutions (types, not vendors) would be best for your organization. He will then prepare a written report that summarizes your challenges, your current processes, your current technology, what you need to look for in a technology and/or service solution, and what benefits you can expect to receive. Afterwards, he’ll arrange a follow up call to discuss the report and potential next steps.

(Technology/Solution) RFX Preparation and Demo Scripting^Advisory
If you need a new technology(-based) solution, the doctor will help you create the multi-stage RFx that you need to be sending out to make sure you get the information that is relevant to your needs, and the initial demo scripts that will help you ensure the vendors can actually meet your basic requirements. This will insure that not only do the right players respond, but that when they do, you end up selecting the right solution. The reality is that it’s hard to write an RFx for a solution you don’t yet fully understand. As a result, every day dozens (if not hundreds) of companies are sending out RFXs for sourcing and procurement technology solutions that don’t effectively communicate the solution the company actually needs. There’s no need for your company to be among them. With the doctor‘s vast knowledge of source-to-pay and supply management and corresponding solutions (as he did create the Mega Map and has single-handedly reviewed more products over the last twenty years than any remaining analysts in our space except the distinguished Pierre Mitchell), he can help! Moreover, as he co-designed and co-developed Spend Matters Solution Map, he can advise you how to best use those Maps, when appropriate, to identify the providers you should be sending the RFX to, providers which you know offer an appropriate solution with at least a market average level of functionality. This allows you to spend less time on feature function requirements (and asking baseline questions that every provider in your pool will be able to meet) and technical questions you don’t understand, and focus in on the few must-have capabilities that are advanced or relatively unique to your organization. It also allows you to focus more on the services and support required, organizational culture, and potential partner ecosystem if the vendor is too busy to support you as your organizational needs grow and other key requirements that are always missed in the vendor provided “free-to-download” RFX templates that are designed to make their product look good (whether or not it actually is – because There Are No Free RFPs).

(Vendor) Solution Assessment^Advisory
the doctor will help you assess proposals from potential solution providers with respect to your needs so that you can understand the strengths and weaknesses of each proposal and make an informed decision.
Train the Trainer^Advisory
the doctor has a background in both academic education and industrial training, and can assist you in training your power users and star performers on best practices, new processes, new technologies, and change management or identify the right partner to help you in this regard. The goal will be for these key resources to achieve the level of understanding and proficiency necessary to be able to disseminate their knowledge to the rest of the organization, thus making your organization independent of vendor and other third-party services personnel and consultants.

For M&A Departments / Private Equity:

Product Diligence^Advisory
Before you acquire a company for their product, you should ensure that the product is competitive, does what it needs for its target market, and has future potential. With the doctor‘s broad and deep experience in Source-to-Pay⁺, which has included a review of over 500 companies over his 25⁺ year career, he has the expertise you need to understand where the product sits with respect to the competition and the market.

Technology Due Diligence^Advisory
the doctor has significant experience as a due diligence professional and, having been a CTO with a PhD in CS and done every major role in a technology organization in his career, can do an entire due diligence on his own* (and has done so multiple times on smaller players in smaller acquisitions). While the doctor can not guarantee in his review that he’ll find everything a major due diligence firm that assigns an entire team will find, it’s exceedingly unlikely he’ll miss anything major, while doing a diligence for you for a fraction of what a big firm will charge (usually 1/5 to 1/3).the doctor specializes in doing end-to-end technology due diligence on smaller acquisitions – vendors with only a few modules, < 10 M in ARR, and something you’re likely going to tuck in to a bigger acquisition down the road. This is the niche the big shops, that require teams of 5 to 10 to do their diligences because they don’t have deep technical experts and experienced CTOs who have seen it and done it all in their careers. For deeper details on his due diligence offering and approach in plain English, please contact for details.

* with the exception of a detailed security review beyond SOC(2) if the company processes payments or defense/military trade secrets or a detailed privacy review if the company collects and processes personal information and must be compliance with global privacy laws

What kinds of technology services does Sourcing Innovation offer?

In addition to solution assessments and roadmap recommendations, Sourcing Innovation may also offer the following technology services on request. ^Home

Architectural Services^Advisory
If you have a vexing architectural problem, the doctor might be able to help. Having personally architected a number of enterprise software systems in e-Commerce and Supply Management over the last twenty-five plus (25+) years, primarily on Java and C++ technology stacks (although he is also familiar with Ruby and PHP/LAMP), he has some unique architectural expertise that he may be willing to bring to bear if your problem is challenging enough and your (proposed) solution innovative enough. (But don’t ask if there are a thousand other architects out there who can solve your problem. the doctor only gets his hands dirty for a real challenge.)

Modelling Services^Advisory
the doctor, with a Ph.D. in Multi-Dimensional and Spatial Data Structures and Computational Geometry (on top of a B.Sc. in Mathematics) and extensive experience in the design, development, and implementation of decision optimization, data analysis, and machine learning systems (because real AI doesn’t exist), is a first-class modeller, and that’s a rare skill; as a result, Sourcing Innovation will occasionally take on modelling challenges where only the best can produce a solution.

Analytics and Optimization Services^Advisory
as per above, the doctor has extensive education and skills here and may be willing to help if your problem is interesting enough

Does Sourcing Innovation offer speaking services?^Home

Sourcing Innovation will consider any reasonable request for a speaking engagement. If it is for a public event, the request must be related to the subject matter of Sourcing Innovation and adhere to all of the requirements outlined for an event speaking engagement. If it is for a private engagement, requests will be considered on a case by case basis.

Does Sourcing Innovation offer any other kind of special services?^Home

If you have a special request that does not fall under the standard service offerings, feel free to contact the doctor and he’ll let you know whether or not your request might fall under a special service offering.

Advertising/Sponsorship

Can I (banner) advertise on Sourcing Innovation? ^Home

Unless you want to advertise an event that is acceptable to SI (see below), no. SI does not do (traditional) advertising, only sponsorships.

What about text-link advertising. It’s unobtrusive and I can make it worth your while.^Home

Definitely not! the doctor loathes text link advertising that takes you to completely unrelated subject matter when you click on a link. (He doesn’t need your Viagra and he’s willing to bet his intelligent, sexy, energetic audience doesn’t either!) Furthermore, suggesting you can make it worth my while only makes me laugh. You need to understand that the doctor is a PhD who has turned down, and left, six figure jobs in the past because he had moral or ethical objections to what he might be doing or whom he might be working with. So if you think he’s going to do something he loathes for a hundred dollars (or less), You’ve Got Another Thing Coming.

What about sponsored links in your posts or on the sidebar?^Home

With the exception of vendor (product) reviews contracted for reprints, SI does not do sponsored reviews or sponsored posts. Therefore, it does not do sponsored links within posts. However, it will permit blog sponsors to have sponsored links in the “Sponsored Links” box (which falls under the events box) on the blog sidebar to educational white-papers, webinars, and similar materials. This is the only other advertising permitted in addition to sponsorships (which give sponsors a logo) and select event advertising. Note that even sponsors, who get one free link, are only allowed to link to resources of an educational nature.

Will you do a link exchange with my site?^Home

If you have to ask, the answer is no. SI only links to source-to-pay and supply chain resources the doctor deems relevant.

How can I sponsor Sourcing Innovation? ^Home

Everything you, as a discerning forward-thinking company, need to know is on the Sponsorship Information Page.

Can we do a lead generation / revenue share agreement instead? ^Home

Definitely Not!

This violates the very core of Sourcing Innovation’s openness and impartiality policies.

1. With the exception of Illumination, Inspiration, and e-Book sponsorships, even sponsors don’t get leads! While SI does make a verbal commitment to mention and include a sponsor anytime someone asks for a list of solution providers who offer a solution the sponsor also offers, SI also does its best to also offer at least two additional alternatives so the buyer can make the right choice.

2. The minute Sourcing Innovation or the doctor takes revenue share / sales commission money is the minute Sourcing Innovation / the doctor becomes biased. Sourcing Innovation is one of the few, if not the last, independent analyst/education sites that does not (and never has) taken a commission for referrals or sales. Doing so creates bias, and it’s always been our goal to remain unbiased in our coverage and recommendations.

3. In the doctor‘s view, this is the most backwards-thinking advertising strategy you can employ. Most enterprises only get to make big solution purchases once a year, at most, when new budgets are allocated. This means that they can generally only consider a purchase during budget request season, and only make it when the budget is granted. This says that you can only make an impact with a potential customer twice a year, which will generally not be when you are doing your big annual marketing push where most of your potential customers are concerned. The only way to reach every potential customer is to be sure they remember you during budget request season and again when their budget request is finally approved and they get to issue RFPs. That’s only going to happen if they are repeatedly exposed to your brand over a long period of time, which is only going to happen if you focus on long-term brand building and not short-term lead-generation. For a deeper dive into what works, and what doesn’t, see the marketing posts indexed on the
Sponsorship Information Page.

Finally, everything about Sourcing Innovation Sponsorships is open.

Writing Services

What are Sourcing Innovation’s Public Label Offerings?^Home

Simply put, Sourcing Innovation’s flagship
Illumination,
Inspiration, and
e-Books.

Sourcing Innovation Illuminations are Sourcing Innovation’s flagship publication designed to educate, inform, and illuminate the market on important problems and solutions. Unlike the productions of many analyst firms, it goes beyond arbitrary metrics and dives into the real issues and challenges that a buyer has to understand before he or she will consider buying your solution. Also, at 7-12 pages, it’s deep enough to convey meaning, but not so long that it isn’t an easy read. Illuminations use a one or two-tiered sponsorship model where lead sponsor(s) get 30 days of exclusivity for lead-generation efforts and the associate sponsor(s) get perpetual non-exclusive distribution rights for thought leadership, market awareness, and targeted lead generation campaigns (after 30 days). While Sourcing Innovation prefers to do single-sponsor works, it recognizes that some smaller companies on limited budgets may want cheaper multi-sponsor options. (More information is available on request.)

Inspirations are shorter, more focused white papers that will zero in on problems and solutions within one of the primary focus areas covered by Sourcing Innovation. At 3-7 pages, they make good quick-hit introductions to important topics and issues for the busy C-suite executive or on-the-fence prospect. Inspirations use a single tier sponsorship model where the sponsor(s) get the results of a shared 90-day lead-generation effort which is followed by perpetual non-exclusive distribution rights for educational purposes. While Sourcing Innovation prefers to do single-sponsor works, it recognizes that some smaller companies on limited budgets may want cheaper multi-sponsor options. (More information is available on request.)

e-Books are on a mutually agreed upon topic, and are priced based upon the expected length and amount of time you wish to license the book for and/or the number of free downloads you want to give out.

Contact the doctor for more information.

Price ranges can be found on the public pricing page.

What are Sourcing Innovation’s Joint Label Offerings?^Home

While Sourcing Innovation does not have any fixed joint-label offerings, it will consider working with a solution provider in the development of a joint-label white-paper that is educational in nature on a request-by-request basis. Note that Sourcing Innovation’s policies of openness, impartiality, and fairness require Sourcing Innovation to be very conscientious with regards to the use of its logo, and this means it will not allow its logo to be used in any way that might imply that a certain product or solution is “the best” or “the only” way to solve a problem, when that’s usually not the case. In other words, if your idea of a joint label white-paper is a thinly disguised piece of product advertising, don’t ask. The answer will be no. However, if your idea is to illustrate a common problem and the type of solution that could be used to address it, and the marketing is left out, Sourcing Innovation will happily consider that request, especially if you are willing to contribute case studies, unbiased market research, or unique expertise that will result in a great piece.

Feel free to Contact the doctor for more information.

What are Sourcing Innovation’s Private Label Offerings?^Home

Sourcing Innovation doesn’t have any packaged private label offerings, but will gladly consider helping you with any brochures, white-papers, webinars/scripts, podcasts/scripts, presentations, and similar materials that are being designed with an intent to educate. Unlike joint offerings, these can relate to your specific products and services since Sourcing Innovation will only be assisting you with educational aspects and clarity and since no reference to Sourcing Innovation, or any of its marks, will be included in (any reference to) the material.

Feel free to Contact the doctor with any request you may have.

(Editorial) Content

Will you cover my story?^Home

Generally speaking, SI doesn’t do “stories”. It’s an educationally focussed blog that covers best practices, innovation, and solutions for the supply chain (with the occasional rant on the latest “dumb” trend that grinds the doctor‘s gears). If your “story” doesn’t fit into one of these categories, chances are, no.

That means it’s not interested in the fact that you just appointed a new CEO, signed 10 new clients, published a new “white-paper” that is nothing more than thinly disguised marketing hot-air, or won a (meaningless) “award” from a publication or analyst firm whose sole intent in giving out the award was to generate press (and advertising revenue from you) in an effort to make said publication look more important than it really is. It only cares how that new CEO is going to lead innovation, the processes that you used to help an existing client see a significant ROI, or the process or technology innovations that led you to publish a new white-paper. Unless you want to share the down-and-dirty details, SI has no interest in publishing your “story”.

Do you want to speak to our VP/CXO about ______, as (will be) announced in our latest press release?^Home

Not really. If you’re paying attention, or read the answer above, the doctor doesn’t care about press releases and already has a long list of people wanting to speak about _____. the doctor cares about talent, technology, and transition — and writes mainly about technology and transition. So unless _____ will be discussed during a live product demo, or involves a significant case study of a new process or service that can be applied across a vertical or industry (and the doctor can speak to the studied organization), he’s not interested.

Information on giving a demo can be found below and information on the types of articles that SI will publish can be found below as well.

Will you post my press release on your blog?^Home

No. Sourcing Innovation does not post press releases. Don’t ask. It will just result in the creation of a new auto-delete rule.

Will you publish my article?^Home

Depends on the article. While Sourcing Innovation has been known to publish guest posts from recognized thought leaders in the space on a regular basis in the past, the vast majority of unsolicited articles that SI receives are rejected. This is because SI has strict rules when it comes to guest posts. Specifically:

the post must be educational in nature and be written by someone with expertise in the subject matter (i.e. if you submit something written by a recent English or journalism graduate with no expertise in the subject matter, or, even worse, generated by an auto-content aggregation chatbot [which likely violates a multitude of copyright laws as well as SI’s policies] expect it to be rejected)
the post cannot market a specific product or service;
while you can mention your company and your product, and even include a link at the bottom, that’s the limit of what you can do from a marketing perspective — the rest of the post must be vendor and solution agnostic and describe how a certain type of service or solution solves the problem being addressed, which must be clearly defined
it cannot mention results obtained from proprietary or patented processes and methodologies unless the processes and methodologies are defined and explained
it must be written at a level a (2-year) college graduate can understand
it must follow commonly accepted rules of grammar and composition [British English rules preferred] and should not be written in a journalistic style
unless you have permission for a shorter or longer piece, it should be between one and two pages in length
unless the article is fantastic and not likely to be noticed by SI’s audience, and the Editor-in-Chief approves, it must be a first-run submission with 7-day exclusivity for Sourcing Innovation

In addition, if you are a recognized expert and an experienced writer who believes in education and innovation and is comfortable with SI’s format, you could inquire about becoming a contributor.

If you want to write (a) guest post(s) for SI, you may Contact the doctor before making a submission. (But be wary of SI’s Spam rules.) If you have a specific idea, you can mention it. If not, you can just indicate the topics that interest you and you may be added to the list of invitees next time SI runs a special series on a selected topic.

Note that by submitting a guest post to Sourcing Innovation, you are granting Sourcing Innovation (and any other entity or trademark wholly owned by ToP KaTS Consulting, the owner of Sourcing Innovation), a non-exclusive copyright to the content and the right to use that content for educational purposes and educationally-related reasons (as determined by ToP KaTS, and this could include granting others the right to use the content in the same manner) in perpetuity. You, as an author, retain a non-exclusive copyright in perpetuity to the content and may re-use it as you see fit, once the exclusivity requirement for initial publication is met.

Will you do a sponsored post on a particular topic?^Home

With the exception of sponsored product reviews for reprint, which must follow strict rules (and where it is made clear the reprint was sponsored), SI does not do sponsored posts. Like lead generation, this would violate SIs openness and impartiality policies. (SI firmly believes ALL vendors should be treated equal when it comes to coverage or lack thereof! That’s why the policy changed for all vendors when Free Vendor Coverage [Was] Comes To An End on Sourcing Innovation.)

Can I submit a guest post?^Home

Sure! Anyone can submit a guest post for consideration. Just be sure to follow the rules. If you’re unsure about whether the subject matter would be appropriate, feel free to Contact the doctor first and he’ll let you know.

Can I become a regular contributor?^Home

If you are a recognized expert and an experienced writer who believes in education and innovation and you are comfortable with SI’s format, you could certainly inquire about becoming a regular contributor. However, the Editor-in-Chief will want to see numerous examples of your work, and a few guest posts, before you get the coveted contributor status.

Do you purchase articles?^Home

No. Furthermore, at this time, there are no plans to do so in the future.

Disclaimers

What associations does SI have?^Home

Please see the client disclosures page.

What are SI’s policies?^Home

Very simple, they’re:

openness,
SI is open to everyone, and anyone who follows the rules can submit a guest post for consideration. He won’t sign an NDA to take a demo or discuss your offering. SI’s core belief is that honest, open information sharing is critical for continued progress in the space.
impartiality,
SI does not do lead generation or accept referral fees / revenue shares as that results in bias (though it will permit you to use it’s Illuminations, Inspirations, and e-Books for lead generation), does not discriminate in terms of what vendors it will work with as long as they adhere to these policies (all are treated equally), and does not discriminate in terms of what events it will consider attending (if all the rules are adhered to). Big and small alike have equal chances. SI is about innovation, education, and best practices … not about who (claims to) provide(s) the innovation, education, and best practices.
fairness, and
SI does its utmost to apply all of its rules equally. The goal of SI is to give a 1M company the same chance a 100M company has of getting its attention.
mutual respect!
By that, we mean that we won’t waste your time and we expect that you won’t waste our time!

The recent lack of honesty and mutual respect in a significant number of vendor interactions (more than 10% over the course of a year) is why Sourcing Innovation no longer does free vendor coverage on the blog (as it has never implemented, and refuses to implement, a paywall). (See: Free Vendor Coverage Comes To An End on Sourcing Innovation)

Note that the openness policy also extends to all communications related to the blog, associated social media presences, and content that appears on the blog and associated social media presences. If you send Sourcing Innovation a formal communication related to the blog, a specific blog post, content on an associated social media presence, or any identified piece of content on the blog or associated social media presence, you accept that this communication will fall under Sourcing Innovation’s openness policy and that Sourcing Innovation retains the right to respond publicly on the blog or associated social media site and include your original communication in it’s response.

What are SI’s link policies?^Home

Whenever SI references an article or resource anywhere on the web, it includes a direct link to such article or resource if that article or resource is not behind a registration or paywall. If it is, SI will include a link to the site.
The link will be maintained as long as it is valid.
Once SI discovers the link is no longer valid, either because the site shutdown, removed the content, or moved the content without encoding a proper HTML redirect, the link will be removed.
Note that this doesn’t mean the source content doesn’t still exist somewhere on the web, it just means that it no longer exists at the original link at the time of link removal. However, as there are over 6,600 articles on this site as of last FAQ update, it does mean the link will never be replaced.

Where does SI stand on privacy?^Home

Sourcing Innovation takes your privacy very seriously. That’s why you only need an e-mail address to sign up for a blog subscription or Sourcing Innovation’s mailing list and why Sourcing Innovation will not sell, or share, these lists with anyone — not even with sponsors^*4. (The only exception, as per the comment rules, is spammers who spam the Sourcing Innovation blog get their e-mail address added to the Spammers Wall of Shame.)

Sourcing Innovation’s policy is to keep your private information confidential and Sourcing Innovation will not sell your information.

In fact, as a general rule, Sourcing Innovation does not even collect subscriber lists for mass mailing purposes. At this point in time, Sourcing Innovation only collects information from readers^*1 in the following circumstances, and only uses it for the indicated, targetted, purposes:

Blog Subscriptions
Information Collected: your e-mail address
Purpose(s):
- send you blog entries
Mailing List Subscriptions
Information Collected: your e-mail address and, optionally, your name
Purpose(s):
- send you Sourcing Innovation announcements, newsletters, and press releases
Comments (currently closed, if re-opened)
Information Collected: your e-mail address and, optionally, your name
Purpose(s):
- verify you are a human
- communicate with your privately
- send you SI announcements, newsletters, and press releases^*2
Illuminations / Single Sponsor White Papers
Information Collected: information requested by the primary sponsor
Purpose(s)^*3:
- provide the primary sponsor with download information (for that paper only)
- notify you of future SI white-papers you might also be interested in
Inspirations / General / Multi-Sponsor White Papers
Information Collected: e-mail, name, basic employment information
Purpose(s):
- provide the sponsors with download information (for that paper only)
- notify you of future SI white-papers you might also be interested in

In other words, your information is yours, we only want what we need to communicate with you in ways you agree to, and we won’t sell what little information of yours that we have. We believe that the web is a free democracy and that you are entitled to your privacy.

Furthermore, because Sourcing Innovation takes your privacy so seriously, it will not give in to BI marketer requests to install 3^rd party tools that track your movement, inspect your cookies, or collect enough data to personally identify you as an individual. Hopefully the recent AOL fiasco (see this TechCrunch article or watch the recent expose in the CNBC special “Inside the Mind of Google” in which the reporters managed to track down a woman using just the “anonymized” search queries from the data AOL released) is enough to convince you that you need to be very careful not only in terms of what data you enter on a web form, but what web site you visit in the first place.

^*1 Note that Sourcing Innovation treats vendor representatives differently. Sourcing Innovation does maintain extensive vendor lists that it uses to communicate with vendors, who in turn communicate with Sourcing Innovation through these (and other) representatives, but it does not make these lists public or sell them.

^*2 By commenting on the blog, you consent to be put on the Sourcing Innovation Mailing List.

^*3 If the primary sponsor prefers to collect the information directly, Sourcing Innovation will redirect to the download link of the primary sponsor’s site for the first 30 days. In this instance, Sourcing Innovation is not collecting any of your information (and if you want to be notified of future papers or receive SI announcements, you will have to sign up for a mailing list).

^*4 The only way a sponsor can acquire a list is to sponsor an Illumination, Inspiration, special white paper, or e-Book and they only get the list of individuals who registered to download that Illumination, Inspiration, special white paper, or e-Book.

What are SI’s comment rules?^Home

Comments are currently turned off as Sourcing Innovation wants to encourage the discussions to take place on LinkedIn where most professionals like to have their discussions and where you have more control over your interactions (and can edit mistakes). The majority of blog articles are summarized in the doctor‘s activity feed and contain links to the full Sourcing Innovation posts.

Should comments be re-enabled, all of SI’s comment rules are summarized on the comment rules page. In summary, they are:

No spam.
No churlish or boorish comments.
No personal attacks on an individual or vendor.
(However, heated debate is allowed and encouraged.)
No direct attacks.
(Disagree all you like, but don’t tell your opponent her ideas aren’t worth a molding loaf of bread if you’re not going to back it up!)
No impersonations.
(And definitely don’t impersonate the doctor.)

Can I re-publish your material? What are your copyright rules?^Home

Generally speaking, content, which is the copyright of Sourcing Innovation, may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without the express written permission of the doctor, the “Editor in Chief”. Some exceptions apply, and you can find them on the page dedicated to SI’s copyright rules.

Events

Can I advertise my event on your site?^Home

Possibly. Please contact with inquiries if, and only if, all of the following are true:

your event (conference, webinar, etc.) is open to all source-to-pay, supply management, and/or supply chain professionals
you can produce a “logo” / ad-box for sidebar inclusion that is (up to) 174 * 108 (which can be animated with up to 4 states)
you will either create a custom landing page that acknowledges the Sourcing Innovation referral or accept that the logo/ad-box will link to a Sourcing Innovation page (which can contain a banner advertisement of up to 640 x 200 pixels, as any larger will not compress well on a smart phone) for your event that will then link to your generic event page
you will pay the required fee for this advertisement up-front (which might be $0 if you are a registered non-profit and the Sourcing Innovation Editor-in-Chief feels the event is valuable enough to advertise to a wide audience)

How do Sourcing Innovation’s rates compare to industry standards?

While hard to say even what industry standard rates are, it’s likely safe to say that they are quite cheap. The industry standard is anywhere from $2 to $10 per thousand impressions (CPM), with generic sites (like Google) charging the low-end and specialty sites charging the high-end. Considering that Sourcing Innovation, as of September 30, 2025, is averaging over 90,000 visits from 60,000 unique visitors viewing about 210,000 pages a month, or 3,000 visits a day from 2,000 unique visitors viewing about 7,000 pages, that’s a lot of eyeballs specifically interested in Sourcing/Procurement/Source-to-Pay that will see your advertisement. This says that a rate of $250/month for impression-based advertising would be very competitive and actually quite cheap as only your target audience would be visiting Sourcing Innovation.

Three important things to consider when deciding where to place your ads are:

Placement Matters
(sponsors get the best real estate, events second best)
Advertising budgets for many events are limited
(and further strained by the down economy)
Even small events can pack big value
(and should be able to afford advertising)

For current price ranges, please see the public pricing page.

Will you promote my event?^Home

Maybe, maybe not. If it’s related to one of the central themes of Sourcing Innovation, it might be announced / referenced in a post, or it might not.

Generally speaking, the doctor will only mention events that he plans to attend or events that he feels represent a unique offering among the hundreds of events that a supply chain professional has to choose from. (Thus, mentions are few and far between, but that’s just the way it is.)

What about a media partnership?^Home

If the doctor plans to attend your event, he will definitely consider promoting it but given that his time, like blog space, is limited and that initial attempts at media partnerships in the past did not work, as a rule, SI does not do media partnerships.

Will you attend and cover my event?^Home

Maybe. It depends on the event.

Vendor Conference

SI’s vendor conference attendance and coverage policy is as follows. the doctor will consider attending any vendor event in the supply chain space in North America or Europe provided that:

the doctor feels that the vendor is a significant player in one of the core product or service areas covered by SI
this significance can be in terms of size, customer base, or solution capability — in other words, if you’re big, if you have a number of customers who are considered best-in-class, or if your solution is innovative, you probably make the significant player cut
you cover all expenses and agreed upon fees
(and note that expenses could be 0 if you hold your conference in beautiful and historic Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada)
you get your request in at least two weeks in advance, and preferably four weeks to six weeks

the doctor will consider events outside of North America and Europe, but given that these are not accessible with a normal business day of traveling, and that the doctor would likely lose (at least the better part of) an entire week to attend and cover your event, he can only do it if there is significant revenue associated with the event. In other words, it would have to be a paid speaking engagement or panel or directly precede or follow a paid consulting engagement for the doctor to consider it.

For standard fees, please see the public pricing page.

For-Profit Non-Vendor Conference

SI will consider attending any conference put on by a for-profit organization in North America or Europe provided that:

the doctor feels the theme and content is relevant to SI’s audience, timely, and first-class material
you cover all expenses and agreed upon fees
(and note that expenses will be 0 if you hold your conference in beautiful and historic Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada)
you get your request in at least two weeks in advance, and preferably four weeks to six weeks

Generally speaking, the doctor cannot consider events outside of North America and Europe unless it is a paid speaking engagement or panel as he would lose (the better part of) an entire week attending and covering your event (as travel to or from what is a remote location for the doctor would take more than a normal business day). (The only other exception is if you luck out and the doctor has a consulting engagement in the area preceding or following, but you shouldn’t bet on it.)

For standard fees, please see the public pricing page.

Non-Profit Non-Vendor Conference

SI’s policy on Non-Profit Non-Vendor Conferences put on by non-profit organizations or academic institutions are almost the same as those for For-Profit Non-Vendor Conferences. The only difference is if the doctor is nearby, and the event provides high educational value the doctor wants to write about, then he may waive any fees he would normally charge and do it for expenses only.

If your event falls in this category, please Contact the doctor to discuss.

Webinar / Podcast

There are so many webinars in peak season and ongoing podcasts now that SI can no longer track them all, let alone attend them. (SI stopped tracking them in the late 2010s when, on multiple occasions, there were more than twenty relevant webinars in a week. The pandemic only increased the number of webinars. And now every other senior marketer/founder believes they need to have a podcast!) Thus, as a general rule, SI will only attend, participate in, and/or cover select webinars of clients and sponsors. The only exception is if the doctor finds the topic to be of particular interest, in which case he may register and/or ask to attend on his own.

If you want the doctor to be a speaker, and you are not a client, sponsor, or partner, it will be treated as a special event and event fees will apply (and be based on whether or not you are a software vendor or associated services firm, for-profit webinar/podcast production company, or educational non-profit). If you have a specific request, Contact the doctor.

Seminar / Workshop / Training Class

Unless the doctor is part of the development and delivery, generally, no. The only exceptions are if it is what SI would consider to be core curriculum for SI’s audience, on-line and of relatively short duration or if it is a seminar being giving by a renowned expert, in which case the conference attendance policies apply and you will have to cover all expenses. Furthermore, if the doctor can’t review all of the materials in half a day, it’s too much effort for a post.

You need to remember SI is not the doctor‘s full time job, that SI doesn’t charge readers for access or entities for coverage (beyond minimal vendor [product] review reprint right fees), and that, as a result, the doctor makes ZERO revenue from Sourcing Innovation as long as sponsorships are suspended. (He has always made, and will continue to make, the majority of his income from consulting, even when SI readership is peaking and still growing strong.)

Will you speak at my conference, roundtable, seminar, or event?^Home

the doctor will consider speaking engagements at any event related to the subject matter of Sourcing Innovation provided that:

you ask the doctor at least a month in advance
you agree to cover all expenses and fees
(and note that expenses could be 0 if you hold your conference in beautiful and historic Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada)
you understand the engagement will be a paid speaking engagement unless you are a non-profit and all profits from your (audited) event are going to a charitable or sustainable cause, you are a client or blog sponsor and the speaker’s fee is waived under an agreement, or the doctor owes you a favor

What about sitting on a panel?^Home

the doctor will consider panel engagements at any event related to the subject matter of Sourcing Innovation provided that:

you ask the doctor at least a month in advance
you agree to cover all expenses and fees
(and note that expenses could be 0 if you hold your conference in beautiful and historic Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada)
you understand that if any preparation is required on the part of the doctor, the engagement will be treated as a paid speaking engagement unless you are a non-profit and all profits from your (audited) event are going to a charitable or sustainable cause, you are a customer or blog sponsor and the speaker’s fee is waived under an agreement, or the doctor owes you a favor

Requests

Can I link to your site?^Home

Of course! That’s the whole point of the web — a system of interlinked hypertext documents designed to be open by Sir Berners-Lee. You only need to ask if you want to republish content in a way that would most certainly violate copyright law. (See Sourcing Innovation’s copyright rules.)

Can I subscribe to your blog?^Home

Yes! The blog supports an RSS feed.

Where else can I find Sourcing Innovation? Are you on the social networks?
^Home

the doctor has no use for the pure social networks that do not have any useful business applications and that do not provide value to your professional career and, as a result, avoids social networks such as FaceBook (he’s faceless) and MySpace (and spaceless). (And he especially dislikes Twitter/X.) However, since the business-oriented networks offer some value, he is on Linked-In and Linq, you can join the Sourcing Innovation Linked-In group, and follow the doctor‘s activity feed where he summarizes the majority of blog posts (with links to the full posts) for those in a hurry or those who want to discuss.

Are you on (Social) Network X? Can I connect with you?^Home

As per the question above, the doctor can be found on:

Linked-In
Linq
and may one day return to SlideShare

While the doctor is all for the use of on-line tools that improve our professional lives, he loathes time-wasting social networks and intends on remaining faceless, spaceless, and, whenever possible, twitter-free as long as those networks are nothing but time-sucking tar-pits (and now that X is owned by Musk … ). Please don’t ask him to join time-wasting social networks of little or no business or educational value.

Will you write an article for me?^Home

That depends. Are you a vendor, publication, or blog? What do you want the article on? How long does it have to be? And how much notice are you providing?

Vendors

Sourcing Innovation has a number of offerings that might interest you: sponsored Illuminations, which are 7-12 page educational white-papers that Sourcing Innovation advertises on the blog; sponsored Inspirations, which are shorter, more focussed, 3-7 page white-papers, joint-label white papers, and private label writing services that can include e-Books. See the relevant section of the FAQ for more information.

Print Publications

the doctor will consider writing any article on request at standard rates if your request falls in one of my areas of expertise. If you are looking for a free submission, it has to be on a subject of interest to me, generally not more than 3 pages (unless you’re a major publication and it’s a feature article), and you must be giving me at least three weeks notice for me to be able to consider the request.

Blogs

SI is a big fan of new media with a purpose similar to Sourcing Innovation’s. the doctor will entertain any request from a fellow blogger for a special contribution if time permits, and bloggers who return the favour or who have participated in Sourcing Innovation’s cross-blog series and invited series get first consideration.

How about writing for my newsletter? We have X,000 subscribers on our list!^Home

If you are a sponsor or client, then it will be considered if time permits.

If you are not a sponsor or client, No. Why?

Two reasons.

First of all, literally every vendor and their dog has a newsletter these days. Figure over 666 software and service providers in the space that SI knows of, and that’s an awful lot of providers with an awful lot of newsletters. Since SI tries to strive for fairness in all of its policies, that could translate into way more requests than it could handle.

Secondly, even if you had 10,000 subscribers, that would still be a minimal traffic boost for SI. A newsletter is push. Yes your customer signs up for it, but think about how many newsletters you get now and how much time you have to read them. Like the big publication e-mail blast lists, you soon reach a point where only 10% get opened (20% in extreme cases). Then, less than 30% of people who open the newsletter will read a particular article. Maybe 50% of those will catch the author and his or her affiliation and then maybe 20% of those will actually visit the author’s site. So, if we’re generous, that’s 20% of 50% of 30% of 10% of 10,000 or 30 potential hits for me. At its peak, this blog will generate hundreds of “new” hits a day from Google alone, and thousands on a good day with the right article on the right subject, and SI expects that each of those hits represents a potential new reader who has just as much chance of liking the site and sticking around as one of your readers, as it’s random either way.

However, if you really do want to publish something from the doctor in your newsletter, you could try to take advantage of my Free Content for Fair Use offer. If you find something you like in the archives, ask permission, agree that you’ll only use it for non-commercial purposes, and agree to publish it unedited (or edited with my express consent) with permalink URL, and there is a chance I’ll let you run with it as long as all of Sourcing Innovation’s copyright policies are adhered to.

The first exception is if you are a provider asking for content that refers to a competitor. This will automatically be denied as SI does not encourage or enable negative or provider specific marketing. (This should be obvious from the fact that in the 200+ vendor deep dives that SI did in the past and the 150+ vendor deep dives that the doctor [co]-authored on Spend Matters, he never outright said anything negative about the vendor in those posts. He’s pointed out weaknesses, but beyond that, it’s up for the reader to do their own research and draw their own conclusions. Plus, when he could no longer leave certain vendor reviews up and/or implicitly recommend certain vendors, rather than just taking those reviews down and negatively targeting those vendors, he changed SI’s entire policy and model on vendor coverage to treat everyone equally. See Free Vendor Coverage Comes To An End on Sourcing Innovation.) Furthermore, while SI’s coverage posts are fact-driven, the opinion posts on some providers, which ask tough questions and include interpretations with the knowledge provided, are that — opinion. An opinion is not fact and not the full story, which is usually available by searching multiple archives (here and on Spend Matters and Procurement Insights) and reading everything on the provider and the relevant subject matter. The reality is that it’s just too easy for something to be taken out of context, and that is not the goal of this educationally focused blog. Thus, while vendors can license content that relates to them, they will never be permitted to license or use content that discusses another vendor.

The second exception is if you want a paid public or joint label piece that falls on public label or joint label writing services. See those sections of the FAQ for more information.

I’m new to sourcing/procurement/supply management/supply chain and I noticed you have collected a great deal of solid information and resources. Where should I start?^Home

the doctor recommends:

The blog archives, indexed by category, which go back to June 2006
The Procurement Insights archives, which go back to May 2007
What’s left of the Spend Matters archive, especially the Content Hub (formerly Pro) where the doctor contributed hundreds of articles and over a thousand pages of material between 2017 and 2022 (which may or may not be there as the site relaunch in June 2023 saw all content pre-2012 disappear, a majority of content up to 2016, and select content through 2020 and saw most co-authored articles drop attributions beyond the lead author — but you can always try searching the WayBackMachine prior to June 7, 2023)
The e-Sourcing Handbook, which was created as a result of the e-Sourcing Wiki project (that was created by Iasta and taken over by Determine until they were acquired by Corcentric) and that still contains valuable baseline information over fifteen (15) years later.
The e-Sourcing Wiki archives on the WayBackMachine, namely, The Basics, The Technologies, The Methodologies, and The Global Sourcing Primers.

Can you help me get a job?^Home

Sourcing Innovation does not offer HR or Placement Services. Nor does it offer any associated counseling services related to finding a job, nailing an interview, or determining the career path that’s right for you. Nor can it maintain or give you a question list or answer list as every hiring manager has their own set of questions important to them, and depending on how informed they are, what they will count as a good answer will vary. To see how daunting an attempt to do this would be, simply look at the (future) skill wish lists being put forth by the societies and publications and the wide variety of trends that you have to be familiar with, which I’ve blogged about in
Key Sourcing Trends Impacting Procurement,
What Makes a Procurement Professional and
The Purchasing Leader’s Guide to a More Successful Team.

Furthermore, if you take the time to familiarize yourself with the deep content archive provided on Sourcing Innovation, you can find a large majority of the answers SI has to give — there for the taking. Between Sourcing Innovation and guest posts on other blogs, the doctor has authored over seven thousand posts and articles and over 5 Million words. In addition, the doctor also authored the vast majority of the original e-Sourcing Wiki (that was created by Iasta and maintained by Determine until their acquisition by Corcentric and mostly still available on the WayBackMachine, see The Basics, The Technologies, The Methodologies, and The Global Sourcing Primers), and the original launch of that wiki served as the foundation of the e-Sourcing Handbook the doctor co-authored and edited. the doctor has also authored numerous articles, posts, and white papers for other sites over the years, including hundreds that are on the Spend Matters Content Hub (formerly Pro).

Finally, I’ve even authored a post on Nailing that Supply Management Interview.

Can you help me?^Home

Well, that depends on what you need. the doctor, who’s been a professor, professional trainer, enterprise software developer, enterprise software architect, researcher, modeller, project manager, R&D director, CTO, IT Consultant, supply chain consultant, analyst, product/technical due diligence professional and writer, among other things, has deep expertise where technology and supply chain meet and has the potential to help you in a number of ways. However, since each situation is unique, you will have to Contact the doctor with your request for specifics if you can’t find the information you’re looking for in the current version of the FAQ.

You might find these posts to be of interest if you want to find out more about the doctor:

Reviews

Will you review my product? ^Home

Sourcing Innovation will consider reviewing any supply chain software platform that could provide value to Sourcing Innovation’s clients if timing permits provided that:

you accept that SI will not sign an NDA
you accept that SI will not embargo any information you put forward for more than a short amount of time (and not more than a week)
you understand that SI requires an actual (web) demo;
a PowerPoint presentation does not count
you accept that SI has a no Bullshit policy, which includes no (Gen-)AI Bullshit, and SI will NOT engage with you if you make ridiculous or false claims (that are not backed up by live demos and/or case studies with a customer that will go on record); this includes, but is not limited to, claims of AI Employees that we have already debunked, claims of great AI generated content which we know is just another example of AI Slop, spend orchestration which is complete and utter nonsense, or your Free RFP solution
you accept the 10-slide PowerPoint limit for “introductory framing” and follow this format:
- 1 slide overview of your company (optional)
- 1 slide overview of the solution space you address (optional)
- 1-2 slides to frame the problem you’re solving
- 1-2 slides to frame the solution you’re presenting
- 1-2 slides to outline some of the unique capabilities, challenged assumptions, or a-ha realizations you will be addressing
- 1-2 slides to address interesting points of note (optional)
your request comes with reasonable notice, which SI defines as
no less than 3 days and no more than 3 weeks
you will not ask SI to deal with an external PR Representative who does not have full access to your calendar and who can not schedule the demo with reasonable certainty in the 3 day to 3 week timeframe
you accept that a review does not imply coverage in any way, shape or form and that you are not entitled to any feedback unless you pay for a reprint of a formal review

You might also want to review the following posts:

Why should I have you review my product? ^Home

What’s the Benefit?

Well, what’s the benefit to doing anything on a PR / Marketing Front? What’s the benefit of talking to an analyst? What’s the benefit of talking to a journalist? Are they going to write about you / promote you? Where? And even if they do talk about you in their offering’s premiere publication, is anyone going to read it?

“They have 100,000 ‘subscribers’ to the print pub.” So? Are even 10,000 going to pick the magazine up? Or is it going to sit in their lobby? Are the 10,000 that might pick it up going to even flip to the page with your article? Read it?

“The analyst firm is the most prestigious in the space?” So? What if only their membership has access to the brief? Since most of us won’t pay $995 to $4,995 for a 5 page ‘report’ that contains information we can probably get for free on your website and the blogs, that won’t do you much good. (Unless you license it for the low, low price of $49,995.)

What’s the benefit of talking to a leading blogger/analyst? Hard to say … depends on the blog, the analyst, their following, and their spin on your solution.

If you are NOT paying for a reprint, the benefit is that the doctor is aware of you and will include you in shortlists of vendor recommendations when asked as he will be able to provide a rationale for including you.

If you ARE paying for a reprint (which has to be done up front before the review is written, but not until after the demo takes place and the doctor provides his view on whether or not a review will be worth it for you at the present time).

While any argument as to the benefit is subjective, we can tell you this:

(1) SI is pull, not push. People come here to read and find information. 1,000 pulls are generally MUCH better than 10,000 pushes. Reviews will be archived and easy to find on the Sourcing Innovation site (off of a linked page near the top of the sidebar) for at least the duration of the reprint that you will have full freedom to distribute as you wish.

(2) SI does extremely well in the search engines … as the public blog archives are always freely available back to 2006. There are posts from year one that will still get hundreds of hits a month and posts from the early years that sometimes get thousands of hits. (Compare this to most sites that, in a revamp, will often dump years of content because the outsourced shop charges by the post to “push forward”.)

(3) While it is certain that a single review will not be noticed to the same extent as a lead sponsor’s logo on every page of Sourcing Innovation, a well-written review, over time, could easily be seen by (tens of) thousands of eyeballs looking for innovative solutions and solution providers. (See the recent statistics posted in the discussion of event advertising.) There are multiple instances where a single guest post on Sourcing Innovation generated almost a dozen contacts for the author (and his or her firm) in less than a week. And even though those contacts might not be looking to buy at the moment you post, that could be a dozen contacts you might not have made otherwise… and who might be looking for new solutions as we approach a new budget season.

(4) Generally all you have to do to get the unbiased review that the industry trusts is give the doctor a live demo where you are completely open and honest (not a PowerPoint) that demonstrates your product meets its worthy goals and contains innovation and then pre-pay the reprint fee after the doctor deems it to be worth your while. (SI will not accept the reprint fee before the demo as it needs to reserve the right to reject a review and association if you do not adhere to SI’s policies or if it feels you will not get any value from it).

(5) The Demo is free. You’re only paying the low cost for the reprint right to the write-up. It only takes a couple of hours of your time to prepare the demo, deliver it, answer any questions that might come up during the write-up, and review the fact check. (Sourcing Innovation wishes the write-up could be free as well, but due to too many bad actors, which resulted in Free Vendor Coverage Comes To An End on Sourcing Innovation, it now has to to charge a low one-time free with immediate reprint rights to not only weed out those bad actors but ensure it’s continued viability. Compared to the big analyst firms, these fees are quite low. See the public pricing page.)

(6) It won’t make you look bad. (See point (8) below.) In fact, the willingness to pay for an independent third party review from a known unbiased reviewer who will cover your product factually will make you look good as clients will know you must have something if you’re willing to sponsor something that is not glowing PR coverage across the board and they will feel that they can trust you.

(7) It won’t expose your secrets. There are no secrets that can be gleaned from a demo. The only true “secrets” you have are your underlying algorithms, models, equations, etc. that are under the hood (and if your product is designed well, there should be no need to ever open the hood in a demo). Plus, if your competition is even halfway decent at competitive intelligence, it is a guarantee that they already know you better than you know yourself (and that they know more about you than SI will ever expose).

(8) It won’t hurt your solution. Sourcing Innovation is not going to focus on finding and exposing your weak points because every system has weaknesses and such an endeavour would help no one. The point of a review is to understand the strengths and (relatively) unique capabilities of the system, how these strengths and capabilities can help potential customers, and expose that information from a trusted, unbiased, third party viewpoint that your potential customers already trust. (And if you want proof, Of the hundreds upon hundreds of solutions that the doctor has reviewed, which included over 200 for Sourcing Innovation and 150 for Spend Matters between 2016 and 2023, you won’t find a single solution that has been reviewed negatively. Not one! SI believes that any vendor truly committed to helping a client, as demonstrated by a willingness to be completely open and honest with SI, deserves a fair coverage and a fair chance. [And vendors that do not embody the SI policies of openness, fairness, and mutual respect are simply not covered.])

(9) It’s a great way to dispel FUD. Sourcing Innovation is built on policies of openness, fairness, impartiality, and mutual respect. The space trusts what SI has to say — and you can too!

(10) Sourcing Innovation will own up to and correct any mistakes. If we get it wrong, and the mistake makes it through fact check, all you have to do is demonstrate that we’re wrong, and we’ll correct the review. It’s as simple as that!

(11) Sourcing Innovation will only recommend solutions it has seen.
In other words, if you don’t demo, you don’t get recommended. Ever! Full Stop.

You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. In the worst case scenario, where only a few of the individuals who visit SI actually read it and none of them are interested, you still have an independent review you can point to on the resources section of your website that buys you credibility. And the review can stay there for as long as you maintain the reprint right … and maybe in three months, or three years, time a potential customer on the edge reads it and decides to give you a shot.

It’s your choice. Make the right one!

What are you waiting for?

Our prices, charged only to ensure continued Sourcing Innovation viability (and not to make a profit) are lower than everyone else. See for yourself on the public pricing page.

Will you review my service offering? ^Home

Sourcing Innovation does not review service offerings directly, as it’s hard to review a service you’re not receiving. If, however, you have a great — fresh — source-to-pay, supply management, or supply chain success story at a major client who is willing to go public with the story, Sourcing Innovation will consider reviewing your success story providing that you are willing to share your full case study and schedule a joint conference call between SI, your company, and your customer. The rules for product reviews also apply.

Will you review my portal, web service, social network, or community? ^Home

Generally speaking, Sourcing Innovation does not review web sites, portals, and communities.

Will you review my online offering if I sponsor the review.^Home

Definitely not. To maintain impartiality, Sourcing Innovation does not do sponsored review posts with the sole exception of product reviews where reprint rights have been purchased. (Note that everyone is subject to the same rules when it comes to reviews and blog posts, including blog sponsors.)

Will you review my book?^Home

If your book is about sourcing, procurement, supply management, supply chain, innovation, sustainability, green, analysis, modelling, optimization, or another topic regularly covered on this blog, and it is of interest to the doctor, SI will definitely consider reviewing your book provided that:

you ask first
because if your book arrives unexpected, expect it to end up as a nicely wrapped goodwill donation
you send a(n) (e)-copy promptly after acceptance
because if it takes too long to arrive, something could come up and push the review to the back burner (or off the future-review list entirely)
you insure that you can get the book to me at least two weeks in advance (and four is preferred)
if your goal is to have the review completed by a certain date
you agree that no actual commitment with is being made
(beyond an intent by the doctor to get to it when time permits) unless you purchase a review reprint right (which, like product reviews, will be a minimal fee to cover the lost time expense)

Note that, unless a post states otherwise, a book review on the blog is generally on a book that the doctor has received a free (e-)copy of.

How long do reviews stay up?^Home

Until Sourcing Innovation had to make the tough decision that Free Vendor Coverage [is] Comes To An End on Sourcing Innovation, all reviews, including vendor reviews, would stay up for the lifetime of Sourcing innovation and reviews from 2006 were still online in 2025. Now we have to distinguish between vendor (product) reviews and other reviews.

Vendor (Product) Reviews

Vendor Product Reviews will stay up for the duration of the reprint, and if an updated review is commissioned, SI will archive both the original and updated review for the duration of the most recently purchased reprint.

The only exceptions that will result in a review being (temporarily) taken down are the following:

the company is closing down/entering insolvency — in this case, the review may be taken down to avoid wasting provider and solution seeker time
the write-up turns out to have major issues; either there has been a major misunderstanding (and more than a small correction is required, but this typically doesn’t happen with product reviews as SI uses a fact-check process) or someone has provided (accidentally or deliberately) false information to SI which is discovered later
the vendor violates one or more of SIs policies^*

^* they will still have the reprint right until it expires, but the reprint will no longer be accessible through SI

Other Reviews

Generally speaking, a (non-vendor [product]) review will only be (temporarily) taken down for the following reasons:

the write-up turns out to have major issues; either there has been a major misunderstanding (and more than a small correction is required) or someone has provided (accidentally or deliberately) false information to SI or copyrighted information that they had no right to (which is discovered after publishing)
SI is no longer able to recommend whatever is being reviewed due to known issues (which may not yet be public) or interactions; e.g. (pending) lawsuits, multiple (confirmed) customer failures, deceitful practices, violations of SIs policies, etc.

SI was proud that up until Free Vendor Coverage [Was] Comes To An End on Sourcing Innovation, not a single review had to be taken down permanently, even though our space (like other software spaces) is not free of problems (but, fortunately, SI always made an effort never to post what it could not and, to the best of its ability, verify all of the information provided). SI’s hope is that with its new policy, it will enter a new era where it never has to take down any review every again (before the reprint termination date for vendor [product] reviews), but it cannot predict the future.

(The reality now is that, apparently, the only thing some vendors respect and understand is money. So now that SI is charging nominal fees for reprints and demanding reprint purchases before written coverage, it hopes that it will again be able to post with confidence every review it undertakes. As a point of information, before 2025, it’s success rate with verifiable vendor product reviews was 99/100 in terms of publishable, verifiable material. In 2025, that dropped to 4/5. And yes, that’s shameful! That’s one of the reasons why we outlined the Seven Stairs of Assisted Solution Selection and advised you to get help from The A-Team. It’s not just that technology project failure rates are 88% across the board and 94% for AI, it’s that some vendors [which we hope is a very small minority and we were just unlucky enough to interact with all of them in 2025] clearly don’t have respect for anyone but themselves and/or their shareholders. You need more than a vendor with a product. You need one who will work with you and be driven to help you succeed!)

When will you update my review?^Home

Unless something was factually wrong when the review was published, and that factual wrongness is clearly demonstrated, SI will never update a review once posted. (However, when you purchase, or extend a reprint, of an existing vendor product review, you can get an updated review of your product, which you can then distribute instead.)

The nature of a review is that it is done at a point in time, and that’s why every post and reprint has a publication date which reflects when the review was done and verified in the recent past as of that date. (Unless a request is made to delay publication for a valid reason, such as a delay of beta to live launch, SI generally completes reviews within one week of a fact check being returned.)

SI will do follow-up reviews (for new reprints) when one of the following situations occurs:

at least one year has passed, you have made enough updates to warrant an update, and you are extending the reprint license
you launch an entirely new module/solution that the doctor feels is significant enough to warrant an early update and agrees to do it (either as an extended review or separate review, your choice)
two or more years have passed

For those of you saying “but two years is a long time“, you need to remember that

SI does NOT charge you for the demo (which it will take before charging for the reprint, so that the doctor can advise you on whether a review or early update is worth your money), charges less than ¹/₁₀ of what a big analyst firm will try to charge you in a “research package” that guarantees analyst time and minimal coverage, and does NOT charge readers — and it’s the only independent analyst/content site that does deep reviews that does NOT have a paywall (that blocks readers from accessing your review)
it takes a long time to do a good initial product review that is both deep and accurate — review of your content, a deep demo, follow-up questions, initial multi-stage drafting, fact check, final edits and posting; for a small single-module solution, that’s a full day; for a slightly larger three-module mini-suite, that’s typically two days; and for a large suite, it can be a week! (And senior analyst time at a big analyst firm typically goes for 10,000/day+.) In comparison, SI is making $0 when it agrees to take your demo, which can result in up to half a day of UNPAID time (reviewing your content to prepare, taking it, and then providing you with free feedback on whether or not a review or update is worth your money at the present time), and SI’s prices, which are generally set at about ¹/₃ of what a senior analyst would cost you at a major firm for the equivalent time the doctor spends on your write-up, barely covers corporate expenses. (It prevents SI and the doctor from losing money, but it doesn’t really make any money.) Moreover, most of SIs reviews are deeper and more accurate than anything you will get from anyone else as the doctor has extremely deep technical expertise and considerably more experience covering solutions in our space over the past two decades, and this is true even if you spend three times more! (As far as the doctor knows, the only analysts who have been consistently covering the source-to-pay space longer that the doctor are Chris Sawchuk and Pierre Mitchell! So if you can get them to cover your solution, and can afford the Hackett price tag, SI has to recommend you go there first. Otherwise, come here.)
There are over 700 providers in our space. (See the Mega Map.) A fundamental policy of SI is fairness, which means giving all of these companies who want to be covered (and adhere to SIs policies) a chance, but since the reality is that SI cannot cover more than a vendor a week, even with a paid reprint, it cannot cover any company more than once every two years and have enough bandwidth to cover all of the other smaller vendors who aren’t getting coverage because they can’t afford the big firm fees.

Unsolicited Offers

Would you like me to optimize your site for search engines?^Home

No. First of all, as a CS PhD who was teaching internet technologies before you even knew what the internet was (because you were probably still in diapers), and an IT professional who also happens to have years of enterprise software development under my belt, the doctor is quite capable of doing his own SEO should he care to do it.

Secondly, when SI publishes regularly, it generally does at least twice as good as any other blog or publication in the space against my corpus of common source-to-pay, supply management, and supply chain search terms, thanks to the very large archive built up over nineteen plus years (which is, thanks to the Spend Matters purge on the site migration in 2023, now the largest archive in our space … at least until Procurement Insights transcribes all of its historical podcasts).

Thirdly, if he did want help, he wouldn’t hire some random yahoo barely out of high school with no formal training who can’t even construct proper sentences in a short e-mail. He’d hire a conscientious professional who he’s worked with in the past and whom he can trust to only use white-hat SEO techniques that won’t get his site banned from the major search engines.

But we do multilingual!

Good for you. SI still doesn’t care. Right now, SI only publishes in English. And while it includes Google translate in the resources box, it’s far from perfect and not something it really wants to advertise at this time.

Furthermore, should SI go multi-lingual in the future, the techniques it’s already using still apply. Therefore, SI still won’t be interested.

Would you like me to redesign your blog?^Home

No. While it’s true it could be flashier, SI isn’t about flash. It’s about substance. Furthermore, it’s also about accessibility and availability. SI doesn’t want a site that only works in IE 7.0.5700.6 on Windows Vista Build 5536 on your ancient HP Pavilion dv9000, and it doesn’t want a site that’s down more than it’s up. That’s why it use a hosted service that has proven to be reliable. SI gladly accepts some limitations in blog structure to not have to worry about up-time or cross-browser, cross-platform accessibility. Besides, SI is a big fan of the KISS principle, and the design and maintenance on the doctor‘s part, is very KISS. (Which gives SI time to tell you that you’d be better off if you Rock and Roll All Nite because happy people have fewer health problems, and rock and roll can make you really happy!)

Would you like to see the great design I have for a new comprehensive resource site for Sourcing Innovation?^Home

No. First of all, the resource site was decommissioned almost two years ago, and why you are contacting me now boggles my mind!

And while we admit SI could definitely be bigger and better, as per above, first of all, any site has to fulfill its purpose, work and successfully manage the large number of resources it would need to manage. That requires a fairly sophisticated code-base under the hood, and it is not something that you could just throw together for a few thousand dollars, and when you tell me you can with your new age AI-powered Vibe Coding, the doctor laughs in your face. (Especially since code that never crashes is VERY important to the doctor as someone who, as above, follows the KISS principle with respect to anything he has responsibility for and anything he ever built as a developer and designed as an architect. AI Vibe code is full of bugs, and very insecure. Just because it compiles and passes a random test does NOT prove otherwise. If you don’t get it, go find a Software Engineering Professor and ask them to teach you proper boundary, integration, system, and stress testing and then watch your vibe-generated software virtually explode as you put it through proper testing.)

Secondly, if SI ever decided to spend money on a more extensive site with a flashier look and feel, it’s going to hire someone it knows can get the job done, not a poorly educated high-school kid with Microsoft Copilot and an Access database who thinks he has all the answers (and that’s what it’s judging most of you are given the poor grammar and unprofessionalism of the e-mails that have been clogging the doctor‘s spam filter for the better part of two decades).

Would you like to be listed in our directory? It’s only $999.99!^Home

You’re kidding, right?

You’re not? Then what are you tripped out on? Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters?

Only a complete idiot is going to pay to list in your directory when there are thousands of directories out there that she can list in for free. Furthermore, as cheaper, better, free alternatives present themselves, even the suckers you convince to sign up aren’t going to renew. Thus, your directory is doomed to failure from the start unless (a) you offer a heck of a lot more than just listings, (b) you already have a widely established community, and (c) you have a tiered model with free and paid listings. And even then, it has to be good. Damn good. And even then, I’m not going to be interested since a lot more people will find SI from Google than from your directory.

Would you like our list of X,000 buyers or conference attendees? We guarantee top accuracy for the lowest price!^Home

This is just as useless as your request to write for your newsletter that you apparently have Y,000 subscribers for.

If you took any time at all (and even as little as 30 seconds) to skim over the consulting services offering of SI, you’d realize it focusses on selling to:

software vendors, and given that SI built the Mega-Map, it already knows who they are
Procurement Leaders (VPs/CPOs) of mid-sized organizations actively looking for Source-to-Pay⁺ technology offerings now (not just random blatherings or a conference holiday)
M&A department leaders, mid-size PE firm fund managers responsible for Source-to-Pay and Supply Chain

And they ain’t gonna be on your list! So, no, the doctor doesn’t want to pay a lot of money to spam a lot of people who aren’t interested in his services (or even understand what they are).

Would you like to be an expert in our network? It’s FREE for the first three months!^Home

Ha, Ha, Ha! You’re funny!

What planet are you from anyway, Eadrax? Why would the doctor want to pay to be part of your lacklustre community? So he can talk to all three of your users?

But seriously, who’s going to pay to be part of your community when there are dozens of business networks and communities that let members, including experts, join for free. Where do you think most of my audience is going to be? Not in your community, for starters.

Would you like our PR Agency to help you get better visibility? We have an introductory special for new clients.^Home

How about you read my PR series and then tell me if you really want to be asking me that question:

Now, while there are PR professionals whom the doctor likes, respects, and gets along with (and at least one who has brains that he’ll slobber over), these individuals are a rarity. Generally speaking, the doctor is not very fond of external PR firms. Too many bad experiences over the years.

Contact^Home

The Editor-in-Chief of this site can be reached at:
thedoctor at sourcinginnovation dot com .

If you attempted to contact Sourcing Innovation for a valid reason and did not receive an acknowledgement of your request in five (5) Business Days, please re-send as your message may not have made it (every now and again, a relay fails, email servers crash, and messages don’t get delivered) or, more likely, it has been been classified as spam and automatically deleted. See the Spam Notice below to prevent this from happening again on a resend.

Spam Notice^Home

Since the Editor-in-Chief’s account gets dozens of spam messages on a slow day and hundreds on a bad day (as this site has been around since 2006; added to multiple press release, “journalist” [even though he’s not], and spam databases [and most don’t adhere to opt-in/opt-out laws]; and some of this spam regularly contains malware), aggressive anti-spam rules have been enabled on the shared mail server and on his e-mail client. Any spam caught by the server is automatically deleted. Any spam that makes it to the client that has an attachment, executable code or scripts, or is deemed unsafe is automatically deleted. Of what remains in the junk folder, messages from known senders that can be determined to have been misidentified as spam will be recovered and the rest will be deleted without being opened.

Before we continue, let this serve as a reminder that common spam traits are:

mail from a “no reply” or fake address (such as “xyz@”)
mail where the from or reply to address doesn’t match the originating domain
mail where the IP does not match the geo-region of the domain
(empty) attachments (with malicious code)
form letters (copied from the internet)
fake copyright/claim/legal/selection notices from an open legal clause repository
blacklisted domains due to high-spam reports

Thus, in order to minimize the chance of your message being flagged as spam, please ensure your message adheres to the following if you have NOT been in contact with Sourcing Innovation before:

it is sent from your account on your domain
if a reply-to is set, it is also your account on your domain
no attachments if you have not contacted Sourcing Innovation before (and received a reply); include all necessary information in the body and any additional supporting information in postscript after your signature
no form letters, and no auto-generated AI-slop
no legal clauses, even if you are making a copyright claim or offering a contract
your domain is not on any spam lists

In addition, if you don’t get a response to your message, before sending again, you can also use one of the online “free email spam test” tools where you go to your sent folder, show headers, copy and paste the full email message with headers into the tool, and get a spam score. If it’s high, consider rewording your message and/or contacting your IT department to find out why your emails are potentially being flagged as spam. (It could be your mail server, if it’s shared or if it was hacked by spammers as their relay, and/or entered into a public spam domain database used by anti-spam software.)

Sourcing Innovation Privacy Policy and Procedures

Your Personal Data:

What we need

Sourcing Innovation, a wholly owned service of ToP KaTS Consulting Inc., will be what is known as the ‘Controller’ of the personal data you provide to us. We will only collect data that we need to enable us to work more effectively with you.

For basic free blog subscriptions and comments, we only collect basic personal data about you which does not include any special type of information or electronic location-based information beyond the IP address used to access our service. Our billing process will record your details if you are a company or an individual who signs up for paid services.

This basic information does however include name, screen name, email and, optionally, a contact number if you choose to provide one. We will combine this data with information we collect if you register for freemium downloads. This may include:

Your current role
Number of Years’ experience in your role
Current employer
Highest Level of Education Completed
Areas of Interest
Experience you may have with relevant technologies
Vendors whose technologies you have worked with

This information helps us tailor our offerings towards your needs. If you sign up for paid subscription services or content offerings, we will need your billing information.

Why we need it

We need to know your basic personal data in order to provide you with the blog subscription and commenting capability should you request it.

We require more data for freemium and paid services to help us tailor our educational and informative services to meet the interests of our readership at large.

We do not collect more data than we need to provide the services to which you subscribe. Please note that if you do not sign up for any services, we do not collect any personal information.

From time to time we may link to freemium downloads of partners, hosted on their site. Please note that any information you provide to them to access their service is not shared with us or under our control. We advise you to review their Privacy and Data Use policies before providing any personal information.

What we do with it

All the personal data we collect is processed by our staff in Canada. For the purposes of IT hosting and maintenance this information is located on servers within Canada.

No third parties have access to your personal data unless the law allows them to do so.

We have a Data Protection regime in place to oversee the effective and secure processing of your personal data.

If you are an employee and your company has paid for our services, note that we may be (legally) requested to provide your employer proof of subscription / content request and delivery to you. If so requested, we will provide the data necessary to provide this proof of subscription / content delivery to your employer.

How long we keep it

If you sign up for any paid services, we are required under Canadian tax law to keep your basic personal data (name, address, contact details) for a minimum of 7 years after which time it will be destroyed. If your access or content is paid for by a company, your employer will also hold that data in their invoices and payment systems. If you are a private consumer, you will be invoiced as any commercial customer.

The information you provide to us to access our services will be kept until you notify us that you no longer wish us to maintain this information, at which time it will be deleted (unless, of course, we are legally required to maintain it for tax purposes, at which point it will be deleted once we are no longer legally required to maintain it).

What we would also like to do with it

When you sign up for one or more services, we reserve the right to use your name and email address to offer you that service. We also reserve the right to inform you of any upcoming changes to the offering, complementary offerings, or changes in Sourcing Innovation and/or its parent, ToP KaTS Consulting Inc.

We would also like the right to inform you of new and future offerings and similar products provided by Sourcing Innovation or ToP KaTS Consulting that you may be interested in. We will ask you to opt-in upon sign up. If you do not wish to receive this information, at any time you will be able to opt-out through e-mail or our website contact form. This information is not shared with third party organizations and you can unsubscribe at any time via email or our website contact page.

What are your rights?

If at any point you believe the information we process on you is incorrect you may request to see this information and even have it corrected or deleted^*. If you wish to raise a complaint on how we have handled your personal data, you can contact our team who will then investigate the matter. There is no charge or fee for this service (for a first request — additional requests will incur a fee, unless prohibited by law, to prevent vexatious behaviour).

If you are not satisfied with our response or believe we are processing your personal data not in accordance with the law, you can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) or the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) if you are a European Citizen.

Data Subject Access Request procedure

Under the PIPEDA and GDPR regulations, you can submit a Data Subject Access Request to us (DSAR). The procedure is:

You will need to contact us on our email address at info@sourcinginnovation.com. Please ensure that you provide a contact email address and mobile number for us to contact you directly.
We will then validate your identity.
Once this is complete, within 30 days we will provide a listing of all information that we have on our systems.
As above, there is no charge for this service (for a first request — additional requests will incur a fee, unless prohibited by law, to prevent vexatious behaviour).
We will send a PDF of the information we have collected to the e-mail address we validate.

^* unless, of course, you are a subscriber to a paid service; in this situation, Sourcing Innovation is required to legally maintain a minimum amount of information on you for 7 years for tax compliance purposes (but will still correct any incorrect data or delete any data not legally necessary)

Are You Maximizing Your Free Exposure?

This is a one-time e-mail from Sourcing Innovation. Please feel free to forward this e-mail to anyone you feel may be interested.

Everyone’s marketing budget is crunched and, thanks to the economy, it’s going to stay that way for a while. No lavish parties, fewer trade shows, and more webinars will continue to be the norm. However, a webinar is no good if no one attends. Which means advertising the webinar, which is expensive and haphazard.

What you really need is public, third party verification that your solution solves the problems you claim it solves — and that it does so in a usable, effective, and efficient manner. Then you need to get this message out there in a respectable forum. You could ask an analyst to review and (hopefully) write about your solution, but getting their attention will cost you close to 30K* per year, and might only buy you only a brief mention in a broad (and private) coverage report.

You also need credibility. Your prospects are getting smarter and they want solution providers who are capable, forward-thinking, and able to advance them on their journey to being expert supply management professionals. They’ve had enough of being abandoned after the salesmen gets his commission. Unfortunately, they’re not going to find you or your website. You could try turning to one of the print publications and hope that one of their journalists covers you, but thanks to the economy, they’re stretched thin and focused on getting dollars through the door so they can keep their jobs. As a result, if you’re not buying advertising, you’re probably pretty low on the queue.

Of course, if you have 50K to 100K to throw around every time you want to launch a new campaign, then life is easier. However, since an enterprise customer can only buy when they get their budget, you have to be out there every quarter. The cost for these quarterly campaigns can add up fast while not guaranteeing you any returns.

If you’re smart, though, you could get most of this exposure for FREE on Sourcing Innovation, one of the top blogs in the supply management space (and the second oldest, trailing Spend Matters by only 6 months).

Sourcing Innovation Solution Reviews are FREE

That’s right, it doesn’t cost anything to have the doctor review your solution — and the only requirement for getting a post is to follow the rules and show me something innovative. These reviews, which are not only free to your target audience but permanently archived on the blog, can net results for years to come. A solution review Sourcing Innovation did early in its first year is one of Sourcing Innovation‘s all-time top ten posts (with total views in the 10,000 range in 2009) and still getting accessed regularly. Compare this to a restricted-access analyst report which disappears into the archives after a few months.

Sourcing Innovation Guest Posts are FREE

Sourcing Innovation, which does not do sponsored posts or reviews, will consider a guest post from an independent expert provided it is related to supply management, free of marketing or advertising, and well-written.

In short, with Sourcing Innovation, you can get your solution reviewed for FREE and build up your thought leadership for FREE. So what are you waiting for?

Of course, if you really want to get noticed big-time, you should consider a Sourcing Innovation Sponsorship which will put your logo front and centre before 10,000 to 20,000 unique pairs of eyeballs (in 2009), who will make over 50,000 visits that access over 200,000 pages, every month. (While a review can net your website a few hundred visits, a sponsorship can net you a few thousand. Think about it.) I urge you to check out the Open Pricing Model and contact the doctor today using the contact information in the FAQ.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Michael Lamoureux
“the doctor” of Sourcing Innovation

For more information on Sponsorships, Illuminations or other Sourcing Innovation services, please see the following posts or contact us using the contact information in the FAQ.

The SI Open Pricing Model
Get the Facts!
Your Search Traffic is Headed to Sourcing Innovation
Who Reads Sourcing Innovation?

* 30K a year was back in 2006; now you’re looking at 50K to 75K a year minimum in the mid-2020s

The Sourcing Innovation Blog Comment Rules

The purpose of the comment feature is to allow for a multi-way discussion that can enrich the usefulness of the blog. Comments should add or complement the content being presented, not detract from it or steer the user off on unrelated tangents. Although commenting rules of etiquette on the ‘Net should be well understood by now, there are always those that seem to forget. As such, these are the commenting rules of Sourcing Innovation.

No spam, where spam is defined as the posting of advertisements, abusive, unnecessary, or content-free messages. This includes posts whose sole intent is to advertise a(n unrelated) product or service.This does not mean that you cannot advertise an article, product, or company in a limited fashion (as I permit in my guest posts), but that you must do so in a tasteful and relevant fashion (with no “marketese”) in a comment that is on the topic of, and adds to, the content of original post. Spammers who violate the rules will have their e-mail address added to the Sourcing Innovation Spammers Wall of Shame.
- This also means that comment-bombing is against the rules.
No churlish or boorish comments, be civil.
This does not mean that you are not free to point out negatives with ideas, solutions, etc. discussed on the blog, just that you should maintain a decorum of respect while you do.
No personal attacks on an individual or a vendor.
This does not mean that you cannot criticize a company or their product, but, as per the previous rule, it must be done fairly, and in a civil (or satirical) tone.
This also means there are no direct attacks against anyone who posts or guest posts on the blog.
This does not mean you are not free to disagree with the blogger, including the editor, including a comment to the effect that his or her opinions are dumb, and that you would not trade a molding loaf of bread for 99% of their outstanding stock, but keep it civil and focus on the issue, not the person.
No impersonations. If you want to comment anonymously, that’s fine, but don’t break any of the rules.

The editorial staff reserves the right to change or update these rules at any time as well as the right to edit or delete comments if they are determined to be spam, impersonated, disrespectful, or purely speculative without substantiated evidence or evidence of an honest effort to discover evidence to back them up.

This being said, the editorial staff makes every effort to insure that every comment that follows the rules does not get taken down, even if the editorial staff disagrees with those comments.

Please note that comments will not be posted unless you provide a valid e-mail address and validate it. The first time you comment, you will be sent an e-mail to the address you provide. If you do not confirm your e-mail address within a timely fashion, the (inactive) comment will automatically be marked as spam and the editor will not review it. Only (pending) comments (that do not violate the rules above) from submitters who have confirmed their e-mail address will be posted.

Astute readers may notice that some comments appear faster than others. This is because some submitters^* have been added to the list of approved commenters that do not require moderation.

^* If the editor knows you or the editor notices that you have made multiple comments that have contributed to the content of the blog, you may be added to this list, which is entirely at the discretion of the editor.

Copyright Notice, Text and Data-Mining Exclusion, AI Policy, Editorial Disclaimers, and Reprint Requests

Last Update: August 23, 2025.

By consuming any content on this blog in any manner, you accept all of the disclaimers, licenses, copyright requirements, and terms and conditions of using the Sourcing Innovation blog and any associated sites, which are subject to change at any time. You also accept that it is your responsibility to keep up to date on the disclaimers, licenses, copyright requirements, and terms and conditions of using the Sourcing Innovation blog and any associated sites and that you are fully liable for any violation of such disclaimers, licenses, copyright requirements, and terms and conditions as well as any usage of any content contained on any site, which, as per the editorial disclaimer, is information of a general nature, that contains subjective opinions, not for commercial use, and is designed for information and entertainment purposes only.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Editorial Disclaimer
Dynamic Content
License
No Recommendations
Legal Compliance
Promotions
Copyright
Reprints, Reposts, and Other Forms of Distribution
Alleged Copyright Infringement
Social Media Policy
AI Policies

Editorial Disclaimer.

This website provides information of a general nature, subjective opinions of the various content contributors, and is designed for informational and entertainment purposes only. The editors of this website (“Editors”), merely by allowing any content, comments, solutions, or other data to be posted by any contributor (“Content”), do not necessarily endorse and specifically disclaim all responsibility for such Content, and are not responsible or liable for any such Content. You acknowledge that the Editors need not pre-screen any Content, but that Editors reserve the right (but not the obligation) in their sole discretion to refuse, edit, move or remove any Content on the website. All Content represents the viewpoints of the contributor only, and is not to be interpreted as a statement of fact, and you acknowledge that any reliance on Content will be at your own risk.

By consuming any content on this website, you acknowledge and accept this is a free resource for personal, non-commercial, use for educational, informational, and entertainment purposes only! No warranties, express or implied, are provided on the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information and Sourcing Innovation shall have no liability for errors, omissions or inadequacies in the information contained herein or for interpretations thereof.

Dynamic Content

Sourcing Innovation is a blog, not a print publication. As such all content it contains can, and will, be updated, as needed or desired, and will most likely be updated if one or more of the following situations described below arise.

Only the most current version of content will be considered Sourcing Innovation content, and that’s why any and all reprints granted or quotes to Sourcing Innovation must contain a URL so a reader can access the full, current version. By consuming any content on this blog, you not only accept that this is a blog of subjective opinions, not for commercial use, that is designed for information and entertainment purposes only, but that any and all content may change at any time and it is up to you to check that any content you may or may not be relying on at your own risk is up to date. While much of the content remains relatively static,

The following is an incomplete list of situations where content may be updated:

Sourcing Innovation was provided with incorrect or incomplete information during a demo or briefing, later found out such, and the content created thereon contains inaccuracies at the time of publication as a result
Sourcing Innovation was given, or only possessed, incorrect or incomplete information relating to one or more subjects of an opinion piece, later found out such, and the opinion piece is no longer reflective of Sourcing Innovation’s opinions
Sourcing Innovation obtains new information that completely changes its opinion on a subject, an the piece needs to be updated to reflect such
Sourcing Innovation was given confidential or copyright information it was not allowed to have, that was not identified as such at the time, and the information needs to be redacted
Sourcing Innovation finds out that a piece may be being used by commercial entities in a way that unfairly highlights their ability or unfairly detracts from the ability of a competitor; in this case, Sourcing Innovation may choose to reword, provide more context, or remove content from a post to limit misuses, especially since all quotes must be contiguous and accurate to abide by North American “fair use” and “fair dealing” laws (see the FAQ)
Sourcing Innovation believes that a piece may be being misinterpreted (based on feedback, comments, or questions raised to the author or SI) and may thus rewrite parts or all of it for clarity
Sourcing Innovation believes that readers may be confusing the existence of a reference to one or more entities (such as a type of company, vendor, software) designed to explain a concept being discussed (such as a class of companies, vendors, or software modules) as the target of an article, and not just one example to explain the general category being discussed, and may augment, replace, or remove those references as well as reword the article to make the point clear (e.g. when we discuss S2P suites we are not singling out any specific suite)
Sourcing Innovation identifies grammar, phrasing, or even formatting that it believes could be confusing that needs to be enhanced

The following is an incomplete list of situations where content may be deleted:

Sourcing Innovation was given content or information that was trade secret or under embargo (without being provided that context when it received the content)
Sourcing Innovation was given copyrighted content the provider had no right to give
The content or article is based on third party content (such as an editorial, scholarly analysis, or summary thereof) that no longer exists and the article does not make sense without such content
The content, due to new information, is deemed to be significantly wrong and not of any informational value
The content was a reciprocal piece, and the corresponding piece disappeared from the other site

No Recommendations

While Sourcing Innovation will cover, and provide opinions on, companies, solutions, platforms, and/or products, Sourcing Innovation is NOT making a recommendation for or against any specific company, solution, platform, and/or product! It is merely providing one data point that may be used in your consideration, at your own risk (as there are no warranties, express or implied, on the completeness, accuracy, adequacy, or relevancy on any content on this non-commercial site for personal use) and any recommendations it provides are for situations in which it would consider or not consider adding the company, solution, platform, and/or product to a shortlist for an RFP. (i.e. it would include, or not include, the company, solution, platform, and/or product based on a specific scenario)

License.

By posting messages or personal information, uploading files, inputting data, or engaging in any other form of communication with this website (collectively, “Contributions”), you are granting the website and its Editors permission and a royalty-free perpetual license to: use, modify, copy, distribute, transmit, publicly display, publicly perform, reproduce, publish, create derivative works from, or transfer the Contributions. The foregoing grants shall include the right to exploit any proprietary rights in such Contributions without compensation to you, including but not limited to rights under copyright, trademark, service mark or patent laws under any relevant jurisdiction.

You also acknowledge that you possess the rights, including the rights to share, any data, files, and content that you provide to this website, either through a comment or through a contribution, and that you accept full responsibility and accountability for such data, files, and content. This means that should you share any data, files, and content you don’t possess the rights to (which includes the rights to share), the website owners and editors may hold you legally accountable.

Legal Compliance.

The Editors will cooperate fully with any law enforcement officials and/or agencies in the investigation of any person or persons who allegedly violate any law relating to such person’s Contributions.

Promotions.

If you have signed up for one or more mailing lists, or agreed thereto, Editors and/or third parties may, from time to time, send e-mail messages to you or otherwise contact you with solicitations, advertisements, or promotions. Editors make no representation or warranty with respect to the content of any such communications or any goods or services which may be obtained from such third parties, and you agree that neither Editors nor such third party shall have any liability with respect thereto.

Copyright.

All original content that appears on the Sourcing Innovation blog, or companion website, whether or not it was created by the Editors, is either the copyright of Sourcing Innovation or its parent company ToP KaTS Consulting (that owns the Sourcing Innovation Blog, the Sourcing Innovation Website, the Sourcing Innovation Domains, and all works expressly created under the Sourcing Innovation name for commercial use) or the copyright of the original contributor (who has granted Sourcing Innovation and its parent company a royalty-free perpetual license to publish and distribute the content through any media, web property or electronic channel controlled by Sourcing Innovation or its parent company).

Content created by a Sourcing Innovation contributor (who has granted Sourcing Innovation and its parent company a royalty-free perpetual license to publish and distribute the content on any media, web property or electronic channel controlled by Sourcing Innovation and its parent company) remains the copyright of the contributor and may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without the express written consent of the contributor.

Content which is the copyright of Sourcing Innovation may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without the express written permission of the doctor, the “Editor in Chief”, or an officer of ToP KaTS Consulting, unless the reproduction is a permitted exception, as defined below.

Furthermore, all of the content on this website is made available for non-commercial public consumption only, and may only be consumed if the reader agrees that all content on this site is information of a general nature, subjective opinions of the various content contributors, and is designed for informational and entertainment purposes only. Content may not be used for any commercial purpose without the expression written consent of the doctor, the “Editor in Chief”, or an officer of ToP KaTS Consulting.

The only exceptions to this rule are the following:

An organization that is a current sponsor is allowed to reproduce
1. any and all posts authored by the doctor, subject to the restrictions below, in their entirety, or any contiguous part of any and all posts that appear on the Sourcing Innovation blog, which do not reference another vendor or solution, as a quote, for educational and non-profit purposes in any printed or electronic medium controlled by the sponsor as long as a complete reference, which includes the complete perma-link URL to the original post, is included;
2. any and all posts authored by a contributor or guest author, subject to the restrictions below, in their entirety, that does not reference another vendor or solution, for educational purposes for their employees and clients in any printed or electronic medium controlled by the sponsor and restricted to their employees and clients as long as a complete reference, which includes the complete perma-link URL to the original post, is included.
This right remains in existence for as long as the organization remains a sponsor plus one month (up to a maximum of 12 months) for every month the organization was contiguously sponsoring Sourcing Innovation (the “grace period”). Once sponsorship, and the subsequent grace period, has ended, all rights of reproduction are immediately revoked (and the organization must cease distributing all printed and electronic materials containing full or partial content reproductions) unless a valid agreement granting reproduction rights between the organization and the parent company of Sourcing Innovation is made or the right of reproduction is covered under another exception.

Any client of the parent company that owns the Sourcing Innovation domain that is in good standing is allowed to reproduce any contiguous part of any and all posts authored by the doctor, subject to the restrictions below, that relate specifically to that client or that client’s products (but do not include a mention to another vendor or solution), in their entirety, as a quote, for educational and non-profit purposes in any printed or electronic medium as long as a complete reference, which includes the complete perma-link URL to the original post, is included. This right remains in existence until the client is no longer in good standing or six months have passed since the last day of service. “In good standing” has its usual interpretation and means that there are no overdue invoices for services or expenses (which are not in a valid dispute process, should such a valid dispute process be allowed under presiding law or the services contract) and no legal proceedings are taking place between the parties.

Anyone is allowed to use any content that appears on the Sourcing Innovation site in any way that does not violate scholarly or other types of “fair-dealing”, as defined by Canadian Copyright Law. (For example, if your intent is to use the material in a classroom in an accredited and registered non-profit educational institution, you can, more-or-less, use anything you want, with few restrictions, provided the method of copying and distribution for classroom use does not make the material publicly available in a manner that would infringe copyright. This means print-outs and distribution over a secure Virtual Private Network that limits access to you and your students would be fine, but posting the material on the University’s public access website would not. As another example, if your intent is to use the content in advertisements with the express intent of achieving commercial gain therefrom, then, unless you fall under exception 1 or exception 2, you may not be able to quote a full a paragraph and have it “fair-dealing” [depending on what percentage of content the paragraph represents]. Quotes are always okay, but quotes that exceed more than a certain percentage of content are in the “grey area” when the material is being used for commercial gain.)

These restrictions apply to all of the exceptions above and below:

the posts requested/being used are at least 30 days old
the copyright is fully controlled by Sourcing Innovation
(which generally includes all posts authored by the doctor and excludes posts authored by contributors)
no fee of any kind will be charged for the reprints, reposts, or redistribution (and you provide an assurance that this will never happen)
the posts will never be used with the intent of commercial gain
the posts do not contain any reference to a vendor or solution, with the only exception being actual “fair-dealing” use for scholarly use
the posts are (re)distributed in whole or in contiguous, unaltered, part
full credit for authorship is attributed to the original author
a permalink to the original post is included

If you are unsure whether or not you have the right to reproduce, in whole or contiguous part, any content on Sourcing Innovation that you would like to use, please e-mail the Editor in Chief using the contact information in the FAQ.

Furthermore, no part of this web site may be used or reproduced in any manner for the purpose of training artificial intelligence technologies or systems.

This statement is made in accordance with Article 4(3) of the Digital Single Market Directive 2019/790. ToP KaTS Consulting, who owns the Sourcing Innovation domain and all content hosted on the domain, expressly reserves all content on this domain from the text and data mining exception.

Reprints, Reposts, and Other Forms of Distribution

Content from the Sourcing Innovation site may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without the express written permission of the doctor, the “Editor in Chief”, or the original contributor, unless the reproduction is a permitted exception. However, since the doctor believes that content should be freed for fair use (see Free Content for Fair Use), the doctor is always willing to consider requests to reprint, repost, and re-distribute original content from the Sourcing Innovation blog (to which Sourcing Innovation controls the copyright), provided that the request to re-distribute content acknowledges that any re-distributed content must include a permalink to the source article as well as author information.

If you or your organization wishes to reprint, repost, or re-distribute any educational (exclusive of vendor coverage) content on Sourcing Innovation, contact the doctor using the contact information in the FAQ and specify the following:

the post or posts that you are requesting to reprint or repost,
your name and contact information (company, e-mail, and telephone number),
the method in which you plan to reprint/republish the posts, and
the audience you intend to reach.

The Editor-in-Chief will consider your request and will attempt to give you a response within five business days. The response will indicate whether or not you may reproduce the content, as well as any conditions on the reproductions and any fees and royalties that must be paid to license the content for the purposes of reproduction.

Note that, as covered in Free Content for Fair Use, if the intent is to reproduce the works for the sole purpose of education, the doctor will consider granting a royalty-free license to reproduce and distribute any content to which Sourcing Innovation owns the copyright. Please note the following two exceptions:

The first exception is if you are a provider asking for content that refers to a competitor. (In other words not just specific vendor product coverage is excluded, any posts that refers to a competitor.) This will automatically be denied as SI does not encourage or enable negative or provider specific marketing. (This should be obvious from the fact that in the 200+ vendor deep dives on SI and the 150+ vendor deep dives [co]-authored on SM, the doctor has never outright said anything negative about the vendor in those deep-dive posts. He’s pointed out weaknesses, but beyond that, it’s up for the reader to do their own research and draw their own conclusions.) Furthermore, while SI’s deep vendor solution coverage posts are fact-driven, the opinion posts on some providers, which ask tough questions and include interpretations with the knowledge provided, are that — opinion! An opinion is not fact and not the full story, which is usually available by searching the archives and reading everything on the provider and the relevant subject matter. The reality is, it’s just too easy for something to be taken out of context, and that is not the goal of this educationally focused blog. (After all, every situation is different, and even if SI wouldn’t typically recommend that vendor, consultancy, and/or solution, it doesn’t mean it’s not right for you. You have more information on your situation than we have!)

The second exception is if you want a paid public or joint label piece that falls on public label or joint label writing services. See those sections of the FAQ for more information.

Alleged Copyright Infringement

From time to time, posts on the Sourcing Innovation blog will quote material from third party sources. Although the editors always make a good faith effort to insure such use is in accordance with the rules of “fair-dealing”, as defined by Canadian Copyright Law, and always insure that any quoted material they are aware of is referenced with a link (as long as the link remains valid, see Sourcing Innovation’s Link Policy) to the original source included whenever possible, the editors are only human and it is always possible something could slip by them. If you believe that this has happened and that there is content on the Sourcing Innovation site that violates your copyright, please contact the Editor-in-Chief, the doctor, using the contact information in the FAQ, and he will assist you in investigating and resolving the matter.

Social Media Policy

All authors who contribute to Sourcing Innovation are permitted to use their content on social media, provided that anything published that references and/or includes material that appeared on Sourcing Innovation contains a link to the article, comment, etc. on Sourcing Innovation and accurately conveys the content of that article, comment, etc. Inaccurate or misleading summaries are not permitted.

Sourcing Innovation reserves the right to request the removal of any posts, articles, or other references to Sourcing Innovation articles, comments, or other content that does not accurately reflect Sourcing Innovation content and you acknowledge that if you reuse any content from Sourcing Innovation in a way that is inaccurate or misleading, even if it does not violate copyright law, that you are liable for any harm caused by doing so.

Sourcing Innovation does, and even encourages, posting on social media platforms like LinkedIn where discussions can be had on relevant subject matter, but may remove content from time to time (on LinkedIn and other social media platforms) if it is informed of content misuse, feels that content may be misused or misconstrued due to the post word/character limits (and the fact that some articles on Sourcing Innovation are many times the post word/character limit), and definitely if it feels that a social post that references a product or solution (especially in an opinion-based manner) may be used by a competitor to negatively attack the product or solution being discussed (in direct violation of Sourcing Innovation policies).

For example, as pointed out above in these disclaimers and in the amended Free Content for Fair Use article, beyond an identification of potential solution weaknesses, which may or may not be relevant for a particular organization, as a general rule, Sourcing Innovation does not publish negative content on deep vendor solution dive articles (and there are 200 vendors covered on Sourcing Innovation and 150 on Spend Matters where the doctor contributed that prove this point). And while it may harshly criticize marketing, [product] direction, or decisions made by a vendor, services provider, or analyst firm, as per the disclaimer above, these are opinions and not facts, and definitely not factual statements on the product/solution/platform/service strengths and weaknesses (which would be found in a deep solution dive), and Sourcing Innovation does not want these opinions misconstrued as facts.

Moreover, Sourcing Innovation does not want, and will not permit, a vendor to use any vendor or solution content, in whole or in part, relating to a competitor (product or solution) on Sourcing Innovation (be they solution deep dives or opinion pieces) in any of their commercial efforts. While the vendor’s personnel are as free as anyone else to consume the content on this blog and related Sourcing Innovation sites, and personally share links to this blog and related Sourcing Innovation Sites — subject to the disclaimers, licenses, copyright, and terms and conditions herein — and then learn from the content and possibly even apply the lessons learned to improve their competitive positioning, Sourcing Innovation does not condone negative sales and marketing efforts against vendors by vendors and will not enable it in any way. (Vendors should win on their own strengths! If they are the best vendor, they should easily be able to craft a pitch that convinces the potential client of that!)

AI Policies.

Posted Content:

No “AI”, including but not limited to any LLM-based technology, has ever or will ever be used in the creation of any content published on Sourcing Innovation. All content is, and will continue to be, 100% human authored.

Any and all persons who submit content for guest post consideration attest that they are following this policy. If Sourcing Innovation posts content and later finds out that it was AI/LLM created or enhanced, it not only reserves the right to immediately remove the content, but also reserves the right to legally pursue compensation for any reputational or commercial damages caused by the posting of such AI/LLM content.

Content Use:

As per other Sourcing Innovation policies, Sourcing Innovation or ToP KaTS Consulting, that wholly owns Sourcing Innovation, may grant the rights to republication for educational or commercial purposes or the rights for other commercial uses. However, unless you receive explicit written permission to the contrary, you are always prohibited from uploading any content, whether published on the site or not, received from Sourcing Innovation or ToP KaTS Consulting to any public, publicly hosted, or shared AI/LLM technology. To phrase this more explicitly, the content may only be uploaded/processed by a private LLM on your own infrastructure that is never shared with, or made accessible by, external parties.

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