Sourcing Innovation will be changing hosting services this week. You should notice little or no interruption to the blog*, although the historical archive of blog posts will temporarily be taken offline during the migration.
* Assuming you aren’t glued to your local broadcaster watching soccer matches …
Like Waldo, the doctor can often be hard to spot in the wild. Since he’s a blogger, and not an analyst, he isn’t plageed by the media whore persona and can blend in, observe, and see what is actually happening out there. That’s why, occasionally, he gives you some hints as to his whereabouts.
Two weeks from today, if you look really hard, you might just see through his urban camouflage and spot him at the Coupa OneVision Roadshow in downtown Toronto.
If you care to try and find him, after being fed, you will get to hear John Mavriyannakis, a Director at Deloitte, talk about Empowering Modern Procurement and Ian Murray of TD Bank talk about their Coupa e-Procurement Success Story. Deloitte always has quite a few insightful success stories to share and given that TD Bank is a Fortune 500 company and a bank, this makes their success story all the more impactful.
the doctor will see you there. (But will you see him?)
Sourcing Innovation is thrilled to welcome back Next Level Purchasing (NLP) as a lead sponsor. Next Level Purchasing, which has been offering on-line purchasing training since 2001, and purchasing / supply management certifications since 2004, is one of the few companies that shares SI’s passion for the continued education of Supply Management Professionals everywhere and that’s why it’s great to see NLP back on SI.
Plus, it’s SPSM (Senior Professional in Supply Management) certification is a groundbreaking offering in the Supply Management space. While the original SPSM certification, launched nine years ago, is fairly basic by today’s standards, it still defines the baseline skill set required by every Supply Management professional, a skill set that is not taught in most business programs and a skill set that didn’t even exist in the curriculums of the big Purchasing Associations, including the ISM, until five years ago (as the ISM did not launch it’s CPSM certification until 2008, four years after NLP introduced the SPSM)! Furthermore, since then, Next Level Purchasing, which recognizes that the Supply Management function has been in continuous change over the last two decades, has launched the SPSM2 and SPSM3 certifications (which are still unmatched in the big associations) which are designed to help a Supply Management Professional advance in her knowledge, skill sets, and career once she has mastered the basics. (And even though the SPSM3 was just launched, they are already in the early planning phases for the SPSM4 and when the need is there, they will be ready.)
Today is a great day to be welcoming back Next Level Purchasing as a lead sponsor. Today, Next Level Purchasing launches its 3rd annual salary survey. The survey, which is sponsored by Sourcing Innovation and which can be downloaded for free on Next Level Purchasing’s website, contains a lot of useful data on salaries by continent, education, years of experience, and certification for everyone in the purchasing profession. Some key findings include:
In other words, when SI told you to train thyself because it would be worth it, if you train thyself (and get certified), you’re adding, on average, another $1,000 a month to your salary! (Considering that the basic SPSM Certification is only $1,149, this is definitely worth your time!)
To download the Free Salary Survey, log into the Next Level Purchasing Association (NLPA) member’s area and download the report from the What’s New tab. (Membership is free for all Supply Management professionals, so sign up if you are not a member!)
Plus, this year Next Level Purchasing, always looking to add to their educational offerings, launches the first Next Level Purchasing Association Conference. Being held this September, this conference, which will feature keynotes by leading analysts (including Andrew Bartolini of Ardent Partners and CPO Rising and Chris Provines of Value Vantage Partners and ChrisProvines.com), will be centered around a number of workshops designed to increase your Supply Management skills. Instead of the same-old same-old conference where you sit around all day listening to the same people speak over and over, this conference will focus on teaching you, which should put it on your short list as not many conferences these days seem to have that objective.*
Welcome back Next Level Purchasing!
That’s why you don’t find the doctor at many conferences these days!
This ain’t a blog for the neutral minded
No security blanket for the media blinded
And I ain’t gonna be just a drop in the cloud
You’re gonna hear my view when I type it out loud
It’s my blog
It’s now or never
It ain’t gonna last forever
So I’m gonna cut through the online fog
(It’s My Blog)
My views are like an open highway
Like Frankie said, “I did it my way”
I’m just gonna cut through the online fog
‘Cause it’s my blog
To the visionaries who stand their ground
For all the lone wolfs who never back down
Tomorrow will be harder, make no mistake
No more getting lucky, gotta make your own break
It’s my blog
It’s now or never
It ain’t gonna last forever
So I’m gonna cut through the online fog
(It’s My Blog)
My views are like an open highway
Like Frankie said, “I did it my way”
I’m just gonna cut through the online fog
‘Cause it’s my blog
It’s gonna stand firm
When they’re calling it out
It wont’ bend, won’t break
It won’t back down
It’s my blog
It’s now or never
It ain’t gonna last forever
So I’m gonna cut through the online fog
(It’s My Blog)
My views are like an open highway
Like Frankie said, “I did it my way”
I’m just gonna cut through the online fog
‘Cause it’s my blog
So what’s the first thing you do?
Send a press release, right?
WRONG!
PR Types take note. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. I don’t give a rat-on-a-stick for your bull-crap press release. If you took 30 seconds to skim the detailed FAQ you’d know that not only does SI NOT post press releases, any request to publish such will just get your e-mail address black-listed. And if you bothered to skim a few of the about blog posts, you’d know that when it comes to press releases, SI DOES NOT CARE.
SI does not care that you just stole your competitor’s CPO, that you signed three new deals, that your Senior Director just published a glam piece in the local newspaper, or that you released version 8.07.05, which, on first glance, is indistinguishable from 8.07.04.
SI is not a wire service. It’s not TMZ. And the doctor is not a media whore. SI is not about how many hogwash* posts it can publish how fast, or even about who said what when. And the continual reluctance of many PR professionals to grasp this fact is one of the biggest reasons the doctor has a Problem with PR and, most days, wants everyone and their dog, including you, to Fire Your PR Firm.
In a nutshell, SI is an educational and technology focussed blog. And where your company is concerned, SI is only concerned about the solution that you offer, what it can do for Supply Management professionals and organizations, and how you can help raise the level of understanding and awareness about Supply Management issues and best practices. Because, in the end, that’s what my educated, experienced, intelligent, dedicated, hard-working, career-focussed readers care about. Like everyone else in today’s difficult economy, SI’s readers are overworked, underpaid, and don’t have the time to waste on gibberish. And while it may be somewhat interesting to a few readers that your competitor’s former CPO now works for you, that’s not a press release, that’s a tweet.
And now that getting only 20 press releases that are utterly irrelevant to SI and its readers is a good day, the surest way to get your e-mail automatically redirected to the trash bin is to send SI a press release. the doctor won’t read it, and if it doesn’t get redirected straight to the spam filter, he will delete it.
So, if you want your story on SI, and it’s one that fits, all you have to do is send a short e-mail saying who you are, what you do, and how you think it benefits Supply Management professionals. That gets the doctor‘s attention and even if he doesn’t agree, he will respond, and typically give you an angle that he feels would work. And, typically, he will respond very quickly. In addition, if you offer a demo, he will look at your solution and, in all likelihood, blog about it. He’s never refused a demo (except when asked to sign an NDA, but don’t open that can of worms, it makes him more ballistic than an onslaught of totally irrelevant press releases), and he’s never failed to write a fair and balanced review when the demo was open and honest. (If you don’t believe him, simply review every vendor post.)
the doctor would like to apologize to his long-time readers on having to rant about this subject yet again, but it seems that not everyone is as intelligent, considerate, and well-endowed as they are.
*the doctor‘s father is from Hogtown, so you can be damn sure the doctor knows hogwash when he sees it! It’s in his blood!