Category Archives: Event

The Trade Extensions Event Was Different. It Needed to Be. Do You Know Why?

Those of you following Spend Matters and Spend Matters EU will have noticed Nancy’s and Jason’s posts on the recent Trade Extensions events in London and Chicago on Managing Complexity. In these posts they made a number of interesting observations (which the doctor can verify as he was at the UK EVENT) about the event and how it was different from many other customer-focussed vendor events.

Major differences included:

  • Focus of the talks

    Speeches focused on real, live issues and scenarios that listeners could learn from and apply to their procurement functions and their companies’ wider strategic visions. (Optimising Your Game) There wasn’t a single demo or even a detailed description of the next major release (which will be their biggest release since 2009), coming next year.

  • Make up of the crowd

    Users tend to be forward-thinking and technology-savvy people, given this is leading-edge software, and there were more people in their 20s (“bright young things”) than is usual at events of this nature. It was the leaders of today and tomorrow, not the leaders of yesteryear counting the days to their retirement. (A Rewarding Day)

  • Value to the crowd.

    Nancy noted that one person said that coming to the event had taught him more in one day than he could have learned from going on a £30K procurement course.(A Rewarding Day) The focus was on real-world value, not vendor messaging.

  • Key takeaways.

    There’s more to an optimization-based sourcing system than just product sourcing. One company noted that having changed from their existing sourcing system to something more advanced 12 months ago, has proved invaluable in two key areas: logistics activities (not surprisingly) and supplier data capture. Optimization is about total costs, goods and transportation, and in order to analyze and select the best total cost scenario, a lot of data needs to be captured. As a result, such a tool must be great at data capture. And, as a result, the tool can be used in more diverse ways and in more applications than you would expect. (A Rewarding Day)

  • Individual Thought

    Jason noted how many thoughts of the attendees center on areas around the technology rather than the core solution itself. Taken together, I believe the thoughts below point to the future of where sourcing technology is headed, which centers as much on people as systems. (Brainstorming) Trade Extensions is encouraging ideas and feedback, hoping to harvest the best for future development.

These were all major differences, but the biggest difference is the one that is going unsaid by Nancy, Peter, and Jason and Trade extensions. What is the biggest difference? What is left unsaid. What was left unsaid? We’ll tackle that in our next post …
after we give you a day to think on it.

Gettin’ Sigi With It

Those of you joining the doctor at Emirates Stadium today at the Trade Extensions European Practitioners Conference on Managing the Future will know that today is the day we all Get Sigi with it!

Gettin’ Sigi With It!
To the tune of Gettin’ Jiggy With It.

Bring it.
Whoo!
Unh, unh, unh, unh
Hoo cah cah
Hah hah, hah hah

Bicka bicka bow bow bow,
Bicka bow bow bump bump
What, what, what, what
Hah hah hah hah
Unh,

On your mark ready set let’s go
Sourcing pro I know you know
They went psycho when his new book hit
Just can’t sit
Gotta get Sigi wit’ it

Ooh that’s it
Now Procurement pro come nigh
Sourcing Mojo all up in my eye
You gotta new ride with alotta stuff in it
Give it to your friend let’s spin

Everybody lookin’ at him
Glancin’ the kid
Wishin’ they was dancin’ a jig
Here with that handsome kid
Ciga-cigar right from Cuba-Cuba
He just bite it
It’s for the look he don’t light it

IGsay the an-may on the rand-gay and-stay
List’nin’ to Sigi make it feel like foreplay
Yo his cred-dee-o is Infinite
Ha ha
Big Sigi style’s all in it
Gettin’ Sigi Wit It

Na na na na na na na nana
Na na na na nana
Gettin’ Sigi wit it

What you wanna tread with the kid
Watch your step you might fall
Trying to do what he did
Sourcer-unh sourcer-unh sourcer come closer
In the middle of the room with the rub-a-dub, unh

No love for the cynics, the cynics
Mad cause he bled savings from the bankers
See him on the fifty yard line with the traders
Met Stamper, he told him he’s the greatest

We got the fever for the flavor of a crowd pleaser
Blogger spin another
From the Mojo prince
His highness
His mad skillz bring you riches

South to the west to the east to the north
Take his plans and watch ’em go off a go off
Ah yes yes y’all ya don’t stop
In the winter or the (summertime)
He makes it hot
Gettin’ Sigi wit ‘it

Na na na na na na na nana
Na na na na nana
Gettin’ Sigi wit it

Guaranteed savings if you need a lift
Who’s the kid in the mist
Who else Sigi Osagie
Livin’ that life some consider a myth

Save from South A. to the UK
Finance used to tease him
Give it to him now nice and easy
Since he moved up like George and Wheezy

Save to the maximum I be askin’ ’em
Would you like to bounce with the brother that’s platinum
Never see Sig attackin’ ’em
Rather play ball with Locke and um,
Flatten ’em
Psyche
Kiddin’

You thought he skim’d a schill
But he didn’t
Trust the blogger in your life, he hittin’
Hittin’ hard a piledriver with a ribbon
Crib for his bros on the outskirts of Surrey
Savings troupe for you and me
Don’t be waylaid
Go get Sigi wit it

Na na na na na na na nana
Na na na na nana
Gettin’ Sigi wit it

Two Weeks to the Trade Extensions Workshop. Two Weeks to Freebies.

And two weeks to the next Sourcing Innovation white paper on Complex Sourcing. Are You Ready? The first of many great freebies coming your way at the TE Workshop (and the first of two freebies coming your way from SI. What’s the second? Stay tuned. All I can tell you now is that it is Awesome! TE has spared no expense this year in making sure that you as a practitioner get what you need to tackle complex sourcing.)

That’s right, those of you who took up Trade Extensions’ exclusive offer to practitioner readers of Sourcing Innovation and Spend Matters UK and are attending the workshop will be the first to get SI’s new white paper on Complex Sourcing.

Following last year’s big white paper on Optimization, What Comes Next?, still freely available compliments of Trade Extensions, which introduced you to six new ways that optimization will continue to identify new opportunities for Sourcing that you likely haven’t even thought of, this year’s white paper dives into what complex sourcing is, what platform capabilities are required to support complex sourcing, and why complexity is no longer the exception but the norm.

This paper, which builds on Mr. Smith’s soon to be classic paper on What Defines Complex Sourcing, dives deep into how categories are complex, how the complexity requires new processes and new solutions, and why first generation solutions are not ready for what comes next.

And not only will you as an attendee be the first to get the doctor‘s new white paper, but you will also get to hear Mr. Smith talk about the future of Procurement, which we all know is Doomed! Entombed! Marooned!. (And then, if you are so inclined, discuss the subject with the doctor in person.)

See you in two weeks!

An Open Invitation to the Trade Extensions Workshop for Practitioners

Trade Extensions, a leader in Sourcing Optimization (and a sponsor of Sourcing Innovation), is having their annual user conference on October 7 (2015) in London. As pointed out yesterday by Mr. Smith in his invitation, this year they are opening it up to a small number of practitioners who want to learn more about advanced sourcing and sourcing optimization, and, Sourcing Innovation and Spend Matters UK readers in particular. (Outside of the Trade Extensions website, you won’t see this invitation anywhere else.)

Unlike some vendor conferences, that spend hours and hours demoing their new products and discussing where they are going and how great it will be for you as a customer, Trade Extensions keeps anything even remotely marketing related to an absolute minimum in their events, preferring to focus more on education and best practice then on sales. (Last year, except for a very brief “here’s what we did over the past year, here’s what we’re doing, and here’s a few screen shots of what the new capabilities look like“, the rest of the day was spent on presentations by experts and practitioners on best practices, process transformation, and advanced sourcing (including a presentation by yours truly on what comes next in sourcing optimization). (If you got in a bit late or left a bit early, you wouldn’t even know who was putting it on.)

This year, they want to cram even more education into a single day. With presentations by Sigi Osagie, who’s gonna tell you how to get your Procurement Mojo on, Mr. Peter Smith, who’s going to discuss the Future of Procurement (which, in the doctor‘s view is Doomed. Marooned. And ready to be Entombed.), and Sindbjerg Hemmingsen, a known thought leader on responsible procurement, the day is going to be jam packed with education and useful information. And if that’s not enough, it’s another opportunity to meet the elusive yours truly who will be there to …

Oops! Can’t tell you that … yet. Trade Extensions has a few surprises this year for its attendees beyond holding the event at Emirates Stadium (which is home of the Arsenal Football Club, and a known haunt of many Premiere League legends who seem to get lost in the halls and never leave) and the dinner at the British Library. Let’s just say that even the gift bag might knock your socks off.

So, if you are a practitioner (or a consultant practitioner who is not locked into an exclusive engagement with a provider) who would like to learn more about sourcing best practices and advanced sourcing, this could be your lucky day. But you need to book here quickly. When the seats are gone, the seats are gone. And this is one event you don’t want to be left out of.

Spend Analysis Solution Selection: What to Look for in Software and Services

As the author penned in Spend Visibility: An Implementation Guide,

“Almost any attempt by an organization to analyze spending patterns is likely to be fruitful, especially if there hasn’t been a serious prior attempt. It is easy to find thousands of breathless testimonials about a particular product or method — independent of the quality of the product or method — because almost any product or method will find savings if a spend visibility initiative has never been launched before. In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king“.

This simple fact has confused end-user organizations and analysts for many years. In fact, it has convinced most spend visibility vendors (and most analysts) that spend visibility is a fundamentally simple process of mapping Accounts Payable spend, and then drilling for dollars.

But Nothing Could Be Further From The Truth!

What is not so obvious is that this initial burst of savings is short-lived; and that many of the “quick saves” that result are unsustainable.

Especially if an organization does not select the right solution in the beginning that will allow it to define, and implement, a strategy that will allow it to identify continued savings year-over-year after the initial burst of savings are captured.

However, there’s no reason for an organization not to select the right software or services, because, it’s easy to select the right solution once you are informed. If you don’t know where to start, the next Next Level Purchasing Association (NLPA) members only webinar on July 28, 2015 @ 8:30 am PDT, 11:30 am EDT, and 16:30 pm BST, will provide you with a starting point as you evaluate software and services providers.

Specifically, this webinar will focus on helping an organization identify:

  1. key features of a spend analysis platform,
  2. critical requirements for successful services, and
  3. what to look for in a full-service solution

so that the organization may achieve spend analysis success. In particular, the kind of success that will generate a year-over-year average savings of 10%+.

Space is limited, and only NLPA members will have the opportunity to attend this webinar hosted by the doctor of Sourcing Innovation, but Basic Membership is Free, so there’s no reason to miss out. Sign up today, and very shortly you’ll receive the notice of the upcoming webinar that will allow you to register for this very informative webinar.