COVID-19: You Can Get Through This!

the doctor still believes that it wouldn’t be so bad if we could all be honest, smart, logical adults but when you have players like China and the USA in the mix (especially when [a] certain Republican[s] is/are in charge), and seniors who are more stubborn than millennials, that’s just not a reality. (In the doctor‘s view, only Sweden has it right. Put some strong measures in place, make sure people understand it’s bad and could be extremely bad if they don’t do as much as possible to prevent that, but don’t ignore it until it’s too late and then shut everything down when it is too late. But that’s a discussion for another article.)

So, we’re in a global mess, and the only way we’re going to get out of it individually is if we’re creative, and collectively is if Procurement takes the lead.

To that end, the doctor has been collaborating heavily with the globally distributed Spend Matters analyst team (because no one person can get us out of this) to bring a unified, technologically focussed, COVID-19 response to help you.

Since the beginning, the global analyst team has been working together to identify the issues that you will be facing and the technologies that will help you get through this, and making a significant amount of this information (which would normally reside behind the PRO paywall given its depth and the amount of analyst time that went into it) FREE for all. (Only the vendor coverage, based on our extremely deep vendor dives, is behind the paywall, but the names of the vendors we are covering are not.* And while the doctor‘s name won’t be attached to much as a lead analyst, you’ll certainly find his digital fingerprints all over it.)

So far, we have given you the first, or second, iterations of:

Note: Some pieces posting today and tomorrow!

0. CoronaVirus Coverage Introduction

1. Supply Risk Management

2. Sourcing & Commodity Management

3. Advanced Procurement Analytics

4. Procure to Pay (P2P)

5. Fraud, P2P, and Vendor Management Safeguards

6. Deep Contract Analytics

7. Contingent Workforce and Services Part I and
Part 2

And we will be updating these with additional issues and vendor coverage as time goes on. (For example, by the end of the week, an extended version of Advanced Procurement Analytics should be up with more issues and more vendor coverage.)

And SpendMatters has even prioritized Brand Studio, Sponsored, and Main Site content that could be helpful to you, including:

And even main site posts on how we can help individually:

And starting this week, the doctor will be leading a main-site series on Dear Procurement, No Excuses (Part I: Carpe Diem per Scientia et Lectum Diurnum) on how you can not only do everything you used to do in person and/or at the office virtually and distributed, and do it better (by embracing the full capabilities of modern technology to knock capability, and productivity, up a notch (no spice weasel needed).

Keep an eye out for it. (the doctor will let you know here when they go live. Don’t worry!)

 

* As you know, even though he writes a considerable chunk of it, the doctor usually doesn’t push Spend Matters Pro on this site as the smart will seek out the best information they can get (and other analysts can’t hold a candle to the technology coverage the doctor can do), but he wants you to know that if you are considering Pro#, there has never been a better time!

Through the end of April 2020, a Spend Matters’ special PRO Expert Survival Pack is available to procurement practitioners at up to 50% off! See the COVID-19 PRO Expert Survival Pack!

# PRO has published well over 100 vendor deep dives, including dozens and dozens by the doctor himself, in the past three years that go far beyond anything you’ll find anywhere else, as well as thought leadership series on UX, AI, and various S2P areas that are more insightful than most books …

(and while the doctor would like to offer this deep coverage on SI, the reality is the number of vendors who will support educational content vs. thinly disguised marketing content are few and far between and the model SI would like to follow is just not sustainable … the doctor will continue to bring you best practice advice when he can, and will be cross posting some of the public content on, and related to, COVID-19, but if you want the deepest vendor and thought leadership coverage there is, subscribe to PRO [and keep the doctor writing] which you know is always completely unbiased as its paid for by readers, not vendors!

Digital is Decades Old. Don’t Get Fooled (Again)!

When se said that Digital. Digitized. Digitization. Digitalization. Are the New Buzzwords for Outdated Tech we were actually understating the reality. Digital may have been the buzz of the 90s … yes … the 90s (three decades ago), but, in reality we entered the digital age in the 70s – FIVE FULL DECADES AGO!

The first digital electronic watch prototype was developed in 1970 by Hamilton Watch Company and Electro Data and it hit the market in 1972. And while the first digital watch had a price tag of over $2,000, by the end of the decade, they were readily available for under $10 a unit and universally used. And they were … that’s right … DIGITAL!

It was only five years later that the world’s first digital camera was invented by an employee of Eastman Kodak. And while the first digital camera was not sold until 1989 in Japan and 1990 in the US, it existed. Since it used digital storage, it represented the move from digital to digitized. Again proving our point that the 90s is when we really entered the digital age.

The first digital mobile phone debuted two years after that, paving the way for Digitization … almost 30 years ago!

And then four years after that, digital satellite dishes 18″ in diameter hit the market, which were the best selling electronic devices in history at the time after VCRs. We were truly in the age of digitization by 1996. Almost 25 years ago.

Then, in 2000, we saw DVDs hit the market, and we truly hit digitalization as everything was not just transmitted, but stored, in 1s and 0s across all mediums. Two decades ago.

So, do you REALLY want to buy digital technology from a vendor that could be two decades old? Think about that before you start singing along to Laura Clark!

Remember, you’ll get what you sign up for … and you won’t necessarily like it!

So the next time you hear the word Digital or any variation of it, we recommend blaring The Who at full volume! Won’t Get Fooled Again!

… And No Modern Platform Will be “Our Way or the Highway”

You’ve all heard one of the following lines from either your current or prospective vendor:

  • we do it this way because that’s the way all our customers want it
  • we studied dozens of customer processes and this is the best practice
  • it works better for everyone when we use one process we can collect standard metrics on and guide you
  • the more flexibility you have, the more chances of error, so it’s better this way
  • without a standard taxonomy, we can’t cultivate community intelligence

In other words, they know best, and if you’re not happy with their way, it’s the highway, but they are convinced that you won’t take the highway, because, well, as far as they’re concerned, they’re right.

But they’re wrong.

With the exception of the needs to:

  • maintain security and authenticity and audit trails
  • support any necessary regulations
  • enforce process integrity and organizational rules

NO process is fixed across all organizations and all situations. Nor does it need to be. Elements might need to be fixed. Key data elements might need to be fixed. Audit logs and security requirements might need to be fixed. Access might need to be limited by role or responsibility. But other than that, the number of steps the organization desires to undertake. The number of approvals. The order of each, that’s up to the organization. And to be told you cannot do it your way when there’s nothing wrong with your way is ridiculous.

And a modern vendor realizes that. That’s why they will offer you a platform that can be configured to your processes, your taxonomies, and your needs. If the vendor needs a standard taxonomy to support the community intelligence, insights, or metrics they offer up, they will map your taxonomy to theirs. If the vendor needs to track standard steps or actions for metrics or KPIs, they will map your steps to theirs. And so on. And the platform they offer will not only support the configurability you need to model your processes, but that they need to map the steps and metrics backs to what they need.

Configurability. Workflow. Apps/PaaS. These are among the core foundations of a modern platform. Don’t settle for anything less.

Furthermore, No Modern 2020 Platform Will Be Without What-if?!

As you may have noticed, the doctor has been on a bit of a bent lately defining what a modern S2P platform is as he’s completely fed up of all of the “digital” bullshit where marketers are trying to sell everything old like its new again and technically advertising solutions that are less powerful than the doctor could code on his 8088 three decades ago! (It had a 2400 baud modem so the requirement of network connectivity was even met.)

And if you think the doctor is being a bit extreme, go back and re-read the definitions of “digital” and “analysis”, ask some pointed questions to these vendors about what their solutions can really do, and you’ll find that maybe, just maybe, he’s not being that extreme at all. It’s sad how many vendors believe that a fancy new UX on a weak Procurement 2.0 solution all of a sudden makes it 3.0 and 4.0 ready when all they are really doing is putting lipstick on a pig (and no self respecting pig wants to wear lipstick)!

Yesterday we defined the levels of analytics and hopefully made it clear that there shouldn’t be a single platform on your consideration list that doesn’t have at least basic prescriptive capability and that you should also make sure the vendor is on a permissive journey before signing on the bottom line!

But that’s not all you need to demand in a platform. You also need to demand a platform with embedded What If? capability.

It’s going to be a while before the predictive analytics work across all the situations a procurement specialist need them to work in, and even longer until the platform supports the insights needed for permissive analytics. But, in the interim, the procurement specialists still need to extract value from analytics — and that value is going to come from What If?.

What If? the demand next year is the same as this year, what will the total cost be if the cost stays flat? What if demand rises 10%?

What If? the delivery is late by a day? By 3 days? By a week? What if the order is routed to the backup supplier? The backup location?

What If? the supplier’s financial woes get worse? What if the supplier goes bankrupt?

What If? the contract milestone isn’t hit? What is the impact? What is the risk?

The procurement professional needs to be able to ask What If? throughout the platform and, more importantly, throughout the analytics. Some Reports should be interactive and allow the user to project the next quarter, year, etc. of data using current data and advanced What If? algorithms. Anything less won’t be enough.