Geek Cat Still** Says

You know I never
I never heard you talk so good
You never chat the way you should
But I like it
And I know you like it too
The way that I want you
I gotta have you
Oh yes, I do

You know I never
I never ever get home late
You know that I can hardly wait
Just to ping you
And I know you cannot wait
Wait to ping me too
I gotta chat you
Cause baby we’ll be

On the Facebook
In the Farmville pen
Behind the bushes
Until I’m begging again
In the chartroom
Lock the public out
And baby
Talk qwerty to me

Again, many apologies to Poison. Many, many apologies.

* He hasn’t changed his tune in eight years!

4 Strategic Sourcing Mistakes Businesses Should Avoid Courtesy of the Strategic Sourceror (Re-post)

The best way to get out of trouble is to avoid trouble in the first place. In a recent blog entry, the Strategic Sourceror outlined four common mistakes that a company can avoid to minimize poor spend management and operational efficiency.

Overlooking the Importance of Supplier Visibility

Having a clear understanding of supplier practices is essential in evaluating the risks and possible sources of disruption that are inherent in sourcing partnerships. Blindly entering a relationship with a supplier may result in a procurement strategy that is misaligned with business goals, and this could result in slashed profits in the future. For example, the strategy could be high quality to support the brand, but the end result could be poor quality and the resultant impact to the brand from the high defect rate could result in lost sales and slashed profits.

Failing to Emphasize Results

Because Procurement resides in the back office, it is often tempting to think of it as a service function and not a driver of productivity and profit. It’s critical to focus on real, measurable, and substantial results and communicate the message to the rest of the business. Like any business process, procurement management needs to impact the bottom line. When it does, and the message is communicated, Procurement, unlike Rodney Dangerfield, will get more respect.

Overlooking Contracts

Without written contracts with specific language, businesses won’t have adequate protection if a supplier relationship goes sour. That’s why contracts should be reviewed by a corporate lawyer before being signed. But just getting the contract right isn’t enough. It’s also important to make sure the terms are followed, rebates and discounts are collected, and contracts are renegotiated and not allowed to go evergreen.

Permitting In-House Inefficiencies

An inefficient internal procurement process can limit firms’ ability to obtain the goods and raw materials they need in a timely fashion. Be sure to install the appropriate e-commerce tools that will help a company identify potential suppliers, execute RFxs, conduct auctions, optimize awards, and strategically manage the maximum number of categories.

One Hundred and Thirty Seven Years Ago Today …

The first electric trams in Britain made their first run in East London.

We need to return to trams not only in London, but all over the world. Since trams can be powered by electricity, they can be powered by grids that primarily use renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, and water.

Trams were common in many places in the middle of the twentieth century, but then many cities replaced them with buses in the latter half. This was a dumb move. London abolished its Trams in 1952, but brought them back in 2000.

SAVE THE TRAMS!

Supplier Solutions – All About the Space … (Repost)

… of Supplier Enablement. In our recent post about Supplier Networks, we discussed the value wasn’t what the provider typically promoted, but the fact that it greatly decreased the effort required by the supplier to do business. It enabled them to be efficient, whereas most sourcing and procurement applications just suck their time.

So if you are going to buy a supplier management solution, then it better be one that truly, truly, truly enables suppliers. So what does this mean?

Find a solution that focuses suppliers on missing, outlier, and information that can’t be confirmed.

Many solutions just send out regular “please review and correct” alerts and call that supplier information management. But information management isn’t about reminders and checking boxes, it’s about finding issues and fixing them. A good solution identifies missing information, information that is outlier from norms (i.e. an insurance certificate is usually only 1 year, but the supplier entered 10), and information that can’t be confirmed (such as third party audits from organizations that can’t be found in government registries).

Find a solution that makes integration with supplier’s systems (MRP, CRM, order management, etc.) easy.

Suppliers need to quickly get POs out of your portal and into their order management, MRP, ERP, accounts receivable, etc. system for which your vendor will likely not have an out-of-the-box integration solution that you are able to implement on behalf of your supplier. So make sure the solution has a well-defined API that makes it easy for the supplier to integrate their systems if they want to and well defined file formats that will allow them to export orders, etc. from your system and import shipping notices, invoices, etc. from theirs.

Find a solution that includes cash forecasting capability for the supplier based on your early payment discounting schedule.

Face it. A supplier isn’t going to go for your early payment discount program just because you say it’s a good idea — they need to run their own numbers and realize that 2% is less than they are paying in interest, etc. Give them an easy to use calculator, especially since their Procurement or AR guys are likely NOT as financially adept as your financial modellers.

In other words, if you want a true supplier solution, find one that truly, truly, truly enables the supplier. Not just you.