5 Reasons Why You Need to Take the Direct Procurement Challenge!

Hopefully you attended last week’s webinar on the Direct Procurement Challenge, hosted by the ISM and featuring the doctor and the prophet, where we explained how a sourcing platform cost-centric perfect for indirect doesn’t meet the needs of direct sourcing. But in case you missed it, here are some key requirements not met by typical indirect procurement platforms.

Requirement Indirect Platform Direct Platform
Bill of Materials NO BoM Support Deep multi-level Bill of Materials Support
Cost Breakdown Analysis Limited to ancilliary costs (shipping, taxes, storage, etc.) Deep cost breakdown support across the bill of materials which allows costs to be broken down and spread out across components, the production process, distribution and inventory management, and overhead
EDI, WebEDI, & XML XML data exchange only (maybe) XML, EDI, and WebEDI and direct integration into supplier systems
Quality Management RMA & account credit request (maybe) APQP, sample test reports, standard 8D & QDX complaints report;
goods issue documents
PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) No PLM Support Integrated project management and product lifecycle management
from cost breakdown analysis and BoM definition in the
sourcing phase to production and inventory management in the
supply chain phase to quality management and return management
in the support phase

And in Sourcing Innovation’s latest paper on The Direct Material Procurement Challenge: An Indirect Tool for Direct Procurement is Mission Improbable – Direct Procurement Requires Different Capabilities, the doctor discusses 10 (ten) additional reasons why an average indirect platform cannot solve direct Procurement needs. Check it out!

One Hundred and Thirty Years Ago …

Karl Benz first unveiled the Benz Patent-Motorwagen, German patent number 37435, widely regarded as the world’s first automobile as it was designed to be propelled by an internal combustion engine.

The Benz Patent-Motorwagen was a three-wheeled automobile with a rear-mounted engine that was constructed of steel tubing with woodwork panels, steel-spoked wheels, and solid rubber tires.

It was pretty primitive by today’s standards, but it was an important advancement as we wouldn’t have the delivery modes we have today without this historic invention.

LOLCats loved it … the swing just didn’t fulfill their need for speed.

The Tower of Spend (Repost)

This post originally ran nine years ago. But for many, the situation hasn’t changed. So we will lament their plight until they are granted the budget and platforms to enter the modern age.

Well my wits are gone and my hair is grey
I spend in categories where I used to save
And I’m crazy for help, but I’m here getting none
I’m just shuffling papers every day
Oh in the tower of spend

I said to Ignacio Lopez: how bad does it get
Ignacio Lopez hasn’t answered yet
But I hear him pacing all night long
A hundred floors above me
In the tower of spend

I was made for this, I could not sway
I felt that purchasing would show me the way
Out of corporate drudgery to the beyond
But they stuck me in the dungeon
In the tower of spend

So you can stick your little pins in that voodoo doll
Because it looks like I’m going to be nailed to the wall
There’s no light from the window when it should be strong
A total lack of visibility
In the tower of spend

Now you can say that I’ve grown bitter, but of this you can be sure
If I can not track my spend I’m going to end up poor
There’s a mighty judgement coming, and I sure hope I’m wrong
You see, I’m drowning in paperwork
In the tower of spend

I see you standing on the other side
I don’t know how the chasm got so wide
We were the same, way back when
And all the bridges are burning that I might have crossed
Still I feel so close to everything that I lost
Don’t want to lose it again

Now I bid you farewell, I don’t know when I’ll be back
They’re moving me tomorrow even further down the track
You won’t be hearing from me again, after I am gone
I’ll be drowning in the darkness
From a dungeon in the tower of spend

Yeah my wits are gone and my hair is grey
I spend in categories where I used to save
And I’m crazy for help, but I’m here getting none
I’m just shuffling papers every day
Oh in the tower of spend