Environmental Damnation 22: Natural EMPs

An EMP, or an electromagnetic pulse, is a short, typically intense, burst of electromagnetic energy that is generally disruptive, if not damaging to, electrical and electronic equipment, and high energy EMPS can even damage buildings and aircraft.

While EMP weapons are a concern, as they could be set off in a terrorist attack, naturally occurring EMPs are of a greater concern as they are often even less predictable and not preventable (whereas an EMP weapon can be prevented if the person holding it can be prevented from setting it off).

Whether one realizes it or not, a number of natural events cause EMPs:

  • lightning
    which is the most common, and well known, cause as it is known that it can fry the electrical and electronic systems of anything it hits
  • solar flares
    intense solar storms, like the one that occurred on July 23, 2012, could knock us back to the stone age; the geomagnetic storm (which occurs when a solar flare hits the earth’s atmosphere) of March 1989 collapsed the entire Hydro-Quebec electricity transmission system
  • earthquakes and volcanoes
    while not likely, an intense earthquake or massive volcanic eruption could (theoretically) cause an EMP similar to that produced by a massive (nuclear) explosion (as electrical discharges have been recorded as a result of earthquakes)

Just when you thought you understood the natural disaster risks in your supply chain, a whole new level of risk, that can decimate the information supply chain that the physical (and financial) supply chains depend on, is exposed.

When we said Procurement is Damned, we meant it!

“Best” Procurement Organization? What “Best” Procurement Organization?

A recent post by the maverick over on Spend Matters asks “Does the “Best” Procurement Organization in the World Exist”? There’s the long answer, which the maverick gives, and the short answer, which the doctor will give.

Question: Does the “Best” Procurement Organization Exist?
Answer: No!

There is no best, at least, as the maverick explains, as a whole.

The reasons for this, as detailed by the maverick, include, but are not limited to:

  • direct vs. indirect
    there are organizations “best” in direct, “best” in indirect, but typically not “best” in both
  • categories
    there are organizations that excel in certain categories, direct or indirect, but not other direct or indirect categories
  • trade secret
    organizations that are, or at least believe they are, truly ahead of their peers tend to keep quiet, thinking this provides them a competitive advantage
  • inbound vs outbound vs omni-channel retail
    most organizations tend to excel in one of these supply chains
  • operational efficiency
    which allows an organization to attack more categories than their peers

But also include the following:

  • market intelligence
    detailed supply market and pricing knowledge that can be used to the organization’s advantage
  • modelling capability
    to build accurate should-cost models using raw material, labour, energy, and overhead data to understand the gap between market pricing and actual costs and whether or not it is a fair profit margin
  • optimization-based negotiation
    to get the truly best price during the organization’s sourcing exercise

There are a host of factors that make a “best” Procurement organization, and all of them need to be met for an organization to be “best”. And since no organization is best in all of them, there is no “best”. But the good news is that not only is there room for improvement, but it’s easy to identify where the improvement needs to happen, to make the improvement, and surpass your peers. Fortunately, to win the game, you don’t have to be “best”, just “better” than your peers. Improve on each of these eight dimensions, and your organization will be on the fast track to getting there.

Navigating & Keeping Up with Digital Agency Landscape: Part I


In this three-part series of articles, Kathleen Jordan, Associate Director at Source One Management Services will take a look at the complex digital agency landscape and provide insights on the process of agency sourcing: considerations when sourcing, vast digital agency options, and the need for bridging the gap between marketing and procurement departments. Kathleen Jordan is a strategic sourcing subject matter expert with a wide range of experience in the marketing category who works closely with marketing professionals and helps alleviate challenges encountered when overseeing agency relationships.

Defining Your Requirements

The marketplace for marketing services is anything but easy to navigate. It is complex, and crowded with a wide range of agency options available to fulfill any marketing support requirement. Niche and full-service players exist, some agencies operate independently, and remaining ones are owned by a holding company. Sister agencies compete against one another or may team up to offer a comprehensive service offering. Mergers and acquisition are relatively frequent and can consequently lead to conflicts of interest. Overall, there are a number of considerations when you are seeking out an agency to support a new marketing channel or upcoming product launch. And these considerations should be known even if there is no forthcoming agency search or new marketing tactic on the horizon to support. Marketing professionals and their sourcing colleagues must always be aware of the current state of the marketplace for marketing services to remain competitive and innovative, especially when it comes to the digital space.

Digital Marketing continues to evolve due in part to the various technologies that apply to digital tactics. Advanced technology and digital marketing as a whole have reshaped the way consumers interact with brands, and digital agencies have emerged to support the various digital channels and technologies that exist. It is vital for marketing professionals and their sourcing counterparts to recognize this and determine what type of expertise they wish to obtain to supplement their internal marketing team and fulfill a specific scope of work. Digital Marketing Depot’s whitepaper titled “Digital Advertising Agencies 2014: A Buyer’s Guide” (download required) serves as a great resource for marketing professionals, defining various types of digital agencies and how and when they should be engaged. Overall, the report provides an accurate snapshot of the current digital landscape and guidelines on how to effectively work with digital agencies across the various service types.

The initial starting point is validating the need to conduct a digital search. Consider:

  • Is the marketer unsatisfied with their current digital shop and looking to transition?
    Review and consider the performance of the current agency. Common reasons for dissatisfaction include: missing deadlines, under-delivering, and poor communication, especially when several agencies work together on a project.
  • Is a new digital channel under consideration that would lead to an increase in scope, impacting the current retainer model?
    When looking to implement a new digital tactic, consider the potential for scope creep. This can occur when a project is poorly defined and can end up consuming allocated budgets.
  • Is there an upcoming product launch in which the consumer base has a strong digital presence?
    Review the campaign you plan to implement. Are the tactics you plan to use offered at your current agency? Is it something a specialty agency would be better suited handling?

Once the objectives are clearly outlined and the scope details are ironed out, the agency selection criteria should be established. This criteria will dictate the search in its entirety and should tie directly to the scope requirements. For example, if the scope is strictly website development, a social media monitoring agency is not nearly the right fit.

With these activities complete, you can move on to agency selection. We’ll explore this topic in-depth in Part II of this three-part series.

Thanks Kathleen!

A Few Reasons Why Your ERP is a Disaster Waiting to Happen

In our last post we said that If You Still Rely On ERP, You Could End Up in the Supply Chain Disaster Record Books, and we meant it. Over-reliance on outdated and antiquated ERP systems is just a disaster waiting to happen, and here are just a few reasons why in half a dozen supply chain areas.

Sourcing and Contract Management

A critical requirement of a multi-round RFX or multi-round negotiation is the ability to support multiple prices at different volume levels and price history. One of the biggest ERP systems on the market today still does not support this simple, basic, requirement. It’s crazy, but it’s true. And without the ability to store proper prices, volume breaks could be missed and millions could be lost.

Procurement

A critical part of Procurement is m-way matching between the invoice, purchase order, and goods receipt. And a critical part of procurement performance management is tracking each mismatch. How often does a supplier over-bill? How often does a supplier under-ship? This can only be tracked if there is a complete invoice history, but many so-called “modern” ERPs only allow for one version of an invoice. So when it is corrected, the history is lost. And a supplier’s true performance is never known. Performance that could cost you dearly if an under shipment results in a stock out that costs millions in revenue.

Logistics

A critical part of logistics is tracking not only order dates and received dates, but required ship-by dates, receive-by dates, and outbound ship-by dates to avoid missing customer requirements. Some ERPs can only track the date the PO was cut and the date the goods were received — that’s not enough. Another critical part of logistics is ensuring that each carrier has enough insurance to cover the replacement cost of the load, which requires tracking the cost of the load and the insurance coverage of the carrier. With respect to this, the best the average ERP system can do is allow you to look up the PO total and, if you are lucky, extract the last copy of an insurance certificate stored as a PDF in a blob or similar structure in the document store. No meta-data to tell you what’s in the certificate or if it’s even still valid — which could expose you to a huge liability.

Forecasting

Most ERP systems are still using 20 year old forecasting models, and look at what these models did for Cisco and Nike! Should you still be using them?

Compliance

Most of these systems were built before the introduction of acts like 10+2, REACH, SOX, and WEEE — acts which require you to track, report, and store certain data to maintain compliance with these acts. Compliance which is critical to avoid fines, penalties, seizures, [temporary] business closures, and even criminal charges. Compliance which is not maintained by ERP systems that aren’t set up to store all of the data required on an import/export form, track detailed BoM (Bill of Material) data to ensure acts like REACH and WEEE are not violated, and the detailed audit trails required to satisfy SOX.

Risk Analysis

While there are a plethora of risks that can not be predicted due to their nature (like natural disasters, geopolitical uprisings, etc.), there are a plethora of risks that can be predicted with high likelihood if they are monitored for. However, this monitoring depends on the availability of good data. For example, supplier failure can often be predicted if the organization monitors shipments, third party risk data, and market data. If shipments get progressively later, contain higher defect rates, and third party financial ratings for a supplier get weaker every month, that’s a sign of supplier distress and a potential bankruptcy, and it’s critical that the buyer assess the supplier’s health and monitor the situation. This will only be detected if the system tracks delivery dates and defect rates, third party data, and appropriate econometric models. However, all most ERPs track is good receipt dates and returns (but no meta data tying them to orders to calculate defect rates). No market data, no financial ratings, no modern econometric models. No way to detect imminent disaster.

And this is just a short list of ERP failings that could bring imminent disaster. To find out more about ERP’s shortcomings, if you still have not done so, (register for and) download the recent white-paper by b2bconnex on Why ERP is NOT Enough. The sooner you learn this, the sooner you can correct the situation and join the leaders with a modern supply chain.