Category Archives: About us

Blogger Relations

TechCrunch recently published a great post by Brian Solis of FutureWorks on “PR Secrets for Startups” that is a MUST-READ for all of you PR types that think sending unsolicited press releases to blog masters counts as “blogger relations”. (By the way, it doesn’t!)

Brian’s post offered up 12 secrets of PR 2.0 that you need to master if you’re going to be effective in today’s world where the web (regardless of what number you put after it) is your primary method of reaching a large audience. In this post, I’m going to explain how ten of these secrets apply to blogs in particular and, most importantly, how they apply to this blog. Without further ado, here are the secrets – and what you need to know!

  1. You’re not the only story in town!
    Bloggers ARE the busiest people you’re ever going to meet. And, as Brian points out, they’re interested only in what’s interesting and relevant. Generic over-the-top inbound emails, press releases, and copied stories from other publications aren’t going to get their interest – and they certainly don’t get mine.
    You send me an unsolicited press release as a “story idea”, and I write a new spam filter / auto-delete rule. It’s that simple. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. I’m willing to write about any solution provider in the supply chain space that has a product and / or service offering that they are willing to openly discuss over a (web) demo – it’s what the blog lives for. (In the case of a service provider, a frank discussion of the methodology and how it was successfully applied to benefit a client combined with a brief conversation with the client for verification.) I’m interested in facts, not spin, and how purchasing / procurement / supply management / spend management practitioners can use your offering to improve their companies and themselves. Also, a PowerPoint presentation over a webex does not count as a demo. (If you have a PowerPoint presentation that you believe captures important background material about your offering, feel free to send it to me and I’ll be more than happy to review it before the demo.)
    Furthermore, your “priority” is not my “priority”. Any unsolicited e-mail from an unknown sender marked as a “priority message” also generates the creation of a new anti-spam / auto-delete rule in my mail reader.  My “priority” is generating informative and educational blog posts for my innovative readers.  Press releases do not fall into that category.
  2. Pick the Right Person to Handle Blogger Relations
    Bloggers are not your average journalists. They are typically consultants who are experts in their fields and they are going to want to talk to someone who knows what they are talking about and who is able to handle the difficult business AND technology questions. A PR person that doesn’t know more than what can be found on the corporate web-site and in the press-releases is not going to impress a blogger who is always short on time.
    the doctor holds a PhD in computer science (in multidimensional and spatial data structures and computational geometry) and has extensive technical expertise in algorithms, databases, modeling, optimization, analysis, software architecture, and the protocols on which the internet and the World Wide Web is built. In addition, the doctor has extensive expertise in sourcing, procurement, and supply chain processes, methodologies, and technologies. A PR person who thinks Java is what you drink when you wake up, IP only refers to intellectual property, C is the third letter of the alphabet, and that three-tier architecture refers to a three-story house is probably not the right person to be reaching out to the doctor, especially if this person also believes sourcing is done by sorcerers, three-way matching refers to insuring your blouse, skirt, and shoes all match, and drill-down is a command given by a foreman to an oil-rig worker.
  3. Interaction is the Key
    As Brian points out, you are equally important in the process. Whomever is handling blogger relations should start of with an introduction, offer to hold a conversation, and, most importantly, demonstrate an understanding of what the Blogger’s blog is all about.
    At the time of writing, there are over 850 posts consisting of over 579,000 words (which equates to over 1000 pages) on Sourcing Innovation – and if that’s not enough to give you a good idea what this blog is about, then I don’t know what is. Furthermore, there are a number of posts indexed on the right-hand sidebar that explain what the blog is all about.
  4. Identify the Right Blogs
    Not every blog is the right blog for you. Target the right ones for maximum effectiveness.
    This blog is about sourcing, procurement, and related supply chain issues and innovations. It’s not about 3PLs or RFID technology, for example.
  5. Don’t Launch on Mondays
    Everybody is busy Monday morning, and that’s when everyone else decides they need to get their story out too. Furthermore, bloggers do need time to prepare a good story. Sure most of us can get a decent length blog entry out in under an hour, but we’re not always able to type it up right away – and we do need time for reflection if we are to put our best blog forward.
    As a general rule, you should contact the doctor at least two weeks before you would like a story out there and be prepared to hold a conversation over a web-based demo at least a week before you’d like to see your story in print. Earlier is better, since the doctor makes his living as a consultant, and isn’t always available on short notice.
  6. No Two Bloggers are Created Equal
    Bloggers are not traditional paid-by-the-story up-and-coming news-room journalists that are easily replaced – they are unique individuals with their own expertise, focus, and audience.
    This goes double for the doctor – if you familiarize yourself with the space, you’ll realize that he is the only independent blogger with a significant following that has an extensive background as technologist. (Most bloggers are ex-marketing, public relations, and business consulting.)
  7. It’s all about Success!
    Traffic levels, especially those measured in hits, are meaningless. It’s how many unique eyeballs in your target market that read the blog – not how many times some yahoo interested in the gossip of the day reloads the page. Remember The Brain’s Lesson – you want the wheat, not the chaff.
  8. Make the Story Relevant to the Blogger
    Focus on an elevator pitch that is compelling, memorable, and relevant to what the blogger likes to blog about.
    For example, optimization and analysis are among the doctor‘s favorite topics, but the doctor is specifically interested in the application and capabilities. Thus, the fact that you just released version X.Y of your optimizer alone is of no interest to the doctor (of course it’s faster, why else would you have released it?) and regular readers of this blog will know that the doctor does not equate static spend reporting on a data warehouse with spend analysis, so if you’re representing one of the 28+ companies who does, don’t bother asking if I want to hear about the company’s latest “spend analysis” release.
  9. Identify the Spokesperson
    No matter how knowledgeable you are as a PR person, there’s going to come a point where the blogger is going to need to speak to someone at the solution provider you are representing. Make sure your client has someone designated as the lead contact who is both extremely knowledgeable about the products and/or service and who is a good communicator.
    Also make sure the individual is willing to have a discussion beyond what was said in the press release and / or posted on the web-site. I can read a lot faster than I can listen to you restate what I’ve already read. I can certainly understand a company’s desire to keep certain information semi-private / trade secret, but if you’re not willing to discuss how the black-box works, don’t expect me to believe that it does work.
  10. Follow the Blog and Join in the Conversation
    If you really want to understand what kind of news is going to interest the blogger in question, you need to follow the blog. And if you want to insure that the blogger takes your e-mails seriously, prove your worth by leaving a meaningful comment from time to time – and, when the opportunity arises, engage the blogger in a meaningful conversation about the issues, not just the story of the day.
    And don’t be afraid to have a contradictory opinion. You’re also free to think I’m stark raving mad, but if you disagree with me (and/or think I’m stark raving mad), be sure to explain why. After all, how am I to understand your point of view if you don’t explain it? And what are my readers going to learn? This blog is about education and self-improvement. If you remember nothing else from this post, remember that.
  11. And DON’T Ask for an NDA.
        the doctor has the same policy that all good analyst firms (including Gartner) and bloggers have when it comes to NDA’s, he just says “No”. The whole point of an interaction with a blogger is so that he or she can understand your company and your solution and write about it. Signing an NDA defeats that purpose … What’s covered? What’s Not? What can I blog about? No good blogger plays in that minefield. And as Vinnie Mirchandani clearly explains over on Deal Architect, if an average company did its homework, it would find that the biggest “leakers” of truly proprietary information tend to be employees – salespeople who take customer and price lists, engineers who take their intimate product details when they change jobs.
        the doctor only signs NDAs with clients, and only with respect to projects the doctor is working on, and only for the length of time that information related to the project needs to be confidential. After all, while the doctor understands that certain information needs to be “eyes only” for a very small group of individuals, there’s no reason that information needs to be shared during a demo or discussion of capabilities, and as Vinnie notes, just about everything else should be graded in terms of reality – is the information really, really confidential and not already already out there or such that it could not be deduced with little effort?

What Does the doctor Do … For You?

In What Does the doctor Do?, I gave you a high-level overview of what the doctor does — Innovation for the Real World — and how it came to pass. Then, in What Does the doctor Do? … For Executives, I outlined what the doctor can do for sourcing & procurement technology and/or services providers and for enterprises looking to acquire sourcing and procurement technology and/or services for their day-to-day operations.

In this post, I’m going to outline some of the specific services that I offer.
Quick Links:
Investment Firms and Companies Doing Acquisitions
Technology & Service Companies
Buying Organizations


Investment Firms and Companies Doing Acquisitions

Technology Due Diligence
the doctor has not only been a CTO, but has done literally every job in a technology organization under the CTO role and with his deep academic background can, and has on multiple occasions, literally done an entire technology due diligence on his own – architecture, infrastructure, security, code review, roadmap, etc. – and can do it all for you if you are considering acquiring a small company with a small product portfolio. (Not that he can’t do a large product portfolio on his own, but given that exclusivity windows these days are short, it’s impossible for one person to do a large portfolio on their own with sufficient certainty no matter how well trained, experienced, and skilled they are.)

Product Due Diligence
the doctor has deep expertise in multiple areas of e-Commerce, Sourcing, Procurement, and Supply Chain technology, as well as deep expertise in advanced technology, especially in the areas of RPA, optimization, analytics, ML, and AI.  If you are looking for deep insight into product maturity, competitiveness, direction, and potential capability, and the product overlaps one of the doctor’s market areas of expertise and advanced technology, the doctor can offer you deep insight and analysis in a short timeframe.

 


Technology & Service Companies

Assessments

Total Solution Assessment
the doctor will spend approximately three days to two weeks on your site, meeting with your senior staff, depending on the depth and breadth of your solution.  Together, we’ll explore your technology offering, services offering, training and education materials, product roadmap, messaging, positioning, and current marketing strategies. I’ll then provide you with a written high-level assessment that captures where you are, how that compares to the market, and, if appropriate, what you could be doing to be more competitive. After you’ve had a chance to digest the report, I’ll conduct one or more one to two hour conference call to discuss it in depth.

Technology Roadmap Assessment & Recommendations
the doctor will spend approximately two days to two weeks taking a deep dive into your technology offering, depending on the depth and breadth of your solution.  I will assess functionality, architecture, platform, and UI; compare it to the state of the practice; assess it with respect to customer needs; and then prepare a detailed written assessment that captures where your solution is with respect to the market, what improvements might need to be made, and what enhancements could be made to differentiate it. After you’ve had a chance to digest the report, I’ll conduct one or more one to two hour conference call to discuss it in depth.

Product / Technology (Management) and Roadmap Advisory Services
the doctor will review specific modules, current or planned, and specific aspects of the product and roadmap and provide advisory services as appropriate.  This can include architecture, delivery infrastructure, stack, algorithms, and other technology components.

Research / Advisory Services
the doctor is a Ph.D. in Computer Science with a degree, and advanced training, in Mathematics.  As such, for certain products / technology endeavours, he is uniquely qualified to provide research and research-based advisory services on a short, or long, term basis.

Public Label Writing

Solution Whitepapers
the doctor will work with you to create a co-branded expository white paper relevant to your solution domain that explains what the problem is, why it needs to be addressed, and what the benefits of addressing it can be. The first step in selling a solution is making sure that people understand they have a problem. A sponsored white paper is a powerful way to get your salespeople over that first hurdle.

Sourcing Innovation Illuminations
Sourcing Innovation Illuminations, like the briefs and perspectives offered by analyst firms, will serve to elucidate a service or technology need and the state of the market with respect to that need. However, unlike the briefs and perspectives offered by many of the analyst firms, these pieces will be written by someone with a strong understanding of technology, and will clearly define how technology (or the technology-based solution offering) can help, what the current capabilities of the relevant (underlying) technologies are, and what a buyer should look for.

What’s the difference between White Papers and Illuminations?
a) Co-branding – Illuminations can be sponsored by, but are not co-branded
b) Distribution – you can distribute the white-papers for lead-gen on your site, but Illuminations are only distributed by SI
c) Focus – white papers can lead up to a specific solution, Illuminations focus on generic needs and do not lead up to specific solutions

  1. d) Cost – Illuminations cost less, but the topic and editorial discretion is entirely at the discretion of the doctor

Private Label Writing

Marketing Brochures
the doctor will help you to prepare your marketing brochures. I have a strong understanding of technology, supply chain needs, and the space as a whole, and I can help you focus on messaging that succinctly summarizes the problem, the solution you’re offering, and the particular benefits of your solution that are most relevant to a buyer.

Published Articles
the doctor will ghost-write articles on your solution space and how your solution addresses problems in that space. These articles can be submitted to traditional and on-line publications, which will publish vendor-specific content if it is broadened appropriately for general consumption.

 


Buying Organizations

Needs Assessment

the doctor will spend up to three days meeting with your team to identify what your problems are, where you are on the process and technology curves, and what solutions would be best for your organization. I will then prepare a written report that summarizes your challenges, your current processes, your current technology, what you need to look for in a technology and/or service solution, and what benefits you can expect to receive.

RFX Preparation

If you need a new technology(-based) solution, the doctor will help you create the RFx that you need to be sending out to make sure you get the information that is relevant to your needs, which is essential to selecting the right solution. It’s hard to write an RFx for a solution you don’t yet fully understand, and every day dozens (if not hundreds) of companies are sending out RFxs for sourcing and procurement technology solutions that don’t effectively communicate the solution the company actually needs. There’s no need for you to be one of these. the doctor can help.

As he co-created the Spend Matters Solution Map and Tech-Match solutions, he can also work with you to take maximum advantage of those solutions (which can be used to verify the vendors you are sending the RFI to are relevant and that their solution meets at least a market average level of appropriate technical and product maturity), thereby allowing you to focus your RFI on the key technical capabilities that are most important and/or unique to your organization and the service, culture, security, roadmap, and other requirements not captured in a relatively useless feature/function checklist that most RFIs end up becoming due to a lack of appropriate expertise on the buying organization’s part).

Solution Assessment

the doctor will helping you assess proposals from potential vendors, and prepare a formal recommendation on the strengths and weaknesses of each proposal, as well as follow-up questions to consider asking.

Train the Trainer

the doctor has a background in both academic education and industrial training, and in select cases can assist you in training your power users and star performers on change management, best practices, new processes and even new technologies. The goal will be for these key resources to achieve the level of understanding and proficiency necessary to be able to disseminate their knowledge to the rest of the organization, thus making your organization independent of vendor and other third-party services personnel and consultants.

Contact us (using the contact information in the FAQ) for details!

 

Where is My Market Going?

Although it is impossible to tell precisely how many visitors a site is getting without having access to complete logs, and similarly difficult to tell how one site stacks up against another (especially when some site masters don’t know how to differentiate image hits from page hits, etc.), there are third party traffic tracking tools that provide one methodology of roughly benchmarking one site against another (although the accuracy may be questioned).

One such site is Alexa, and as noted by Jason Busch over on Spend Matters in “Who Has Got the Eyeballs Online Spend Management Traffic” back in November of 2007, Sourcing Innovation, the only other independent blog in the sourcing / procurement / supply & spend management space that publishes on a daily basis, was not only the 7th most visited publisher of original content in the space, but the fastest growing content publisher in the space! With a three month change of 672,310 in the rankings, its growth rate was almost triple that of Spend Matters and essentially five times that of Supply Chain Digest, which was growing slowly while all of the other publications were essentially standing still. Not bad for an upstart blog that had been publishing for slightly less than a year and a half at the time!

The specific metrics on November 17, 2007 were:

SITE 3 month Rank
ISM 291,694
Purchasing 318,350
Spend Matters 462,297
Supply & Demand Chain Executive 543,729
Supply Chain Management Review 597,277
Supply Chain Digest 813,504
Sourcing Innovation 1,306,592
SITE 3 month Change
Sourcing Innovation +672,310
Spend Matters +244,446
Supply Chain Digest +122,600
Supply Chain Management Review +59,753
ISM +11,412
Purchasing -17,671
Supply & Demand Chain Executive -87,098

Another such site, which I find to be much more reliable and consistent in rankings from month to month, is QuantCast. Since December 1, 2007, Sourcing Innovation‘s ranking has steadily increased from 5,530,305 to 434,201, making it, according to Quantcast, the fourth most trafficked publication in the space, preceded only by ISM’s Inside Supply Management, Purchasing Magazine, and Supply Chain Digest.

SITE RANK
ISM 110,228
Purchasing 141,455
Supply Chain Digest 271,697
Sourcing Innovation 434,201
Supply & Demand Chain Executive 707,417
Spend Matters 2,116,255
Supply Chain Management Review 2,732,943
SITE 3 month Change
Sourcing Innovation +5,096,104
Supply Chain Digest +122,880
ISM 24,969
Purchasing -20,688
Supply & Demand Chain Executive -400,602
Spend Matters -933,989
Supply Chain Management Review -2,332,445

In addition, Sourcing Innovation is now peaking at an average of 15,000 unique page views a day! With the average visitor viewing an average of 1.5 pages per visit, it’s easy to see that peak days on Sourcing Innovation now attract over 10,000 unique visitors, with average days attracting in the range of 8,000-plus page views and 5,000-plus unique visitors.

However, the best measurement of this blog’s success is the bandwidth consumption rate, which is the most carefully tracked metric by any ISP. This blog is now serving up over 8 GigaBytes of pure text a month! (All images are hosted on separate sub-domains or web-sites with their own bandwidth allocations.) To put this in perspective, this is roughly equivalent to serving up the *entire* text of the Encyclopedia Britannica thirty times each month!

Don’t Forget About the (Sourcing Innovation) Resource Site!

NOTE: The resource site, which was maintained in archival mode since 2017, was permanently removed in 2024.

That’s right! the doctor also maintains a resource site (indexed as the first link on the right-hand sidebar) which, as far as he can tell, has more blogs, publications, societies, companies, and events indexed than any other site in the space! For example, there are currently over 100 events indexed for 2008 (yes, you read that right, over 100 events for 2008) – which is at least twice the number of events listed on the largest event calendar for the sourcing and procurement space that the doctor was able to find.

If you have never checked it out, or haven’t checked it out recently, the doctor strongly encourages you to do so. It’s nothing fancy, but it doesn’t have to be. It’s designed to be a starting point that you can use to find out what publications, societies, events, and other resources are out there to help you on your quest to become a better sourcer, or, if you will, sourcerer of your trade!

Also, the doctor asks that if you work at a supply chain company not on the list, are a member of a relevant supply chain organization not on the list, know of any open conferences or forums not on the list*, or are aware of any new publications that are relevant to the profession that are not on the list, that you send them along to him at the doctor <at> sourcinginnovation <dot> com so that he can add them during the next site update, as this will make the resource site better for everyone. (Regular updates take place every week to two weeks, so please allow time for your contributions to appear before resending them.)

In addition, if you could be sure to include the following information with each future site addition, it will greatly reduce the effort required and help get your contribution posted in a timely manner:

Contribution Type Information Requirements
Blog Name
URL
Author
Primary Focus
Company or Analyst Firm Name
Website URL
Brief Description
Event Date
Name
URL
Location
Sponsor(s)
Sponsor URL(s)
Job Site Name
URL
Publication or Journal Name
URL
Society Name
URL
Vendor Library Vendor Name
Library URL

To Your Future!

* Please limit contributions to conferences and forums, and not seminars, workshops, or training classes. the doctor is not implying that they’re not important, but as there are far too many seminars, workshops, and training classes offered by hundreds of consulting and training firms to index in a meaningful fashion on the current resource site, the doctor is sticking with conferences and forums for now. (Note that annual vendor user conferences are okay.) Thank you.

Now That Your Marketing Budget Has Been Approved

It would be a very good time to send the doctor an e-mail to reserve your slot as a sponsor of Sourcing Innovation. As one of the few resources for sourcing, procurement, purchasing, supply and spend management professionals interested in improving themselves, their processes, and the overall performance of their organizations, and possibly the only blog in the space whose primary goal is reader education, Sourcing Innovation is uniquely positioned to give you the brand boost and visibility you need with the audience that counts. (After all, who is more likely to influence important technology and service buying decisions at their companies – the lazy gossip seekers or, as Brain would put it, the “chaff”, or the driven knowledge-seeking professionals anxious to advance their skills and careers who, as Brain would also put it, are the “wheat” of their organization?)

More information about Sourcing Innovation can be found in the About post, always accessible from the right-hand sidebar. More information about where your market is going, the SI Open Pricing Model, and why you’re going to sponsor Sourcing Innovation is available in the sponsorship section.

If you have questions, or you would like more information, please feel free to e-mail the doctor <at> sourcinginnovation <dot> com at your convenience.