Category Archives: About us

Catch the doctor on the West Coast

While I don’t advertise my whereabouts often, because it’s usually the case that I barely have enough extra time to even see everyone who’s put a request in since the last time I was in a certain geographic area, I’m purposely spending a couple of extra days on the West Coast next month to give anyone who’d like to talk to the doctor in person a chance to do so, as I don’t make it over there as much as I’d like.

Specifically, I’ll be in the San Francisco Valley area from October 4th through October 10th and still have some free time on half of those days. If you’d like to meet, e-mail me, let me know where you are (and who you represent if it’s not clear from your e-mail address), and I’ll let you know when I’ll be close(st) to you and what times I have available.

See you soon!

I’m Glad I’m Not a Pundit!

It seems that all the pundits in this space are doing these days are bashing other pundits about missing the point while missing the point themselves. Case in point: Jon Hansen’s recent bashing of Jason Busch*5 (of Spend Matters) over on Procurement Insights where he accused him of remodeling the city while Rome burns. (Followed by another bashing on how the industry he represents has lost its objectivity through familiarity.)

According to Jon, Jason should be more focussed on OECM punting Ariba and taking a 20M hit in the process and what the implications therein are, or that Ariba lost 3B on 1B worth of sales between 2001 and 2005 while suffering a number of implementation failures, then on ways to restructure Ariba for better performance*2, and because Jason’s not, according to Jon, Jason’s missing the point. Well, the first story is important, but until we get the full picture, which could take months, as we don’t know how much of the blame rests with Ariba and how much lies with OECM. (Remember the i2-Nike fiasco? While Nike tried to place all the blame on i2, it was as much their fault as i2’s. First of all, if you’re going to buy predictive modeling software, you should understand the limitations of what you are buying and the requirements of proper use!) And, in the internet age, the second story is ancient history … what’s more important is how they have been performing since then.

Don’t get me wrong — I’m not defending Ariba*1, just pointing out that there are three sides to every story and until we get all three sides (OECM’s, Ariba’s, and the truth), I don’t think it makes sense to start conjecturing on whose fault it is or (as Jon seems to imply) what Ariba did wrong. Let’s face it, this isn’t the first big IT failure, and since most organizations don’t really understand IT and won’t pay for that understanding (and, thus, can’t tell the difference between a proposal that illustrates the company knows what it is doing and a proposal that illustrates that the company is run, and staffed, by a bunch of baboons), it won’t be the last.

The real “big picture” is focussing not on the news story of the day (which, according to his post, he apparently does in all six of his blogs), but on educating the public so they don’t make the same mistakes. That’s why I don’t run stories on the latest deal/customer of Company X (irrelevant), the latest prediction of Research Firm Y (which may or may not materialize), or the latest headline in the WSJ (as most print publications are getting more sensationalistic by the day trying to maintain readership and forgetting what true journalism is really about). This blog is, and will stay, about education. That’s the “big picture”. (And that’s also why less is more! I could publish six posts a day if I wanted to, but if I overloaded you with information-free gibberish, what would you learn*4? You can’t drink from the fire-hose!)

Now I’m sure I’ll be the subject of his next rant*3, but I don’t care. I only care about what fellow supply chain bloggers think, not what media-hungry Bill Mahers think (whose rants don’t always make sense to me), focussed on the most sensationalistic stories they can find, have to say.

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*1It’s fairly well known I’m not their biggest fan, but I do try to be fair, and my history of vendor reviews speaks for itself.

*2 Given that Ariba was involved in a major failure, it’s now critically important that the focus is on finding a fix before it happens again as opposed to beating the issue to death.

*3 It wouldn’t be the first time.

*4 And would there be anything new in those? All you can really do at that speed is repackage existing news stories and content as you would be leaving yourself no time to think.

*5 I’m not defending Jason (as he can defend himself), just using his most recent bashing as an example of the absurdity of the situation.

SI’s Policy: No Time Limit and No Fixed Schedule on Briefs

One week ago today, Spend Matters (“SM”) announced (in its Friday Rant) that it was limiting briefings to a one-hour-and-twenty-minute interval on Thursdays and a two-hour-and-30-minute interval on Fridays. SM stated that briefings would be limited to 40 minutes, including 10-15 minutes of introduction/background, the remaining time to be spent on “the presentation or announcement”.  SM further stated that it requires reference contacts for a follow-up call, and that it is limiting follow-up demos to 30 minutes.

While it is not Sourcing Innovation’s place to comment on the policies of other blogs in the space, the doctor would like to take this opportunity to make SI’s policies, most of which are very different from the above (and laid out in the FAQ), very clear.

  1. SI will schedule briefs at times of mutual convenience. If this means after hours, that can be arranged.
  2. Although initial demos are usually limited to 60 or 90 minutes, SI does not impose time limits of any kind on briefs. If a brief needs to be continued, then it will be, for as long as it takes. SI is interested in your solution. Very interested.
  3. SI is not interested in “announcements” or “presentations.” Rather, SI wants to see your solution in action. Plan on a deep dive into your solution, followed by an intelligently-written post, assuming that the doctor believes that your solution solves areal problem in our space. Note that the doctor is very respectful of any software solution that solves a real problem, because he knows what it takes to bring such solutions to market, having done it himself on multiple occasions.
  4. SI is generally not interested in making reference calls*, because the doctor doesn’t care about your Marketing department’s ability to find customers who think your solution is the greatest thing since sliced bread. He is interested in your solution, not third-party opinions about your solution. This is not People Magazine or Gartner, so the opinion of a random “celebrity” customer, regardless of how prestigious his or her corporate logo may be, is irrelevant here. Lemmings are plentiful, and they come in all sizes.

Finally, SI sees no issue in trying to “keep up with” vendor products and announcements. Although many vendors make routine “exciting” announcements about new functionality and so forth, in practice these announcements are usually just marketing noise, having little to do with important functionality changes and enhancements. SI is confident of its ability to cover real enhancements and real innovations when they really occur, and can see no immediate danger of running out of cycles to do so.

For vendors who require a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) before providing a demo, SI is not interested in reviewing your solutions. the doctor’s assumption is that organizations requiring an NDA before doing a deep dive for a reviewer are irrationally hiding functionality that is released and in the public domain anyway, so their motives for trying to conceal that functionality are suspect.

Thank you for your attention.

* The exception being when you make a strong claim about savings, ROI, etc.

One Million, Three Hundred and Seventeen Thousand, Six Hundred and Forty Five

One Million, Three Hundred and Seventeen Thousand, Six Hundred and Forty Five words later (including the words in this post), or Two Thousand and Thirty Nine posts later (which does not count well over a hundred guest posts on other blogs, including e-Sourcing Forum, Supply Excellence, Procurement Leaders, Deal Architect, 2 Sustain, and @ Risk), and Sourcing Innovation (SI) officially turns four. Although not an extraordinarily long time, even in net-time, it is exceptionally significant in blog-time, especially for a blog that posts twice a day, every day, 7/365.

It was a fabulous year! Growth continued to the point where Sourcing Innovation not only maintained its undisputed place as the second most trafficked blog in the space any way you want to look at it, but temporarily obtained top blog status last summer, a position it held for over two months! Plus, it’s reach on the search engines is still, on average, three times that of any other blog or publication in the space. And with the demise of Purchasing, growth is exploding, especially now that Dick Locke (who was sailing) Norman Katz (who has been writing a book on Detecting and Reducing Supply Chain Fraud) are coming off of sabbatical and Robert Rudzki is joining them on SI as a regular contributor!

And even though the past year brought you unparalleled series on The Role of Optimization, Service Leadership, Overcoming Cultural Differences in International Trade, Spend Analysis, Global Sourcing Myths and Capabilities, and Strategy, when the content on this blog grew greater in breadth than the entire Harry Potter series, I’d bet that the best has not yet been written. Even though this blog has covered topics from analysis through x-emplification and vendors from AECsoft through WisdomNet, there’s still much more to tell. There are hundreds of topics and hundreds of vendors with stories to tell — and even though the Sourcing Maniacs made a herculean effort with their 2008 Vendor Tour, they only scratched the surface. They didn’t even make it over to Europe, which is exploding onto the sourcing and procurement scene. BravoSolution just topped the Gartner Magic Quadrant and the bohemian invasion is underway, led by iValua and b-Pack.

With our understanding of supply chain, and the world in general, increasing by the day, you can never stop learning — and never, ever, stop innovating. And that’s what Sourcing Innovation is all about, and that’s what it’s going to continue to cover, day-in, day-out, 7/365.

(So, if you’d like a piece of this action, at a cost less than your average Google ad-words or trade publication e-mail blast campaign on a per eyeball basis [because, when you get right down to it, it’s impressions that matter], check out the open pricing model and contact us (using the contact information in the FAQ). You won’t be disappointed.)