Category Archives: Event

The Key to e-Sourcing Success (Free Webinar)

e-Sourcing has been touted as the key to Sourcing and Procurement success and savings for almost two decades, with many providers promising double digit ROIs from their platform. While it is possible for any organization to reach this level of savings with a good e-Sourcing process and platform, the reality is that only a fraction do. But why? Especially when this should be a mature technology, when over a dozen players seem to have all of the same foundation technology, and when the process is well known?

The answer: the platforms are bought, but not used. A little overlooked statistic is that even though close to half of modern Sourcing and Procurement organizations have some form of a modern platform, the average utilization of the platform is typically 25%. In other words, only 1 in 4 people are using it or only 1 in 4 events are being put through it. If the promised ROI depends on 90% utilization but the utilization is less than a third of that, of course the ROI will never materialize.

So why aren’t platforms adopted? It’s proven that they can deliver the savings, so they are effective. Their online nature means that you don’t need fax and e-mail, so there is some efficiency. So what’s the problem? Just because a platform checks the functional boxes, it doesn’t mean it meets the organizational need. And if a platform doesn’t meet the need, it will be avoided, not adopted.

The key to e-Sourcing success is platform adoption, which means that the most important characteristic in platform selection is adoptability — which is often the least evaluated characteristic when organizations are comparing feature function check lists, estimated ROI, value-add, etc. And the key to adoption is adoptability. What makes a platform adoptable? That’s what this webinar will focus on … because the reality is that even a mediocre platform that is adopted 100% will deliver a 3X return over a best of breed platform that is adopted 25%. So imagine the return your organization could see if it replaced its unused e-Sourcing with an adoptable best of breed platform. Curious? Join us next Tuesday, February 7, 2016 @ 10:30 Pacific, 12:30 Central, 13:30 Eastern, 18:30 GMT for our webinar on The Key to e-Sourcing Success.

Eved: Events Demystified

Eved, an event commerce company, was started to fill one of the holes in big organization spend management — event spend management. In many organizations, including those that use Ariba, event spend management can be a Million-dollar black hole — per event! For example, all most sourcing platforms can do is cut an all-inclusive PO to the event management vendor and process an all inclusive invoice, which could just be an invoice for venue, food, and services. Not much visibility or control into event spend management!

Without good expense management, companies are missing out on opportunities to impact millions of dollars of meeting and event spend because of disparate, disconnected systems and manual processes. This results in, among other inefficiencies, missed sourcing opportunities, extreme workflow inefficiencies, budget overage and spend leakage, and compliance (policy) risk.

However, with the Eved platform, the organization’s sourcing platform can cut a PO to be managed by the Eved platform, which can give fine-grained spend visibility into all event costs, track, and limit them, to a budget. The Eved platform has evolved over time to meet the needs of end-to-end event spend management including, but not limited to, budget management, program management, schedules, purchase orders, services, invoices, receiving, and other event-related requirements.

It also supports the full event sourcing process including, but not limited to, sourcing, supplier management, award, contract, change orders, invoices, reconciliation, and payment — capturing all of the necessary data for analytics and tax management. It also handles registration, attendee management, and related activities. The expense reconciliation is in real time, budget updates are real time, purchasing policies can be created and enforced, and the platform can be integrated with your accounts payable processes.

Both the sourcing process and the scheduling process can be governed using calendar-based program management. Just like good sourcing requires a good project plan with milestones, good event management also requires a solid timeline, with dates that often cannot slip in order to ensure a successful event. The platform allows milestones, tasks, and change orders to be tied to calendar dates to ensure that events get finished on time and that an event manager can see what is due to today and what is coming up. In addition, the integrated user-assigned color coding allows the event manager to see what types of tasks are (coming) due.

There are also strengths in collaborator management, statements of work, analytics, Ariba integration, and payment (including EvedPay that, through a Merchant partnership, allows event managers to use pre-paid debit cards that can be tracked through the platform using a p-Card type system). For more details on these strengths, and some of the unique Eved platform offerings, check out the recent Pro series by the doctor and the prophet over on Spend Matters Pro (membership required) [Part I]. The insights provided in this piece, particularly those straight from the prophet, are worth the long multi-part series read.

The Direct Procurement Challenge Webinar is TOMORROW!

Hopefully you’ve registered by now. If you haven’t, there is still time to register. It’s free. It gives you one CEH. And, for the first time ever, you can ask questions of both the doctor and the prophet in the same webinar! (Downloading The Direct Procurement Challenge is good, but this is an awesome bonus.)

Remember, the doctor is the expert on Complex Sourcing and Procurement and when he says that you shouldn’t use a Chihuahua to herd sheep and asks why are you trying to use a mouse to herd cats (which is mission improbable anyway), you should know that there is something someone is not telling you. That’s why he’s joining a tag-team to bring you this much needed education for free. But as he doesn’t have time to repeat himself (so much to educate on, so little time), like most webinars, this is a one-shot deal. Show up. Or possibly miss out on that one secret that could help you secure the budget you desperately need. Your call.

As a reminder, in this webinar, the doctor and the prophet will discuss:

  • the direct procurement lifecycle
  • how it is different from the classic indirect procurement lifecycle
    (which was cost-centric perfect for indirect)
  • key requirements to support direct procurement that indirect procurement platforms lack
  • key technological capabilities to truly manage the direct procurement lifecycle
  • 15 ways your platform likely isn’t up to snuff
    (especially if it’s a platform built for indirect)
  • the consequences of using the wrong platform for Procurement platform
    (which can leave a lot of blood on your hands)

Sign up. Join in. And learn the questions you should be asking and not the answers you should be accepting without digging a little deeper.

Remember, what you see on the surface:

Is not always the full picture:

The Direct Procurement Challenge Webinar is One Week From Today!

That’s right, only one week until the upcoming ISM webinar, sponsored by Pool4Tool, where both the doctor and the prophet will discuss:

  • the direct procurement lifecycle
  • how it is different from the classic indirect procurement lifecycle
    (which was cost-centric perfect for indirect)
  • key requirements to support direct procurement that indirect procurement platforms lack
  • key technological capabilities to truly manage the direct procurement lifecycle
  • 15 ways your platform likely isn’t up to snuff
    (especially if it’s a platform built for indirect)
  • the consequences of using the wrong platform for Procurement platform
    (which can leave a lot of blood on your hands)

The fact of the matter is that you wouldn’t use a Chihuahua to herd sheep, so why are you trying to use a mouse to herd cats (which is mission improbable anyway)? (This is exactly what you are doing if you try to use an indirect sourcing platform for direct sourcing.)

Join our webinar next Tuesday on June 28, 2016 @ 11:30 AM PT, 14:30 PM ET, and 19:30 PM BST (UK Time) and find out why your procurement platform may not be doing your Procurement organization justice!

All attendees receive 1 CEH certificate. This is an ISM webinar after all.

Register today. Don’t delay!

Can Your Platform Handle Direct? Take the Direct Procurement Challenge!

Or at least attend the upcoming ISM webinar, sponsored by Pool4Tool and featuring both the doctor and the prophet who will discuss how

  • the direct procurement lifecycle is different from the classic indirect procurement lifecycle, which was cost-centric perfect for indirect
  • key requirements of each phase of the direct procurement lifecycle …
  • … and key requirements indirect procurement platforms lack
  • key technological capabilities required to truly manage direct procurement
  • 15 ways your platform probably isn’t up to snuff for direct, if it even address the issue at all — and —
  • the consequences of using the wrong platform for procurement management!

The fact of the matter is that you wouldn’t use a Chihuahua to herd sheep, so why are you trying to use a mouse to herd cats (which is mission improbable anyway)? (This is exactly what you are doing if you try to use an indirect sourcing platform for direct sourcing.)

Join our webinar on June 28, 2016 @ 11:30 AM PT, 14:30 PM ET, and 19:30 PM BST (UK Time) and find out why your procurement platform may not be doing your Procurement organization justice.

Don’t think you need a better platform? Remember that while the most blood an indirect procurement manager sourcing office supplies and temp labour has ever seen is the blood on his finger from a paper cut from signing the paper contract, people have been seriously injured and died (in the dozens) from poor judgement in direct sourcing. And if you don’t believe me, check out the many examples cited in the new white-paper on The Direct Material Procurement Challenge: An Indirect Tool for Direct Procurement is Mission Improbable — Direct Procurement Requires Different Capabilities by the doctor! (Just another reason to join our webinar on The Direct Materials Procurement Challenge. Registration is free and can be done now by following the link.)

As this is an ISM webinar, 1 CEH Certificate will be awarded to each attendee.

Free webinar. Free credit hour. Free white paper. How good does it get?