Today’s guest post is from John Shaw (Senior Director, Adoption Services) of BravoSolution, a leading provider of spend analysis, (e-)sourcing, supplier performance management (SPM) and healthcare sourcing solutions and a sponsor of Sourcing Innovation (SI). It is the eighth and final part of an eight (8) part series, which forms a white-paper that BravoSolution is releasing to the general populace today.

Yesterday’s post (Part VII) provided a case study that describes typical challenges faced by a national provider of construction materials. In the case study, a 30,000-foot view might also show positive progression even though only 23% of forecasted spend is being sourced through the system and four (4) users have an average event size that is significantly lower than expected value.

Today’s post completes the series on High Definition Adoption Management by reviewing some best practices for implementation.

From 30,000 feet to Detail:

Best-of-Breed Sourcing isn’t conceptually all that much different then Best-of-Breed software adoption programs. A competent Sourcing Professional knows that an organization doesn’t operate based upon negotiated savings, but upon realized savings. It isn’t until an agreement is implemented and adopted by an organization that the contract yields value to the organization.

The same is true with the tools and process that you select for your sourcing team. The path to success lies in how your team adopts those tools and processes.

Whether you are managing a contract or managing an e-Sourcing implementation you can be infinitely more effective if you understand how it is being utilized by the organization.

If you are starting your journey towards understanding adoption in your organization, start at 30,000 feet. Stop, ask questions, find your initial opportunities and keep digging deeper. Adoption measurement is a journey and the end measurements tend to be different for every organization.

Don’t get lost in the woods!

Remember your business case. Yes, it will naturally evolve over time and those changes will need to be managed and communicated. Overall, it should serve as a compass for helping your Adoption Team navigate your organization, keeping them on track in guiding your organization towards superior performance.

Discuss, Commit and Revisit

Share your data, open a discussion with Category managers on what make sense for measurement in their Category and get a commitment from then on their targets. Make tool usage metrics a regular part of your team communications so the team knows it will remain a priority within the organization.

Now that the series is complete, please show your appreciation for this first-look by downloading the white-paper through this link or the big orange download button below. This will help to ensure that SI is able to bring you more educational pieces on a first-look basis in the future. Thank you.

 

Today’s guest post is from John Shaw (Senior Director, Adoption Services) of BravoSolution, a leading provider of spend analysis, (e-)sourcing, supplier performance management (SPM) and healthcare sourcing solutions and a sponsor of Sourcing Innovation (SI). It is the seventh of an eight (8) part series, which, when complete, will form a white-paper that BravoSolution will be releasing to the general populace tomorrow.

Yesterday’s post (Part VI) provided a case study that describes typical challenges faced by an energy company in a (European) regulatory environment. In the case study, a 30,000-foot view would also show positive progression even though a number of users are not creating public notices or providing award notifications within the designated time window.

 

Today’s post provides another example of High Definition Adoption Management for a national producer of construction materials.

Company C: Measuring Efficiency

Our final company is a national producer of construction materials. The organization has recently created its first centralized sourcing team and that team is working diligently to bring more spend under management. The team knows there is an abundance of opportunities to provide value if they can simply find ways to be more efficient in applying their sourcing process to more spend.

When looking at sourcing efficiency, the organization is focused on the following areas:

• Spend Volume:
  Measurements to track the amount of Spend being sourced through the system.
• Event Size:
  Tracking how much spend is managed per event, a key indicator of efficiency.
• Event Speed:
  Breaking the process down into its component steps and measuring duration.

These measurements help us to understand the speed and throughput of spend through the sourcing team.

Part VIII, the final part of the series, discusses some best practices for progressing from the 30,000 foot view to a detail view.

Today’s guest post is from John Shaw (Senior Director, Adoption Services) of BravoSolution, a leading provider of spend analysis, (e-)sourcing, supplier performance management (SPM) and healthcare sourcing solutions and a sponsor of Sourcing Innovation (SI). It is the sixth of an eight (8) part series, which, when complete, will form a white-paper that BravoSolution will be releasing to the general populace this Wednesday.

Last Friday’s post (Part V) discussed the importance of the category to High Definition Adoption Measurement (HDAM) and the process required to transition to HDAM given that understanding. HDAM is achieved when adoption measurement and adoption opportunity assessment have been aligned with organizational objectives and category-specific strategies.

 

Today’s post provides an example of HDAM for an energy company operating in a regulatory environment.

Company B: Measuring Transparency

Our second company is an energy company operating in a European regulatory environment. The organization receives funding from the government and has a legal obligation to follow public sector procurement regulations. These regulations focus heavily on creating a sourcing process that provides equal opportunity to all suppliers.

Whereas the previous private sector manufacturer (Company A) focused their e-sourcing tool on generating supplier value, this organization’s primary focus is:

• Process Compliance:
  Specific timeline requirements for public notices and publications must be met.
• Equal Treatment of Suppliers:
  Communications and Evaluations must be timely and fair.
• Auditability:
  All supplier interactions must occur in the system.

As in our previous example, we can monitor system activities to understand how user behaviours roll up to this overall business objective.

As we change the focus of the analysis to transparency, the metrics we measure in the system also change.

Now we are looking to understand where system functions tie directly to regulatory compliance. Beyond looking for violations, this data also has the potential to serve a quantitate evidence of fair dealings with suppliers in the event of a supplier challenging an award decision in court.

Here are some examples of the types of data we might monitor and react to:

Part VII will provide an example case study that describes some of the adoption challenges of a national producer of construction materials with respect to sourcing process efficiency.

Today’s guest post is from John Shaw (Senior Director, Adoption Services) of BravoSolution, a leading provider of spend analysis, (e-)sourcing, supplier performance management (SPM) and healthcare sourcing solutions and a sponsor of Sourcing Innovation (SI). It is the fifth of an eight (8) part series, which, when complete, will form a white-paper that BravoSolution will be releasing to the general populace next Wednesday.

Yesterday’s post (Part IV) provided a case study that describes typical challenges faced by a large global manufacturer. In the case study, a 30,000-foot view would show positive progression, even though a number of users would not be using the system to maximize supplier value. The case study described symptoms, likely causes, and potential actions by the adoption team to increase value received.

Today’s post focuses on the process that Company A would follow to transition to high definition.

Understand the Category Impact

The interview concept is very important because each Category is different. Patterns that emerge at the 10,000-foot level may seem like problems, but may be a natural result of the constraints of sourcing a Category. In order to make the most of this data, the Adoption Team must be willing to learn about the characteristics of each Category. Just as an e-Sourcing solution isn’t “one-size-fits all” for each company, and it isn’t “one-size-fits-all” for each Category.

The process of interviewing Category managers and discussing data trends observed by the Adoption Team creates an additional layer of data, and it is in that layer of data that we transition to a High Definition view of adoption.

Transitioning to High Definition:

As we drop down from our 10,000-foot view to our High Definition view, we are going to expand beyond the Category and User dimensions to include Category-specific targets over time. We move to this view as we recognize that each Category not only has its own characteristics, but that the strategies deployed in that Category should change over time.

In most organizations, a Category’s overall strategy is determined as part of a periodic review process. As the strategy for each Category is established, the Adoption Team becomes a key stakeholder in this process because it is their job to help the Category Manager use the tools in a way that supports the strategy.

The examples below highlight how adoption goals can be tied directly to the strategy for a particular Category:

It is at this point, when you have aligned both Adoption Measurement and Adoption Opportunity Assessment directly with both your organizational objectives and Category-specific strategies that you have achieved High Definition Adoption Measurement. Your Adoption Team is now in a position to directly enable and monitor progress towards you business objectives.

Part VI will provide an example case study that describes some of the adoption challenges of an energy company operating in a (European) regulatory environment.

Today’s guest post is from John Shaw (Senior Director, Adoption Services) of BravoSolution, a leading provider of spend analysis, (e-)sourcing, supplier performance management (SPM) and healthcare sourcing solutions and a sponsor of Sourcing Innovation (SI). It is the fourth of an eight (8) part series, which, when complete, will form a white-paper that BravoSolution will be releasing to the general populace next Wednesday.

Yesterday’s post (Part III) discussed the concept of adoption from 30,000 feet and how this typical view is both useful and useless from an adoption perspective. While it is usually directionally accurate and good for identifying low-hanging fruit, it typically does not indicate if supplier value is increasing, transparency is improving, or efficiency intensifying. For that, more visibility is needed.

 

Today’s post will provide an example to illustrate this claim.

Company A: Measuring Supplier Value

So let’s go deeper into the challenges of each of our example companies. Company A is a global manufacturer who has been using their e-Sourcing tool for some time. At the 30,000-foot view the project appears to be progressing nicely. However, a key question that is important to Company A remains unanswered: “Are users using the system in a way that helps them to maximize supplier value?”

In order to answer this question, we must first understand what system behaviours drive supplier value. If we start simply, we can conclude that an event should have some basic characteristics:

• Supplier Participation:
  Maximizing qualified suppliers generally increases award quality.
• Event Structure:
  Well structured events facilitate a better understanding of supplier capabilities.
• Spend Value:
  Managing greater volumes of spend increases potential event value.

Next, we create simple measures at the User and Category level. This becomes our 10,000-foot view. We are drilling deeper into the current situation and finding our next layer of adoption improvement opportunities.

Using this level of data we can now begin to look deeper into understanding how system activity is correlating to our business objectives.

By creating a few simple metrics for each of our basic event characteristics we can see the symptoms of poor adoption emerge.

These patterns become a roadmap of improvement activities for the Adoption Team to explore. Notice on the chart below that Adoption Team activities typically start with an interview and continually ask more questions!

Part V will discuss the importance of understanding the category impact and its implications for the transition to high definition adoption measurement.