Category Archives: Miscellaneous

Today is a Historic Day for New York!

Three Hundred and Sixty Five Years ago today, the city of New Amsterdam (later renamed the city of New York), is incorporated.

One Hundred and Forty Two Years ago today, the National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs was formed in New York, and America’s favourite past-time was cemented. (It replaced the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players that was formed in 1871 and ceased in 1875, which succeeded the National Association of Base Ball Players, which was founded in New York in 1857 and was the first organization governing American baseball.)

One Hundred and Five Years ago today saw the opening of Grand Central Terminal.

Wall Street New York is pretty much the centre of American Finance, and there are no supply chains without money to fund the people who run them.

I WILL SURVIVE!

An ode to vendors who need to be forgotten!
Confused? See our piece on Technical Debt

At first, I was afraid, I was petrified
Kept thinking I could never live without you by my side
But then I spent so many nights thinking how you did me wrong
And I grew strong and I will learn to get along

And while you claim brand new function
I just walked in to find you here with the same old dysfunction
I should have changed my phone number
I should have blocked your web domain
If I’d have known for just one second you’d be back with the mundane

Go on now go, walk out the door, just turn around now
’cause you’re not welcome anymore
Weren’t you’re the one who tried to lock my data down?
You think I’d crumble? You think I’d turn my mind around?

Oh, no, not I, I will survive
Oh as long as I know how to buy, I know that I will thrive
I’ve got my wits to give, and I’ve got my years to give
And I’ll survive, I, I, I will survive

It took all my strength to deal with the distress
Trying with all my mind to mend a broken process
I spent so many nights feeling just incompetent
Oh, I cried but now I know I will ascend

And you see me, somebody new
Not that desperate little person still stuck with you
Now don’t come promising features you can’t implement
Now I’m saving all my time for a vendor who is competent

Go on now go, walk out the door, turn around now
You’re not welcome anymore
Weren’t you’re the one who tried to lock my data down?
You think I’d crumble? You think I’d turn my mind around?

Oh, no, not I, I will survive
Oh as long as I know how to buy, I know that I will thrive
I’ve got my wits to give, and I’ve got my years to give
And I’ll survive, I, I, I will survive

Cognitive Procurement? How about Plain Old Informed Procurement?

While the true Procurement leaders (that pose a subset of the Hackett Group 8%) may be looking ahead to cognitive procurement solutions in the new year, the reality is that the majority of the market is still just looking for insight.

LevaData, one of the few true Cognitive Procurement players (reviewed in this post and in detail in a 3-part Spend Matters Pro series co-authored by the doctor [Part I, Part II, and Part III), recently released the results of its 2017 Cognitive Sourcing Survey that had some scary statistics that included:

  • only 13% of procurement managers engage with their suppliers on a constant basis
  • RFQ total cycle time for an average organization is 40 days
  • only 5% of respondents use third-party, purpose-built solutions for business and market intelligence, with 67% relying on internal solutions and/or Excel spreadsheets! (which is how not to excel at forecasting)

OUCH!

How do you know what you should be paying if you don’t even know what the market is paying? How can you get anything done if a simple request for quote, which only goes out after the specs are complete and the suppliers have an understanding of what you want, takes 7 weeks! (When it shouldn’t even take 7 days!) And, most importantly, how do you have a clue how things are going if you don’t engage with key suppliers regularly?

For the majority of companies, it’s not about cognitive, it’s about entering the modern age. Cognitive would be nice, but right now, they need plain old market intelligence, spend visibility, supplier relationship visibility, and efficient e-Negotiation automation. Without this, they are stuck in the industrial revolution … like their great great grandfathers were 100 years ago!