The following are some more of the lessons learned shared by some of the participants at this year’s Hackett Best Practices conference in no particular order.

21. Make people a priority
Sourcing Innovation has already established that talent management is a top priority, and that must start with making people a priority. They must be supported, empowered, recognized, and rewarded appropriately as they are the most vital part of the Procurement organization. After all, results require more than processes and technologies, they require intelligent and creative people driving them.

22. Move to One System
Larry Ellison has always known the power of One. That’s why Oracle was one of the first companies to have the enterprise system vision as it is impossible to get more leveraged than one system across your entire enterprise.

If the organization has one system, then it has one transaction store. If it has one transaction store, then even the most unsophisticated transaction processor can easily do highly accurate and levaregeable spend analysis and spend forecasting at any time.

If the organization has one system, then it has one maintenance contract and one head to roll if something goes wrong. No worries about the endless finger pointing and blame games between two (or more vendors) refusing to admit fault when they should be getting it fixed.

In other words, the fewer systems the organization has, the more the organization can leverage its IT model, which is often a key to success.

23. Never forget the value add
Just like a consumer will always prefer the product from the manufacturer with a great warranty and a great service record if everything else is equal, the internal business partner will always prefer the Procurement organization that goes the extra mile to deliver more value. To insure that the Procurement organization, and not a GPO, outsourced / shared services center, or consulting / vendor organization is seen as the go-to organization when needs and challenges arise, the organization constantly has to add value, otherwise the Marketing department might be swayed the next time a specialist consultancy calls up and explains how they just saved the competition 30% in their advertising budget.

24. No matter the value delivered, it is never enough
It’s a great success that Procurement managed to get the customer free maintenance for two years in their IT buy, or a few weeks of free lean training from the consulting organization that is designing the new plant, or managed logistics for their retail distribution channel, but it’s not enough. The internal customers of the Procurement organization will always expect more, and to continue to be seen as the go-to organization, Procurement will have to find new ways to constantly delier more value every time it re-sources a category or undertakes a major new project for the organization.

25. No matter how small the fee is, it is never small enough
This is especially true if the Procurement organization is based in a (global) shared services organization and is forced to charge-back the organizational units for its services. Even if it saves the Marketing organization 10 Million dollars, they’ll still bicker over the 500 Thousand support bill (that will barely cover the personnel and systems cost) despite the 20:1 ROI. Procurement will have to find ways to constantly lower costs internally or add value externally and raise the ROI, be it hard or soft, over time to maintain credibility and gain influence.

Our next post will continue our overview of the lessons learned that were shared by some of the participants at this year’s Hackett Best Practices conference.

The following are some more of the lessons learned shared by some of the participants at this year’s Hackett Best Practices conference in no particular order.

15. Fish where the fish are
If a fisherman wants to catch a fish, it’s more likely that he will catch a fish in a lake filled with them then in a lake that is devoid of aquatic life. Similarly, it’s easier to find savings in a category rife with overpayments, maverick spending and/or contracted rates (well) above market average. Thus, if the Procurement organization wants to get some quick wins to establish credibility, it should focus on those categories that represent the largest opportunities.

16. Focus on efficiency of the company
Procurement efficiency is important, but corporate efficiency must come first. Procurment must put the good of the company first, especially if it wants to graduate from the kiddie table.

17. Governance and Sponsorship must start from the top
Since Procurement success will usually require change, and organizations generally resist change, support will be required to achieve success. However, success will be a lot more likely if support comes from the top as it may be difficult to overcome resistance without executive support.

18. Have a Talent Management Strategy
Procurement transformation and success will require top talent, and top talent, which is in critically short supply in Procurement, will require a talent management strategy to identify talent, recruit talent, retain talent, advance talent, and capture their knowledge when they move up. A critical part of this strategy will be to transition or use critical resources from other parts of the business either through cross-functional teams or re-assignments.

19. IT is Procurement’s new best friend
Not only will Procurement transformation generally require new processes and systems, which will require the support of IT (as reengineering takes time and expertise), but IT is often in a situation similar to Procurement — being asked to reduce cost while delivering more value. Together, Procurement and IT can work together to reduce costs, increase value, and gain more recognition and respect for both business units as they transform the organization to a world class organization.

20. Leverage outsourcers and outsourcing relationships
Sometimes the best way to get ahead is to outsource part of the Procurement function to allow the organization to do more with less or maximize the capabilities it has. Sometimes this will involve outsourcing the tactical parts of the Procurement function, such as transaction processing; sometimes it will be outsourcing generic categories such as office supplies, tellecommunications, or commodity hardware buys to a GPO where the organization “fits”; and sometimes it will be working with consultant organizations to get better results on strategic categories where the organization doesn’t have the (market) expertise to get savings (without sacrificing quality or reliability of supply) on its own.

Our next post will continue our overview of the lessons learned that were shared by some of the participants at this year’s Hackett Best Practices conference.

The following are some more of the lessons learned shared by some of the participants at this year’s Hackett Best Practices conference in no particular order.

09. Data is King
Cost savings reports are good, but savings reports backed up by hard data are better. Forecasted savings are good, but detailed projections backed up by proven models and years of hard data are better. Targetted spend categories are good, but spend categories known to have considerable overspending backed up by a data-rich spend analysis are better. Any which way one chooses to look at it, data is king.

10. Demonstrate an interest in your client’s business
Just like the most successful service companies in the consumer space put the interests of the customer first, the most successful Procurement organizations put the needs of the client’s business first. But they go beyond that and develop, and demonstrate, an interest in the business of the client and try to understand what the internal client organization — be it Engineering, Marketing, or Legal — will need before even the client organization understands what it needs.

11. Do not minimize country specific needs
It might be tempting to globalize successful sourcing and procurement practices as is, but each country will have specific needs with respect to its culture, language, and accounting systems. As a result, it may not be possible to globally deploy certain systems or processes with respect to transaction management and global trade documentation management if the systems do not have customizations for those regions.

12. Empower the Global Teams
If the organization uses global teams for Procurement or Sourcing, be sure to empower them to do the jobs they need to do. Don’t outsource invoice processing without the authority to resolve discrepancies. Don’t outsource categories without the authority to contract on the award decision. Otherwise, the teams will not feel like they are a critical part of the organization and, once the team members get the skills and experience they need, they will depart for greener pastures.

13. Establish common methods of approach
Even though there may be category or country specific needs, generally speaking, the 80/20 rule is in play and 80% of processes, methodologies, and technologies can be standardized across the entire Global Procurement organization, which should be center-led.

14. Everyone wants the benefits, but no one wants the risk
The category owners will want the benefits of lower cost and higher quality that can come from a new supplier, but will want not the risk of the unknown. The users will want the advertised benefits of a new IT system, but will not want the risk that it will cost more and take longer to be deployed than advertised, or the risk that it might not even meet the big audacious goal that was advertised.

Our next post will continue our overview of the lessons learned that were shared by some of the participants at this year’s Hackett Best Practices conference.

The following are some more of the lessons learned shared by some of the participants at this year’s Hackett Best Practices conference in no particular order.

05. Be approachable
Remember that the ultimate goal is 100% of spend under management, and this will only ever be achieved if the Procurement organization is trusted to at least advise on all spend categories. But for an Procurement organization to even dream about getting to this point, it first has to be trusted with spend categories by each business unit — and no business unit is going to ask for Procurement’s advice if Procurement isn’t approachable.

Procurement has to be willing to help with any category and any challenge at any time and be excited to do so.

06. Be realistic about how things get done
The vast majority of processes, procedures, and relationships in an organization will be inefficient and Procurement will have to live with them for a while as established processes don’t change overnight. Procurement might know that a more efficient process will complete in half the time and get results that are at least as good, if not superior, but the business unit may not have that experience or willingness to trust a new process, especially if it is the first time it is bringing Procurement in for advice. Procurement needs to respect the existing processes and work with them until the business units are ready to change.

The same goes for relationships. Even though a relationship may not be optimially managed, or a supplier not the best possible choice for the business, if it’s a long standing supplier with which the business unit personnel have a deep relationship, Procurement will have to tread carefully and slowly introduce new management styles and new suppliers to the business, starting with less critical categories in the beginning.

07. Constantly evangelize the message and direction
This was one of the most common themes across all of the presentations I attended. Procurement needs to “comunicate 7 different ways” to the point where it “overcommunicates” and constantly spreads the message about its capabilities and successes. Remembering that it’s seat at the table is, in most companies, still a seat at the kiddie table, Procurement still has to build credibility and respect, and, most importantly, continue to get noticed.

08. Continual service expansion and innovation is critical
No matter how great of a success story Procurement is able to achieve on a category, in a business unit, or for the organization as a whole, it’s never enough. Everyone always wants more, and Procurement always reaches a point where that “more” will not come from cost reduction and avoidance alone. Procurement will have to find additional ways to offer value in the form of reduced risk, reduced complexity, and process and product innovation to the rest of the business.

Our next post will continue our overview of the lessons learned that were shared by some of the participants at this year’s Hackett Best Practices conference.

The following are some of the lessons learned shared by some of the participants at this year’s Hackett Best Practices conference in no particular order.

01. A highly leveraged IT model brings a lot of capability and scalability
Well designed and implemented software can scale with the business with the addition of more relatively cheap servers and storage devices. In fact, with todays high-density, low-power, blade servers, even the largest fortune 500 can often run off of a single rack (as a single server can pack 64 cores and 256 GB of memory which is a lot of processing power if the organization is not running bloatware like Microsoft Exchange). This brings a lot of processing power to the business with minimal increases in cost. Plus, the entire business can take advantage of the sourcing and procurement platforms that are available.

02. All shared service needs are not the same
This is why many purchasing groups or business process outsourcers for procurement fail. Different companies are at different levels of procurement maturity and different businesses have different needs even in the same category. It’s often difficult to go beyond office supplies and telecom contracts and get any agreement among participants.

But it is often worse than this. In a large multinational, different business units will often have substantially different needs in the same category due to local market needs, operational requirements, and existing (manufacturing) processes.

03. Always have a clear vision
In most companies where Procurement has a seat at the table, it is still sitting at the kiddie table or viewed as the young college graduate who still has a lot to learn and who needs to let the big boys run the business. Without a clear vision, there is no chance for Procurement to be taken seriously.

Furthermore, without a clear vision, it will be hard for Procurement to sell its services to the various units of the business and Engineering, Marketing, and Legal in particular where new product design, advertising, and legal services are “sacred cows” that Procurement “cannot possibly manage”.

04. Be able to measure success and failure
It takes more than a clear vision to get attention and respect. It also takes results that are objectively measured and clearly communicated. But more than that, it also takes a willingness to admit failure. Not every project will be a stunning success. For example, in a buyer’s market, it was often the case that a category expert consultant would run an auction 9 times for 9 different companies and save substantially each time but fail to see savings the 10^th time because the client was a leader in managing the category or had inefficiently located manufacturing facilities and transportation costs were unusually high.

A similar situation will exist in an average organization. A crack sourcing team might hit a home run on the first nine categories they go after but fail to find savings on the tenth, even though an initial analysis indicated a high probability of savings, because of unique manufacturing needs, relative lack of supply, or unusually high transportation costs. And for the organization to truly get respect, it must be able to admit when the results weren’t as expected and do a public post-mortem to understand why and learn for next time.

Our next post will continue our overview of the lessons learned that were shared by some of the participants at this year’s Hackett Best Practices conference.