Category Archives: Services

Are you an Import Genius?

I recently had the chance to check out Import Genius, which made the top ten list of the most innovative and exciting start-ups on KillerStartups.com, and I must say that it is impressive. Billed as a site that provides timely, detailed shipment data for every ocean container that enters the United States, it appears to live up to its promise. In addition, the search interface is fast and the export to CSV allows search results with up to 40,000 rows to be exported to a CSV, which can be downloaded in an automatically generated zip file for faster transmission.

With an ability to search by product, consignee, consignee address, shipper, shipper address, notify name, US port, foreign port, bill of lading, carrier code, and vessel name for any date range, it’s quite powerful for a new offering. Testing it out, I found that Apple Computer Inc. received 42 shipments between June 1, 2008 and August 18, 2008, 30 from Amtran Electronic Co. Ltd. and 12 from Quanta Computer Inc No. 68. The Amtran Electron Co. Ltd shipments were for “LCD Monitor For PC” and the Quanta Computer Inc No. 68 shipments, all on June 1, were for “GENERAL APPLE ACCOUNT PAYABLE BY”. Take a guess as to what those shipments were for. In addition, 37 were from Shanghai and 5 were from Tokyo, 24 went to Long Beach, and the remaining 18 went to LA. The average number of LCD monitors per shipment was 539 CTNS (containers) while the average number of mystery products per shipment was 501 CTN (cartons). The country of origin varied between the Bahamas, Greece, China, Liberia, Singapore, Japan, Liberia, and the Marshall Islands for the monitors while the mystery product was sole sourced from China. Eight different vessels were used: the Hanjin Praha, Concord Bridge, Xin Yan Tai, CSCL Seattle, Dong Hai Bridge, Clifton Bridge, CSCL Hong Kong, and the Long Beach Bridge. Additional information available for export includes the shipper address, consignee address, party to notify, party to notify address, bill of lading, arrival date, weight, container, and other marks and numbers. If I’d been watching carefully, as Import Genius was between mid-March, 2008 and mid-May, 2008, I’d have noticed that Apple Computer Inc. and its logistics partners imported 188 ocean containers of a product type never before declared on its shipping manifests.

As partially highlighted in this Washington Post article, which calls Import Genius The Disruptive Shipping Database, there are numerous uses for Import Genius’ service, which include:

  • Penetrating your competition’s business strategy
    Analyze your competitor’s import activity, identify their suppliers, and discover new endeavors before it hits the news.
  • Keeping your suppliers honest
    Watch the inbound shipments of your suppliers, identify threats and opportunities, and catch cheating factories who are counterfeiting your goods or stealing your IP in the act!
  • Identify new competitors before they emerge
    Find out who else your suppliers are supplying to – if they are supplying similar products to companies you don’t know, there may be new competitors on the horizon.
  • Identify new suppliers
    Find out who your competitors are using before their new products hit the stores!
  • Find out your leverage with your suppliers
    You can figure out what percentage of US business you represent by tracking all shipments against what percentage of shipments are yours.
  • Find new customers.
    Find out who your competitors are shipping to.
  • Identify new customs brokers, importers of records, and similar third party services.
    All of this information is available in the import records.
  • Make your patent infringement suit bullet-proof.
    Upon discovering a patent violation, use Import Genius to trace the goods back to their source overseas.
  • Perform due diligence on privately held companies in emerging markets
    By examining detailed records of a company’s US exports, you can reduce the risk for investors in markets where available data is scarce.
  • Stock Market Predictions
    A detailed snapshot of a company’s imports can serve as a leading indicator for new product releases, revenues, and key performance indicators.

So check out the company that, according to Freakonomics blogger Justin Wolfers, offers Amazing New Trade Data that may enable bright economists to fine tune our understanding of the dynamics of international trade. It’s certainly worth a few minutes of your time, especially when enterprise access (which permits up to 300 searches per day across the entire trade database) is less than $5,000 per year!

Squeeze the Most Out of Your Supply Chain

Supply chain investment is on the rise, but many companies are finding that effectiveness still declines over time after the introduction of a new solution. Why is your average supply chain, powered by best-of-breed technologies, still not operating at peak efficiency? I’d argue that there are a number of reasons, including lack of proper visibility, lack of proper monitoring processes, and lack of proper training, but a recent article in Supply and Demand Chain Executive took a different twist. In “Squeezing the Most Out of Your Supply Chain”, the author, who notes that it is likely that your average supply chain is not operating at peak efficiency, indicates that a supply chain opportunity assessment can help you you determine if, and where, this is happening. This implies that one of the reasons your supply chain is not efficient is that your average company probably doesn’t know where it should be focussing and that the systems it is employing might not be the right systems or the systems the company needs the most.

A supply chain opportunity assessment gives your company a complete look at the overall state of one of its most critical functions and provides your company with a comprehensive list of opportunities for improvement. With this knowledge, your company can define a set of actions to improve its operating efficiency and ensure that its supply chain is properly designed to support growth and flexibility to prevent supply disruption.

A supply chain assessment is a straightforward process, which, as per the article, can be boiled down to a succinct series of steps.

  1. Define the scope.
    Business Unit or Entire Operation? Subset of processes or full spectrum? Although you should assess your entire supply chain, it’s often best to start small, focussed on key areas, to generate some initial improvements and wins that will fund future assessments.
  2. Examine the ongoing challenges in your business model.
    Document how information, materials, and financials flow through the organization and review the metrics that are being used to evaluate effectiveness. This will help to reveal the challenges.
  3. Identify key issues impacting performance and perform a root-cause analysis.
    Also be sure to compare the company’s existing processes to industry best practices. This will help you zero in on the real improvement opportunities.
  4. Identify and prioritize opportunities.
    Determine the potential business impact of each opportunity and the relative ease with which they can be realized. Then select the most valuable ones and start with those.
  5. Develop a solutions roadmap.
    Once you’ve identified the appropriate improvements, develop a roadmap that outlines the project plan, estimated timelines, and expected costs. And follow through!

The Shared Services & Outsourcing Network – A Useful Resource for Sourcing Professionals

Not too long ago, the Shared Services & Outsourcing Network was brought to my attention. Even though I was afraid that it might be another Supply Chain Social Network, I decided to check it out anyway. I’m glad I did. It’s along the lines of the type of Knowledge Network that I’ve been promoting behind the scenes for a while now — and I’m glad to see that they’re starting to appear.

The site supports two types of members: Premium Member and Associate Member. Premium memberships cost 149.99 a year and come with exclusive access to Shared Services News magazine, regular e-newsletters, full access to online articles, and upcoming job section access and three free job postings a year. Free associate memberships come with access to some of the articles on the site, the regular monthly newsletter, up to four specialist alerts, and basic access to the upcoming job section.

I signed up for a free associate membership. The Industry News goes back four months, and is indexed on five topics (strategy & governance, process & technology, people & culture, customer satisfaction, and globalization) and four functions (human resources, IT, finance & accounting, and other). The networking is limited to knowledge sharing Q&A forums and Blogs (which include Peter Allen from TPI, Sam Poston of ScottMadden Inc, Dave Griebl of Monster Worldwide, and Ed Martinez of BellSouth Affiliate Services Corporation). The event listings are reasonably well populated, and broken down by Continent and Country and there are numerous resources for on-line learning including interviews, presentations, podcasts, and webinars.

In all, I think it’s a good resource for sourcing professionals who need to manage shared services or outsource business processes. There’s a significant amount of information available for free members, and with over 7,000 global members, a wealth of information available for premium members – which I believe would be a great investment for any organization that’s looking for a shared services or outsourcing partner. Take a few moments and check it out. I think it will be worth your time.

(e-Sourcing, e-Procurement, and e-Supply Chain) RFP Help Here!

Here’s irony for you: as a Purchasing and Procurement professional, some of the most complex products and services you will source are the very tools that you have to acquire in order to be successful. That’s right, I’m talking about e-Sourcing tools and e-Procurement systems.

If you’re a regular reader of Sourcing Innovation, you know that I don’t pull my punches when it comes to reviewing e-Sourcing and e-Procurement tools. I’ve seen it all, and I can assure you that there are very real differences between them — differences that can and will have a profound impact on your success.

I can help you find the tools and solutions that are right for your company and your needs.

Unlike industry analysts, who are paid by the very vendors they “review,” I do not have any skin in the game with regard to a particular approach or a particular vendor. And, unlike armchair “experts” who opine on technology without having any technology background, I am a technologist by training (a PhD computer scientist, in fact) who cannot be fooled by a pretty user interface or a piece of Marketing drivel. When I get a vendor brief, I insist on looking inside the cookie jar. I’m not satisfied just admiring the glaze on the outside. If the vendor won’t open the jar, I assume the worst, and I’m usually right. (And they don’t get a nice blog entry on Sourcing Innovation either!)

There are numerous mistakes that are easy to make in the RFI/RFP process. You should not be embarrassed if you have made some of them, because both vendors and analysts are aggressively pushing strategies that ultimately benefit them, not you. It’s very hard not to fall into the traps they’ve set for you.

For example:

  • Never, ever, use an RFI or RFP “template” from a vendor. At best, this is just a way for the vendor to sell you the exhaustive, but often mostly useless, set of “features” they happen to have. At worse, it is a way for the vendor to sow “poison pills” that other vendors will have difficulty answering, so that the scoring algorithm on the RFx will cause them to appear better than the competition, whether or not this is true.
  • Never use an analyst’s report to generate a list of “features” that the analyst believes a product should have. The analyst doesn’t know anything about you or your business, and typically knows very little about the products, either (other than what he or she has been told by the vendors who are paying him or her or his or her company).
  • Never use vendor marketing materials to decide on the “key features” that you need. Vendors often compete with each other on irrelevant points that have no bearing on the functionality that your business requires, and analysts tend to repeat these irrelevancies until they achieve a life of their own.
  • Never assume that a product is “stable” or “bullet proof” just because it’s been out there for years. I’ve seen mature RFP software utterly fail, when RFP software (after years and years of development!) ought to be a slam dunk. I’ve seen “enterprise” e-procurement systems where the price actually charged by the vendor does not match the catalog price (you’d think they could at least get that right!). By the way, neither of these examples involve small vendors.
  • If a claim seems outrageous, it almost always is. For example, no static report can replace an opportunity assessment from a trained professional. Don’t imagine that you can base a procurement strategy on the output of an automated tool.

Fortunately for you, I’m in a unique position to help. With my dual background in technology and sourcing/procurement, I can work with you to:

  • understand what you need and do a proper Needs Assessment
  • put together an RFP that outlines the functionality you need, not an exhaustive list of useless features. Vendors want you to focus on irrelevancies; you need to focus on core value.
  • review the RFP responses and help you identify the questions you need to ask, like I did generically last year in my X-emplification and X-asperation series
  • review a potential contract in order to identify:
    • unnecessary modules
    • missing functionality
    • missing cost definitions (so you don’t get burned later on)
    • and other potential weaknesses

So if you need help with that needs assessment, RFP, or contract, reach out at any time using the contact information in the FAQ. No job is too big or too small as I know that you don’t put the cart before the horse.

P.S. Yes, as per the categorization, this is an advertisement for the doctor‘s services. I’d hoped I wouldn’t have to state the obvious, especially since I classified it as such, but it appears I have to.

 

Claro’s Crystal Customs

Our last post on Claro re-introduced you to Claro and their successful sourcing practice. Today’s post is going to cover the other parts of their consulting practice and their particular areas of specialty.

Claro now has four primary areas of specialization:

  • Sourcing & Procurement
    From Spend Analysis through Contract Management to Procure-to-Pay, Claro has capabilities across the sourcing and procurement spectrum and their partnership with Ketera (acquired by Deem) allows them to not only utilize modern e-Sourcing tools on a client’s behalf, but leave them behind as well. (Of course, a client should do its own analysis of marketing leading and best-of-breed sourcing and procurement solutions, including Ariba (acquired by SAP), BIQ (acquired by Opera Solutions, rebranded ElectrifAI), Emptoris (acquired by IBM, sunset in 2017), Enporion (acquired by GEP), and Iasta, among others, before blindly choosing the Ketera solution, because, even though Ketera might be the right fit, it might not.)
  • Insurance and Claims Management
    First party and third party claims management on behalf of insurance companies and organizations that need to make a large number of insurance related claims
  • Healthcare
    Revenue Cycle Management, DRG/Clinical Documentation Support, Healthcare Process Improvement, Self-Pay Management, Drug Discount Programs, and other healthcare services. Claro has worked with over 450 hospitals across the US both individually and in health systems of up to 25 hospitals. They’ve also worked with large academic medical centers.
  • Bankruptcy
    Claro has just started a new bankruptcy practice out of their New York office to help those clients that are being hit hardest by a market that has given us the double whammy of stagflation.

Their background gives them particular strength in insurance and healthcare. For example, they recently helped one of the largest insurance providers in the country optimize their benefit plans to save themselves, and their clients, millions of dollars. They’re also one of the few consultancies that has leave-behind software for hospitals that helps those hospitals improve their service offerings while capturing more insurance payments.

Furthermore, in healthcare, they can help a hospital save money and increase revenue by helping them improve their DRG/Clinical Documentation. In the US, there are now approximately 700 Diagnosis-Related Groups and the proper classification of a diagnosis is critical as the benefit paid to a hospital for a given illness is often fixed based on the original DRG classification. Misclassifying a complex pneumonia as a simple pneumonia can cost a hospital hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars. Claro’s expert group, which includes medical doctors, can help a hospital improve it’s processes to insure that the diagnosis is correctly captured every time and that the hospital is able to claim all of the insurance premiums that it is due.

When you combine their insurance expertise with their healthcare process expertise and their sourcing expertise, one quickly sees that they often do their best work in hospitals and health care systems as they can improve efficiency, save money, and increase insurance billings in a single project. They’re definitely one of the few small jewel consulting firms to look at if you’re a health care provider.