Category Archives: Services

While You Were on Summer Vacation, Vendor Posts, Part I

While you were on summer vacation, SI was powering away with daily posts and continuing to cover some of the leading vendors in the space, presenting a number of deep dives on their respective technology platforms. Here is a short recap of some of the coverage you might have missed!

Ecovadis-Powered E-TASC

In our post on Ecovadis-Powered E-TASC, we reported that Ecovadis is now powering the new, and greatly improved, version of the Electronic Tool for Accountable Supply Chains. Launched by the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GESI), the new platform had over 20 ITC companies and over 1000 ICT suppliers registered, subscribed, and deployed within a month and, according to the E-TASC site, now has over 1,400 facilities in the system. By (re)launching on Ecovadis, a buyer has immediate access to deep sustainability, business practice, labour practice, human rights, and environmental assessments in one comprehensive, audited, third party verified report. (More information on Ecovadis can be found in this classic SI post on how they are Ecovating the Globe.)

Nipendo

In our posts on Nipendo, which is Bringing O2P and P2P to the Mainstream and Streamlined Invoice Management for Even the Largest Organization, we noted how Nipendo, a provider of order-to-payment automation software, recently released a new version of its order-to-payment (O2P) platform that includes automated rules-based end-to-end invoice reconciliation — which also supports automatic data normalization, completion, and matching — that allows even the largest Global 3000 to not only reach the point where 98%+ of invoices are processed electronically, but where 90%+ are processed without human intervention. Their largest customer reached this point within two years, and their average customer sees over 80% of invoices being processed electronically within one year due to Nipendo’s multi-faceted supplier onboarding process. Realizing that the necessary data is going to come from a variety of systems, Nipendo integrates with all the major ERP vendors, a large number of third party supply management platforms, and provides suppliers with a number of options to submit invoices, including a web-portal and a print-to-cloud solution that allows a supplier to install a plug-in that will allow them to print their invoice from their billing system directly into the Nipendo platform.

Fieldglass

In our post about Fieldglass, and how they are adapting to every contingency (Part I, Part II, and Part III), we noted how Fieldglass has been hard at work evolving their platform since SI last covered them in 2010 and, in addition to improving its rate guidance and extending its rate structure capability, has streamlined its job posting capability, implemented e-mail approvals, developed an “Ask- An-Expert” recommendation engine, built a powerful timesheet manager, and added extensive Statement of Work Support. The rate structure capability is one of the hidden gems of the platform. With deployments in over 80 countries, Fieldglass has a deep insight into the many varied, complex, and strange rate structures around the world that can include per diems, special bonuses, hazard and isolation pay, vacation pay, etc., with each component separately (not) taxable by multiple state (and federal) agencies – and has built a platform with enough flexibility and configurability to handle it all. Another hidden gem is e-mail approvals. While very simple in theory, and relatively simple in implementation, this simple functionality reduced the cycle time to fill a position by 66% in the customers that implemented it! And the timesheet and Statement of Work modules are just cool.

Come back tomorrow and we’ll tell you about three more recently covered companies you might have missed!

If You Want Profits to Go Up, Help People Get Up!

This spring, the Economist published a very interesting piece on how things are looking up for lift-makers who help people who need to get to the top floor, please. The four firms that control two-thirds of the global lift market — Otis (United Technologies), Kone, ThyssenKrupp, and Schindler — have seen their profits, more or less, steadily rise over the last ten years, as their margins increased approximately 10 points.

This is partly due to the fact that global demand for new lifts has gone from approximately 300,000 a decade ago to nearly 700,000 this year. This is primarily due to the urban migration — as approximately 70 Million people migrate to cities every year, where they live in apartments and condos and work in high-rise offices which all use escalators and elevators. And these people, who despise getting stuck in lifts, pay $2,000 to $5,000 a year to keep them running smoothly. As most of these only need a quick check-up and a little grease every few months, margins on maintenance are 25% to 35% compared with 10% on new equipment.

The mega-trend of urbanization provides opportunities for any business that can service the changing needs of the population, which needs to live and work in high-rises. This poses more opportunities for companies in construction, utilities, (last-mile) transportation, and service industries that cater to busy people who need dry-cleaning, maid service, meals on the go, and entertainment. And it also poses opportunity for companies that can optimize the services and servitized supply chain and the last-mile of delivery.

How Do You Define “Closed Loop” in the Indirect Supply Chain?

Yesterday, in reference to an article on 8 steps to a servitized supply chain that appeared last summer in the Supply Chain Quarterly, we asked what is a servitized supply chain? It was a good question that merited a good answer. However, if you read the article, which finished by noting that the most powerful benefits of this business model arise from integrated teams that can provide closed-loop feedback from the customer all the way back to the suppliers, you are led to another question. Namely, what does closed-loop really mean when you are talking about services, and, when you are sourcing such services, how do you define closed loop in the context of the indirect supply chain that provides the umbrella that services normally fall under?

In the direct space, a closed-loop supply chain is one where Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) reintegrate their returned products into their own production network. The entire life-cycle, from cradle to grave, is effectively and efficiently managed to insure waste is minimized, value is maximized, and sustainability is achieved. A closed loop supply chain considers raw materials, production, distribution, warranty, returns, disassembly, and reclamation of raw materials. It designs for easy repair, reuse when possible, and disassembly / recycling when not. When properly designed, such a closed-loop supply chain maximizes value.

So what is the equivalent in the indirect space? For starters, it must be a supply chain that maximizes value over the life of the indirect supply chain. In addition, it must cover everything involved in the creation, production, delivery, and recovery of those services. Creation is rather straight-forward — it is the design of the services. Production is rather straight-forward — it is the creation of the materials and processes for the delivery of the services. Delivery is rather straight-forward — it is the distribution of the services to the end client. But what is recovery? In indirect, in addition to the reclamation and recycling of any materials produced for the purposes of delivering the services, it is the collection of feedback designed to improve the services in the next iteration.

For example, lets’s say the service is training on a new supply management solution you just purchased. In this services supply chain, the creation is the design of the curriculum; the production is the creation of the specific syllabi, texts, presentations, walkthroughs, videos, and guidebooks, etc.; the delivery is the in-person hands-on training course; and the recovery is the collection of any materials distributed for re-use and feedback on what was good about the course, what was not very effective, and what could be added or done differently in the future.

In other words, in the indirect space, the closed-loop is the creation, distribution, collection, and recollection of knowledge gained in order to increase the value delivered while improving the sustainability of the supply chain.

Do you agree?

What is a “Servitized” Supply Chain?

Last summer, the Supply Chain Quarterly published an article that defined “8 steps to a servitized supply chain”. Each of the 8 steps consisted of a supply chain best practice that you should be doing whether or not you desire a servitized supply-chain, or even care about services from a revenue perspective, as each of the 8 steps is something you should be doing even if you have a product-focussed supply chain. So why would you need, or want, a “servitized” supply chain and, more importantly, what is it?

According to the article, “servitization” is defined as bundled product-service packages that provide differentiated sources of value to customers, and, as a result, a “servitized” supply chain is one that supports such offerings and, ostentatiously, is different than a product-focussed supply chain. According to the authors, such a chain is more responsive and agile, can vary degrees of service outcomes to a differentiated customer base, and increases the probability of more profitable relationships between the Supply Management organization and the manufacturers with whom it does business.

At this point, I’m a little confused because, at least in the fast-moving Apparel and Consumer Electronics industry, a successful product-oriented supply chain is extremely responsive and agile (as orders for products in demand have to met quickly and orders for products not in demand have to be cut), offers various levels of product and warranty customization (where applicable) to user-defined tastes, and increases the probability of profitable relationships between the Supply Management organization and the manufacturers with whom it does business. This is because, in these industries, the product is the service, as McLuhan’s classic statement that the medium is the message, while not always true in today’s information age where you are hit with the same message across multiple mediums, is true in the consumer product industry. For many consumers, the products they buy define who they are and create the statements and messages they want to convey. As a result, when you create a product you are also creating a messaging service that your consumers can use to, indirectly, advertise who they are. So, in effect, your offering is a service as much as it is a product and the concept of a service supply chain being different is, well, a bit foreign.

Of course, if you are in the hardware industry and selling the same old nuts, bolts, and traditional C-section joists that you have been making for twenty years, then it’s probably the case that your supply chain is not very service oriented. In this case, if you “servitized” your supply chain and listened to your customers who want frames that are lighter (as steel prices are skyrocketing), stronger (as they want to build bigger), and faster to assemble (as labour is costly), you might come up with a solution akin to the iSpan Total Joist solution. To do this, you would have to become more responsive, offer various levels of product and services (including pre-fabricated kits for warehouses of pre-defined architectures and sizes), and, as an effect, increase your profitability as your customers pay more for the solutions they want (that save them time or raw material cost). But note that, even in this situation, your supply chain would still be oriented around a product — the only difference is that you would optimize the services offerings around that product.

So, in effect, a “servitized” supply chain is just one that is optimized for products and associated services, and, that, in effect, is just an “optimized” supply chain. And an “optimized” supply chain is one that creates collaborative teams across the supply, sales, and marketing functions to drive value. And we should call a spade a spade, instead of creating more unnecessary terminology.

Iasta: Smart Source-Style! Part II.

To the tune of Gangnam Style.

Sourcing Smart-Source Style.
Smart-Source Style.

Sourcing platform for users and bosses too. Sweet.
SaaS on the cloud, always on, real-time reporting complete. L33t.
Analyze this. Auctions, Performance. Real time data.
Optimize It. Contracts, and vendor schema.
One. Two. Smart-Source Success!

In Part I, we covered the first three significant changes to the Iasta platform since we last covered Iasta in depth on SI three years ago. Today, we cover the remaining significant changes.

Extensive Support for Third Party Data Feeds
Realizing that no analytics platform is complete without the ability to enhance the data with supplementary data that makes it meaningful (like index data for raw materials / components, inventory cost data from an ERP, services spend from a third party management [3PM] system, etc.), Iasta has developed native in-house capabilities to pull in data from a plethora of ERP/MRPs, e-Procurement/P2P systems, and third-party data feeds (like D&B, etc.) as well as custom feeds from sources you already use.

P2P Integration Capabilities
Iasta knows that the best sourcing event is all for naught if the sourcing plan, ultimately embedded in a contract, is not properly implemented and followed through and 40% of the negotiated savings leaks and goes down the drain. Thus, they have developed powerful P2P integration capabilities in-house and can suck in all of the transactional data from your e-Procurement and/or P2P systems, map it against your contracts, and let you monitor spend in near-real time as the contract progresses. This way, if the contract is being neglected, the buyer can detect that after the first or second purchase, and not three years down the road during the re-sourcing event when all of the negotiated savings have been lost due to maverick spending or dishonoured discounts and/or rebates on the part of the supplier.

Customizable Reporting and Dashboards for Users and Executives
While Iasta, like other (e-)Sourcing and (e-)Procurement providers has always had sourcing dashboards, by module and by suite, it has developed the ability for users to create their own dashboards using pre-configured reports and widgets, custom reports (which can be created by its custom reporting engine), or existing dashboard templates. Most clients don’t, choosing to have Iasta do it for them, but the extensive reporting and dashboard configuration capabilities allow Iasta to create extensive summary dashboards to meet any need or desire in a matter of hours. Buyers can see what they need to see to be most effective on a daily basis, supervisors can see what they need to see to make sure all of their buyers’ programs are progressing appropriately, and high-level executives can get their traditional 6-gage 30,000 foot view dashboard and see that everything is, or is not, under control.

A Broader Services Offering
Iasta is finding what many other software and services providers are finding, that most organizations that (still) don’t have a (modern) (e-)Sourcing platform don’t have the resources to manage one, the skills to fully apply one, or the support to acquire either. The fact that an average organization still is not hiring or putting money back in the training budget means that a new supply management software acquisition is not beneficial to an organization without vendor or third party support. Due to the lack of talent, and training, most of the advanced functionality ends up being shelf-ware unless it’s used by an appropriately knowledgeable third party. So, like BravoSolution, Iasta has extended their suite of services and are now doing as much, or more, services work than software support. In addition to being able to fully manage events, they can fully manage sourcing programs, spend analysis efforts, integrations with P2P or ERP systems, and training efforts.

Other changes include enhanced category management and sourcing pipeline management capabilities, built-in trend reporting and variance analysis, geographic reporting, enhanced project management with milestone-level tracking, and built-in supplier scorecards.

It’s an extensive suite, and exemplative of why Iasta is now a clear-leader in the e-Sourcing mid-market.


We are the Priests of the Temples of Syrinx
Our great computers fill the hallowed halls!