Category Archives: Training

Maximize Your Supply Management Learning With All Of The Free Resources Available To You

As a regular reader of the Sourcing Innovation blog, I know you’re a consummate professional always on the lookout for ways to enhance your capabilities and advance your career. One of the best ways to do this is to take advantage of the wide range of free resources that are available to you. Today’s World Wide Web, which has enabled an unprecedented level of information sharing since it’s introduction by Tim Berners Lee in 1990, contains a wide array of resources that you can use to increase your knowledge and supply management skill sets. In this article I will introduce you to some of these and the advantages they have to offer.

Free Newsletters

While some free newsletters amount to nothing more than spam marketing by the sender who wants to sell you something (that you may or may not need), others can be packed with informative articles that can help you expand your knowledge base. There are a number of good, informative, newsletters in this space. Some of the ones that I’ve found to be very informative include Paladin’s Checkmate News, Aptium Global’s GunPowder, and Denali’s e-Whitepaper
Newsletter. You can find more in the growing newsletter directory on the resource site.

Free Whitepapers

Free Whitepapers from independent analyst firms and supply chain bloggers can give you an unbiased educational view into important issues and innovative technologies. Aberdeen makes many of its benchmark studies freely available for a limited time, and both Spend Matters’ Perspectives and Sourcing Innovation Illuminations are free as well. Plus, Charles Dominick has made it a weekly wont to review some of the better whitepapers that are freely available in his Whitepaper Wednesdays on the Purchasing Certification Blog.

Leading Blogs

Bloggers delight in providing you with free information, and in addition to Sourcing Innovation, Spend Matters, Supply Excellence, and Deal Architect have deep content archives of over a thousand deeply informative posts that address best practices, technologies, and innovative developments going back three, four, and even five years. Plus, you can find over 100 supply chain and related enterprise blogs indexed in the Supply Chain Blog Directory on the resource site. (Just remember that not all of them will publish as regularly as the aforementioned blogs.)

Web 2.0 Wikis and Social Networks

As a regular reader of this blog, you’re probably familiar with Facebook and the Next Level Purchasing Facebook group in addition to the new Sourcing Innovation Linked-In group. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

The e-Sourcing Wiki, the Safe Sourcing Wiki, and the WikiSCM are jammed packed with dozens of white-papers and hundreds of entries on a wide variety of subjects that are sure to increase your supply management awareness.

In addition to the univerally known Facebook, we have the supply chain social networks that include iProcurement.org, the SCM Profesionals group, the Buyers Meeting Point, and the Shared Services Outsourcing Network. On these networks you can interact with, ask questions of, learn from, and even educate your peers anytime, anywhere. These wikis and communities are indexed, with others, on the Resource Site.

Webinars and Podcasts

Educational webinars and podcasts can be a great supplement to the deep content that you find on leading blogs like Sourcing Innovation and Supply Excellence. That’s why the Sourcing Innovation Supply Chain Resource Site indexes over sixty archived podcasts and three hundred and twenty archived webinars that you can access at your leisure to dive into a wide variety of topics, all indexed and searchable from the Search page.

More Success in only 20 Minutes a Day, Part II

Today we continue with our list of “20 Things You Can Do in 20 Minutes to Be More Successful at Work”, tweaked to the supply management profession, to help you improve your game in 2009.

  • Knock on a New Door
    In order to provide strategic value, you have to understand how the business operates. Find out what drives profit and revenue, why the business spends on the products and services it buys, and if there are alternatives that could save money while providing the same level of value to the organization.
  • Is This The Job For You?
    Even if you’re in charge of the supply management organization, you don’t have to go down with the ship. If it’s not the right job for you, if you find that you’re just going through the motions or that you’re not excited when you get into work in the morning, you need to re-evaluate your position and whether you intend to go forward in your current organization, or a different one.
  • Peace, Love, and Understanding
    Pick a stakeholder in your organization and invite him or her to give you and your team a quick 15 minute presentation at what he or she does at your next 20-minute meeting. The more you understand your stakeholders’ needs, the better you’ll be at your job.
  • Get Linked-In
    The networking, discussion, and presentation tools may still be first generation, but they provide a great way to get in contact, and stay in contact, with your peers, share information, and ask questions that can lead to new and provocative insights. Don’t forget to join some groups.
  • Secure Your Data
    Your data is often the source of your competitive advantage. It should stay in your secure systems, and not in spreadsheets on your insecure laptop. Take the time to remove any sensitive data that might be lying around unsecured on your laptop, importing any that you need to save into your secure applications.
  • Talk to IT
    Make sure they understand what applications you use, and what you need to do your job effectively.
  • Listen to New Grads
    Ask your new recruits for ideas to improve the efficiency, productivity, and quality of your processes and workplace. They might lack experience, but today’s graduates are highly educated, tapped into new technology, and often very creative. Their ideas, seasoned with your experience, are often what you need to get out of a rut.
  • “Get” Your Vendor
    Your solution providers can improve your processes and technologies, and find savings you never knew existed, but the only way you can maximize your return is if you understand what they need from you to be the best they can be. Just about any best-of-breed consulting firm can come in and take 10% off the top of any category that’s in their area of expertise, but if you want 30% off the top, you have to understand how they work, what information they need, and how you help them help you.
  • Get Mobile
    Make sure everyone on the team has an iPhone or BlackBerry so that they can communicate and collaborate from wherever they happen to be. Remember, this is the networked generation, and they don’t always work in an office.
  • Go SaaS
    And your applications go with you.

And, finally,

  • Read Sourcing Innovation every day.
    Go back and read a post from the archives in addition to the day’s post. Not only are most posts bursting at the seams with educational content, but you’ll often take away more from a second read than you will from the first.

More Success in only 20 Minutes a Day, Part I

Last February, CIO ran a great article on “20 Things You Can Do in 20 Minutes to Be More Successful at Work”, which had some great advice for those of you looking to improve your game in 2009. As the article notes, not all changes require a military campaign. There are things you can do in just one-third of an hour that can have a meaningful and, yes, even a long-term, positive effect on your life, your job, and your enterprise. And when the suggestions are tweaked to the supply management profession, as I will do in this post, you know it’s worth the effort.

  • Counter Intelligence 101
    Grab the annual 10-K reports that your top competitors have filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and read the section called “Management’s Discussion and Analysis” that describes what happened to the company in the past year that was good and bad. Look for anything supply management related to see where additional opportunities might lie for you.
  • The Mini-Meeting
    Reschedule all of your internal supply management meetings for just 20 minutes … as the article notes, there’s only about 15 to 30 minutes of true productivity in most meetings, even though most last an hour or more. If there’s too much to cover, hold another mini-meeting the next day after you’re refreshed. And, finally, cancel all regularly scheduled meetings … you should only meet to discuss major decisions, not minor ones.
  • Business Intelligence 201
    Pay attention to projects that didn’t meet expectations last year … then think about how new processes and technologies could help you do better next time around, and make sure you get those processes and technologies in place before the category comes up for re-sourcing.
  • Your Solution Provider, Revealed
    Ask your most important software and service providers to conduct an assessment of their relationship with your organization. Then ask them to present their top three ideas for improving the relationship and providing more value to you, their customer. You might be pleasantly surprised.
  • Self-Knowledge is Power
    Take a good look inward and ask yourself if you’re working toward something with a tangible ROI or just going through the motions. If it’s the latter, figure out what you can do to get back on track.
  • Call a Customer
    Pick up the phone and call the various individuals in your organization that are the most affected by your sourcing decisions and ask them how you’re doing, what they like about the current contract, what they don’t like, and what you can do better. After all, if you’re not meeting their needs, you’re not doing your job.
  • Forget E-Mail
    If you’re a best-in-class organization, you probably have a plethora of best-of-breed procurement tools at your finger tips … and chances are that at least one of these will have an internal collaboration platform. Use the tools you have to their full potential … you have them because e-mail and spreadsheets don’t allow you to achieve maximum potential.
  • Say Yes to Training for You and Your Staff
    Best-in-class organizations are best-in-class for a reason … they do everything they can to stay best-in-class, which includes regular training. And the great thing about (good) supply management training is the return is always exponentially greater than the investment. Just do it.
  • Communicate with Everyone
    Talking to representatives of the different groups in your organization gives you a more complete and cohesive view of organizational realities that you aren’t likely to get simply from conversing with your peers on a daily basis.
  • Go for a Walk
    Not only will it reduce your risk of heart attack, keep your weight down, and help you manage stress … but it will clear your mind to help you think more clearly and creatively … and we all know that innovation is the path to success.

Come back tomorrow for the next 10 things you can do to increase your success in only 20 minutes a day!

The Sourcing Maniacs 2008 Vendor Tour Part 16: Next Level Purchasing

This post is a bit lengthy, so I’ve broken it into Prelude and Purchasing.

Prelude

In Part 19, a conversation between the doctor and the Sourcing
Maniacs eventually results in Wakko uttering the following line. The following conversation, which is left out of Part 19, ensues.
Wakko We don’t want to look stupid.
the doctor We’ve been over this already, Wakko. I’m not *that* kind of doctor. You want a plastic surgeon …
Yakko No, no. What Wakko means to say is that we’ve decided to go see Servigistics and we don’t want to show up not knowing anything about strategic service management. We’re getting tired of looking stupid because of our ignorance.
the doctor You could do something about that.
Wakko Hey! I like the way I look!
the doctor I was speaking figuratively Wakko.
Wakko Oh.
the doctor You could get some training.
Yakko Who does training in this space besides the vendors, who, often, teach their own version of the truth and the ISM, who tried to force feed an outdated C.P.M. down our throats last time we talked to them?
the doctor Have you ever heard of Next Level Purchasing (now the Certitrek NLPA)?
Wakko Who?
the doctor The creators of the SPSM – the Senior Professional in Supply Management, which was introduced as the first truly global supply management professional certification back in 2004.
Wakko What?
the doctor I thought you read my blog!
Dot We do … but …
the doctor But what?
Dot We tend to skim it … and …
the doctor And?!?
Dot Not pay much attention unless it’s entertaining.
the doctor No wonder you’re so desperately in need of some education! An education that, to some extent, you can get for free, I might add, on Sourcing Innovation.
Yakko Well, I think we’ve learned how remiss we’ve been by not reading your blog … carefully … on a daily basis. By sticking to a single vendor viewpoint, we’ve certainly missed a lot over the last decade.
the doctor Yakko, I still don’t think you have a clue as to how much you missed. It’s not just sourcing, procurement, and supply management technology that’s advanced by light years, but entirely new applications in global trade and supply chain management have appeared on the scene — as well as a couple of good training options in industry and academia and, as per this conversation, the first international certification in supply management — which I’ve discussed numerous times on this blog.
Wakko Numerous?
the doctor Yes Wakko, numerous. I’ve reviewed four of the six core courses:
Mastering Purchasing Fundamentals (Parts I and II),
Savings Strategy Development (Parts I and II),
14 Purchasing Best Practices (Parts I and II), and
Supply Management Contract Writing (Parts I and II);I’ve reviewed their course in
Expert Purchasing Management (Parts I and II);

I’ve reviewed their Purchasing Assessment of Skills for Success (PASS) program (link);

and I’ve reviewed the following white-paper from Next Level Purchasing:
The Importance of the Job Description to your Talent Management Strategy
Wakko Really?
the doctor Yes, Wakko … Really! I do more than write catchy lyrics. Much more.
Yakko Maybe we should have checked them out when we were on the N’s!
the doctor Maybe you should go check them out as soon as you finish with Servigistics. They’re not a software vendor, so they wouldn’t mess with your insistence on visiting software vendors alphabetically, and you certainly could use the education.
Yakko Maybe you’re right.
the doctor Of course I’m right. And while you’re there, why don’t you see if you can eek out some of their plans for 2009. It will be the fifth anniversary of the SPSM. I’m sure they have some big things planned!
Yakko Will do, doc. So let’s get back to Servigistics.
the doctor Okay. So what do you want to know?

Purchasing

Immediately after the Sourcing Maniacs finish their visit with Servigistics in Part 19.
Wakko Georgia, Georgia
The whole day through
Just an old sweet song
Keeps Georgia on my mind
Yakko There sure is a lot to strategic service management! I think we need to listen to the doctor and investigate Next Level Purchasing.
Glaring at Wakko.
What do you think, Wakko?
Wakko is currently banging his head against a tree rapidly in his best Pileated Woodpecker impersonation.
Yakko Let’s go, Woody!
Dot So, besides what the doctor wrote about the courses, do we know anything else about Next Level Purchasing?
Yakko Checking his new iPhone … obviously the maniacs haven’t been reading Vinnie’s blog either and don’t understand the TCO …
Looks like the doctor sent me some links. Give me a few minutes and I’ll see what they say.(The SPSM Certification on e-Sourcing Forum,
The SPSM Certification Story Continued on e-Sourcing Forum,
Chamber Honors Moon Company on Your Moon Township,
Supply Market Assessment on Supply Excellence,
Online Education Provider Gets High Marks From Buyers on Purchasing,
Tools for Professional Excellence on Supply & Demand Chain Executive, and
The Purchasing Certification Blog by Charles Dominick, Founder and President of Next Level Purchasing.)
Next Level Purchasing also has the Purchasing Certification Channel on YouTube, but knowing the maniacs don’t read enough, I decided to leave this out.
Wakko Wakko starts humming the Jeopardy theme song. I’m not even going to fathom a guess as to why.
Yakko It looks like Mr. Charles Dominick founded Next Level Purchasing back in 2001 when he noticed a lack of decent private training offerings in the supply management space as well as a derth of on-line training options, and, in particular, a lack of how-to programs for delivering measurable results in the workplace. For the first three years, it just offered training classes, but after a number of students commented that they learned a lot, that their performance improved dramatically, and that they should be certified for their effort, he decided to research ISO 17024 — the international standard for personnel certifications. After examing the marketplace and realizing there were no globally recognized purchasing certifications, he decided to create the first valid certification program in supply management.

It’s a low-cost option, with the basic program currently only $1,149*, and although the average completion time is 4.5 months, it has been completed in less than two months **. It looks like it pays for itself in spades, as the 2008 Purchasing & Supply Management Career & Skills Report found that SPSM Certification holders have an average annual salary that is $19,220 US more than their peers! They have 10 courses now and they currently appear to be adding at least three courses every two years.

As for Charles, he spent much of the 90’s working in, and managing, procurement departments at various large organizations including Kurt J. Lesker Co., US Airways, and the University of Pittsburgh where he noticed that one of the key challenges facing supply management organizations was that staff members were either not being encouraged, or were not acquiring the necessary skills, to be independent actors … which is necessary for leaders to lead. Otherwise, a lot [of work] gets upwardly delegated, and that really attracts from the leaders’ ability to focus on what upper management’s vision is.
*Yakko’s going to waste more money on his shiny new iPhone in his first year of ownership! And less than what one of the four prepartory courses for the now defunct CPM certification used to cost.
**If you know what you’re doing, relatively up-to-date on your job, and willing to devote yourself all-in to the task, you could do it in a month. (It only took me a [long] day to complete, analyze, and write-up each class I reviewed, and the final exam, which I also reviewed for Charles, is only 3 hours. Of course, I am the doctor and already knew the majority of the material, but an ambitious and intelligent student willing to go “back to school” and put the long hours in could do two classes in a 6-day week. One week for review, final, and documentary requirements and you’re done.)
Dot Sounds like we really should check them out and see if we can learn something. Where are they?
Yakko Back in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Wakko Do you think the Penguins will be having exhibition games yet?
Yakko I don’t know, but we can look into it.
Wakko Great! I can’t wait to see skating penguins.
Yakko shakes his head in disbelief
Dot also ignoring Wakko
Are we off?
We catch up with the maniacs a few days later.
Dot Well, we’re in Moon Township. I think this is it.
Wakko Are you sure? Looks kind of small … is this another micro-organization?
Yakko No, it’s a small company … you have to remember, not everyone gets massive 500 square foot plus executive offices. Some companies are frugal and only give employees the space they actually need to keep costs down and value up.
Wakko If you say so …
out comes the mini-mallet
Dot taking advantage of the opportunity, knocks on the door
Charles Dominick Hello and welcome to Next Level Purchasing. How can I help you take your purchasing career to the next level?
Wakko I don’t want to look stupid anymore.
Charles Dominick … without missing a beat
Here at Next Level Purchasing we help you find intelligent answers to the many questions that plague your daily job as a supply management professional. Would that help you with your problem?
Yakko I don’t think anyone can help him with his problems, but we’ve recently discovered there’s a lot more to supply management than we ever thought there was …
Charles Dominick That’s certainly true. There have been a lot of changes going on in purchasing, and people in purchasing today are doing different things than they did 20 years ago, 10 years ago, and even 5 years ago. Now it might be easy to say that I’m qualified because I’ve been in my job for 20 years, but that’s not really an indicator of how skilled I am or how capable I am of delivering great performance. I could be doing the same things that I was doing 20 years ago and doing them just as badly. That’s why we developed the Senior Professional in Supply Management, or SPSM, certification here at Next Level Purchasing. Certification provides a best-practice third-party standard that I can follow and have confidence that I’m doing my job well. Could you use the SPSM certification?
Yakko Well Wakko
who’s trying to use an otoscope and a periscope to look inside his own head
is definitely certifiable, but I was wondering how you help professionals advance in their careers?
Charles Dominick At the core of the certification is six core courses that provide you with 44 continuing education hours. These courses cover the basics of purchasing, contract writing, purchasing tools, project management, and savings strategy development. On top of this, we’ve introduced courses in negotiation, expert purchasing mastery, international procurement, and global sourcing strategy with new course offerings on the way in 2009 — which will mark the 5th anniversary of the SPSM on July 1.

However, we understand that continual skills development and knowledge acquisition is vital to a supply management professional’s success these days, and offer a number of free resources to help our students throughout their careers. We’ve been offering semi-monthly purchasing articles for a number of years, I maintain the Purchasing Certification Blog, and we recently created the Purchasing Channel.
Yakko It certainly sounds like your program has a lot to offer.
Charles Dominick We think it does, and we strive to make it better everyday.
Dot So, would you be up to telling us about it.
Charles Dominick Certainly, where would you like to begin?
Dot Donning her grey fedora and black trenchcoat
How about an interview?
For Sourcing Innovation?
Charles Dominick Well, if you think the doctor will run it, I’d be happy to. We’re certainly a believer in education here at Next Level Purchasing.
Dot How many certification holders are there?
Charles Dominick We don’t give that number out as it changes daily. I will tell you that over 3,000 students have enrolled in our paid classes to date, from over 100 countries. At last count, we have SPSM’s in over 40 countries.
Dot I notice that you also have an enhanced results program that comes with an extensive multi-media study-guide on an iPod. What prompted NLP to go multi-media and be one of the first programs anywhere to offer materials on an i-Pod? What type of enhanced results are you seeing?
Charles Dominick Three principles drive how we make our education available: convenience, innovation, and fun. As innovative as it was – and still is – to put multi-media procurement study material on an iPod, it was a natural decision for us given our commitment to those three principles. We’ve done some tests with people who have failed the SPSM Exam then used the SPSM Multimedia Study & Implementation Guide and dramatically increased their scores on the SPSM Exams. If they grasp the material that much better, then it is only logical that they are better prepared to deliver the types of measurable results like other successful SPSM’s. We are in the process now of gathering data on actual performance. Because we’ve only introduced the SPSM Multimedia Study & Implementation Guide about a year ago and the Senior Professional in Supply Management Program allows up to two years to complete the study, we are still gathering the amount of data necessary to be statistically significant.
Dot This year saw the course-offerings kick it up a notch from a global perspective with “Basics of Smart International Procurement” and “Executing a Global Sourcing Strategy”. What is NLP going to offer next year to take it to 11?
Charles Dominick As I answer this question, we are in the midst of finishing and launching four new innovations and improvements that will kick off in late 2008 and gain traction in 2009.

First, there’s PurchSearch – our search engine designed to help purchasers do research more quickly while also getting more authoritative results when compared to doing a traditional search.

Second, we are launching mid-term games. These are multi-media games based on popular game shows like Jeopardy and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire that will not only make our students’ learning experience more fun, but will also help them retain and apply what they’ve learned for real-world results. Sourcing Innovation readers can play a free game based on our PurchTips newsletter.

We will be formally launching the Purchasing Certification Channel on YouTube. This channel will feature what I believe is the largest collection of online procurement education videos consisting of vlogs, interviews, SPSM Certification Success Stories, and more.

Finally, we will be announcing the results of our massive annual update. While we update our material in small chunks throughout the year and do one comprehensive review and update every year, this year we were really determined to increase the value our students get from our programs. A couple of our courses had content increases in the 12 – 15% range. And we didn’t raise our prices a penny!

In early 2009, we have a surprise launch planned that will help deliver our procurement training on an even more global basis. Stay tuned for more information on that. And, as you know, innovation is a continuous process for us. It is not a one-time event. So you can expect more exciting developments throughout 2009.
Dot Any spoilers?
Charles Dominick Not today.
Dot This year also saw NLP start promoting department-wide certification programs, and also showcased a case study demonstrating remarkable results with essentially exponential returns in ROI. What are NLP’s future plans for offering it’s certifications on a department-wide scale? Are you going to offer classroom sessions to accelerate training on a department wide-scale?
Charles Dominick We currently offer an assessment program called “Purchasing Assessment of Skills for Success” or PASS as a first step for procurement leaders to determine whether the SPSM Certification is right for their teams. This assessment is based on our research that indicates that there is a correlation between seven key skill dimensions and the savings that procurement professionals achieve. That program has been wildly successful and has helped many procurement teams. In 2009, we will be expanding the skill dimensions to also assess management readiness and global procurement skills.

In addition, we are developing technologies and services that will be available at no additional charge to our clients who enroll their entire teams with us.

We are actually seeing less interest in classroom sessions than ever. This is due to a number of factors including the quality of our online training as well as the costs and environmental implications of travel.
Dot Next year is the silver anniversary of the SPSM in the “modern” system. What surprises does NLP have in store to celebrate?
Charles Dominick If I told you, it wouldn’t be a surprise now, would it? But you are right, we have something massive planned for the five year anniversary of the SPSM Certification on July 1, 2009. Let’s just say that we will be introducing an innovative process for giving SPSM’s the assurance that the SPSM is scalable, will always represent the highest level of credentials available in purchasing and supply management, and will adapt to the inevitable changes that our profession will face over the next few years and decades.

And with that, I have to get back to making our purchasing programs better. To your career!

Charles Dominick ducks back inside Next Level Purchasing’s offices and gets back to work.
Dot Wow! There’s certainly a lot to purchasing these days!
Yakko And to think we used to believe that an RFX could solve all your problems!

 

Sourcing Innovation Welcomes Next Level Purchasing as a Lead Sponsor

Sourcing Innovation is pleased to welcome Next Level Purchasing (now the Certitrek NLPA) as a lead sponsor. Next Level Purchasing is a great sponsor for Sourcing Innovation to have because it is also focussed on the continual education of today’s procurement and sourcing professional. Furthermore, even though it is a private for-profit training and certification enterprise, it understands the importance of knowledge sharing and open access in today’s ultra-connected knowledge-based world and makes a continual effort to give back to the community. In addition to maintaining the Purchasing Certification blog, Charles Dominick, the president and founder of Next Level Purchasing also produces a Purchasing and Supply Management Podcast series, which hits the wire at least six times a year, and also authors an ongoing series of Purchasing Articles, which appear every two weeks.

Today, by happenstance, also happens to be special day for Next Level Purchasing who launched the Senior Professional in Supply Management (SPSM) certification four years ago today. The SPSM is a global certification that, unlike certifications from national societies that tend not to be recognized, or pursued, outside of the country in which the society operates, has been awarded to students in over thirty (30) countries to date. It has also had students enroll from over seventy (70) countries. That’s an astounding reach for a program that’s only four (4) years old.

Why has Next Level Purchasing’s SPSM certification been so successful? Charles would probably say it’s because of the results-based focus, but I’d say it’s because of accessibility and practicality. As a former University Professor and a former Industrial Training Professional, I can tell you that not everyone likes, or grasps, obscure academic theory, and that when a professional has a job to do, what they care about most is what they need to know to do that job well. The SPSM curriculum isn’t based on obscure academic theory, doesn’t employ obtuse pompous verbiage in an hebetudinous endeavor to induce the reader into believing that the procreator of the tome in question is significantly more intellectual than he actually is, and doesn’t skim over common situations only to focus on special cases that an average purchasing professional will never encounter. Instead, it focuses on the knowledge and skills a purchasing professional needs to succeed in his or her daily job, and presents all formulas and processes in the context of examples. In addition, to help its students learn and apply the material, Next Level Purchasing is constantly creating complementary material which include the blog posts on the Purchasing Certification Blog, podcasts, and articles mentioned above as well as videocasts, the Supply Management in the Real World e-book, and the new Multimedia Study & Implementation Guide, pre-loaded onto an iPod, for students who enroll in the Enhanced Results program.

Over the past two years, I’ve had the opportunity to review five of their courses (links below) – Mastering Purchasing Fundamentals, Savings Strategy Development, 14 Purchasing Best Practices, Supply Management Contract Writing, and Expert Purchasing Management – and was quite pleased with all of them. In fact, my biggest qualm is with the title of the last course, since Charles and I have slightly different definitions of the appropriate use of the word expert. It’s definitely Advanced Purchasing Management, and after completing the certification and that course, you’d certainly be an expert when compared with the average purchasing professional today, but would you truly be an expert? Especially compared to experts that have been purchasing experts for 10 years? Probably not, but you would have the foundational knowledge and skills that you needed to become a true expert. I know it’s an irrelevant academic debate, but the point is this – if that’s the biggest qualm the doctor can find, you know the program must be solid!

So please join me in a issuing a great big welcome to Next Level Purchasing. If you are in the market for training or certification, and haven’t checked them out yet, please visit their site (through a Sourcing Innovation link) and let them know that you approve of their decision to support Sourcing Innovation – your #1 independent source for education and innovation in sourcing, procurement, and supply management.

Mastering Purchasing Fundamentals, A Review Part I
Mastering Purchasing Fundamentals, A Review Part II
Savings Strategy Development, A Review Part I
Savings Strategy Development, A Review Part II
14 Purchasing Best Practices, A Review Part I
14 Purchasing Best Practices, A Review Part II
Supply Management Contract Writing, A Review Part I
Supply Management Contract Writing, A Review Part II
Expert Purchasing Management, A Review, Part I
Expert Purchasing Management, A Review, Part II