November 2, 2011 9:04 AM | Categories:

A topic that's rarely discussed in procurement publications and reports is how sales organizations can begin to apply tactics to either break sourcing processes or benefit from them. I have known a number of sourcing consultants over the years that have also hung their shingle on the sales-sides of the house, usually in specific, high-dollar events where they've been hired to develop tactics to interfere with strategic sourcing approaches -- or to more subtly turn them on their head, if you will. Another angle is how procurement organizations can help educate their revenue-generating counter-parties in the organization. I was recently reminded of this reading a guest post on Procurement Leaders by A.T. Kearney's Stephen Easton, where he observers that "some recent experiences of supplier behaviour and sales techniques have got me thinking: after over twenty years of strategic sourcing and the continued upgrading of procurement capability, one would have thought that sales functions would now be well versed in how to approach tender/RFP processes in a way that showcases their organisation in the most effective light."

November 2, 2011 2:07 AM | Categories:

Supplier management technologies have come far in recent years, buoyed by their early adoption to enable specific initiatives (e.g. supplier diversity, supplier on-boarding for eProcurement, supplier performance management). For broader sourcing, modern supplier management covers not only the data points needed to keep the accounts payable team happy when they onboard new suppliers -- it spans a broad range of areas such as commodities, capabilities, capacities, credit and other supply chain risk, corporate and regulatory compliance, geographical coverage, diversity, performance and more. This topic and others are explored in more detail in our latest Spend Matters Compass brief: Supplier Management -- Recent Trending, Musings on SAP's Core Offering and General Deployment Pitfalls (for all Solutions) to Avoid.