PROCUREMENT OPTIMIZATION BLOG

You’ve been tasked with implementing direct materials through a P2P platform. What does that mean? How do direct materials differ from indirect? I have come to learn that purchasing/invoicing for direct materials brought with it an array of complex use…

Investing in an E-Procurement system is a very important strategic decision for a company. It offers the opportunity to increase operational efficiencies, control spend, increase visibility and drive savings. Making this decision involves choosing the best platform for the right…

Procurement advisory services are a crucial piece of successful project planning. Why is that? Because as the old saying goes, “You don’t know what you don’t know.” There are challenges and projects ahead that you may not anticipate throughout the…

What should your procurement organization look like after platform deployment? One of the principle advantages of e-procurement platforms is that they take an all-encompassing approach to software design and functionality, incorporating best practices on an ongoing basis from a large…

Seeing a 2-year old child navigate an iPhone can leave a lasting realization of just how user-friendly the design is. Market leaders, like Apple and Amazon, create products that are so intuitive and easy to use that even a 2-year…

“A goal without a plan is just a wish” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery said that.  Benjamin Franklin noted, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”  As a lifelong Red Sox fan, it pains me, but even Yogi Berra…

In 1966, an advertising slogan first appeared for Botany suits that has since been re-appropriated many times: “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” Such is the case when launching the go-live pilot for your e-procurement…

We’ve done it! As an industry of Procurement professionals, we have finally reached the tipping point – we have crossed Geoffrey Moore’s chasm1.  We have finally taken the “Procurement cloud” beyond Innovators and Early Adopters to the Early Majority. Leveraging…

Discovery The year was 1848.  James W. Marshall was a foreman working at a lumbermill in California when he spotted a shiny nugget in the mud.  Over the next two years, an estimated 300,000 people would migrate to California not…

As Ben Franklin once said, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”  This phrase accurately captures the inescapable burden of taxes. Paying taxes in procurement can be very complicated – a fact that…