by Jon Hansen In a profession that traditionally measures success in terms of lowest price, supplier relationship building is one procurement skill for which success is often obscured. Starting back in the old days – and we are talking about a period spanning 30 plus years, buyers would create a pocket of “trusted” suppliers with […]
Rich Ham, guest author for Procurement Foundry Procurement instinctively seeks the relative certainty and security that comes in the form of a contract. Procurement professionals tend to believe that once a contract is negotiated that promises savings in the form of lower per-item costs, the job is done. But are those savings real beyond the […]
Sarah Barnes-Humphrey for Procurement Foundry Just when we have finally mastered the end-to-end visibility and collaborative capabilities necessary to maximize the performance of a linear supply chain, the rules seem to be changing. Those who have been in our profession for some time will readily understand the long and winding road we have taken to […]
Michael Cadieux In 2016, Supply Chain 247 published an article about Walmart, IBM and Tsinghua University (in China) exploring the use of blockchain in the supply chain. There were several interesting elements to the initiative, including increased end-to-end transparency. But what became of the Walmart-IBM-Tsinghua initiative? Quit talking about blockchain There are any number of […]
Check out the following excerpt from a 2014 article titled “Does Gartner’s “Postmodern” ERP moniker put a positive spin on what is, in reality, the equivalent of technology landfill” “When ERP was in its heyday, CEOs and business executives wanted reliable and integrated solutions, so they seized upon ERP as the way to provide this,” […]
Michael Cadieux What’s great about getting together with fellow professionals outside the office at venues such as our recent Procurement Foundry Toronto Meetup on February 4th, is that we get to let our hair down and talk about anything and everything. During one such gathering, the subject of corporate strategic sourcing came up. More specifically, […]
by Iain Campbell-McKenna Richard Holmes, a Senior SAP Ariba Consultant who works as an advisor for Sourcing Solved, and I recently had a chance to share a coffee and to reminisce about our years of experience in the procurement world. Specifically, how during our time working together, we provided Ariba advisory services, including supplying consultants […]
By Cheryl Hayes for Procurement Foundry Once a procurement professional always a procurement professional? As procurement leaders are increasingly being seen less as cost savers (or spenders) and more as strategic enablers, we need to consider what procurement will and should look like in the imminent future. “Seasoned” procurement folks have years of experience, many […]
