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Ariba LIVE 2011 in Nashville was well attended, with over 1600 attendees. Here are some highlights from the show.... (more information)
by By Bill McBeath
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Ford buys steel for its entire supply base. In the process, it has been able to rationalize the materials specifications for all of that steel resulting in consolidated spend, more efficient use of in... (more information)
by By Bill McBeath
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For some companies, managing only their immediate suppliers is not sufficient. Brand owners whose reputation and competitiveness is on the line for the performance and social compliance of the whole c... (more information)
by By Bill McBeath
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Throughout much of its history, Ford was a vertically integrated company, owning its own supply chain assets all the way back to raw materials facilities such as steel mills and rubber plantations. An... (more information)
by By Bill McBeath
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One important way that Supply Chain Orchestrators manage multiple tiers is sourcing and buying on behalf of their suppliers. Learn how and why that is done.
... (more information)
by By Bill McBeath
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We report the findings of our survey, answering questions such as the level of investments being made in resilience, the scope of responsibility for supply chain organizations, and assessment of how w... (more information)
by By Bill McBeath
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Findings from our research on Supply Chain Risk
... (more information)
by By Bill McBeath
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2012 opens with a higher than usual number of 'balls in the air' and dramas at play across the world stage. Although the recovery seems to be taking hold, there are some scary scenarios for how world ... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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How can businesses deal with the uncertainties we face for 2012? We explore a broad array of very concrete strategies and practices for creating adaptable enterprises that can cope with extreme potent... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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The claim by Alibaba's CEO that they will create 100,000 jobs in the U.S. could be easily misinterpreted.... (more information)
by By Bill McBeath
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Total Cost Sourcing (i.e. making sourcing decisions based on the total impact across the whole company) takes many different forms and yields many benefits. In this article, we explore various applica... (more information)
by By Bill McBeath
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These are dynamic times for Ariba, as SAP figures out its Business Network strategy. Ariba Live provided a chance to see the key role Ariba plays in driving innovation forward for SAP.... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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B. Braun's implementation of SAP SRM 7.0 demonstrates that results need not take a long time when you allow opportunities for contribution wherever the talent exists across the organization.... (more information)
by By Bill McBeath
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How this major oilfield service firm automates the interactions with its suppliers.
... (more information)
by By Bill McBeath
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Read how this major oilfield service firm ramped up to high volumes of spend under its automated procure-to-pay system automating its interactions with suppliers.
... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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Supply Chain apps transform performance and image and brand of companies...... (more information)
by By Ann Grackin
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With huge structural challenges confronting us, agility becomes a prime characteristic of the enterprise to acquire. But agility, change, etc. are terms that are ephemeral - hard to nail down. And mos... (more information)
by Ann Grackin
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How one major high tech firm uses global commodity management teams to provide centralized sourcing that still meets the needs of various product lines, functions, and geographies.... (more information)
by By Bill McBeath
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Large or divisionalized companies face the conundrum of how much power and decision-making to give to a centralized sourcing group vs. to the local procurement teams at each division, region, or busin... (more information)
by By Bill McBeath
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Managing the risks imposed by suppliers and third party service providers has become increasingly difficult and expensive. In part one of this series we explore the reasons why. In part two we'll look... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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A new approach offers the potential to manage risk across your entire supply base without breaking the bank. Your most highly paid resources can focus on strategic high-value work, while tactical task... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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Lessons from eBay, Facebook, LinkedIn and other Social Networks - What traditional business management can learn from Social Networks.
... (more information)
by By Ann Grackin
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Reverse auctions can generate double-digit savings year after year. Companies can build on those savings, including things that might normally not be considered auctionable, by defining completely and... (more information)
by By Bill McBeath
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Highlights from Fusion, Concur's annual conference, including Risk Messaging, Hipmunk's travel bot (Hello Hipmunk), Concur's SMB business, and more.... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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How Concur is both changing SAP and leveraging SAP's strengths.
... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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Managing inventory has broader and more influential factors beyond the 'standard' formula. Proposing a modern model for managing inventory.... (more information)
by Ann Grackin
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Distilled insights from ChainLink's recent research on managing contracts, supplier performance, and reverse auctions.... (more information)
by By Bill McBeath
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Skillful contract negotiation and management are vital to realizing a company's spend management and supplier performance goals. Here we explore how to negotiate better agreements with your suppliers,... (more information)
by By Bill McBeath
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They are the best of friends. They are the worst of enemies. That is the paradox of the retailer-supplier relationship: that on the one hand only by a true, close, strategic partnership can both side... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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CNBC's Counterfeit Goods program estimates the cost to the US at $600 billion...... (more information)
by By Ann Grackin
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The journey and lessons from three engaging customer stories -- how they moved to centralized procurement, achieved sustainable savings, understood cost drivers, used cost modeling in negotiations, a... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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The complexity of business today--working a myriad of partnerships with both the channel side and the transportation partners, as well as dealing with the challenges of fickle and surprising
markets-... (more information)
by Ann Grackin
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Digital Transaction Management (DTM) has profound implications for procurement. Here are some key lessons learned during sessions on this at Dreamforce 2015 and DocuSign's Procurement Adviso... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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In our research on direct materials Procure-to-Pay (P2P) processes, we saw tremendous variation between industries or types of companies in how they execute P2P. One major difference is the 'relations... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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Automation can be increased by developing deeper strategic supplier relationships. Automation on both sides (supplier and buyer), combined with a shared platform/Single-Version-of-the-Truth, can help ... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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Here are results from our survey and interviews with over 120 manufacturers about their level of direct materials P2P automation, why they automate, the KPIs they use to measure success for their dire... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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There is a tremendous variety of direct materials procure-to-pay solutions. Here we explore a framework for understanding the P2P solutions landscape. ... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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A broad and diverse array of direct materials purchase-to-pay solutions are available to serve the different needs of various industries and companies. Here we explore examples of a variety of solutio... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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P&G's sourcing and procurement training program is a great example for other companies. It builds a common foundation and continuity across a very large, very global organization. ... (more information)
by By Bill McBeath
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Social networking in the enterprise is on the rise in surprising and obvious places.... (more information)
by Ann Grackin
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Achieving excellence in Supply Chain has always been a challenge, but the last decade has gotten more complex, requiring solutions to enable clarity... ... (more information)
by By Ann Grackin
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In part two we explore the impacts that New Product Introduction and Inventory Strategy decisions have across the enterprise on Sourcing and Transportation teams.... (more information)
by By Ann Grackin
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As enterprises focus on perceived "core functions," more activities are outsourced to third party providers of goods and services. This extended supply chain of manufacturers of products-- from raw ma... (more information)
by Carla Frances Reed
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SAP Concur recently launched SAP Business Exchange. The vision is bold: to provide an SMB community—across all of SAP and beyond to non-SAP customers—that aggregates purchasing power, provides peer be... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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Insights and updates from the GT Nexus user conference.... (more information)
by Ann Grackin
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SAP Ariba is getting serious about managing direct materials spend, as well as innovating in areas such as machine learning, blockchain, integrating with other networks, and more. We explore these and... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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Last week's Ariba LIVE conference clarified SAP's cloud strategy, highlighted the importance and future plans of Ariba's Business Network, and further cemented the central role of HANA as the foundati... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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Cisco's legal department has taken steps to move from being a gatekeeper slowing things down to being a business enabler of faster cycle times for contract approvals and greater operational efficienci... (more information)
by By Bill McBeath
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Cisco's legal department has taken steps to move from being a gatekeeper slowing things down to being a business enabler of faster cycle times for contract approvals and greater operational efficienci... (more information)
by By Bill McBeath
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How will Social be implemented in the enterprise? Research Findings from ChainLink Research.... (more information)
by Ann Grackin
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The people in an organization make or break it. A solid education program is one key strategy to sustain supplier relationships and maintain human expertise through periods of organizational flux.
... (more information)
by By Bill McBeath
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Session at Northeastern brings strategic insights to global markets.... (more information)
by By Ann Grackin
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The web has become the dominant force in supply chain operation and technology. In this series we will discuss how it's evolving.... (more information)
by By Ann Grackin
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Sourcing and procurement spend-reduction strategies are frequently a central part of business cost-cutting initiatives. Most buyers understand that the lowest price option does not always yield the lo... (more information)
by By Bill McBeath
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Here we discuss applications of Trade DaaS including ERP/GTM integration, supply chain risk management, sourcing optimization, supplier discovery, price discovery, total landed cost, compliant duty op... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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Camco was the site of one of the earliest, most successful, make-to-order manufacturing systems in the world. Through insight and innovation, Camco's managers developed a manufacturing process that wa... (more information)
by Jonathan Byrnes
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Learn from one company's strategy and their approaches to hedging. And a discussion of financial instruments for hedging.... (more information)
by By Bill McBeath
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How companies ensure continuous affordable supply by measuring supplier risk and anticipating potential supplier problems. Early warning gives companies a much broader range of options to deal with po... (more information)
by By Bill McBeath
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Global dynamics ensure that commodity prices will remain volatile, with huge price spikes, for decades to come. Good hedging strategies are increasingly critical. Cross-functional teams are a great wa... (more information)
by By Bill McBeath
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Do your key suppliers have a working disaster recovery/business continuity plan if one of their plants or critical IT systems goes down? If you don't know, you are inviting disaster.... (more information)
by By Bill McBeath
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Suppliers are generally burdened with some extraordinary time scales when they 'own' the product. Recently, outsourcing and other procurement strategies have reduced these financial touch points. But ... (more information)
by By Paul Miller
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Millennials are seeking jobs with meaning and purpose. They are more concerned about social and environmental issues. Companies that are strongly committed to sustainable and responsible supply chains... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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This is Part One of a four-part series of reports on the findings from ChainLink research into the next generation of best practices for managing supplier relationships. This research examined hundred... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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This is Part Two of a four-part series of reports on the findings from ChainLink research into the next generation of best practices for managing supplier relationships. The research examined hundred... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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Changing the Way Your Enterprise Organizes, Learns, and Relates to Suppliers and Partners.
Most sourcing and procurement executives instinctively focus on improving their processes, often usi... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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The Outcome Economy is one of the main themes at our upcoming conference in Banff. This article describes the buyer's perspective.... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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The move to an outcome economy encompasses radical changes in the core elements of commerce. It requires a whole new way of thinking on the part of both buyer and seller - from buying and selling thi... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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One promising e-sourcing technology to support outcome sourcing is expressive bidding™. Reverse auctions evolved to allow evaluation of a broader set of requirements beyond material price, such a... (more information)
by By Bill McBeath
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A few pioneering enterprise software solution providers offer pricing and business models based on achieving specific outcomes for their clients, rather than just charging for software.... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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How one of the worlds largest mining companies, Anglo-American, transformed from a decentralized procurement governance model to a center-led model. Crucially, how they tackled the human, political, a... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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Panjiva launched 'Global Search' for its existing supplier search capabilities, providing additional supplier information for millions of suppliers worldwide. ... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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Ariba's recently announced partnership with PrimeRevenue provides customers with a multi-funder supply chain finance capability, integrated into the Ariba platform.... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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Unlocking Strategic Value for Procurement, Supply Chain, and Finance Professionals.... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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Unlocking Strategic Value for Procurement, Supply Chain, and Finance Professionals.... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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Procurement, supply chain, and finance professionals each have their own individual perspective on when, where, and how supply chain finance can be used. Here we take a broader perspective, 'holistic ... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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Procurement, supply chain, and finance professionals each have their own individual perspective on when, where, and how supply chain finance can be used. Here we take a broader perspective and approac... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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How holistic supply chain finance improves margins for buyers, lowers risk for lenders, and lowers the cost of capital for suppliers.... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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Here we discuss how holistic supply chain finance can be used to improve supplier's health, accelerate time-to-market, and enable postponement of differentiation.... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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Earlier in this series we looked at a new holistic approach to supply chain finance. Here we describe the underlying core capabilities required to implement this new approach.... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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Implementing a holistic approach to supply chain finance, with a connected trading partner network, can yield operational improvements (beyond the financial benefits). These include reduction in error... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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At SAP Ariba Live, we saw big changes in product architecture, innovation speed & focus, openness, UI/UX, agile development cadence, and more.
... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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The past two decades have witnessed a massive shift of manufacturing from the U.S. to China. Now there are signs of a reversal. What are the implications for those responsible for managing these suppl... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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SAP Concur's products in Travel, Expense, and Invoice are good examples of how enterprise software is being 'consumerized' to encourage use by employees who have increasingly higher UX expectations.
... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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Highlights from the SAP Insider conference on interesting and innovative new developments in their procurement and supply chain capabilities. ... (more information)
by By Bill McBeath
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New developments in SAP's procurement portfolio, an inspiring use of their technology in rural South Africa, and Services Procurement-related enhancements, and more. ... (more information)
by By Bill McBeath
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Among the many sessions from SAP's annual conference, we highlight SAP's new Supplier InfoNet and one of their customer's implementation of SRM 7.0.... (more information)
by By Bill McBeath
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How a company manages its suppliers makes a huge difference in profitability, performance, and the continuity . . .... (more information)
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Sourcing and procurement professionals are used to dealing with large swings in demand and supply. But the highs and lows created by the recent bubble and recession were difficult for even the most ad... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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Companies that are good at spend analytics realize a sizeable competitive advantage. But it is not easy to do. In this first article in our series, we look at how spend analytics has evolved.
... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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The most common application of spend analysis is to identify potential cost savings. However, spend analytic systems can be and are used for much more than that. We explore here some of the common and... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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Spend analytics can go way beyond just analyzing spend or managing suppliers. We look at some of the more novel uses of these systems.... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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Attaining value from spend analytic projects requires setting explicit goals, a good foundation of data hygiene, the right level of classification, great analyst skills, and last but not least - decis... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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The architectural characteristics of spend analytics solutions can have a big impact on the types of analysis that can be done, the time and effort it takes to implement the system, ease-of-use, and o... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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The procure-to-pay process (P2P) for direct materials resists standardization and automation. As the critical execution phase of source and procurement, it is where the rubber meets the road for inbou... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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Modern networked technology platforms are quietly revolutionizing the way businesses work with their suppliers. By allowing companies to rapidly find, assess, validate and integrate with suppliers, th... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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As supply chains become increasingly integrated and synchronized, we are witnessing the evolution of the business/production models (in some industries) that merge virtual integration with elements of... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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How two top performing companies rate their suppliers, initiate and manage corrective action, and manage supplier performance across divisional boundaries.... (more information)
by By Bill McBeath
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A mini-case study on one manufacturer that integrates supplier scorecard data with operational and planning data from across their business units. They have not only been able to improve supplier perf... (more information)
by By Bill McBeath
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The ability to manage supplier risk and compliance has become a critical competence for organizations. Our research shows why and how to manage and reduce supplier risk--what actually works in practic... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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We look at supplier risk standards, monitoring, and how to do supplier risk and compliance under tight budget constraints.... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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Some authors have suggested that strategic sourcing is often done in a win-lose style, without true collaboration between buyer and seller. Nothing could be further from the truth, as a win-lose relat... (more information)
by Thomas W. Bower
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Various forms of supply chain financing have been around for centuries. The use of networked platforms is a much more recent trend that enables dramatic reductions in the cost of capital compared with... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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Network platforms that integrate trading partners, logistics processes, and visibility have enabled bold new approaches to payments and financing for participants in the supply chain. ... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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The fabled bubble of the last millennium culminated in leadtimes extending from weeks and months to months and quarters on a broad range of components, component markets going into allocation, and pri... (more information)
by Colin Kessinger
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Boeing has a huge order book that promises ten Dreamliners per month. Can they do more?... (more information)
by By Ann Grackin
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Supply chain practitioners and executives are in a unique position to help change the world for the better by their influence over global supply chains' labor conditions, environmental footprint, and ... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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A look at how to ensure that suppliers are treating their workers fairly, paying living wages, not using forced labor, providing a safe working environment, allowing collective bargaining, have non-di... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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This paper will articulate and validate the Future Logistics Enterprise (FLE) vision and objectives for readers such as industry suppliers and partners, members of Congress, members of other governmen... (more information)
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One of the biggest challenges firms have is creating and sustaining customer loyalty. And for supply chain leaders or brand companies, working through their channel partners to achieve these goals can... (more information)
by Ann Grackin
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Supplier performance management in the mass merchandising market is undergoing a renaissance of sorts. Increasingly, retailers are deploying vendor scorecards as a means of better aligning their supp... (more information)
by Mark Jones
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New networked technology platforms are co-evolving with new networked business models, together enabling companies to rapidly find, assess, and integrate with trading partners in order to swiftly crea... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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The high tech industry has experienced a striking shift from traditional replenishment processes to Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) replenishment for various products during the last decade. This has b... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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In today's twenty-first century global outsourced business world, the traditional and somewhat simplistic approaches used to measure cost for sourcing decisions of direct materials fall short.... (more information)
by Bill McBeath, Colin Kessinger
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Walmart Supply Chain performance looked like artwork from The Little Prince, thus their Supplier Reliability program initiative...... (more information)
by By Ann Grackin
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In its relentless pursuit for additional cost advantage, Walmart is looking to combine its own spend with that of its suppliers. It raises questions of how much control Walmart can exert over their su... (more information)
by By Bill McBeath
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Selectica (a contract management/configuration solution provider) recently announced their acquisition of Iasta (a sourcing solution provider). Here we discuss the fit and some of the reasoning behind... (more information)
by Bill McBeath
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Release of final 2014 numbers and 2015 forecasts of world economic numbers shows a changing picture of national economies. What will the impact be on supply chain strategy?... (more information)
by Ann Grackin
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