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The art of competitive collaboration Everyone is facing the same problems of recession, supplier instability, and greater regulation of business – which is driving more concerns about suppliers. So how do you afford it all? I believe companies...
Research shows sharp rise in Supplier Challenges Research by Nottingham University and Achilles indicates a sharp rise in the number of supplier challenges going to court - a significant concern for buying organisations in the Public Sector. The report...
Procurement’s changing role as a more vital and strategic... The AT Kearney 2011 Assessment of Excellence in Procurement Study, published last week, found that 90 per cent of the 185 global companies surveyed believe the procurement function is performing a more...
Practical advice on managing supplier risk Supply chain risk can come from any source. From the financial failure of a critical supplier to disruptions caused by natural disasters, poor supplier product quality to infrastructure failures. Now is...
How to see the value in supplier relationships The trend to outsourcing and the forging of closer collaborative relationships with suppliers is significantly increasing the dependency organisations have on their supply base. In a growing number of...
The art of competitive collaboration
Posted on 18-01-2012
Everyone is facing the same problems of recession, supplier instability, and greater regulation of business – which is driving more concerns about suppliers. So how do you afford it all? I believe companies are going to have to start looking at business models that are a radical shift from the present ones. Traditionally, companies have been loath to collaborate with competitors, apart from against common ‘enemies’, like government where they have been prepared to form trade associations to...
Research shows sharp rise in Supplier Challenges
Posted on 08-12-2011
Research by Nottingham University and Achilles indicates a sharp rise in the number of supplier challenges going to court – a significant concern for buying organisations in the Public Sector. The report which looks at supplier challenges brought under the EU procurement regime in the UK over a twenty year period, suggests that in 37 per cent of those cases at least one of the claims was supported by the court – inferring an even larger proportion settled out of court. Challenges take months...
Procurement’s changing role as a more vital and strategic corporate player
Posted on 18-11-2011
The AT Kearney 2011 Assessment of Excellence in Procurement Study, published last week, found that 90 per cent of the 185 global companies surveyed believe the procurement function is performing a more strategic role, actively participating in developing business strategy. The report said there is a new wave of thinking on procurement, “It’s not just business as usual, it’s business as unbelievable.” When the study began in 1992, procurement was primarily a back-office function and steadily...
Practical advice on managing supplier risk
Posted on 10-10-2011
Supply chain risk can come from any source. From the financial failure of a critical supplier to disruptions caused by natural disasters, poor supplier product quality to infrastructure failures. Now is not the time to relax a company’s vigilance over its suppliers. There’s no telling where the next issue can spring from, and adding to the complexity is the difficulty in measuring and monitoring those risks. Forrester’s Stephanie Moore worries that “a single outage or bankruptcy or fraud...
How to see the value in supplier relationships
Posted on 21-09-2011
The trend to outsourcing and the forging of closer collaborative relationships with suppliers is significantly increasing the dependency organisations have on their supply base. In a growing number of instances a company’s success is now highly reliant on the performance of its suppliers and on the efficient workings of those relationships. However, the information on suppliers available to buyers is often, fragmented, erroneous, incomplete, insufficient and frequently duplicated across the enterprise....
How to become best-in-class in supplier management, Aberdeen Group produce their report
Posted on 01-08-2011
Those organisations that can distinguish themselves [as good at supplier management] will be able to leverage strategic supplier management to lower supplier costs, improve supplier relationships and that ultimately translates benefits into competitive advantage. So says Aberdeen Group in their research report ‘The Year of the Supplier – Perspectives on Supplier Management in 2011’. Aberdeen Group surveyed 151 enterprises using supplier management in a diverse set of industries. The report...
The Seven Rs of Buyer/Supplier Communities
Posted on 15-07-2011
A light-hearted look at what matters in buyer/supplier communities: Every Responsible organisation working in increasingly Regulated environments (and everything seems to be getting more regulated these days) is justly concerned with its Reputation in competitive markets (because reputation is an important differentiator when specifications can otherwise appear so similar). To secure ongoing competitive advantage, they are dependent on Reliable suppliers with whom they can establish, grow and maintain...
Making a Decision on Mandatory Carbon Reporting
Posted on 20-06-2011
In current debates around carbon reporting, many businesses are supportive of making this a mandatory rather than voluntary process. We are at a place where we can no longer rely on voluntary reporting. Unfortunately many businesses need to be mandated and have responsibility assigned to the Finance function in order to take the issue seriously and realise the benefits of carbon reduction. However, in a recent speech at a recent event hosted by the Aldersgate Group, Mike Anderson emphasised that...
Keeping Garbage Out
Posted on 09-06-2011
One of the biggest challenges facing procurement organisations is access to accurate information about suppliers. Most buyers rely heavily on their ERP systems to provide the necessary, reliable data. However, there is a major issue. ‘Garbage in, garbage out’ is a phrase long associated with ERP systems. Put simply, if you don’t have good quality data, you won’t get good quality information. Data on its own carries no meaning – it may be accurate or inaccurate. But information...
Driving decisions on supplier numbers
Posted on 07-06-2011
Large cuts to the supplier base make headline news. In November last year, support services and construction company Carillion, announced that it was cutting its supplier base from 25,000 companies to just 5,000. In February this year, Balfour Beatty’s construction services UK division set out its plans to reduce the number of suppliers it uses from 27,000 to 10,000. Initiatives along these lines are met with great enthusiasm in the City as expectations rise for significant cost savings. For Carillion...
