Category Management

Procurement: The Intermediary Growing in Relevance

Posted: 07/18/2022 - 09:00
Procurement’s relevance as an intermediary isn’t going down.

For decades, procurement teams have been connecting people across their organizations with suppliers capable of delivering what those people need, when they need it and at the right price. For a very long time, that was enough to see the department deliver strong, consistent value to the business. However, with the rise of the internet and ecommerce came new abilities and greater empowerment for individuals. The veil was lifted on suppliers, and consumers and employees gained the power to source what they need directly from global suppliers.

Battling Inflation: Strategies for Cost Containment

Posted: 05/04/2022 - 09:00
Procurement professionals across the globe are being catapulted to the front lines of the battle for cost-containment, remaining competitive in their respective industries, and in some cases saving operations from going under.

Supply chain and procurement professionals are now tasked with the near-impossible: fighting off upstream price increases and obtaining year-over-year cost savings in today’s inflationary environment. For the first time in years, suppliers are in control and cost savings are hard to find. Where does one start? Are cost savings even possible in today’s world? Is cost avoidance the only hope moving forward?

5 Ways to Prepare for the Next Supply Chain Crisis

Posted: 05/14/2021 - 09:00
5 Ways to Prepare for the Next Supply Chain Crisis

With the impacts of COVID-19 still being felt around the world, it’s hard to look ahead at what might be coming next. But you should.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought a truly unprecedented level of disruption to global supply chains, bringing entire industries to a complete halt. It was unlike any supply chain crisis we’ve seen in modern times, but it was far from an isolated incident.

How Procurement Can Enable Insurance Companies to Deliver Value to Claims Management

Posted: 08/22/2020 - 02:36
Procurement’s key metric is vendors’ value contribution, not cost.

At U.S. insurance companies, policyholders’ claims represent 70% to 75% of the total cost. This makes complete sense, of course, since policyholder benefits are the sole reason why anyone buys insurance products and services.

The problem is, at insurance companies, procurement is limited to supporting indirect spend — real estate, marketing, finance, etc. — which accounts for less than 10% of the organization’s total costs and severely limits our ability to provide substantive value.

Reconsidering the Services Category for eAuctions

Posted: 08/18/2020 - 23:44
The Total Cost of Ownership factors.

It is amazing the differences there are culturally to the concepts of eAuctions and their widespread adoption. In Europe, eAuctions have been adopted by most organizations and are considered an integral part of the strategic sourcing process. But in North America there remains quite a bit of skepticism and doubt about not only adopting the practice, but which categories are the best candidates to benefit from this strategy.

Strategies to Drive Procurement Compliance and Manage Rogue Spend

Posted: 06/01/2020 - 21:54
Procurement Compliance and Spend Management

Compliance is a critical purchasing success factor. Aside from the tremendous amount of financial impact, compliance has other positive outcomes. When employees comply with purchasing through designated supplier programs, it significantly streamlines the supply chain, allowing your organization to be agile and flexible.

Commercial Real Estate Optimization: Taking an Operational Perspective

Posted: 10/30/2019 - 03:01
Commercial Real Estate Optimization: Taking an Operational Perspective
Corporate real estate is often one of the largest single categories of spend relative to a company’s revenue and budget, but many organizations view it as a cost to be managed and mitigated rather than a strategic opportunity to align the footprint with business growth and operational expectations and to increase the overall enterprise value of the business.

Innovations in Talent Management: FedEx

Posted: 08/21/2019 - 06:41
Innovations in Talent Management: FedEx

Can you outline why your team embarked on this project and the problem that needed to be solved?

The Sourcing Playbook is a set of flexible, standardized templates with accompanying training for certain critical deliverables within FedEx Services Sourcing & Procurement’s Sourcing Methodology (sourcing process).
 

Pages

Subscribe to RSS - Category Management