Procurement News

Archive for the ‘Procurement News’ Category

Managing Services Procurement Categories

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

New research by Spend Matters suggests that organisations collectively spend over a trillion dollars per year on a range of services categories. From legal to marketing to print to outsourcing, organisational spending across a breadth of often complex and hard-to-manage services categories typically is large - significantly larger than most companies realise before analysing it - and decentralised. When companies first start to tackle complicated services categories, one of the major challenges they discover is that price is often just one component of many that factor into services spending decisions.

For a full look at the findings please log onto - http://www.spendmatters.com/library/

Posted in E-procurement News, Industry Research, News, Procurement News, Sourcing News | No Comments »

Universities struggle with budget cuts.

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010

The Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) has been instructed to save £1.9bn, including £400m in 2010-11, mainly through making the research councils, universities and colleges “more efficient” as a result of the 2009 budget.

Universities are worried that the savings will lead to a reduction in their overall funding, particularly for teaching, and for widening participation to low-income families and ethnic minorities.

Universities have been hard pressed to “do more with less.” With this backdrop, it not surprising for the public sectors to follow the lead of private companies in using advanced Sourcing and purchasing technologies hitherto available only to large organisations to drive down cost and improve efficiency.
With an On-Demand deployment model, companies pay predictable fees to gets the results of efficient strategic sourcing and competitive bidding without worrying about managing software and hardware or stretching their already slim IT staff to manage the technology infrastructure.

More and more Education and public sector organisations are using the power of these new Spend Management delivery platforms to achieve significant savings that can then be put to work in other areas. And the added intangible is that it also makes the Sourcing process more transparent.

James Samuels, CEO of Claritum Said - “We’re seeing huge demand for our SaaS spend management application from both private and public sectors. The combination of spend analysis, sourcing, e-procurement, supplier network and catalogue delivers significant and measurable benefits.”

Our clients love the low upfront costs, small ongoing commitment leading to a quick ROI and significant hard cash savings. We have a number of leading Universities using the Claritum System, that have announced 17-25% savings and there’s more to come

Posted in E-procurement News, News, Procurement News, Public Sector News, Sourcing News | No Comments »

Manufacturers should address indirect spend.

Tuesday, January 12th, 2010

Many Manufacturing organisaions need to focus more time and energy into Indirect spend areas.
Large organisations typically focus on Direct Material sourcing activities as these are much easier to measure though Purchase or Material Price Variance (PPV or MPV). More mature sourcing organisations need to focus on “indirect” areas to continually drive savings impact.

There are a few obstacles that organisations need to overcome to address their Indirect Spend and a few ways to address them:

1. Unknown Spend- Because Indirect categories are usually not managed centrally, it is challenging for organisations to get their hands on the data. To solve this, they need to reach out to key suppliers for data collection. Most indirect suppliers will have good systems and can readily provide information on who (from an organisation) buys what from them.

2. Resistance to Change- Just because a supplier has been a supplier for a long time does not necessarily mean they are the best supplier in terms of price and other service requirements. Testing the market and potentially forcing a change may be in the best interest of an organisation.

3. Hard to Track Savings- Direct Material Savings are easy to track through PPV or MPV. Indirect savings are usually not as straight-forward to track. In addition to comparing old invoice price to new invoice price, organisations also need to take into consideration other factors such as demand management.

4. Lack of Procurement Influence/Control- Again, because savings are harder to track it may be tough to show Procurement’s value. Relationship building in the indirect area will need to happen gradually over time.

Posted in Corporate News, Procurement News, Sourcing News | No Comments »

Recovery forces firms to change approach to supply risk

Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009

The global recovery is ushering in a new business climate that will permanently change the way organisations think about and manage supply risk, experts predict.

The global financial crisis has taken supply risk to a new level. More than 75,000 businesses in the US have filed for bankruptcy since the beginning of 2008 and the number is expected to rise again this year. Credit remains extremely tight. And inventory and capacity reductions, layoffs and hiring freezes have reduced suppliers’ abilities to respond to fluctuations in demand.

Companies that take these issues head on and attack risk now will gain not only a valuable insurance policy against disruptions to their business, but also competitive advantage and substantial bottom-line savings. But doing so requires a new approach.”

Firms should not to be fooled that supply risk is receding because the economy is improving. Companies will face more supply risks and challenges than ever before

Organisation need the right tools and processes in place to effectively manage and overcome them such as Including risk management in sourcing strategys. Increasing the frequency of supplier performance reviews. And automating supplier management process.

Traditional, manual, spreadsheet-driven approach traditionally used to manage supply risk “will no longer cut it”. Instead Organisations need to use flexible, technology-based solutions and processes that allow them to respond quickly to changes in market conditions and business needs.

Posted in Corporate News, News, Procurement News | 3 Comments »

Cost of NOT Using Modern Supply Chain Systems: 6.8 Billion

Monday, November 30th, 2009

A recent article on CNN Money that noted that US retailers lose $6.8 Billion a year due to poor processing, supply chain errors, and frauds which could be eliminated with good systems and processes.

There’s should be no excuse for any sourcing, procurement and processing errors. Good end-to-end e-Procurement systems can match every invoice against the purchase order and contract and make sure you’re only paying for what you ordered at contracted rates. Good forecasting and inventory tracking systems will prevent costly errors. And good visibility systems will allow you to spot any exceptions as soon as they occur and stop frauds, and fraudsters, in the act.

The reduction in loss alone over their service life-time will more than pay for such a system. (Not to mention the savings that a good sourcing, e-procurement, or inventory system can help you identify!)

Posted in Corporate News, E-procurement News, Industry Research, News, Procurement News, Sourcing News | 2 Comments »

Supplier Relationships - hanging in the balance?

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

Supplier relationships are “hanging in the balance” as a result of aggressive short term cost-cutting, according to an international survey of senior executives.

The study, Cost Control: The Real Price of Cost Cutting, carried out by research consultancy Loudhouse, found that immediate cutbacks across the supply chain are more pressing than long-term investment to drive savings. This was despite organisations recognising the risks involved in tackling issues from a short-term perspective.

The research was based on interviews conducted last month with 20 CPOs and CFOs from global organisations. The in-depth study follows a survey of more than 500 executives earlier this year.

Continual cost-cutting potentially makes the supplier base less stable, the report said, and finance executives are failing to notice this because they underestimate the role of procurement in managing supplier risk.

Respondents added that ineffective processes lead to tensions between finance and procurement, making spend visibility and transparency difficult to achieve. Improving technology and automation of finance processes was recognised as a way of ensuring long-term savings.

Posted in Corporate News, Industry Research, News, Procurement News | 2 Comments »

Cost-cutting remains top priority

Wednesday, November 11th, 2009

Cutting costs will continue to be the most pressing issue for purchasing next year, according to a poll of delegates at the ProcureCon conference in Brussels this week.

In response to the question “What is the key issue for your department in 2010?”, almost one-third (32 per cent) said it was reducing costs by 5 per cent or more.

Managing risk and maintaining continuity of supply was voted the second most important issue.

Asked “What has helped increase your organisation’s efficiency most?”, 36 per cent gave the answer SRM, while 20 per cent said shared service and purchase-to-pay technology has proved most effective. For 16 per cent, outsourcing and offshoring had led to greater efficiency and a further 16 per cent had seen the greatest improvements through e-sourcing and e-auctions.

Posted in Corporate News, E-procurement News, Industry Research, News, Procurement News, SaaS News, Sourcing News | No Comments »

Für Implementierungen als SaaS-Modell geeignet

Monday, November 2nd, 2009

MicroStrategy, Anbieterin von Business Intelligence-Software (BI), gab die Erweiterung ihres OEM-Programms um neue Produktfunktionen für “Software-as-a-Service”-Unternehmen (SaaS) bekannt. Die BI-Plattform des Unternehmens stellt integrierte Reporting- und Analysefunktionen bereit. Softwareunternehmen und Technologieanbietern können ihr vorhandenes Produktangebot, um Funktionen für Reporting, Dashboarding, Analyse und automatische Warnmeldungen erweitern.

Mit dem aktuellen Release “MicroStrategy 9″ bietet das BI-Unternehmen besonders für das SaaS-Modell geeignete neue Funktionen. Diese umfassen unter anderem erweiterte Designfunktionen für Fachanwender, In-Memory-BI für eine höhere Datenskalierbarkeit in größeren mandantenfähigen Systemen und eine verbesserte Sicherheit bei der Integration mit Drittanbietern. Zudem unterstützt eine vereinfachte Plug-in-Architektur und die Möglichkeit unternehmensspezifische, eigene mehrsprachige Reporting-Terminologien innerhalb derselben Multi-Mandanten-Anwendung zu verwenden, den Einsatz im SaaS Umfeld.

Die MicroStrategy BI-Plattform ist bestens für Implementierungen als SaaS-Modell geeignet:

• Skalierbarkeit und hohe Leistung für wachsende mandantenfähige Umgebungen

• Einheitliche Metadaten zur Minimierung von Entwicklungs- und Wartungsaufwand

• Zentrale Administration zur Senkung der Supportkosten

• Umfassendes Sicherheitsmodelll für die Nutzung und den Schutz sensibler Daten

• Skalierbarkeit auf mehrere tausend Benutzer

• Intuitive Bedienung für unterschiedlichste Anwendergruppen

• Offene Plattform zur Anpassung, Personalisierung und für das Re-Branding

• Entwicklungsumgebung für Internationalisierung und Sprachvarianten

Die Zahl der MicroStrategy-OEM-Partner wächst stetig. Dabei verzeichnen Unternehmen, die mit ihren BI-Implementierungen auf das SaaS-Modell mit MicroStrategy setzen, im OEM-Programm den größten Wachstumsanteil. Zu den SaaS-Anbietern, die kürzlich dem MicroStrategy-OEM-Programm beigetreten sind, zählen u. a. Autologue (USA), Claritum (GB), FreeWheel Media (USA), GAPbuster (Australien), TradeBeam (USA) und Xtiva (USA).

“SaaS-BI-Lösungen entwickeln sich zu einer zunehmend attraktiven Alternative für Unternehmen, die unternehmensweit wichtige BI-Daten nutzen wollen, aber nicht über die Ressourcen verfügen, diese Technologien im eigenen Hause zu implementieren”, so Sanju Bansal, COO bei MicroStrategy. “Unternehmen, die ein SaaS-Modell anbieten, finden in MicroStrategy einen Partner, der es ihnen ermöglicht, eine flexible und skalierbare, mandantenfähige BI-Architektur äußerst kostengünstig aufzubauen.”

Posted in Claritum News, E-procurement News, News, Procurement News, Product News, SaaS News, Sourcing News | No Comments »

MicroStrategy enrichit son programme OEM de nouvelles capacités technologiques pour les éditeurs SaaS

Monday, November 2nd, 2009

MicroStrategy® Incorporated (Nasdaq : MSTR), le leader mondial de la Business Intelligence (BI) d’entreprise, annonce l’extension de son programme OEM avec des nouveautés technologiques destinées aux éditeurs SaaS (Software-as-a-Service).

La plate-forme décisionnelle de MicroStrategy intègre des outils de reporting et d’analyse qui permettent aux éditeurs de logiciels et fournisseurs d’ajouter facilement (avec un minimum de coûts et de ressources de développement) des applications de reporting, de création de tableaux de bord, d’analyse et d’alerte ? leurs offres de produits. Les éditeurs SaaS choisissent MicroStrategy pour son évolutivité, ses possibilités de personnalisation et ses fonctions de sécurité.

MicroStrategy 9, dernière version de la plate-forme, offre de nouvelles capacités spécialement conçues pour les éditeurs SaaS, notamment : des fonctions améliorées de conception pour l’utilisateur final, une BI en mémoire pour accueillir un volume supérieur de données dans les systèmes partagés, une intégration plus sûre aux outils tiers, une architecture plug-in facilitant la personnalisation et une possibilité pour différentes entreprises d’utiliser leur propre terminologie de reporting, en plusieurs langues, dans la même application partagée.

La plate-forme décisionnelle MicroStrategy répond parfaitement aux exigences des éditeurs SaaS pour les déploiements BI :

• Évolutivité et performances élevées pour les environnements partagés en expansion

• Métadonnées unifiées pour réduire au minimum les efforts de développement et de maintenance

• Administration centralisée pour réduire les coûts et ressources de support

• Modèle complet de sécurité pour distribuer et protéger les données sensibles

• Évolutivité pour accueillir des milliers d’utilisateurs

• Facilité d’emploi pour une communauté d’utilisateurs très diversifiée

• Plate-forme ouverte qui facilité l’intégration, la personnalisation et le rebranding

• Capacités de développement pour gérer l’internationalisation et les dialectes

Le portefeuille de partenaires OEM de MicroStrategy n’a cessé de se développer, les sociétés qui choisissent MicroStrategy pour leurs déploiements BI SaaS représentant le plus important secteur de croissance du programme OEM. Parmi les éditeurs SaaS qui ont récemment rejoint ce programme, on trouve Autologue (États-Unis), Claritum (Royaume-Uni), FreeWheel Media (États-Unis), GAPbuster (Australie), TradeBeam (États-Unis) et Xtiva (États-Unis).

« La plate-forme décisionnelle de MicroStrategy contient les outils de sécurité, de personnalisation et Web en self-service requises pour offrir une solution matérielle, logicielle et applicative unique, tout en répondant toujours aux besoins spécifiques des clients », explique Daniel Schmidt, CIO de Constellation Software. « Cette capacité, associée à une évolutivité pour accueillir de nombreux utilisateurs et d’importants volumes de données, fait de MicroStrategy la plate-forme décisionnelle idéale pour les déploiements SaaS partagés. »

« Les solutions décisionnelles SaaS représentent une alternative de plus en plus attirante pour les entreprises qui doivent partager des données décisionnelles essentielles dans l’ensemble de leur structure, mais qui ne disposent pas de ressources suffisantes pour l’implémentation et la maintenance de ces technologies en interne », conclut Sanju Bansal, COO de MicroStrategy. « Avec MicroStrategy, les entreprises qui proposent un modèle SaaS peuvent créer, de façon extr?mement rentable, une architecture BI flexible, évolutive et partagée. »

Pour plus d’informations sur le programme OEM de MicroStrategy, consulter notre site web : http://www.microStrategy.com/partners/OEM

Posted in Claritum News, E-procurement News, News, Procurement News, Product News, SaaS News, Sourcing News | No Comments »

Public sectors and Non-profits save money and manage cost

Monday, October 26th, 2009

The recent economic turmoil not only forced many small and large companies in the private sector to rethink their cost management strategies, but also prompted governmental bodies and not-for profits to emphasise agility and be more efficient.

The current climate has meant local authorities have been hard pressed to “do more with less.” With this backdrop, it not surprising for public sectors to follow the lead of private companies in using advanced Sourcing and purchasing technologies hitherto available only to large organisations to drive down cost and improve efficiency.

With an On-Demand deployment model, companies pay predictable fees to gets the results of efficient strategic sourcing and competitive bidding without worrying about managing software and hardware or stretching their already slim IT staffs to manage the technology infrastructure.

More and more public sector and governmental agencies are using the power of these new Procurement delivery platforms to achieve significant savings that can then be put to work in other areas. And the added intangible is that it also makes the Sourcing process more transparent.

James Samuels, CEO of Claritum Said - “We’re seeing huge demand for our SaaS spend management application from private and public sectors. The combination of spend analysis, sourcing, e-procurement, supplier network and catalogue delivers significant and measurable benefits.

Our clients love the quick ROI and the significant hard cash savings. Clients such as the London Borough of Enfield, Ealing and Greenwich have announced 17-25% savings and there’s more to come”

Posted in Claritum News, Client News, News, Procurement News, Public Sector News, Sourcing News | No Comments »