Idea Lounge
Sourcing and Procurement’s Role in the Future of Healthcare
This article was originally published by Healthcare Business Today. America’s hospitals are projected to lose $54 billion in net income in 2021, with more than one-third of these institutions maintaining negative operating margins through the year, according to the American Hospital Association. Some of the healthcare industry’s financial instability can be traced back to expenses related to… Read more »
How to Fix Failing Procurement Technology Before it’s Too Late
This article was originally published by Supply & Demand Chain Executive. Procurement technology can unlock transformative value for the procurement function and the company. But, to realize these benefits, there must be a plan for overcoming human barriers. Sourcing and procurement technology solutions are sold based upon the promise of enabling purchasing efficiencies throughout an… Read more »
The Value of Indirect Procurement to the CEO
This article was originally published by Procurement Magazine. “CEOs, of course, have a great deal of help and resources at their disposal. However, they, more than anyone else in the organization, confront an acute scarcity of one resource. That resource is time. There is never enough time to do everything that a CEO is responsible for.”… Read more »
The Spark: A View from the Other Side – An Argument for Procurement to Break Out of Its Comfort Zone
Can Procurement Departments Keep Up with AI’s Evolution?
This article was originally published by EPSNews. As artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities mature, an increasing number of businesses are investing in AI initiatives and leveraging automation in their daily business operations. This once leading-edge technology is becoming more ubiquitous and is quickly becoming an imperative to long-term success. In fact, analysts project the global AI… Read more »
AI’s Emergence in Strategic Business Functions: Is Procurement Getting Left Behind?
This article was originally published by betanews.com. 50 percent of respondents to a recent McKinsey survey reported that their companies adopted artificial intelligence (AI) in at least one business function in 2020. As interest and investment in AI and machine learning (ML) continue to grow across different business functions, is Procurement keeping pace with its business unit… Read more »
Three Lessons Learned: From One Woman in Procurement to the Next
This article was originally published by Future of Sourcing. Women in the C-suite are slowly gaining momentum, with leaders like Jane Fraser, CEO of Citi, Cathy Engelbert, CEO of Deloitte, and Karen Knudsen, CEO of the American Cancer Society all being named “first female CEOs” within the last few months. But there is still opportunity… Read more »
No One is Talking About What We Really Need to do to Get More Women in Leadership
This article was originally published by Fast Company. The events of 2020 risk reversing the progress we have made towards gender disparity in company leadership. As many as two million women in the U.S. have either left or considered leaving the workforce because of caregiving burdens and lack of work flexibility, according to a McKinsey study… Read more »
Using Data Analytics to Manage GNFR Expenses and Improve Profitability
Uncovering potential savings in GNFR (goods not for resale) expense has become increasingly important, as many US retail and CPG companies have encountered constrained profit margins as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Titled “Using Data Analytics to Manage GNFR Expenses and Improve Profitability”, the findings in our co-authored study are derived from a February… Read more »
Why Procurement Has Yet to Solve the Spend Data Challenge
This article was originally published by Supply and Demand Chain Executive. As a procurement leader looking to fix a spend data challenge, take time to evaluate your spend data and understand how you can deliver valuable and actionable insights to find new savings. Spend analytics, or the process of collecting spend data, categorizing and analyzing… Read more »
Covid-19 Gave Procurement a Seat in the Boardroom. Capitalize on it.
This article was originally published by epsnews.com Business stakeholders often overlook sourcing and procurement departments, viewing them as tactical purchasing and contract administrators or even as barriers to the buying process. The pandemic gave procurement an opportunity to prove its value, as businesses relied on cost savings and critical supplies such as PPE-related goods and services to… Read more »
2021: The Year of Bringing Buying To the Board Room
This article was originally published in the Sourcing Industry Group (SIG) Speaks Blog – 12/10/20, featuring LogicSource Managing Partner, Sam Vail. It is hard to believe 2021 is at our doorstep, and while the immediate future is uncertain, the mid-to long-range outlook is virtually unknown. What we thought would be a ‘two-week’ work-from-home in March,… Read more »
Why Not-For-Resale Savings Could be the Key to Unlocking Profitability
The last six months have been among the most challenging many businesses have ever experienced. With the economy closing—and still only partially reopened—the retail and consumer packaged goods (CPG) industries have been disproportionately affected. According to a recent study conducted by LogicSource in partnership with Coresight Research, a data-driven retail and technology research firm, 88%… Read more »
Procurement Perseverance: How Businesses are Surviving the Pandemic
As we enter the third month of the COVID-19 pandemic in America, the shock can be felt far and wide by communities and businesses alike. Initially, none of us was sure what the overall global impact would be, which led to a variety of responses from the business community. Many forged ahead with business as… Read more »
Women in Procurement: The New Power Players
It’s a reality of the US workforce that women are underrepresented in almost every industry, especially at the corporate level. Procurement at large is no exception. Though companies that want an edge on their competitors would be wise to course-correct. Based on its own experience, LogicSource knows there is great benefit to be gained from… Read more »
Finding the Buried Treasure in Your Organization
There is a hidden resource hiding within every organization. And it’s one that can help any leader—CPO, CFO, COO—overcome the primary challenge with which they are tasked: increase earnings. For most of the clients we’ve worked with at LogicSource, the focus in rising to this challenge is often revenue-centric. If you want to impact earnings,… Read more »
Building the Talent of Your Company’s Dreams
I’m reminded of the common Field of Dreams misquote, “If you build it, they will come.” All Ray had to do was build the ball field and open the doors, and apparitions of history’s greatest baseball players along with Iowans from far and wide would show up to play in and watch the games. Thinking… Read more »
Procurement Pros: You Have Major Brand Vulnerability!
Brand vulnerability is the degree to which a brand is exposed to risk. Companies have studied the subject for decades. Whether it’s misalignment of messaging and execution, a crisis of credibility, or a struggle to innovate and stay relevant, analyzing how a brand is perceived, with its various stakeholders, customers, and partners, is a critical,… Read more »
Taming the Procurement Tornado
Speeding Complex Categories to Market with Fewer Hands on Deck As companies focus on core competencies, resources are shifted away from internal service organizations, in particular procurement departments. Ideally, the theory is that lean strategic sourcing teams select suppliers and negotiate rate cards, which IT builds into online catalogs where business stakeholders can… Read more »
What You May Be Missing
Too often, strategic sourcing initiatives are far better at identifying potential savings than delivering real savings that clients can actually measure. Real results often bear little resemblance to projected savings – with shortfalls exceeding 20 to 30% in many cases – and with process erosion occurring in as little as nine months. Let those numbers… Read more »
See the Forest: Digital Asset Management (DAM) Sustainability
By Carol Thomas-Knipes, Director of Digital Asset Management, for the DAM Guru Program Blog As technologists, especially in digital asset management (DAM), we often work in feature-rich systems. One system can do a lot and be utilized for multiple purposes. That flexibility and the capability to be a content hub is one of the reasons… Read more »
Aligning the Interests of Buyers and Suppliers
The Counterintuitive Truths of Supply Chain Management Important ideas get lost in translation when moving from concept stage to real-world execution. LogicSource believes the best way to align buyer and supplier interests is to embrace the counter-intuitive truths of supply chain management. Reconciling all perspectives will help you build and maintain a network where… Read more »
Introducing … Buying as a Service
One company can’t do it all. That’s why organizations often seek external support for areas outside of their core competency. They work with outside legal counsel, employ advertising agencies, rely on public relations firms and outsource payroll. Allow me to introduce you to the latest business process outsourcing (BPO) category – Buying as a Service…. Read more »
Refreshing the Brand without Breaking the Bank: Remodeling Stores on a Budget
By Jo Seed, Chief Operating Officer, LogicSource This article was originally published in the Journal of Corporate Renewal Disruption is the new norm across the retail industry as retailers pursue the best omnichannel approach to engage with their customers. The proliferation of internet retail and omnichannel delivery is resulting in new priorities for the in-store… Read more »
The CPG Marketing + Procurement Dilemma
For Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) companies, Marketing is a mission-critical function and a major barometer for overall brand health. The same reason we know the names Nike, Budweiser and Kleenex is the reason why Marketing is king within CPG. On the shelves, on TV and on the Internet, it’s the core function that connects products with… Read more »
Keep ‘Em Separated: Construction Project Management and Procurement
Time is money. We all know this truism yet how many hours do construction project managers spend per week – outside of their key focus area – on sourcing and procurement? For instance, how much time is spent finding and negotiating with suppliers? How about dealing with GC contracts? Why not leave it to the… Read more »
Are You Rusting?
I spend more than 70% of my work life on the road visiting with clients and colleagues spread around the globe. Despite the obvious setbacks of being away from my family, there are interesting benefits to meeting with executives from varying industries and companies at diverse stages of growth. Particularly, the array of perspectives I… Read more »
Are you satisfied?
Customers expect nothing less than total satisfaction with their purchase experiences. How many times have you gone out to dinner and enjoyed great food but terrible service? The overall result is that you’re probably not recommending that restaurant to a friend. The core of any business can be overshadowed by bad service. At LogicSource, that’s… Read more »
Transparency, Trust, and Collaboration in Supply Chain Management
March Industry Roundup A roundup of late 2014 supply chain articles highlights the industry trend toward “transparency” across supply chain management operations – transparency across the operation AND transparency in buyer/supplier or buyer/provider relationships. Thought leaders across the spectrum found it a worthy topic for consideration, from the data-driven Procurement Leaders/Ariba whitepaper “Collaborative Supplier Networks”… Read more »
Solving the Best of Breed vs. Incumbent Sourcing Problem
Spend Matters’ Pierre Mitchell packs an enormous amount of actionable advice in his recent blog post, “Solving the Best of Breed vs. Incumbent Sourcing Problem – Beyond Selecting Technology.” Specifically, applying strategic sourcing best practices across categories, evaluating the mega agency against the niche player, and ultimately, how procurement drives value for the organization beyond… Read more »
Let’s Build the Case
DATA, DETAIL AND A REASON TO BELIEVE LogicSource utilized the Mutual Value Assessment (MVA) methodology to identify a major retailer’s product spend, current supply chain, sourcing processes and technology across the concept-to-customer lifecycle. Using an onsite team, we provided sourcing expertise for marketing print, catalog and direct mail, and through the OneMarket platform, continue to… Read more »
Category Approach, Simply Tactical Excellence
Asking the right questions can help procurement departments evaluate their category approach and can show value and contribution to the overall P&L via a demonstrable, end-to-end sourcing process. Click here to read “Category Approach, Simply Tactical Excellence” by Philipp Lacambra at Procurious. .
The Gorilla And The Hummingbird
“It’s like trying to be the 800 pound gorilla and a hummingbird at the same time!” remarked a senior executive discussing the challenges of achieving excellence in strategic sourcing and procurement. That comment raised two questions: What did he mean? And why is it so hard to achieve? At the strategic level, companies require strong… Read more »
Where Do We Go Next?
Companies that source and procure from third parties often have a vision of a range of partnerships that bring them new thinking and innovation. However, things change, and as these relationships mature, they can find that the services provided become static, and this leads them to ask the question: “Where do we go next?” Sourcing… Read more »
Walk Through Walls
INTEGRATING THE CONCEPT-TO-CUSTOMER BUSINESS PROCESS Previously, distinctive departments worked in their own silos handing off “completed” goals. Now the barriers are broken, and everyone in the marketing support and procurement continuum are not only on the same page – everyone can see it in real time. By uniting previously disconnected business processes, OneMarket technology enables dramatic… Read more »
There is a Better Way
SAAS SOLUTIONS = ABILITY + AGILITY – CAPEX The rise of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) will herald the eventual delivery of enterprise applications as web-hosted services via a browser. The LogicSource solution enhances this idea to empower clients with new, innovative capabilities through the OneMarket platform – but without the cost normally required for an enterprise investment…. Read more »
Don’t Be Afraid to Think Big About Measurement
USING STRATEGIC PROCUREMENT METRICS TO CREATE ENTERPRISE VALUE LogicSource’s Mutual Value Assessment frequently shows that businesses are spending more than they thought. Based on their collective experience of implementing new enterprise-level metrics across a number of industries, LogicSource recommends viewing the enterprise as a whole, identifying opportunities to aggregate, moving up one level, and piloting… Read more »
The Ingredients for Better Buying
Behind every smart sourcing solution are six key ingredients: domain expertise; strategic sourcing capabilities; business processes; technology; supplier base; and market leverage. LogicSource brings a peerless group of assets and capabilities to help our clients buy better – transforming their current capabilities to increase procurement and pricing effectiveness across business operations. When thinking about how… Read more »
On Change: Don’t Be a Turkey
After many years in professional services, technology, and business process outsourcing, one phrase always comes back to me at the beginning of any new engagement: “Turkeys don’t vote for Thanksgiving.” Sure, it’s a bit of dark humor, but it highlights the biggest barrier to progress in business there is: fear of change. Change is to… Read more »