Customer Relationship Management
Apple Procurement Leader Hails from NC State
Today’s WSJ front page shares the important role of one of Apple’s top senior executives who runs much of the procurement and supply chain activity for Apple – Tony Blevins. Mr. Blevins studied industrial engineering at North Carolina State, and […]
SCRC Meeting: Closing the Gap Between Marketing and Procurement
Our upcoming SCRC meeting on April 25 will explore a topic that has been top of mind for me and several other people for some time. To give you a clue as to what this is about, consider the typical […]
Excess and Obsolete Inventory: You’re All Responsible for It!
The Supply Chain Resource Cooperative held its first ever “Executive Roundtable on Excess and Obsolete Inventory” on the NC State campus on October 25, 2017. The event was attended by 25 executives from a variety of different industries and backgrounds. […]
Sales Can Use RACI Charts to Understand Procurement… and vice versa!
RACI Charts have been around for years, yet are often discounted. RACI stands for Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed – which refers to the relative governance structure that exists in an organizational relationship. Although RACI “charts” are often viewed as […]
Can Sales and Procurement Ever be BFF's?
The relationship between sales and procurement has always been a contentious one, and the idea of a friendship evolving between the two functions is laughable in the minds of many managers I’ve met with. The issue at the core of […]
Hilarious Sourcing Videos
I had an opportunity to watch some hilarious sourcing videos recently that I discovered on a sourcing blog by Citro Strategy. The three scenarios depict the actions of “hardball negotiating” procurement approaches, that are translated into negotiation scenarios that individuals in the […]
How does procurement evaluate outsource providers?
In the RFQ process, procurement should ideally be transparent about answering this question. Too often, however, the sales team at suppliers providing the bid have to “guess” at what they think will be important. The Request for Quote process, if […]
Red Flags that Every Supplier Business Development Team Knows to Look For
One of the most important elements suppliers seek to avoid involves participation in an RFP when there is a low probability of success. Procurement people think that every supplier will go after every RFP they put out. Think again . […]
Why do high quality suppliers pass over big RFQ/RFPs?
In a recent discussion, a large supplier of services shred that they fail to respond to almost 50% of every RFP that comes their way! This insight was very surprising to procurement executives we spoke with….few could believe that sales would […]
Getting Sales and Procurement onto the Same Team
The relationship between sales and procurement has always been a contentious one. The issue at the core of this tension is the concept of value recognition. Sales account managers accuse procurement of being purely price focused, and not recognizing the […]