Customer Relationship Management

Feb 23, 2017

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… 

Feb 6, 2017

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… 

Jan 29, 2017

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… 

Jan 24, 2017

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… 

Jan 13, 2017

Post-mortem on Christmas Logistics Chaos: On Customer Commitments and Transparency

As we look back on the chaos that erupted during the pre-Christmas rush, discussions with executives suggest that there is still a long way to go.  Most logistics companies are… 

Sep 14, 2016

1IT Enterprise publishes special issue on Big Data Predictions

The online magazine 1IT Enterprise recently published a special issue on some of the emerging predictions about Big Data in their latest ediction.  Many of the enterprises working in this… 

Apr 27, 2016

SCRC Meeting Insights Part II: Management Principles for Executing Visibility Strategies

As organizations move towards visible, high velocity, transparent supply chains, a number of questions arise that are fundamental to the business, but which executive often struggle to answer with any… 

Apr 20, 2016

A Fireside Chat with John Sculley, Apple's former CEO

I sat in on a great session at SIG today, where SIG’s CEO Dawn Tiura had a “fireside chat” with John Sculley.  Sculley was the legendary CEO of Pepsi Cola Co… 

Apr 19, 2016

The Do's and Don'ts of Deal Making and Contract Management

I had an opportunity to sit in on the second day of the Sourcing Industry Group meeting in Orlando today.  Ed Hansen from the law firm of Morgan Lewis presented… 

Feb 22, 2016

Poor Supply Chain Systems will drag down your asset velocity

Many of the systems that we have designed to deal with financial accountability in the supply chain, are in my opinion not only cumbersome, but in many cases, create more complexity…