As direct materials procurement rarely sees challenges in the compliance space; this post will focus more on the potentials that lie within indirect spend including services. High levels of compliance often owe a lot to a solid category management process; where dedicated category managers (and supporting staff) can exploit their negotiated contracts to maximize returns and minimize savings leakage (the difference between savings identified in the sourcing process and the savings realized on the invoices).  …

Continue reading

Anyone who has taken a look into the world of procurement metrics recently has seen the same thing year after year. Seemingly unaffected by financial woes, the number one metric that is used to measure procurement has stayed the same: spend under management. Although I understand why it is important, the fuzziness of spend under management actually makes the metric stumble on its own merit. This is because while spend may be crystal clear and easily …

Continue reading