Monthly Top 5 - April 2020

Author

Joël Collin-Demers
April 21, 2020 • 📖 10 minutes

Hi there,

The last month has been a whirlwind for me and the folks around me and I'm sure it's been the same for you. I hope you, your friends and family are safe during this global pandemic. I've been fortunate enough to be able to work from home.

I am getting used to the new schedule with the kids and dog home 100% of the time. It makes for interesting conference calls, that's for sure! What's been your biggest adjustment in our new collective dynamic?

Last month, I shared lots of COVID-19 related content. It seems to be everything anyone is talking about lately.

However, I made a conscious effort this month to cover non-COVID content to give us a collective break. I did however include some COVID-19 nuggets I found useful.

On another note, I wanted to share a personal achievement I am proud of this month. I was included in April the Thinkers360 Top 50 Global Thought Leaders on Procurement list. It's an honor to be among such great company. Check out the list and don't hesitate to follow these other great Procurement thought leaders for great content.

That said, I hope you enjoy this edition of Pure Procurement Monthly.

As always, don't hesitate to get in touch to share interesting content you've come across, to collaborate or just to say hello.

Best

Joël

New Blog Content

Rules for Your Procurement Digital Transformation*

Whether you are about to start a Source-to-Pay tool implementation or are in the middle of your journey and looking for tips to make things go smoother the next time you deploy a module, here are a few rules I suggest you adopt to keep yourself out of trouble. What other rules would you add to the list?*This article was initially published in the April 2020 issue of The Procurement Magazine, Italy's leading Procurement publication. Check it out here (site is in Italian).

My Favorite Procurement Articles This Month

A great case study on the power of procurement when good requirements, supplier innovation and lack of compromise brings about an excellent result both for business and the environment.

“there is beginning to be more appreciation of those in essential but poorly paid roles. Take Food City supermarkets in Chattanooga, Tennessee making headlines for giving its 16,000 employees a total US$3 million bonus reflecting their hard work ensuring people can still buy food at this difficult time. ”

How to determine if the disruptions to your supply chain really trigger your "force majeure" contract clauses.

“Another important indicator of financial trouble ahead could be sudden changes in communication patterns with key customers, and if payments are delayed, this could have a significant impact on cash flow.”

This isn't an article but a Twitter thread. I just couldn't help but share this... This packaged sliced steaks company has emerged from darkness with some massive "truth bombs" on Twitter since the COVID-19 outbreak and it's account has blown up. Just proof that heroes can pop up from unexpected places. If you click you may get stuck here a while...

Source to Pay in the News

  • 2020-03-17 - Coupa released their 2020 Q1 Business Spend Index that shows the trends in their network's spend. It is presented as an early indicator of economic trends. It will be interesting to see their Q2 BSI as this was published right before the COVID-19 confinement orders worldwide.

  • 2020-03-18 - SAP Ariba held their annual event, Ariba Live, virtually this year. They piivoted on a dime two weeks out from the planned date of their event (well done!). You can see all the video replays from the event for free HERE.

  • 2020-03-31 - Ivalua released a white paper with Forrester on effective procurement performance management. One of the key points: "lack of data integration between systems (44%), lack of relevant insights (40%) and insights not being made available at the right point in the process (39%) are preventing organisations from accurately measuring progress against business objectives"

  • 2020-04-02 - SAP Ariba announced their new Supply Continuity Pulse offering leveraging the Qualtrics platform that was acquired in 2019. You can see a demo HERE. It is currently available for free. It very much resembles SurveyMonkey with a bit of supply chain insight peppered in for now but I'm sure integration with SAP Ariba is eventually in the works.

  • 2020-04-14 - Ivalua released a white paper with the Hackett Group on Procurement Value Measurement. It details how to successfully and accurately measure Procurement’s value to the business.

  • 2020-04-14 - The Procurement technology research firm Spend Matters took a shot at its main competitors (Gartner, Forrester, IDC) with a white paper detailing why "traditional" technology ranking methods are flawed. Here's a sample: "it is clear that legacy models leverage fundamentally unuseful information as the basis of comparative rating criteria. By using expert analyst judgments and hunches to justify ratings and vendor placement, these approaches create potential risk for those that rely on them directly or indirectly." Ouch!

  • 2020-04-16 - In this month's edition of "Stall Wars", the Pentagon's Inspector General concluded ‘No evidence’ of White House pressure in JEDI contract award to Microsoft. The nail is not yet in the coffin for Amazon in this file but its not looking good!

Did I miss something interesting? Send me the link!

Upcoming Procurement Conferences

Other events to include in this list? Let me know.

Subscriber of the Month

Sarah Scudder got to know each other this month after I landed on her solution's 83 second marketing pitch. I'm always impressed with someone who values time above all else!She's the President of Real Sourcing Network, a print and marketing services sourcing software vendor. Her product, Sourceit, automates a 5-bid process on each job and manages catalog/rate card pricing. Sourceit can also track and manage sustainability and diversity spend.She's also a key collaborator at ProcuRising, a quarterly Procurement magazine that covers all aspects of the function (People, Process, Technology, etc.).If you're interested in getting to know her a bit better, reach out on LinkedIn. She's always got some interesting statuses floating around ;)

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