Monthly Top 5 - August 2024

Archive | Upgrade to Premium | Advertise

Hi Readers,

The inaugural ProcureTech Cup “Regular Season” is off and running. I’ve added a new content block to the newsletter below the ensure you never miss the action.

Otherwise, it’s time for the monthly Top 5. Great month for the “heavy hitters”. You’ll recognize all the sources this month if you’ve been following me for a while.

Enjoy!

Every month, I comb through 1000+ articles across 40+ sources to bring you the best free procurement articles published that month.

I sort through the noise so you don’t have to.

📰 In this week’s edition:

• 📄 2024 Procurement Tech Trends Report (sponsored)

• 🏆 The Road to the ProcureTech Cup: Episode 25-01

• 🔝 August 2024 Top 5

  • No. 1 - The Most Exhaustive Intake & Orchestration Guide Out There…

  • No. 2 - Advanced Procurement WITHOUT Gen-AI

  • No. 3 - Can Procurement Actually Help Avert Climate Change?

  • No. 4 - A Primer on Supplier Relationship Management (SRM)

  • No. 5 - Big Consulting is “No Help at All”… 😅

• 🎁 Get access to my links database

Let’s dive in!

Note: Some of the content above is only available in the email version of this newsletter. Don’t miss out! Sign up for free to get the next edition.

🏆 Road to the ProcureTech Cup

Last Week’s Episode

The inaugural ProcureTech Cup “Regular Season” kicked off last Friday.

If you want to know what it’s all about, here are the links to the replays.

I covered:

• What is the ProcureTech Cup?

• Which brands are participating?

• What’s the schedule?

This Week’s Episode

Join me as Airbase comes the show to demo their Procure-to-Pay platform:

See you there!

No. 1 🥇

The Most Exhaustive Intake & Orchestration Guide Out There…

This month’s best article goes to the Spend Matters team for their impressive Intake & Orchestration Market overview.

I’ve written a lot in the past couple months about the benefits of Intake & Orchestration, how to avoid the process orchestration trap and how to deploy Intake and Orchestration tools for procurement.

However, I haven’t really gone into the weeds defining the software category the way Spend Matters has, including:

• Definitions

• Strength and Weaknesses

• Use cases

• Core solution capabilities

• Vendors list

This is a great complimentary piece to what I’ve been discussing in this newsletter.

Intake & Orchestration Solutions : An In-Depth Guide
by Spend Matters

No. 2 🥈

Advanced Procurement WITHOUT Gen-AI

Since Chat GPT hit mainstream in November 2023 (and subsequently took a big part of our collective attention in ProcureTech), Michael Lamoureux has been making the case that it’s a complete waste of resources.

While I don’t see eye to eye with him on the “complete” part (Gen AI has plus and minuses like any other tool), I do appreciate his critical analysis which challenges us to avoid turning to Gen AI for every problem.

In his recent article, Michael lays out 6 alternative technologies you should be studying/leveraging in your quest for a more mature, high performing procurement function.

Advanced Procurement Yesterday - No Gen-AI Needed!
by Michael Lamoureux at Sourcing Innovation

No. 3 🥉

Can Procurement Actually Help Avert Climate Change?

In his recent article, Tom Mills lays out 7 concrete actions procurement teams can take to positively impact climate change.

Most organizations operating on a calendar-based fiscal year start budgeting for next year right about now… This is a great time to think about how to integrate sustainable procurement initiatives into your 2025 plans.

Tom’s article is a great “gut check”.

Can Procurement Actually Do Anything to Avert Climate Change?
by Tom Mills at Procure Bites

No. 4 🏅

A Primer on Supplier Relationship Management (SRM)

Art of Procurement is on a roll recently publishing some well packaged articles around fundamentals. If you’re looking for a high-level framework to help define and communicate Supplier Relationship Management to your business, start here — Definitions and all.

Supplier Management Explained – Definitions, Elements, and Examples
by Philip Ideson at Art of Procurement

No. 5 🎖

Big Consulting is “No Help at All”… 😅

Lastly this month, a piece which highlights something I’ve been saying for years which is that you shouldn’t just “buy a brand” when it comes to consulting firms…

In addition to the points made in the article, I’d add that you should always meet the actual people who will deliver on your mandate. Quality consulting is less about where you get it from (brand) and more about who (people) who you get it from.

Check references at the individual consultant level!

Big consulting firms fail to “Transform”
by Peter Smith at Bad Buying

Get a gift this week… 🎁

Each week I spend several hours crafting this newsletter entirely for free. It'd mean the world to me if you could share The Pure Procurement Newsletter with just 1 person who you think would also enjoy it.

Here's your unique referral code that you can copy and paste: https://newsletter.pureprocurement.ca/subscribe?ref=PLACEHOLDER
(You need to be subscribed and logged in for the link to work)

When you refer 1 subscriber, I’ll give you access to the Monthly Top 5 Link Archive!