Monthly Top 5 - March 2021

Author

Joël Collin-Demers
March 31, 2021 • 📖 5 minutes

Hi there,

Every month, as I put this newsletter together, I always try to pick content that is good for three different categories of folks:

  1. Have not yet transformed / digitized Procurement function

  2. Are in the middle of a transformation project

  3. Have achieved a major transformation and are looking to optimize (the work is never done!)

However, I've never asked you if there's a category I am missing... So I'd like to ask something of you this month:

Currently, what is your #1 challenge when trying to make your Procurement system work better for you?

If something comes to mind, comment and let me know! It will help me make better content picks going forward.

Thank you and enjoy this month's newsletter!

Sincerely,

Joël

Top 5 Source-to-Pay Articles - March 2021

#1 - Reigniting Your Team's Motivation with Art

After a year of work from home, we are all likely experiencing some level of pandemic fatigue. I know I am... While it's great to be able to stay productive with our suites of communications tools (email, videoconferencing, etc.), it doesn't replace face-to-face interactions. I'm craving for those "in-between" moments that are eliminated when you jump from video meeting to video meeting.I found the tactics proposed in this HBR article to be an interesting proposition to recreate these "in-between" moments and help your team reconnect in original ways. If you try one of these at your next team meeting, let me know how it goes!

Use Art to Reignite Your Team’s Motivation
by Kenny White at Harvard Business Review

#2 - A Procure-to-Pay Transformation Project Checklist

Starting a Procure-to-Pay (P2P) transformation project? Ivalua released this neat PDF checklist document this month that helps ensure you've covered all your bases before starting. It covers questions to ask yourself on potential objectives, people & organization, processes, data, metrics and technology in the context of your implementation.

It's definitely not exhaustive but it's a great place to start!

P.S. There's an e-mail wall to get to the report.

#3 - One Cargo Ship and a $40 Billion Impact

The Ever Given cargo ship was freed from it's vexing position in the Suez Canal after blocking this international trade route for just under a week. This was definitely the Supply Chain / Procurement story of the month... It's another reminder that logistics and supply chains are fragile and can have Achilles heels if risk is not managed... This story has been covered from all angles but I found Supply Chain Drive's three posts to be a great summary of the event for supply chain and procurement professionals.

What I was most surprised to learn in my readings about the Suez Canal is that it has been blocked before... 15 ships were stranded in the canal for 8 YEARS in the late 60s! Crazy story.

Ever Given and the Suez Canal
by Matt Leonard at Supply Chain Drive

#4 - Gartner 2020 Magic Quadrant for P2P Suites

In late 2020, Gartner released their annual Magic Quadrant analysis which ranks the major P2P solutions on the market. They also released a report entitled Critical Capabilities for Procure-to-Pay Suites which outlines the strengths and weaknesses of different solutions based on the needs of different industries (direct, indirect, services, complex environment & finance-focused). SAP Ariba recently made these reports available for free on their site if you go through an e-mail wall.

As always, I find these reports to be a great resource as you evaluate different solutions but advise you get information from multiple sources (e.g., Spend Matters, industry peers, consultants like myself, etc.) before committing to a short list. Use surrogation as much as possible to get to your short list.

#5 - Growing Procurement's Influence in the Business

What is the best way to grow the impact of Procurement on the company's bottom line? It is a function which spends the company's money after all...Well, start by putting yourself in the shoes of your other business units. How do they generate revenue? How is Procurement uniquely positioned to positively influence there efforts? By facilitating supplier-led innovation for components or services? By training sales teams on prospect Procurement processes?

There are many ways to generate more value for your stakeholders if you put your mind to it. The Art of Procurement put together a great "cheat sheet" to get you thinking about this (behind an email wall).

Driving a Growth Agenda
by Art of Procurement

You wrote or read a great article? Send it my way, I'd love to read it.

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