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🎣 The Catch Up

Dear Readers,

The end of 2023 is almost upon us! Already…

As I wrap up the year and look forward to 2024, I am EXCITED. Those of you who have been following the newsletter for a while have most likely noticed quite a few changes in the formatting and style of the newsletter.

For example, I have amazing new cover art for all of this year’s post in the archive. Have a look! I want to make this the best looking Procurement content out there on top of the most practical and actionable.

This is only the beginning!

I’m working on the following for 2024:

• 12 more premium “Deep Dive” Step-by-Step guides to help you leverage Procurement Tech without breaking your face…

• Live intimate fireside chat events with big names in Procurement Tech where you’ll be able to ask questions (priority to premium subscribers)

• Adding a Procurement policy template in the Pure Procurement store

• Pure Procurement merchandise (“If you’re in Procurement, you’re in Sales!!!”)

• A referral program with lots of free goodies for all

• And of course… The free Sunday Night Note and Monthly Top 5 packed with insights to help you succeed in your Procurement digital transformation efforts.

2023 was the year of experimentation. 2024 is the year of execution!

Given everything going on next year, I’ll be raising the price for premium subscriptions on January 1^st 2024 to 80$/year or 9$/month.

If you’ve been thinking about getting a premium subscription, now is the time. Get one while they’re still 35$/year or 5$/month (you secure pricing forever).

I recently got this email from a subscriber:

That’s it! You’ve been warned 😅

Otherwise, enjoy this month’s Top 5. There are some great articles this month.

Best,

Joël

P.S. In case you missed it, here was my most popular LinkedIn post of the month:
Standing Up a Centralized Procurement Function is a Tough Gig…

#1 - How Can We Make the RFP Faster?

When we purchase complex services, there’s a whole swath of risks involved. Running an RFP process is meant to minimize those risks. However, it introduces another important business risk: Going too slowly!

In the following article, Rich goes into detail on why your should consider Agile Sourcing where possible and a step-by-step guide on how to implement it.

Make it a 2024 goal → Run 2-3 RFPs with an Agile Sourcing process.

Speeding Up Sourcing
by Rich Sains at Digital Procurement

#2 - How to Buy Services Better

Services are a fickle beast… Planned/Unplanned… Simple/Complex… Scoped/Staff Augmentation…

In short, it’s impossible to treat the services category as a homogeneous block and hope to manage it optimally from a Procurement perspective.

In November, Art of Procurement put out a white paper to help you start thinking about how to break down services into manageable categories.

Increasing Services Procurement Efficiency
by Art of Procurement

#3 - Leverage your Suppliers’ Brains!

This month, State of Flux put out a MASSIVE 108 page ebook on their research on Supplier Relationship Management which assessed feedback from 509 respondents globally.

They define and cover best practices across their “6 Pillars of SRM”:

• Collaboration

• Value

• Technology

• Engagement

• Governance

• People

Only 8% of respondents "have developed established supplier management programs across the six pillars”.

Lots of “meat on the bone” with this report for anyone looking to push their organization’s SRM practice further to better leverage your “extended enterprise” (your suppliers).

The Extended Enterprise
by State of Flux

#4 - Practical Use Cases for Gen AI

We’re at the “peak of inflated expectations” for Generative AI in the business world, according to Gartner.

The question I keep hearing from clients is: “Yeah… Gen AI is great but how can I actually use it in Procurement?”

In a November article, Ivalua does a great job of listing out some the core use cases where Gen AI is mature enough to be leveraged TODAY.

• Supplier Research

• Legal Assistant

• Category & Market Insights

• Enhanced Communications

• Generate Improvement Plans

• Chat With Your Documents

Transforming Procurement with Generative AI: A Practical Approach
by Ivalua

Of course, before signing up for any piece of tech leveraging Gen AI, you should get good answers to the 2 questions I discussed a few weeks ago.

#5 - Should Travel Be Tendered?

In this PASA article, Tony O’Conner makes the compelling case that the Travel category should definitely be in the scope of your Strategic Procurement team.

Tim has a couple great points and tips that make tendering for travel seem like a no brainer…

Beware of the Anti-RFP [for the Travel category]
by Tony O’Connor at Procurement and Supply Australasia (PASA)

📊 How Did I Do Today?

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