Monthly Top 5 - October 2020

Author

Joël Collin-Demers
October 21, 2020 • 📖 9 minutes

Dear Pure Procurement readers,

I hope you are keeping well!

First, I want to welcome all of you who are receiving this newsletter for the first time. There's a fair number of you this month. I hope you get some value from the content and welcome your feedback. Of course, I also always want to thank the folks who have been following me for the past few months as I test and tweak this format. We are coming up on a year shortly!

Second, this edition of the newsletter is all about giving you actionable content you can use right away. Whether you are about to start a sourcing event, are in the middle of a technology implementation or are thinking about your next improvement initiatives, I hope you'll find something that adds value to what you are doing right now.

Please enjoy the newsletter.

As always, don't hesitate to get in touch with any feedback or just to say hello.

Best,

Joël

New Pure Procurement Content

1. How to Buy the Right Procurement Systems 

16 min read

In this day in age, it's nearly impossible to be a high performing Procurement organization with a single system. Inevitably, you will get to a point where your unique system (e.g. ERP) does not cut it any more and you need additional tools to get you to where you want to go (e.g. S2P or other niche Procurement systems). However, the are now hundreds of options on the market which makes the selection exercise very complex.In this article, I give you a framework to guide you in the system selection and purchasing decisions.

67 min run time

On the latest episode of the Pure Procurement Podcast, I was joined by Danny Scharmann, President and CEO of the Accounts Payable automation solution provider xSuite, to discuss how to tackle the Accounts Payable piece of a Procurement transformation.

During our chat, we covered a variety of topics such as:

  • Defining Accounts Payable

  • The value drivers of AP processes

  • The value of AP automation tools

  • How to think about selection and architecture of AP automation tools

  • Considerations for implementation of such tools (e.g. timeline and cost)

  • And much more

I hope you enjoy the chat as much as I did! Don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions about AP transformation.

6 min read

I recently had to configure new purchase order copying rules in a SAP ERP system and documented the process for posterity... It's a pretty niche topic but when you need to do it yourself, you'll be glad to have a guide! Feel free to bookmark.

My Favorite Procurement Articles This Month

Virtual cards are just virtualized versions of existing PCards. So, although the same advantages/disadvantages exist from a transactional process perspective, virtual PCards make the administrative burden of having PCards a whole lot simpler. As this technology becomes more widespread, it will be interesting to see how it changes the dynamic of PCard payments vs. today

Covid-19 has exposed the Achille’s heel of lots of “Artificial Intelligence” solutions for supply chain. In essence, making decisions based on historical data is difficult when the future is very different from the past. It’s a great lesson to internalize as we collectively ramp up the use of “intelligent” solutions in the years to come. Is your system really intelligent or does it simply mimic past trends?

3. ERP [Systems] and KPIs
by ERP the Right Way

Deep dive on the difference between metric reporting and KPI reporting. It will get you thinking about quick wins you can implement to make your reporting more impactful for you and your colleagues in all your systems, not just ERP.

Great tangible primer on what to consider when sourcing a virtual meeting platform. Like any Procurement activity, it’s about defining your needs before you go out to market. It will save you time and resources if you’re in the process of sourcing a new tool in our new #WFH reality.

We have a HUGE supply chain challenge once a COVID-19 vaccine is ready. “The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has warned it would take the equivalent of 8,000 747 jumbo jets to transport a single dose of the Covid-19 vaccine to cover the 7.8bn global population.” This is mind boggling.

Source to Pay in the News

  • 2020-09-02 – Procurious and Coupa released a report titled Procurement’s Time to Lead which covers the shift in the boardroom dynamic brought about by COVID. Procurement is being asked more than ever before to to mitigate supply chain risk, contain costs, drive business continuity and increase spend visibility. Where are the opportunities for improvement?

  • 2020-09-10 – SpendMatters and SirionLabs released a report on What Makes SirionLabs’s Contract Lifecycle Management solution great. Download it HERE.

  • 2020-10-01 – SpendMatters released their updated Fall 2020 SolutionMap. Great tool to use if you want to quickly evaluate Procurement technology vendor capabilities against your company profile.

  • 2020-10-01 – Digital Procurement World (DPW) released an update to its Procurement Technology Landscape graph which lists 200 vendors across 15 categories and is a great way to discover new niche vendors.

  • 2020-10-07 – SAP Ariba announced another leadership change in its Intelligent Spend business unit this month. Here’s to hoping the right recipe is now in place for the software giant.

  • 2020-10-08 – ProcurePort released their Definitive Guide to Procurement Software which gives a good overview of different methodologies to consider (technology, change management, etc.) when implementing Procurement software.

  • 2020-10-15 – I recently stumbled upon Google’s Ariba Network Supplier Enablement FAQ page. If you are currently running Supplier Enablement activities for any supplier network, this is a great example of what you should be putting together for your suppliers.

Did I miss something interesting? Send me the link!

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