Procurement 0.4 - are you at risk of relegation?

An excellent Pilot Study into Procurement 0.4 has recently been published by Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics (IML) and Bundesverband Materialwirtschaft, Einkauf und Logistik e.V. (BME) - fortunately it is also available as an English translation.

Procurement 4.0 goes way beyond spend analytics and Cloud hosted S2P - perhaps we will come to view them as 'entry grade'. In layman's terms Procurement 4.0 relates to how businesses will harness the opportunities provided by the digital revolution.  I say 'businesses' because one of the casualties, if the profession don't quickly start to think in terms of Digital Procurement Strategy , may well be the traditional Function which could be digitised as a non-value adding function out of existence.  Of course, that threat can be turned into a very real opportunity and help shift the wise to being recognised as indispensable due to their valuable strategic contribution!

Nevertheless, back to the IML/BME report, it's based on interviews with leading German procurement managers.  Interestingly, none of whom think it is desirable for Procurement to take on the role of being a 'follower' in driving forward Industry 4.0!

The report envisages Procurement 4.0 will bring significant changes in:

• Technologies and systems;
• Organisation and processes;
• Management and people; and
• Business Models.

Basically a transformation of the function or a relegation of a function?!?  This is radical stuff and I would love to see us see us seizing the opportunity as opposed to being viewed as part of the problem.  A good starting position would be reading the IML/BMW report or my own whitepaper and having a discussion with colleagues to develop your response.

Trump's Twitter procurement strategy?

Donald Trump has redefined how to use Twitter. Still President Elect, as opposed to President, he appears to have adopted a 'shoot from the hip' approach to policy and announcements. In the UK politicians were criticised from making announcements on TV as opposed to Parliament, but this is of a different order.

One of the stories which dominats the US news today is President Elect, Donald Trump's 'Cancel the order' Tweet.  The order being with Chicago-based Boeing for a new version of Air Force One.  The Tweet is effectively saying "I am going to block this contract as I believe it is no longer a good deal". Now, that will send tidal waves through contractors and those in procurement in US public procurement! What will become the new modus operandi?

Needless to say Trump's estimate of the $4bn is challenged by many. Boeing, it appears, haven't even secured the deal!  Then you've got the reality that the plane is unlikely to be delivered during Trump's residence of the Whitehouse anyway - it will be other Presidents' plane as opposed to his. Transition is taking on a new completion now and for his successor.

Anyway, is Trump ushering in a new style of Twitter usage, a new style of public procurement negotiations, or a new style of procurement strategy?  If other political and business leaders chose to follow his style this will create a very real and present danger for procurement professionals. Trump has built a reputation of saying "You're fired" what's that mean for procurement?

CIPS Cyber Security for Procurement Professionals - a useful eLearning tool.

I have just become aware that CIPS released a free eLearning course 'Cyber Security for Procurement Professionals'  which was developed with the UK Government.

There are six modules and it is available free of charge regardless of whether or not you are a CIPS member.  The suggested time for completing the eLearning is 75' but you will need longer if you follow the various links.

To me the real value is in Module 3; the others are pretty generic cyber security awareness raising, while Model 3 provides really useful specific advice on what the procurement professional should do, for example, including the need for certifications in bids.  I think it also implies the need to give some thought to the implications of cyber security within S2P processes.

On the downside, there is some infuriating background music - turn it off. The 'Knowledge Check' questions are the end of each module are so basic they are of questionable value. Disappointingly, I found when I followed some of the early document links I ended up having to completely restart the tool as opposed to picking up where I left off.

Nevertheless, I think this is a useful CIPS offer and would recommend it be included as a 'must do annually'.  I wonder why it is not behind CIPS member only firewall?

What can we learn from Deloitte's procurement leaders?

Deloitte have now published their 2016 Global CPO survey
which is worth a read and perhaps even using as a benchmark. Remember it isn't a state of the world but based on the views of an abnormal sample of 324 procurement leaders. Nevertheless some key findings jump out at me:

• Cost reduction remains a key business strategy for the next 12 months for 74% of the respondents. I do not think it is fair to assume that the other 26% do not see cost reduction as a strategy, but perhaps the question was misunderstood and answered from the perspective of primary objective?
• 62% of 'procurement leaders' believe of their team do not have the skills to deliver the procurement strategy. While we all know there is an overall skills deficit, what concerns me here is why CPOs would be producing a strategy which they don't have confidence can be delivered - a good CPO will recognise the constraints of people and produce a strategy shaped by those limitations. Of course a good procurement strategy will address skills development too. (As an aside I expect to pick up on the issue of producing a unachievable procurement strategy in a future post so keep watching)!
• 40% have a clear digital procurement strategy addressing cognitive analytics, crowdsourcing and digital reporting - aka 60% don;y have a strategy! 40% appears to be surprisingly high to me and when I consider only 16% are engaging through the use of social media and 42% with mobile technologies, I suspect there is a misunderstanding of what a digital procurement strategy should comprise (see my white paper). 
• Given the recent procurement disasters the suggestion that only 25% are 'fully involved in the management of risk' is not only disappointing but a bit scary, remember the respondents are 'leaders"!
• While I frequently hear claims of high procurement influence over spend, the report appears to contradict that, for example, only 66% involved in make/buy decisions. Now if you are a procurement leader and 34% of make/buy decisions are passing you buy - big spend decisions - while I think you may well be honest, how on earth do so many of the 'procurement pack' claim they've influence over ≥ 70% spend?

Sadly, the report didn't pick up on many of the indicators of leading practice I discussed before, but my big lesson is, there remains plenty of opportunity for procurement to improve procurement contribution but first we need to be honest about where we are at the present.

eWorld30 Procurement & Supply: Celebration or a cause for concern?

Today it was Happy Birthday to eWorld Procurement & Supply - the free to attend conference. Always worth attending in these days when so little is allocated to training budgets.  Anyway, here's my selected view of the day which overall represents a good day.

Way back in 2006 I delivered a presentation on 'Selling Procurement Internally'.  I was amazed to hear the Keynote address from the Hackett Group's, Chris Sawchuk, still found it appropriate to deliver similar messages - okay, my presentation was to a public sector group but is it really okay for the profession to still struggle gaining internal ownership? That should be a cause for concern!

I then attended an excellent presentation from Simon Dadswell of Proactis. Now some headline statistics were revealed which are also a cause for concern:

• Only 28% of organisations are using Contract Management eProcurement solutions;
• 13% of organisations are using supplier management procurement solutions;
• 51% have P2P;
• 61% feel constrained by Policy!

Do you not find that startling? How long have we known about the business justification for eProcurement solutions - is it less than 15 years? What's the obstacle?

You can make our own judgement on Sawchuk talking about the need to adopt internal marketing approaches and Dadswell's eProcurement implementation statistics. Some may find it a wake-up call, others may find it reassuring that they're in amongst the laggards, while others may just let it all pass them by.  I think we really need to say that by this 30th eWorld Procurement & Supply should be a line in the sand and that by this time next year there has to be a transformational improvement. If not what are the real benefits delivered through attending eWorld?

Don't consider me to have a negative view of eWorld. I did actually attend other more encouraging presentations. For example, Conor Mullaney from exceleratedS2P shared some excellent lessons learnt on the need for an integrated approach to S2P - I think his credentials shone and he presented a compelling case. In a nutshell, lot's of interfacing of solutions within Source-to-Contract and Purchase-to-Pay but the future requires more integration.

Sam De Silva seemed to have had too many quadruple espressos as he raced through Legal Matters. His content is always first class but perhaps he would benefit from trying to say less and making the audience feel as if they are in the Dock. I noticed many using mobile phones to take pics of his slides. This is a man who certainly knows his subject and his enthusasim shines like the Pharos of Alexandria.

Finally I attended a double session workshop led by Lisa Malone of Procurious on '5 ways procurement should start to use social media'. I detected a lot of honesty among the attendees and an enthusiasm for moving forward - I even witnessed one delegate signing up to Twitter during the workshop. Digital Procurement Strategy, I think, will deliver a paradigm shift in procurement - hopefully eWorld will ensure that eWorld31 helps accelerate that shift and that Procurious continue their leadership.

CYOD - an opportunity for procurement

It comes as little surprise to me that one of the key strands of Digital Procurement Strategy, BYOD (Bring Your Own Device), has seen a loss in popularity and a shift to CYOD (Choose Your Own Device).

At a personal level, I never quite understood why anyone would expect me to buy my own device for work, and along with the loss of storage amongst others drawbacks, also find myself open to intrusions while on holiday, etc..  Of course on the plus side it meant reduced hardware having to be carried with me and avoiding some of the clunking kit which cost-focused employers seem to prefer.

CYOD appears to offer a reasonable compromise as it means employers will offer a range of options and employees will choose their preference.

Tip #3 of Lee Naik's CYOD post on LinkedIn however does give me cause for concern though:

Assemble the right team. Mobile projects should include members from IT, legal, HR, security operations and the business. 

No prizes for guessing why Tip #3 raises a 'red light' for me. What's going on that Naik's Mobile Projects Team excludes Procurement?  

To me there needs to be a policy encompassing CYOD and that needs to include constraints on the range of options, who is eligible, and approach to exception and alternatives. There needs to be a sourcing strategy. There needs to be a clear definition of the need. There needs to be a framework arrangement linked to a robust procurement process including the thorough commercial evaluation of the various offers. There needs to be a compliance and contract management approach supported by appropriate T&Cs. There also needs to be an exit strategy.

So it is disappointing that Naik didn't immediately think Procurement should have a 'seat at the table'. My suggestion is that if your organisation is developing a Mobile or Digital strategy, make sure your potential to add value is recognised at Day 1 otherwise it could be another opportunity missed.

Uber wars

Today sees the next round of 'Uber Wars' in London.   Uber is an app which allows you to hail a Cab and know how much it will cost.

If like me you travel frequently between Northern Ireland and London it provides the additional benefit of not having to bring English notes as London Cabbies have a reluctance to accept the Queen's Northern Irish Sterling. 

It also provides an alternative supply source - using Uber doesn't mean you can't also use Black Cabs!

Nevertheless, the Black Cabbies are out in protest today, I think 12,000, through fear of what digital might do to their business model. I've previously discussed Digital Procurement Strategy and how we should embrace it but this is an angle I hadn't touched upon.

It's a strange protest insofar as it has actually pushed people to find out more about their competitor,  Uber, and its benefits, I suspect has led to a marked increase in Uber app downloads. I also assume, Uber provides some sort of 'trackable' history which means it may be safer as well as cheaper. Meanwhile Uber stole a mark on the Black Cabs today by adding Black Cabs to their app. I'm not sure how the Cabbies will respond to that.

Will the protest work? Actually I don't think so. The existing dominant provider has signposted to its competitor. There are negligible switching costs, if any. 

To have an impact Black Cabs will need to think smarter in communicating whatever benefits they have and delivering a more customer focussed service - something which is erratic. The previous benefits of 'The Knowledge' may no longer be worth investing in if you have aspirations of being a Cabbie - could Uber become a tool for Black Cabbies too?

Then the protest suffers from too many alternatives available today - a parallel protest with a Tube Strike may have led TfL to revisit its position. It's also a lovely day here in London - walking is fine!

From a commercial point of view, will firms no longer accept Black Cab receipts and ask for evidence that you first tried Uber?

Digital is changing taxis - have you thought how it is changing procurement?

Reflections on eWorld Purchasing & Supply

Today I attended the eWorld Purchasing & Supply event. You wouldn't be surprised if I said a free conference was good value - well, to me there's no such thing as a free conference as there is always the opportunity cost of how you could have otherwise have spent your time. There's also the reality, that now, in many organisations, even justifying the costs of attending an event in London is a battle some feel just isn't worth fighting. But to me this was well worth attending and actually staying the whole day. (As an aside, it never ceases to amaze me that so few delegates have the good manners and ethics to stay the whole day!)

Having said all that, I found almost all of the sessions I attended of excellent quality and a really good opportunity to learn. So in a nutshell some interesting learning:

1. Eva Wimmers from Deutshe Telecom, in an excellent keynote, reflected on the reality that a short-term focus on paying less is probably detrimental to the procurement 'brand' and improved strategic contribution, particularly in an environment of decreasing volumes. Procurement needs to reposition itself and lead on demand shaping and spend management - what she referred to as moving beyond procurement.
2. Eva also told us there's a word in Germany for saving money but hurting the business. Don't ask me what the word is but I think there's a real problem that procurement people sometimes are their own worst enemies in doing just that, regardless of what the word is.
3. Another of Eva's gems was that "procurement is only as strong as the relationships with functional colleagues". I think that's very true but there's a real problem with procurement suffering from poor stakeholder engagement and management - the focus on technical know-how, to me, is distracts from the increasingly required soft skills.
4. There was a recurring theme from many of the speakers of splitting strategic procurement from operational buying. Their message about devolving to the right level or even outsourcing, effective use of P2P systems and pCards - in theory, that is all very simple but few really spoke of how they'd managed to get operational ownership. There is of course an interesting lesson here for those in the public sector who have been very cynical about the benefits of pCards!

'Smaller, Better, Faster, Stronger' - Raises the bar for public procurement?

Today's Times declared "Switching from paper to online might save Government £70bn" and there was mention made of procurement. The Title: 'Smaller, Better, Faster, Stronger: Remaking government of the digital age"  was captivating, and Twitter implied the Policy Exchange's report was a must read for anyone interested in public procurement. The scene was set of a document raising the bar for procurement.

Set aside that the Foreword is filled with political point-scoring. You discover in the Executive Summary there are three big opportunities espoused, one of which is electronic purchasing. Reference being made so early to 'purchasing' should have rang warning bells, but hey, we're still talking about BIG OPPORTUNITIES in the government use of digital and this "is primarily concerned about the big-picture priorities for the 2015 parliament" (p.14) regardless of who governs.

A fairly selective literature review comprises Chapter 2 - strange not much reference to the body of knowledge. policy and strategy relating to eProcurement in the public sector!

76 pages - yet really only page 36 and part of page 37 discuss the BIG OPPORTUNITY of 'purchasing'!

The New Digital Age - book review

There is absolutely no doubt that digital will reshape the way we live and work. So the subtitle of this book 'Reshaping, the future of people, nations and business', by two of the gurus of digital, was of immediate interest.

It is a very readable book and does provide a vision of the future. Yet, to me, it said little about how business would be reshaped - reshaping procurement doesn't feature at all. There is little which would justify the book being located on the 'business and management' shelves in a library or bookshop (even on line). It could be used as a stimulus for discussion along the lines of 'so how would this translate to the procurement world?' - sadly that answer is not found in this book.

Procurement does however get a very brief mention, specifically on p.205, but don't get excited - unfortunately the authors discuss the inflexibility of defence procurement and how users are adapting by 'flying below the procurement radar' and work-arounds. If that is the view of two influencers it is a sad reflection on strategic, agile procurement!

One thing did strike me was the narrow vision of our two friends - for example, they still view a world of nationality based on physical land boundaries. Why should that constraint of birth place, whether for individuals or companies remain in the future - in the future, could we not opt to have nationality based on some form of virtual affiliation, say something like the old EEC or Commonwealth with laws which dictate how those of that 'national' affiliation chose to trade and do business, why not? If such virtual nationalities were created you would have transformed the rules of trade and could opt to have trade with only 'virtual states' able to trade in their own currency, tariffs, licences, language, and laws.

However, if you want some more grounded ideas on how digital can reshape procurement now, I suggest you look beyond The New Digital Age , perhaps even my own white paper on how procurement strategy needs to address digital.

A case of digital procurement sustaining and saving

It's not often I bring a good news story; maybe the sun has improved my outlook. Regardless, I am thankful to tweet of @360supplierview which drew my attention to a report in yesterday's Yorkshire Post.

Asda have provided a great example of how digital technology can be effectively harnessed by procurement to reduce costs and improve sustainability. Asda's Sustain and Save Exchange is a collaborative platform for suppliers - to me it looks like a community of practice. It aims to share information, knowledge and learning, raise questions, post key documents, attend focused activities, spur new ideas and solve problems.

Set up in February 2012 there are claims of £13m of savings in sustainable innovations. 300 suppliers have joined so far, including, bakery, fish, poultry, chilled, frozen, and ethnic foods.

Collaborative knowledge sharing and problem solving of this type would have been inconceivable a few years ago but this is surely only scratching the surface. Why have so few organisations seized the opportunity?

Ironically, while the retail sector is starting to recognise the potential of social collaboration, the future of LGA's Khub hangs in the balance. The LGA, sadly, has never really been able to drive the original vision and drive of Steve Dale even though he delivered global collaboration. It was a personal sadness to me as I was, at one time, leading the Efficiency and Productivity Exchange which was providing evidence of benefits clearly before the retail sector tipped its toe in the water.

Procurement Needs a Digital Strategy: White Paper

Some weeks ago, through a few posts, I discussed the need for procurement to embrace digital strategy. Those core ideas have now been drawn together into a whitepaper which can now been downloaded:  Procurement Needs a Digital Strategy: White Papers: Resources: TCS.

I hope you find the whitepaper of interest and I'd be delighted to receive any comments.

Is our vision for Big Data in procurement big enough?

My recent discussion on Digital Procurement Strategy included Big Data. The latest BBC2 Horizon programme, 'The Age of Big Data' caused me to give some more thought to Big Data and led me to conclude that if we were to harness Big Data we could see a paradigm shift in procurement performance.


As an aside, first a lesson from decision theory which the Horizon programme drew on from the planning of the manned mission to Mars (and perhaps more importantly the return journey). Faced with a gigantic range of Big Data and the need to make complex decisions, a simple principle, transferable to procurement, was used, namely, focus first on identifying those decisions which narrow down most options, they, in turn, cut out the need to consider many of decisions which would only have been relevant to the eliminated options. Simple principle but sometimes overlooked.

However, back to the core point. I began to think of the potential of Big Data for procurement decision making. Most recognise that spend analytics provide a core foundation for procurement improvement but I think that is now Level 1. If we were to capture a wider range of data, mine it and uncover patterns, we could:

• Predict the demand/level of consumption of a good/service and help profile demand; 
• Predict the optimum supplier capability and capacity required to deliver a required outcome in a given situation, and therefore reduce paying for over-capacity;
• Identify the costs which could be removed to deliver a given solution;
• Predict supplier behaviour and their likely negotiating responses;
• Predict the optimum form of contract pricing, for example, fixed price, rise and fall, index linked;
• Predict the optimum contract term;
• Predict the most advantageous time to 'go to market';
• Predict the optimum period required to solicit the best bid;
• Predict the optimum budget and whole life costs;
• Identify the key areas to focus on in contract management;
• Predict procurement risk profiles and optimum mitigation strategies; 
• ...

I can understand your cynicism of prediction and using big data in procurement, but as one of the examples in Horizon programme illustrated, even knowing that there's a 52% probability that you are right can significantly increasing effectiveness.

We now need to shift our thinking about Big Data from 'what if?' to 'why not?'.

Big Data: Embracing Digital Procurement Strategy

Recently we have been discussing the need for a Digital Procurement Strategy - a strategy which sets out how to gain the optimum benefit from cloud, mobile and social. I hope you have found the series of interest - this is the last of the five sections.

If organisations are to seize that opportunity they also need to recognise the risk of being overwhelmed by data, yes, enormous amounts of data. Peter Smith recently highlighted this as the problem with information overload. Big Data analytics provide the solution.

An information deficit is removed by Digital Procurement Strategy but in its place comes information overload and clutter. Clutter which needs to be captured, curated, stored, retrievable, searchable, shared, analysed, and visualised. We have already discussed the potential benefits gained through conversations and listening within a global supply market stakeholder community. Digital means the conversations are linked and taking place simultaneously - a cacophony of amplified noise.

But conversations are only part of the digital equation, integration with the eProcurement systems is the other ingredient - that's a phenomenal amount of intelligence. Digital Procurement Strategy needs to make sense of that, it's almost like some GCHQ listener syphoning off what is important to procurement decision making and responding proactively.

Big Data analytics provide the means for making sense out of the clutter and we have previously discussed the excellent example of MBS' work on this with BMW supply chain. Digital Procurement Strategy is the means for strategically harnessing the opportunity and setting out how and the outcomes to be achieved.

Social Media: Embracing Digital Procurement Strategy

One of they key aspects of being sociable is the ability to hold a meaningful conversation. In a nutshell that's what social media provides to procurement - the ability to carry on a meaningful conversation. Of course that assumes that procurement has recognised the strategic advantages of 'talking with' as opposed to 'talking to'.

Think of the last time you had to deal with a point of clarification with a RFP - would it be easier and less open to challenge if you had that conversation with the market through micro-blooging sites such as Twitter or Yammer?

Now think of the benefits you've gained through private conversations. Is it fair to assume that sometimes someone has made a suggestion that has saved you a lot of money? Is it fair to assume that someone has triggered an idea for a better of way of solving a problem you've been struggling with? Is it fair to assume that someone has helped you avoid a crisis? I hope you have benefited from others suggestions in the past on how to reduce costs, creativity and innovation, and risk mitigation. Just visualise the benefits procurement could gain from conversations with the supply market, existing suppliers and potential suppliers, product and service users - social media makes that opportunity a reality, and your procurement strategy should set out how you will make use of the opportunity.

Having said that, social media changes the market place dynamics. The buyer may not shape the conversations but become the subject of the conversations. The potential for the buyer to be 'named and shamed as a bad payer' and also for the market to make comparative assessments of buyers is very real. Those conversations about the buyer are beyond the buyers control but have introduced new risks which need to be recognised and reflected in procurement strategy.

While there are a plethora of social media sites which can be accessed and have their place in a digital procurement strategy (such as, Yammer, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, LInkedIn, Slideshare), starting from the perspective of available channels is an easily made mistake. Instead the starting position should be who are the audience you want to converse with and what is the outcome you want to achieve.

However, by way of suggestions, here are some potential uses of social media in procurement:

Mobile: Embracing Digital Procurement Strategy

Recently we have been discussing some of the potential impact of Digital and the need for a Procurement Strategy which embraces the digital opportunity.

We have discussed the high-level strategy and Cloud but in this blog I wanted to discuss Mobile.

Recall the recent past when, if you wanted to check your emails, you needed to be in front of your desktop. Remember how liberating it felt when you were able to pick your emails up through your Blackberry/iPhone/whatever.

Digital means we no longer need to be linked to a desktop to access our eProcurement systems. Nor do those other colleagues who would have perhaps had to complete paper records for subsequent data  input. With Quick Response (QR) reader codes you can go straight from mobile to the main platform in seconds without so much as keying in a single digit. But you don't need QR codes to benefit all that is required is a mobile device.

We now have apps on mobile phones, for example, which enable shopping cart requests to be approved remotely faster and at less cost which in turn improves P2P time.

Mobile means transaction costs are reduced and productivity is increased.

The Cloud: Embracing Digital Procurement Strategy

Last week I implied that Procurement has been a laggard, by comparison with Marketing, in embracing 'digital'. I suggested there is a need for digital procurement strategies which support the achievement of procurement strategic objectives, for example, cost reduction, innovation, risk mitigation, CSR. 

Before we can develop appropriate strategies we need to understand 'digital' and its potential. This blog discusses 'The Cloud' and in subsequent blogs I hope to discuss 'mobile', 'social' and big data'.

At a very basic level it may be suffice to understand that it is cloud technology which enables 'Apps' - no cloud, no apps. The impact for procurement is that Apps can now be accessed and developed to reflect our needs. The challenge therefore is to define the appropriate applications portfolio needs and, if an app doesn't exist, incentivise its development. The procurement professional needs to become both a visionary and a discerning selector of the ever increasing range of available apps. However, if you take this one step further you will understand than the cloud means apps can talk to each other, so, customers apps, marketing apps, suppliers apps, supply chain apps all have the potential to be interconnected and talk to each other - just visualise yourself in the London Olympic stadium and that you have the capacity to instantly exchange information and 'know how' with every other person in the stadium, including the athletes and the coaches, and every person watching the Olympics throughout the world - that's what cloud interconnectivity has the potential to delivery. 

One of the big impacts is that cloud completely transforms the eProcurement business justification.

Embracing digital procurement strategy

It has been reported that 60% of brand marketers anticipate a 40% increase in social media spend this year. That leads me to ask two questions:

1. How much influence does the CPO have over this increasing area of spend?
2. How much is being allocated within the Procurement budget for embracing digital as part of procurement strategy?

I'm not going to try to answer the first question at the present, although it would provide an interesting research question.

However, I'm inclined to hazard a guess, in answer to the second question, that most CPO's have not allocated anything in their budgets for a digital procurement strategy.

What do I mean by a digital procurement strategy? I'm referring to more than using mobile 'shopping cart' applications or twitter for advertising ITTs.  I mean setting out how procurement is going to make use of digital technology to achieve its objectives, say, for example, the objectives of cost reduction, risk mitigation, innovation, CSR.

By a digital procurement strategy I also mean how are you going to make use of the Cloud, mobile technology, social media and big data to achieve your objectives, and how you are developing the skills of procurement staff to address digital.

It has been clear that our sister profession, Marketing, has been concerned with digital strategy for some time. yet I see little evidence of Procurement giving digital much thought. Like Marketing, we too straddle the boundary interface between the internal organisation and the external environment - we have a responsibility for the upstream supply chain. We also have interfaces and communications needs with every part of the internal organisation and with buying partners.

Over the next few weeks I may give some more attention to the opportunities which the digital revolution provide for procurement. In the meantime I would be interested to hear of your own plans and experience?

Are you ready for Procurement Visibility: ProcureTruths

I wonder how many of you have come across Glassdoor; a website where potential employees can identify a particular organisation, the typical salaries paid to their varying levels of staff, what questions were asked in interviews, others experience of the recruitment process and what those who were successful in the selection process subsequently thought about working for the organisation. Some really interesting insights and all free of charge.

It came as quite a surprise to someone who recently wanted to discuss a 'compelling opportunity' with me, when I explained that the comments on Glassdoor made it clear to me there was little value in progressing the discussion.

I can see how Glassdoor could be used as part of procurement research in providing useful insights on bidding firms. Of course as Peter Smith rightly implies have we information overload?

However, visualise a similar service for the supply market, let's call it, 'ProcureTruths'. Perhaps ProcureTruths already exists unbeknown to me (please enlighten me if you know of it?).

Nevertheless, let's visualise that ProcureTruths, provides potential suppliers with information on specific buying organisations, say:

1. Key decision makers in the procurement process;
2. Procurements influence over spend;
3. Typical questions asked during the procurement process; 
4. Organisational tendency to maverick spend;
5. Buyers qualifications and currency of training;
6. Understanding and application of procurement best practice;