
D&B Goes Mobile With New Smartphone-Optimized Supply Risk Capability (Part 2)
In the first post in this series looking at D&B’s recent smartphone-optimized browser capabilities, I provided an overview of D&B’s new Supply Risk Management Mobile module. I’ll continue by offering a quick analysis of some of th…

Is SAP E-Sourcing (or now just "Sourcing") Still Competitive? (Part 2)
In the first installment of this post (which has already lead to a healthy debate in the comments section), I examined a number of the sourcing enhancements, customer milestones and related news surrounding the fall launch of SAP’…

Spend Matters Compass: Supply Risk Management — Understanding the Technology and Content Landscape
The world of supply risk management is continuing to get more and more attention these days. The attention is not exactly new, but it appears that the intent behind it is changing. It seemed that there was a tremendous amount of s…

Aravo: The Last of the Independent Supplier Information Management Mohicans?
There’s a good chance that two of the key players in the supplier information management/supply base management market will be snapped up this quarter, given the current M&A buzz in the market. Plus, at least one more provider I’m…

Friday Rant: Get Ready for a Double-Dip Recession and Its Impact on Procurement (Part 1)
Our sister-site MetalMiner ran an article yesterday citing some pretty serious — and historically accurate — leading indicative consumer data that suggests the US will soon face the prospects of a double-dip recession as Q2 revisions and Q3 GDP data come up. You can read the full story here. Lisa Reisman, who authored the piece, […]

Observations From Conference Season — Five Reasons for the Rise of Market / Commodity Intelligence
In the past few months, I’ve been to half a dozen or so different procurement events where the topic of market and commodity intelligence has surfaced in multiple presentations. It would seem from listening into these lectures as well as the hallway conversation in between sessions that companies are more interested than ever in exploring […]

Friday Rant: Spend Jihadists vs. Non Believers
Earlier this week, I met a number of practitioners deeply involved in spend analysis as the global Zycus Experience Tour kicked off its US leg in New York (I’m speaking at the Chicago event today and Houston and Los Angeles in the coming weeks as well). The event was well attended (50+ people), especially considering […]

D&B Morphs and Grows Its Overall Supply Management and Risk Strategy (Part 3)
In the first two posts in this series (click here for Part 1 and Part 2), I covered the history and context behind D&B’s Supplier Risk Management toolset. This solution set includes supply risk content, predictive analytics and an underlying technology platform for monitoring the supplier lifecycle. In this post, I’ll provide details on the […]

Spend Matters, Live From ISM on Wednesday: Supply Risk Management Solution Analysis Session (Part 1)
This Wednesday at 9:00 AM PDT at ISM, I’ll be co-presenting with Sherry Gordon, a Spend Matters contributor and president of the Value Chain Group. Our session is titled “Understanding and Choosing Supply Risk Solutions: Software, Content and Analytics.” The two of us spent quite a bit of time analyzing the supply risk solution landscape […]

Healthcare Cost Reduction: What Can Group Purchasing Organizations Learn From BPOs? (Part 2)
Image via Wikipedia In healthcare, hospital and IDN procurement environments, the primary stakeholders are doctors. Given their historic role in owning the specification process for any material, service or supply that is involved in anyway in patient outcomes, it’s logical that they would be resistant to change. But it is possible to show physicians that […]