
SAP and Ariba: How Much Has the Business Case for Acquisition Changed Over the Years?
The Spend Matters team is furiously writing and research stories on the SAP and Ariba transaction for publication tomorrow and later in the week (you can read our initial coverage here, here and here). In the process of looking at what…

Spend Analysis: The Definitive Book on Next Level Performance
Even though Michael Lamoureux (Sourcing Innovation) and I love to quibble (and as some folks know, escalate our rhetoric from time to time) I have to lavish unrestricted praise on a new book he just co-authored:
Spend Visibility: An I…

What is Supply Chain Risk Management, Exactly? Stepping Back to Address the Challenge
As usual, Paul Teague recently penned an insightful column on his weekly blog Procurement Leaders, this time covering supplier/supply chain risk management. In it, he tosses out what might seem like a soft question, but is not: “W…

Tips to Support Supply Chain Risk Management Platform Success + Building the Business Case
Over the past couple of weeks, you’ve most likely noticed a number of posts from my presentation with Sherry Gordon at ISM, focusing on the risk track. In it, we shared what we believe is some of the most important and condensed a…

Spend Analysis Learnings From Oil and Gas — No Surprises, Some Good Lessons
A few years back, I spoke at an OFS Portal event about the evolution of the procurement function. OFS Portal is a type of procurement user group/community within the oil and gas sector that also provides additional services in the…

Sievo: The Missing Finance/Sourcing Link? Implementing/Measuring Savings to Ensure Results (Part 2)
If you couldn’t tell from the first post in this series, Sievo enables savings tracking and measurement across direct materials categories by taking a highly category specific and granular approach that incorporates both system an…

New Compass Research: The Future of Spend Visibility and Analytics — Three Scenarios For Adoption
In my first real job out of graduate school, I spent much of my day analyzing structured and unstructured information to come up with potential scenarios for companies, industries and markets. The firm I worked for specialized in …

Ten Tips For Pursuing Complex Categories as a Core Cost Reduction Strategy
Earlier this week, I proffered up the prediction that 2011 will be the year when procurement organizations refocus their efforts on complex categories as a core strategy. These categories may include contingent labor, professional…

SAP Ventures Backs Lavante: Despite Hiccups, the Supplier Management Gets a Vote of Support (Part 1)
Spend Matters has spent quite a bit of time covering vendor happenings in the supplier information management (SIM) and related markets of late. Some providers in the sector, such as Aravo and Rollstream, appear to be winning a se…

Friday Rant: How Will Rearden Cut Its New Ketera Cards?
Last week, Spend Matters covered Rearden Commerce’s Acquisition of Ketera in three posts:
Rearden Commerce Acquires Ketera, Creating a New, Broad Spend Management Offering
With Ketera, Will Rearden Prove a Viable P2P Competito…