Integrated supply - bye products, hello solutions
Suppliers in the coming decade will continue to take on bigger pieces of things they already do for customers. Think of it as ‘integrated supply on steriods’ where suppliers step out of their comfort zones to drive customer performance.
Posted by Editor at 8:30 AM | Comments (0)
Database administrator aids PPPFA adoption in Western Cape
Ariba (previously Quadrem) is assisting the Provincial Government of the Western Cape (PGWC) to implement its policy to only contract with businesses duly registered on the Western Cape Supplier Database (WCSD), Catherine Hills, Partner: Global Accounts at Ariba, tells SmartProcurement.
Posted by Editor at 8:20 AM | Comments (0)
Collaboration will reign in Procurement's future
Organisations will dramatically increase their dependence on suppliers for products, services, manpower, expertise, and new ideas.This is the consensus reached in a report ‘VISION 2020: Ideas for Procurement in 2020 by Industry-Leading Procurement Executives’, which is the outcome of a dialogue between Ariba and leading procurement practitioners and influencers.
Posted by Editor at 6:10 AM | Comments (0)
Sustainable supplier and enterprise development
Many of the 6 000 000 small to medium enterprises (SMEs) in South Africa are struggling and a high percentage will fall by the wayside, Yvonne Themba, Director of Corporate Affairs at Shanduka Black Umbrellas, told delegates at SmartProcurement World.
Posted by Editor at 6:10 AM | Comments (0)
Expenditure analysis system now provides BEE scorecard data
The July 2011 update of its expenditure analysis module now provides data on a supplier’s BEE scorecard, in addition to a consolidated BEE expenditure analysis report, says Procurement information solutions provider Ezee-Dex.“This feature enables companies to analyse B-BBEE expenditure on the spot. Any B-BBEE report you need on a vendor should take no longer than a few minutes,” MD Cathrin Heath tells SmartProcurement.
Posted by Editor at 5:00 AM | Comments (0)
Know your key procurement customers and their roles
Organisations may have targeted certain industries, markets or regions as a customer base, but have they thought of the roles within the organisations they are targeting? One area a lot of companies overlook is the dynamics of the purchasing process within their target market, Douglas MacGregor of SuppDex tells SmartProcurement.
Posted by Editor at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)
Consumer Protection Act: implications for suppliers
As of April 1, 2011 suppliers in South Africa must comply with the Consumer Protection Act (CPA). Braam Botha of management training and consulting firm Arbinger Institute of South Africa tells SmartProcurement about some practical and legal implications of compliance.This article in made available only for information purposes, and is not legal opinion or advice.
Posted by Editor at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)
Volume leveraging can lessen anticipated Gauteng highway toll food price increases
Despite government’s suspension of gazetted tolls for Gauteng’s highways, their implementation on June 23 will have an inflationary effect on food in Gauteng, Gordon Henry, General Manager of the Catervest Buying Group tells SmartProcurement.
Posted by Editor at 2:10 PM | Comments (0)
Red flags that your suppliers may be facing difficult times
The recession has made it clear that organisations of all sizes in all geographies face the possibility of going out of business, which would have a ripple effect both upstream and downstream.In a perfect world, relationships with suppliers would be truly collaborative, with the supplier communicating well in advance of failure or disruption. But in the real world, companies need a process and checklist to include in their supplier qualification and audit programmes.
Posted by Editor at 2:00 PM | Comments (0)
Absa's proactive supplier management practices - Risk management in procurement
A 2010 McKinsey case study on purchasing organisations found that Absa Group Sourcing (AGS) leads the industry average (3.1 vs. 2.5), while excelling in category purchasing processes, where it achieved a higher rank than 80% of the organisations in its industry and well beyond the banking industry average.AGS has delivered sustainable, annualised savings equal to 6% of its cost base year-on-year since 2006. Antony Barker, Head of Ethics, Risk and Governance at AGS, gave delegates at SmartProcurement World an insight into risk management’s role in achieving those savings.
Posted by StaffWriter at 3:50 AM | Comments (0)
Managing production costs could mean a 15% higher price/earnings ratio
Organisations that reduce costs by managing the production cost of goods sold and not by cutting overheads had a price/earnings ratio 15% higher than their peers, reports performance advisory company Corporate Executive Board (CEB).“Organisations therefore need commitment from their suppliers for sustainable and rewarding cost savings,” Douglas MacGregor, MD of supplier service benchmarking company SuppDex, tells SmartProcurement.
Posted by StaffWriter at 3:30 AM | Comments (0)
How effective SRM can keep you competitive
In the contemporary economic climate supply chains compete against each other, rather than individual organisations.If it is ultimately a supply chain’s total cost of ownership (TCO) that will determine the affordability of its products, then to be competitive there needs to be transparency, knowledge sharing and collaboration of the different cogs within the supply chain. SmartProcurement researched what supply relationship managers need to have in place for an organisation to improve its bottom line and remain competitive.
Posted by StaffWriter at 12:50 AM | Comments (0)
Shortlisting a supplier performance management solution
The best of breed supplier performance management (SPM) solutions available today are widely being recognised as important enablers to manage, monitor and find methods for collaboration with suppliers, says Niren Chaudhary, of Zycus, a spend management organisation.
Posted by Editor at 12:20 AM | Comments (0)
Perfecting the Art of Managing Supplier Relationships
How can Procurement professionals unlock sustainable value by effectively managing relationships within the supply chain?
Posted by Editor at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)
4 steps to an optimised supply chain
Today’s supply chains across all industries are becoming significantly more complex. Suppliers, distributors and retailers are faced with the combined challenges of global sourcing and fulfilment, shorter product life cycles, increasing amounts of legislation, the dynamics of multi‐channel retailing, the speed of technological advances and now, the most challenging economic circumstances in a lifetime.
Posted by Editor at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)
Procurement's image problem
The Procurement profession has a serious image problem. Most South African organisations, whether corporate or government, still do not see the profession as a strategically important function...
Posted by Editor at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)
Banks are just another supplier
An organisation’s banking partner should be dealt with like any strategic supplier, Julian Curtiss, MD of Transaction Technology Solutions, tells SmartProcurement.
Posted by Editor at 9:15 AM | Comments (0)
'Supplier enablement' is a key component for successful procurement processes in South Africa
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This article appeared in the May newsletter with certain technical inaccuracies. SmartProcurement apologises for the error and would like to thank Quadrem for bringing the mistake to our attention and permitting us to re-print the article with the necessary corrections.The outsourced management of suppliers is of special significance in South Africa as a component of a successful procurement / tender process in the market place, Catherine Hills, Quadrem’s Client Services Director, told SmartProcurement in a recent interview.
Posted by Editor at 6:42 AM | Comments (0)
Enterprise Development: The little-known golden nugget in the BBBEE pyramid
The business world normally associates the term Enterprise Development with some or other form of philanthropy. An example of this would be where the ‘principal’ donates something (usually money) to improve the knowledge-base and to develop the skills-set of the ‘beneficiary’.
Posted by StaffWriter at 1:08 PM | Comments (0)
World Class Operational Procurement: Oh yes, paying the supplier...
Part 9 of a ten-part series that examines key operational aspects of the so-called “Purchase to Pay” value chain
by Independent Contributor, Peter Alkema – Head: Purchase to Pay at Absa
“Money makes the world go round and this is even more so in the world of ‘Purchase to Pay’ (PTP) where the last step is often the one that receives the most attention, simply because the up-front steps and general governance has not been in place", Peter Alkema, Head: Purchase to Pay, Absa, told SmartProcurement.
Posted by Editor at 10:58 AM | Comments (0)
World Class Operational Procurement: Where's my stuff?
Part 8 of a ten-part series that examines key operational aspects of the so-called “Purchase to Pay” value chain
by Independent Contributor, Peter Alkema – Head: Purchase to Pay at ABSA
"The request was authorised, the Purchasing Order (PO) was created and communicated to the supplier, and now the goods or services are expected to be delivered...."
Posted by Editor at 8:00 AM | Comments (0)
How to generate and track output devices: Savings in the desktop, copying and print environment through managed print solutions (MPS)
This is the second in a series of 4 articles on the topic of generating and tracking output savings, with particular focus on the Managed Print Solutions (MPS) category. The focus of this article is the often delicate issue of “vendor contract re-negotiation”.
Posted by Editor at 6:30 AM | Comments (0)
Collaborative cost management with key suppliers
It has been said that in organisation within a world-class procurement framework it is difficult to find a clear-cut distinction between the organisational drive for continuous improvement viz-a-viz value release from actively managing Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). "In fact, these objectives represent the two sides of the same coin and trying to determine which side is more important is irrelevant", Nic Badenhorst, an independent procurement consultant, told SmartProcurement.
Posted by Editor at 12:00 PM | Comments (0)
Supplier Opinion Surveys 3: A component of supplier relationship management
In this, our third and final article in our series on Supplier Opinion Surveys, we present examples of the deliverables of supplier opinion surveys, discuss the objectives of these surveys, as well as supplier satisfaction dimensions within the context of supplier relationship management.
Posted by StaffWriter at 9:30 AM | Comments (0)
Automating and / or outsourcing external print services
“External print services will usually be categorised as indirect spend, unless your organisation itself is in print or publishing, in which case, it would fall into the direct spend category”, Gary Davies, Managing Director of Print Outsource International (POINT), told SmartProcurement.
Posted by StaffWriter at 8:40 AM | Comments (0)
Supplier opinion surveys: Practical how to's and key benefits
In our previous article entitled “What does your supplier really think of you?” we introduced Supplier Opinion Surveys to you and discussed the various types of surveys and questions that can be developed to assist you as a procurement professional in understanding the true relationship with your supplier, and to determine those areas which need improvement.
Posted by Editor at 8:30 AM | Comments (0)
What do your suppliers really think of you?
"The majority of suppliers will mostly not express what they truly feel and experience in their relationship with your company, its employees and specifically your buyers," Andrew Hillman, MD of Bespoke Sourcing Solutions, told SmartProcurement.
Posted by bernievn at 7:02 PM | Comments (0)
Powerful, next generation spend analysis service launched
Purchasing Index (PI) is has announce the launch of a groundbreaking new spend analysis service, Spendtrak™, a next-generation technology that transforms spend analysis from “nice-to-have” to “must-have”. At a fraction of the cost of most older technologies, Spendtrak™ will immediately demonstrate superior value for money” Alan Low, Managing Director of PI, explained to SmartProcurement.
Posted by Editor at 9:35 AM | Comments (0)
World Class Operational Procurement: Committing the Funds - Anatomy of a Purchase Order
Part 5 of a ten-part series that examines key operational aspects of the so-called “Purchase to Pay” value chain
by Independent Contributor, Peter Alkema – Head: Purchase to Pay at ABSA
“Until such time as a Purchase Order (PO) is created by the customer and received by the supplier, no legally binding purchase process has been initiated,” Peter Alkema, Head: Purchase to Pay, ABSA, told SmartProcurement. Although there are generally agreed principles for POs (it could be written by hand or generated by a purchasing system), it must at least display certain header and line item information. In most cases it will have been created at the end of an approval workflow that began with the creation of a shopping cart (see Part 2).
Posted by Editor at 6:56 AM | Comments (0)
Competitive Supplier Development: Surfing a Tsunami
There is a concerted effort under way by the Institute of Purchasing and Supply South Africa (IPSA) to help put in place the systems and skills-development programmes necessary to assist State-owned enterprises Transnet and Eskom to realign their procurement practices to the rigours associated with the Competitive Supplier Development Programme (CSDP).Posted by Editor at 9:00 AM | Comments (0)
Free State Province signs with QUADREM for centralised, verified supplier database
Johannesburg and Amsterdam - March 2008 - Quadrem Africa has recently been awarded a three-year contract to implement and manage one centralised verified supplier database for South Africa's Free State Provincial Government and four Public Entities in the province.Posted by StaffWriter at 8:54 PM | Comments (0)
Enterprise Development unlocks Preferential Procurement value
E
nterprise Development, along with Socio-Economic Development and Skills Development, should be a fundamental cornerstone of any well-structured South African BEE Procurement strategy. Andrew Bizzell, co-founder of the Institute for Enterprise Development and a BEESA consultant, told Smart Procurement how procurement organisations can make Enterprise Development (as a BEE strategy) work for them...Posted by StaffWriter at 11:31 AM | Comments (0)
Seamless reporting on your monthly/ quarterly/ annual BBBEE spend now available
It's Friday noon hour and you're about to leave for a supplier meeting when the CPO buzzes and says that the FD just flew in from HQ and urgently ( for their impromptu Board Meeting at 14h00) requires your Commodity Report on your total BEE Spend:
Posted by StaffWriter at 9:27 AM | Comments (0)
A “Quick Start” to Supply Chain Collaboration
Joint improvement efforts between buyers and suppliers can yield impressive results. William Sharp of 4-Africa Solutions told Smart Procurement that: When looking at joint Supply Chain Collaboration projects there are two aspects that need to be considered when mapping joint supply chain processes namely ....
Posted by bernievn at 4:16 PM | Comments (0)
Outsourced BEE compliance services pinpoint supplier development requirements for increased Procurement Score.
“With the Codes of Good Practice on Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (the Codes) approved and about to be gazetted, the BEE verification industry is moving towards much stricter regulation. Already there has been a substantial reduction in the number of businesses offering verification services now published in the Association of BEE Verification Agencies’ website (www.abva.co.za).”
Posted by bernievn at 11:40 AM | Comments (0)
Supplier sustainability evaluation service launched
Organisations can better manage risks by limiting their exposure to unstable suppliers. The general principle being that insight into a supplier’s sustainability profile, will advance the procurement department’s ability to plan for and handle, disruptions in supply, inconsistencies in product quality, the sourcing of back up or new suppliers and a host of other related issues.
Posted by bernievn at 7:02 AM | Comments (0)
Find out about KEY supplier failure before it happens
Is your strategic supplier's business about to fail? Even they might not be 100% aware of their situation...
Business Safety Ratings is an innovative new service that assist procurement officers to select safe, new suppliers and to aid ailing, existing suppliers. Early signals of a possible need for bale-out or remedial intervention assist buyers in anticipating potential supplier failure before it happens.
Posted by bernievn at 7:05 PM | Comments (0)
BEE Supplier Development: How to pass the buck but still get the credit
By Bernie van Niekerk
No doubt, BEE is an ultra-hot topic. In this election year, it will dominate many political speeches. It will also dominate many deals and already is. (see BEE News section). For procurement professionals in Government and the Private sector this means meeting BEE targets. And the more broad-based the empowerment targets, the hotter it will get for the procurement fraternity.
Posted by bernievn at 8:30 PM | Comments (5)
