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
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
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
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
'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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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 Bernie at 7:02 PM
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
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
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
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
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
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
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 Bernie at 4:16 PM
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 Bernie at 11:40 AM
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 Bernie at 7:02 AM
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 Bernie at 7:05 PM
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 Bernie at 8:30 PM