Insights

04 Dec

Posted at 20:45h in e-invoicing, Electronic Invoicing by
1 Like
A few weeks ago, Tungsten, the e-invoicing people, announced a 'simplification' of their tariff structure for suppliers using their network. The change follows a successful pilot in the UK during which one major buyer reported that supplier adoption of Tungsten e-Invoicing increased from 55% to 64% in three months as a result of this new pricing model. That's quite an impressive increase - which begs the question - why stop there?

02 Dec

Posted at 17:16h in Purchase to Pay by
1 Like
The nearest I’d ever been to Las Vegas was reading Fear and Loathing by Hunter S Thompson. A place were money can buy you virtually anything. Where the rules and standards of behaviour adopted by contemporary western civilisation are suspended. Clearly, the perfect location to convene a summit to discuss best practice in purchase to pay. https://youtu.be/8TcQou6RpuY

19 Nov

Posted at 10:32h in e-invoicing, e-Procurement, Electronic Invoicing, Purchase to Pay, Spend Analysis, Spend Analytics by
1 Like
New technologies always promise to disrupt – it’s nearly always hype or enthusiastic futurology manifesting itself as over excitement that hasn’t really been thought through. But it's not always hype and it's great to see optimistic expectations actually being delivered in the real world.

I tell you what you want what you really really want - Doritos!

It was 1995. Monica Lewinski was in the White House, Windows 95 was launched, the Spice Girls were becoming the biggest girl group ever and last but not least, the internet fridge was launched. Don't believe the nouveau geeks who swear that the internet of things is something new. The Internet fridge has been breaking it's promise to disrupt the world of chilled groceries for nearly two decades. It seemed like a good idea but no one really thought it through. Many of us consider internet marketing to be intrusive. We shouldn't complain. We know what the deal is it when we sign up for "free" services in the full knowledge we're inviting the marketers into our inbox and onto our desktop. But if you thought internet marketing was intrusive, try inviting the marketers directly into your fridge to manage your snack inventory. You might believe you're buying into the internet of everything but, believe me, let an internet fridge into your kitchen and within weeks it will be full of nothing but Tortilla chips and salsa dip.

05 Nov

Posted at 14:00h in e-Procurement, e-Procurement Software, Spend Analytics by
1 Like
Like buses, you wait for one for ages then two come at once. It was only a few weeks ago I was speaking to Perfect Commerce - a rebranding of one of the great names of the past, CommerceOne - and this week I had the great pleasure to speak with Deem - one of the other greats. You'd be forgiven for not recognizing the name. Deem is a re-branding of a product that many will be familiar with - Ketera. Deem acquired Ketera in 2010 and today they're announcing what is in effect a relaunch. In their words "Deem Spend has been re-branded, refreshed and revitalized to automate entire sourcing processes and maximizes savings for our customers on every transaction".

04 Nov

Posted at 15:11h in Procurement Best Practices by
0 Likes
Shoppers and investors were taken by surprise when Tesco announced a £250m black hole in their profits last month. Tesco’s suppliers, however, were not. The supermarket, the second-largest retailer in the world, has been under pressure for some time. Shoppers are increasingly turning their backs on the big weekly grocery shop in favour of home delivery services, discount rivals Aldi and Lidl and local convenience stores. These trends have hit sales at Tesco’s big out-of-town supermarkets and its market share has declined significantly in the past year. Profit warnings led to the resignation of the Chief Executive, Philip Clarke, in July. The honeymoon for his replacement, Dave Lewis, didn’t last long. In the first few days he was confronted by a whistler blower who warned that Finance were incorrectly booking payments received from suppliers related to in-store promotions. Unfortunately Dave Lewis’s misery didn’t stop there. Recently, Tesco announced that its profits had been overstated by £263m, more than have been initially estimated and not long after, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) confirmed that it is carrying out a criminal investigation.

26 Oct

Posted at 23:32h in Purchase to Pay, Purchase to Pay Process by
1 Like
When implementing Purchase to Pay, the strength of the objections to change can be surprising. People prefer paper. They don't want to change. They want things immediately and they refuse to follow new processes. They think they can get a better deal themselves compared to the prices offered on a supplier catalog. It's been the same for years - decades even - and it's that last objection: "I can get a better deal myself" that can be the most difficult because it is - or more precisely appears to be - a valid objection. So how do you overcome it?