Referencing many of the topics covered in his critically acclaimed seminars including The Changing Face of Procurement and Dangerous Supply Chain Myths, Jon Hansen’s new book (The Purchasing Professional’s Guide to the Trends, Methodologies and Technologies that are Changing Business Forever) promises to provide new and unique insights into the emerging practices that will reshape the purchasing profession for the next 25 years and beyond.
Jon Hansen is not only very knowledgeable and articulate on this topic we affectionately call eProcurement but I believe that he is really one of the few who have been able to truly visualize the multi-faceted aspects of what can make it work.
Bob Sievert – Director, eProcurement Bureau Commonwealth of Virginia
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I am very impressed with Jon’s level of understanding.
Tom Abbott – Strategic Accounts, Tech Relationship Manager Viador Inc.
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Last week’s seminar (the Changing Face) was truly very inspiring and presented a lot of ideas for me to consider – this one is a definite bull’s eye.
Chris Roberts – Procurement Professional
Advanced Orders Now Being Accepted
With a second run already anticipated, you can reserve your advanced copy by sending an e-mail to thesenses@rogers.com with the words “The Guide” in the subject line. Please be certain to include your contact information. (Note: Members of Jon’s Linked In community receive a 15% discount. If you would like to join, send an e-mail to procureinsights@rogers.com with “Linked In” in the subject line. There is no cost to join the Linked In community.
Procurement Insights 
Stephen Guth, Esq.
December 27, 2007
One emerging trend in purchasing that is getting some significant traction is that of the Vendor Management Office or “VMO” organizational concept. The concept originated in IT, but is now spreading to other parts of the enterprise. The overriding VMO philosophy is what I call “value for money” versus the price-only focus found in traditional purchasing departments. While I’m all about e-procurement and the inherent efficiencies, the vendor relationship is key and sometimes can be diluted through a commodity, e-procurement focus. My words of caution: tier and relationship manage your vendors accordingly.
procureinsights
December 28, 2007
Thank you for your comments Stephen.
What you are of course referring to is the misalignment of technology with spend, resulting from what I refer to as a “transactional pull-through” strategy.
This pull-through strategy is employed by the majority of organizations whose current e-procurement initiative is struggling to realize sustainable savings. In an effort to justify the original (and usually inflated) expenditure in technology, initiative champions aggressively seek savings in other areas of spend in which the commodities’ characteristics are not properly understood and aligned. Hence one of the main reasons that 85% of all e-procurement initiatives fail to achieve the expected results.
There is of course so much more to the issue of technological misalingment with spend, including proper supply base development and maintenance. With both public and private sector organization’s experiencing high rates of erosion (see recent posts such as The Increasing Dangers of Vendor Rationalization and The Bands of Public Sector Supplier Engagement), it is a problem that has to be addressed.