The Point
Buyers Meeting Point attends many sales AND procurement webinars/webcasts. One of the interesting things about consistently reading content from quality sources is that you start to notice trends. It is amazing how often the same topics arise at the same time in different places. We use this blog as a way to help you stay on top of the major themes in procurement and supply chain management.
How do you know if your Spend is “Under “Management”?
This week’s eSourcing Wiki-Wednesday topic is Metrics for the Rest of Us – an article that breaks metrics down into Cost Avoidance and Reduction, Process Improvement, Operations, Customer Service, and Asset Utilization.
The last of the Cost reduction and avoidance metrics, “Spend Under Management” is defined as: Total Spend Under Management / Total Spend.
As noted in the eSourcing Wiki, this is a straightforward calculation. The problem is not with our ability to divide one number by another, but in defining the inputs to the equation. Total spend should be easy, although your department may use either total annual spend or total addressable spend (which is likely to exclude taxes and salaries). The real question is to decide what spend is designated as being ‘under management’.
Some Additional Notes and Info on Nearshoring
The first thing to remind yourself about nearshoring is that it is a relative idea – nearshoring includes Mexico and Canada if you are in the U.S., but businesses in Western Europe are more likely to consider Eastern Europe as a nearshoring destination. But in almost all cases, nearshoring means finding a location other than Asia (including India) to find products and services at a lower cost than at home.
In addition to last week’s webinar notes on SourceOne and The University of LaSalle’s webinar “US Companies and Global Opportunities: A Perspective on Strategic Sourcing from Mexico”, here are some other nearshore outsourcing resources that you may find helpful.
BMP Exclusive: Webinar Notes on Source One’s “US Companies and Global Opportunities: A Perspective on Strategic Sourcing from Mexico”
I had a unique opportunity yesterday to participate in a live event – an international conversation of sorts. Source One presented a webinar at the University of LaSalle's School of Business in Mexico City about a topic near and dear to their hearts: nearshoring. While this isn’t a new topic, the presentation was so completely different that it was hard not to feel enthusiastic about the opportunities that exist. In the last 10 months, I have attended roughly 100 webinars. None of them had a live video feed from another country and none of the presentation formats were able to capture the enthusiasm that this audience expressed. I highly encourage more event planners and hosts to try to incorporate applause into their events – somehow it makes the message more exciting.