Negotiation tactics and deal design, are one of the most important topics on the mind of a buying professional. How can you negotiate more skillfully and confidently with clients, partners, and adversaries as well as with colleagues within your organization? Buyers Meeting Point has the answers for you...

Spend management is the way in which companies control and optimize the money they spend. It involves cutting operating and other costs associated with doing business. These costs typically show up as "operating costs" or SG&A (Selling, General and Administrative) costs, but can also be found in other areas and in other members of the supply chain.

Whether it is the money spent on goods or services for direct inputs (raw goods and materials used in the manufacture of products), indirect material (office supplies and other expenses that do not go into a finished product), or services (temporary and contract labor, print services, etc.), a company needs a mechanism by which they are not only able to save money but control costs.

Core competencies are an integral component of an overall strategy to align people, or talent, with the needs, mission, values and culture of the business. Defining core competencies provides a very specific picture of what behaviors and skills are necessary for each position in the organization and is a major milestone in defining, not only what the organization needs for success, but also the roadmap for how to develop its talent to achieve that success.

Globalization and the Internet are having a significant impact on spend management and compliance. In particular, sourcing organizations are now under continual pressure to penetrate new geographic markets while reducing inventory carrying costs. Low-Cost Country Sourcing (LCCS) is a corporate initiative driven by these ongoing pressures. It refers to the practice of sourcing of products from low-cost country suppliers for less than what they would pay their local suppliers.

Anybody purchasing goods and services on an organization's behalf should have sufficient knowledge of contract law to know what the pitfalls might be so that they can recognize them and seek appropriate expert advice from the lawyers in a timely manner.

Category Management (known colloquially as "Cat Man" or simply "CM", or ocassionally "Kittehs") is a retailing concept in which the total range of products sold by a retailer is broken down into discrete groups of similar or related products; these groups are known as product categories. Examples of grocery categories may be : tinned fish, washing detergent, toothpastes, etc.

Each category is then run like a "mini business" (Business Unit) in its own right, with its own set of turnover and/or profitability targets and strategies. An important facet of Category Management is the shift in relationship between retailer and supplier: instead of the traditional adverserial relationship, the relationship moves to one of collaboration, exchange of information and data and joint business building.

Procurement strategy gives the top management and stakeholders organization-wide discipline in managing and controlling procurement. This is achieved with a pattern of decisions and events associated with acquiring specific goods and services to support your business. These guidelines provide a buyer with a roadmap to produce a procurement strategy appropriate for the value and complexity of the initiative.

 

E-procurement (electronic procurement, sometimes also known as supplier exchange) is the business-to-business or busienss-to-consumer purchase and sale of supplies and services through the Internet as well as other information and networking systems, such as Electronic Data Interchange and Enterprise Resource Planning. Typically, e-procurement Web sites allow qualified and registered users to look for buyers or sellers of goods and services. This encompasses the requisition through payment processes. Companies participating expect to be able to control parts inventories more effectively, reduce purchasing agen overhead, and improve manufacturing. E-procurement is expected to be integrated with the trend toward computerized supply chain management.

Green and ethical sourcing are no longer small niche areas but strong upcoming trends adopted by global players as consumer behavior changes rapidly driven by social and environmental issues.