Skip to main content

Oct 30 – Nov 3: Beyond Average, Transformative Value, and CPO Insights

There is just one week left to go before the stage lights go on for AOP Mastermind LIVE 2023. We have lined up FOUR HOURS’ work of enlightening speakers, each of whom has a timely topic they are eager...

Continue reading
  1794 Hits

Best Procurement and Supply Chain Webinars 6/13 - 17

Here are my recommendations for the best way to spend 1 hour of thought provoking professional development time this week. Click on the title of each event below to view the full description in our events calendar and to connect to their registration pages.

Continue reading
  5185 Hits

An Introduction to SOW Management, Part 1

Billions of dollars are spent annually on Statement of Work (SOW) projects. Yet, despite this considerable financial investment, many organizations are attempting to manage this area through overburdened internal resources and/or ill-fitting ERP, SMS or HRM systems – if they’re capturing the details of SOW spend at all. 

Continue reading
  6096 Hits

An Introduction to SOW Management, Part 2

In part 1 of this series, we explained SOW management and described the common challenges currently face with it. In this post, we will describe the benefits of outsourcing SOW management to the organization as a whole and to the many individual stakeholder groups.

Continue reading
  5379 Hits

How can you be a good negotiator if you have not read the contract?

That’s the question Attorney Mark Grieco asked procurement and supply management professionals attending a member meeting of ISM-Greater Rhode Island at Banneker Industries in North Smithfield.

Continue reading
  3944 Hits

Sourcing Finished Goods with Single Source Raw Materials

Author: Tinamarie Rintye, Former Project Analyst at Source One Management Services, a Corcentric Company, now the Manager of Distribution and E-commerce at Esteé Lauder Editor’s note: This a...

Continue reading
  3869 Hits

Book Review: The Contract Negotiation Handbook

I spent the last couple of weeks reading The Contract Negotiation Handbook by Stephen R. Guth Esq., and despite how it may initially sound, I came away with one critical realization: I am a pop tart. ...

Continue reading
  6238 Hits

December 13-23: 2022 Outlook for Talent, Contracts, and the Future of Work

We have finally reached the last events post of 2021. This year was as fast as it was slow, and now 2022 is right around the corner. You’ll see that forward-looking theme reflected in this week’s reco...

Continue reading
  3476 Hits

Four Keys to A Successful RFP That Too Many Firms Ignore

 It’s no secret that when a company is looking to solicit bids for a project, opening up a Request for Proposal (RFP) offers a simplified, standardized, and centralized means to compare diverse b...

Continue reading
  7076 Hits

The Contract as Catalyst for Cultural Change in Procurement

Scenario 1: The supplier contacts you in writing to state they have submitted the wrong pricing in the bid…what is your first response?  - Tough luck you submitted it   - That’s typical...

Continue reading
  6306 Hits

Guest Post on the Social Contracting Blog: Contract Management: Yours, Mine, and Ours

In his recent book Global Supply Chain Ecosystems, Mark Millar wrote, "…today's supply chains encompass complex webs of interdependencies, frequently spanning the globe, designed and deployed to optim...

Continue reading
  5289 Hits

2016 Nobel Prize for Economics Goes to: Contract Theory

I live in the Boston area, so when the 2016 Nobel Prize for Economics was awarded to Dr. Bengt Holmstrom, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Dr. Oliver Hart, a professor at Harvard, it made a considerable splash in the local news. I love economics in action, so I started reading more - but I never expected to find contracts as the center of their work.

Each of the newly selected Nobel laureates has a different area of focus, but both are relevant to procurement and supply chain professionals.

Continue reading
  7738 Hits

Procurement Perspectives Podcast: IACCM's Tim Cummins on Contracts and Collaboration

This week’s guest audio is brand new – it was only posted to YouTube last week. In it, Tim Cummins, CEO of IACCM, addresses the NEC user group at a recent seminar. NEC is a provider of contracts used ...

Continue reading
  4785 Hits

Force Majeure, Hardship, Impossibility, Hell or High Water, Act of God or all of the above?

Last week I attended an excellent supply chain risk management webinar sponsored by the Next Level Purchasing Association and featuring a global supply chain manager from a Fortune 500 company. The event followed the story of this particular corporate supply chain through the 2010 tsunami in Japan (you can click here for my notes).

One of the lessons this particular company learned was about finding the right place for addressing the human side of a very complicated business issue. I was impressed with the efforts they had made, particularly for such a large company. A thought started to form in my mind: what contract clauses were put aside in order to have an appropriate response to the devastation while not creating serious business continuity issues?

Continue reading
  30010 Hits

Recommended Webinars March 30-April 3: AI and Legal Efficiency, the Power of the RFP, and Shift Happens!

This week and last week were incredibly busy, quickly filling up with COVID-19 webinars and in-person events going personal. Now that we’ve gotten through the initial blast, it looks like things may be slowing down for the month of April. I’ll continue updating the calendar weekly, adding events as I learn about them.

If you are planning your schedule further ahead, I recommend, How to Quarantine Your 3rd Party Relationships (IACCM, Determine) on April 7th at 11am ET.

BTW: If you haven’t already, sign up for our mailing list to be sure you get my weekly recommendations in your Inbox each Monday.

Continue reading
  3903 Hits

Recommended Procurement Webinars Oct 21-15: Revolutionary CLM, Predictive S2P and AI Powered Transformation

If you are looking for a longer term webinar recommendation, check out “Using Digital Transformation to Unlock Working Capital in Your Supply Chain” from Tradeshift on November 5th.

BTW: If you haven’t already, sign up for our mailing list to be sure you get my weekly recommendations in your Inbox each Monday.

 

Continue reading
  4290 Hits

Recommended Procurement Webinars Feb 25 – March 1: Contract Robots, Contract Economics, Sales and Use Tax in Contracts

We have another busy week on the calendar with a focus on - contracts! All three of this week’s picks take a completely different look at the topic, from automation to economics to the incorporation of taxes. If you are planning your webinar schedule further in advance, I recommend ‘What happens after due diligence? Don’t stop there.’ from LexisNexis on March 5th.

BTW: If you haven’t already, sign up for our mailing list to be sure you get my weekly recommendations in your Inbox each Monday.

Continue reading
  5327 Hits

Recommended Procurement Webinars for April 17 - 21: CSI, Agility, and RPA

Procurement is a function with ever-increasing scope and potential for impact. As this week’s recommended events suggest, we can address the entire P2P process, unite the past and future through forensic examination of contracts, and push the boundaries of automation. Click on the title of each webinar below to view the full description and register.

BTW: If you haven’t already, sign up for our mailing list to be sure you get my weekly recommendations in your Inbox each Monday.

Continue reading
  5918 Hits

Recommended Procurement Webinars for Jan 16 -20: Transformational Leadership, Global Contracts, and Supplier Risk

If last week was the official start to a new year of webinars, this week the industry hits its stride! All three of the events listed below are well worth your time – and if you register and attend, be sure to let me know what you thought! Click on the title of each webinar below to view the full description and register.

BTW: If you haven’t already, sign up for our mailing list to be sure you get my weekly recommendations in your Inbox each Monday.

Continue reading
  5734 Hits

Webinar Recommendations for July 6 - 10, 2015: Townhall on Risk, the End of SAP’s eSoD, and Contract Playbooks

As we start the first full week of July, events are continuing – albeit at a slower summer pace. The upside of that is that anyone presenting a webinar knows the topic has to be really compelling to get people to attend. Click on the title of each event below to view the full description in our events calendar and connect to their registration pages.

Continue reading
  6342 Hits