The BMP events calendar is stocked for the rest of the month of May, and this week I recommend the following webinars… click on the title of each to connect to that event on our calendar and link to the registration page.

 

How Do We Capture Value Beyond Cost Savings and Truly Make the Shift to More Strategic Supplier Partnerships? (SIG, Vested Way)

5/13, 1pm Eastern

If I was a practitioner rather than a blogger, this is the event I would attend this week. This is SIG’s May town hall teleconference, and only practitioners are invited to participate. You do NOT need to be a SIG member. Kate Vitasek has written several books on the Vested Outsourcing model, each one full of case examples of the dos and do-not’s of outsourcing. This event will cover the basics of that model, including why transaction-oriented agreements are not appropriate for outsourcing relationships with value creation potential and the five rules of the Vested Outsourcing model. Kate is a great speaker and a forward thinker, especially with regard to the procurement profession and how some of our most entrenched approaches need to be revised.

 

Why is S&OP So Hard? (Supply Chain Insights)

5/14, 11am Eastern

Speaking of institutions that need to be revised, Lora Cecere and the Supply Chain Insights team will look at why management of S&OP (Sales and Operations Planning) is such a challenge – albeit less of a challenge than making meaningful change. A few weeks ago I covered a SCI webinar in which Lora described the need for a ‘Buy – Make – Deliver’ team that puts procurement, manufacturing/design, and logistics in one cohesive organization reporting up through operations at a level equal to that of sales and marketing. I imagine that philosophy will play a part in the changes Lora recommends as well as how to manage them. This is the event I will attend this week.

 

Procurement 2015: Benchmarking the Best in Class (My Purchasing Center, SAP/Ariba, Ardent Partners)

5/14, 2pm Eastern

This event is something of a continuation of the multi-part webinar series SAP/Ariba and Ardent Partners have been delivering based on the 2015 CPO Rising Report: The Agility Agenda. If I hadn’t already been to one, I would have attended this event as Andrew Bartolini always has meaningful insights on what the top CPOs are doing and why. If you need another reason to consider signing up, attendees will receive a complimentary copy of the report. I consider the annual CPO Rising reports required reading for procurement professions who want to understand the current landscape and get a peek ahead to what is trending for the future.