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Set the Tone

Set the Tone

Author: Paula Moten, USAA

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The Maverick

The Maverick

Author: Paula Moten, USAA

The business needs and wants should be at the top of your list; however, as the contracts negotiator, you need to understand and identify the risks.   Communicating with your business partner will help you know the nice-to-haves versus the must-haves. Suppliers often add on services or value adds that the business falls in love with; however, when they include them at no cost or a low dollar cost, buyers beware, free can sometimes be free, but often free is the snake that bites your hand. Value adds often come with strings, strings usually equal scope creep. Scope creep, unapproved, unaccounted-for, and non-budgeted costs incurred after signing the contract. Yes, we are talking about the maverick, dark purchasing, a/k/a rogue spend. Typically, rogue spending occurs when the P2P process is unclear. But, with today's compliance-driven, heavily regulated third-party risk management processes, much rogue spending often happens out of frustration over the slow approval process for contracts and purchase requisitions. As a procurement professional, I remind my business partners of the value of the P2P process and the risks of rogue spending. Rogue spend and those who regularly take that path should be wary. In today's post covid, high-interest rates, inflation, and looming layoffs atmosphere, rogue spending is a path to avoid.   When or if your company begins to strategize on how to cut costs, don't find yourself on the maverick list.  

What is the Future of Procurement?

What is the Future of Procurement?

Acquisition professionals are facing expanding regulatory requirements, pricing pressures and an ever-evolving environment, compelling procurement leaders to reevaluate their own strategies. For example, many procurement professionals for the past two years have diligently reduced their labor and outsourcing costs, but at what price? Given this landscape, technology acquisition professionals are asking themselves, “What is the future of procurement?”

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The Role of the CPO Is Evolving

 

The Role of the Chief Procurement Resilience Officer Is Evolving

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Managing Change: Post COVID-19 Realities

 

Now, as procurement professionals begin to shape their post-pandemic reality, how can they learn to master change?

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3 Procurement Technologies to Watch for in 2022

 

Not since World War II, has the procurement profession been so disrupted as with the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 revealed how globalization can both spread a virus and cripple supply chains. In response, procurement leaders are transforming themselves. By building new capabilities and ways of working —from data management to Artificial Intelligence (AI).  Still, procurement professionals will attest to the long-standing challenges around supply chain efficiency, information access and sharing and asset traceability.

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Eight Ways to Optimize Your Cloud Spend

 

 It's no secret that the cloud is the future of business and technology. Cloud computing has become a core competency for organizations, who realize the many benefits it provides, from scale to agility and cost savings to risk mitigation.

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Top 10 Cloud Adoption Risks

 

The last five years have seen phenomenal growth in cloud adoption.

While around 88% of organizations were already making use of the cloud in 2019, the advent of the pandemic in 2020 and the need for remote working massively increased the number of companies that are using the cloud to store business-critical data and infrastructure.

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Blink & Strategic Sourcing

"Blink” and Strategic Sourcing

by Luke Montoya

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Do Not Move into the House without a Contract

Do Not Move into the House without a Contract

by Luke Montoya

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Why a Checklist

Why a Checklist

by Steve Gutzman

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Faster T’s and C’s!

August 15, 2018 - By Elgin Ward

Customers want to speed up their contract negotiation process.
Customers T’s-and-C’s can sometimes slow down the Customer negotiation process.
Wise Customers act proactively and strategically to develop an ALTERNATIVE set of T’s-and-C’s to speed up their negotiations.

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Training you cannot buy!

By Elgin Ward

The Customer should have and follow its own Procurement Process, different from the Vendor’s Sales Process. Customer stakeholders often don’t realize they are following a Vendor Sales Process that gives more negotiation leverage to the Sales Rep and hurts the Customer. For Customers to succeed, IT Procurement must educate stakeholders about the Customer Procurement Process and must SELL the stakeholders on the benefits of following the Customer process and not the Vendor process.

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