Strategic Sourcing Europe

The Manufacturing Marketplace MFG.com announced (here) it has secured Funding for Global Expansion. The amount is kept confidential. On the other hand, MFG-SourcingParts (the 2 companies merged in 2006) announced as well (there, in french) an impressive growth of 49% in 2006, which means a total revenue of (4M€+15M€)*1,49%=28M€, if my understanding is right (i.e it is [...]

So, this is where Hubwoo is ending 2006 : 4,6% growth, 32M€ revenue and… a 500K€ first-time positive EBITDA for the whole year! Moreover is Alain Andréoli, CEO of Hubwoo, announcing a black EBIT for 2007 and looking at what Alain said and did (35M€ massive impairment, cleaning-up all financial negative weight) so far , [...]

Based on my experience – of course! – but also on an excellent paper written in 2000 by Tim Duffie’s (UPS) about the difference between sourcing AND strategic sourcing and following the recent post of David Bush ‘Strategic Sourcing Success Factors‘, you will find on this post what I consider as the top 10 Strategic [...]

For those of you still doubting about it, a new study from CAPS Research is underlining the importance of the purchasing management line for supply-management end-results. Sounds obvious but still, it reminds us that:

Purchasing performance needs leadership,
the purchasing function needs to a strong positionning within an organisation to be efficient.

Tempe, AZ, March 14, 2007 [...]

Solectron Corporation, founded in 1977, is a leading global provider of electronics manufacturing services (EMS) and integrated supply chain solutions. Solectron serves the world’s most innovative companies in industries that rely on high-tech electronics. Solectron’s 50,000 employees have a hand in designing, making and servicing products that people around the world rely on every day: PC’s, [...]

If you are about to renew a contract or even better in your way for running a strategic sourcing methodology, you’ll have to assess the strenghtes and weaknesses of your current contract not only from a specification perspective but as well from a pricing perspective. Below are my top 10 pricing-related questions to be answered [...]

VerticalNet financial figures are improving but still didn’t turn black. Nor is improving its revenue stream: only 16M$ in 2006 compared to 20M$ in 2005. It’s a pity for such a quality technology provider – vision and features always impressed prospects, as far as I know – which suffers – and will suffer – from [...]

Maud Larpent from Reuters just informed me, early this week, about the launch of Reuters Insight. She has been kind enough to pre-register me so I could have a try ASAP, what I did.
The service is still in beta version and you can feel and see it:

A help button is obviously missing for example.
Advertising from [...]

From my perspective, yes…but not now.
IBX, ranked among top innovators in 2006 by the prestigious Supply & Demand Chain Executive, has acquired Portum last year (2006), you may know or remind. Since then, I didn’t notice any major achievement on that side, apart from – of course – some announcement of client acquisition, but nothing [...]

Green buzzes. GreenPeace launched a smart campain – from my pov – towards APPLE, which they found to be the worst green-compliant company from their top 13 mobile and  PC manufacturers panel . I found the campaing “Green my Apple, Steve” smart as Greenpeace aknowlegdes – respects – the beauty of Apple products while [...]

In partnership with APICS, the Association for Operations Management, Protiviti recently conducted a focused and extensive study of procurement contracting and related contract management practices and risks. The conclusion is that a large proportion of organizations need to improve the management of their procurement contract risks and opportunities. The report provides recommendations.
The graph below is [...]

OGC did a tremendous job detailing and drawing, online and publically, its 15-step procurement process, here. Though it is dedicated to Public Procurement purposes, I consider this site as a Must to browse: it is clear, bold and sharp. A reference to bookmark.
Below are the 15 steps (including 4 to 10+ sub-steps) for which you [...]

Congrats and thanks to Tim Minahan (nominated in the 2007 Pros to know, master of the popular SupplyExcellence blog and former Aberdeen analyst), the initiator and recent Procuri-sponsored author of a free e-book called “The 100 Greatest Supply Management Tips of All Time! : Practical Approaches for Supply and Contract Management Success”.
Tim populated 100 [...]

I’ve been lately contacted by 2 eSourcing companies looking for promoting their pricing levels as I was complaining about the lack of transparency of the market. The pricing information I got is not detailed, nor did I get specifics about the financial and operational health of those companies but, as I thought it can be [...]