Comments on: The Future of Sourcing http://stephensnexus.com/2006/08/22/the-future-of-sourcing/ Dave Stephens on technology and business trends Wed, 08 Dec 2010 23:20:54 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: marketdojo http://stephensnexus.com/2006/08/22/the-future-of-sourcing/#comment-9093 Wed, 08 Dec 2010 23:20:54 +0000 https://procurement.wordpress.com/2006/08/22/the-future-of-sourcing/#comment-9093 Hi Dave,

Great article and one that I have a lot of shared views on. In the 5 years I previously worked as a purchasing consultant offering managed e-auctions amongst other serivces, we used very simple software that could deliver fantastic results for a broad range of categories and spend profiles. There may have been a little more work up-front to prepare the process but it does make me question many of the feature extensions I’ve seen in other e-RFx software.

I fully agree that there is a future in bringing such electronic tools and processes to the mass market. There are still so many companies out there running a “3 bids and a buy” process via e-mail, fax and whatever else. Surely there is a great market to bring a simple, easy to use, e-sourcing / e-RFx process to the SME market so they too can benefit from the efficiencies, traceability, improved communications and so on that such a tool offers.

We are making early forays into this at Market Dojo and I hope that if we market it suitably, it will be a fruitful market.

]]> By: E-Sourcing Forum: the source of information and best practices in strategic sourcing http://stephensnexus.com/2006/08/22/the-future-of-sourcing/#comment-1178 Tue, 29 Aug 2006 11:53:47 +0000 https://procurement.wordpress.com/2006/08/22/the-future-of-sourcing/#comment-1178 [...] As I looked into the other people that were participating – Dave from Oracle with deep market knowledge at the largest companies, Tim with access to every CPO in the world, Jason as the new world leader of online media in sourcing, and Doug who actually is working in sourcing, it seemed to me that just creating my own forecast of the future would be somewhat redundant, and maybe even less credible. My contrarian view is more from what I have seen already – since 2000. [...]

]]> By: Supply Excellence » Ford Rumors and Supply Tales http://stephensnexus.com/2006/08/22/the-future-of-sourcing/#comment-1168 Thu, 24 Aug 2006 17:04:03 +0000 https://procurement.wordpress.com/2006/08/22/the-future-of-sourcing/#comment-1168 [...] However, comments in a recent post from Procurement Central master Dave Stephens questions whether Ford has the skills to make supply management job one. Dave tells the following story of his experience with Ford’s procurement team in the late 1990s: “I remember and have shared many of the Ford successes. Ironically, and tellingly, one of the biggest savings areas were tires. Ford buyers, for years, thought 4 tires cost around $100. Nope. Try $40.” [...]

]]> By: Eric Strovink http://stephensnexus.com/2006/08/22/the-future-of-sourcing/#comment-1164 Wed, 23 Aug 2006 12:58:44 +0000 https://procurement.wordpress.com/2006/08/22/the-future-of-sourcing/#comment-1164 Dave, a well-written and enjoyable piece.

I do think we need to step back from the RFP “blunt instrument” a bit. Simple but smart actions sometimes generate surprising results. For example:

o Do we clearly understand the demand side of spend?

It’s said that deploying a T&E system reduces demand by about 10%, because employees self-regulate spending when they believe there is auditability. So, even if we stipulate that no other benefit is forthcoming, deciding whether to deploy a T&E system is straightforward.

I’ve heard a similar 10% demand-reduction heuristic for Ariba Buyer.
And, by transitivity, perhaps, for Coupa!

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