Buyersmeetpoint

Today Buyers Meeting Point welcomes two guests: Brian Seipel and James Patounas, both from Source One. Source One recently announced the launch of Spend Consultant, a Spend Analysis as a Service web platform, and Brian and James each played a key role in its development. Brian Seipel is one of Source One’s Strategic Sourcing Analysts, focused on helping companies implement innovative solutions to drive revenue and expand market share through procurement and strategic sourcing best practices.  His combined a background in Business Analysis, Information Technology, and Marketing allowed him to play an instrumental role in developing the proprietary spend classification taxonomy and user experience for Spend Consultant. James Patounas is Source One's Senior Data Scientist. His background has focused heavily on the practical application of data mining, acquisition, normalization, and visualization to facilitate procurement and strategic sourcing. He is the team lead and primary architect of Spend Consultant.   In

Today Buyers Meeting Point welcomes Kasia Katrycz as our guest. Kasia is the Risk Intelligence Director at riskmethods, a cloud-based supply chain risk management solution. Kasia is the ‘lead human’ (if we can call her that) that forms a core part of the riskmethods Risk Intelligence Service. By combining Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning with a Human Touch, a higher level of actionable intelligence is created for companies and supply chains facing the possibility of disruption.  In this conversation we discuss: The filtering process that is required to harness the 'ocean' of informationThe role of artificial intelligence and machine learning in managing risk multiple tiers into the supply chainThe unique partnership between humans and machines that makes it possibleto isolate relevant risk indicators from all the 'noise'How the size of a supplier affects the availability of information and the QA process

The ISM-New York Report on Business is released on the second business day of each month at 9:45am ET. The Report, which was first run in 1917, is a highly regarded indicator of business conditions in the New York Metro area including a six-month outlook, employment index, and current and expected revenues.  The September report, which can be downloaded here, allows us to make the following observations: The majority of the indices held steady month over month or made minor changesThe exception to this observation was Employment, which dropped to 33.9 in September, a marked decrease from the 54.9 seen in August81% of this month's respondents reported that there would either be no change in the number of jobs in their organization or there would be a decrease in jobs

Today Buyers Meeting Point welcomes Andy Kohm as our guest. Andy is the CEO at VendOp, a B2B review platform.  Through nearly a decade of conducting R&D in the medical device field, Andy experienced the problem of vendor selection firsthand, specifically finding, vetting and qualifying vendors and suppliers. Andy is a serial inventor having 20+ issued patents and over 50 pending patents, as well as a Ph.D. in engineering from Ohio State University and an MBA from The Wharton School. Rather than continuing to toil on in frustration, he decided to work towards a solution. He has been at VendOp since 2013. In this interview we discuss: The popular trend of sharing reviews online that is spreading from the B2C space to corporate purchasingThe background work required to verify the identify of a reviewer while still keeping their identity privateHow more information from multiple perspectives can improve the procurement and strategic sourcing processes

Today Buyers Meeting Point welcomes Charles Findlay as our guest. Charles graduated from the University of Oxford with a degree in Engineering Science and then spent five years with GEC as an industrial engineer working in various manufacturing industries in Europe and the United States. Following an MBA from London Business School, he joined Andersen Consulting, now Accenture, first in the Strategy practice, then running the UK Supply Chain practice and finally helping set up the Procurement out- sourcing business. For the last few years he has worked as an independent consultant, an angel investor in early stage technology companies and a founder member of the Supply Chain Finance Community. Earlier this year, Charles co-authored Financing the End to End Supply Chain with Simon Templar and Erik Hofmann. My review of the book is available on Buyers Meeting Point. Listeners may also be interested in reading Charles' recent blog post, 'Supply Chain Finance - Who Wins?' In this conversation, we discuss: The str

The ISM-New York Report on Business is released on the second business day of each month at 9:45am ET. The purpose of the survey is to quickly assess business conditions among firms in the New York City area.  The ISM-New York Report on Business began in 1917, and it was originally started to provide the United States government with information on manufacturing activity in the New York metro area against the backdrop of World War I. To this day it remains a highly regarded indicator of business conditions in the New York Metro area including a six-month outlook, employment index, and current and expected revenues.  The August report, which can be downloaded here, allows us to make the following observations: Short term expectations seem measured, with volume of purchases, revenues, and expected revenues all either contracting or staying flat.The Six-Month Outlook increased to 65.5 in August, a significant increase in activity and the highest level reported since February.The combination of short term concern

Today Buyers Meeting Point welcomes Ken Ballard as our guest. Ken is a supply chain Project Manager at Source One Management Services, responsible for leading sourcing events to optimize the spend and operations of clients in the areas of supply chain and IT, working directly with clients and their suppliers through all stages of the strategic sourcing project – from data collection, through selecting and conducting go-to-market strategies, to negotiation and contracting, to implementation.  Ken recently wrote a two-part guest series for Buyers Meeting Point on the advantages and challenges of nearshoring, and that is what he joins us today to discuss. Ken's two post are available here: Nearshoring - Why Now? Nearshoring - Why Now? Warnings

The ISM-New York Report on Business is released on the second business day of each month at 9:45am ET. The purpose of the survey is to quickly assess business conditions among firms in the New York City area.  Effective August 1, Buyers Meeting Point Editor Kelly Barner will begin serving as the Business Survey Chair, compiling the monthly responses from ISM-New York members, updating all of the indexes in the monthly report, and providing observations and commentary.  The ISM-New York Report on Business began in 1917, and it was originally started to provide the United States government with information on manufacturing activity in the New York metro area against the backdrop of World War I. To this day it remains a highly regarded indicator of business conditions in the New York Metro area including a six-month outlook, employment index, and current and expected revenues.  The July report, which can be downloaded here, provides us with the following observations: Despite the concerns that affected the tail

Today Buyers Meeting Point welcomes back two of our regular guests: Dr. Jim Narus and Dr. Michelle Steward from Wake Forest University.  Dr. Jim Narus serves as a Research Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Business Markets at Pennsylvania State University and Dr. Michelle Steward is an Associate Professor at the School of Business at Wake Forest University. This is the third time they have joined us here on BMP radio to discuss the findings of their research into how the customer journey has changed because of the use of digital tools – and what that means for B2B procurement. Today, they are back to provide us with an update on their work, including: The implications of the fact that procurement is the slowest growing management practice area, and trends that show it will be 50% Millennial in 5 yearsThe analytical experience procurement professionals are faced with when they have to reconcile positive and negative reviews of the same supplier from different sourcesThe critical learning process prompte

Today Buyers Meeting Point welcomes Dennis Toohey as our guest. Dennis is a Senior Principal Consultant at Xperience Incorporated. Xperience Incorporated helps business owners and schools develop a highly efficient buying-to-paying process by providing experienced assessments along with the right strategies and technologies for each organization’s needs, in part by providing their own vendor network for GPO buying. Today, Dennis joins me to talk specifically about Xperience Incorporated’s schools program as an example of alternate procurement models, including benefits such as: Enabling spend improvement through their 'Thesis' program's suppliers and integrated technologyReducing administrative spend by as much as $35 per studentThe key lessons that any organization - school or otherwise - must learn to improve their efficiency

Today Buyers Meeting Point brings you a unique podcast – in fact, it is more of an announcement. Phil Ideson is the the Host of the Art of Procurement podcast. We have been scheming and brainstorming for about a year and we’ve finally come up with an idea that combines our love of the field of procurement with our enthusiasm for progress and innovation. Today we are excited to announce The Procurement Revolution - 100% online, multi-channel event, launching in September 2016. Fortunately, you don’t have to wait until then to join our ranks. Visit The Procurement Revolution website to view our launch video and enlist for updates from HQ Follow @ProcureRev on Twitter or watch #ProcRev for the latest news about the event and opportunities to shape the direction that the revolution takes.Join our engagement page on LInkedIn   STAND UP. SPEAK OUT. DRIVE CHANGE.

Today Buyers Meeting Point welcomes Mary Kachinsky, Vice President of Strategic Sourcing and Operations for FORMA Therapeutics. Mary has over 25 years’ experience as a strategic leader and partner in the research, development, and manufacturing procurement functions in the pharmaceutical, biotech, and consumer electronics industries. Mary is also an Advisory board member for tealbook, a rapidly growing cloud platform for supplier discovery and knowledge management.  In November of 2015, Mary was one of 5 procurement executives interviewed as part of research conducted at the ProcureCon Pharma conference on the topic of technology and supplier discovery. That research and executive interviews done via the ProcureCon Pharma conference were ultimately combined into a whitepaper, titled, Improving Strategic Supplier Identification Through Technology, which you can download here. In this conversation we discuss: The role that supplier knowledge and information play in procurement’s ability to engage in executive l

Today Buyers Meeting Point welcomes back two of our previous guests: Anya McKenna is the Marketing Manager for Market Dojo, an eSourcing provider based in the UK, and Ed Cross is the co-founder of Odesma, a business advisory firm also based in the UK. In March, Anya and Ed joined me to discuss their posts asking the question ‘Are Procurement Professionals Stuck in the Stone Age?’ Today they have returned to discuss a post that brings their love of sport to bear on procurement: What procurement can learn from sport. Ed is an IronMan triathlon competitor and Anya has been training in Olympic weightlifting for over a year. And that’s not all… Anya and Ed have brought Harry Wiltshire with them. Harry is Ed’s fellow Ironman competitor and coach. His accomplishments include being ranked as one of the top 25 triathlon competitors in the world, being shortlisted for the Olympics, and representing the UK in a number of international competitions. He also found time in there somehow to earn a law degree. In this conver

Today Buyers Meeting Point welcomes the authors of Legal Blacksmith, Rosemary Coates and Sarah Rathke. Our review is available on Buyers Meeting Point. Rosemary is the Founder and President of Blue Silk Consulting and the Procurement Practice Leader at Think! Inc. She is also the Executive Director of the Reshoring Institute, a China expert, and a Global Supply Chain Management Consultant, with over 25 years of management consulting experience. Sarah is a partner in the Cleveland, Ohio office of the international law firm of Squire Patton Boggs. She is a trial lawyer whose practice focuses on manufacturing litigation, and particularly complex supply chain disputes. She has argued and tried supply chain cases in forums throughout the United States and has been named an Ohio Super Lawyers "Rising Star," an honor given to the top 2.5 percent of Ohio lawyers age 40 or under, eight times. In this conversation we discuss: The fact that procurement's mindset shifts from value to savings during the course of the sour

Todat Buyers Meeting Point welcomes two guests, Michael Lamoureux and Bertrand Maltaverne. Michael Lamoureux, known as “the doctor,” is the author and editor of Sourcing Innovation. He is also a Computer Science PhD who has been heavily involved in the Sourcing and Supply Chain Space since 2000 and the e-Commerce space since 1997. With particular expertise in analytics, modeling, and optimization, the doctor is able to dive much deeper into technology and core issues than the average blogger in the space. Bertrand Maltaverne “the procurement dynamo” of Pool4Tool, a leading global provider of purchasing software, has extensive experience in the area of Procurement and more precisely in the impact of technology on Procurement processes and organizations. Before joining POOL4TOOL, he spent 13 years in the Procurement organization of Schneider Electric, a Fortune 500 company. He held various positions - most of them focused on Procurement technologies and processes in both Direct and Indirect Procurement.  Michae

Today Buyers Meeting Point welcomes two guests: Christopher Clabby and Al Jacobs. Christopher Clabby is a Principal at PGV Advisors. Chris’ expertise is working with business owners and corporate executives to identify business challenges and leading the development and implementation of cross functional finance, tax and operational solutions that deliver measurable value. With nearly 30 years of experience in professional services, the last 15 in various leadership roles, Chris has helped deliver hundreds of millions of dollars of value to organizations ranging from privately owned middle market businesses to Fortune 25 companies. Al Jacobs is the Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Puridiom, a leading provider of enterprise Procure-to-Pay spend management solutions. He has over 27 years of experience in software product design, development, implementation, consulting and project management. Within the supply chain arena, he has 25 years of domain expertise where he continues to educate organizatio

Today Buyers Meeting Point welcomes Magnus Lind as our guest. Magnus is a finance and treasury expert chairing the international network of Treasury Peer. He acts as moderator, speaker, adviser, board member and investor in ventures participating in the transformation of the financial services’ market. He has a background as an international business executive in Europe, Southeast Asia and North America, and has founded companies in 7 different countries where he acted as CEO, board director, investor and entrepreneur. He’s the editor of TreasuryPeer.com, among the most read blogs in the Corporate Finance arena, globally sharing corporate finance issues and taking the corporate perspective in financial matters in regular meetings with regulators, central banks and the political world.  In this conversation we discuss: What 'fintech' is and how it is changing the flows of money in modern corporationsWhy it is so much easier to move goods through the supply chain than moneyWhat supply chain finance means and ho

Today Buyers Meeting Point welcomes back Michael Robertson, the CEO of POD Procurement and the author of The POD Model: The mutually-beneficial model for buyers and suppliers which enables an increase in profit through commercial collaboration. Mike has joined us before to discuss his POD Model as well as how procurement communicates contract value. Today, our topic is procurement culture change, and it is based on a post Mike recently shared on LinkedIn, "How can procurement's culture change?" Listeners may also be interested in reading "The Contract as Catalyst for Culture Change in Procurement" written by Mike for Buyers Meeting Point's "The Point." In this conversation we discuss: Understanding the culture currently in place and whether it is supporting or blocking your objectivesWhere to look in your supply base for a true assessment of how you treat suppliersThe scalability question: how can procurement build deeper supply relationships without increasing headcount?

Today Buyers Meeting Point welcomes John Manners-Bell as our guest. John is the CEO of Transport Intelligence, a leading supplier of market solutions to the global logistics industry. Prior to establishing Transport Intelligence, John worked as an analyst in consultancies specializing in international trade, transport, and logistics. He also spent a number of years as European marketing manager for UPS Supply Chain Solutions working at locations across Europe, including France, Netherlands and Germany. John has written a number of books, including Logistics and Supply Chains in Emerging Markets, Supply Chain Risk, and Global Logistics Strategies. In today's conversation, we focus on the future of supply chain and logistics - a topic that Transport Intelligence will be covering at their event in London in June 2016: #TiLondon16. In specific, we discuss: What we can surmise about Amazon's forward looking strategy from the actions they are taking today.The broad approach to business - including customer satisfac

Today Buyers Meeting Point welcomes Brian Hoffmeyer as our guest. Brian is the head of Product Marketing at IQNavigator, the leading independent technology provider of vendor management system (or VMS) software for Global 2000 companies. In that role, Brian is the voice of IQN to the markets they serve as well as an active listener to the needs of clients, prospective clients, analysts, and partners. He then works to incorporate what he hears into IQN’s products. Brian works closely with Product Strategy to define the product roadmap and with the Sales and Marketing teams to ensure they have the tools they need to do their jobs. Procurement has a somewhat 'rocky past' with managing service categories – whether traditional or contingent labor – just because they don’t fit into the product box we’re so used to. Beyond adjusting to managing services, procurement needs to step up and address the risks specific to contingent labor - as well as the opportunities they create. Brian recently wrote a post titled, "Is