Buyersmeetpoint

Today Buyers Meeting Point welcomes two guests from Market Dojo: Co-founder Nick Drewe and Anya McKenna their Marketing Manager. Market Dojo is a SaaS provider of strategic sourcing, supplier innovation, and opportunity assessment solutions. Since they were founded in the Cloud, the Market Dojo team knows firsthand what it really means to be a SaaS, Cloud-based company. In this conversation, we discuss: How as-a-Service and the Cloud are states of mind as well as delivery platformsThe role of culture in embracing the Cloud and succeeding with smaller, more agile suppliersThe fact that solutions no longer need to be costly or complex to be effectiveHow decision-makers can overcome their fear of the Cloud For anyone interested in learning more about Market Dojo, you can check out their website and blog or follow them on Twitter @MarketDojo for the latest news and updates.

Today Buyers Meeting Point welcomes two guests: Heiko Schwarz is a Founder and Managing Director of riskmethods, a cloud-based supply chain risk management solution focusing primarily on SMEs and large businesses in all industries, which purchase on an international basis. Christian Lanng is a Founder and CEO of Tradeshift, a global network and platform that connects 500,000 buyers and suppliers across 190 countries.  riskmethods and Tradeshift have recently announced a partnership that integrates Tradeshift’s collaborative commerce with riskmethods’ supply chain risk management. In this conversation we will discuss: How the platform approach to technology - and the terminology we use to describe it - opens the door to greater flexibility and added valueMaking sure risk management is an actionable and ongoing effortHow to have a commerce-oriented mindset when approaching risk   For more information on the riskmethods Tradeshift partnership, click here to read the press release. You can also download a whitepa

In this episode, Buyers Meeting Point welcomes Scott Heimerman, an Engagement Manager, at Determine Inc. Scott will be speaking on an upcoming webinar with Determine's partner The Sumati Group as well as a client: the Kellogg Company. Click here to register for the webinar on November 5th at 1pm ET. As a Professional Services Sales Manager, Mr. Heimerman is responsible for representing Determine’s services organization as an industry-leader in SaaS enterprise contract lifecycle management, supply management, strategic sourcing, and procure-to-pay solutions. Scott works on enterprise deals across a variety of industries leveraging deep understanding of customer needs and key business drivers to facilitate successful enterprise-wide deployment, integration and adoption of multiple solutions.

Today Buyers Meeting Point welcomes Magnus Carlsson as our guest. Magnus has 25 years experience as a strategic sourcing expert at IKEA. He developed and led the implementation of Ikea's purchasing strategy, which included category based sourcing. He was responsible for the strategic sourcing of Ikea's global textile, metal and veneer businesses, as well as component and raw material procurement. He is currently a lecturer, trainer and advisor in strategic sourcing and category management. Magnus is also the author of the recently released book, “Strategic Sourcing and Category Management: Lessons Learned at IKEA.” To read a review of 'Lessons Learned at IKEA' on Buyers Meeting Point, click here. You can purchase the book directly from Kogan Page or on Amazon.

Today Buyers Meeting Point welcomes Constantine Limberakis as our guest. Constantine is the Director of Product Marketing at Determine – which until earlier this week was known to us as Selectica. Constantine came to Determine via Selectica’s acquisition of IASTA in 2014. Prior to that, Constantine was a Senior Research Analyst in Aberdeen’s Global Supply Management practice. In this interview, we'll discuss... How multiple companies (and their executives) were able to come together as one,How they are entering their next phase as a single solution under one new brand name,And most importantly, what it all means for procurement practitioners and their companies. To learn more about Determine and their re-branding, click here.

Today Buyers Meeting Point welcomes Michael Hinkley, an intern at Source One Management Services, as our guest. The  Source One Management Services team plays an active part in the guest blogging scene on Buyers Meeting Point. Every month, they send me a submission and we work together to tweak it until it is ready to run. In September, they sent me a very interesting post on the role of forecasting and planning in procurement. You can read it on Buyers Meeting Point if you’re interested. The only thing is, there was no author listed. When I asked who had written the post, they told me it was from one of their interns and given all of the discussion on the rise of Millennials in the workplace, and the anticipated changes in procurement in general, I thought to myself, this is someone I have to meet. Michael Hinkley is a student at the University of Chicago majoring in Economics. In his role at Source One, Hinkley is a valued extension of the consulting team, working closely with analysts and project leads to

Today Buyers Meeting Point welcomes Phillip Ideson as our guest. Phil is the Founder and Principal Consultant at ProcureChange, a boutique advisory firm that helps companies turn procurement into a competitive advantage through the use of as-a-service delivery models. Philip has 15 years of experience driving procurement transformation for leading brands such as Pfizer, Ford, GM and Chiquita. He has worked across the entire procurement value chain, both as a subject matter expert and a leader. Philip has worked on both sides of the outsourcing table, as a buyer and a delivery leader.

Jonathan O’Brien, CEO at Positive Purchasing, has written a number of weighty books for procurement and supply chain professionals: Category Management in Purchasing, Negotiating for Purchasing Professionals, and Supplier Relationship make up the ‘big three.’ When I interviewed O’Brien, I asked him about the role that his books play in the creative process and he told me, “It is a constant writing process… I just kept writing and kept adding to it and gradually it kind of formed. The lovely thing now is that I have this body of work and it’s about making sure it continues to be relevant.” I took full advantage of the opportunity to pick O’Brien’s brain on all things procurement, and in addition to discussing the recently released 3rd Edition of Category Management in Purchasing (read my review here), I asked him: Why ‘purchasing’ rather than ‘procurement’ in the titles of your books?What conditions are pre-requisites for a strategic procurement function?Can procurement change at the rate required for us to st

In September, Procurement Leaders ran an article by Tyler Chamberlain, Coupa’s global head of spend management, on the benefits of getting a solid procurement function established earlier in a company’s growth curve. As he stated in the article’s title, “If it ain’t broke, don’t wait until it is.” The premise is that making investments in procurement talent and technology before problems arise prevents many problems from ever arising. Supplier records that are managed well from day one never need a massive clean up. Processes that have been in place as long as anyone can remember don’t have to overcome compliance hurdles. Spend that is managed centrally never has the chance to break between direct and indirect. Perhaps more importantly, procurement has control of their internal image from the outset and can build their brand around positive results rather than problem resolution. When we hear Chamberlain’s message from this perspective, all organizations and procurement teams benefit from his recommendations,

In this episode, Buyers Meeting Point welcomes Mark Larson as our guest. Mark is the Vice Chairman at Digi-Key Electronics, one of the fastest growing distributors of electronic components in the world. The company was founded in 1972 and Mark joined only four years later. In the two decades since, it seems safe to say that there has been considerable change – in the electronics Digi-key sells, in who they sell those products to, and the supply chains the products travel through. It is those supply chains that we are here to discuss today.

In this episode, Buyers Meeting Point welcomes Alun Rafique and Anya McKenna, both from Market Dojo, to share how their unique approaching to branding also applies to how procurement should handle today's challenges and opportunities. For anyone not already familiar with Market Dojo, they are a procurement solution provider, but also a decidedly 'personality-first' company – as evidenced by their creative YouTube videos and branding approach. You'll want to watch some of their (very) creative YouTube videos after listening to this interview.