By Jamie Martino, IT, Telecom and Technology Strategic Sourcing and Operations Executive

We are living in unprecedented times. Our personal and business lives are disrupted and individuals and business owners are equally anxious. Work from Home has now become the new norm for the typical Office Professional. Depending upon the role that you and your company play in the global economy, you may find yourself incredibly busy or, conversely, with more time on your hands than you might desire.

At any given hour of the business day, we choose to work "in the business" or "on the business". Too often, we prioritise working "in the business" due to daily demands, leaving strategy, analytics and planning as an afterthought. The current environment may be the best time to significantly improve your business, margins, and vendor relationships through an Electronic Request for Proposal (eRFP) launch.

By Teigan Margetts, Manager / Consultant at Red Hero Group

In procurement, we innovate. We conquer digital transformations. We handle worldwide disruptions. But some of our processes? They're holding us back, and here's why...

Hear more international insights around overhauling procurement at the upcoming Smart Procurement World Indaba in September 2021. Michael Pleuger, a business transformation, strategy and growth specialist will deliver a keynote address on understanding how the procurement function has been redefined and repurposed to help organisations make sense of the "now" in the current crisis.

By Kelly Barner, Owner and Editor, Buyers Meeting Point

"Direct and indirect spend management is not the same thing, nor should they be treated as such. Anyone who tries to convince you otherwise is focusing on simple document transactions."

- Jennifer Ruscelle Petersen, Global Head of Advocacy, SAP Intelligent Spend & Business Network

Direct spending is not the same as indirect spending. Whether it means changes to third-party relationships, processes and data integration, or complexity and risk mindsets, procurement and technology and information sources must be prepared to meet the challenge.

Being prepared to create maximum value from direct spending means having strategies for managing supplier relationships, tailoring general procurement processes accordingly, and adequately assessing and mitigating supply chain risk.

By Jasmiina Toikka, Head of Content Marketing, Sievo

Category Management (CM) is a strategic approach to procurement where organisations group together similar areas of external spend to identify consolidation opportunities and create added business value. Approaches like this were originally designed for project-based sourcing of goods and services. Category management has grown to include much more: spend management and analysis, market intelligence, leadership, performance development, corporate reporting, sustainability and risk mitigation. Category management allows procurement to focus their efforts and evaluate different market segments to leverage their agreements.

By Maurice Sayinzoga, Senior Manager, Policy & Research, Digital Impact Alliance

Digital technology holds the key to sustainable development; however, many countries' governments struggle to harness the power of digital technology for their citizens. The intricate complexities of public procurement processes and the overwhelming knowledge base of information needed to make sound buying decisions in an ever-changing digital market are an ongoing challenge.

Research by the Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL) has shown that many countries still struggle with several obstacles to ensure efficient and effective acquisition, deployment, and management of digital technology for public service delivery. These obstacles include a procurement function misaligned with national digital transformation ambitions, procurement processes, and standards not harmonized across government agencies, and not suited for digital technology contracting and limited specialized skills.

Hear more international insights on implementing a digital strategy to enable strategic sourcing in the public sector at the upcoming Smart Procurement World Indaba in September 2021

WORKSHOP | Implementation of Strategic Sourcing in the Public Sector from a Digital Perspective

By Sarah Scudder, President and Chief Revenue Officer, Real Sourcing Network

Tail spend presents a classic Catch-22 for sourcing and supply chain professionals: bringing tail spend under professional management can produce direct cost savings, but it can also lead to higher indirect procurement costs...

By Chris Gaffney, Mark Shaughnessy and Anshu Prasad

CFOs must challenge supply chain and transportation leaders to help build more robust, more resilient transportation networks.

Transportation seems to be the topic of conversation more often these days. It ranges from shortages on our grocery store shelves to the news of a large container ship stuck in the Suez Canal to more recent news of disruptions in fuel supply in the South-eastern United States. It appears that transportation has suddenly become more volatile and less reliable.

For supply chain practitioners, however, transportation volatility has been a reality for some time.

By Stephen Bauld

During these difficult times of the pandemic, it can put additional stress on supply chain management in general. Sometimes in procurement, we can be viewed as the "purchasing police" from other organisation members with too many rules and regulations to follow.

From a procurement leadership perspective, attention is usually focused on the ability of a leader to manage people rather than non-human resources. It must be remembered that the management of other resources is essential. A person should not be given authority over people unless they can manage an organisation's tangible and other non-human assets.

In terms of people management, there are various available techniques, each of which is suitable to a specific type of environment. A procurement leader needs to know which method to use for each situation and every person managed.

Companies need to become more resilient in their supply chain strategies but without sacrificing cost-effectiveness, warn experts

The Covid-19 crisis has been a wake-up call for supply chain professionals, on whom marketing teams are often so dependant.

According to a study by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), for years, companies have focused on eliminating redundancy in sourcing to reduce fixed costs and promote efficiency. Greater efficiency, however, came at the expense of diminished flexibility and effectiveness - a tradeoff the pandemic-induced supply chain disruptions have made painfully clear.

To help small South African businesses recover from the spate of unrest that affected parts of the country, One Linkage, a women-owned technology company, has launched the #RiseUpSA Campaign.

The campaign aims to enable corporates to connect with and "adopt" SMMEs that need support.

A week of looting and rioting saw the destruction of thousands of businesses in the Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces, with many of these being Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) that are likely to struggle to get up and running again. Tens of thousands of South Africans depend on these types of businesses to earn a living.

One Linkage CEO and co-founder Hepsy Mkhungo invites corporate South Africa to join the cause and help SMMEs affected by the riots to rebuild and restart their businesses.

The Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) plunged in July, signalling that the output recovery in the manufacturing sector was set back notably at the start of Q3. From an elevated 57.4 in June, the headline PMI suffered a record single-month decline of almost 14 points. It dropped to 43.5 in July, which is well below the neutral 50 level.

The magnitude of the monthly decline, which dragged the PMI down to the lowest level since May 2020, was worse than during the hard lockdown in April 2020. At that stage, the SA manufacturing PMI and PMIs across the globe were (counterintuitively) propped up by a big increase in the supplier deliveries index.