In a cyclical market where prices are going up or down, how do you know when your organisation is getting a good deal from a supplier? The graph (click on the image to view it) shows what happened to one major UK organisation over a six and a half year period as the prices in […]
Are you getting the best prices in a “downward” cycle? PC market update. Read More »
Do procurement professionals playing the same role but in different industries get remunerated differently? How does the mining industry compare to retail, compared to government? What does a senior manager get paid compared to a commodity manager, compared to a buyer? How does your remuneration package compare to others in your industry / band? We
What do procurement professionals get paid? Read More »
A recent benchmark between 9 large organisations from various industries indicate that up to 49% more might be available on local car travel deals. “One would expect that buyers with a larger procurement spend in this area will be the more cost competitive, but it turns out that quite the opposite is true,” Alan Low,
Large buyers pay up to 49% more on Car Hire Read More »
“It is a well researched fact that the majority of outsourcing deals become unsatisfactory to one of the partners involved, within the first two years of the agreement, Cecil Harris, MD of ODMS tells SmartProcurement. This dissatisfaction could range from poorly delivered services to unhappiness with the pricing. “Invariably all outsourcing deals require a degree
Finding a cure for “BAD” contracts and outsourcing deals? Read More »
Fronting, as relating to Black Economic Empowerment (BEE), still remains part and parcel of the challenges faced by procurement departments in all industries. Thinking on the issue is however, widely divergent. This article looks at what fronting is, why some businesses front, or do business with others that front and what the consequences may be.
Is BEE fronting bad for business? Read More »
Local e-Procurement platform provider MWEB CommerceZone has launched an innovatove solution that makes the arduous task of implementing and driving preferential procurement easier and faster. The company developed a “BEE pop-up tool” within its hosted e-Procurement platform. “This gives individuals placing an order “at-a-glance” insight into the precise BEE status of every sourced supplier, making
New BEE “pop-up ” tool launched Read More »
Thirty Percent of procurement intelligence provider Cutting Edge Procurement (CEP) has been acquired by a BEE (Black Economic Empowerment) grouping led by businessman Althaf Emmamally (pictured). CEP provides business intelligence tools for analysing, managing and optimising the procurement environment to some of the largest procurement organisations in the country. Emmamally, which will now play the
Procurement intelligence becomes “empowered.” Read More »
Increasingly companies, even those that have not had their BEE positions verified, are instituting systems to track their BEE procurement spend. The reasons for this being pretty obvious, procurement accounts for 20 points (out of 100) of a company’s BEE score. There is however a disconnect between the data procurement departments are preparing and what
Measuring suppliers on ownership can result in no verified BEE points at all! Read More »
The bain of procurement spend analysis is trying to analyse items which have been given different descriptions by end users. Now imagine having to do this across multiple organisations at the same time! This is the challenge faced by Purchasing Index when benchmarking prices of items between its various clients. “One of the biggest challenges
Analysing maverick spend between multiple procurement organisations. Read More »
Cut paper prices (delivered) continue to decline according to the Pricetrak Group Trend Index (July 2006) for all South African companies benchmarked. So much for paper prices being driven by the Rand/Dollar exchange rate! According to Alan Low, MD of Pricetrak, a more likely explanation is that there is greater competition between the paper merchants
Exchange rates have varied impact of different commodities Read More »
