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Digital innovation moves procurement risk and transparency forward

Leave a Comment / Legal / Contract, Risk Management, Technology, Tools / Editor

The act of obtaining or buying goods for business can be extremely complex. Compounded by numerous risks and time-consuming tasks, the additional pressures of procurement (like planning, supplier research, value analysis, price negotiation, contracts administration and inventory control) only add to the overall stress of the job. With so much to consider, the need for […]

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The changing face of the procurement office – a digital revolution

Leave a Comment / Change, Procurement Strategy, Technology, Tools / Editor

Bound by the challenges of reducing costs, managing supplier risks and ensuring financial and regulatory changes in policies, chief procurement officers (CPOs) have a tall order. Sarah George, ERP/EPM Cloud Applications Business Development and Product Strategy Manager at Oracle, unpacks the changing digital face of the procurement office, in this month’s SmartProcurement.

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Is fragmentation in corporate travel playing havoc with your policy?

Leave a Comment / Category Management, Change, Procurement Strategy, Technology, Tools, Travel / Editor

Corporates, suppliers and travel management companies (TMCs) need to work together to help improve transparency and reduce the impact of fragmentation on costs and efficiencies. What is fragmentation? It’s when staff try to book travel within their travel policy but are forced to access different sites to source that travel other than the company’s preferred

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Turning supplier information into procurement insight

Leave a Comment / Legal / Contract, Risk Management, Supplier Partnerships, Supplier Selection, Supply Chain Management SCM, Technology, Tools / Editor

Decisions and consequences go hand-in-hand. This is why having adequate, relevant information at your fingertips is a critical aspect of any decision-making process – more so when these decisions affect the operation of business and company reputation. In procurement, the optimal goal is to manage risks and costs within a company, making it an

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Do SA business travellers toe the travel-policy line?

Leave a Comment / Category Management, Legal / Contract, Risk Management, Technology, Tools, Travel / Editor

Traveller non-compliance is an increasing area of concern among travel buyers and managers internationally, with great efforts made to persuade travellers of the benefits of compliance that extend beyond “because the company said so”. A recent study conducted by FCM Travel Solutions and the African Business Travel Association (ABTA) revealed that the level of

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Is your travel technology a strategic procurement partner?

Leave a Comment / Category Management, Technology, Tools, Travel / Editor

We’re in the throes of the 4th industrial revolution, where technology has changed the way we live and do business. Research shows that by 2020, half of the world’s business travellers will be millennials. With this in mind, it’s not surprising that the role of travel management companies has evolved way beyond making travel

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Procurement is about to get smarter, faster and more efficient

Leave a Comment / e-Procurement, Supply Chain Management SCM, Technology, Tools / Editor

A ‘cognitive procurement’ solution is set to redefine the source-to-settle process. The solution delivers intelligence from procurement data – together with predictive insights from unstructured information – to help make decisions in supplier management, contracts and sourcing activities.

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What is procurement’s future in the 4th Industrial Revolution?

Leave a Comment / e-Procurement, Information technology, Spend Analysis, Supply Chain Management SCM, Technology, Tools / Editor

The fourth Industrial Revolution, characterised by a fusion of technologies that is blurring the Iines between the physical, digital and biological spheres, builds on the digital revolution (known as the Third Industrial Revolution) that has been occurring since the 1950’s, said the World Economic Forum. ‘4IR’ has seen the emergence of technologies in procurement,

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SAP functionality can relieve the pinch of your procurement group’s rationalisation

Leave a Comment / Commentary, Supply Chain Management SCM, Technology, Tools / Editor

Reducing costs is a common survival strategy for organisations to employ. But, as the economic situation deteriorates, what started as a doing away with coffee, printing paper or non-essential spares becomes organisational restructuring, which may translate into job cuts. Purchasing departments have not been spared the distress of this kind of cost management, yet

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Forget cost management – think ‘value management’

Leave a Comment / Benchmarking, Spend Analysis, Technology, Tools / Editor

In tough economic times, management may take a ruthless approach to various areas of the business where they perceive costs as being too high. For example, they immediately cut the marketing budget – when in fact marketing may be more critical than ever before. Or they trim down expenditure on IT systems, when investing

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