ICYMIM: September 11, 2017

Source One's series for keeping up with the most recent highlights in procurement, sourcing, and supply chain news week to week.  Check in with us every Monday to stay up to date with the latest supply management articles. 

Tom Finn, Spend Matters, 9/5/2017
Finn suggests that nothing looks more certain for procurement's future than an incoming wave of young talent.  These young professionals, willing to embrace change in ways their predecessors were not, will finally alter the face of procurement.  Procurement professionals, he writes, "[have] a tendency to keep pushing the same principles," even when these principles fail to produce results. The new generation will insist upon fundamental changes to these ideas and bring procurement into a new, more dynamic era.  

Optimize Energy Spend in Pennsylvania and Eliminate Guesswork

Trevor Joelson, Corporate United, 9/5/2017
Joelson heads to the Keystone State for the conclusion of this series on one of the trickier areas of indirect spend.  Site of a recent and wholly unexpected surge in natural gas production, Pennsylvania has helped lower natural gas prices across the globe.  The gas boom also contributes to a situation in which many new taxes loom on the horizon and hidden fees are a consistent factor in indirect spend. Thankfully, the state also boasts a diverse and competitive energy market.  Procurement departments not only need to work with suppliers to customize energy spend plans, but must stay abreast of new developments in this consistently evolving sphere.

Cognitive is the New Buzzword. But What Does it Mean?

Michael Lamoreux AKA The Sourcing Doctor, Sourcing Innovation, 9/7/2017
The Dcctor takes a closer look at the increasingly popular notion of 'cognitive procurement.'  Its definition, he discovers, is both mutable and vague.  In attempting to get to the bottom of its true meaning, he first picks apart the qualities that make for excellence in procurement.  He determines that by combining visibility, analytics, modelling, optimization, and negotiation one can conduct sourcing that "present[s] a user with the information they need when they need it."  This is the essence of cognitive procurement.  Unfortunately, he ends on a note of uncertainty.  It is not immediately clear if any application that truly meets these requirements, truly achieves cognition, currently exists.
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