Art of Procurement

News of supply shortages and price increases seem to be everywhere. For consumers, that means their dollar doesn't buy quite as much as it used to, but for procurement, it means every supplier email or call is likely to be a request for a price increase. What is procurement to do? In this crossover episode from The Sourcing Hero podcast, produced in partnership with Una, Host Kelly Barner flips the tables to interview AOP Founder and Managing Director Philip Ideson. His advice on how to address supplier price increase requests is timely - as is his input on how procurement can avoid being 're-pigeonholed' as a cost-only team. If you enjoy this interview, subscribe to The Sourcing Hero podcast for weekly conversations on topics of interest to procurement with a wide-ranging group of guests. In this conversation, Phil shares his perspective on: How procurement should respond to a supplier that reached out with a request for a price increase What options procurement has for mitigating the increase once it has been determined to be a valid request from the supplier If procurement needs to worry about getting TOO GOOD at protecting the bottom line in challenging times

It isn't often that procurement has the opportunity to hear the sales perspective on our work, but that is precisely what we bring you in this episode of the Art of Procurement podcast. Chris Mele is the Managing Partner of Software Pricing Partners. In this interview, he provides an outsider's perspective on two topics that are important to procurement: How pricing works in the software industry: whether suppliers are being fair and how to negotiate when you feel like you're examining a 'black box,' because the pricing is value-based rather than input cost-based What the typical RFP process looks like to sales reps. You won't just hear Chris' perspective on RFPs - he solicited input from other sales professionals as well. Before hitting play, we would like to offer a special listener's caution on this conversation... There are two ways to listen to this episode. You can either hear a salesperson advocating for process changes that might make his job easier (not recommended), or you can hear honest input that will help you design your sourcing strategy to better deliver what the business needs from its supply partners. Which way you listen is entirely up to you.

Procurement, treasury and accounts payable have one set of shared objectives when it comes to supplier engagement and management, but all too often they operate in silos. This complicates supplier management and does little to improve their experience while working with a company. Restructuring how these groups work together through procurement transformation can create opportunities to support each other's goals and therefore better deliver against business expectations. In this episode, Host Philip Ideson is joined by Joe Payne, SVP, Source-to-Pay at Corcentric, and Jennifer Ulrich, Senior Director of Advisory at Corcentric. They are both return guests on Art of Procurement and are two of four authors of the recently released book: Managing Indirect Spend. This conversation is based on a recent AOP Live webinar titled, "Bridging the Gap Between Procurement, AP, and Treasury through Procurement Transformation." In that session Joe and Jennifer answered questions from a live Art of Procurement audience about: Where procurement, treasury, and accounts payable tend to fall out of sync and why How fragmented processes not only negatively impact suppliers, but reduce the ROI to the company from those relationships The additional benefits - such as reduced overall effort and improved data quality - that result when all three groups work collaboratively

"I'm going to change your mindset. You're going to want me to help you. You're going to want my team. You're going to want more procurement and you're going to advocate for us. I love watching it shift." Many procurement leaders have been tasked with building the first procurement organization at their company. It is always a challenging journey, with many unexpected twists and turns. For fast-growth companies with a global footprint, establishing formal procurement is absolutely critical, but it has to be done in a way that does not impede the growth trajectory. Sarah Kaye is the Director of Procurement at Spin, a part of Ford Mobility, an electric scooter and bike-share company. She is combining her passion for marketing with the procurement experience she gained working at organizations such as Target, Radisson Hotel Group, and WeWork. Sarah's responsibilities at Spin began at the beginning; building and growing the company's very first procurement team. In this conversation, Host Philip Ideson and Sarah discuss how she is building procurement capabilities that truly align with the needs of the business, and how she is leveraging her marketing skills to build and sell the procurement value proposition: The level of sophistication she is able to bring to procurement's internal relationships by making personal connections aimed at delivering long term value Why the best problem she has is too many contracts to negotiate and execute The importance of procurement taking programs like diversity and inclusion or sustainability and moving beyond tracking and reporting to full advocacy with the business

Corporate travel is one of the most complex spend categories that procurement has management responsibility for. For almost two years now, business travel has been in a state of flux resulting from the global COVID-19 pandemic, leaving most companies and procurement teams with a whole series of unanswered questions: How should your corporate travel policy change to reflect new realities? How do you negotiate deals when volumes are uncertain? How do you account for traveler safety? And how do you integrate sustainability into your travel program? In this four-part special series brought to you in partnership with Egencia, the world's business travel platform, we will cover all of these pressing issues and more. In the final episode of the series, host Philip Ideson speaks with Kristina Zdrilic Siljedahl, Global Account Manager and Sustainability Ambassador at Egencia, to discuss the tactics and metrics that companies can use to integrate sustainability into their travel program.

Corporate travel is one of the most complex spend categories that procurement has management responsibility for. For almost two years now, business travel has been in a state of flux resulting from the global COVID-19 pandemic, leaving most companies and procurement teams with a whole series of unanswered questions: How should your corporate travel policy change to reflect new realities? How do you negotiate deals when volumes are uncertain? How do you account for traveler safety? And how do you integrate sustainability into your travel program? In this four-part special series brought to you in partnership with Egencia, the world's business travel platform, we will cover all of these pressing issues and more. In the third episode of the series, host Philip Ideson speaks with Caitlin Deegan, Senior Director of Strategy at Egencia, to discuss the elevated responsibility organizations have to protect traveler safety, and what actions they can take to minimize risk as much as possible.

Corporate travel is one of the most complex spend categories that procurement has management responsibility for. For almost two years now, business travel has been in a state of flux resulting from the global COVID-19 pandemic, leaving most companies and procurement teams with a whole series of unanswered questions: How should your corporate travel policy change to reflect new realities? How do you negotiate deals when volumes are uncertain? How do you account for traveler safety? And how do you integrate sustainability into your travel program? In this four-part special series brought to you in partnership with Egencia, the world's business travel platform, we will cover all of these pressing issues and more. In the second episode of the series, host Philip Ideson speaks with Delphine Boulton, Director of Consulting at Egencia, to discuss different approaches procurement teams can take to negotiate travel deals when traveler demand is uncertain.

Corporate travel is one of the most complex spend categories that procurement has management responsibility for. For almost two years now, business travel has been in a state of flux resulting from the global COVID-19 pandemic, leaving most companies and procurement teams with a whole series of unanswered questions: How should your corporate travel policy change to reflect new realities? How do you negotiate deals when volumes are uncertain? How do you account for traveler safety? And how do you integrate sustainability into your travel program? In this four-part special series brought to you in partnership with Egencia, the world's business travel platform, we will cover all of these pressing issues and more. In this first episode of the series, host Philip Ideson speaks with Ann Dery, Director of Global Travel at S&P Global, and Rob Fodor, Global Account Manager at Egencia, about the changes companies are making to their travel policies in the short term and their perspective on when different types of travel will resume.

Anyone who has worked in procurement for more than a year or two has probably found themselves in a situation where they suspect that they are overpaying on a supplier contract. How can you be sure and what should you do if you uncover overpayment? In some cases overpayment issues are based on billing errors, and in other cases, agreed upon contract terms are not being adhered to by suppliers. Either way, third-party compliance audits can be essential. Ben Evans is the President at Auditech Solutions, a company that provides accounts payable and contract compliance audits to help companies determine whether they are overpaying on invoices. He points out that not only may audits need to be done when a company suspects something is wrong with a set of invoices, but that it may be advantageous to include an audit clause in certain contracts. In this conversation, Ben and host Philip Ideson: Discuss the value of inserting audit causes into supplier contracts, what they should look like, and how to negotiate them. Take a deeper dive into compliance audits and how to make them a regular part of a supplier governance program. And cover the 'nuts and bolts' of updates, including the different types of commercial models for hiring and compensating an audit firm.

Procurement has been working to digitally transform spend and supplier related processes for years, but even the companies that have succeeded can always do more. Each procurement process connects to other enterprise processes, functions, and systems. The more integrated all of those components are, the better positioned the company is to respond to disruption and seize competitive advantage. In this conversation, Tony Harris, Global Vice President, Global Business Network Solutions at SAP, and host Philip Ideson discuss what today's integrated business networks actually are and what use cases he has seen. In addition to sharing his detailed thoughts about data models, spot buying, and business networks, Tony also shares some tips for procurement leaders that want to start on their own business network design and implementation journey. For example: Looking for ways to speed up the typical RFP process so that it supports the business instead of hindering progress Ensuring that third party services and contingent workforce providers are included in distributed sourcing and buying platforms Opportunities for supplier value creation associated with leveraging global business networks