Germany Vs Housewives: Does the EU know best?

By Frankie Lampl

Far from being a fringe support industry, procurement finds itself at the heart of the EU debate; for example when a directive on the carbon footprint of Vacuum Cleaners becomes the hot news story of Germany vs Housewives. Tensions have run high with the Daily Mail warning us that the EU are coming for our hairdryers and lawn mowers next, while Dyson have not missed the golden opportunity to promote their brand by accusing Germany of influencing the legislation to favour their own archaic and undemocratic non-bagless technology.

Real World Sourcing Series: Procurement Skills & Careers – The Next 10 years Part 2

By Scott Farrance

Following on from my post on Wednesday about the latest Real World Sourcing Series event on what Procurement may look like over the next ten years, this instalment looks more at Peter Smith's ideas about current models and thinking around the role of a "procurement professional".

Peter raised a few different ideas around ‘Current Models and Thinking’’ with regards to the make-up of a modern day Procurement Professional. The first, a four box matrix published in a Spend Matters paper in 2012. The 4 boxes have different skill areas; Leader, Diplomat, Investigator and Analyst. No one person fits into all of them with the same amount of focus, but you will find most staff will find their way into one, with a different skill set and a focus of internal or external.

Real World Sourcing Series: Procurement Skills & Careers – The Next 10 years

By Scott Farrance

Last Wednesday, an eclectic mix of the Procurement Industry’s finest gathered in the delightful setting of The Don restaurant for the latest round of the Real World Sourcing Series, based around Procurement Skills and Careers over the next 10 years.

U2 – Songs That Were Not Very Innocently Downloaded To Your Phone

By Steven Low

Have you got an iPhone or iTunes? Well, if you have, quickly browse to your music collection and see what has been recently added. If you are one of the very lucky ones (and by this I mean everyone!), you now have U2’s latest album downloaded to your phone. Great huh? Who doesn’t love U2 and who doesn’t love a free album!? Well, it seems quite a lot of people in fact – just Google and be prepared to read a lot of bad sweary words that I couldn’t possibly copy and paste up here...

Procurement in Scotland – What’s next?

By Scott Farrance

As the dust, tension, heart rates, blood pressure and expectations begin to settle up and down Scotland today, there is still one very important question on the lips of Scots everywhere; What’s next?

The Internet is Dead, The Internet is Dead! Long Live the Internet! (Part 2)

By Sarah Clarke & Steven Low

A few weeks ago, I attempted to spend a day without the internet and the honest truth is that my efforts were completely and wholly unsuccessful and I was back online a mere 40 minutes into my working day.

A lot has changed since I entered the office workplace almost 20 years ago. Gone are the days of posting, faxing, and photocopying; they’ve been replaced by email and web based solutions.

An article on the Guardian website titled “Is the internet full and going to shut down?” sparked much conversation in the BravoSolution offices a few weeks ago; what would the modern procurement professional’s day look like without the internet?

Executives: Do You Have the Right Resources?

By Mickey North Rizza

Resources are the lifeline of our business and work places. Technology, talent and processes are all resources and directly influence the outcome or performance achieved. Each has its own intelligence, qualities, maturity and life cycle. At any point in time we can measure the maturity of each, suggest improvements and watch as they become fully developed; topping out a resource to its fullest potential. Maturity, it is said, comes from experience.

The Aims of the New EU Procurement Directives

By Steven Low

Earlier this year, the EU voted in a new set of Procurement Directives to update and add to the existing set originally published back in 2004.

It’s true that the world has moved on and certainly within Public Procurement, there is a need to ensure further clarity and transparency in many areas.  Given that it’s likely to be between 6 months and 2 years before many countries transpose them into workable national laws, there is still a time gap before we see these new directives fully in action.  The new directives have come out of a commission set up in 2011 that sought to, amongst other things, simplify and modernise EU procurement legislation.

With best practice tools comes best practice use

By Matt Gradidge

So you’ve adopted the best practice tools, now what?

You’ve bought into the idea that eSourcing is the way forward to deliver efficient, cost saving, risk procurement and sourcing activities. You’ve reached out to the market; awarded to the provider of eSourcing tools that you have the most confidence in to deliver a solution that meets your needs and your users are set up and trained to use the platform. It has been live for some time, but where are the benefits and promised savings?