This week’s events represent a wide range of topics as well as some of the companies we don’t hear from quite as often. Interestingly enough, I’m starting to see the old players of Ariba (now SAP) and Emptoris (as IBM) making a comeback in events and marketing. One thing all these topics have in common is the idea that imagination is a key component to a sustainable vision for the future. Click on the title of each event below to view the full description in the events calendar and to connect to their registration pages.
Spend Analysis: It’s What You Do With it That Matters (SIG, SAP/Ariba)
September 15, 2pm EDT
Geek alert – I love spend analysis. I always did, whether as a practitioner or as a consultant. In this webinar, the presenters will make a very interesting point about these often taken for granted assets. You can set up the best, cleanest, most enriched solution imaginable, but if you don’t have the capabilities – or, frankly, the imagination – to do something compelling with the information, the return will be limited. This event will combine best practices for successful implementations with real life case studies to illustrate where and how the rubber needs to meet the road in spend analysis.
The future of technology for procurement teams (Rosslyn Analytics)
September 17th, 11am EDT
As the capabilities of procurement technologies continue to advance, so must our understanding of what they can do and what we need to be capable of in order to leverage their full potential. This webinar, presented by Paul Cook, Rosslyn Analytics’ VP of Global Sales, will focus on cloud analytics solutions from selection, to deployment, and through the term of use. The key, of course, is not looking at the solution in terms of how to create maximum procurement value, but how to create value for the entire enterprise using all of the know-how and technology available to the procurement team.
Re-imagining Sourcing in the Digital Age (SIG, Mayer Brown)
September 17th, 2pm EDT
In a third ‘imagination required’ event for the week, Mayer Brown partners Brad Peterson and Rebecca Eisner will ask us to think about how procurement should break free from some of our less productive legacy ways and mindsets and take a fresh look based on the resources of the Digital Age. Today’s balance of more sharing, less customization, lower costs, and faster speeds should enable us to accomplish things that were unimaginable only a decade ago – but only if we start applying our imagination today.