This week our recommended procurement webinars bring us three ideas: supplier prequalification, the bullwhip effect, and finance transformation. Click on the title of each event below to view the full description and register or visit the BMP events calendar to see what’s on tap for the rest of the month.
Reasons for Supplier Prequalification Failure (ProcureCon, Browz)
October 19th, 1pm ET
In the description for this event, the point is made that today “competition has moved from ‘among organizations’ to ‘between supply chains’”. It is a fantastic point, and challenges us to find a new way to think about how important our relationships with suppliers are and how critical it is that we function synchronously. Rather than just focusing on strategic sourcing and supplier selection, this webinar will address pre-qualification – presumably the process of screening suppliers before sourcing begins.
What Is the Value of Demand Driven? (Supply Chain Insights)
October 19th, 1pm ET
As a teaser for this webinar, Supply Chain Insights asks, “The Bullwhip Effect? Know what it is?” I’ll admit I had to answer that one with a no. So I did a little bit of reading. According to Wikipedia, “It refers to increasing swings in inventory in response to shifts in customer demand as one moves further up the supply chain.” In practice, this means that the further any one entity in the supply chain is from actual customer demand, the more distorted or delayed their understanding of that demand is. It therefore makes sense that this panel webinar will cover how to recognize and respond to demand signals.
Embracing Technology as an Enabler for Finance Transformation – Case Studies (Proactis)
20th, 10am ET
This event is positioned for a finance audience, but the fact that technology is presented as a way to “increase efficiency, reduce costs and ultimately transform many of their [the company’s] financial processes”, procurement is at least a primary stakeholder. Add to that the take-aways around regulations, risk, reporting, strategy, and reporting and it becomes clear that finance transformation and procurement transformation are two sides of the same coin.