That’s the question Attorney Mark Grieco asked procurement and supply management professionals attending a member meeting of ISM-Greater Rhode Island at Banneker Industries in North Smithfield.

This week and last week were incredibly busy, quickly filling up with COVID-19 webinars and in-person events going personal. Now that we’ve gotten through the initial blast, it looks like things may be slowing down for the month of April. I’ll continue updating the calendar weekly, adding events as I learn about them.

If you are planning your schedule further ahead, I recommend, How to Quarantine Your 3rd Party Relationships (IACCM, Determine) on April 7^th at 11am ET.

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In part 1 of this series, we explained SOW management and described the common challenges currently face with it. In this post, we will describe the benefits of outsourcing SOW management to the organization as a whole and to the many individual stakeholder groups.

Billions of dollars are spent annually on Statement of Work (SOW) projects. Yet, despite this considerable financial investment, many organizations are attempting to manage this area through overburdened internal resources and/or ill-fitting ERP, SMS or HRM systems – if they’re capturing the details of SOW spend at all. 

If you are looking for a longer term webinar recommendation, check out “Using Digital Transformation to Unlock Working Capital in Your Supply Chain” from Tradeshift on November 5th.

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We have another busy week on the calendar with a focus on - contracts! All three of this week’s picks take a completely different look at the topic, from automation to economics to the incorporation of taxes. If you are planning your webinar schedule further in advance, I recommend ‘What happens after due diligence? Don’t stop there.’ from LexisNexis on March 5th.

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Procurement is a function with ever-increasing scope and potential for impact. As this week’s recommended events suggest, we can address the entire P2P process, unite the past and future through forensic examination of contracts, and push the boundaries of automation. Click on the title of each webinar below to view the full description and register.

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If last week was the official start to a new year of webinars, this week the industry hits its stride! All three of the events listed below are well worth your time – and if you register and attend, be sure to let me know what you thought! Click on the title of each webinar below to view the full description and register.

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I live in the Boston area, so when the 2016 Nobel Prize for Economics was awarded to Dr. Bengt Holmstrom, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Dr. Oliver Hart, a professor at Harvard, it made a considerable splash in the local news. I love economics in action, so I started reading more - but I never expected to find contracts as the center of their work.

Each of the newly selected Nobel laureates has a different area of focus, but both are relevant to procurement and supply chain professionals.

Here are my recommendations for the best way to spend 1 hour of thought provoking professional development time this week. Click on the title of each event below to view the full description in our events calendar and to connect to their registration pages.

Scenario 1: The supplier contacts you in writing to state they have submitted the wrong pricing in the bid…what is your first response?

 - Tough luck you submitted it

 - That’s typical of suppliers, always trying to trick you

  - Expect the price is going to increase

 - Interested to see if they are submitting a lower price

Scenario 2: The supplier approaches you and states they think they have a solution to deliver the contract more efficiently...what is your first feeling?

 - They are looking to upsell

  - I don’t believe them

  - They are trying to make me look bad

  - Want to discuss in a supportive and engaging manner

Scenario 3: The business reduces its requirements 2% in the contract and understandably do not want to pay for what is not required. Do you;

 - Tell the supplier to “suck it up” and not re-negotiate the contract

 - Re-negotiate the contract to ensure they are fairly compensated

Unfortunately we all know the responses because it is an attitude that is the default towards suppliers; confrontation & mistrust. For many within procurement it is a justified attitude because in the past any leniency has been abused by suppliers.

As we start the first full week of July, events are continuing – albeit at a slower summer pace. The upside of that is that anyone presenting a webinar knows the topic has to be really compelling to get people to attend. Click on the title of each event below to view the full description in our events calendar and connect to their registration pages.

It’s no secret that when a company is looking to solicit bids for a project, opening up a Request for Proposal (RFP) offers a simplified, standardized, and centralized means to compare diverse bidders. A well-crafted RFP separates the best-fit from the less qualified. A poorly executed request, on the other hand, will shut out even the most qualified providers before they have a chance to shine.

Last week I attended an excellent supply chain risk management webinar sponsored by the Next Level Purchasing Association and featuring a global supply chain manager from a Fortune 500 company. The event followed the story of this particular corporate supply chain through the 2010 tsunami in Japan (you can click here for my notes).

One of the lessons this particular company learned was about finding the right place for addressing the human side of a very complicated business issue. I was impressed with the efforts they had made, particularly for such a large company. A thought started to form in my mind: what contract clauses were put aside in order to have an appropriate response to the devastation while not creating serious business continuity issues?

I spent the last couple of weeks reading The Contract Negotiation Handbook by Stephen R. Guth Esq., and despite how it may initially sound, I came away with one critical realization: I am a pop tart.