Global Sourcing, 3rd Party Consulting Articles

Direct Materials Sourcing: Managing Cost and Innovation, AberdeenGroup (287KB)

An Executive White Paper - Global competition, downward pricing trends and current economic pressures have made cost control the new mantra of business. To maintain profitability, manufacturers must rapidly work off excess inventories and rein in the costs of goods sold (COGS) - all while continually driving innovation.

SAS Industry Intelligence Solutions, Taking a model-centric view of Business Intelligence, Butler Group (1.05M)

This white paper, written by Butler Group, first provides a brief overview of Butler’s vision for the advanced deployment of BI technologies according to this end-to-end process. It then focuses on the SAS Industry Intelligence Solutions for Banking, Insurance and Telecommunications, outlining the industry-specific, model-driven architecture of these advanced BI solutions, which allows them to be implemented quickly and easily.

Enterprise Spend Management: Taking Charge of Enterprise Value, YANKEE GROUP (205KB)

Creating a culture of fiscal discipline is the single most important thing we can do to create, maintain,
and improve the long-term health of our companies in any environment.Companies that can take firm
control of the money they earn will outperform competitors in bull markets and gain market share in
contracting ones (see Exhibit 1). The bad news is that we can ’t control the economic circumstances in
which our companies operate.The good news is that every company can implement common-sense tools
and practices to take charge of the single most important enterprise asset:the money that you earn.

e-Procurement: Finally Ready for Prime Time, AberdeenGroup (222KB)

During the past year, the Internet may have seemed like only a place to lose money, but many companies have realized significant cost and process savings by using Internet-based procurement technologies to automate the ac-quisition and management of non-production goods and services. e-Procurement software applications and services are employee self-service solutions that materials like office supplies; com-puter
equipment; and maintenance, repair, and operating (MRO) provisions.

Services Spend Management: Addressing the Total Cost Lifecycle, AberdeenGroup (508KB)

This White Paper discusses the opportunities and particular challenges of automat-ing
services spend management, outlining how TCM provides a compelling
framework for approaching the complexity of business services alongside all en-terprise
spend.

Integrating Suppliers Early Key to Cost Savings, Performance, and Profits, AberdeenGroup (93KB)

Findings from the latest Aberdeen Group E-sourcing Index (ESI) [1] indicate that companies that engaged the sourcing team in the design process at the concept and development stages were able to achieve 17.5% average cost savings versus just 12.9% for sourcing groups that get involved in the design process at the pilot/prototype stage or later.