Sat.Sep 02, 2023 - Fri.Sep 08, 2023

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Spend Matters: Uniting manufacturing CFOs and procurement for margin expansion

Arkestro

As the economy teeters between a so-called ‘soft landing’ and all-out recession, an emerging consensus across C-suites has taken shape: the time to cut costs is now. Once again, all eyes are on procurement. A recent study from CreditSafe showed an eye-popping 95% of North American manufacturers plan to push for cost reductions with their suppliers in the next six to twelve months.

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7 focus areas for negotiating procurement contracts

Supply Chain Dive

Reviewing clauses and KPI disclosures can help procurement managers minimize supply chain risks.

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What will prevent AI from successfully transforming procurement efficiency and effectiveness?

Procurement Insights

In 1998, when I leveraged advanced algorithms to procure MRO products for the DND IT infrastructure, I learned something early: Algorithms are an extension of human experience and expertise multiplied. For example – and this is the crucial difference between using an agent-based versus equation-based model, I knew only by experience that the time of day an order was placed for a part significantly impacted cost and SLA performance.

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The power of supplier diversity in procurement: Driving business success through inclusion — Part 1 (Definition and Importance)

Spend Matters

In today’s diverse society, businesses have a crucial role to play in fostering equality and inclusion. However, the business world often needs to improve to reflect the true diversity of society, both within companies and in their supply chains. To bridge this gap, organizations are increasingly embracing the concept of supplier diversity in their procurement processes.

Suppliers 109
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From Rigid To Resilient: Why Enterprises Need Shopify's Modular Commerce Now

Speaker: Benjamin Woll

Enterprise commerce is at an inflection point. Rigid, monolithic platforms slow brands down, but a full replatforming is disruptive and costly. Shopify’s modular architecture offers a flexible, scalable alternative - allowing enterprise brands to modernize without ripping and replacing their entire stack. Learn how Shopify’s composable approach helps modernize commerce stacks while maintaining control over critical systems.

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Do you agree with this view of procurement?

Procurement Insights

“But many purchasing managers’ skills and outlooks were formed 20 years ago in an era of relative stability, and they haven’t changed. Now, however, no company can allow purchasing to lag behind other departments in acknowledging and adjusting to worldwide environmental and economic changes. Such an attitude is not only obsolete but also costly.” In what way does procurement have to change or evolve?

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Supply Chain Weekly Wrap-Up 09/01/2023-09/07/2023

All Things Supply Chain

First American Uranium Reports on New Mexico’s Past Uranium Mining First American Uranium is highlighting the historical uranium production in New Mexico, particularly in the Grants district, where the company’s…

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Strategic Responses to Supply Chain Trends

Supply Chain Brain

Companies are always going to face the unexpected and unpredictable. The hard part is knowing how to prepare for these supply chain trends strategically.

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CPO SPOTLIGHT: JON WILLESCROFT

Procurement Heads

For our latest CPO Spotlight, Jon spoke with James Dobbin about how he entered the world of procurement and some of the challenges CPOs currently face. You went to the University of Bath, achieving a BSc honours in Business Administration. What made you choose a career in procurement? Could you tell us a bit about your career journey so far? The University of Bath was – and I think still is – a real centre of excellence for Procurement and Supply Chain.

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Mainframe and the cloud? It’s easy with open source

IBM Supply Chain Blog

This is part four in a five-part series on mainframe modernization. The secret to mainstreaming the mainframe into today’s modern, cloud-centric IT environments is to make the experience of working with the mainframe like the experience of working off the mainframe—especially the developer experience (DX). Historically, working on the mainframe was an entirely different experience from the distributed world.

Sourcing 120
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Why it’s time for shippers to reevaluate their air cargo agreements

Supply Chain Dive

Three logistics experts on why customers are looking to secure six- to 12-month contracts.

Contract 134
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GEP Spend Category Outlook Report 2025

2025 will feel familiar, in some regards. The procurement and supply chain category management landscape will remain turbulent, with geopolitical tensions, worries over fresh tariffs, rising costs, and supply chain disruptions posing significant challenges. But you should also expect some lightning-fast changes in 2025 as artificial intelligence continues to upend the way enterprises and procurement, supply chain, and category management professionals operate.

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China State Media Declares Huawei Phone a Victory in U.S. Tech War

Supply Chain Brain

Speculation swirled that the device achieved 5G capabilities, which would make it the first such handset since the Shenzhen-based electronics firm lost access to advanced chipmaking technologies in 2020.

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Uniting manufacturing CFOs and procurement for margin expansion

Spend Matters

This content does not express the views or opinions of Spend Matters. As the economy teeters between a so-called ‘soft landing’ and all-out recession, an emerging consensus across C-suites has taken shape: the time to cut costs is now. Once again, all eyes are on procurement. A recent study from CreditSafe showed an eye-popping 95% of North American manufacturers plan to push for cost reductions with their suppliers in the next 6 to 12 months.

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Generative AI: Meet your partner in customer service

IBM Supply Chain Blog

Brands that deliver an excellent customer experience (CX) will always be more resilient than those that don’t. Giving our customers personalized support at every stage of their journey is proven to earn their longtime loyalty—and keep them from switching to a competitor. The challenge, however, is that many teams operate in siloes that inhibit them from applying their customer insights in meaningful ways.

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UPS unveils 5.9% shipping rate increase, higher peak season surcharges

Supply Chain Dive

The rate hike applies to Ground, Air and International services and will take effect Dec. 26.

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5 Ways You Can Win Faster with Gen AI in Sales

Incorporating generative AI (gen AI) into your sales process can speed up your wins through improved efficiency, personalized customer interactions, and better informed decision- making. Gen AI is a game changer for busy salespeople and can reduce time-consuming tasks, such as customer research, note-taking, and writing emails, and provide insightful data analysis and recommendations.

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Maintaining Warehouse Equipment During Peak-Season Demand

Supply Chain Brain

This year, among the most challenging curveballs that warehouses will face is getting the equipment they need when they need it.

Demand 116
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Reliable Middle Mile for the Unreliable World

SCMR (Supply Chain Management Review)

Transportation planning for the furniture and home goods industry presents a complex puzzle, and traditional planning methods often fail to account for the inherent randomness and variation in real-world operations.

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Data is essential: Building an effective generative AI marketing strategy

IBM Supply Chain Blog

Generative AI is powering a new world of creative, customized communications, allowing marketing teams to deliver greater personalization at scale and meet today’s high customer expectations. The potential of this powerful new tool spans the entire end-to-end marketing process, from internal communications and productivity to customer-facing channels and product support.

Data 112
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Joann eyes $60M in product cost savings as suppliers offer concessions

Supply Chain Dive

The craft retailer thinks it can cut $200 million in business costs, the bulk of that coming from its supply chain as inflation eases.

Suppliers 127
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From Reactive to Resilient: Charting Your Supply Chain Maturity

In this webinar, supply chain industry experts share insights and best practices for enhancing supply chain efficiency, resilience and adaptability. Watch the webinar to learn strategies to develop supply chain maturity and save on costs. Delve into the stages of supply chain maturity, from foundational management to advanced optimization and innovation.

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The Benefits of Lithium-Ion Batteries in Electrifying Industrial Equipment

Supply Chain Brain

The improved sustainability, cost-efficiency and positive global impact of lithium-ion batteries prove it to be a better overall product.

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Cranking the M&A engine: Basware takes aim at Glantus

Spend Matters

Basware recently announced it was acquiring Glantus (subject to final regulatory and shareholder approval), an Ireland- and UK-based AP automation and recovery audit firm which also has operations in North America and Poland. The deal is valued at £29.5 million including debt assumptions implying, based on Glantus’ recent tepid financial performance, a top-line forward multiple which we would estimate at somewhere in the neighborhood of 3X.

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Building AI for business: IBM’s Granite foundation models

IBM Supply Chain Blog

It’s an exciting time in AI for business. As we apply the technology more widely across areas ranging from customer service to HR to code modernization, artificial intelligence (AI) is helping increasing numbers of us work smarter, not harder. And as we are just at the start of the AI for business revolution, the potential for improving productivity and creativity is vast.

Quality 101
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Target offers more details on its delivery strategy

Supply Chain Dive

The retailer opened its 10th sortation center and is testing larger vehicles for delivery.

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The Evolving Retailers Fulfillment Strategy: Meeting Demands with Agility

Speaker: Becky Parisotto and John Vurdelja

Fulfillment is no longer just about getting products from point A to point B – it's about crafting seamless, scalable, customer first experiences. Flexible fulfillment strategies are more important than ever for those aiming to stay ahead and build resilience as retail enters a new era in 2025. Learn how to optimize fulfillment processes, tackle complex, multi-vendor orders, and create seamless customer experiences – from white-glove delivery for high-value items to quick-ship solutions for ever

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Watch: Driving Sustainability From the Root of the Supply Chain

Supply Chain Brain

There are multiple trends driving sustainability in the supply chain right now, says Frank Clary, vice president for sustainability at multi-business operator and investor Agility.

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Crucial MRP Metrics Every Supply Chain Pro Should Know

SCMDOJO

This blog explains The Key MRP Metrics in Supply Chain whcih every supply chain professional in Manufacturing or Distribution Businesses. Supply chain professionals will be familiar with the term Material Requirements Planning (MRP). This is a fundamental principle of supply chain management, it constitutes a juggling act that is at the heart of any well-orchestrated manufacturing process.

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What is the vulnerability management process?

IBM Supply Chain Blog

Modern enterprise networks are vast systems of remote and on-premises endpoints, locally installed software, cloud apps , and third-party services. Every one of these assets plays a vital role in business operations—and any of them could contain vulnerabilities that threat actors can use to sow chaos. Organizations rely on the vulnerability management process to head off these cyberthreats before they strike.

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Crate and Barrel to ramp up supply chain investment

Supply Chain Dive

The retailer's “Bring it Home” plan seeks to improve inventory optimization, demand forecasting and delivery speeds.

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GEP Outlook Report 2025

For years, you and your team have fought an uphill battle. Supply disruptions. Cost pressures. ESG compliance. You name it, and you’ve had to navigate it. In 2025, many challenges will persist, but procurement and supply chain teams have a powerful tool with rapidly advancing capabilities to tackle them — artificial intelligence (AI). The GEP Outlook 2025 report examines the disruptive transformation AI is driving in procurement and supply chains, alongside other key trends and the macroeconomic

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OEMs Confident They Can Overcome Supply Chain Issues

Supply Chain Brain

Almost two-thirds of senior automotive executives say they cut their backlogged orders by 61% while another 34% expect to reduce their backlogs over the next 12 months.

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Logistics Service Providers (LSP): 3PL vs 4PL vs 5PL

SCMDOJO

“The line between disorder and order lies in logistics…” (Tzu, 496 B.C). Accordingly, if organizations want to succeed and grow in the long-term, they need to cooperate, organize, and manage their logistics very wisely and mitigate its problems and risks simultaneously. In this effort, Logistics Service Providers (LSPs) are essential because they provide a variety of supply chain management solutions that simplify warehouse operations, order processing, and transportation.

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Elevating the Last Mile: Transformative Trends and Customer-Centric Evolution in E-commerce

SCMR (Supply Chain Management Review)

The proliferation of e-commerce and the imperative for an omnichannel fulfillment experience has culminated in the advancement of the final mile. But even that is now being disrupted by technology that puts the customer front and center in the supply chain.

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Ulta Beauty nearly triples ship-from-store locations

Supply Chain Dive

The fulfillment method offers faster and more cost-effective deliveries to customers, CEO Dave Kimbell said.

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10 Ways to Leverage Buyer Signals and Drive Revenue

In today’s ultra-competitive markets, it’s no longer enough to wait for buyers to show obvious signs of interest. Instead, sales teams must be proactive, identifying and acting on nuanced buyer behaviors — often before prospects are fully ready to make a purchase. In this eBook from ZoomInfo & Sell Better, learn 10 actionable ways to use these buyer signals to transform your sales strategy and close deals faster.