
President Trump: Procurement, Supply Chain and Policy Perspectives
Our European readers are likely looking at the news out of the U.S. this morning and feeling shocked in the same way they felt following the Brexit vote. Granted, both elections were equally as close. (Clinton appears to have won the popular vote in the U.S., although the Electoral College makes the election look more […]

Purchases: Of Teenagers and Teslas
My half brother, a smart teenager who is already taller than me and usually emerges victorious when competing on the foosball table, happens to be an aspiring engineer who can also hold his own as a researcher and writer (he’s been interning with us for the past two weeks – check MetalMiner on Monday for […]

The White House and SupplierPay: From the Basics to the Behind the Scenes
Right around the time that the Spend Matters analyst tasked with covering the intersection of purchase-to-pay, order-to-cash, trade financing, and payments left the country for a few weeks, President Obama and his team had the nerve to fast-track what is perhaps the most important thing to happen to procurement in decades in terms of government […]

ThomasNet and ISM Partner on “30 Under 30” – Winners Get a Free Spend Matters Plus Seat!
Earlier this month at ISM, Thomas Kase and I talked to some of the ISM and ThomasNet team members responsible for organizing a new award – the “30 Under 30 Supply Chain Stars” (readers can nominate a potential candidate via the link). The award will likely become the most important contest for the future of […]

Is the Cloud Disappearing or Darkening at SAP in Procurement?
SAP is shaking up its cloud business. Or perhaps the cloud is shaking up SAP. Both Vishal Sikka, who championed HANA on the executive board level, and Shawn Price, the president of SAP’s cloud business unit for only a few months, have left (see news coverage here and here). While there are different views on […]

Cloudbuy — Digging Into the Amazon-Besting Rhetoric
It’s amusing being a spectator on the sidelines of the current tech investment bubble (granted, some air was let out of it a few weeks ago). Last time around, I was in the midst of it working for a company called FreeMarkets, which had one of the most successful IPOs in history. I also found […]

Why You Need a Sourcing Tool Belt, Not Just One Tool
In most areas of procurement technology, one tool will do. In fact, it’s preferable. As an example, having a single platform to drill into broader procurement analytics, beyond just basic spend analysis, is far preferable than needing to navigate between different BI tools and dashboards to look at spend, supplier, contract, and related information. E-procurement? […]

2014 Predictions: The Return (and Supply Chain Evolution) of the Private B2B Marketplace
Back in the early 2000s, independent electronic B2B public marketplaces gave birth to the software to run them, which then gave birth to the brick and mortar companies that wanted to control their own destinies to use such software to run industry consortia marketplaces. But, they found the technology lacking in deep support for much […]

Exploring e-Procurement Market Trends: No Winner Here
In the past quarter, we have gotten numerous calls from venture capital firms that wanted our opinion on the e-procurement (and broader Source-to-Pay) market, including growth and vendor prospects. As a favor, we try to spend a bit of time with them on the phone. But we suspect many leave more confused than when the […]

Bob Calderoni and Kevin Costello to Leave SAP – A New Chapter for Ariba Inside SAP
Spend Matters has learned from multiple sources that Bob Calderoni (formerly CEO of Ariba and currently President of SAP Cloud) and Kevin Costello (current President of Ariba within SAP) will be stepping down from their respective positions. Their current or future roles inside or out of SAP have not been announced, but sources suggest they […]