My company helps clients with technology sourcing and negotiations. We usually deal with CIOs, sometimes with the VP of Strategic Sourcing (though some are already re-writing their resumes to say Spend Management). Recently a client asked me where Sourcing in general, not just around technology, was headed. I dusted off my procurement research I had written as a Gartner analyst. In 1997 (ancient!) I had developed a taxonomy of spend categories - strategic components; capital projects and related costs; indirect materials and services, and "commoditized" direct items; and miscellaneous purchases - and had identified technologies and techniques for each category. It was nostalgic to read about vendors I had then written about like FreeMarkets, Aspect Development and hundred of electronic marketplaces which have since been acquired or otherwise gone. It was also impressive to see how sourcing and spend management has evolved over the last few years.
I was therefore pleased to see Jason Busch’s (ex FreeMarkets) blog Spend Matters.
He keeps up with Ariba, content management tools and trends which continue to evolve to help sourcing stay strategic for organizations, even as the term becomes passe in the world of "spend management"
He also has some interesting wine collecting tips!
