Whitepaper: Navigating the Complexities of Facilities Management
Facilities management is one of the most complex categories for procurement to manage. It’s a high-visibility, high-stakes category in which governance and compliance pressures continue to mount, and risk management […]
Industry Alert: Waste Broker M&A Activity Threatens Customers’ Bottom Lines
Have you noticed the increased merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in the waste broker market? As a broker customer, are you aware of the threat this activity poses to your […]
Three Hurdles Category Management Teams Must Overcome for Sustainable Results
Given my experience on both the client and service provider side of the fence, I know a thing or two about category management—the good, the bad, and the ugly. Having […]
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The Great ‘Return to Office’ & Its Real Impact on Facilities Costs
Workplace experience has historically been considered a function of the Human Resources department—until now. More and more, Facilities Management (FM) departments are not just getting pulled into workplace experience discussions, but actually owning the function. Return-to-office (RTO) initiatives have also accelerated this transition as building owners have launched amenities programs [...]
A “Three-Legged Stool” Approach to Optimizing Indirect Spend
As any procurement professional who’s managed indirect categories will tell you, the relative spend is not equal to the relative headaches. To optimally manage the most burdensome indirect categories—e.g., uniform rental, waste & recycling, pest control, security & guard services, and energy & utilities—an equally complex approach is required. [...]
Industry Alert: As Waste Brokers Consolidate, Your Spend Skyrockets
If your organization is using a waste broker, its already missing out on managed costs, transparency, and advocacy—and thus, optimal bottom-line impact. But with rapid, real-time industry consolidation within the […]
Why Fine Tune is replacing the word ‘savings’ with ‘spend reduction’
I graduated from college and embarked on my career thinking I knew what the word savings meant. Mine was the common-sense definition that “John and Jane Q. Public” use every […]
Sustainability vs. Sustainable: Is your energy management strategy truly efficient?
At its core, the word “sustainability” is defined simply as the ability to continue at a certain level—no explicit consideration for whether something is “green,” renewable, or recyclable, and no defined parameters around carbon footprint. Simply: “able to continue." This naturally begs the question: is your energy management strategy sustainable? [...]
Is Your Procurement Department Burning Out?
“Everyone in Procurement is talking about burnout,” says Tom Mills, Head of Procurement & Properties at Bibby Financial Services, in his recent LinkedIn post. And he’s not wrong. Procurement burnout […]
Who’s Managing These Tail Spend Expenses, Anyway?
We’ve frequently discussed in recent years how leaned out procurement departments are increasingly vulnerable to attack by their indirect suppliers, on a range of fronts. Perhaps the most acute vulnerability facing these departments in 2023 is the inability to engage in any sort of actual expense management whatsoever, especially [...]
Buyers: It’s time to take back your power. Here’s how.
The harsh reality is that at the dawn of 2023, procurement teams and buyers in general are facing an exceptionally challenging landscape, and the grand-scheme question facing these professionals is: “How can we reclaim some of the power we’ve lost?” [...]
The Unintended Consequences of “Net-Never” Payment Strategies
An accomplished procurement executive recently joked with me that their prior employer’s vendor payment terms were “net-never.” The phrase resonated with me and my team, as we’ve witnessed just how […]