The “Summer of Sourcing” officially commences!

With the temperatures rising across the country, there may be no better time to enjoy the air-conditioned paradise of your office than this upcoming Thursday, July 11, when Ardent Partners Research Director, Christopher Dwyer, joins the Institute of Supply Management (ISM) for what promises to one of the premier webcasts of the summer. The “A Modern Take on Supply Management.. and a Look Ahead to the Future” webinar is scheduled for 2:00pm Eastern; click here to register for the event.

In the past, procurement professionals were tasked with being a minor support valve for the greater corporate machine by playing a small role in how internal units managed spend and suppliers. In recent years, this function has risen to shine in the strategic limelight of today’s uncertain economic world and consistently proven that the procurement group deserves a seat at the executive table.

The upcoming webcast will define current supply management trends and how they fit into the scope of the contemporary procurement group. We’ll highlight multiple angles of modern supply management, as well as the growing strategic importance of complex spend management. We’ll also look to the future of this function and pinpoint what’s ahead for procurement professionals around the globe.

Let’s (very briefly) tour a quick teaser of this week’s event:

• Why is procurement more strategic? Many procurement executives hear the “strategic” word uttered in every crevasse of their minds, but often fail to enact any semblance of how to initiate a more strategic overhaul of their existing procurement functions. We’ll deep-dive into how this concept is now a part of every procurement unit.
• The Best-in-Class procurement function: what can I do to replicate their success? The world-class procurement organization has two main characteristics: a sharp, often-dominating advantage in the performance arena, and a robust foundation of key competencies and capabilities. Thursday’s webcast will deliver a full discussion of the top capabilities that every procurement organization should consider as part of their program transformation.
• The future of this function… and how to prepare. Where does the modern Chief Procurement Officer (CPO) sit in relation to his / her peers? What can he or she do to become a strategic partner in the future of the contemporary business? What’s coming up ahead for this group? What is the top strategy that can be utilized now as a way to alter (in a positive way) the future?
• Complex spend management as the next great supply management frontier. Business travel, contingent labor, meetings and events, print and marketing materials…where do they fit into the contemporary procurement stratosphere? These complex spend categories are proving to be formidable buckets of enterprise spending and demand procurement’s attention. We’ll tether these categories to how procurement can be (as described in the bullet above) best-prepared for the future of their organizations.

We encourage you to join us on Thursday at 2:00pm Eastern for this exclusive webcast. Click here to register for the event and enjoy what will be part of Ardent’s “Summer of Sourcing.”

Postscript REMINDER: We’ll be back July 25 with our own webinar, Game of Thrones (click to learn more and register) that will look at how procurement executives can align with finance to the greater good of each.

Tagged in: Ardent Partners Research, Christopher Dwyer, Complex Categories, Predictions, Sourcing, Strategy, Transformation