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   A Global Research Center for Strategic Supply Management

Email Newsletter, 12/13/2007

The recently published Critical Issues Report titled 'Creating a Procurement Shared Services Center' looks at three different organizational models that reflect how managerial decisions impact the roles assigned to shared services centers. The report identifies the types of spend for which the shared services center is responsible, and determines how much of each type of spend is being managed by shared services centers. The report points out that regardless of the model used, organizational design teams need to gain and maintain buy-in at the managerial and user levels, establish an acceptable and agreeable chargeback formula for funding the center, and carefully manage the ability of the human resources assigned to the center to deliver the promised levels of service.

Click on the following link to access the December 2007 Critical Issues Report:
Creating A Procurement Shared Services Center

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The CAPS Research benchmarking team recently published a report titled 'Measuring the Organizational Effectiveness of Supply Management Shared Services Centers' which is a follow-on to the report first published in December 2006. In comparing data from the two reports, the total organizational spend managed by shared services centers has increased from 60% as reported in the 2006 report to 70% in the 2007 report. Survey participants also reported their average operating costs have dropped from 1.21% of managed spend in 2006 to 1.17% of managed spend in 2007. The recently published benchmarking report also provides a list of more than 50 of the key drivers that survey participants reported as being important to their decision to launch a supply management/procurement shared services center. Not surprisingly, the most commonly referenced quality metric is total cost savings, followed by sourcing and customer service. Another key benefit realized? Almost 60% of the survey participants reported their purchase order cycle time has decreased since adopting a shared services center model.

Click on the following link to access the December 2007 Focused Benchmarking Report:
Measuring the Organizational Effectiveness of Supply Management Shared Services Centers

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Social responsibility is an accepted fact of supply management, and professionals around the globe have begun to apply the concepts of global stewardship to their work. In Japan, the leading organization for conducting purchasing and supply management research is CAPS Research Japan. This organization has recently published 'The Supply Manager's Role in Corporate Social Responsibility Among Japanese Companies' and as the authors point out, it was not the intent to compare the cultures of the United States and Japan, but to outline the ways that supply professionals in Japan approach issues of corporate social responsibility. The authors conclude that interest in being a socially responsible company is becoming more important to Japanese companies and that businesses today must find the balance between business-related goals and social responsibility goals.

Review the focus study:
The Supply Manager’s Role in Corporate Social Responsibility Among Japanese Companies

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Sincerely,
Phillip Carter, D.B.A.
Executive Director
CAPS Research

CAPS Research is a global research organization jointly sponsored by the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, and the Institute for Supply Management™.