Critical Issues Report: Measuring Purchasing Effectiveness

What are the issues and challenges surrounding purchasing performance measurement programs? Measurements that today's supply executive are concerned with extend far beyond price and costs. Concerns discussed at a recent CAPS Research Critical Issues event included: supply's contribution to innovation, profit and loss (P&L) impact, risk mitigation, revenue contribution, growth, accuracy of predictive indicators, and 'soft' areas such as professionalism and effectiveness of training and supply management competencies and skills. This report is based on this critical issues event and includes case examples from three firms.

Click here to access the resource information page to the Critical Issues report titled, "Measuring Purchasing Effectiveness". CAPS Research sponsors with established user profiles may click 'login to view document' to access this report. For more information on how to gain full access to Knowledge Central resources, see Establishing Sponsor Login. Not a CAPS Research Sponsor? To learn more about the benefits of becoming a CAPS Research Sponsor, click here.

- - - - -

CPO Insights: Expenditure Approval Processes and Cycle Times

What is your approval process, including steps, internal functions or organizational units involved, and average cycle time? Are there different processes for different dollar amounts? Does your firm have a separate signing authority for the contract after securing the initial approval for expenditures? What is the highest dollar value that can be signed by your contracting function?

Click here to access the resource information page to this CPO Insights question. CAPS Research sponsors with established user profiles may click 'login to view document' to access this report. For more information on how to gain full access to Knowledge Central resources, see Establishing Sponsor Login. Not a CAPS Research Sponsor? To learn more about the benefits of becoming a CAPS Research Sponsor, click here.

- - - - -

CPO Insights: Best Practices for Electronic Invoicing

Does your company currently utilize an outsourced electronic invoicing solution either through a single supplier or multiple suppliers? If your company has more than one e-invoicing provider, how do you divide your suppliers across multiple providers? How many electronic invoicing solutions suppliers do you have? Is your electronic invoicing global, regional, or local in scope? Can you describe your current pricing structure (not actual pricing) – is it a flat fee, cost per invoice, some mix of base fee and cost per invoice, etc.? What is your company's policy on suppliers' compliance to your electronic invoicing process and how do you track and enforce this compliance? In general, what has been your overall experience with electronic invoicing (savings, data quality, supplier compliance)?

Click here to access the resource information page to this CPO Insights question. CAPS Research sponsors with established user profiles may click 'login to view document' to access this report. For more information on how to gain full access to Knowledge Central resources, see Establishing Sponsor Login. Not a CAPS Research Sponsor? To learn more about the benefits of becoming a CAPS Research Sponsor, click here.

- - - - -

Benchmarking: Diversified Foods and Beverages Industry Summary Report

The executive summary that corresponds to the 2007 Diversified Foods and Beverages Industry Benchmarking Metric Report analyzes key supply management performance measures including organizational structure, professional development, financial information, technology and supplier relationships and alliances. Industry benchmarking metric and summary reports provides more detail beyond the standard benchmarks found in the Cross-Industry report. The summary includes charts and graphs for key performance indicators.

Click here to access this Industry Benchmarking Summary Report. CAPS Research sponsors with established user profiles may click 'login to view document' to access this report. For more information on how to gain full access to Knowledge Central resources, see Establishing Sponsor Login. Not a CAPS Research Sponsor? To learn more about the benefits of becoming a CAPS Research Sponsor, click here.

- - - - -

Events: Nineteenth Annual International Executive Roundtable

The CAPS Research Nineteenth Annual Executive Roundtable for Chief Purchasing Officers was held March 5-7, 2008 at the Fairmont Princess Resort, in Scottsdale, Arizona. The theme of this year's workshop was, "Innovations: Opportunities for Supply." Keynote speakers included, Mr. Mike Thieneman, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Whirlpool Corporation and Ms. Kathleen Fuller, Vice President, Procurement Services at IBM. The small group discussions focused on the following four topics: Collaboration, Risk Mitigation, Sustainability and Acquisition & Transformation. Each of the breakout sessions included a discussion on strategies as well as a look at best practices being employed by the world's leading companies including Cargill Inc., Eli Lilly and Company, GE Aviation, General Mills Inc., Honeywell, Rolls-Royce Corporation and the U.S. Postal Service. Presentations will be posted to Knowledge Central within the next month for sponsor access.

For more information regarding CAPS Research events click here.

- - - - -

For many years CAPS Research has relied primarily on its public web site to communicate research study results and benchmark outcomes, and to provide information about our programs and events. We've worked hard to strike a balance between providing public access to our research products while ensuring that our corporate sponsors have on-demand access to the entire CAPS Research library of resources. CAPS Research recently released a new knowledgebase exclusively for major sponsor organizations: Knowledge Central (www.capsknowledge.org) is a searchable archive of over 800 CAPS Research studies, including leading-edge practices, benchmarking reports, focus studies, assessments, event presentations and more. This new web site provides sponsors easy access to the entire CAPS Research library of research results and assessment tools. Knowledge Central does not replace our public web site (www.capsresearch.org). The vast majority of our research results will still be available to all interested parties. However, to increase the value of CAPS Research to our major sponsors, most new research will be released first on Knowledge Central to sponsors only.

Sponsors and non-sponsors are invited to click Knowledge Central Overview for a short, five-minute guided tour of Knowledge Central. If your company is not a CAPS Research sponsor please click on the following Becoming a Sponsor link to learn more.

- - - - -

Note: If you're a first-time visitor to CAPS Research you will need to create a user login to access reports. Otherwise, just enter your previously established login data.

To access the newsletter and press release archive click here.

For more information about CAPS Research programs and products please contact us at Research@capsresearch.org.

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™.