Procurement Intelligence Unit

At yesterday's analysts' presentation, the Ariba management team laid out their vision of the future for the spend management company. At the heart of this vision is a movement away from 'spend management' to become pioneers of the 'commerce cloud'. In short, Ariba's Commerce Cloud does not really offer any new products to its customer base, but it marks the point where all current Ariba solutions are now available On-Demand and are, in theory, fully integrated. more

The PIU team are pleased to announce that we will be supporting the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) award category at this year's Procurement Leaders Awards. We are really pleased to support this category, which recognises outstanding social, ethical, environmental, sustainable and community-centre initiatives. more

We are pleased to announce that Procurement GPS, the PIU's independent benchmarking app, will be available as of next month. Procurement GPS will be the first Procurement App from the PIU team, with more to come in the second half of 2010. more

Since setting up the PIU I have started to get slightly obsessed by procurement strategies. In particular, I want to know how they are formed, how well aligned they are with the business, and also whether they can be adjusted with quick-moving internal and external pressures. So when I picked up the January-February 2010 edition of the Harvard Business Review magazine, I was intrigued to read Michael Jacobides' article, 'Strategy Tools for Shifting Landscapes'. more

We are delighted to launch the first, annual CPO Strategy survey - 'Playing the Full Role' - from the Procurement Intelligence Unit, which provides some fascinating insights into the professional life of modern procurement leaders, their priorities and aims for today, and their aspirations for the future. more

Seen as a win-win-win trade finance solution that can solve your working capital problems as well as shore up your supply base, is supply chain finance the real deal? more

In times of economic uncertainty, market intelligence gathering and forecasting are essential to formulate effective, future-proof buying strategies. Without them, procurement executives and their companies could be taking an unnecessary gamble. more