During a lunch meeting last week a retailer asked us what they should consider in terms of structuring their procurement professionals to fully embrace e-negotiation tools.

During a lunch meeting last week a retailer asked us what they should consider in terms of structuring their procurement professionals to fully embrace e-negotiation tools.

Our answer is certainly not a complete one, but the following points are areas that should be considered for any supply chain re-structuring including what is needed to drive success while trying to fully embrace SaaS e-negotiation technology. These steps will get you headed in the right direction towards achieving the greatest possible return on investment.

1. Gaining executive (CEO) level and other stakeholder (Board) support
2. Get your supply chain organization structured for success
3. Plan a detailed review of all contracts.
4. Plan a detailed review of all suppliers
5. Develop better relationships with existing suppliers
6. Improve the performance of suppliers.
7. Gain access to additional sources of supply
8. Improve your view of all spend categories.
9. Develop a detailed off shore and near shore strategies.
10. Review all sourcing methods used today.
11. Review all Environmental strategies
12. Review all Product Safety strategies
13. Create a product specification library
14. conduct detailed category discovery
15. Align all of the above with your SaaS providers recommended strategy
16. Streamline, streamline, streamline.

As you use the above list and grow it, it is important to remember that the job of a procurement management leader is to think outside of the box and educate while looking for innovative ways to do things better, faster and at a lower cost. And to hopefully create an environment that will inspire co-workers while doing that.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.