Up to £2million of goods were recently stolen in a scam by fraudsters posing as McDonalds buyers. Items including laptops, TV’s and computers were targeted with credit periods obtained between 30 and 90 days.

The goods were delivered to an address in Manchester, but were never paid for. Greater Manchester Police Authority issued warnings to businesses to stay on alert as it is thought the fraudsters are now using the same scam to obtain foods, wines and spirits.

The process automation that class-leading, on demand purchase-to-pay systems can offer, coupled with integrated supplier portals, provides a secure platform whereby buyers can effectively manage their supply-chain with the assurance of compliance and control throughout all standard processes including credit checks, finalising terms of business and other legalities.

This does not however protect the supplier, who when receiving a new buyer request from what appears to be a reputable organisation, should still develop that all important supplier/buyer relationship and carry out all their necessary checks.

The higher education sector is the latest to face government announcements of budget cuts, with Lord Mandelson recently proposing further cuts of £135 million, taking the total up to nearly £400 million during  2010-11. This has raised many concerns both inside and outside the industry as to how this will affect spending on a per student basis, capital purchases and intake numbers.

It’s fair to say reducing costs is high on the agenda for many universities and higher education organisations, although here at Wax we have already seen the shift change in traditional procurement methods and technology requirements within the HE sector..

One university ahead in terms of assessing and reducing costs across the organisation is a client we’ve been working with for some time who through the use of source-to-pay technology is reaping the benefits ahead of the proposed budget cuts.

With savings in excess of £400,000 from just two eAuction events for facilities management and uniform contracts and the technology to cement the savings generated in these and other areas such as IT and Stationery this leading UK University now have the tools, technology and know-how to deliver future significant savings and beat the budget cuts.

Find out more about how we have helped cut costs in key higher education categories through effective eSourcing.

During recent market instability it's been recognised that effective collaboration between key organisational functions - Procurement and Finance, can help mitigate risk whilst maximising opportunities throughout the source-to-pay cycle.  

By achieving clear collaborative visibility, organisations can potentially prevent high-value risks and liabilities, as well as gaining opportunities to deliver savings, achieve financial goals and benefit from process efficiencies. 

We’ve worked with numerous class-leading organisations and have seen how the gap between finance goals and procurement deliverables can be bridged with the utilisation of eProcurement technology, whilst gaining greater visibility and control; one of the issues we'll be discussing in more detail at our forthcoming Masterclass events. 

Feel free to visit the events page of our website for more information, or why not post a comment on your thoughts? We welcome comments from both sides of the procurement/finance spectrum, hearing how other organisations have faced and overcome these challenges.

If 90% of an organisation’s customer base said they found dealing with elements of the business difficult, it’s hard to imagine a turnaround that could pull back customer confidence from such low ebbs, but this is exactly the challenge currently facing SAP after a recent survey by Macro 4 discovered that 90% of SAP software users considered IT upgrades a “challenge”.

The main concerns relate to time, complexity and resources; so the same old story for ERP customers everywhere. With support ending in 2010 for older versions of SAP, however, businesses are left with scant choice – except in the scope of the upgrade they select. Which is why we are seeing so many organisations concentrating their SAP upgrades on core system elements, and looking to best-of-breed providers to deliver the peripherals, such as procurement.

On-demand systems that fit seamlessly alongside the core SAP financials deliver more quickly, cleanly, cost-effectively and above all intuitively from an end-user perspective. So whilst a couple of years ago many organisations simply said we’ll have it because it’s SAP, in an uncertain economic environment it simply no longer makes sense.

Payment Terms are fast becoming a key negotiation tool as organisations actively seek extended payment terms with suppliers, and on occasion make late payments without permission. 

Yet how many suppliers will currently be in a position to either offer extended payment terms or that can bear the problems of continuous late payments? And how many will remain if this trend continues? More and more small-medium size suppliers are going out of business, causing supply chain problems.  

How about turning the whole situation on its head and rather than trying to negotiate extended payment terms, why not request discounts for prompt payment instead? This can easily be included as part of an eAuction event.  

We have guided many customers through this process in a series of forward and reverse auctions. Whilst goods and services can be placed through a reverse auction, early payment terms can simultaneously be offered in a forward auction.  Benefits are clear for both parties and after all, didn’t the early bird always catch the worm?

AMR Research’s annual Supply Chain Top 25 has put Apple at the top of the tree, up from number 2 last year and knocking Nokia off the number 1 slot.

The makers of the iPod came out on top by “winning on all fronts”, recording excellent revenue growth, return on assets and inventory turns.

You can hear a podcast summary of the AMR report findings here.

Whilst the credit squeeze has forced many organisations to focus sharply on cost savings in purchasing and procurement, the effects are felt the other way too for many smaller companies as suppliers begin to limit the availability of commercial credit. 

A recent poll of 400 British companies by Graydon UK found that 56% would become more picky about who they offer credit to during the rest of 2008. Martin Williams, Graydon UK's managing director, said a "safety first" culture was now widespread with lenders raising the cut-off point on companies' credit scores. "Suppliers are looking long and hard at those companies who are asking them for credit," he said. "People are asking for better credit scores and so rejecting more companies." 

Businesses that have been trading for less than 20 months were bearing the brunt of tighter credit policies because they are perceived as the most risky, according to Mr Williams. "Some people are simply saying no to new businesses".

OK, so I’ve harped on this message before, but whenever I come across releases/news like the one I’ve just read on bobsguide, an excerpt from which features below, I can’t help but shake my head in wonder: 

“A majority of UK businesses are planning to automate supplier invoice processing within their Account Payable (AP) function, according to a new survey from ITESOFT, the leading developer of electronic document capture and automatic invoice processing solutions.”

I can’t tell you the number of businesses we subsequently work with that have implemented invoice processing systems in isolation and find themselves really wishing they hadn’t bothered.

Process automation can deliver huge benefit, but only if you capture the whole process, not the tail end of it.  

For a start, automating invoice capture does nothing to control spend. Sending invoices for approval is after the fact – the goods or services are already bought, the money committed.

Furthermore your approvers know this. The result is they are deluged with invoices to approve and simply do so without so much as a second glance.

A full P2P (purchase-to-pay) platform captures every stage of the lifecycle, from order – validated, authorised and audited before it is committed – to accurate goods receipting and invoicing.

Only by capturing the whole process lifecycle can you realise the benefits and genuinely drive error down, efficiency and savings up.

Much has been written on the subject of procurement outsourcing in recent years, and the tide had appeared to be shifting inexorably in this direction, but in the last 12 months we have seen a considerable movement the other way – with many organisations that had experimented with outsourcing choosing to insource again.

A recent study published by the Everest Research Institute bears up this trend, highlighting the fact that fewer procurement outsourcing deals were struck in 2007. In the group’s Procurement Outsourcing Annual Report Katrina Menzigian, vice president, wrote “Buyers are able to ‘experiment’ with procurement outsourcing as they potentially migrate towards a full Source-to-Pay (S2P) strategy.”

“This phase-in approach is allowing the opportunity for testing of synergies, scaling up operations, developing industry-specific capability which, in turn, delivers better results and savings.”

Part and parcel of most purchase-to-pay solutions we deliver is a big piece around supplier adoption, collaboration and communication. From orchestrating tailored seminar programmes to distributing email broadcasts and hosting webinars, Wax Digital is often heavily involved in promoting the step-change in the way that buyers and suppliers work together as part of our wider solution delivery remit.

French supermarket giant Carrefour has recently taken this process to its ultimate conclusion with the launch of a new global supplier website, as part of a strategy designed to improve communication between the company and its 62,000 suppliers across the world.

It's exactly the kind of initiative that we promote, delivering a single central point not only of order to invoice management, but also for displaying KPI's, allowing participation in tenders and auctions, and delivering a channel for news, updates and information.