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Empowering Decisions

Everyone makes mistakes. Just don’t make these.

You’re an experienced sourcing or procurement professional. You’ve been through umpteen sourcing events, worked across a number of industries, did tours of duty in companies of all sizes. And yet, once in a great while, you still have the inevitable forehead slap moment and the inner cry of “why did I just do that?!” It happens. Whether you’re an industry veteran or just starting out in your career, the following seven sourcing project errors — sophomoric as they seem — are common. And easily avoidable.

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CPE programs, training workshops, industry events like the SIG Summit, eWorld Procurement and ProcureCon, even podcasts and Ted Talks; what they all share in common is providing content to satisfy those who are constantly striving for self-improvement. Likewise, most of our resources focus on helping you translate that need for improvement to your Source-to-Pay, contract management, sourcing and other processes. This October DetermiNews has plenty to accompany you on your path to process efficiency.

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Valued Determine customer Éditions Lefebvre Sarrut (ELS) took up the challenge of achieving a Procure-to-Pay solution implementation in just 20 days. Gilles Grenier, IT Procurement Manager, reveals the best practices and methods used to achieve this successfully.

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(And no, a file cabinet is NOT a CLM solution.)

Contracts are the lifeblood of all business relationships. That’s why organizations need the ability to govern contracts and contract data holistically from a common solution framework to get the best understanding of the obligations that bind the entire company. As such, siloed approaches for looking at contracts are officially out of touch. Step away from the file cabinet.

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Integrated data provides the visibility that lets you see – and control – the big picture.

This guest post comes courtesy of Joanna Martinez — noted industry speaker, former CPO and author of the recently published book, A Guide to Positive Disruption — a three-time Kindle bestseller. She explores some of the many ways that contract management, when integrated with sourcing, procurement and other source-to-pay solutions, brings significant value across organizations.

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We’ve all gotten so used to everything being “in the cloud” that many of us have stopped thinking about what it really means for enterprise business – and what it makes possible. I dug into the topic in a conversation with Tim Scott, a Business Consultant Manager at Determine, to follow up on some of the points raised in his recent webinar on sourcing and contract management with PayStream Advisors.

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Realizing the Full Benefits of Center led Procurement

As procurement organizations of all sizes and maturity levels embark on transformation projects, many consider it within scope to re-evaluate the structure of their team and how procurement interacts with the rest of the enterprise. Center led procurement has been considered a best practice for some time now, preferable to both centralized and decentralized procurement structures. And yet, procurement must be constantly re-evaluating their structure and priorities.

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How the changing role of General Counsel is shaping contract integration.

The role of the General Counsel in companies across industries continues to evolve beyond just legal responsibilities. As businesses increase their focus on contract management due to factors like increased M&A, stricter regulatory environments and increased supply chain risk, they’re amplifying their reliance on strategic relationships and focusing on ways to avoid or mitigate the impact of contractual disputes. This means integrating contract management throughout organizations, including procurement.

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Contracts, in one form or another, have probably been around as long as humans. There isn’t much written on the topic until Plato got around to it in 348 BC, and even he doesn’t go into much detail. Fast forward to today, and contracts are a fact of life. Business is built on contracts, and their importance can’t be overstated. So it is a curious thing that Determine still encounters so many companies using manual or spreadsheet-based contract management processes. It’s almost as if they’re treated as inconsequential afterthoughts, rather than invaluable assets. In this September DetermiNews, we explore a month of resources focused on contracts and how to best manage and leverage them.

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Building on the value of cross-process, enterprise-wide solutions.

In the world of source-to-pay, the ROI of strategic sourcing strategies is only as good as the resulting contracts and subsequent contract compliance in purchasing. Creating strategic value from contract management entails choosing an enterprise Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) solution that is cross-process, not process-based. More and more companies are coming to realize that contract management needs to cross through the entire organization from buying all the way to selling. Does yours?

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