In the fourth CPO Challenge series we discuss the pitfalls and tips for success in order to close the procure to pay loop and how you can grasp savings opportunity. You will get answers to pain such as; low contract compliance, unclear organization and process ownership.

By using IBX Value Assessment Methodology, which benchmarks your organisation with others within your industry based, is another way to find out your cost saving potential. You can read more in the article by Per Svanberg below.

I hope you have checked out the "The Purchasing Transformation Blog" that IBX recently started (www.ibxeurope.com/purchasingtransformation). It provides you with relevant, up-to-date perspectives on the development of purchasing and supply chain.

I wish you a nice summer and joyful reading!
/Eva Svensson

The procurement and the payment processes both carry huge cost saving potentials regarding process cost savings and in an even higher portion as lever for getting spend visibility and streamlining the contract compliance. And you can gain even higher results and synergies if these two processes are connected to each other. In this issues CPO Challenge series; we discuss the pitfalls and tips for success in order to close the procure to pay loop.

Over the past few decades, few business functions have been subject to more change than purchasing. Corporations specialize and as they become more and more horizontal, more goods and services will need to be purchased from external sources. Add the globalization of international trade and you see a business function with an enormous potential for change; be it good or bad.

To identify this potential, IBX has developed the IBX Value Assessment methodology which benchmarks your organisation with others within your industry based on the dimensions in the IBX purchasing framework.

IBX recently published their first book; entitled Purchasing Transformation. Co-written by six senior IBX consultants; the book describes a pragmatic route to purchasing transformation and provides perspectives on how a purchasing function needs to transform in order to be ready for the challenges that purchasing is facing; today as well as in the future.

In the introduction, IBX CEO Leif Bohlin states that: "Purchasing functions must focus on the big picture. Gone are the days when a purchaser's work was done after a hard day of negotiations".

In the following chapters, the different authors offer their takes on subjects such as value assessment, best-fit purchasing organization and purchasing governance, getting higher usage of strategic sourcing and how to best manage global roll-out of e-procurement.

If you're in a purchasing organization that is in need of change; Purchasing Transformation could be the starting point for something new. Let's hope that more solution providers bring their best practice into the open so that purchasing truly can change into the value creator that it so long has been heralded to be.

Purchase the book at:
» Amazon.co.uk
» IBX
» CIPS Bookshop (The Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply)

ALK-Abelló, a Danish pharmaceutical company specializing in allergy vaccines, now make their purchases electronically using IBX' e-procurement solution. The electronic standardization will significantly enhance the efficiency of ALK-Abelló's purchasing process. The solution will handle electronic purchases of indirect goods and services worth DKK 20m per year.

"Using IBX' electronic standardization solution for all our purchases is highly advantageous. The purchasing process has become much quicker, more flexible; and consequently less costly. Moreover, the system eliminates a significant number of human errors, which means that we have better control over the purchasing behavior of our staff", says Per Rex, Director, Global Procurement, ALK-Abelló.

IBX growth of 24 percent during 2007 is above industry average (sourcing and purchasing) and cements IBX’ position as a market leader. In 2007 IBX continued their international expansion and established a new office in Oxford, further developing IBX business on the British and European market.

- During 2007, we continued our international expansion with the intention of growing on our current markets and expand into new ones; our customers have a strong belief in this business model as proven by the new and some renewed long-term contract with large European organizations, says Leif Bohlin, CEO of IBX.

IBX was very pleased to support the Procurement Leaders Forum at Lord's Cricket Ground in May this year. The theme of the conference was -Procurement in the fast lane: Driving next generation strategy for improved business performance-, and once again it was obvious that the purchasing function in leading companies across the world is continuing to create ever more value by developing new approaches to supplier management, outsourcing and performance measurement.

On the evening before we attended the Procurement Leaders 2nd annual awards ceremony and we would like to congratulate our friends at Deutsche Post WorldNet for winning the highly coveted flagship award for Procurement Excellence.

Each year IBX brings a network of companies and individuals together to share and discuss the latest purchasing and sourcing trends, developments and best practices. The IBX Purchasing Executive Summit combines social networking with entertainment and this year more than 130 purchasing executives met at Clarion Hotel Sign in Stockholm.

Topping the agenda this year was purchasing transformation and most of the speakers touched upon this subject. The conference also featured two different break-out sessions to stimulate participant interaction.

Notable speakers included Dr. Ulrich Piepel, CPO of RWE Systems, Barbro Falke-Almgren, VP Group Sourcing at Ericsson, Trevor Latham Group Purchasing Director at JCB and Ken James, CEO of CIPS. All touched upon the subject of transformation and what needs to be done in order to tackle the challenges purchasing is facing in today's competitive global business environment.