HCMWorks Sponsoring:

2010 Bell Celebrity Gala

For the 3rd consecutive year, HCMWorks is proud to partner with Bell Canada in the sponsorship of the Bell Celebrity Gala in Toronto.

The 2010 Bell Celebrity Gala in support of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) Foundation will be held Thursday, October 14, 2010 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. The largest celebrity-attended fund raising event in Canada, the Gala is a multiple winner of the Canadian Event Industry’s STAR Award for “Best Event Produced for a Charitable Organization in Canada”. Hundreds of the “who’s who” from the worlds of entertainment, sports, and media will join Canada’s most influential business leaders at this year’s Gala.

For more information and sponsorship of the event, please visit Bell Gala.

Readers will learn 6 Principles for Implementing Partnership Metrics.

As companies engage in greater numbers of supplier partnerships, and as partnerships become increasingly important in terms of strategic and financial impact, senior management has begun to  pay more attention to supplier partnership performance metrics.  This is a welcome development, for as the old adage goes: “if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.”

Download this White Paper Driving Continuous Supplier Improvement

Back to White Papers

by Ted Weyn, Managing Partner

What is more valuable to a sourcing/procurement organization, Category Managers with strong sourcing expertise, or individuals with strong domain (direct experience and knowledge from the category/industry that they manage) expertise?

As we continue to work with organizations in both procurement transformation and category management outsourcing, we are seeing an increased desire to have category managers who come from the industry for the category in which they will be assigned to manage.  There seems to be an accelerated value creation and a decreased learning curve for these “domain experts”.  The “hire a thief to catch a thief” approach seems to be returning great dividends for companies who are recruiting and deploying such resources.

Question: “Would it take me longer to teach an industry expert sourcing or a sourcing expert a specific industry”?

In certain indirect services categories we are seeing companies hiring travel industry experts to manage the travel category; hiring print services professionals from Xerox, Canon and others to manage print services; etc.  The value comes when the “expert” intimately understanding the suppliers business formulas and profit areas and can leverage the knowledge in a meaningful and balanced way to the suppliers. This is not about gaining supplier cost elements so a company can “squeeze” the supplier on price. It’s also about providing insight as to how best to achieve savings given the suppliers cost and margin structures; how to managed suppliers needs based on intrinsic value; what KPI’s to consider, what value is the company to the supplier, and how to make the relationships more strategic.

Another value of the domain expert is in the difficult to manage and impact categories like legal and marketing.  These require longer term approaches for procurement to penetrate effectively but can have accelerated results when the industry domain expert is brought to the equation.  We’ve all  experience the “leper syndrome” of departmental heads screaming down the hallways when procurement calls a meeting to discuss their expenditures with them.  Visions of budget cuts and lost supplier relationships makes the entire department breakout in a cold sweat.  This is a big exercise in change management for procurement but if executed properly and in delivering industry domain informed resources, can identify areas of value creation before anyone calls for an expenditure review meeting.

Invest in the department. Lend them your expertise as a resource for a limited time. Allow them to become a trusted adviser.  You’ll be amazed what the department will share with you and your team if they know you’re there to help them get more for less or more for the same. The best case studies in marketing, legal, call center, and other tough departments are where procurement brought value first, savings second.

Ironically, the same thing the sales people who are call you each day are tying to do in becoming a “trusted advisor” is the same things you need to do to the lines of business to get them to afford you the opportunity to help them.  Maybe the consumer needs to learn from the supplier.

Share with us your thoughts and experiences.

HCMWorks is a fast growing Consulting, Best Practices and Business Process Outsourcing Services firm.  Our growth into some of the top Canadian and US Corporations has afforded us the opportunity to identify a necessary telemarketing individual to join our team on a part time basis (20 hours/week).

Our aggressive marketing plan has continued to keep our company busy and presented us with numerous opportunities.  However, these opportunities have caused a shortfall in our outbound call marketing activities.

Therefore, HCMWorks is seeking a telemarketing professional who can continue to support our sales efforts.  The position is ideally based in Alpharetta, GA area (Atlanta) and the work can be performed virtually.

Candidates must be goal-oriented, organized, service-minded and deadline-driven. Must be experienced in telemarketing and familiar with telephone sales and appointment setting.  Individual will be calling Fortune 1000 sized company’s procurement departments speaking to procurement professionals about HCMWorks services.  Goal of the call is to validate interest, qualify opportunity and set a call with Managing Director and/or Director of Value Creation for future opportunity exploration.   

The role will have the following experience:

• Have experience and comfort making 50 calls/hr discussing strategic consulting services to senior management at F1000 sized company’s procurement departments
• Ability to comfortably and confidently handle objections through a professional and collaborative manner.
• Secure 3-5 follow up calls on a weekly basis for the Managing Director and/or the Director of Value creation.
• Ability to ask the proper questions that assist with the qualification process and leads to heightened interest on the part of the prospect.

The ideal candidate will have the following experience and qualifications:

• 2-3 years sales or telemarketing experience
• Strong computer skills:
  • Internet and internet search
  • Sales Management tools (salesforce.com)
  • MS Office (Excel, Word, Powerpoint)

• Work from home.

• Other:
  • HCMWorks will supply employee with computer if needed and phone and will provide a monthly internet allowance.
  • Hourly salary, Commission and/or combination of.

HCMWORKS ANNOUNCES NEW CLIENT ACQUISITIONS

New Accounts Confirm Acceptance of Consultative Approach

HCMWorks, Inc. a leading provider of indirect services procurement solutions, today announced the acquisition of three new key clients in the past quarter. The new clients come from diverse industries such as food and beverage, manufacturing and banking.

“We are very excited to see the continuing adoption of our thought leadership and V2H™ methodology within the arena of indirect procurement services” said Ted Weyn, Managing Partner.  “It continues to validate to us that our team is delivering high value, savings and service to our clients. We’ve been confident that our approach was what the market needed; now it’s rewarding to see this recent confirmation from our current and new clients.”

“It’s not only about great strategies. HCMWorks takes it beyond analysis and strategy creation to support the client with successful implementations that result in high adoption rates and sustainable results.  We couple world-class service with our strategies to give our clients a complete solution,” commented Julia Fournier, Managing Partner for HCMWorks.  “We have assembled a team of domain experts who understand not just theory, but the effective use of business applications. This delivers high performing solutions that return hard dollar savings in a relatively short period of time.”

“in addition to the client acquisitions, organizations such as the International Federation of Purchasing & Supply Management and Spend Matters have turned to HCMWorks for guidance and expertise. This reaction from the procurement media is quite impressive” commented Steven Winokur, president of Turning Point Strategies, a brand consultancy. “The fact that both the marketplace as well as industry publications are looking to HCMWorks for knowledge demonstrates strong validation of the management team’s depth in knowledge and expertise.”

About HCMWorks, Inc.

HCMWorks is a leading North American consulting and advisory firm that specializes in Indirect Services Procurement.  HCMWorks helps procurement departments achieve greater control over indirect service expenditures to gain a competitive advantage in their industry. Their proprietary four-step V2H methodology provides a substantial reduction in indirect operating costs through transactional visibility, ultimately delivering an extremely rapid ROI. For more information, please visit www.hcmworks.com or call 866-547-1645.

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by Julia Fournier, Managing Partner (To read Part I of this blog: Click Here)

Having never really “blogged” before I must say that the comments from my last post compelled me to keep going. The most interesting and. in my opinion, representative of some of the failures in our space were the following;

1. Mr. Wetherbee’s program was implemented and run by Kelly — a competitor to the incumbent suppliers. That’s a no -brainer. (In fact, I wouldn’t be going out on a limb if I suggested that Supplier-owned MSP programs are likely the source of MUCH of the hostility in the marketplace!)

2. Many times, Supplier-owned MSPs aren’t “really” MSPs at all — just a different name for an attempt to grow their business. (I’ve seen this one a lot, and been accused of it, given that Comensura / Guidant was a peer to a staffing company)

In our opinion and a very big reason why we have achieved the success we have is that we are vendor and technology agnostic. As recently as today I had a discussion about the internal development of a technology that might meet 90% of the requirements of our clients. In addition, we periodically have an internal discussion partially driven by our clients about getting into the “staffing” and “recruitment” industry. The fact remains that would without question take our eyes off of what we do. I say that not as a partner but as someone that believes in the credibility of the service we provide, and the requirement to keep our focus on what we do. Having lead the operations of an MSP for 5+ years it would be impossible to provide an unbiased service offering if you stand to gain from a 13-17% margin associated with contingent or contract labour resources in multiple classifications. That means that your client’s would and, no doubt, do experience requisitions directed to a firm that isn’t only associated with the MSP space but also one that is in this business for the sake of benefiting from controlling the requisition. That leaves all firms in the program at a deficit regarding requisitions and spend overall. And worse having an inability to ensure the protection of their data regarding their resources, current engagements and proprietary information.

I can say this and that is that while “contract ownership” might not have evolved to the extent that it should have. Being in this space would be a lot easier if clients’ didn’t opt to work with firms that masked themselves as Managed Services Providers when their core service offering is the provision of IT, Professional or Staffing services. Having spoken to many fortune 300 companies, “the jig is up”. While this statement will be anything but popular, I think major users know now that the primary goal of those that mask themselves to be in this space is to drive more revenue to themselves. As I said in my previous post let’s do the math. One contractor comes on board at an average margin of 15%, the average billing of an MSP is 1-2% of overall spend. 10 resources placed can surpass the revenue of an MSP in a quarter, if the average compensation is above $100K per year which is what most companies are experiencing with their independent contractor base. If you question what the motivation is – do the math. The ownership of the requisition far surpasses the goal of providing a neutral program.

If you own the order you can drive that 10 resource requisition to your firm. This is what has soured the industry in large part against MSP’s. The reality is that they don’t invest in process flows, resource management programs and overall management to drive an effective MSP solution that focuses on savings. Companies that mask themselves as MSP’s have a core business of providing human capital solutions because it is more profitable to provide resource solutions than it is to provide Managed Services Solutions. In the absence of owning the requisition, the only risk these providers would face is the decision making of MSP’s that are neutral and non biased, when you remove the bias the threat to some becomes all the more pervasive, and to others all the more enticing. Companies that mask themselves as an MSP do this typically to serve as a foot in the door on every requisition. When you own the requisition you direct it to your firm first. When making a decision regarding an MSP make sure that there are no affiliates, and if they are a major staffing, IT or professional services company ask yourself what the motivation is for them? If you sign them, keep your fingers crossed as you watch the spend continue to sway in their favor, and do the math.

If you have an MSP that has a staffing co. affiliate take a look at the growth in their revenue in the last 12 months. That should suffice.

by Ted Weyn, Managing Partner

As we are hearing terms such as; slow recovery, jobless recovery, this recovery will take years not months, etc.  And in speaking to procurement professionals on a daily basis who state that they have no resources to implement change or no budget to bring on resources, I am continuously befuddled by the lack of action taken by companies as they stare at immediate savings opportunities.  Why can’t companies seem to be able to pick up the “diamonds in their own backyard?”

First case in point. For the past 12 months we have been speaking to a financial services firm that has multiple rounds of TARP funding; has yet to pay back any of that funding and is in dire need of savings and process improvements.  Last summer (12 months) we were introduced to this company to present a strategy surrounding immediate savings opportunities within indirect services. The company indicated that they struggled with visibility and compliance into rate schedules and payment processing of indirect services.  When we presented a clear line of site into savings and efficiencies, along with a compelling business case on how the company could realize a Rapid ROI of several small service categories…the lack of action has been, let’s say, “paralyzing“.  The company cannot seem to move on what they admit is a huge opportunity that they desperately need.

We have seen this trend also recently within banking, manufacturing, services and health care.  This phenomena doesn’t seem to be industry specific nor have we found any common denominator in any of the companies who we see as paralyzed to move.

Logic would ask, “Why can’t a company enact a double digit hard dollar savings opportunity?” Sighted reasons are: constant state of re-org, no executive sponsorship (yet executives are demanding results), no available internal resources to implement the strategy, lack of funding to initiate anything new. Unfortunately, this is not the only case of paralysis we see in the market.

The other paralytic effect we see is in people.  Procurement Professionals who are resistant to bring new innovative methods to the business for fear of a misstep that might result in demotion or even termination.  In a recent employment economic survey conducted by a Washington DC think tank, most employees felt that given the current state of the economy, they were “two bad decisions away from unemployment”. Companies who need change the most are not empowering their employees to be aggressive to apply basic business principles to basic business problems and execute to return value.  Instead we have seasoned professionals who are hesitant to react if not fully insured by the “CYA (Cover Your A@#)” Insurance Company.

What are we missing here?  Don’t the basics of business school rules apply?  If you can use resources (cash and/or people) to get a double digit ROI within a reasonable (6 -12 month) time frame, why wouldn’t you move?

Can someone explain to me why companies who can see and need these opportunities so desperately, cannot find themselves able to act?

In August, Timothy Houghton (see full bio) former CPO for Bell Canada shares his insights into what key steps were taken to transform Bell Canada’s procurement department from a traditional purchasing organization to a dynamic strategic arm of the company.

Please come back in August to learn from this insightful procurement professional.

Does Your Purchasing Policy Work?

You probably have a purchasing policy, most companies do.  But is it effective?  If your company is like most, the honest answer is “not really” or “not always”.  Purchasing managers are always quick to say they have policies, and tout how good they are.  But the reality is that many policies are not effect, and are not enforced, or are enforced inconsistently.  However, the failures are usually something a purchasing manager can control.

Why do purchasing policies fail?

• It’s unpopular – you have to tell co-workers that they can’t buy something they want.  And, it’s not popular to tell people “no”.  (There’s a whole separate discussion to have about companies today not wanting to do the hard or unpopular things in their business.)  The path of least resistance is to look the other way, to say that a few exceptions “won’t hurt”, and not to risk making your business associates mad at procurement.  The problem is, this is like letting a child disobey your rules, or letting a puppy wet the floor – once the behavior becomes habit, it’s hard to break.
• Frequently, senior management doesn’t support the policy – exceptions to policy get approved, or certain employees are exempted from following the policy.  Before you know it, the exceptions spread and become the rule.  You need for management to “walk the talk”.
• Your policy may be unreasonable, draconian or maybe just impractical.  Don’t always assume that the reason it’s hard to enforce a policy is someone else’s fault.  You have to ensure that your purchasing policy meets the needs of your business, and fits with your company’s culture.  If your company is entrepreneurial, embraces risk taking, and has empowered employees at various levels of the organization to make decisions, you can’t have a purchasing policy that restricts this.  People will just find ways around the policy, management will endorse this, and your policy will be a paper tiger.  If you want a purchasing policy to be enforceable, it will need to support the business’ goals and the corporate culture.
• You don’t have good, integrated purchasing systems and tools, so you aren’t able to catch exceptions to the procurement policy until after the fact.  Your policy has to require that the bulk of purchases come through procurement’s systems/tools in order for you to know they are “in policy”.  Otherwise, you simply don’t know what you don’t know.

This doesn’t mean you have to issue purchase orders (PO’s) for every purchase – and, in fact, you shouldn’t.  But you need to have the right systems and tools in place to manage the spend that comes through PO’s, purchasing cards (pCards), company issued credit cards, direct billings, etc.  You wouldn’t drive a car at night with no head lights, or no dashboard indicators – and you shouldn’t drive your purchasing policy without adequate data and control points.  Driving blind is a sure way to end up in a ditch – literally and figuratively!

• Accounts Payable (A/P) doesn’t help you enforce the policy.  No matter how good your purchasing process and systems are, you have to be able to count on A/P to catch outliers to the policy.  A/P and Purchasing need to be integrated by a strong Procure to Pay (P2P) process.  As the “Pay” point of that process, A/P must trap spend that goes outside of the policy.  If A/P isn’t partnered with Purchasing, this after the fact control point for enforcement is lost.  Remember, Procurement “doesn’t know what it doesn’t know”, but A/P does.
• Your purchasing policy doesn’t mesh with your other corporate policies such as travel expense (T&E), corporate card, approval levels, cash disbursement, funds wire, etc.  These policies all affect, and are affected by, the purchasing policy.  If your policies aren’t coordinated and complimentary, and aren’t tested in conjunction with each other, there will be gaps.  Maverick spend thrives in the gaps, and maverick spenders (you all know who they are) look for gaps to exploit.  A coordinated approach to your various financial policies is a key foundation to enforcing your purchasing policy.

OK, so yes, it’s hard to enforce a purchasing policy.  But it is not impossible.  And, like any habit, once you get started, it gets easier.  More importantly – don’t have a policy, purchasing or other, that you can’t or won’t enforce.  (Ask your internal audit department about this too.  They will tell you that having a policy you don’t enforce is sometimes worse than not having a policy.  And if you have SOX requirements, it’s critical that you enforce your policies.)

If your purchasing policy isn’t working, ask yourself some questions:

• Have you actually read your purchasing policy lately?  Do you really know what’s in it?
• How often does senior management tell you to make exceptions?  If you’re being over-ridden, your policy’s ineffective!
• What’s the relationship with A/P?  Do you even have a P2P process?
• Is your purchasing policy tested by Internal Audit?  When’s the last time you asked them to review your process?

If you want a successful purchasing policy, take responsibility, make the hard decisions, and get it done.

Website Provides Best Practices for Indirect Services Procurement Community

Alpharetta, GA (PRWEB) June 29, 2010 — HCMWorks, a leading North American provider of Indirect Services Procurement Solutions, today announces the launch of their newly revamped Web site at www.hcmworks.com.

HCMWorks decided to retool its Website as a result of feedback received from procurement executives via a January 2010 survey. The survey indicated that respondents recognized the value of better management of indirect services, but lacked resources to inform decisions.

“We envision the HCMWorks website and accompanying blogs as valuable information resources for the indirect services procurement community,” says Julia Fournier, Managing Partner of HCMWorks. “This site delivers data on best practices, procurement strategies, and outsourcing options in the marketplace, and provides insight into our day to day experiences .”

In addition to information on HCMWorks’ consulting services and methodology, the site also provides a number of other resources for procurement executives, including:

Thought leadership will be provided on the site via two separate blogs: “Ask the Expert” and “What’s In the Works.”

“Ask the Xpert”

“Ask the Xpert” will feature a guest procurement professional who will focus on a different topic within indirect services procurement every month. The industry expert will continue to contribute insights and answering blog readers’ questions all month.

“Ask the Xpert” will bring together true experts from leading enterprise organizations who are willing to offer the benefits of their experience in the trenches to other procurement executives,” says Fournier.

The first “Ask the Xpert” blog from Kimberly Smokey (Former SVP & Director of Indirect Procurement and Corporate Services with Wachovia/Wells Fargo) focuses on managing indirect services with a rate comparison tool. Future topics include: Policy Compliance, End-User Adoption and Change Management, Organizational Transformation, and Travel Management.

“What’s in the Works”

The second blog, “What’s in the Works,” will take a broader look at indirect services procurement within today’s marketplace, including industry trends, news in procurement, and new research available. HCMWorks expert consultants will also provide insight into these events and what they mean for the marketplace.

“We look forward to interacting with the procurement community via our new site, and expect that it will evolve into a valued resource in the years to come” concludes Fournier.

The HCMWorks Web site content was developed in conjunction with IntegratedMARCOM (www.integratedmarcom.com), a marketing communications firm.

About HCMWorks, Inc.
HCMWorks is a leading North American consulting and advisory firm that specializes in Indirect Services Procurement. HCMWorks helps procurement departments achieve greater control over indirect service expenditures to gain a competitive advantage in their industry. Their proprietary 4-step V2H methodology provides a substantial reduction in indirect operating costs through transactional visibility, ultimately delivering an extremely rapid ROI. For more information, please visit www.hcmworks.com or call 866-547-1645.