News You Can Use: 5/18/2016

sn_car_Matthias Zomer

  • After 20 Years, It’s Harder to Ignore the Digital Economy’s Dark Side

    The ongoing abuse of trust by office holders is not simply a series of isolated incidents; it is the manifestation of a deep and widespread rot. And people have had it. During the past 20 years, voter turnout has dropped in most western democracies, particularly among young people, who are looking for alternative ways to bring about social change.

    To restore legitimacy and trust, we need to do what The Digital Economy advised two decades ago: build a second era of democracy based on integrity and accountability, with stronger, more open institutions, active citizenship, and a culture of public discourse and participation.

    https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/after-20-years-its-harder-ignore-digital-economys-dark-don-tapscott?trk=hp-feed-article-title-ppl-follow

  • Asking for What You Need at Work
  • 5 Critical Supply Risk Mitigation Principles for Your Sourcing Process

    Many organizations try to deal with this through point-based supply risk management solutions centered around supply chain visibility, corporate social responsibility or supplier management, trying to implement the top-down “program du jour.” But what usually happens is a solution is acquired, key strategic suppliers are vetted once in a “check-the-box” compliance initiative and that’s it. Supply chain risk means managing the entire supply chain, not just tier 1 suppliers. All tiers, distributors, carriers, ports, transportation hubs, warehouses — a delay or disruption can start anywhere.

    Additionally:

    Supplier Risk is Only One Aspect of Supply Chain Risk
    When organizations consider supply risk within the sourcing process, they tend to focus on supplier-specific risks rather than the broader supply risks that get “inherited” from the nature of the items being sourced, the countries they originate from or flow through, the modes of transport and handling, the logistical hubs (or any location-specific asset), the sensitivity of the intellectual property of the items and the nature of customer-specific requirements passed back to you.

    http://spendmatters.com/2016/05/09/5-critical-supply-risk-mitigation-principles-for-your-sourcing-process/

  • Target Tells Suppliers To Shape Up Or Pay Up

    Target has little leash left to give to suppliers that can’t meet deadlines. With between 8 billion and 9 billion items circulating in brick-and-mortar stores during 2015, dips of small percentages can have big impacts when even a few shelves run dry. According to the new rules, gone are grace periods that allowed suppliers to deliver shipments within two to 12 days of expressed deadlines — in their place are fines totaling 5 percent of order costs and between $5,000 and $10,000 for suppliers who fail to include proper product information with their orders.

    http://www.pymnts.com/news/merchant-innovation/2016/supply-chain-target-inventory-delivery-deadline/

  • The Uber-effect: The rise of and risks for travel spend

    Saying all this though, Uber is such a popular service among the general public that it is certain to filter over into business use even if that comes outside of pre-arranged travel contracts. To get on top of that potential area of maverick spend, procurement must address this issue right away.

    Indeed, a recent study by Certify, a software analysis company, found that in the first quarter of 2016, 46% of all ground transportation transactions for business travellers were for ride-hailing services, compared with 40% for car rentals and 14% for taxis. A clear indication of just how popular companies like Uber and their rivals are becoming in the corporate travel space.

    http://www.procurementleaders.com/blog/my-blog–sophie-dyer/the-uber-effect-the-rise-of-and-risks-for-travel-spend-616211

  • Tableau Fundamentals:  An Intro into Aggregation

    Perhaps the most important lesson from this post is a line I hear myself saying almost every day: there is always more than one way to do something in Tableau. You will find your own techniques, form your own habits, and hear different opinions – and they likely will all have merit. You truly can take multiple paths to get to the same end result in Tableau. We are about to discuss five different ways to create a bar chart, and it’s not even a comprehensive list!

    http://www.evolytics.com/blog/tableau-fundamentals-5-ways-make-bar-chart-intro-aggregation/

Photo: Matthias Zomer