OK. I’m kidding about the title. I already have my list of summer novels I hope to enjoy, starting with The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides. I’m not kidding, however, about the recent releases of insightful reports and indices covering procurement and supply chain management topics of interest. These span multiple disciplines and spend categories and are mostly open access or require a nominal and reasonable fee to download. Here is a healthy sampling in no particular order.
2019 State of Logistics Report: Cresting the Hill
The 30th annual State of Logistics Report, published by CSCMP (Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals), authored by A.T. Kearney and sponsored by Penske Logistics was released on June 18th, 2019. “The report has tracked and measured all costs associated with moving freight through the U.S. supply chain since 1988. This year’s report presents an overview of the cost of logistics in the United States, while also discussing technology and other forward-thinking applications for leaders to use as they improve their overall supply chain performance.”
Price: Free for CSCMP members, nonmembers: $350
Buying Legal Market Intelligence Report: Legal Services
This market intelligence report provides insights into the legal category and identifies key sourcing opportunities, spend dynamics, and procurement best practices for legal services. This is the fourth annual survey published by Buying Legal Council. The survey, conducted in Q1 2019 and released June 5, “examined the purchasing behavior of over 100 legal procurement professionals, focusing on purchasing decisions, cost control, analyses, and trends.” The survey shows that professional procurement saves companies 17.1 percent on average.
Price: Free for members and Friends of the Buying Legal Council, nonmembers: $1500
What’s Now and Next for Finance and Procurement?
In this report, written by The Economist Intelligence Unit and sponsored by Basware, emerging dimensions of three global macrotrends affecting the future of P2P are examined: 1) automation, 2) digitisation, and 3) the changing dynamics of international trade. “Based on a survey from over 400 Finance and Procurement executives in the US, UK, France, and Germany, this report discusses these three global trends and uses expert insights to predict what parts of these trends will affect companies the most, what their impact will be, and best practices in how to prepare.”
Price: Open access
Gartner’s 2019 Supply Chain Top 25
Gartner, Inc. has released the results of its annual Supply Chain Top 25, which identifies supply chain leaders and highlights their best practices. 2019 is the 15th consecutive year Gartner has published Supply Chain Top 25 ranking. According to Gartner, “Colgate-Palmolive scored the top spot in the ranking for the first time, followed by Inditex, Nestlé, PepsiCo and Cisco. Chinese e-commerce company, Alibaba, and Dutch chemical company, Akzo Nobel, joined the Supply Chain Top 25 for the first time.”
Price: Subscription required
2019 CPO Agenda: Building Next Generation Capabilities
This annual key issues study by The Hackett Group, identifies major issues shaping the CPO agenda in 2019. The report covers: 1) business issues that shape the procurement agenda, 2) top priorities for procurement organizations, 3) top critical gaps in Procurement capabilities and steps to close them, 4) developing next-generation procurement capabilities including digital transformation and procurement-specific technology enablement, and 5) strategic implications.
Price: Open access
Coupa Business Spend Index
Coupa Software launched the Coupa Business Spend Index (BSI) in April 2019. The Index is a leading indicator of economic growth based on current business spending decisions of hundreds of businesses and is based on three key spend factors at a business: 1) average spend per person, 2) average time to approve spend decisions, and 3) average rate of spend approval/rejection. The inaugural report “reveals that despite uncertainty in the markets, businesses appear to be growing increasingly optimistic about the growth of the economy over the next three-to-six months.”
Price: Open access
Government Artificial Intelligence Readiness Index 2019
The Index is compiled by Oxford Insights and the International Development Research Centre and was first published in 2017. The 2019 Index scores the governments of 194 countries and territories according to their preparedness to use AI in the delivery of public services. The overall score is comprised of 11 input metrics, grouped under four high-level clusters: governance; infrastructure and data; skills and education; and government and public services.
Price: Open access
Supply Chain Digital Consciousness Index (CDI) Tool
The new Supply Chain Digital Consciousness Index (DCI) online assessment tool was released by MHI this month (June). Based on the findings of the 2019 MHI Annual Industry Report, “Elevating Supply Chain Digital Consciousness,” the Index helps companies measure their progress on achieving digital, “always-on” supply chains. To calculate the results, the tool requires you to to select a current and desired awareness level for your environment for assessment categories that include leadership, innovation/technology, customer engagement, talent and workforce environment.
Price: Index and Annual Report are both open access
Happy reading!
