Jon Hansen (PI Window on The World‪)‬ Jon Hansen

At the recent Long View Systems #ActivateDigital2018 Conference, I had the opportunity to meet with some of the most notable thought leaders from the high tech industry and beyond.

In what is the first of eight podcast interviews I did with amazing individuals such as Microsoft’s new President Kevin Peesker, NetApp’s Jon Mellon, and HPE’s new Vice President and General Manager John Dathan about digital transformation and its impact on our world today.

This week I sit down with Microsoft President Kevin Peesker.

At the recent Long View Systems #ActivateDigital2018 Conference, I had the opportunity to meet with some of the most notable thought leaders from the high tech industry and beyond to talk about digital transformation and its impact on everything from business, to the economy and even gender from the standpoint of the pressing need for more women in the STEM fields.

In what is the first of eight podcast interviews I did with amazing individuals such as Microsoft’s new President Kevin Peesker, NetApp’s Jon Mellon, and HPE’s new Vice President and General Manager John Dathan

Back in April I welcomed Ivalua SVP Sales and Business Development Amol Joshi to the show to talk about the company's big win Arizona, as well as successes with Quebec Hydro, Toronto’s Cadillac Fairview, and other notable account wins including US Foods, Honeywell and Credit Suisse.

To say that Ivalua is a company on the rise may be an understatement, especially given their recent acquisition of Directworks, a company who has cloud-based platform that provides supplier management and process automation solutions for the manufacturing sector.

Joining me today to discuss the "business" implications of this news is Alex Saric. Alex is Ivalua's CMO, and we will be focusing on the following three discussion points;

1. In my April interview with Amol Joshi, I suggested that we are perhaps seeing "the dawn of a new era, where companies such as Ivalua will begin to dominate both the market and its traditional big players." He did not disagree. Within this context, and from a business and branding standpoint, how important is this acquisition?

2. One thing that stood out from my discussion with Amol is his comment that before now, companies like Ariba and COUPA never took Ivalua seriously. At the time he said that with the Arizona win, as well as the other new client additions, he believed that this would all change going forward. What message does the Directworks acquisition send to your competitors?

3. Is this the first of what could possibly be many "strategic" acquisitions? How does the company view the acquisition approach to gaining both technical superiority and increased market share? 

In October I had the privilege of moderating two panels featuring international industry experts discussing some of our industry's most pressing questions.

I am pleased to provide you with this PI Window On The World exclusive broadcast of one of those discussions which were on supplier risk assessment and mitigation.

INNOVATION TRACK (Lafitte Room) 
The Evolution of Supplier Risk Assessment and Mitigation - A Panel Discussion 

Panelists: 
Bill Michel, CEO at Aripart Consulting, Business Advisor, Author, Professional Speaker
Abdullatif Albastaki, Senior Vice President (Head - Retail Infrastructure and Automated Banking Services Retail Banking & Wealth Management), Emirates NBD 

Gerard Smith, President, Global Risk Management Solutions (GRMS) 

Moderator: 
Jon Hansen, Writer and Speaker, Procurement Insights 

Okay, so I took some liberties with the famous Mark Twain, and Charles Dudley Warner joke about the weather and made it about risk.

However, and different from the weather, procurement professionals can do something about risk, but for whatever reason choose not to. At least this is what one study reported when it was disclosed that while 80 percent of companies do background checks on their employees, just 20 percent screen their suppliers.

Joining me today to talk about this disconnect is The Hackett Group's Chris Sawchuk, who's paper Emerging Options for Supply Chain Risk Management attempts to shed some light on what is a growing issue in the rapidly expanding global marketplace.

I will be asking Chris these questions;
Going back at least a decade, there has been the ready acknowledgment on the part of organizations that while risk exists not enough is being done to mitigate said risks. Why?In your recent paper, you state that the risk-management software tools that are currently available on the market "are still immature" when it comes to an integrated view of risk and that this leaves a lot of room for growth. To what degree does this limitation contribute to the current gap between recognition of risk and addressing it?Within an organization who should take ownership for managing and mitigating risk? 

On April 10th, 2017, I received a press release announcing that Spend Matters released its first SolutionMap, an essential tool for procurement executives and their teams to assess and understand vendor capability on an ongoing basis.

In today's segment, I am joined by Spend Matters' Chief Research Officer Pierre Mitchell to talk about SolutionMap, including the just-released rankings focusing on the following four questions;
To start, what was the inspiration behind SolutionMap, and how is it different from a Magic Quadrant?There is reference to “rankings (that) are based equally on demonstrated technology/solution capability as well as on customer input.” How large is the customer pool, and how do you correlate the two?Let's talk about the most current rankings. What stands out the most in terms the company's referenced? What is the best way for those accessing the reports to use the information?Looking ahead to the future, what is the long-term vision for the SolutionMap tool?