Survey Says...Procurement Execs Unhappy with Insight from Data

Here at eLynxx Solutions we’re pretty big on data. After all, eLynxx software captures, records and reports on every task, step, action and transaction that is part of the management and procurement of the client’s print projects. Of course the ability to gain all of the insight that the data provides is one of the many things clients tell us they love about eLynxx.

That sentiment, apparently, is not common outside of the realm of organizations using eLynxx for print procurement.

An article published by our friends over at Supply and Demand Chain Executive Magazine cites a Consero Group survey of chief procurement officers performed in July. According to that survey 84 percent of the respondents claim to be unsatisfied with the level of insight they get from their organizations’ data. Spend visibility was reported as the metric most effective by a majority of the respondents. A larger majority, however, reported that they believe metrics used to evaluate procurement functions drive the wrong behavior.

At least we know that our focus on transparency, data and reporting have paid off!

Check out the article at sdcexec.com.

Survey Says...Procurement Execs Unhappy with Insight from Data

Happy 180th Birthday - and Thank You - to John Venn!

If you’ve been out to Google today you might have noticed an interesting, if not slightly obscure, interactive commemorative Google Doodle gracing the page. It is commemorating the 180th birthday of John Venn. Unless you are the kind of person who gets at least somewhat nerdy over philosophy, math or statistics; you might be asking yourself who in the world John Venn is and why you should care that, if he had not passed away in 1923, he would be 180 years old today. Well, besides the fact that a man born in 1834 managed to live 89 years – a feat unto itself, John Venn is the man whom you may thank for the wonderfully visual way of representing complex concepts like set theory and relationships in areas such as probability, logic and statistics known as the Venn Diagram.

Great, so other than the fact that there are obviously some nerds on staff, why does eLynxx Solutions care about John Venn, his diagrams and his birthday? Glad you asked! Simply put, without John Venn and his Venn Diagram it would be a lot harder for us to explain our concept of bringing your people, your processes and your vendors together with eLynxx project management software to achieve better results in your marketing supply chain. You see, at its simplest – and trust me there are much more complex ways of using one than we have, a Venn Diagram shows a relational overlap between two or more distinct sets, areas or concepts. With each area represented as a ring or circle, the intersecting portions of each illustrate the point where everything comes together so to speak. It’s a truly elegant way to present data.

From our standpoint, an organization already has a set of people doing various jobs, a set of processes that are integral to the way it operates and a set of vendors with whom it has already built a level of trust and understanding in place. When it comes to managing its marketing material projects from concept to reality, an organization already has has a lot of what it needs to get the job done in these three areas. All that are really needed are some tools and additional knowledge to bring everything together and achieve better results. Sometimes, rather than bringing these areas together, organizations try highly disruptive methods that instead drive the people, processes and vendors already in place further apart. We have found that the more disruptive the method is the less likely it is to actually achieve marketing supply chain efficiency and savings for an organization. That’s why the tools and knowledge eLynxx Solutions provides are purpose-built and tailored specifically to an organization’s needs and resources. By being as non disruptive as possible, eLynxx simply fills in what’s missing so your organization can manage, source and organize its marketing material projects better than ever. Organizations that use eLynxx think it is an elegant solution. Since we can show how eLynxx works in one of his diagrams, we like to think that John Venn would agree.

Happy 180th Birthday - and Thank You - to John Venn!

The Marketing Supply Chain Field Guide: Conclusion

If the concept of a supply chain dedicated to the production of marketing materials never crossed your mind before you began following along, don’t worry, you’re not alone. That is exactly why we began The Marketing Supply Chain Field Guide. Now, after twelve installments, it’s time to put the wraps on our exploration of one of the most complex, yet underappreciated, areas of marketing operations.

Will you be able to walk away knowing everything there is to know about the marketing supply chain? Probably not. And, in all honesty, that was never the goal of this series. The goal was to give you the insight to be able to identify the existance, and components, of your organization’s own marketing supply chain. Hopefully you are now able to do just that.

Knowing that the marketing supply chain is made of familiar elements whose connections may not always be clear; you now also know that coordination, acquisition, production and analysis are four areas commonly encompassed by the concept. Because every marketing supply chain is as unique as the the organzation it serves, you know that flexibility is a must for successful and strong project and digital asset management.

All of the critical roles – from marketing to finance, procurement and even legal – required to bring your organization’s marketing materials from concept to reality should now be easier to identify. Identification the graphic communication materials your organization relies upon, from the common marketing and sales items to packaging, displays and large-format visuals, should also be easier. All of the vendors who are crucial to the production, implementation and success of these materials – even those you may not have thought about before – should be easier to identify as well.

Armed with your newfound knowledge, identifying all of the elements of your organization’s own marketing supply chain should be fairly simple. Unfortunately, once you have it all mapped out, you will likely discover that coordinating, connecting and managing all of the elements, resources and people within it to be a challenge. This is not uncommon. So now you know what the marketing supply chain is and have identified yours, the next step is to manage it and the projects that flow through it.

While many orgaizations have tried either broad-scope ERP, procurement and other entreprise management software; others have looked toward outsourcing or building thier own solutions using complex systems of spreadsheets, email, and files. Each of these methods, while partially successful in some instances, tend to come up short because they don’t take the individuality, complexity and custom-specified nature of a given organization’s marketing supply into consideration. Organizations that have turned to a project management solution that is not only purpose-built for the marketing supply chain, but also tailored precisely to the organization’s people, processes and vendors, have found much greater success.

As this concludes The Marketing Supply Chain Field Guide series, it certainly does not conclude the information we have to share here on the eLynxx Blog! Be sure to check back frequenly as well as connect with us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and Twitter for continued insight into the marketing supply chain, marketing materials and marketing operations in general.

The Marketing Supply Chain Field Guide: Conclusion