Ash it stands today, the lines in front of the check-in counters at Heathrow are finally shorter than those in front of Madam Tussuad’s house of wax horrors…and Britain has become less of an Island. In any case we weren’t worried about our event on the 28th of April as most of our Panelists and Speakers are more-or-less local and don’t have to brave the check-in queue for their tea and cookies. Unfortunately the same cannot be said about the registered attendees – who are from all around the UK and even continental Europe. Let’s hope the backlog gets cleared – and all those who have registered get to attend.

With the event just a couple of days away – the team as already left for London. For this event, we have decided to eschew the luxurious confines of a 5-starred property. Before you start calling us el-cheapos, let us introduce to you some royalty. The event will be held at the Institute Of Directors – or simply IOD – at Pall Mall in London. If the name suggests some grimy building hosting part-time MBA courses by night – you couldn’t be further off the mark. Think about it – how many 5-starred properties can claim “Established by Royal Charter in 1906″? The IOD is an exclusive and exquisite “club” for people in the upper echelons of industry. Situated in the prime location of Pall Mall – it boasts 45000 members and has facilities that would send Four Seasons running to add a Fifth…Read more about the Venue here: www.iod.com

Meanwhile the event itself has already been “over-booked”. Considering a few last-minute cancellations – we should be running close to full capacity. (Which means there might still be space for a few inspired Procurement folk…what are you waiting for?!!)

A quick reminder of what is in store for the Audience at the Zycus Experience Tour in London on the 28th of April:

- Keynote Session by Duncan Jones – Principal Analyst Forrester. His previous keynote at our Amsterdam event was a cracker. This one’s going to be no different…

- An Experts Session by Tim Cummins – CEO of IACCM – International Association for Contract & Commercial Management. He will speak about why Automated Contracts Management is critical for a complete Spend Management strategy.

- Practitioner Experience Sharing Sessions by Procurement Leaders from companies such as Reed Elsevier and Philips

- An Experts Panel – where you can get clear doubts and questions on Spend Management

- Plenty of Networking opportunities during Lunch and evening Cocktails. You can chat up with not only our panel of experts but also Procurement leaders from organizations such as BP, Merck, Virgin Airways, British Airways, Network Rail, Nomura International, AXA, PZ Cussons, Eurostar, National Express, Canon, Black & Decker, Bombardier, Shell, Prudential and many others

That is the last update before the event. Look for the post event report on the 29th. London – here we come!

Hi Folks,

The frequency of the blog posts has reduced. And there is a very good reason for that. It is becoming difficult to handle the flow of registrations for our US and London events! Our Invitation Managers are busy fielding calls and replying to queries from Procurement Professionals from some of the largest companies in the US and UK… Though most instantly realize the tremendous value of attending one of these events, there are some, who still need some convincing. One such patron-to-be needed to know more about the business value, which could justify an investment in travel costs. And one of our bright young Invitation Managers explained it in a way that really captures the spirit of the Zycus Experience Tour…:) Here is an excerpt:

Dear John,

Thanks for considering us. Please find below the web links for the Experience Tour.

http://www.zycus.com/experience-tour-2010/zycus-experience-tour-2010.html

One of the reasons we are taking the tour to 5 cities in the US is to minimize the need to travel. Having said that, I will take this opportunity to describe why this could be of business value to Procurement Professionals, and could merit an investment in travel.

Spend Management is a relatively new area of technology-driven-transformation. Though certain aspects of the technology are very mature – such as eSourcing or eProcurement – a holistic view of Spend Management is still under development, and the true value is still being discovered. A very effective way for Procurement Professionals to keep in touch with what others are doing more with Spend Management, is by hearing the experiences of others. The Zycus Experience Tour is designed just to do that. Procurement Professionals who are actively involved in:

a) Developing a Procurement Transformation Strategy for their organization
b) Evaluating technology options, and developing an executive mandate for Spend Management within their organization
c) Using Spend Management tools to drive a larger Procurement Transformation strategy

…will be able to take back with them real and implementable insights and best practices. This is because the agenda at the Experience Tour events is a healthy mix of Thought Leaders and Real Practitioners of technology-drive Procurement Transformation. Consider for instance Carol Danoff – VP Global Procurement for Mattel Inc. She has the difficult job of transforming Indirect Procurement in an industry with high focus on Direct. But using Spend Visibility as a weapon she and her team have brought about significant cost and process improvements, while ensuring quality and service levels were maintained. She will share her story with the participants of the Zycus Experience Tour in LA. As will Vince Sakal from Northrop Grumman and Jennifer Sheriff from GSK in NYC.

We sincerely believe that an evolution in the way people deliver value using Spend Management will only occur through sharing learning and experiences. And this is exactly what the Experience Tour is all about. I hope that I have answered, to some extent, your queries about the value of attending these events. In case you have further queries on the same, and would like to know more about the agenda, please do write back or give me a call.

Looking forward to seeing you at the Zycus Experience Tour.

Best Regards
Rahul

***

That is right Rahul! The true spirit of the Zycus Experience Tour is sharing and learning… and we have seen how well that worked in the previous events. To all Procurement folk out there, only 3 weeks remain to register! Book your seat fast, because our halls are close to capacity!

Aatish Dedhia is a quiet man. But beneath that reservoir of calm – lies deep experience and insight in all things Spend Management. The ExperienceBlog caught up the CEO of Zycus – for a quick chat about the Experience Tour and on why Procurement Professionals around the world deserve a fresh experience in Spend Management. Here is an excerpt:

ExperienceBlog: What in your words, is the key idea behind the Zycus Experience Tour?

Aatish: The key word here is Experience – and just that word has various aspects. Zycus has been a pioneer in Spend Management, and having worked with some of the best-performing organizations in the world, we have a lot of experience – which has gone into our solutions design. We want to share that experience with the Procurement leadership of today. We also believe that thought-leadership based on theoretical research is fine, but what we really wanted to provide was a platform where Practioners with real life experience share their stories and their passion for creating best-in-class procurement organizations. Finally it is my belief that fresh perspectives can only be brought out when people talk and share experiences with each other. This really is the crux of what the Zycus Experience Tour is all about.

ExperienceBlog: Why do you think that Procurement Leaders today need a fresh perspective on Spend Management?

Aatish: Adoption of Spend Management has reached sky-high levels today – especially when I compare the state of the market to what it was a decade ago, when we started providing Spend Management solutions. Today we see companies of all sizes working hard at savings enabled through technology. Zycus Spend Management solutions – as with other solutions – are full of features which can help People be more productive and make more informed and intelligent decisions. Can you tell me which is the pivotal term in the sentence I just spoke?

ExperienceBlog: Solutions? Features?

Aatish: (Shaking his head calmly) It is People. Humans – just like you and me. I believe that people and evolution in the way they think and act is the most critical aspect in technology adoption. We have seen time and time again that complex and promising technology fails to deliver because the users have not evolved enough to derive maximum out of the technology. The same is the case with Procurement technology – just putting complex feature-laden software in place, does not guarantee the promised benefits in terms of savings and higher productivity. That is a function of people and how they use the software. This is where experience sharing comes into play. And this is what we are trying to do with the Experience tour. Having people interact with each other, share success stories and best practices, helps bring about a larger evolution in people behavior and mindset. In the end implementing any kind of Process Automation brings about a big change – and what better way to bring about change management than sharing experiences and learning?

ExperienceBlog: Could you give us a sneak peek into the Future of Spend Management…

Aatish: You will have to visit the Experience Tour for that… (giving a chuckle). Ok…  Think about the true beneficiary of Spend Management. It is the CFO. Imagine if he/she has complete visibility into the spend across the various departments – Marketing, Sales, R&D – and he can track the entire lifecycle of savings, from projection to actual realization, in one dashboard. This will give him the ammunition to re-allocate department budgets and manage company cash flow better. All this will lead to better financial performance – and we are talking about beyond just bottomline savings here. Is this being done today? Not that we know of. But is this possible? Yes. And is this relevant? Very. After all, this is how Procurement becomes truly strategic.

ExperienceBlog: What according to you are the two main reasons why Procurement Leaders should attend the Zycus Experience Tour?

Aatish: There are many reasons – quite a few that I have touched upon already. But if I were to talk about two extremely powerful ones they would be:

1)  Participants will get to hear from real practitioners of Spend Management. There is no greater insight than that which is gained through experience… whether it is your own or the experience of others.

2) Finally, we are at the dawn of a new future for what is possible through Spend Management. The Zycus Experience Tour is a platform where Procurement professionals can contribute to the evolution of Procurement Technology with their unique ideas and learning.

Howdy my dear …um… Experiencers (?),

Life’s good.

No, seriously – it is one of those days where the sun shines brighter, the mangoes taste sweeter, the birds chirp louder… you get the picture. No the writer hasn’t suddenly fallen in love (though he did see his first BMW X6 yesterday…but this is not about that.)… it is just the heady feeling of things in the universe falling into place and the best-laid-plans coming to fruition.

I am, of course, talking about the Zycus Experience Tour which hits the Land of Opportunity in May. And what is falling into place, is the agenda. The experience sharing concept of the events is attracting some of the best and brightest out there, to take center stage. Here are a few of the companies, that you will get hear from, at the events:

Northrop Grumman

Reed Elsevier

Philips

Doosan Infracore Construction Equipment

Sun Chemicals

… and many more in the pipeline.

This along with Jason Busch and Duncan Jones from Forrester Research, Inc. The content on show promises to be insightful and practical. And sure enough the seats are filling fast.

A lot of folks have been asking us about the schedule in the US – what cities, when etc. Here is the link to the official website – everything you need to know about the US and London events is here, along with the event registration pages, previous event reports etc…

Stay tuned to the blog for further updates… . Meanwhile, if anyone out there has been lucky enough to the drive the X6 – could you please tell us mortals how it feels? Pretty please?

Wow… two updates in 24hrs… it really pours when it rains over here…

After Duncan Jones, Principal Analyst with Forrester Research, Inc. wowed the Amsterdam audience on the 9th of March with his razor sharp insight and real-life (sometimes all-too-real – if you know what I mean) experiences – we were only too keen to extend our association with him. And guess what… he will be speaking at our London event (on the 28th of April)!

This is indeed good news for all those procurement leaders who have already registered – and hopefully will entice more to participate. I was there when he spoke in Amsterdam, and I have to tell ya… he is quite a speaker. And the best part is he will be available for most part of the day for interaction with the participants. So come armed to the event with your questions on Procurement and Spend Management. The Guru is going to be there….

Nylon is gonna rock!

Hi Folks!

We are certain that readers of this blog will not find it hard to believe that we happen to dig Jason Busch. SpendMatters.com — where he spends a large amount of his time — is a place that makes Spend Management more interesting and engaging. His writing has the depth of expertise and experience but at the same time there is quality of freshness that can only come with a terminal case of curiosity and wonder. (And he is really funny at times!) Just the qualities we identify with here at Zycus. So we invited him to be a Keynote speaker for the events… and he accepted!

As the Champagne (actually bubbly-water – buy hey, one man’s bubbly-water is another man’s Champagne!) was being passed around the halls last evening, we realized that our original idea of generating different perspectives on Spend Management was being executed to perfection. Jason, as most in the Procurement world will know, is honest to a fault and portrays things as he sees them. Now that’s what we call fresh… real experiences, real analysis and real insight which we can take back to our jobs, to perform better, make better decisions and save more money.

Welcome aboard Jason… we really look forward to our journey together!

In all the excitement about Nylon we all but forgot about our Norwegian experience. Which is unfair, because as far as day long events on relatively unknown topics by relatively unknown solution providers from relatively unknown lands go (phew!)… it was a cracker of an event! Just shows that our premise of experience sharing being attractive and relevant, is not misguided. Though it is one of the wealthiest nations in the world (per-capita-wise): Norway does not have a great number of super-large organizations. But the ones it has are world-class in every way. So when I report that some of the largest local organizations were there, it is with some pride. Telenor (incumbent telecom company of Norway), Ringnes (Norway’s largest brewer),  Tine (the biggest diary producer in Norway), Borregaard (the world’s largest supplier of wood-based chemicals), Posten Norge (Norway’s default postal service), Norsk Hydro (the fourth largest Aluminum producer in the world)… ok I shall stop now as this is borderline hubris. But you get the picture.

The venue (featured here) was the amazing Radisson SAS Plaza hotel in downtown Oslo. The meeting room was on the 33rd floor – the view from which which provided the early birds with sufficient distraction as they waited for the other participants to arrive. One could see the entire old city blanketed with a coat of snow, the harbor and the imposing fjords in the distance. If we weren’t busy organizing stuff we would all be just sitting by the window and sighing…

The highlight of the event was a keynote session by Edgar Heitmann from Corporate Development Purchasing in Orkla ASA – one of Norway’s largest industrial conglomerates. As a current user of Spend Management, Mr. Heitmann shared insight on how Spend Management enabled Orkla to capture purchasing synergies.

He had useful tips for the audience on how one could develop and execute an organization-wide mandate on Procurement Transformation. As Orkla is one of the largest global Norwegian companies, the audience greatly benefited from their experiences. There were many questions for Mr.Heitmann, so many that it ate into lunch! (pun intended)

…which was some amazing Norwegian Trout with white sauce. After lunch, the group returned back to the meeting room for repeat performance of the panel in Amsterdam. Only difference, this time there was no panel. Instead Anurag Dixit (VP Marketing at Zycus) and Arthur Raguette (VP Business Development at Zycus) – both industry veterans – drove an interactive audience experience-sharing session on how Spend Management can enable a globally integrated procurement platform. Though the excellent lunch had made the audience a bit “heavy” – the involvement soon picked up and there was a healthy exchange of experiences and ideas around the room.

The event was finally brought to a close with a superb demo of Integrated Spend Management by Hari Prasad from Zycus. This was what the audience had been waiting for… a glimpse into a futuristic experience of Spend Management. And many were surprised to find out that the future of Spend Management is so… well … human! The entire thought process of software design by keeping humans as the focus, manifested itself in front of them as they saw how easy it was to identify, predict, realize and track savings.

The audience, almost entirely comprised of senior decision makers in the field of procurement had been exemplary. They asked pertinent questions and contributed with their own experiences. And they had to be rewarded. Apart from the silk paintings (which they loved), they brought the evening to an early end with a networking cocktail and coffee session. We had various requests of conducting more such experience sharing sessions – and we couldn’t stop beaming and nodding our heads vigorously!

When the last of the guests had left… the team grabbed some wine and finger food and relaxed for the first time in what felt like a lifetime. No one said much but there was an air of the contentedness that comes with the knowledge of a job well done.

After blazing through Continental Europe – the team will face its biggest challenge yet… Nylon.

Eh? (The writer is in a riddling mood today…)

Well, to help your turning cogs turn…um…faster… on the 28th of April the tour will visit the Queen and then cross the ocean to eat an Apple. Get it?

Well let me spell it out for those you still wondering what on Jupiter this is all about (and for those getting mildly irritated): The Zycus Experience Tour will visit London on the 28th of April and then make its way to New York City on the 3rd of May. The two financial centers of the world are perfect settings for our message of greater savings… and this is where we expect our biggest turnouts yet!

The agenda line up is shaping up to be – for the lack of a better word – awesome. Senior Analysts, CPOs… let me stop here (or else I will not have stuff to write in future posts!). The promotions for the Nylon events have started today, and if you happen to receive the registration link by email – block your date now!

In case you haven’t received an email – just click here and register. We promise (as we delivered in Amsterdam and Oslo) an experience that you will never forget…

Requests for pictures from the Amsterdam leg of the Zycus Experience Tour, are pouring in – and we are only too happy to oblige. Here are a selected few (in chronological order)

1) Our own professional emcee – Ladies & Gentlemen… Bruce Pell!

2) Duncan Jones on the future of Spend Management

3) Robert Van Motman describing the transformational journey in Draka Holdings – one of the world’s leading cable manufacturers

4) Lunch at the Silk Route restaurant

5) The experts panel debating on the possibility of a unified global procurement process – enabled through Spend Management

6) Eric Walsworth from Reed Elsevier talking about the various uses of improved Spend Taxonomy

7) Herke Suhr – Senior Director of technology for IT procurement at Philips – describing Spend Management best practices and roadmap at Philips

8) Networking over Cocktails

Hope you enjoyed the pictures…:) Next up – Saving Money in Sub-Zero temperatures… the Oslo report!

The title of this post has been chosen as an obvious reference to the brilliance of Dutch art. The land of Van Gogh, Rembrandt and Vermeer looked as perfect as one of their paintings, when we landed baggage and hope-heavy at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam. Sure it was cold, but when has that stopped Amsterdam from being alive and kicking? We felt the energy in the air as we checked into our hotel and then immediately proceeded towards the venue. The event was the next day – and we wanted to recce the place before, making sure that everything is in order. The Moevenpick Hotel Amsterdam City Center, where the event would be taking place, is a landmark in Amsterdam and wasn’t difficult to find. It is an imposing structure which towers over the Amsterdam waterfront – just minutes away from the Central Station. And boy, were things in place or what. The conference room was large and airy, like much of the hotel. The staff was friendly and helpful and the restaurant looked delicious. The 9th of March was going to be a day to remember. (The rest of the 8th was pretty eventful, the details of which – for the sake of brevity (and our reputation) have been left out of this report. You get the picture.)

As we settled down on the morning of the 9th – the guests started pouring in – despite it being a sunny day (when many would be tempted to just bike around). Some of the leading organizations in the region were represented there: Philips, Heineken, Danone, Draka, Corus-Tata Steel, Belgacom, Avery Dennison…and our faces lit up when we saw the hall filling up. The content had to be perfect.

The event began, on-time, with a bang with Bruce Pell (Sales Manager for Belgium with Zycus) emceeing to perfection. He eased the capacity audience into the proceedings with gentle Brit humo(u)r – setting the stage for the Keynote by Duncan Jones – Principal Analyst with Forrester.  Duncan, literally towering over the audience, brought the future in, by talking about Spend Management in 2010. Subtitled “CPOs do much more than squeeze supplier margins” – Duncan’s riveting talk touched ePurchasing technology market trends and predictions on how companies will evolve (with) their Spend Management. Not dwelling too long on theory Duncan spoke about real companies and their experiences – spelling out best practices which left the audience furiously taking notes. He was then followed by Robert Van Motman – Director Procurement for Draka Holdings – a leading global cable manufacturer. Robert described in detail Draka’s procurement transformation journey so far – and how Spend Management and Spend Visibility has helped them drive organization-wide savings which were quick, actual and measurable. Again lots of things to take back for the audience. He had good words to speak about Zycus’ technology and support – and we were left beaming!

Lunch was served in the Silk-Route restaurant – which is well known in Amsterdam gourmet circles. The buffet was expansive and the view of the harbor was even better. Post lunch sessions included Eric Walsworth a consultant with Global Finance Procurement at Reed Elsevier in the  UK and Herke Suhr – Senior Director of technology for IT procurement at Philips. Both were experience sharing sessions where the audience got to ask them questions about real issues with implementation of a successful Spend Management strategy. Eric spoke about how his team has successful leveraged improved Spend Taxonomy beyond just Spend Management – but used it as a basis for greater transformation. Herke on the other hand spoke about the roadmap for Spend Visibility within Philips and how Zycus as a partner was helping them achieve this roadmap. The Audience was actively asking questions and making notes, especially because Philips is a regional giant and one of the most global Dutch companies. This was what the Experience Tour was designed for – and it was great seeing it manifest in reality.

There was also an interesting Panel session – moderated by Anurag Dixit, VP-Marketing at Zycus – on “Is a truly unified global procurement process possible through spend management?”. The Panel included Duncan Jones, Eric Walsworth and Arthur Raguette (Industry veteran and VP or Business Development at Zycus) – and what they had to say struck a cord with the Audience. Most of these companies had huge global businesses, and needed to maximize savings by taking the power of Spend Management throughout their global procurement operations.

It had been a power-packed day, and it was brought to an end by a Integrated Spend Management demonstration by Zycus. The Audience got to see how a single sourcing manager could run the entire Spend Management process of Identifying, Negotiating, Realizing and Tracking savings in single interface. This was a surely a new Spend Management experience! After the business conference was over – and the participants had collected their lovely miniature paintings – they were rewarded with a cocktail session where they networked with each other, exchanged cards and more experiences. Most handed in their feedback forms – with an average rating of 4.5 out of 5!

The Zycus team was left tired – but extremely happy with a job well done. But we were elated about the fact that we could create a unique and relevant experience for our audience. The Amsterdam leg of the Zycus Experience Tour 2010 was a blazing success…and the standard was set high for the event in Oslo two days later.

Next up – Photos! from our Dutch affair…