by Janice Marquardt | Jul 7, 2026 | Processes
Qualifying new suppliers is one of those activities that seems like it should be easy, but is surprisingly hard. I’ve seen companies of all sizes and in all industries struggle with supplier onboarding, qualifying enough suppliers for a given category (but not too...
by Janice Marquardt | Apr 7, 2026 | Org Chart, Processes
Most procurement teams don’t have a category strategy problem, they have a category taxonomy problem. If your categories are unclear, inconsistent, or overly broad, everything built on top of them starts to break down. And yet, category taxonomy is something that...
by Janice Marquardt | Mar 31, 2026 | e-Auctions, Processes
Ahead of the ISM World conference coming up, I asked my network: What do you want me to cover in my presentations on e-auctions? I received a variety of answers and feedback, and the one that sparked me most came from a supplier. Dan Lunoe at Bamko responded: “I would...
by Janice Marquardt | Mar 17, 2026 | Processes
Parenting is hard. Parenting well is harder. My very wise sister-in-law likes to remind me: We’re not raising good kids; we’re raising good adults. Why am I mentioning this in a post about procurement? Because parenting has major and valuable lessons for procurement...
by Janice Marquardt | Feb 24, 2026 | Definitions, Processes
Sometimes the engineer part of me comes out. While you’d think it would show up when a machine in my house is broken or when touring a manufacturing facility, it really shows up the strongest when talking about part numbers. (Yes, part numbers.) Did I mention I’m also...
by Janice Marquardt | Feb 17, 2026 | Creative Solutions, e-Auctions, Processes
This week was the week of shifting sands. I’m not sure why this was the week, but multiple e-auctions I’ve been involved with had last-minute changes, unexpected challenges, and a bit of a scramble. This is a learning opportunity for how to deal with very specific...
