by Janice Marquardt | Oct 14, 2025 | Contracts, Processes, Uncategorized
There are multiple reasons to attend conferences: networking, being visible in your professional community, and especially learning new things. If you’re like me previously in my career and can’t attend conferences for various reasons, I can bring back at least a...
by Janice Marquardt | Oct 7, 2025 | Definitions, Org Chart, Processes
A perennial favorite topic in procurement is category management. It’s one of the first steps in improving an organization’s supply chain maturity and is a huge step in going from a purchasing team of PO-cutters and expediters to building real, strategic, long-term...
by Janice Marquardt | Sep 16, 2025 | Contracts, Processes
Following last week’s article, you’ve decided you need more contracts to add value and reduce your supply chain risk. Maybe you have a couple of blanket POs and want written terms, or maybe you have a couple contracts on supplier paper. But now what? What does the...
by Janice Marquardt | Sep 2, 2025 | Benefits, Contracts, Processes, Supply Chain Career
Are you ready for the holidays? Those of you in retail are responding, “Of course, I’ve had to be worrying about stocking up and overseas freight for weeks now. After all, some FedEx Demand Surcharges start on September 29th this year.” The rest of you might be...
by Janice Marquardt | Aug 26, 2025 | Contracts, e-Auctions, Org Chart, Processes, Supply Chain Career
We Can’t Do The Things Without the Stuff “We can’t do the things without the stuff!” she exclaimed during our daily check-in call. She was waiting for the technical team to send final specifications so she could finish building the e-auction. I’m not sure why it...
by Janice Marquardt | Aug 12, 2025 | Contracts, Processes, Savings
There’s only one place I’ll use the word “vendor” instead of “supplier” regularly: Vendor-Managed Inventory (VMI). Why? First, because this is an industry-wide and well-accepted term for having a supplier (or vendor) take charge of your stocking levels, refill used...
