by Janice Marquardt | Oct 28, 2025 | Benefits, e-Auctions, Savings
Profit Levers: Where to Find Value in Uncertain Times CEOs really do think differently. When I asked my CEO why we were doing e-auctions, he looked at me and said something like, “When times are tight, we can seek to improve our profits from one of three sources:...
by Janice Marquardt | Sep 30, 2025 | Definitions, e-Auctions, Supply Chain Career
When someone sends me a list of items to negotiate using an e-auction, one of the first questions I ask is: “What is your award scenario?” While a procurement professional should consider this question long before a negotiation, Request for Proposal, or even before...
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 19, 2025 | Definitions, e-Auctions, Savings
E-auctions have come a long way since they were introduced in the late 1990s. What started as suppliers in a room writing bids on a clipboard became mailed floppy disks (yes, really), and then the web-based software options we know today. Along the way, we added more...
by Janice Marquardt | Jul 16, 2024 | Definitions, Processes, Savings
One of the best tools to share price risks between buyers and suppliers is index-linked pricing. Most procurement professionals have heard of and used commodity indices to tie pricing to the wider market, but in short they are a third-party tracking tool for commodity...
