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Category Archives: Procurement News
Procurement News, Procurious News
How The COVID-19 Crisis Will Permanently Change Expectations From Procurement Organisations
May 29, 2020 Daniel Weise
COVID-19 is permanently redefining the role of procurement organisations…
Transformational procurement trends that were already underway are now rapidly accelerating due to new working realities. Procurement organisations will be expected to play new roles as companies respond to and recover from this pandemic and its fallout. Organisations will need to actively identify and contain various sources of risks while strengthening their competitive advantage as economies and supply chains recover. Those who learn from the COVID-19 crisis and quickly meet these challenges will forge a competitive advantage.
As corporate leaders' expectations from Procurement significantly increase—both for the new normal and future challenges—Procurement leaders should deploy six tenets in order to successfully position their organisations:
Become leaders of scenario and contingency planning
Improve real-time visibility into supply chain risk
Develop ability to rapidly deploy cash controls
Increase P&L contribution beyond historical norms
Accelerate digitalisation efforts
Invest in talent
1. Become leaders of scenario and contingency planning
COVID-19 has highlighted that most companies were not prepared to address a catastrophic event and the ensuing economic uncertainty. Going forward, organisations need to assess supply chain vulnerabilities, develop scenario models, and update associated corporate protocols and risk mitigation strategies. Externally, this means developing macroeconomic and supplier-specific assessments of event likelihood and impact and detailed reaction plans to mitigate potential fallout. Internally, it means identifying how policies affecting employees (e.g., travel, remote working model, supplier engagement) need to evolve to promote safety and productivity.
Procurement organisations will be expected to continue playing a key planning and coordination role, ensuring close engagement with other functions to increase the speed and effectiveness of required actions. Leaders should direct their teams to codify the learnings of this crisis, develop scenarios and contingencies, and establish dedicated Centers of Excellence.
2. Improve real-time visibility into supply chain risk
Having real-time visibility into evolving sources of risk is critical for initiating mitigation plans on time. Procurement should deploy permanent control towers to monitor specific risks (e.g., financial, operational, geopolitical) to identify early warning signals and deploy the appropriate responses. This includes re-examining the company's risk of supply across suppliers, geographies and facilities, and proactively identifying supply alternatives, strategic alliances, and hedging strategies should a catastrophic event impair access to critical inputs.
Additionally, organisations must develop the necessary processes to monitor key suppliers at a detailed level – tracking financial viability, operational capacity, talent management, transportation networks, etc. These metrics can be used to establish a supplier risk score to assist in response prioritisation and supplier segmentation.
3. Develop ability to rapidly deploy cash controls
Having free cash flow is vital in times of crisis. Procurement will need solutions to rapidly slow cash outflow while minimising operational and cultural disruption.
Having hypervisibility into spend allows companies to quickly distinguish between essential and discretionary spend in times of systemic shock. This allows Procurement to deploy the right processes—with senior leadership support—to control all substantial discretionary spending, establishing criteria to allow, deny, or delay expenses. Further, organisations should take a more nuanced approach to payables, adopting different terms based on suppliers' financial position and criticality.
In parallel, companies should optimise inventory, increasing cross-functional demand planning, portfolio simplification, and material substitution plans. Doing so will allow for better use of current inventory and free cash for other uses while minimising production disruption.
4. Increase P&L contribution beyond historical norms
Delivering savings is the core mandate of procurement teams, and many are feeling increased pressure to further deliver to alleviate financial hardships.
Externally, this requires prioritising actions and suppliers based on a keen understanding of market changes (e.g., commodity and labor rates, supply base changes). Procurement also needs to create new sources of leverage using a holistic set of tools, including e-auctions, product teardowns, should cost models, and stronger collaboration with strategic suppliers.
Internally, Procurement is well-positioned to play a critical role in aligning leaders to reset company behaviours, including identifying places where historical consumption patterns have been wasteful. Such moves require organisational trade-offs, so Procurement must identify the least disruptive actions and lay out the costs to enable informed decision making. For most organisations, this requires an unprecedented level of transparency and an ability to influence internal clients and leaders beyond what has been required.
Those that exercise these capabilities—while working closely with leadership, the business, and other functions—will see step changes in savings. By doing so, they will help their companies better absorb shocks and reinvest in corporate priorities.
5. Accelerate digitalisation efforts
Diligent use of technology has supported procurement functions navigating COVID-19. Going forward, many companies will need to accelerate on-going digitalisation efforts and adopt well-established technologies like P2P automation. It also means accelerating the use of more advanced technologies to monitor risk, analyse spend, surface savings opportunities, onboard and manage suppliers, and conduct market events electronically. Having these capabilities in place will ensure procurement teams remain effective and agile in times of crisis – working remotely from peers, clients, and suppliers.
6. Invest in talent
As Procurement takes on more responsibility, roles and required capabilities will evolve. Procurement will be at the forefront of strategic thinking, cross-functional management, and external alliance management. New skills will be required – including management of AI, automation, and data science. Procurement leaders need to rethink their talent management strategies, create new roles, increase training, and ensure adequate talent pools.
Path forward: COVID-19 has redefined the role procurement organizations need to play in times of crisis and recovery. Given the severity of COVID-19, the long recovery ahead, and the potential of other such events reoccurring, the expectations of procurement organizations will remain higher on a permanent basis. Procurement functions face a key decision point in where they go post COVID-19—those that rapidly learn from the experience and pursue a "new normal" will be well-positioned in the long term, achieving outsized returns.
This article was originally published on LinkedIn on 24 April 2020 by Daniel Weise. It has been republished here with permission.
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Career Management, Procurement News, Procurious News
Here's How To Hire Better People
May 25, 2020 Sally Davis
The coronavirus crisis has created a number of challenges for hiring. Here's how to hire the best people during this difficult time.
It's a fact that most business leaders already know, but one that this crisis has highlighted more than ever, and that is: your people are your everything. In volatile and stressful situations like the present, the best talent shines through more than ever, and can literally be the difference between companies that make it and those that don't. This begs the inevitable question: How do I attract and hire great talent?
Back in March when the world was a rather different place, I took part in Procurious' Big Ideas Summit where I advised procurement leaders how to stay ahead of their competition by hiring better people.
Since that time, the situation has, obviously, completely changed and companies now have additional obstacles to overcome to attract the best talent. Here, I'll share how my clients are staying ahead of the game right now and in doing so what they have learnt about how to make their recruitment process far more agile, even when we return to 'normality'.
Here's how you can follow in their footsteps and hire the best talent right now:
Hiring via video conferencing
Would you hire someone without meeting them?
At the beginning of this crisis I posed this question to a number of our key clients and the answer in 95% of cases was an emphatic 'no'. However, as the realisation has grown that this situation is not changing any time soon, I have experienced a shift in mindset.
Hiring managers are being forced to reconsider their stance and we are seeing a new approach to hiring, the result of which may have positive long term effects and change our attitude to remote recruitment forever.
One of our financial services clients started a proactive recruitment drive across their Global Procurement function at the beginning of the year. Far from slowing down they have continued to recruit, engage and on-board using video conference technology, taking advantage of the fact there is a pool of highly talented furloughed or disengaged talent in the marketplace.
Being a global player it's a given that their procurement team needs to be able to engage remotely with stakeholders on a daily basis. Their belief is that by embracing the video conferencing interview process, they are able to clearly assess if a candidate will be able to drive stakeholder engagement using exactly those tools and technology. If a candidate can't perform remotely at an interview, how then can they influence and engage with key stakeholders around the world remotely?
In addition, their expectation is that we will see an increase in home working practice once we exit lockdown, compared to before COVID19, therefore peer to peer relationships will need to be built through remote interaction.
Speeding up the recruitment process
If one thing is for sure about great talent, it's that they always have other options. For this reason, you're likely to lose talent in long and drawn out recruitment processes as someone else will simply beat you to it. In addition to this, your recruitment process says a lot about your company, and if it takes too long, this will make candidates question how efficient and effective the rest of your business is.
When it comes to recruitment processes, the current crisis has presented an interesting opportunity. Usually, senior appointments are drawn out as they often require international travel and the coordination of different people all around the world. Given travel is currently not possible, companies have a unique opportunity to simplify.
One of our manufacturing clients has worked closely with their HR team to redesign their interview process to a single stage panel interview, attended by all stakeholders. Where previously the process may have been drawn out over 3 or 4 stages and weeks and weeks, now the decision for critical hires is made in days as opposed to months.
Whilst the change to process for this client is being driven by exceptional times, they believe that if they can continue to foster this ethos there is no doubt that they will put themselves ahead of their competition when it comes to engaging the best talent in the future.
Should your interview questions change because the process is remote?
On the surface, the crisis has not really changed the fundamental scope of most roles, beyond a heightened need to be able to use technology and communicate digitally. But has it changed how we should assess people? In many ways, it has.
One area remote interviewing has made more complex to assess is the notion of 'cultural fit.' It is far more difficult to ascertain natural cultural fit based on chemistry when not meeting someone face to face, therefore we need to be more scientific about what constitutes that 'fit'. This means going back to basics and assessing key competencies rather than relying on gut feeling
In order to ascertain this, one of our clients, a food retailer,now incorporates a far greater element of questioning around self-awareness and development as part of their remote interviewing process.. For example, 'What do you like and dislike about procurement' helps to identify why they are in the profession and the '3 key areas for development' demonstrates their depth of self- awareness.
Hiring better people
Finding talent in non-pandemic times is already a challenge. Add the changes required due to the virus, and things become even more challenging. Yet companies also have so much to learn from this crisis – and those who adapt may learn important lessons that they'll be able to use to continue to engage top talent well into the future.
Check out Sally Davis' presentation at Big Ideas Summit London from a few months ago here.
1st Executiverecruitment advice
The Age of Influence – Are you a Player?
May 22, 2020 Euan Granger
Could the age of influence be drawing to a close? Or does it now reflect the changing attitudes to advertising and promotion in the social media environment?
Cristiano Ronaldo (186 million followers), Ariana Grande (165 million) and Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson (159 million) have gathered some of the largest audiences on Instagram. But a celebrity status and a huge following doesn't necessarily lead to great influence. The Digital Marketing Institute has shown that there is a greater level of trust placed in an influencer versus a celebrity.
But as an "experiencer", you may have the most engagement of all!
In the first article of this series I established the context for how the nature of influence is changing the digital age. As people's consumption of media and social media changes, so does how we perceive people to be 'influential' in our lives. Individuals from all walks of life now have a platform to share their thoughts, experiences and daily lives.
However, the paradox in some ways of this situation is that the younger generation have been able to build larger followings, and greater influence, despite having theoretically less to offer and share. While this is not at the expense of the older generations doing the same, Gen X and Baby Boomers are certainly lagging behind in the circles of "must know" social media influencers.
There is still an opportunity for these generations to build their own influence on social media, but potentially against a backdrop of the waning powers of influencers as a whole. Cynicism, controversy, commercialisation and over-saturation have all played a part in the erosion of influencers' status. Far from being an end, however, this may represent the next evolution of the digital age.
To understand this further, we need to revisit the categorisation of influencers and view this through the lens of a shifting balance of power.
Waning Influence and Diminishing Returns?
Micro influencers (those with an audience of 10,000 people or fewer) are likely to be able to command an audience in their niche, irrespective of the changing environment. Many of this group are seen as 'Experiencers', the go-to group for recommendations about products, services and experiences.
It's in the grouping of the macro influencers, commanding audiences of over 250,000 people and generally found in the world of celebrity, where changes in influence may be felt most keenly. These influencers have traditionally had their seat of power on sites such as Instagram, rather than YouTube or Snapchat.
As I mentioned in my introduction, Cristiano Ronaldo, Ariana Grande and Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson have gathered the three largest audiences on Instagram. There isn't an out-and-out digital celebrity in the site's top 10 accounts and certainly no politicians or other, more traditional, influencers.
Research has shown that the influence of social media posts differs depending on whether they were posted by an influencer or a celebrity. This is largely down to the question of engagement versus impact. Celebrities may have huge audiences, but products they promote may only be applicable to a small percentage of them (engagement). And while they can reach this audience, they are unlikely to be able to change consumer behaviours (impact).
Celebrities frequently have their own brands and products to promote, as well as those offered by marketers. All these posts may also be treated with a level of cynicism from the wider audience, part of which can be attributed to the truly eye-watering sums of money being earned for sponsored posts.
Money = Influence? Or Influence = Money?
Sponsored posts, adverts, product promotions. If you have a big enough audience on social media and a big enough personal profile, then you might be approached by a brand to help market their products. This can be quite a lucrative opportunity – even if you aren't as high profile as Kim Kardashian, who reportedly charges over $250,000 for an Instagram photo.
The greater the audience, the higher the payment (on average):
Instagram: $1,000 per 100,000 followers
Snapchat: starts at $500 per campaign in 24 hours
YouTube: Roughly $2,000 per 100,000 followers (this could go as high as an average of nearly $4,000 with 500k+ followers)
And these sums are still rising – and at a rate of approximately 50 per cent per year since 2017 according to the Wall Street Journal. Which somewhat flies in the face of the question of declining influence and impact. It may also go some way to explain why 75 per cent of children dream of becoming YouTubers and why many people are aiming for a hyphenated job title including the word 'influencer', rather than a more traditional career as experienced by previous generations.
This is where we can loop back to our original point of why social media influencers are largely from Gen X. They are the ones who appear on reality TV, who are the new generation of footballers who already have a social media following, who understand how best to leverage their own brand and use social media to their advantage.
Real World Influence
A brief interlude to discuss influence in the real world. This is not to say that Dwayne Johnson and Ariana Grande don't operate in the real world, but their influence largely comes through on social media. However, as influence doesn't necessarily need to be linked to selling of products or promotion of brands. It can be linked to real-world events and the increasing stature of an individual.
One such recent example can be seen in New York Democratic Governor, Andrew Cuomo. Before March 2020, Cuomo was little known outside of his state and certainly didn't have a strong influence outside of the USA. However, Cuomo's leadership in response to the coronavirus outbreak and how hard New York had been hit by it.
Between January and March 2020, Cuomo's Twitter following went up by 31 per cent, his Instagram followers by 64 per cent. Not only has his audience increased, but his reception and perception to his message, which has been described as "frank" and "honest", with his briefings drawing praise from all corners of the political and media spectrum.
Positive comparisons have been made with the response of other world leaders, including President Trump. Not only has this exponentially increased Cuomo's influence across the real and digital worlds, but it has raised his profile to an extent that he is being talked about as a future Presidential candidate.
It just goes to show how digital influence could potentially have a huge real-world impact.
Ads and Controversy
It could be argued that many influencers are not sufficiently attuned to the risks associated with their influence, as recent controversies have shown. Fake news, advertising poor or harmful products, not marking posts as ads and marketing goods or services to vulnerable or impressionable audiences (i.e. children) are just some of these.
Promoting poisonous drinks on Instagram
A lack of understanding on the possible impacts of 'health' products
Controversies around anti-Semitism and videos of suicide victims
Promoting practices that are harmful to health
Celebrity endorsement of questionable events such as the infamous Fyre Festival
There are site-specific guidelines or requirements to do with the posting of sponsored content, but even with this content can be misleading. Any sponsored content on Instagram, for example, is required to have '#Ad' at the top of the post, but it is frequently either buried in a flood of hashtags on the post or missing entirely.
There are reports that companies actively dissuade influencers from mentioning that a post is an ad, while many also fail to disclose their paid partnerships with influencers. On the other side, the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has pushed a number of celebrities, including Ellie Goulding, Rita Ora and Alexa Chung, to commit to disclosing payments for sponsored posts on social media.
This is not to tar all influencers with the same brush. Many follow the regulations as they cannot afford the reputational damage, or to pay back monies earned, when being an influencer is their sole source of income. However, from the outside, these influencers would seem to be the exception rather than the norm which further undermines their credibility and impact.
Could greater regulation assist in this? And could many influencers who already follow the existing regulations benefit from stricter rules? There is always going to be a minority at the very least who seek to circumvent regulations, but these influencers could find themselves squeezed out through a loss of audience and influence for failing to play by the rule.
This could be the next, much needed, evolution in the social media age. It could arrest any decline in influence and potentially remove the idea that being an influencer is not a "real career". And by doing so, this would open the opportunity for others to become influencers and bridge the generational gap that appears to exist in the current environment.
For procurement, it could mean having a market and audience to increase influence, both as individuals and as a profession. How procurement could leverage this changing environment will be the subject of the third and final article in this series, coming soon on Procurious.
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procurement influencers
Are Procurement Professionals Inherently Narcissistic?
Are you the office Narcissist? This article seeks to demystify an unloved aspect of the human psyche.
If working from home for 6 weeks has taught me anything it's that I get a lot out of human connection. I realised that I analyse my own behaviour through interacting with others. They act as a mirror. Now all I see is my own face day in day out on yet another Zoom meeting.
Aside from noticing how bad my under eye circles have become, the Zoom meetings have forced me into a new way of conversing. I try to cut in to get heard over the cacophony of voices all talking and competing at once. This is extrovert torture, where's my stage?
But I'm special!
But I have a unique view point!
But I've tackled this before!
Hmmm is this narcissism? Am I the office narcissist?
The answer is yes, partly.
How we interact with the term narcissism
Narcissism is flung about as an adjective to describe behaviours of people that we encounter in our every day lives. Whether it is hearing about the latest dating flop from your bestie or hearing the latest office drama from colleagues, the pop culture definition would label a narcissist as someone who is self-centered to an unhealthy degree.
Defining narcissism
Narcissism is commonly defined in the context of Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) which is at the extreme end of the spectrum. Psychology Today defines NPD as someone who displays "…grandiosity, a lack of empathy for other people, and a need for admiration. People with this condition are frequently described as arrogant, self-centered, manipulative, and demanding. They may also have grandiose fantasies and may be convinced that they deserve special treatment.[1]
At the heart of it they lack self-love
While we often view a narcissist as someone that loves themselves too much, talks about themselves a lot and is very self-obsessed. It runs a little bit deeper than that. Robert Greene is one of the most well-known proponents that believes narcissism comes from a lack of self-love that leads to insecurity and a lack of empathy for others.
Without this inner worth the narcissist will seek attention and validation from others to feed the beast.
Newsflash! We're all narcissists!
What's often missed in the pop culture definition and understanding of narcissism is that we all have it within us. Narcissism is a normal and healthy part of being human it's just a matter of where you lie on the spectrum.
Take a light hearted test, go on
In 1979 the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) was developed by Raskin and Hall.[2]
While this test is not a diagnostic tool, it can be used to see where you rate on the narcissism scale in very general terms. I got 12 out of 40 and rated most highly in exploitativeness, self-sufficiency and authority. I can see how these traits would complement being a leader in a commercial sector!
The most recent edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders lists nine criteria for NPD, it specifies that someone only needs to meet five of them to clinically qualify as a narcissist. Read on to see if you can relate to the telltale signs of a procurement narcissist.
Note: it is not a diagnostic tool, instead it measures normal expressions of narcissism. So, even someone who gets the highest possible score on the NPI does not necessarily have Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
9 signs of NPD Telltale signs of procurement narcissists
1. Grandiose sense of self-importance The procurement person who must talk at every meeting about themselves and won't listen to anyone else – even if it's information from their client that they need to hear.
2. Preoccupation with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love The procurement person who won't roll their sleeves up or get their hands dirty unless the project comes with a highly visible profile.
3. Belief they're special and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people or institutions The procurement person who corners your boss any chance they can get and deliberately cuts you out of emails and meetings involving anyone higher up the food chain.
4. Need for excessive admiration The procurement person who copies the whole team in on an email reply back to a customer where the customer has just thanked them for completing a task.
5. Sense of entitlement The procurement newbie who demands to be the project lead on a $10m account their first day!
6. Interpersonally exploitative behaviour The procurement person who proclaims they have written the best category strategy in the history of all time but actually they made others do it for them.
7. Lack of empathy The procurement person who steals air time in a team meeting to talk about how amazing they are when a colleague has just lost a large account.
8. Envy of others or a belief that others are envious of them The procurement person who sits in on your project meeting only to then try and take it over (when they were never invited in the first place).
9. Demonstration of arrogant and haughty behaviours or attitudes The procurement person who refuses to use plain english and will only communicate in unnecessary inflated industry jargon to make it known that they are better than anyone else.
While not all procurement professionals have NPD, we all display narcissistic behaviours from time to time. I would argue that a healthy amount of narcissism is required to be successful in this industry! If narcissism is an inherent trait in everyone that can be harnessed for good, then perhaps we need to reassess the characterisation of the behaviour trait as being only bad.
Is healthy narcissism your untapped office superpower?
If you enjoyed this article then read the wildly popular article 'Are you the office psychopath'
procurement careers
Procurement News, Procurious News, Supply Chain, Technology
What's Under The Hood? Identifying Potentials Gaps With P2P Providers
May 18, 2020 Katie Mcewen
4 must-have requirements for your next P2P solution
Finding the best Procure-to-Pay (P2P) solution to meet your organization's needs and goals is no small feat. The ideal P2P solution will take the entire organization to the next level through improved realized savings, compliance, and operational efficiencies.
So, how do you identify a best-in-class P2P solution? To start, I've outlined these must-have characteristics below.
1. A single data source.
The best P2P solutions host all information in a single database. A single, searchable data source enables a consumer-like online shopping experience that end users and suppliers will embrace. Having a unified data hub:
Decreases total cost of ownership
Provides one portal where suppliers and vendors can collaborate
Improves user adoption by allowing users to quickly find, compare, and purchase across multiple suppliers in one interface
2. Process and data flow visibility.
Visibility enables procurement teams to strategically source goods and services to expand cost saving efforts. Procurement can use data to negotiate better supplier terms and drive effective purchasing behaviors.
Best-in-class P2P solutions have robust analytics with both automated reporting capabilities and the ability to produce ad hoc reports. Users gain strategic insights into and control over real-time savings, spend by supplier, and spend by region, to name a few. In addition to spend analytics, behavioral data on the most popular items purchased, top search terms being used, and search terms with no resulting products are available within a click of a button.
3. Intelligent workflow capabilities.
A best-in-class P2P solution should allow you to trigger workflows based on user profiles. Intelligent, automated workflows in next-generation P2P solutions minimize time spent on manual processes, and can even make existing automated processes more effective.
Many organizations waste time chasing down invoice discrepancies (missing details, quantities do not match, misalignment with purchase orders). Best-in-class systems automate this process with business rules triggered by missing information. Administrators construct and configure the business rules to reconcile the inconsistency, deny the invoice, send it to an employee with AP permissions, or push it through without changes.
Intelligent workflows do more than automate workflows. Data and insights collected on employee efficiencies can reduce tactical labor and better allocate head count accordingly.
4. Dynamic cloud-based software.
When analyzing a best-in-class P2P solution, it's important to understand how the software will be implemented into your environment. Why? Because how the software is implemented will directly affect your total cost of ownership.
Break down prospective P2P software into these four categories:
On-premise: Software is a single instance, built on-premise behind the company's firewall. IT owns the licensed software and codebase, so only they can make configurations and customizations to the software. Most ERPs exist in this manner.
Hosted Cloud (SaaS model): Code is still designed for hosting on-premise, but lives in the cloud. Vendors are responsible for making any changes to the codebase.
Built for the Cloud: This is a self-service software. No code needs to be written to make any changes. The business owns the system, making it easier to maintain.
Living and Breathing Cloud: This type of software has all the benefits of "Built for Cloud," but also leverages all of the benefits of the cloud provider (such as Amazon Web Services) to expand and contract. This technology is built for maximum performance, extremely fast loading times, and scales to handle maximum traffic on the system.
The technical capabilities of any P2P solution are obviously important, but don't overlook these questions during the evaluation process:
What do customer references say about this vendor?
Will this vendor help lower total cost of ownership (TCO)?
Will this solution easily integrate with other solutions in the P2P landscape?
How will this vendor support the procurement team and company's vision?
What is the pricing model and fee structure? Does the model allow for growth?
What is the implementation plan, and what is the support structure for post go-live?
When you're choosing a Best-in-Class solution for your organization be sure to look for signs of integrity and trust. They may not be on your list of requirements, but you're choosing a partner for your organization, and when the going gets rough you'll need an organization you can trust above all.
This article was originally published on LinkedIn on 24 April 2020 by Katie McEwen. It has been republished here with permission.
P2Ptechnology
Procurement News, Technology
Why A Source-To-Pay Ecosystem Is Best-Practice
May 15, 2020 Jason Vincelette
Learn why end-to-end, source-to-pay (S2P) suites are no longer a feasible option for modern businesses and instead, organisations should turn to partner ecosystems.
Master of all? Or specialise?
Once upon a time the "one size fits all" vendor approach seemed ideal. It definitely held appeal as it seemed to be an ideal way to cover all an organisation's S2P needs while only requiring one vendor.
But now, the industry has matured to learn that no vendor truly offers a full source-to-pay (S2P) suite that is best-in-class across all modules. Not to mention, the time it would take to roll out and maintain such a solution. In the past decade, vendors attempted to support the entire S2P process, however, as buying organisations strive to digitalise procurement and sourcing, it's becoming apparent that a single suite is typically not enough to accomplish their goals.
Understanding your S2P ecosystem
Similar to wireless providers that switch between towers to ensure you never lose service, a proper S2P partner ecosystem makes sure you cover all areas of business spend, by using a multivendor approach. As noted in Gartner's "Predicts 2019: Sourcing and Procurement Application Vendors Embrace APIs and the Ecosystem Approach", "Growing partner ecosystems are making it easier for organisations to take a connected, multiple-solution approach to sourcing and procurement automation." "By 2021, major source-to-settle and procure-to-pay vendors will have more than doubled their preconnected partner ecosystems."
While the bulk of importance is directed towards automating purchasing, payments, and a flexible supplier network, there are many value-add services that surround the S2P process. Services like supplier management, risk management, and contract lifecycle management often only offer basic functionality from suite providers claiming an "end-to-end" solution. Best-practice suggests selecting one vendor for the core areas of focus, then supplementing with other products and services from specialised providers. Companies should evaluate the data in an ecosystem to ensure core information is shared between partners so that analytics can be applied on data across the systems.
To understand the value of a vendor's product ecosystems and to evaluate the effectiveness of its community, Gartner recommends requesting the following:
Data from the vendor outlining the number of ecosystem participants, the trajectory at which the ecosystem is growing, and insight into those that use it regularly.
Metrics that disclose the number and frequency of documents, components or templates being uploaded by the vendor to the community (often called an online library).
A summary of the past three years of product updates originating from, or inspired by, suggestions by ecosystem partners.
Customer references that you can contact directly for an assessment of the vendor's product ecosystems, and any user groups that they may participate in.
In an interview with Magnus Bergfors, in conjunction with Spend Matters, Magnus details why, at one point and in some circumstances, an end-to-end suite.
He explains, "An end-to-end source-to-pay suite often seems more appealing than a specialist solution at first glance. And there are advantages to it — there's no doubting that. The most practical one is from an IT management perspective. Your business will have fewer solutions to deal with and fewer integration points with an end-to-end approach. Second is that you get a similar look and logic across multiple solutions, making it easier to use. The third advantage is in the analytics where you can have data from multiple modules succinctly located in one place."
Bergfors reveals that though there are many appeals to a singular S2P suite, it's not always the best option. There are inevitable problems, including "…that your organisation sacrifices specific functionalities with a unified suite. When you sacrifice too much, it starts impacting your ability to manage your spend and stay agile in your operations."
Additionally, he warns that "A lot of the end-to-end suites in the market today aren't natively developed or integrated and are instead made up of acquisitions, some of which are better integrated than others." So, even if a S2P suite claims to be end-to-end, it might operate more like a patchwork of solutions than a cohesive unit.
Join Basware at Connect Digital – free webinar series
Join Basware for our new Connect Digital webinar series where Magnus will further discuss his views and we'll offer the opportuning for a live Q&A session. Find details for the webinar below.
Determining Your Future Tech Strategy – Spend Matters
Hear from leading industry analyst Magnus Bergfors from Spend Matters on how to best determine your technology strategy and get the most out of the increasingly diverse and broad options available in the procurement technology market.
Baswaretechnology
Happy At Home Alone? 5 Ways To Negotiate Your New Normal
Nine in ten of us do NOT want to go back 'normal' once lockdown ends. So how do procurement professionals negotiate a new WFH arrangement – that works for them and their employer?
With half the world in lockdown we are starting to get used to the 'new normal'…. and after an initial reluctance, most of us are embracing the idea of a new way of life.
Yes, we do want some aspects of "normal" life to return. Being able to socialize, see our families, have a decent haircut (that's not done at home) or enjoy a weekend at the beach.
But we don't actually want to go back to life as it was.
A recent poll in the UK found that only 9 per cent of Britons want to return to life as "normal" after the end of lockdown.
One area where we are yearning for change is work … or more importantly the ability to work from home and/or more flexibly now that we have put the systems in place, mastered video conferencing and created our own home-office environments.
The good news is that three-quarters believe their manager trusts them to be productive when WFH according to research commissioned by Visier, which provides people-analytics to over 5,000 businesses that employee 7 million staff across 75 countries around the world.
So, if you are one of the 9 in 10 who wants a different type of working life, build on this trust: meet your deadlines, exceed expectations, continue to work collaboratively and show that you can excel at online meetings and conference calls. Do not give your manager any excuses to say WFH does not work – and that you have to return to your place of work, once offices are back open again.
The best way to tackle this negotiation is like any business negotiation (as a procurement professional you already have the skills). So be clear about what you want to achieve, build a compelling case and then make a persuasive argument.
STEP 1: PROVE IT'S THE BEST WAY FORWARD
Seven in ten staff who are working remotely for the first time as a result of the Covid-19 crisis, felt they were either more or equally productive as a result (despite the unique challenges of slow internet speeds, homeschooling and hours queuing to purchase life's necessities).
So, working from home does work. Just make sure you have the data to support your argument and include this information in your flexible working request. It will make it far harder for your line manager to refuse…and also help you prove to yourself that you CAN do this.
TIP: Make this data easy to assimilate by churning the figures – I wrote five more pitches every week, responded to 15% more enquiries per day, set up an online meeting with a new supplier and negotiated a contract remotely etc… It is much harder to argue with facts.
STEP 2: WHAT DO YOU REALLY WANT?
As with any negotiation, you need to have a clear goal. Perhaps WFH 5 days-a-week will seem too isolating (or impractical), so do you want 3 days in the office, 2 days at home? Or maybe a 9-day fortnight.
Also, if you are likely to fall into the category of being asked to work more flexibly (social distancing is going to last for some time, so you may not actually be welcome in the office), you need to work out what works for you. If you crave the stimulation of an office environment at least part of the week, make sure your employer knows that WFH permanently is a deal breaker… and let's face it we all find it difficult to be home 24/7 with family rows over internet usage.
TIP: Presenting a simple solution will make it easier for your immediate line manager to make a decision (remember, everyone else will be putting in flexible working requests too). However, you might have to be flexible about being flexible – for example, to agree to WFH on a Wednesday because everyone else is at home on a Friday.
STEP 3: PRESENT A SOLUTION – NOT A PROBLEM
The financial implications of Covid-19 mean that organizations will be looking to shed staff and cut overheads. One of the most obvious cost savings is premises – with predictions that there will be a huge shrinkage in office floor space even after the world gets back to work.
So, highlight the savings on office overheads from sharing space, hotdesking or remote working.
Another way to save money – and potentially save your job – is to offer to work a reduced working week.
Yes, it will mean a pro rata salary (a 20% pay cut if you move to a 4 day-week), however if the coronavirus has taught us one thing, it is to value having less while enjoying more time with those we love.
If you no longer have to afford two holidays a year (it might be difficult if there are travel restrictions for some time to come), are saving a fortune on eating out (more of us are becoming proficient home chefs) and spending less on grooming (who else is embracing a more natural look?), you might be able to take that pay cut.
TIP: Make yourself less expensive – you will then be less expendable. Being cheaper to employ while being more productive will make you less of a target for redundancies than your colleagues.
STEP 4: WHAT DO YOU NEED TO MAKE IT WORK?
There is no point asking to work flexibly if the office can't get hold of you, conference calls keep cutting out and your presentations no longer look professional.
So, you need the right tools. That includes the right tech (laptop, software, printer and an upgraded internet connection). Also discuss insurance (this might cost more if you have expensive equipment at home), the extra costs of running your home office (electricity) and an allowance for things like stationery, printer ink and other office supplies.
TIP: Don't make expensive demands (it could be a dealbreaker) but show you have thought through the practicalities of WFH and wish to have an open conversation about how to make the new arrangement work. In some countries you may be able to claim these expenses against tax and in the UK from 6 April 2020 employers have been able to pay up to £6 a week (£26 a month) to cover additional costs if you have to work from home (although not for those who choose to do so).
STEP 5: KNOW THE LAW – JUST IN CASE
While employers are likely to be highly responsive to flexible working requests – or even insist that more staff WFH at least part of the week – it still pays to know the law…and in particular, what reasons your employer can use to refuse your request.
Many workers around the world (Europe, Australia, some parts of the USA) have the right to request flexible working (although this is NOT the same as being able to work in the way you wish – you just have a right to make a request).
Generally the reasons for refusal include:
it is impractical – either you have to be there in person or there will be difficulty reorganizing work among other staff
there will be an impact on performance, productivity, quality, customer service
TIP: It is better to preempt a refusal, by countering it in your flexible working request. It will not only show that you know your rights but also that you have thought of practical solutions to any potential problems.
career tipscovid-19WFH
Life & Style, Procurement News, Procurious News
How One Supplier Pivoted From High Fashion To Scrubs
How do you pivot your operations? Here's how. We discover how one fashion house started making scrubs.
Imagine, for a second, that during this pandemic, procurement simply wasn't needed within your organisation. Your boss then came to you and said that the business valued you and thought you had some transferable skills, so they had decided you should switch into a sales role, immediately. How would you feel? What would you do?
Admittedly, in this situation many of us would panic. But right now, we don't need to look far to find people that that exact situation has been thrust upon – namely, our suppliers. Throughout this pandemic, we've witnessed this exact, almost instant change, occurring from Ford and Tesla switching their production to making ventilators, to 3M making face masks. But how does it feel to have your world changed, overnight? And as the pandemic rolls on with no vaccine in sight, can we expect more suppliers to be doing this?
To get an insight into this fascinating transition from a supplier's perspective, we spoke to Martin Kristensen, Director of the House of Kristensen. Incredibly, over the last few weeks Martin and his team has transitioned from manufacturing high fashion to making homemade scrubs, which are now being used by the NHS.
Martin, tell us about your business prior to now making homemade scrubs?
Sure, so House of Kristensen is a couture fashion house specialising in made-to-measure, bespoke designs. We create unique feature pieces for both private and public/professional clients, with our public pieces being quite high-profile.
For our private clients, we design mostly for special family occasions, such as weddings, birthdays, bar mitzvahs, etc. For our professional clients, we do everything from gown design for famous TV shows as 'Strictly' or 'The Voice,' to dressing stars for stage performances(we've worked with Katy Perry and Dame Shirley Bassey, to name a few). We also create stunning outfits for red carpet appearances, including Cannes Film Festival, the BAFTAs, and many more.
We understand that you're based in London. Tell us how the coronavirus unfolded for you. What's your personal experience been and how has it affected your business?
I couldn't have been in a stranger situation when the Covid-19 escalation was first announced. I was actually running around a woodblock with camo-cream on my face on a training exercise with the British Army Reserves!
Prior to departure, though, I had left an action plan for my team with guidelines about what they should do if the situation escalated. My training was cancelled, so that allowed me to return to my team.
When I returned to London, immediately our focus was on adapting our workforce to be able to work from home, at least temporarily. This involved significant kit & equipment prep as well as material allocation so we could still execute our production schedule.
Beyond that – honestly – the outlook for us wasn't that rosy. We're fundamentally in the events business, and with Covid, most events were axed. We had a quarter of a million pounds' worth of cancellations, and little room for new opportunities.
Everyone was afraid, there was no certainty. All we could do was focus on being proactive, strengthening existing relationships and forging new ones.
With everything that was going on for you, how on earth did you think of switching to produce scrubs?!?
Scrubs4Heroes was born out of recognition of the extremely challenging situation facing our frontline staff and a desire to help in any way we could.
For those of us in the leisure and luxury sectors, It is not every day that we are able to be a part of helping safeguard peoples' lives.
I will always remember the amazing care I received after my hand was broken in a cycling accident. So when I heard about the shortages at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, where I'd been treated, I called them to offer support with scrubs if any were needed, the response was clear and more requests followed, pushing us to capacity.
I then decided volunteers were needed to help us meet demand and we then created Scrubs4Heroes. I am proud to say we now have almost 200 volunteers and are burning through about 3000m of fabric per week to meet our urgent orders.
We're intrigued! How do you actually make scrubs?
The process is very interesting and there's lots of different design features you definitely wouldn't think of.
Firstly, you need to find the right fabric. We discovered quickly that poly-cotton was best, as it provides a resistance to shrinkage when cleaned at higher temperatures as well as a resistance to wear/tarnish, whilst also ensuring a degree of breathability.
The next step is the creation of the garment, from a specific NHS-approved pattern. We also need to consider details relevant to practicing medicine such as colour. Colour is a lot more important that you'd think – research shows that looking at blue/green helps keep doctor's eyes more sensitive to variations in red. So if you are a terribly busy doctor, nurse or surgeon looking at blood frequently, operating or trying to detect an infection, typically indicated by levels of redness, blue or green is invaluable to refresh colour perception
That's amazing! How many scrubs are you making now?
Lots! The list of places we are supporting has grown significantly in recent weeks. We now have 14 NHS trusts and clinics we are working to supply, as well as six GP surgeries and just this weekend we delivered to NHS Glasgow.
We are also now supplying HM prison service with instruction packs and material to help them produce scrubs for the NHS. We think that's pretty special – I think it would have to be the first couture house and correctional facility collaboration! So far they anticipate adding 50-100 sets of scrubs to our relief effort per week.
Congratulations on your great contribution Martin! Where to from here?
It's hard to say. There's a high degree of uncertainty at the moment and we're not anticipating a flood back to the sort of events we cater for. We need to remain nimble and agile and adapt to our changed circumstances. One example of how we're doing this currently is with our Couture-In-Situ Service where your own personal shopper comes straight to your home, hotel or office with a selection of 30 carefully styled looks. This enables us to provide the same level of couture and expertise, but within your own safe setting.
Way to go, Martin! Is there a thing or two you think can you learn from Martin's transformation? What does it tell you about how you personally are dealing with change? And how are you currently remaining nimble and adapting to changed circumstances? Tell us in the comments below.
covid-19scrubs
Fake Masks And False Cures: The Dark Side Of COVID-19
Criminals exploit COVID-19 fear with fake medical equipment. Here's how world governments are fighting back.
COVID-19 means huge opportunities for criminals.
They are taking advantage of essential goods demand by flooding the market with their own shoddy versions – exploiting public fear.
Here's a look at the most common (and concerning) fake products on the market.
Fake goods in the EU
Counterfeit pharmaceuticals and healthcare products are everywhere, according to Europol, the European Union's law enforcement agency.
In a recent report, it listed the most worrying fake items they've uncovered:
Medical equipment: face masks, virus test kits, gloves
Disinfectants: alcohol-based hand sanitiser, disinfectant cleaning wipes
Medicine: choloroquine (an anti-malaria drug initially thought to help treat the Coronavirus), other fake cures
Europol says the fake goods are sold through online stores created just to profit from the pandemic. Some even target victims through messaging apps like Telegram.
The goods originate from 'frequently changing addresses in Asia', making it extremely difficult to trace.
Europol is concerned these inferior goods could put people at serious risk.
"Counterfeit goods sold during the corona crisis do not meet the required quality standards and pose a real threat to public health and safety," says Europol Executive Director Catherine de Bolle in the report.
"People who buy these fake products have a false sense of security, while they are in fact left unprotected against the virus."
Substandard masks in the North America
And it's not just Europe. The pandemic is keeping United States' Homeland Security busy, with more than 200 criminal investigations related to COVID-19 so far.
One woman was caught selling illegal pesticide on eBay, claiming it could provide immunity from the virus.
Another man allegedly tried to sell 100 million facemasks to the government, despite not actually having any.
The man claimed his stash came straight from 3M, one of the biggest healthcare equipment manufacturers in the US.
3M responded with a lawsuit, saying: "3M's legal team is taking strong action to protect 3M and the public against the conduct of those who seek to exploit 3M's brand and reputation and defraud others during this time of emergency and crisis."
3M is also suing a Canadian company for re-selling 3M masks at five times the retail price, vowing to "[put] a stop to those who are trying to cash in on this crisis."
Another worrying trend in inferior products is testing kits.
The University of Washington School of Medicine spent thousands exporting kits from Shanghai, only to find some of the tests were tainted with bacteria.
The university has since recalled all tests to be on the safe side.
Seizing test kits in Australia
Australia has similar issues with shoddy test kits, according to Zoran Kostadinoski, Head of Border and Biosecurity at the Customs Brokers and Forwarders Council of Australia (CBFCA).
He said the border force has intercepted hundreds of dubious testing kits and personal protective equipment (PPE).
Even though members of the CBFCA aren't directly responsible for checking the authenticity of goods, they warn importers and exporters to be diligent.
"Procurement professionals need to ensure they source PPE from reputable manufacturers that provide quality products and meet the health standards of the importing country," he warns.
"Until there is a global regulation of such products that provides certification, the issue of counterfeit goods in the supply chain will continue, as some look to make quick profit based on demand of such products due to COVID-19."
China pledges to clean up
Authorities are doing their best to help people identify goods that meet safety standards.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention even set up a website with photos of the most common counterfeit face masks.
Nevertheless, the question remains: why isn't there greater effort to stamp out fakes before they are ever exported?
It's complicated, as LA Times journalist Alice Su explains.
"It's common for Chinese suppliers to export a product under one licensed company's name but to source their products from second, third or fourth factories, like a chain of Russian nesting dolls, with little to no traceability down the chain of supply," she writes in an article.
She also points out not all suppliers set out to produce inferior products. Many factories shifted to PPE production at the government's request without knowing the proper quality controls.
Regardless, the Chinese government is making a concerted effort to shut down offending manufacturers and revoke their export licenses.
Fighting online crime in the UK
That process isn't happening quick enough for people like Sarah Stout, however.
She's the CEO of Full Support Healthcare Ltd, a supplier to the UK's National Health Service.
Recently, she shared on LinkedIn that her company gets dozens of offers every week from manufacturers of the sought-after N95 mask.
95% of the masks are fake with forged certificates, she says.
"When I informed one supplier that I knew their certificates were fake, they said to me, "[O]k, if I give you real certificates for other product will you place an order?'" she writes.
Her experience isn't unique. UK authorities say they've taken down 2000 Coronavirus scam websites so far, including 471 fake online shops.
Many of these websites were discovered through spam emails. One common email appears to come from the World Health Organization and offers COVID-19 health tips in exchange for personal password information.
James Brokenshire, UK Minister for Security, urged people to be aware of the many ways criminals exploit technology like email to gain advantage.
"It's despicable that they are using the coronavirus outbreak as cover to try to scam and steal from people in their homes," he wrote in a press release. "We all have a part to play in seeing they don't succeed."
In response, the UK's National Cyber Security Centre is asking for people to send them any suspicious emails.
It's not just a UK problem, though. Pandemic spam mail is a global headache, with Google detecting 240 million COVID-19 related spam messages so far.
How to tackle it
Even though technology is used for exploitation, it's also a key to stopping Corona crime.
One company in the fight is Systech, which lets you check if PPE product is authentic by simply scanning the product's barcode with a smartphone.
The company uses blockchain technology to trace the product journey throughout the entire supply chain.
Similarly, Zuellig Pharma, an Asia-Pacific pharmaceutical giant, utilises SAP's blockchain platform to verify authenticity.
Customers can scan a barcode on the package using the eZTracker app, and know instantly if the medicine is a legitimate Zuellig product.
This use of technology, along with the efforts of governments and the vigilance of the public, go a long way to combat the dark side of COVID-19.
However, until essential goods supply can match global demand, criminals will find a way to cash in.
covid-19fraudfraud preventionsupply chain
Procurement News, Procurious News, Technology
The Spy Who Loved Me – To Track Or Not To Track? That Is The Question
Companies 'spy' on remote employees using tracking software. Great for productivity? Or a massive invasion of privacy?
Covid restrictions are starting to ease, and soon the global workforce will swap their comfy sweats for a morning commute.
It won't happen overnight, however.
Leaders like UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson want people to stay spread out, staggering shifts and working remotely where possible.
And some companies may even adapt policies to give employees the option of permanently working from home.
That leaves managers with the task of keeping staff productive from afar.
There are all kinds of ways this can be done, but one method stands out for its rising popularity (and sheer invasiveness): tracking software.
Here's a look at what the software does, why companies use it, and its effectiveness.
Staff tracking software gives employers the ability to keep close tabs on employee.
Features vary, but this kind of software lets companies track everything a staff member does on a company computer.
This ranges from recording all websites visited, to taking screenshots every few minutes and sending them back to the boss.
Virtual monitoring isn't anything new; IT and HR teams have used such tools for years. What's new is the huge uptake in surveillance software subscriptions since the pandemic started.
In fact, one surveillance software company, Hubstaff, saw a 95% increase in new customers in March over February.
Enforcing productivity
Is it overkill to record everything an employee does?
Not at all, says Courtney Cavey, Hubstaff's Marketing Director. In fact, she welcomes being monitored with Hubstaff's own software.
"The freedom it ultimately grants is priceless," Cavey says. "[My boss] knows I'm working when I say I am because he can see that I'm tracking time and activity levels, and completing tasks, so he doesn't have to look over my shoulder and constantly ask for updates."
It's certainly one way to make sure staff are productive. But it isn't the only way.
Trust over anxiety
With all the other productivity tools for remote teams, including Slack and Zoom, why is surveillance software so popular?
It's all about control, according to executive consultant Lloyd Bashkin.
"It's perfectly understandable that CEOs will feel anxious at a time like this," he says.
"[I]t's a basic human need to want to feel a certain amount of control, and when that is stripped away, bingo – anxiety spikes.
"So rather than see [computer surveillance] as paranoia, for most CEOs it's just a natural inclination to feel a certain amount of control."
As CEO of management consultancy Lloyd Scott & Company, based in New Jersey, Bashkin says times of crisis only intensify a person's leadership style.
"The perception of inescapable fear, such as COVID-19, will amplify a CEO's behaviour – so untrusting CEOs become less trusting (as a way to relieve anxiety) and more mature, trusting CEOs become more trusting," he says.
Loosening the reins
As an example, Bashkin points to a recent client – a CEO who clashed with his head of procurement.
The CEO had a long running dispute with the head of procurement, accusing him of having a negative attitude and of letting quality slip. Then the pandemic hit and remote working only made the conflict worse.
The CEO's solution was to monitor the head's computer activity closely. If that didn't work, he'd simply fire him.
Luckily, a conversation with Bashkin helped the CEO realise the problem was his own trust issues. So the CEO gave the head of procurement more freedom to do his job without interference, and the problems disappeared almost overnight.
Output over input
That's because staff realise when they aren't trusted by their manager, and close monitoring can be demotivating.
"If employees feel their manager is looking over their shoulder at every moment, trust goes out the window immediately," says Corporate Rebels' Pim de Morree.
He thinks surveillance software is 'micro-management gone wild.'
"Apparently, employers don't feel the staff they hired are capable of doing a job without them tracking their activities," he says. "It's the workplace equivalent of a prisoner's ankle bracelet."
Instead of focusing on how work gets done, he says the real measure of productivity is what gets done.
"Figuring out how to measure that is the real problem to solve," de Moree says.
Legal barriers
However, not all surveillance stems from mistrust or control issues.
There are vital reasons for monitoring staff computer use, like protecting networks from malware or other viruses.
In fact, some companies are required to track employee activities to meet legal obligations. The key to doing it well is transparency.
Employers should let employees know what information they collect and why, says Ashwin Krishnan, tech ethicist and COO of UberKnowledge.
He advises companies to explain staff monitoring "not in legalese terms, but in actual terms of what this means for [the employee]."
He says companies need a clear ethics and privacy policy for data ownership – like how long it's held and what happens when it isn't needed anymore.
"When employees can see the full extent of the responsibility and diligence shown by leaders, it breeds trust," says Krishnan.
Be empathetic
That said, it takes more than transparency to increase productivity, Krishnan says.
Remote staff are far more productive when they feel supported – especially in these unusual times.
"Suddenly, the employee's home life needs to become part of the manager's discovery process," he says.
"Not every employee may be willing to share this but letting them know that they have a supportive ear if they need it is crucial. [A]dapting previously scheduled work meetings (adjust timing, duration, frequency) to deal with this at-home reality shows empathy."
Such empathy can also help customers be more patient with a company's employees.
Kristy Knichel, CEO of Knichel Logistics, a shipping logistics company in Pennsylvania, recently wrote to customers explaining her team's new work situation.
Many of her staff are working remotely for the first time, and some even need company internet hotspots since they don't have Wi-Fi at home.
"We understand that our employees are accustomed to the ease of communicating with one another in person in the office, so this has been quite a change to adjust to," she writes.
"[O]ur team has made the transition smoothly and we hope that you have not experienced any disruption."
Destination, not the journey
It isn't easy to manage a remote team – especially during a pandemic.
It requires trust and empathy, while letting go of the need to control every employee move.
That's why the best way to improve productivity is following de Morree's advice and focus on what an employee delivers – whether in the office or not – instead of how they delivered it.
covid-19supply chain managementtechnology solutions


Created "by scientists for scientists", NEB is renowned for consistently providing exceptional product quality and unsurpassed technical support. For nearly four decades, NEB has been shaping the landscape of bioscience research by discovering, developing and supporting superior research reagents. In addition to NEB's commitment to scientific innovation and customer relations, NEB notably ensures the environmental sustainability of the company's business practices. Our passion is our promise.
A supplier-of-choice for scientists across the globe, NEB offers the largest selection of recombinant and native enzymes for genomic research. While restriction enzymes remain part of our core product portfolio, our ever-expanding catalog also includes products related to PCR, gene expression, cellular analysis, RNA analysis and epigenetics. Currently, NEB supplies over 276 restriction enzymes. These recombinant enzymes are available at a lower cost/unit and offer improved purity and lot-to-lot consistency. A recognized leader in the field of restriction enzymes, NEB has earned a world-wide reputation for setting the highest standards for quality and value.
The latest issue of Integrated DNA Technologies' (IDT's) DECODED newsletter highlights how New England Biolabs (NEB) researchers were able to expedite the cloning of a 2.1 kb gene into a linearized pET21-a bacterial expression vector using 5 gBlocksTM Gene Fragments that spanned the entire 2.1 kb sequence. Cloning, sequencing, and characterization of protein activity took less than 4 days, shorter than necessary for a third party to synthesize the complete gene and provide a finished construct.


The student's immediate family must reside in the Rotorua District at the time of application.
Five awards will be based on academic achievement during 2017.
The other 15 awards will be assessed in terms of the applicant's leadership skills as well as their level of involvement in school, cultural and wider community activities.
All awardees will need to hold "University Entrance" and be enrolled to attend a New Zealand University as a full-time student in 2018.
Consideration of all awards will be based solely on the information contained in the application form.
No supporting documentation is required with the application.
Applications must be received by the Trust by 5.00PM, Thursday 30 November 2017.
The selection panel will determine the 20 successful applicants based on the information contained in the application form and NCEA results. In some instances, the panel may consider it necessary to interview some applicants. Should this situation arise, applicants will be informed in January 2018 (after NCEA results are available).
Applicants will be notified of the selection panel's decision by the end of January 2018.
The Trust reserves the right to reduce the number of Study Awards presented.
Each tertiary study award has a value of $2,000 per annum which will be paid in two instalments of $1,000 each – on 1 March and 1 July – during the term of the award.
All funding will be renewable, if academic progress is satisfactory, for a maximum period of four years.
Funding is only provided to assist students obtain their first tertiary qualification.
In the case where a student is undertaking a joint degree funding will be provided for a maximum term of four years.
Where a student is undertaking Honours then funding will only be provided for the period required for the primary qualification.
Students are able to hold other awards and scholarships in conjunction with the tertiary study award so long as the value of these other awards and scholarships does not exceed $10,000 per year. The Trust is to be notified of all such awards and scholarships.
Award recipients will be will be required to provide a summary of their academic results by the end of each year. Failure to provide this information will result in future funding being withheld. If unforeseen circumstances arise which prevent a recipient from achieving the expected academic results, the Trust should be informed of this.
The Trust reserves the right to publicly present the successful applicants with their awards, and to terminate any funding because of unsatisfactory conduct or progress on the part of the recipient.
Applications must be received at the Trust's office by 5.00 PM Thursday 30 November 2017.


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Home> Our work> Mental health
Continuing Healthcare
Strategic Review of Mental Health Recovery, Wellbeing and Employment Services
Kooth Online Counselling for young people
Mental Health Services Directory
Dermatology Advice and Guidance with a Photo
Proposed changes to Whitechapel Health and East One Health practices in Tower Hamlets
Accessing local GP services
INEL System Transformation
Tower Hamlets has a high prevalence of mental health problems. We have the fourth highest proportion of people with depression in London, as well as the fourth highest rates of patients presenting to their GP for the first time with symptoms of psychosis - a mental health condition that causes people to perceive or interpret things differently from those around them. Tower Hamlets also has the highest rates of psychosis in east London, according to GP registers.
In total, an estimated 30,000 adults in Tower Hamlets have symptoms of a common mental health problem - with around 15,900 people known to their GP to have depression, around 3,300 people known to have a serious mental illness, and around 1,150 people living with dementia.
Service use is also high. We have the second highest proportion of adults in London in touch with mental health services provided in hospitals and the third highest number of emergency hospital admissions for psychosis. However, if you are known to mental health services in Tower Hamlets, you are comparatively less likely to be admitted to hospital than in many other London boroughs.
We also have the highest prescribing rate for anti-psychotic medication in primary care, and the third highest prescription rate of anti-depressants in London.
Working together to promote mental health and wellbeing in our communities is a key priority for Tower Hamlets CCG. We want to prevent residents from developing more significant mental health problems, and make sure that when people do need them, mental health services are of the highest possible quality, proactively supporting people to recover.
We are fortunate in Tower Hamlets to be working with one of the few CQC rated "Excellent" mental health trusts, the East London NHS Foundation Trust (ELFT).
You can find out more about all of the mental health services available within Tower Hamlets here.
Key achievements:
In 2016/17 we have made good progress. Key achievements include:
Improved access to psychological therapies, together with improved recovery rates for those using services.
The development of psychological therapies for adults with an eating disorder, which has resulted in improved outcomes for patients.
Excellent dementia diagnosis rates (second in London), services and pathways.
For more information or to give feedback on any of the information on this page, please email us.
Talking Therapy Services in Tower Hamlets – preferred bidder announcement
After the recent procurement exercise, East London NHS Foundation Trust has been selected as preferred bidder by NHS Tower Hamlets CCG for Improving Access to Psychological Treatment and counselling services.
Small Grants for Mental Health User-Led Groups Tower Hamlets Grant Application for 2018-2020
Using technology to find out what young people think about mental health outcomes in Tower Hamlets
Find out about the new pilot utilising technology to engage young people who use mental health services.
Tower Hamlets Mental Health Strategy 2014/19 (0.94 MB)
Tower Hamlets Mental Health Joint Strategic Needs Assessment 1 - Population needs (3.45 MB)
Tower Hamlets Mental Health Joint Strategic Needs Assessment 2 - Facts and figures (4.86 MB)
Tower Hamlets Mental Health Joint Strategic Needs Assessment Part 3 - Recommendations (0.35 MB)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
B. V. Nandini Reddy is an Indian film director and screenwriter who works in Telugu cinema and television. She debuted with 2011 Telugu film, Ala Modalaindi.

Early life
Nandini Reddy was born in Hyderabad. Her father Bharath. V. Reddy was a Chartered accountant who is originally from Chittoor district, and is settled in Bangalore. Her mother Roopa Reddy is from the "Pingle" family hailing from Warangal district. Nandini has a younger brother named Uttam Reddy.

Reddy was educated at St. Ann's High School, Secunderabad, and earned a degree at Women's College, Koti. She also holds a master's degree in politic science from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. She was active in dramatics, elocution and cricket throughout her school and college years. She is also one of the judges in a Telugu reality TV show Adhurs.

Career
Reddy was introduced to Gangaraju Gunnam through a mutual friend and in 1995 she worked on his children's movie Little Soldiers as an Assistant Director. After that film was released, cinematographer Rasool Ellore introduced her to Krishna Vamsi, who refused at the time to take her into his team. She was idle for a year before being offered work on the Kannada film Santhi Santhi Santhi. Actress Ramya Krishnan then persuaded Vamsi to take her for his next project, Chandralekha. She became an integral part of Vamsi's team up to and including the filming of Shakti, a Hindi remake of Anthahpuram.

Vamsi sent Reddy to Daggubati Suresh Babu, with whom she has worked for Suresh Productions.

in 2019, she directed her fourth film Oh! Baby, starring Samantha Akkineni. Produced by People's Media Productions and Guru Films along with Suresh Productions, this is the second time Samantha and Reddy worked together.

Filmography

Film

Television

Awards
 Nandi Award for Best First Film of a Director (2010) for Ala Modalaindi
 Nominated – Filmfare Award for Best Director – Telugu for Ala Modalaindi
 Hyderabad Times Film Awards 2011 – Best Screenplay for Ala Modalaindi.
SIIMA Award for Best Debut Director (Telugu) [2011] for Ala Modalaindi.
 Nominated - SIIMA Award for Best Director - Telugu for Oh! Baby

References

External links

Film directors from Hyderabad, India
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
Telugu film directors
Indian women film directors
21st-century Indian film directors
21st-century Indian women artists
Jawaharlal Nehru University alumni
Women artists from Andhra Pradesh

Nandi Award winners
South Indian International Movie Awards winners

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
JSR looking to China for further growth
UK - In a bold move JSR has appointed a new Worldwide Development Manager, Jeff Shi, based in Shanghai and responsible for developing the Chinese market.
By: 5m Publishing
Commenting on his appointment Tim Rymer, JSR Chairman said "We are delighted to have secured the services of a very experienced international industry specialist. As we have experienced in Russia there is a big demand for high quality UK stock and expertise and we intend to build on our market leading commitment to the UK by growing JSR Genetics business in China".
Jeff Shi, a pig consultant for the past 26 years and latterly with PIC, is enthusiastic about the opportunities represented by the Chinese market. Although accounting for the largest population of sows in the world at 50million, Jeff is quick to point out that only 20% of these are "western" breeds and that infrastructure and logistics will play a large part in initial developments. "We have teamed up with a local partner, who is well established in the country, to develop integrated supply chains to supply an already rationalized processing sector. We can demonstrate the higher lean meat content of our carcasses and this will drive added value to producers"
Grant Walling JSR Research and Development Director is enthusiastic about the opportunities to further strengthen JSR's R&D programme "Our R&D research programme will continue to expand here in the UK but now be strengthened through working with producers and processors from key markets around the world. We are entering a new phase of globalization and JSR will be at the forefront, bringing benefits to producers around the world"
ThePigSite News Desk
5m Publishing


This reimagined home has loads of charm! With so many new features including marble, tile, and hardwood this home is a modern marvel that preserves its charming demeanor. Welcome home!
This home has a dream kitchen with every upgrade, Including high-end Kitchen Aid appliances!
A fully finished basement with above grade finishes, and daylight, egress windows, it puts the cherry on top!
Upgrades like a new roof, furnace, A/C, and a tankless hot water heater, make it truly move in ready.
The outdoors is complete with delightful landscape, a huge, private patio, and a one car garage.
Finishes and amenities, usually reserved for luxury properties are now yours here! Walk to schools, parks, and shopping. Close to expressway access. This home is truly is one-of-a-kind.
Want to see this gorgeous home in person before everyone else?


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Believe It Or Not, This Guy Is The Legendary Voice Of The Kool-Aid Man
Great Big Story on YouTube
Voiceover artists are a special breed of people.
Not everyone has the ability to choose a career path that solely rewards them for using their vocal cords.
This edition of "so that's the guy who does that voice?!" gives us a rare look at the legendary vocals behind the Kool-Aid man. Meet Frank Simms, an actor and singer who was the voice for that giant red pitcher of fruit juice for 15 years.
In a recent video uploaded to Facebook by Great Big Story, Simms reveals that he's been the voice of the iconic wall-crushing pitcher for over a decade. From the deepness of the voice, to the memorable phrase "oh, yeah," Simms then proceeds to explain how the voice of the Kool-Aid man actually came about.
The video's description reads,
Remember the wall-crushing Kool - Aid ads that interrupted your cartoons? Mixing equal parts Van Halen and Barry White, Frank Simms crafted the voice that became the key ingredient of the infamously sugary drink.
According to Huffington Post, Frank Simms also voiced commercials for Honeycomb Cereal as well as background vocals for music industry icons Billy Joel, Madonna and David Bowie.
You learn something new every day!
Check out the video above for a closer look.
Elite Daily on YouTube
Citations: Oh Yeaaaaah! Meet The Voice Of The Kool-Aid Man (Huffington Post)


I take Searle's Chinese room argument, the Turing test and Wittgenstein's Tractatus to be demonstrations of how pragmatically limited are questions about consciousness, reality, freedom, thought, intent, etc…One can argue to a multiverse of endless noumena and still get run over by a bus.
I'm thinking all definitions are quite circular. In the way a circle is. That is, circularly circular.
Are space and time the constant and unchanging building blocks of reality (or experience) that Newton (or Kant) thought they were? Experimentally it was discovered that the measured speed of light (C) is a constant no matter how fast the observer is traveling. Einstein realized that if this is indeed true, then our normal idea of the constancy of time and space must be re-evaluated. Because if speed is distance/time and the speed of light cannot change then something about distance and/or time must be changing, to explain the fact that one can never "catch up" to a ray of light (because to catch up to it would mean that its relative speed could change – but this is impossible based on observations). Additionally if nothing can ever catch up to or exceed the speed of light, then gravity thought of as an instantaneously acting force must also be re-evaluated. Gravity cannot be thought of as something that depends only on distance and mass, as Newton had suggested in his famous equation FG = GmM/r2. This is so in part because gravity as an event must be made consistent with the experimentally observed constancy of the speed of light and in part because the distance that Newton put into his equation is no longer the constant he assumed it to be. Moreover another consequence of the constancy of C is that masses also change in response to motion. One of the reasons we can't ever exceed the speed of light is that as masses accelerate, they become more massive, causing resistance to further acceleration. As a result, one can approach the speed limit, but never achieve it. The consequence of all of Einstein's ruminations is that we now think of C as constant and space and time as malleable.
The more I learn about science, the more it looks like religion.
I think of ethical principles along a spectrum running from empiricist to rationalist tendencies. On the one hand the empirical argument starts from an assumption that morality is a fiction better left largely untouched by the collective. The role of government or society is mainly to make sure the streets are paved and (mostly) free of bloodshed. The rationalist argument would be that morality, even if a fiction, is a useful one that keeps us not just civil, but healthy. Healthy because we are reaching for something greater than ourselves, even if it is a fiction. Of course, many authors neatly dance between the poles of this false dichotomy. The question comes down to this: are you an empiricist or a rationalist? Both or neither?
One significant problem we seem to face in the 2500 year old modern world is that of signal pollution. The self, being a contingent event, is increasingly scattered across the increasingly heterogeneous range of cues that make up contemporary existence. And being nothing but a set of responses to those cues, it naturally becomes more and more heterogeneous with them. At a certain point the signal sinks below our ability to detect it. Noise overwhelms signal. We ourselves are lost.
Does the rain lament a rainy day? Does the mountain feel its own weight? Do you judge yourself for being yourself?


text:
Security 'specialists' and Open Borders activists argue that Trump is doing TOO MUCH vetting of refugees
They claim the Trump Administration is intentionally slowing the arrival of refugees destined for your towns and cities by TOO MUCH security screening.
See my two previous posts this morning: Comey said (as recently as May 2017) that 300 refugees were being investigated for possible terror connections, here, and Trump's FBI (Department of Justice) has instituted more rigorous screening, here.
But, the Open Borders Left is screaming bloody murder saying that the few refugee terrorists they know of don't warrant extra screening measures being put in place primarily by the FBI.
Just a few we know of….circled is Uzbek Islamist and convicted terrorist who tried to kill a California prison warden in 2016. I will bet he isn't even on the Leftists' radar screen! https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2018/08/18/uzbek-refugee-sentenced-to-additional-20-years-in-prison-for-attempted-murder/
Here is NBC's headline from last week:
Trump admin intentionally slowing FBI vetting of refugees, ex-officials say
Former officials, aid groups say the Trump admin has overloaded the FBI and other agencies with procedures that delay refugee admissions.
The FBI has dramatically slowed the pace of security reviews for refugees in recent months, which former Trump administration officials and human rights advocates say is part of an intentional bid by White House hardliners to restrict the number of refugees allowed in the U.S.
Former officials and aid organizations say the administration has overloaded the FBI and other government agencies with an array of procedures that have weighed down the bureaucracy and effectively delayed refugee admissions.
"It's a precipitous decline," said one former official who worked on refugee issues before leaving government earlier this year.
Refugee admissions have plunged to historic lows. The U.S. is on track to admit only about 20,000 – 21,000 refugees by the end of September, far below a ceiling set at 45,000 by administration officials last year. That cap itself was lower than any set by a U.S. president since the current refugee program was created in 1980.
Obama's screening missed these two Iraqi terrorists in the refugee flow. From ABC News: https://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/exclusive-terror-worry-rises-al-qaeda-found-kentucky-20958004
The delays in security screening coincide with an intense debate inside the administration over how many refugees should be permitted to enter the country next fiscal year, with political appointees pushing for an unprecedented brake on refugee admissions.
The FBI screening mainly involves sifting through databases to check if the refugee applicant has no links to extremists. On some days, the FBI has managed to review only a handful of cases, creating a bottleneck in the processing of refugee applications, humanitarian workers and two former officials who served under President Donald Trump told NBC News. [So who are the former officials too chicken to go on the record?—ed]
Administration officials insisted the FBI is not dragging its feet. The bureau is merely following new procedures that require checks of additional databases to weed out any potential terrorists, they said.
The FBI is one of several agencies involved in vetting refugees seeking to come to the United States, starting with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and including the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security.
Security 'specialist' Greenberg: Move along nothing to see! Only 11 refugees linked to ISIS! How many linked to Al-Qaeda, or Al-Shabab? http://library.fora.tv/speaker/11586/Karen_Greenberg
"There is no evidence of a significant threat from refugees as a group," said Karen Greenberg, director of the Center on National Security at Fordham University Law School.
Of 175 cases prosecuted in the U.S. against ISIS supporters, she said, 11 were refugees or had received asylum status.
Nicholas Rasmussen, head of the National Counterterrorism Center until December 2017, said that refugees were overshadowed by more serious terrorist dangers during his time in office.
"While terrorist organizations sometimes mused about the idea of using refugee and other immigration programs to try and move people into the United States, it was our assessment that this was actually quite difficult for them." [What about the 300 cases Comey was looking at?—ed]
"While there is some degree of risk that we assume with any category of immigrants, our recent experience has not shown that the refugee population presents a particular threat from a terrorism perspective," Rasmussen told NBC News.
Rasmussen was an Obama appointee replaced by Donald Trump.
In recent policy discussions at the White House, officials arguing for a lower refugee cap have cited three incidents as evidence of the purported threat posed by refugees.
One involves an Ethiopian refugee in Virginia who did not disclose his role in persecuting Ethiopians for their political opinions. Another featured an Iraqi refugee arrested in California based on an Iraqi court warrant alleging he was an ISIS killer. Another Iraqi refugee was accused of shooting a police officer in Colorado Springs, though not fatally. All of these occurred this month. [We told you about the three recent cases, you can find those in my 'crimes category' here.—-ed]
However, former officials say that in the two cases involving Iraqis, additional security procedures were introduced under the Obama administration that would have prevented those individuals from entering the country.
What the hell are they talking about!
Only as a result of the two Iraqi terrorists (found in KY) did the Obama Administration step up screening! Those two were after all, refugees who came in during Obama's tenure. The latest two Iraqis (alleged terrorist and cop shooter) did come in during the Obama Admin as well, so how does he now get brownie-points for stepped-up screening.
In 2011 and 2012, thousands of Iraqis were re-screened resulting in a slowdown of Iraqis entering the US and not one media outlet was screeching about Obama's increased screening!
Obama=good. Trump=bad (no matter what the issue!).
More here. And, don't miss the obligatory hit on Stephen Miller!
What you must do!
Contact the White House and tell the President that you want MORE SCREENING (not less!) of refugees coming in to live next door to you!
Posted in Changing the way we live, Colonization, Community destabilization, Crimes, diversity's dark side, Immigration fraud, Iraqi refugees, Muslim refugees, Obama, Reforms needed, Refugee Resettlement Program, The Opposition, Trump, What you can do Donald TrumpFBIIraqi terrorists
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Scorodocarpus (family Olacaceae) A monotypic genus, comprising S. borneensis, a rain-forest tree which produces a hard timber suitable for construction. It is notable for the powerful reek of garlic from all its parts, sometimes at 20 m distance without the tissues having been damaged. It occurs in Sumatra, Malaya, and Borneo.
"Scorodocarpus." A Dictionary of Plant Sciences. . Encyclopedia.com. 20 Apr. 2019 <https://www.encyclopedia.com>.


text:
Sea Cruise & Retreat
Tour 2019-20
Book Tajci
Holy Week Reflections
Tajci.net
We are dedicated to develop, organize and perform highly artistic music recordings and live events which can inspire individuals to seek a deeper spiritual life.
Tajci and her husband Matthew Cameron created "I do Believe" ministries soon after they got married in 1999.
"I am passionate about providing content that moves us from being stuck in someone else's dream and encourages us to live the life we are created for. Because only awaken to our joyful and purposeful self, we can serve and bring a positive change into our world." – Tajči
"I studied politics and economics in order to do my part in affecting the world, and then when I was done with College, I realized music and film do a much better job on changing hearts."
"As pastor of two different parishes (Sacred Heart in Annawan, IL. (2005) and St. Mary's in Westville, IL. (2008) I can attest that my parishes both were spiritually uplifted and greatly blessed by Tajči. Her professionalism and more importantly, her spirituality, has left an indelible fondness for her family and for her mission of spreading the love of God, in Jesus Christ. If you have not yet had a "Tajči experience," do so for the good of your parish and of your soul."
— Fr. Timothy Sauppé, St. Mary's Catholic Church, Westville, IL.
"Tajči expresses with her God given talents a true sense of the Spirit working within her. Tajči and Matthew are truly a light in the world as examples of good parents and a committed marriage in a world that desperately needs positive models."
— Fr. William Cocco Diocese of Wilmington Delaware.
TAJČI (TATIANA) CAMERON
(Tajci is pronounced TIE-Chi)
Award-winning music artist, singer/ songwriter, inspirational speaker, coach, mom of three boys. Websites: WakingUpRevolution.com and Tajci.net
Tatiana "Tajci" Cameron is an award-winning music artist and former Eurovision Song Contest finalist who was a pop superstar by the time she was 19. A native of Croatia (formerly Yugoslavia), she achieved platinum status while selling more than a million records and packing sold-out venues for many of her performances.
As a teen sensation and into her 20s, Tajci graced the covers of many magazines and other publications, and landed major endorsement deals with the likes of Levi's. A "Tajci doll," made in her likeness and emblematic of her enduring appeal, remains a treasured collector's item among her many devoted fans around the world.
At the height of her fame and career, Tajci in 1992, at age 21, abruptly stepped out of the limelight and left behind her European celebrity to come to New York City and start her life over, looking to carve out and live her own version of the American Dream.
In America, she has performed in theatre and cabaret houses in New York City and Los Angeles; composed, produced and toured extensively with original narrative shows; founded a children's theatre in Cincinnati, Ohio; wrote and launched a full-length musical, "My Perfectly Beautiful Life"; and produced and hosted the TV show "Waking Up in America," with about 100 episodes having been produced and aired.
A graduate of American Musical and Dramatic Academy, Tajci has continued to perform, demonstrating her versatile musical ability through a variety of genres, to include pop, jazz, country and spiritual. Soon after getting married in 1999, Tajci, along with her husband Matthew, embarked on what turned into a 15-year tour of America, during which she performed more than 1,000 "I Do Believe" concerts (featured also on all major faith TV channels). Along the way she gave birth to three sons – each of whom has ample experience in various arts, to include music – while living, in succession, in Los Angeles, Cincinnati, and, most recently, Nashville.
Tajci often performs faith concerts and leads parish missions at Catholic churches across a multi-state region, including much of the Midwest and East Coast. She is well known to Catholic audiences through her powerful musical renditions of "The Crucifixion Story" and "The Story of Christmas," which are annually broadcast on major faith networks such as ETWN, TBN, and CatholicTV.
Tajci's most recent album, "Awaken," features an eclectic mix of music styles – gypsy jazz, indie pop, bluegrass fiddle and mandolin elements. She's also collaborated with local Nashville musical greats such as Bryan Lennox, Clay Walker, Scott Mulvahill (of Kentucky Thunder), Jeff Steinberg, Michael Alvey, John Alvey, and many more.
Tajci frequently performs at various festivals and church events around America, crisscrossing much of the country as a solo act, or with a band. Her show "Waking Up In America: Those Were the Days" was recently added to the impressive artist's roster of Live On Stage, Inc. In addition to singing, Tajci plays keyboards, guitar and accordion.
The multi-talented Tajci is also a certified life coach, who recently launched her "Five Steps to Transformation" online course. She also is a writer and author who has had four books published – "Turning Points," "25 Gifts for Christmas," "Be a Rock Star of Transformation," and "George," the latter a four-color children's book featuring illustrations drawn by her oldest son Dante when he was five years old.
Tajci is a former blogger for huffingtonpost.com and continues to write a weekly newsletter that mixes life-coaching strategies and her personal experiences, and which is distributed to thousands of her loyal fans. She is currently working on two other books – an inspirational memoir as well as an autobiographical songbook showcasing her musical roots.
When she's not on the road singing or speaking, Tajci volunteers with Better Decisions, mentoring female inmates at the state prison in Nashville. Tajci also serves as a board member of Nashville Peacemakers, an organization that works with at-risk youth in Nashville's low-income neighborhoods, and she volunteers as a presenter with EndSlaveryTN, which raises awareness of human trafficking while working toward preventing it and providing healing for those affected by it.
Tajci, whose husband Matthew passed away in 2017, lives in Franklin, Tennessee, with their three sons.
Receive weekly inspirations and special announcements
Email: tajci.official@gmail.com Phone: 818-782-0740 2020 Fieldstone Parkway, Suite 900-249 Franklin TN 37069


Kudos to Ideajuice Studios for winning Best Film of 2013. Their film A Dicey Deal will go on to represent Machinima against all the other city winners around the world at Filmapalooza 2014.
Line: "You just don't get it, do you?"