Verian BLOG
$820,000 for a Las Vegas Conference – no hookers included?
May 16th, 2012 | No Comments
The news is covering two stories right now that are all too painful reminders that some government entities have an extremely hard time managing spending. We are referring, of course, to the GSA and Secret Service scandals. The details of how thoroughly the Secret Service and military explore the local brothels on advance trips, and [...]
Read the rest of this entry »That Time of the Month
February 7th, 2012 | No Comments
It’s an uncomfortable topic, but I think people need to talk about it. There are some people who become irritable, demanding, and yes – somewhat emotional, for about a week at the same time very month. Sometimes their physical demeanor changes, they look tired, break out and sometimes appear flush in the face. They are [...]
Read the rest of this entry »What a Mother-in-Law and Legal Spend Have in Common
January 13th, 2012 | No Comments
As I sit down after the holidays to write about services spend, in-laws come to mind. Managing services spend is a lot like dealing with in-laws – complicated. For example, dealing with the alienated cousin is pretty easy, like consolidating spend on contingent general labor. However, saying no to a mother-in-law is like suggesting the [...]
Read the rest of this entry »Demystifying the Cloud Panacea
January 2nd, 2012 | No Comments
Although many would have you believe otherwise, the cloud cannot create world peace. It can’t end hunger, lower taxes, or make your coffee taste better. Although these specific claims haven’t been attributed to the cloud just yet, the cloud has been so exaggerated and misunderstood that the average organization isn’t really sure of what the [...]
Read the rest of this entry »Five Gift Ideas for Your IT Department
December 20th, 2011 | No Comments
No internal department is harder to buy for than IT. Because of highly technical specifications, countless requirements, and a trove of IT-specific vendors, many organizations essentially get their IT department’s wish list, cut it by 10%, and let them buy what they need on their own. We know this is a bad idea, but we [...]
Read the rest of this entry »Seven Ways to Reduce One Widely-Overlooked Cost
November 28th, 2011 | No Comments
Every holiday season, I think about years ago when I sent personalized coffee mugs to all our customers – convinced it was a great way to keep our brand top-of-mind (and top-of-morning). A week later, I got a call from a large customer who I also considered a close friend. I eagerly picked up the [...]
Read the rest of this entry »Latest Verian Cloud Release Provides World-Class Time-to-Value
November 10th, 2011 | No Comments
Charlotte, N.C. – November 10, 2011 – Verian announced details today around version 10.6 of its suite of purchasing and invoice processing systems. Recently ranked by Gartner as a top 5 purchase-to-pay vendor in time-to-value, Verian has made it even faster and easier for customers to start getting returns from their investment. Using intelligent data [...]
Read the rest of this entry »Could You Dodge 14,000 Bullets?
October 6th, 2011 | No Comments
My bet is some people at Fort Bragg can’t. Fort Bragg recently announced that 14,000 rounds of ammunition for M-4 and M-16 assault rifles went missing. After a base lockdown and thorough search, investigators came up empty handed. Under the guise of national security, I am sure we will never know what happened. However, I do [...]
Read the rest of this entry »The New CSI (Cost Savings Investigators) Part II: Analyzing the Evidence and Cracking the Case
September 29th, 2011 | No Comments
In part one, we reviewed what ‘evidence’ you should collect for proper spend analysis. With that in hand, let’s review the next steps to crack the case (and reduce maverick spending). Use the spending evidence you’ve collected to gain a thorough understanding of the following: Analysis of suppliers paid Identification of the number of preferred [...]
Read the rest of this entry »The New CSI (Cost Savings Investigators) Part I: Getting Good Crime Scene Data
August 17th, 2011 | No Comments
I have been watching CSI: Crime Scene Investigation since it first aired in 2000. Each episode is a study in procedure, strategy and deep analysis. It’s a fascinating show and no surprise that it ranks number 3 in DVR playback (3.07 million viewers). I was watching an old episode last week when a thought occurred [...]
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