The tragedy of conflict minerals will continue to gain public awareness, and many organisations that purchase goods, like computers, are starting to put conflict-free procurement policies in place.
Many are already leading the way in sweat-free procurement policies.
Anti-sweatshop advocates are stunned by progressive San Francisco's granting to garment contractors five-year exemptions from the city's historic "sweat-free" procurement ordinance.
When cloud-based applications take on many of the function's day-to-day tactical activities, they free up procurement professionals to focus on strategic priorities such as strengthening supply chain resilience, safeguarding the brand from third-party risk, and cultivating new sources of innovation.
But perhaps the greatest advantage from digital networks is that they free up procurement professionals from tedious, manual processes — sorting through paper invoices, tallying up payment histories, etc. — and instead permit them to focus on strategic activities, such as shoring up supplier relationships, driving down costs, and securing shareholder value.
They're also great at marketing, having recently invited any federal, state and local government agency to use Coupa e-Procurement free of charge for six months in order to help them establish control over inefficient procurement practices.
He wants to be freed of state procurement rules and shed some of the state's costly and byzantine civil service rules.
Ealing's McLester points to further benefits, including collaborative procurement and free services for suppliers.
Countries that have not signed the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement are free to pursue discriminatory policies.
Of the plan announced yesterday, Lawrence G. Reuter, the president of New York City Transit, said, "We believe this to be the largest contract in the free world for subway procurement".
