ISM 2018 in Nashville, TN was a whirlwind of an event! Thousands of supply chain management professionals spent last week at the Institute for Supply Management’s annual conference, encompassed with 4 days of educational sessions, 2 days of intriguing vendor exhibitions, having hundreds of inspiring conversations, and building countless relationships. From speakers like Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post, to Dan Bartel, chief procurement officer at ABB, the conference was full of highly informative...

In contrast to direct procurement, indirect spend includes everything that goes into running a business that isn’t directly tied to the end product, such as maintenance, repairs, and operations (MRO), marketing, facilities, consumables, fleet, freight, travel and IT. Although it can make up as much as 50% of a company’s total purchases, it doesn’t often get the attention it should. The problem with ignoring indirect spend, however, is that you could be missing out on...