Supply Chain News
Read the latest supply chain developments at Next Level Purchasing
- New Enhanced Website for World's Largest Procurement Association
- New Procurement Book Revolutionizes Learning For Supply Chain Leaders
- Next Level Purchasing Earns Ethical Business Award
- New Express Courses! Secrets of Painless Services Contracting Series
- New Express Course! 15 Rules for Ethical Supplier Interaction
- Next Level Purchasing Association
- New Courses! Finance For Strategic Procurement Series
New Enhanced Website for World's Largest Procurement Association
Pittsburgh, PA - January 3, 2012 - The world's largest professional purchasing association now has an exciting and easier to navigate website. The Next Level Purchasing Association launched the new design on December 29, 2011 and the site continues to be the "go-to" resource for purchasing professionals with its growing collection of 246 articles, 17 online classes, and numerous other reports and whitepapers.
With the launch of a new design, the Next Level Purchasing Association website also offers several new value-added resources including Procurement Preschool, a collection of educational videos featuring grade-school "professors" teaching definitions of many common procurement terms, and new on-site seminar options including "Negotiation For Executives: Becoming The Bargaining Secret Weapon" and "How To Implement A Stellar Strategic Sourcing Process."
At the request of several members, a "Procurement Books" section has also been added to the association's website. The section currently spotlights "The Procurement Game Plan: Winning Strategies and Techniques for Supply Management Professionals" which was recently released and co-authored by Next Level Purchasing Association founder Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2 and Dr. Soheila Lunney, SPSM.
"Our investment in our enhanced web design and new offerings represent a continuing commitment to bring the highest level of value to the procurement professionals throughout the world that comprise our membership," said Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2 - the President and Founder of Next Level Purchasing, Inc. "The new design makes it easier to find the great free and for-fee resources we provide and gives us headroom to easily introduce more offerings that will benefit education-hungry procurement professionals."
The Next Level Purchasing Association's over 230,000 members can expect 2012 to bring many more new and exciting features, such as premium membership and corporate subscription options, available at www.NextLevelPurchasing.com.
New Procurement Book Revolutionizes Learning For Supply Chain Leaders
Pittsburgh, PA - January 3, 2012 - While many of the procurement books out there are dry and often snooze-inducing, an exciting, new book released today has finally made learning how to implement procurement best practices fun. Next Level Purchasing founder Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2 and Dr. Soheila Lunney, SPSM, have co-authored, "The Procurement Game Plan: Winning Strategies and Techniques for Supply Management Professionals" - a fresh, innovative text that combines step-by-step procurement techniques with sports analogies for a reading experience that is as entertaining as it is educational.
Sure to become a go-to asset, "The Procurement Game Plan" encourages procurement leaders and practitioners to "take the ball" by offering an easy-to-follow game plan with strategies that can be implemented to improve supplier relations, achieve measurable cost savings, reduce risk, and attain operational efficiency. These strategies ultimately lead to improved margins and competitiveness for the organizations of the procurement leaders who implement them. "The Procurement Game Plan" is the guide that all procurement professionals need to take their performance to the next level.
"The Procurement Game Plan" has already begun receiving rave reviews from industry leaders, including R. Gregg Brandyberry, a Senior Advisor for A.T. Kearney Procurement and Analytic Solutions, who called the book "a purchasing classic, a tutorial that everyone will want to have close by," and Westinghouse Electric Company's CPO, Juan Molina, who dubbed the book "A candid and comprehensive look at how to succeed in procurement-a must read for procurement professionals and everyone from college graduates to CPOs."
"Dr. Lunney and I set out to provide procurement leaders with something that they were sorely missing - actionable strategies in a format that is both practical and enjoyable," said Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2 - the President and Founder of Next Level Purchasing, Inc. "I think we have accomplished that with 'The Procurement Game Plan' and we are looking forward to seeing the measurable benefits it brings to procurement organizations throughout the world."
"The Procurement Game Plan" is available directly from J. Ross Publishing at jrosspub.com or Amazon.com.
Next Level Purchasing Earns Ethical Business Award
Pittsburgh, PA - December 29, 2011 - Next Level Purchasing, Inc., a provider of online training & certification for purchasing professionals, has been awarded the 2011 Torch Award for Marketplace Ethics by the Better Business Bureau of Western Pennsylvania.
The BBB Torch Award program is open to all for-profit companies (accredited and non-accredited businesses) who are located in the 28 county service area of Western Pennsylvania. Companies were evaluated against criteria that included commitment to and demonstration of ethical practices in the marketplace; high standards of behavior toward customers, employees, suppliers, shareholders and the communities in which they do business; long-term value of ethics policies to shareholders, customers and employees; and training and communications programs to assist employees in carrying out established ethics policies.
As a winner, Next Level Purchasing "clearly demonstrates superior character on a daily basis and consistently exceeds marketplace standards for ethics in its relationships with customers, employees, suppliers, industry peers and the communities in which it does business," said Warren King, President of the Better Business Bureau of Western Pennsylvania.
"Ethics and integrity is of paramount importance to Next Level Purchasing as we not only operate with high ethical standards, but our clients - mid-size and large businesses - trust us to teach their employees how to do business with their suppliers ethically and profitably," said Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2 - the President and Founder of Next Level Purchasing, Inc. "It is a true honor to win the Better Business Bureau's Torch Awards as there is no name more synonymous with business ethics than the BBB."
Among its many ethics-related initiatives, Next Level Purchasing released an Express Course in 2011, "15 Rules for Ethical Supplier Interaction," to help all clients' employees that interact with suppliers do so in a way that meets the highest standards for business ethics.
New Express Courses: Secrets of Painless Services Contracting Series
Are you prepared for the most unpleasant surprise of every procurement career? What is that surprise, you ask? It is learning how different - and how much more challenging - it is to purchase services compared to purchasing goods.
The truth is that many procurement professionals get blindsided by the unique challenges of services contracting. The services end up not being on time, or not performed to internal customers' expectations, or worse. And those procurement "professionals" end up looking like absolute amateurs to their organizations' senior management.
But there is good news! You don't have to let those services contracting surprises make you look clueless. You can quickly learn the valuable services contracting success techniques that have taken other procurement professionals decades to learn "the hard way." There are 20 secrets that effective services contracting professionals use and you can learn the first eight of them by taking our online Express Course "Secrets of Painless Services Contracting, Part I" and learn the remaining 12 secrets in "Secrets of Painless Services Contracting, Part 2."
New Express Course: 15 Rules for Ethical Supplier Interaction
WARNING! Could your interactions with suppliers be unethical without you even knowing it?
Whether you're a procurement professional who deals with suppliers constantly or you hold a business role (e.g., engineer, IT professional, administrative assistant, etc.) that requires only occasional supplier interaction, there are many potential ethical landmines waiting to explode and subsequently ruin your career. You may be aware of a few of these ethically-sensitive situations, but very few people are aware of all of the ethical traps that can get honest business people into bad situations.
The good news is that all of those ethical traps do not have to be a mystery anymore. You can identify those supplier interactions – even the subtle ones – that can cross the line between good ethics and poor ethics. You can confidently steer clear of those business situations that can get you into trouble. And you can gain the knowledge necessary to have a career that meets the highest standards for business ethics by taking our online Express Course "15 Rules For Ethical Supplier Interaction."
Next Level Purchasing Association
The Next Level Purchasing Association builds on the foundation of the Free Purchasing Resources Program. With the creation of the Next Level Purchasing Association, purchasing professionals can now network with hundreds of thousands of their purchasing peers from all over the world through the online discussion board, get the latest articles in our new online magazine Leading-Edge Supply Management, attend members-only webinars, and manage their purchasing educational and certification pursuits all in one place. Members will still receive the original components from the Free Purchasing Resources Program, including a copy of the latest Purchasing & Supply Management Career & Skills Report; a subscription to the biweekly email newsletter, PurchTips; and access to the Express Course "Managing Supplier Performance."
And the best part? All of these benefits are available with no fee!
To access the benefits of your membership, you will use your Username and Password to log into the Next Level Purchasing Association at http://www.NextLevelPurchasing.com/login.html. If you're not yet a member, you can sign up for free!
The Next Level Purchasing Association is all about giving purchasing professionals more value with no membership fee. Just for clarity, there will still be a fee associated with enrollment in our full-length and Express Courses and the SPSM and SPSM2 Certification Programs, but members are not obligated to enroll in those. Members can choose to simply enjoy just the free benefits if they wish!
New Courses! Finance for Strategic Procurement Series
Do you understand precisely how your procurement work impacts your organization's financial performance?o you understand how to use advanced financial principles in your procurement decision making? Is a lack of this understanding keeping you from earning the respect you deserve? After all, today's CEO's and CFO's expect procurement professionals to know how their work supports corporate goals, how to communicate in the language of finance, and how to make sound decisions with positive financial implications.
You can quickly learn all of the financial principles you need to know for success in procurement today.Our online, two-class Finance For Strategic Procurement Series will help you comprehensively understand how to apply financial principles in your daily procurement work for better workplace results.
The Finance For Strategic Procurement Series is divided into two parts. Part I focuses on understanding financial statements and measuring and communicating a procurement department's contribution to the organization. Part II focuses on how financial decisions are made and evaluating supplier health. You must complete Part I to be eligible to enroll in Part II.
You can get all of the finance knowledge you need for a successful career in procurement for just $359 (US) per student for the two-course series. If you prefer to enroll in just one class at a time, the cost is $209 (US) per student.
To learn more about Finance For Strategic Procurement, Part I, click here.
To learn more about Finance For Strategic Procurement, Part II, click here.
To sign up for one of the classes or the entire series, click here.
Next Level Purchasing Association
Next Level Purchasing Association
