Strategic Sourcing

Is Fleet Sovereign in a Corporate Structure?

Fleet is a department, not unlike human resources, legal, or accounting, and it interacts with all of these and others. But can fleet management stand alone within the corporate structure?

Procurement: How to Quantify Intangibles in Decision Making

For some time now, more fleet supplier decisions involve, or are even managed by, procurement or purchasing staff. The RFPs they generate focus on the quantifiable. Fleet managers know, however; that suppliers are set apart as much by intangibles. Here are some tips on quantifying these intangibles.

Differentiating Sourcing and Strategic Sourcing From Purchasing and Procurement

One challenge for fleet managers interacting with procurement professionals is understanding the nuances of procurement terminology. Many fleet managers believe the term “procurement” is synonymous with the term “sourcing,” but there are important distinctions between the two functions.

Traditional Procurement Incentive Plans Are Counter-Productive to Good Fleet Management

Management must develop remuneration policies and incentive plans encouraging procurement to cooperatively work with in-house fleet leadership to support attainment of larger strategic goals allowing fleet to cost-effectively fulfill its corporate mission.

Real-World Advice on How to Excel on a Fleet Sourcing Team

To be successful on a sourcing team, you need to be open-minded about exploring all available service channels and partners. However, open-minded doesn’t mean being open-headed. You must listen and entertain new ideas, but also temper such a practice and attitude with pragmatism and knowledge.

Why the Fleet Manager Should be the Gatekeeper to Procurement

The strategic procurement process typically involves a multifunctional sourcing team. This cross-functional team often designates a “gatekeeper” responsible for controlling the flow of information to the group. When selecting a fleet supplier, I strongly believe the fleet manager needs to be the gatekeeper. Here are the arguments supporting this assertion.

Encroachment Blurs Traditional Fleet Responsibilities at Multinational Fleets

Many interdepartmental and operational conflicts that intersect at fleet are typically driven by the challenge of balancing HR/driver requirements versus finance/procurement requirements, which are often at odds, with the gains in one area negatively impacting the other. And, the hard reality is not all department or operational managers are team players and, as a result, there are the inevitable interdepartmental (and personal) conflicts.

Procurement and Fleet Don't Speak the Same 'Language'

Until the emergence of strategic sourcing in the 1990s, procurement did not hold the same prominence within corporations as it does today. Nowadays, procurement plays a pivotal strategic role. Procurement is now the new engine of change in fleet management, which has resulted in dramatic changes in the fleet purchasing and supplier selection process.

Fleet Financials – How to Survive in a Procurement Environment

This article from a recent issue of Fleet Financials covers what fleet managers need to know when working with procurement professionals.

Looking Back Gives Us a Glimpse of What's Ahead

When you examine the seminal events of fleet management over the past 30 years, most were driven by changes in tax law, the introduction of governmental mandates,and adoption of new technologies. Looking to the future, we should probably expect more of the same.

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