Is Supply Excellence Going To Call It A Day?

If you've been watching the blogs in the procurement space, you've likely noticed that the once-religious daily posting that had been happening at Supply Excellence had started to slow down noticeably. In fact, last month, Jason Busch at Spend Matters went as far as pondering "And what of Supply Excellence? Is it time to bury Ariba's final ode to supply management as they double-down in other marketing and category-rich content areas?"

While I personally hoped that Supply Excellence was just taking one of the common "pauses" that bloggers take - it is difficult to come up with new material daily and, with any self-respect, a good blogger would rather post nothing rather than something useless - it appears now that Ariba is seriously considering closing the curtain on Supply Excellence. In a post launched earlier this month, Ariba is seeking feedback on whether or not Supply Excellence should continue to exist in the shadow of their new community that I reported on last year: Ariba Exchange.

Ariba's Online Community Manager, Justin Fogarty, writes: "It’s important to ask if a stand alone blog is still the best way to harness the collective knowledge of a group...I can truly say that the goals [of Ariba Exchange] - facilitating communication and collaboration - overlap with the original objectives of Supply Excellence. However, from an engagement standpoint, we believe the tools, scale and egalitarian playing field of Ariba Exchange better leverages the collective expertise of our customers and subject matter experts."

In closing, Justin asks "Is a blog still an effective platform for addressing spend management questions?" Clearly, Ariba feels that a blog isn't giving them the bang for the buck that they need to continue Supply Excellence and they are probably seeking feedback just in case someone has something to say that makes them realize a mistake before it is made.

So if you feel strongly one way or the other about the continuation of Supply Excellence, I encourage you to read the "should we bother?" post and share your feedback.

My prediction? Ariba has made up its mind and Supply Excellence will never be a daily blog again and will be pretty much abandoned save for perhaps teasers for their lead generation content.

There are only so many resources an organization can spend on connecting with current and prospective clients and Ariba Exchange is so impressive, I can't see Ariba not putting the pedal-to-the-metal to make it everything it has the potential to be.

I may be right. I may be wrong. Time will tell.

To Your Career,
Charles Dominick, SPSM
President & Chief Procurement Officer
Next Level Purchasing, Inc.
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