As both sides of the Atlantic continue to be bombarded with depressing statement after depressing statement AMR’s report on supply management technology spend brightened the mood somewhat yesterday.

After worrying reports from some of the world’s largest companies sent stocks plummeting for the third day in succession – much to the chagrin of the Federal Reserve, who have barely had time to give themselves a celebratory pat on the back after their huge interest rate cut – the news that companies are preparing to up their supply management spend by as much as 14 percent over the next 12 months suggests that things aren’t as bleak as many would have us believe.

Of course, given recent events this figure could decrease significantly in the not-too-distant future, but as Jason Busch quite rightly states in his spendmatters blog on the subject - “sometimes you've got to spend a little to save a lot.” Lets hope that sentiment still resonates when times get tough.

Anyone who has placed their details on a social networking site, and let’s face it that probably includes most of us, will know how frustrating it is to type your details in one place and then have to do likewise when you register for another site.

Social networking sites have revolutionised the way that many executives operate, and have certainly made the business world an invaluably smaller place. Now, after Yahoo - one of the Internet’s biggest players - last week announced that they would support the launch of OpenID (a scheme aimed at making information sharing across websites far easier), it seems that the era of data portability could soon be upon us.

The idea certainly has supporters in high places with Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the world wide web telling the Financial Times: “Each website they go to, [people] have to keep saying who their friends are. If instead they had a file of friends, the website would be able to just pick it up: this is me, these are my friends and colleagues, do the right thing.”

A workgroup looking into the iniative also has representation from some of the world’s largest social networking sites - Facebook and Plaxo among them. Yahoo’s move has already caused palpable excitement within the Internet and business community and could be one of the key trends seen on the web in 2008.

With our finger on the pulse as ever here at ELP, our own networking site for procurement professionals, ELP Connect, will be available to our network members soon, so watch this space.

Imagine, for a moment, that you're relaxing at home with a glass of wine watching the news when a feature about the child-labour strategies being employed by one of your suppliers gets transmitted to roughly a million people. Then, just for good measure, your own company gets mentioned as being one of its best customers.

What would you do? Would you be able to react swiftly and decisively?

It's roughly what happened to Tesco after the UK's Newsnight broadcast a piece on child labour being used to harvest cotton in Uzbekistan. The UK's largest retailer has now reacted to the news announcing a ban on all cotton sourced from Uzbekistan for its clothing, homeware and corporate purchases.

But it took three months to annouce the reaction. Is this too long or should corporates risk strategies be able to cope with situations such as these quicker and more decisively?

A recent study will make interesting reading for any procurement organisation pointing to its corporate responsibility credentials as a means of attracting and recruiting high quality candidates.

According to PR firm Hill & Knowlton, a company’s record on the environment (followed closely by issues such as corporate ethics, social responsibility and community involvement) came last in the factors that MBAs are using to select employers.

In a rather old-fashioned twist, career opportunities, corporate culture and working environment, and benefits came out on top, with employers who enabled their staff to maintain a healthy work life balance also getting the green light from prospective employees.

Just 34 per cent of the 527 MBA students placed the same importance on a company’s environmental or green policies, although - much to the delight of the green lobby closer to home – 42 per cent of respondents from Europe said they would turn down a job offer from a company with a poor record on the environment.

Stephen Greyser, a Harvard Business School professor of marketing and communication, summed up the report’s findings by saying: “What the company stands for is important, but only once salary and corporate culture have been addressed.”

The message from the MBA’s does though, appear to be clear – show us the money first, and let’s worry about the environment later.

Energy company EDF has become the second UK utility to increase energy prices. And this isn't any old price rise, but a whopping double-digit percentage increase. EDF joins nPower, which had earlier increased its prices by an even more whopping 17.9%.

With inflation-smashing price rises such as these (British Gas, E.On and Scottish Power will soon follow suit, according to analysts) an already delicate economy will surely take an even steeper dive. It underlines, and some would argue, supports, the government's committment to nuclear energy.

But a flailing economy isn't the only problem procurement professionals face from a roller coaster energy price graph. Just how many corporate buyers are energy specialists? If you haven't got good relationships with a few consultants in this area, now might be the right time to investigate...

Procurement and the U.N. have often made for uncomfortable bedfellows, but when the organisation trumpeted its reform of a system that had come under increasing scrutiny in recent years, it finally seemed that the days of scandal were at an end….or so we thought.

Now, an investigation by FOX News has revealed that a firm that was suspended from the United Nations Procurement Service list of authorised vendors in March 2007, still received over $2.1m from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

The reason? Well, according to UNDP officials, as they are a legally separate U.N. agency they are not bound to honour the Procurement Service sanction.

The irony – not lost on those unforgiving souls at FOX – is that the UNDP is the premier agency through which the U.N. operates in most of the 160 countries it currently services, and is a leading figure in the program known (rather unfortunately given the current circumstances) as “One U.N” – a scheme designed to rationalise the delivery and efficiency of U.N. services across the globe.

Italian firm, Corimec S.p.A., the company who sold the U.N. more than $30m worth of goods in 2006, were dropped by the organisation after being involved in a high profile corruption scandal.

However, documents obtained by FOX suggest that the ink was barely dry on the order to remove it from its list of vendors than the UNDP was considering using the company to fulfil an order from agency’s Pakistan office.

The news is likely to come as a devastating blow to the U.N., but clearly illustrates the procurement challenges facing such a vast organisations. This leopard, it seems, will need more time to convince a sceptical public that it has changed its spots.

To what extent is sustainability changing the way you operate?

As reported by ELP earlier this week, a study by Watchword Institute has claimed that climate change is changing the way the world does business. And with procurement at the forefront, sustainable procurement and supply chain practices are likely to come under increasing scrutiny in 2008 and beyond.

“Once regarded as irrelevant to economic activity, environmental problems are drastically rewriting the rules for business, investors, and consumers, affecting over £50bn in annual capital flows,” the report’s authors said at the launch of a study which is bound to receive considerable attention in the procurement world.

The report merely serves to confirm that environmental and ethical concerns are now permeating every aspect of the corporate agenda. With that in mind the next 12 months will doubtless see even greater emphasis placed on tackling the sustainability challenge.

Is your procurement operation ready for it?

The chaps over at TechCrunch (a site dedicated to the Silicon Valley startup scene) have happened upon a rather good definition of what new website Doubtsourcing refers to as Outsourcing 2.0. Check out the first couple of entries at the TechCrunch site.

Given the parlous financial state of UK prime minister Gordon Brown's public sector (he may not be chancellor anymore, but the responsibility remains at his door) it should come as no surprise that government departments are looking for greater efficiencies in procurement. Afterall bottom line savings will appeal greatly to departments responsible for expenditure which is measured in the billions.

The UK's NHS (the world's third largest employer after the Chinese Army and Indian Railways, by the way) is an obvious target with a budget of around £100bn. However, as this story from the Financial Times illustrates, brute force seems to be the tactic of choice. While seeking a 10% price cut for all prescription drugs could save hundreds of millions of pounds, squeezing suppliers using a one-size-fits-all approach is not the most imaginative strategy. One can't help but think it may come back to haunt the department.