Analyst Insight: Supplier relationships and the management of them are critical to business. The strength of the relationship is two vs. one, transparency, collaboration and innovation. Real value is extracted when buyers and suppliers work together. Not surprisingly, businesses focused on supplier relationship management (SRM) lead their peers five to one in terms of value derived from their supply base. - Mickey North Rizza, VP of Strategic Services, BravoSolution

Analyst Insight: Today's strategies for managing suppliers are incomplete. Too much emphasis has been placed on using power to gain leverage over suppliers. But this strategy doesn't work in every situation and care has to be taken to architect the right kind of relationship. Power stymies the development of truly collaborative and strategic relationships. These relationships can produce outcomes well beyond what one firm can do by itself. - Karl B. Manrodt, Professor of Logistics and Supply Chain Management, Georgia College & State University

After years of historically low interest rates, the Federal Reserve has started to execute on its strategy to raise rates. As a result, procurement teams will need to scrub their policies and plans to find interest rate sensitivities in a way they haven't in almost a decade.