Devoted to purchasing, purchasing agents, and all things related

Buyers have the expertise to manage the whole sourcing process, but the explosion of technology means that now, more than ever, they have to partner with their end users who have specific commodity knowledge.

I was inspired today to write about this topic today by this KMM post from Brandon Hopkins of BizToolBelt.

I saw the title and thought, "I know what GPS is.  Then I read on, and thought, "I could use some assistance interpreting the details in here."

I didn't know the following terms:  OGG, DMB TV Tuner, and MP4.  Of course the DMB one tells me it is about TV so I assume it is software to get TV stations on the hand-held device and MP4 I assume is something close to MP3, but there is no context for OGG so I am out of luck completely with that one.

After I write this, a quick trip to Google will help me out, but what if these items were requirements for hardware devices that I had to help purchase?  I would have to rely on the end user - the subject matter expert to help me craft the requirements for the RFP. 

As I worked through the Sourcing process for the items, I would learn more about them.  That is one of the most interesting parts of Purchasing as a career field.  You get to learn about many areas that you otherwise would not come across.  You also get to learn from knowledgeable end users who are experts in their own fields.