Over the years, I have found myself writing articles around this time of year maligning the August slowdown in Europe while the entire continent vacations – often for up to a month (Imagine that Americans?). Last year however, I noticed no change in email and workload through the summer months concluding that COVID meant most were not taking vacations and remained at their home-based desk working. This year, however, I see a bit or a return to normal and after doing a couple of interviews with vendors this last couple of days, this is shared by them too. Euro summer vacations are plainly back! The sources I spoke to also noted that there has been a noticeable slowdown in procurement activity in the last couple of weeks. Despite that, many of the procurers out there are apparently targeting year end for implementation. That means any summer slow down will certainly tighten schedules because even assuming a 90-day implementation (most are significantly longer), if no selection is made until September, that deadline looks in serious jeopardy. If you assume that you can more of less write off December due to seasonal holidays, then the deadline looks undoable. Many of the deals… continue reading
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