Holiday-jolliday June

WELCOME!

Hi everyone, I'm a bit tardy with June's newsletter, mainly because I've been coming out of holiday mode, and been at a few events last week. In addition to that, I spent HOURS yesterday building this newsletter, only for the whole thing to have been lost. ??????

Anyhoo, onwards and upwards! I had THE most magical holiday in the Maldives, it was so refreshing and recharging, I could truly switch off in an amazing place. Just looking at these pictures is calming me down again....

It was also a big month for The Classification Guru Ltd as we hit SEVEN years in business! This is a huge achievement and I couldn't have done without a fantastic team behind me, including Laura Elizabeth Quelch and Michelle Henty . The rest of the team are social media shy....

But there was even bigger news than that, we have started teasing our tool Samification . It's been two and a half years in the making, and will be a self-service, on-demand Supplier Normalisation tool. And while technologically it's unremarkable (no sexy AI or GenAI), it's simply a combination of some automation, rules, code and input from over 30 years of experience in supplier normalisation. This will be a game changer for those who are spending hours, days or even weeks normalising their suppliers, they'll now have something in MINUTES!

If you want to register for updates, head to samification.com to sign up!

Little Susan has also been busy visiting many spots all over the world. Thanks to everyone who's been joining in the fun!

WHAT'S BEEN GOING ON?

P2P Transformation Summit in London

On the very day I flew out on holiday, I attended Purchase to Pay Network 's P2P Summit. It was a great event, I spoke to an audience about "Check Before Tech", and even got to meet the legend that is Tim Peake CMG . I couldn't quite persuade him to take Little Susan into space though...

DMWF, London

It was back from holiday and straight into action as I headed to DMWF in London. It was such a great event, I'm used to tech events with blue everywhere, but this was bright colourful and vibrant. Plus there was a massage booth AND a champagne bar. Definitely TCG approved!

But the main reason I was there was to sit on a panel: Translating Marketing Insights into Actionable Strategies. Hosted by Duncan MacRae , I was joined by Paula Ximena Mejia , and Sello Aglamaz . Turns out marketing data is just as dirty, but of course I knew that already....

Digital Business Summit, London

That same evening, it was then over to the swanky Royal Lancaster London for ISG (Information Services Group) 's Digital Business Summit.

It was a fantastic event with some great data insights into the market (more to come in future posts), and a fantastic all-women panel on Dismantling Gender Bias with Lois Coatney, Pal Bhusate Michelle Chivunga N and Helen Messer, sharing top tips on how to do this in a positive way, without any man-bashing. What I really loved about this session was it was a main session, so men and women alike were present in the audience. So often on these panels, the audience can be female-heavy, when really it's the men that need to hear the message. It was a positive step forward in my mind.

But the main reason I was there, was for another panel, this one on Data Mastery: Proactive Strategies for Modern Business Success with Susanta Dey, Michelle Chivunga N and Dr. Yaniv Naor Ph.D. We had a great discussion with lots of nodding heads in the audience.

WHAT'S COMING UP?

ProcureCon Europe, Barcelona

I'm really looking forward to ticking ProcureCon Europe Series off my bucket list, so get ready for THE?Procurement event?with some of Europe's leading thought leaders.?I'll be there chairing a track and covering the event as a media partner.

Get your 10% discount using code?PCMPTCG here.

SIG Global Executive Summit, Palm Springs

Then I'm SIG Global Executive Summit, Palm Springs

Then I'm ticking off another bucket list event at SIG|ORG , I'm heading to California to host a 2 x 90-minute workshops, running Dirty Data Clinics.

But it's even better than that, because I'll be running them alongside two other powerhouse women, Sarah Scudder - ITAM Nerd in Training and Amanda Prochaska . What a lineup!

Get your ticket here, or if you're a practitioner, DM me to find out about special access and free passes!

Housing Data & Analytics Summit, Nottingham

Later in the year, I'll be heading to Housemark's?Housing Data and Analytics Summit 2024, keynoting on The Dangers of Dirty Data. I'm very excited to be keynoting alongside Leon Gordon and looking forward to catching up!

Podcasts-a-plenty

Dual Source Discourse

I've been busy chatting away, as you'd expect, but I was very excited to appear on Sarah Scudder - ITAM Nerd in Training and Dr. Elouise Epstein ????? 's podcast last month.

I was asked about the controversies of using UNSPSC - why you shouldn't be using UNSPSC and why some teams feel they have no choice...

In my line of work, we are seeing a move towards more customised taxonomies in procurement. This is due to the lack of results from the taxonomy that is available the ERP. But, where do you start if you want a customised taxonomy and how you even know that's the best approach for you?

I give a refreshingly honest look on the ACTUAL capabilities of AI in Spend Analytics, strategies for managing and fixing Dirty Data, as well as, motivating encouragement for those who feel like they don't fit in.

Watch the whole episode and find the answers you're looking for....

Convergent IS

I had another great discussion with Shaun Syvertsen about all thing GenAI and procurement. It's all about PEOPLE ? PROCESS ? TECHNOLOGY.

WHAT ELSE?

A common error I see in digital transformations is neglecting to clean data before the transformation. I made this very cool video to highlight the problem:

I've also been sharing my experiences being a woman in business, a lot more goes on than you think and I think having a voice, it's important to amplify this and make everyone aware to keep the discussion going.

What have your experiences been?

Supporting Small Businesses

We're all about paying it forward here at TCG, and each month we want to help support other small businesses.? This month is highlighting our data buddies.

• Caroline Carruthers of Carruthers and Jackson
• Jez Clark of Eden Smith Group
• Christina Stathopoulos, MSc of Dare to Data

AND FINALLY

Don't forget your copy of Between the Spreadsheets!

Thanks to our good friends at Facet Publishing, we have a special code for you to get 20% off your next copy of Between the Spreadsheets! Use code DATA20 if you want to learn how to:

• Classify spend data
• Normalise suppliers
• Build a taxonomy
• Clean address data

Get it right here.

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