Narrator [00:00:04]:

Welcome to Supply Chain Now. The voice of global supply chain. Supply Chain Now focuses on the best in the business for our worldwide audience, the people, the technologies, the best practices. And today's critical issues, the challenges and opportunities. Stay tuned to hear from those making global business happen right here on Supply Chain Now.

Scott W. Luton [00:00:32]:

Hey, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you may be. Scott Luton here with you on Supply Chain Now. Welcome to today's show, folks. We've got a wonderful show here today. We're diving into the intersection of procurement and technology. It's quite a risk field environment out there in supply chain. You don't need me to tell you that cybersecurity threats abound. Artificial intelligence brings big, positive change, but also plenty of challenges to teams everywhere.

Scott W. Luton [00:00:58]:

And there's no shortage of other new, innovative technologies that plenty of organizations are trying to figure out, be it in procurement or other functional areas of the supply chain world. Folks, today we're going to be sharing critical insights and expertise for not only securing your company's infrastructure against a wide variety of threats that continue to evolve and multiply and a lot more, but we're also going to be sharing, been there, done that perspective and expertise on how to best position your organization's procurement strategy for success and a whole bunch more. And now I want to welcome in our panelist, Richard McVay, senior director, it telecom subject matter expert with OMNIA partners. Hey. Hey, Richard. How you doing?

Richard McVay [00:01:40]:

Hey, good afternoon. How are you?

Scott W. Luton [00:01:41]:

Scott, it is great. Great to see you. I've really. Hey, I've already learned a lot from our prep discussions. You're out there, got your finger on the pulse, move mountains and procurement elsewhere, especially from a technological perspective. So we've got a lot to learn here today. Richard, we're all here to talk not just procurement tech challenges, successes and a lot more, but we're also talking about a topic that is near and dear to our heart, barbecue. Barbecue.

Scott W. Luton [00:02:12]:

Richard, you were born and raised in Memphis, aka Bluff City, aka Grand City, home of the blues, all things that Memphis is known for, but it's also home to outstanding food, including barbecue. So the fun warm up question here today, Richard, build us that perfect plate of barbecue. And where do you get it from?

Richard McVay [00:02:32]:

Sure. You know, I like to say that barbecue can be, you know, smoked. Right. Anybody can smoke meat, but it's always about the fixings. Right. Using our southern terms here, it's about the size of. Right. It's the sauce, it's the slaw, it's the potato salad, it's the baked beans.

Richard McVay [00:02:50]:

Right. That combination makes your plate. I almost don't go to a place if they ask me if they want slaw on the sandwich, right. It just automatically comes on the sandwich. I know that's a preference for some, but, you know, you're always going up against them. My folks at Kansas City or in the Carolinas and Texas, they do their beef barbecue, right. Being in Nashville now, I literally sometimes make a day trip just to go to Leonard's barbecue in Memphis. That's my go to place.

Richard McVay [00:03:21]:

Elvis ate there many, many years ago. It was a feimid dime kind of place back in the. Back in the fifties that my parents grew up going to. And quite frankly, I went to when I had to have a booster seat. So it's been around that long. But there's lots and lots of places in Memphis, three little pigs, the Germantown commissary, there's just a lot of interstate barbecue. Those are just to name a few that you could visit.

Scott W. Luton [00:03:49]:

Richard, I love it. And you, you have hit a grand slam on this opening question. And to your point, Richard, that slaw, and most importantly, perhaps those hush puppies, those fried pieces of dough there. Oh, my gosh, that in and of itself is so delicious. And all of this is what I grew up in eating in Aiken County, South Carolina, called Carolina barbecue. So now, Richard, now that we are starving and we're probably gonna knock out some barbecue maybe a little later on, let's get into procurement, tech leadership, and then some. And I wanna start, Richard, and we're gonna touch on in a second. 30 years of experience.

Scott W. Luton [00:04:26]:

A lot of things have changed. Before we get there, though, if you would briefly tell us about your background and what the OMNIA partners team does.

Richard McVay [00:04:33]:

Yeah. So, as you mentioned, I've been in it for nearly 30 years at this point, kind of back when I used to have hair, I started my career, technical support. I moved into it sales, where I spent almost 20 years in technology sales, selling, networking, data center, the hardware, the software, and everything in between. And then I decided I wanted to change the pace. And so I got out of sales. I moved to the other side of the table, use my same skillset, if you will, and got into it procurement, where I actually ran rfps, negotiated terms and conditions, pricing, SLA's, all of that. But here at OMNIA partners, I've been here about two, almost two and a half years now, where I'm the IT subject matter expert in my role. I get to speak to our customers and both procurement and it.

Richard McVay [00:05:28]:

I try to help bridge that gap between the two, and there sometimes a divide between the two and really help them understand what their business needs are, where their strategy is going. And sometimes I play consultant, like, you know, free consultant, if you will, and then plug the right suppliers that are in our portfolio into the conversation. And so it's great. I get to work alongside suppliers, understanding what they do, where their expertise are, and then worked alongside our members to figure out what those needs are, and then bridge the gap can make the connections.

Scott W. Luton [00:06:05]:

Oh, blessed are the gap bridgers. I think that was one of the beatitudes that was missed, not quoted back in the day, Richard, but I love that that's helpful context, as we kind of view the expertise you're going to share here today. It's really helpful background. And I would just add, a lot of our longtime audience members know that we've enjoyed a wide variety of shows with the folks at OMNIA partners. Some of our newer audience members may not know that OMNIA Partners is a group purchasing organization, but I would say they're changing the way that gpos operate and then bring value. We just had a great webinar just last week or so that touched on all the growth y'all have been seeing, Richard. And of course, more importantly, how you and your team leverage all that growth experience, expertise across a wide variety of sectors to help organizations and your members navigate a more successful path forward in these highly complex and fast moving times, which will be themes of our rest of our conversation. So you've been in the technology space for almost 30 years.

Scott W. Luton [00:07:04]:

As you. As you laid out a minute ago, you developed, from what I can tell, we've done some homework on you, Richard. You developed quite a reputation for developing tech solutions across that wide range of business verticals. You've been intricately involved in negotiations of really big, complex contracts from a million bucks to 100 million plus. Man, that's some tough work. Good on you, Richard. And a lot has evolved. I don't have to tell anybody this.

Scott W. Luton [00:07:30]:

A lot's evolved in the tech space for the last 30 years. I want to ask you, Richard, you've been in it. What's been one of your favorite moments or chapters in terms of technology innovation for global supply chain?

Richard McVay [00:07:41]:

This story goes back about 20 years at this point. But, you know, one of my favorite moments was when I worked for at and T, the legacy t company. And shortly after their merger with SBC and Bellsouth back in 2005, we had a client, nationwide client that was looking for large bandwidth. And I know to date myself, t one s and t. Three t 45s were the thing back then, right? So mpls had just been rolled out. We actually did the very first MPLs customer, but they were looking for any connectivity and they really wanted it between cities and at one gig speeds. And of course, that was very, very expensive. I remember an MPLS port is going to cost you $100,000.

Richard McVay [00:08:31]:

But what we did realize, and I worked with my technical engineer on this, you could take a legacy product from Bellsouth called Metro E and an opti land from SBC, and they connect that with barbells, if you will, the Ethernet, private line service from Legacy T. And what we realized was in engineering, that we, instead of connecting site to site, we ended up connecting hop to pop, right, central office to central office. Because SBC is on one floor, t is on another. And so we devised a, what we call the McBeatty, that my engineer was Richard Beatty. I was Richard McVay. So we called it the McBeatty, implemented it, contracted for it, it went flawless. And then corporate called and said, what have you guys done? And so what kind of concoction is this? And ultimately, it ended up becoming a product. At the end of the day.

Richard McVay [00:09:27]:

It was referred to as Optiwayan at the time. Now, of course, technology has changed exponentially since then, right? One gig to ten gig speeds are very norm at this point, and any type of solutions are a given. And now we got cloud offerings. And that's one of the things I love about being a part of it, is it's ever evolving. You're always having to learn and grow as a professional. That's my one kudo, I think going back in time, helping create a brand new product, I love that.

Scott W. Luton [00:10:00]:

And I bet there's plenty of others. I look forward to the book you're going to write as you navigate. I mean, gosh, to be in technology and in procurement, supply chain and just business in general for the last 30 years, it's been fascinating. I gotta share, Richard. I gotta share. And by the way, bing baity, I bet there's such a bigger story. I love how you got creative, brought in know how, and created something that didn't exist at the time. Love that story.

Scott W. Luton [00:10:25]:

So I was a data analyst, I think back 30 years ago for the United States Air Force, back in 96 or so. 486. Remember the 486 PCs? That was like the fast ones in the office? We still had 286s until we got these Pentium driven computers, which was like a Corvette, man, those things were fast at the time. We still had high speed dot matrix printers. We saved our, our new laser printer, which we thought we were really highfalutin for the group commanders briefing slides. Unfortunately, not the most sustainable. We'd print out 3000 slideshow for like a weekly briefing. But all of that, of course, has changed dramatically and in a broader sense, and I think you agree with me based on some pre show conversations, another big change over the last few decades is that the IT team and organizations is not simply a call center, but they are an inseparable component of the company and the team that's utilized to drive revenue, profitability, competitive advantage, resilience and a whole bunch more.

Scott W. Luton [00:11:24]:

Would you generally agree with that?

Richard McVay [00:11:26]:

Oh, absolutely. That times have changed. Right. When you talk about no longer a call center, I used to use that phrase a lot in my sales days working with business owners. They're no longer the IT department. They're actually business owners now, really driving innovation and streamlining processes and procedures and then go to helping develop, go to market strategies by leveraging the technology that they're implementing. All of that, it's evolved a lot over the last 2030 years and to the point we were making earlier. Now we're starting to see procurement and it really kind of get in bed together, right.

Richard McVay [00:12:08]:

And start working more strategically together to try to drive outcomes. And so that's something that's really good to see.

Scott W. Luton [00:12:15]:

That's great call out because the procurement function, procurement leadership is evolving as well and is involved. It's cool. Again, it's in boardrooms, much like supply chain broke out in recent years and made its way into boardrooms. And that is a great thing for global supply chains everywhere, in my view. Well, I'm glad you're here. We got a subject matter expert. We're going to be just really scraping the tip of the iceberg here today. But we got a lot of good stuff to get into because our primary topic today, Richard, as you know, is enhancing procurement strategies for today's information technology challenges.

Scott W. Luton [00:12:47]:

Now, Richard, have you ever heard the phrase, you got to eat your frogs first?

Richard McVay [00:12:53]:

I have not.

Scott W. Luton [00:12:55]:

Okay. Well, I thought we were second cousins, I guess. Maybe not. All right, so that's some kind of saying, maybe in just the south, but it means you got to start with the tougher and more painful tasks, which is a productivity approach that some subscribe to. So as we start to dive into our formal discussion, I want to start with some of the headaches that we're seeing out there that you're seeing, especially as you help teams conquer this environment in new and innovative ways. So what are some of the most common challenges when it comes to it procurement these days?

Richard McVay [00:13:24]:

Well, obviously there's many challenges, but in my goings and doings across the industry, in my opinion, there's two primary challenges to it procurement. One is time and the other is the knowledge of the subject. So running an RFP can take six to twelve months depending on the complexity. And there's a lot of time that gets spent up front, you know, by the person running the RFP. They got to go learn about the sector, learn about the industry, who the players are. What are some of the key solicitation points that they need to put in? You know, what are negotiation strategies once they receive all of the solicitation responses back? Right. There's a lot that goes on just from a learning perspective. Even with the ability to learn via, from the Internet or via chat GPT these days about cloud or cybersecurity, still, the person running the RFP is not typically the expert in the subject.

Richard McVay [00:14:29]:

That goes back to a previous comment where we made it's really important that they lean in and work with their it department, right. And depending on the size of your company, you know, you may have an expert in that field that you can lean on. In a lot of cases, smaller to mid sized companies may not. Right? So that procurement person is just kind of out there charging forward on their own, you know, but this leads to another challenge, and most companies have no idea what it costs to run an RFP. Right? When you're talking six to twelve months, you're talking learning curves. What's the soft cost that goes into running an RFP? The time, the effort, it usually goes untracked. Recently, the National Cooperative Procurement partners released an article that just this past month that talked about how much it cost to conduct an RFP. And the findings were just astonishing.

Richard McVay [00:15:25]:

It was anywhere from $1,500 an hour on the low end to almost $17,000 per hour on the high end. Right? And when you start taking that per hour and extrapolating that out over the time it takes, it can be very, very expensive. And then finally I'd say, you know, you got to take into consideration when you talk about time to run an RFP, technology changes, right? I mean, if you take twelve months to run an RFP, your company may be going in a different direction by.

Scott W. Luton [00:15:57]:

The world's change by then, right?

Richard McVay [00:15:59]:

The world has changed. The laptop is end of life or, you know, no longer pertinent. I mean, the strategy is different. So there's there's a lot to think about when it comes to running an RFP, and that's how OMNIA partners can help.

Scott W. Luton [00:16:12]:

So, Richard, you touched a lot of things there in terms of headaches, time, knowledge, the subject costs in all sorts of definitions.

Richard McVay [00:16:21]:

Right.

Scott W. Luton [00:16:21]:

Including those intangibles. Also, I like your last one, how the world can change if it takes six months of work, and change then, too. And you also called out this article, and when you put this on my radar, I went diving in like I typically do. You can find this at NCPPA or ncppassociation.org. right. The professional association for Cooperative Procurement. And you're right. According to their research, a project, a bid, or RFP, can take an average of 87 hours to complete, and complex projects can take the team 138 hours.

Scott W. Luton [00:16:57]:

And, of course, that doesn't even include all the intangibles. Now, I'm gonna say something here that I bet everybody knows what I'm talking about, and I think this really makes it really clear, is that time is money, it's competitive advantage. It's all kinds of things in this velocity driven world, kind of. To your point, the world can change in a year, much less, or six months, much less, you know, a year. And so all to that. To that end, I want to ask you this, because we know that it can be incredibly costly when we choose the wrong approach or the wrong solution, right. If we do it on our own without bringing in the experts internally or externally, the cost can be tremendous when we implement the wrong things. To address some of these headaches, what have you seen, Richard, in all of your experience, what have you seen in how costly can a poor or unsuccessful solution to these challenges be so very costly?

Richard McVay [00:17:53]:

Because the technology changes so rapidly because of the direction of a company or that business unit that you were previously running an RFP for may change, right? Leadership may change. As simple as that. And many companies are in a place that they were. Speed to market, capitalization of assets, cutting costs, et cetera, can mean the difference between success and failure, especially for those small, medium sized businesses. They've got to turn on a dime and move forward. So meeting market expectations is key. Being able to drive to finalization in your plan is key. At the end of the day, I've been a part of rfps and where I worked on them for a month, and then we decided we're tossing it out the door, right? Starting over.

Richard McVay [00:18:44]:

And you're like, wait a minute, I.

Scott W. Luton [00:18:46]:

Put my blood, sweat and tears in this. Come on. Right?

Richard McVay [00:18:49]:

I mean, you know, you saw there was like 87 hours or something like that. You know, I was like, well, I wish it was only a solid 87 hours, but it's not, right? Because typically trimmer professionals have multiple rfps that they're running simultaneously. Right. I'm over here procuring for cybersecurity, but now I'm over here procuring for laptops, and then I'm over there procuring for networking gear, and I've got to learn about all of those things and continue to move them all forward. Where I came from, before, we ran everything via a Gantt chart. But you had to, right, you had to put place markers of all your tasks in there to know I could stay on track. It's a labor intensive effort, and you hope at the end that you reach the goal and whatever that is, whether it's savings, whether, which is usually the priority for the RFP, but then obviously, you want to make sure you're getting the right suppliers that bid on the RFP, right. And you're vetting out with them on service level agreements and value adds and things like that.

Richard McVay [00:20:00]:

So again, I love these studies that are done because you try to put some costs, I think I see these about once a year, but then everybody goes back to doing things the way they did. And you really don't know how much it costs you to run an RFP.

Scott W. Luton [00:20:12]:

Nope. So much is invisible. So much is like everything else. But we've always done it this way. And there can be some really awful costs, associated headaches, associated friction, hard, tougher days on the team as well. That's one element maybe we should talk more about is the pressure it puts on the team. Right. When they're, to your point, they're juggling all these things.

Scott W. Luton [00:20:33]:

How can we make it easier on our team? And then the other thing you mentioned, you mentioned small, medium sized businesses. You know, I've worked for really big companies, Fortune 500 companies, my background, and I've worked for some mom and pops, right. I'm in a startup environment now. You wear lots of hats. They don't have all the resources in small and even medium business world that you have the teams, the resources, the technology platforms and more. And really, I think we see a lot of small and medium businesses turning to resources like gpos to help level the playing field in effective ways. You mentioned hope. We all hope things go right, but hope is, as we both know, awful strategy.

Scott W. Luton [00:21:17]:

And I'm glad you called that because there's too much hope and a prayer going on out across business. Right. And then finally, of course, we're talking about velocity. My dear friend Greg White used to say, a lot, going fast is important, but, gosh, if you're going fast in the wrong direction, at least double the many, double as many problems. Right? I'm kind of paraphrasing, but philosophy is important, but going in the right direction is kind of equally as important. Right? Yes, you got my brain going, Richard, and I've got a thousand things going on between my ears based on what you're sharing. But here's one thing that I love to talk about, and that is good news, because there's plenty of good news here. Some of this innovative technology that we've all been seeing and using, or at least in some cases, trying to figure out how to use, it's been changing how business is done already, more importantly, with the results and outcomes to prove it.

Scott W. Luton [00:22:12]:

In fact, get this, Richard, you hanging on to your socks, because this figure might astound you. According to the world economic forum, the digitalization of the global trade ecosystem is projected to unlock some $9 trillion in value across just the g seven countries just through 2025. So I want to ask you, in light of that and all the perspective you've shared, talk about some of the newer technologies that are permeating throughout global supply chain, especially the procurement space.

Richard McVay [00:22:45]:

Yeah, really good question. So, you know, there's several technologies that are helping the procurement space of all to identify trends, streamline processes, and enhance decision making. There's simple sourcing platforms, cloud based procurement solutions that allow procurement teams to run something as simple as reverse auctions. That's a very simplistic way of going about it. And usually it's just lowest bid wins type of things. You evolve and become more complex, and you move towards more of a supplier relationship management type of platforms that offer collaboration right between the buyer and the supplier. Right, where you really kind of outline, and I would even go so far as to go back into your, you know, contractually outline some type of vested relationship between you, the buyer, and your suppliers, where there's hooks in it for both of you, you know, and you're in this together. Right.

Richard McVay [00:23:48]:

The cliche, when it's a win win and you're really driving towards those type of outcomes, then obviously there's even more advanced AI solutions where you're able to drive towards real time insights for cost and supplier performance spent analytics, and then really offer more predictive analytics to help with forecasting, cost avoidance and et cetera. You know, I see lots of data, right? I talk to lots of members. I see lots of data, and it's amazing to me to find what's commonly referred to as shadow it. Right. That's one. Hey, we've contracted over here with this supplier a, but people are buying their product from supplier B. Right. And it's not on contract.

Richard McVay [00:24:38]:

But then I would even go so far as to say we need to be running analytics against purchasing within a supplier. People buy product all day long, and you bought it for a mouse for $10, and then you turned around and bought it the next time, and it was $17. Really getting into what's the high and the low, and then where's my negotiated price point? All those kind of things really are what's going to start driving the market going forward as these tools start to come together and people really start to figure out how to leverage them.

Scott W. Luton [00:25:17]:

Yep, a lot of good stuff there. And it can be very difficult to leverage all those technologies and then some kind of figuring out the right application, the right integration, interoperability with other technologies that organizations may be using. You know, it's not for the faint of heart, but, man, when we get it right and more and more, I'm a huge believer in the human factor, and it is the lifeblood of global supply chain. Right. And I'd like to think it always will be. However, as we have talked with countless companies over in recent years, there's certain things we just can't do without technology, especially at scale. So being able to crack the code or figure out the Rubik's cube, right, of supply chain technology is so important. But, of course, you mentioned AI, and my hunch is that you spend a ton of time helping your customers across different sectors evaluate AI and figure out how to make things more predictive.

Scott W. Luton [00:26:14]:

Is that right?

Richard McVay [00:26:16]:

So we do. Right. So we have our own spin analytics team here at OMNIA partners that can help a member ingest the data, right. Understand where they're spending their dollars, who they're spending them with. And then we can work to find ways to better procure those type of solutions and products through our supplier partners that we have on contract. And then I really help them drill into what are you buying, right. And helping them determine whether or not that's the path forward. Right.

Richard McVay [00:26:50]:

Again, I pointed out earlier, I can look at your spend data and start going, you bought that mouse for $10, then you bought it for $19. Why are we doing that? Oh, you bought it from this barn, but then you went on Amazon and bought 200 more. You got to triangulate all of that. But back to your point, and there's lots of other analytic tools that can help you with that. But there's RPA process automation that can really take a lot of the mundane tasks out of doing a lot of that work. Right? And then there's gen AI tools that can really start driving more towards predictive analytics. So, you know, there's a host, you know, I go back, AI right now, big buzzword. It means lots and lots of things.

Richard McVay [00:27:36]:

Very similar to where cloud was when it first became the buzzword. We'll see where it all hashes out. I think it's going, there's going to be a pitfalls here and then success is there. But overall it's here to stay. It's only here to help us.

Scott W. Luton [00:27:51]:

I do agree. Most organizations, most business leaders, most supply chain practitioners, most do need a sherpa, a guru they can turn to to help them navigate. Get this, the DC velocity published takeaways from a survey of 3000 CEO's from the United Kingdom, Europe and the US here recently tackle this on the buzz the other day. 82% of US CEO's are planning new initiatives this year. This year I'm surprised that's not higher, frankly, but because it's here to stay, because it's making a big impact, does it mean that there aren't still plenty of bad applications and poorly planned initiatives with ambiguous returns? And Richard, what I'm hearing, you and your work and your teams work there in this AI space and predictive analytics space is you're helping ensure that the spend and the projects are more successful and produce more reliable outcomes and results. Is that a fair statement?

Richard McVay [00:28:52]:

It is. Right. So, you know, we have, you know, gone through our own RFP contracting processes with our supplier partners. We have vetted them out for their business solutions. And so we've kind of take a lot of that heavy lift off of our members, right. And now they can start buying them tomorrow if they wanted to, right. Versus having to run that RFP, versus having to go through that contract negotiation, which I've been in those for six long months as well. Right.

Richard McVay [00:29:24]:

So all of that being said, we are the easy button here at OMNIA Partners as a GPO, where we've had vetted that out, we've got the right partners, we've got the right solutions to help out a business.

Scott W. Luton [00:29:38]:

You've got the new McBeatty's 2.0 there at OMNIA partners, perhaps.

Richard McVay [00:29:43]:

All right.

Scott W. Luton [00:29:43]:

I want to shift gears here on average, and it's important we're not trying to scare anybody. But going back to what we were talking about a little while ago, the costs are immense. The costs are immense on a variety of levels, tangible and intangible. On average, in 2024, a data breach costs almost $5 million. Cyber attacks aren't only multiplying, which that in and of itself is scary enough. Right. But they're also becoming so much more complex. And we've seen, Richard, no shortage of cyber attacks across global supply chain folks, from petrochemical plants in Saudi Arabia to water treatment facilities in the us to retail supply chains everywhere.

Scott W. Luton [00:30:20]:

It's no longer a question of if you get hit by a cyber attack, but it's when and how and how bad and how you effectively and proactively mitigate the risk field environment. Get this. A 2023 attack on the port of Nagoya in Japan disrupted about 10% of total trade in that country for days. In recent weeks, the port of Seattle has been dealing with ransomware attacks, and thus far, we'll see how this plays out. They've refused to pay the hackers. I'm kind of proud of them. Now, it also goes, all the procurement pros and leaders that are with us here today know that the procurement function, supply chain organizations, can be a bigger at risk target due to a number of reasons, including all the sensitive information that's kept for working across its ecosystem, organizations. Ecosystem, and all the communications it has with individuals and entities outside those proverbial four walls, which is ripe for hacker interdictions.

Scott W. Luton [00:31:18]:

So, Richard, now that we've kept it real on some of the risks out there, share some of the cybersecurity threats that supply chain leaders need to be aware of. A little more specifically, your thoughts?

Richard McVay [00:31:29]:

Well, so, as you mentioned, the most common ones, ransomware. Right. So it's still the most common way in, if you will, is click the link in an email. Right. And so phishing and social engineering is still the number one attack type, which is why you start investing in procurement tools that allow you to keep everything in house. Right. And to keep the communication back and forth between your suppliers secure. That's going to be key, because, as you mentioned, lots of sensitive data there.

Richard McVay [00:32:05]:

The next are third party bridges, supplier bridges. Right? So, you know, if you've been in the industry long enough, you've heard of stories like target was breached and through their ac system. Right, and lost massive amounts of credit card data. There was a major casino several years back that was breached through their electronic temp monitoring system for the fish tank that's in the lobby. Right. So, you know, cybersecurity criminals, you know, they're not coming through the front door. Right. Which is why procurement professionals, as we have to make sure that we are working with the business owners and we are properly vetting the suppliers.

Richard McVay [00:32:47]:

Right. We want to understand what vulnerabilities they may introduce into our environment. Right. So that we can contractually obligate with or work with that supplier around service level agreements. Right. You know, if there ever was a possible cyber attack, you want to make sure that you negotiated strong terms and conditions and service level agreements so, you know, it's not just enough to know what's going on inside your four walls. Right. From a cybersecurity stance perspective, but you also got to know everyone that's touching your business and or you're touching theirs.

Richard McVay [00:33:25]:

Right. It's just paramount today.

Scott W. Luton [00:33:27]:

Absolutely. It's table stakes. It goes with what we do in global supply chain management. It goes with what we do in procurement. Right. And I love those examples you used over the years. A couple of my favorites. A bowling league.

Scott W. Luton [00:33:39]:

Right, a bowling league. I saw a study done with one of our past guests where employees from a, from a manufacturing company all played in this bowling league. Well, the hackers, the bad actors do what bad actors do. They identified that through social media. They happen to penetrate the bowling alleys database where all the team members would put in their scores somehow, probably through email and whatever, they were able to find a hole into the manufacturing technology site via email and other platforms, and they ended up shutting down the production line for ransoms. Right. All just through, you know, folks on a Tuesday night, having a good time and a few adult beverages with their colleagues. So the threats are immense.

Scott W. Luton [00:34:26]:

In my past journey, Richard, we were the victim of the bad actors penetrating systems and watching the going and coming of communications via email, inside and outside the organization. Think about that. We do that every day, all day, every hour, all hours. Right. And they present each one of those presents an opportunity for bad actors to take out your weakest link in the ecosystem, if not worse. Right?

Richard McVay [00:34:50]:

Yes, absolutely.

Scott W. Luton [00:34:52]:

More good news, because there's lots of solutions. Solutions, Richard, that you're familiar with, that you've helped your member companies put in place and navigate through successfully. What are some of the solutions you want to identify here?

Richard McVay [00:35:04]:

Yeah. So in OMNIA partners, as I mentioned, we have a number of supplier partners that offer a variety of cybersecurity solutions, everything from basic messaging and endpoint protection to more advanced solutions like security, advanced management, governance and consulting assessments, you know, around your cybersecurity policies and then we have suppliers that can do full on, 24 by seven monitoring and remediation. And then there's also, those are really more of the in house defensive sides of cybersecurity. And then there's the offensive side of cybersecurity. Right. So where you're doing everything from network and application pen testing, red team ethical hacking, we've got suppliers that can do all of that for our. For our members.

Scott W. Luton [00:35:53]:

And I imagine, you know, we've covered, really, throughout the show, a myriad, if I said that word, right, of threats and solutions. You just said some of those things that I bet you could describe in your sleep that, frankly, I've heard of for the first time. And I bet I'm not alone. I bet there's other supply chain practitioners that may have heard some of those things you mentioned some of those solutions you mentioned for the first time. So I bet that with all of the different permutations of the threats and solutions and all of the factors that you help customers, that you and the OMNIA partners team help customers kind of figure out the right fit solution, the most effective solution to kind of cut through the noise for any of the specific threats that are out there with kind of what we're talking about earlier with an eye towards speed to outcomes, which is so critical, is that. Do I got it right, Richard?

Richard McVay [00:36:45]:

You've got it right.

Scott W. Luton [00:36:46]:

Okay. I don't hear that too often. I don't hear that too often. Richard, did you hear about the one. I can't remember where it was, and I wouldn't want to call him out and embarrass anybody, but it was a water department in a city somewhere that was still using whatever computers were doing back in 1972 to run and manage the water system and billing and invoicing. And as you might expect, they got hacked.

Richard McVay [00:37:06]:

Yeah. Folks out there with some, probably some as 400s that are still running.

Scott W. Luton [00:37:10]:

Undoubtedly. Undoubtedly. Okay, let's see. I want to do this. Richard, I know you travel the globe. You got your finger on the pulse. You're on the move, working with a wide variety of organizations in a whole bunch of sectors. But I imagine there's gonna be some folks that tuned in here today that want to connect with you, learn more, maybe talk shop a little bit.

Scott W. Luton [00:37:30]:

And your game for doing that, especially if it involves a plate of barbecue, right?

Richard McVay [00:37:36]:

Open for play to barbecue anytime.

Scott W. Luton [00:37:39]:

So how can folks connect with you? Richard McVay and the OMNIA partners team, it's very simple.

Richard McVay [00:37:45]:

Go to OMNIA partners.com. there is a drop down there to connect with the subject matter experts. I'm one of four that is listed there. You can fill out the form very easily and submit that I get the email, and then we'll start corresponding.

Scott W. Luton [00:38:00]:

It's just that easy. And we need more easy stuff in this ever fast moving and complex world. I appreciate that, Richard. Really appreciate you being here today. Thanks so much for sharing what you're seeing, what you're doing, your expertise and other observations with our Supply Chain Now, global audience.

Richard McVay [00:38:18]:

I appreciate the time, Scott. Appreciate the time, everyone.

Scott W. Luton [00:38:21]:

You bet. All right. Richard McVay, senior director, it telecom subject matter expert with our friends at OMNIA Partners, your ally in the purchasing process. I love that phrase. It's uplifting. Feels like you've got folks that got you back. We all need more of that, right? Learn more folks at OMNIA partners.com, richard, really appreciate your expertise. But here's the thing, folks.

Scott W. Luton [00:38:43]:

You either got to take just one thing from our barbecue best practices, or better yet, not as tasty, but better yet, take just one thing from the brilliance and the truckload of perspectives that Richard brought here today on the ever changing world, both of procurement and technology. Take one thing, put it in action. Your teams are ready to do business different, do business better, and certainly more resilient. And that's the charge of the day. Deeds, not words. With all of that said on behalf of the entire team at Supply Chain Now, Scott Ludon challenge you. Hey, do good, give forward. Be the change that's needed.

Scott W. Luton [00:39:15]:

We'll see you next time. Right back here at Supply Chain Now. Thanks, everybody.

Narrator [00:39:21]:

Thanks for being a part of our Supply Chain Now community. Check out all of our programming at supplychainnow.com and make sure you subscribe to Supply Chain Now anywhere you listen to podcasts and follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram. See you next time on Supply Chain Now.