Our cover story this month features Sören Petsch, Head of Procurement at Root, who discusses the revolutionary digital tools procurement has today and how operations at his company are being optimised amid a digital boom within the function.
Root: Game-changing procurement
For Sören Petsch, Head of Procurement at Root, testing the limits in procurement via new digital tools should be encouraged. “We’ve made measurable progress on the AI agents that we’re using in our software orchestration tool, and we’re able to prove a fundamental business case that now allows us to think about how we leverage AI agents very differently,” reveals Petsch. “Normal software that is not AI software is deterministic, meaning you always have the same outcome if you enter certain types of information, whereas AI is probabilistic. The difference is that you have different outcomes even if you share similar data, which is interesting, but it also creates a different set of challenges such as inconsistencies and hallucinations.
With experience across software, retail, and banking industries, Petsch is keen to bring practical, results-oriented solutions to procurement operations. His team’s mission is to “unbreak” procurement to power Root’s mission with data, technology, and repeatable processes – fast.
Cal Poly: Steering a modern procurement engine
California Polytechnic State University’s (Cal Poly) Chief Procurement Officer, Darin Matthews, is leading one of the most ambitious procurement transformations in US higher education…
Set on the sunlit Central Coast of California, halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco, California Polytechnic State University is located in San Luis Obispo. Widely known as Cal Poly, the university has long been recognised for its “Learn by Doing” ethos, strong engineering and architecture programmes and deep industry partnerships. It is one of the most selective polytechnic universities in the country and sits within the California State University (CSU) system, the largest four-year public university network in the US.
The CSU system, now comprising 22 campuses following a recent consolidation, serves nearly half a million students each year. It is an academic, economic and research powerhouse. It is also an astonishingly complex procurement environment covering everything from laboratory equipment to housing supplies, technology, capital projects and campus services.
Navigating this complexity through the lens of procurement is Darin Matthews, who joined Cal Poly four years ago after retiring from a previous role in Oregon. However, what he expected to be a slower- paced chapter quickly became an opportunity to influence transformation at significant scale…
Ping Identity: Transformation through a lens of best practice
Matthew Row, Business Services Director at Ping Identity, talks us through his change in role since our last conversation, and how he’s tackled a major transformation for the business…
A successful transformation requires an experienced hand at the tiller. Matthew Row, Business Services Director at Ping Identity, has such experience at his disposal. We spoke to Row a year ago, at which point he was the Global SS&P Director. He has a vibrant history of delivering business transformations, and Ping Identity – a platform that manages identifies, access, and governance for enterprise organisations – is a business that needs to keep ahead of the curve. Said enterprise organisations manage billions of digital identities, meaning Ping needs to offer a high quality experience. So when it came time for an overhaul, Row was ready to dive in.
When we spoke to Row previously, he noted that 2025 would be an important year for Ping Identity. The plan was for its function to support the delivery of critical strategic initiatives. Since then, the business has made progress in line with that vision. Ping has continued expanding its customer base through significant new customer wins, along with acquisitions that focus on enhancing the product offering to customers…
Plus lots, lots more!
