Author

Fraser Robinson

Published

10 April 2026

Estimated Read time

5Mins

Fraser Robinson, CEO of Beacon, digs into three of the biggest challenges facing supply chain this year

For supply chain leaders, ‘business as usual’ means one thing: ever-increasing unpredictability. It only took the first month of the year for a fresh round of Trump tariffs to land against a backdrop of ongoing geopolitical instability worldwide. While previously framed as ‘unprecedented’, this level of volatility has become routine. Month after month, year after year, uncertainty is the job.

While this uncertainty can make it hard to make specific predictions, what are some of the broader trends we can expect to shape the sector in the year ahead? And how can supply chain leaders prepare?

Targets

Supply chain targets are expected to be higher this year. Finance teams are demanding cost reductions, operations need faster delivery times and sales require guaranteed stock availability – often simultaneously. This means supply chain leaders are being asked to do more with less, while also navigating carrier on-time delivery rates that hit historic lows in 2025. 

Competition is incredibly high and it’s becoming even more commonplace for companies to lose customers and contracts due to late or unreliable deliveries. In particular, heightened volatility has placed greater pressure on supply chain leaders to diversify the range of suppliers they use in order to reduce reliance on a single provider and the risk this carries.

Supply chain leaders therefore need a robust understanding of carrier options, trade routes and market trends to inform how they can achieve hitting these targets. But driving tangible improvements rests on having supply chain data that is independent, unified, standardized and accurate. This allows supply chain leaders to see where money is being left on the table and where the risk lies, like what containers are regularly at risk of demurrage fees, and what business decisions can be made to improve margins and service levels. 

Tariffs

Tariffs have already been a major talking point this year. And whether by Trump (very likely) or other countries, they will be a theme we see much more of in the coming year. McKinsey’s annual survey of global supply chain leaders from December 2025 revealed that the one issue “top-of-mind” was “the potential impact of tariffs on many of the world’s most significant trade flows”, with 82% saying that their supply chains are affected by new tariffs. 

Not only are tariffs impacting trade to and from the US, but other countries and regions are striking their own set of deals to manage the change. And even when deals are struck, tariffs can suddenly change again once a goal has been met or a new dispute arises. 

In this ever-changing landscape, being one step ahead can feel like an uphill battle. But better control and insight into aggregated supply chain data, including carrier performance connected to your freight contracts, can ease this pressure by driving more informed decisions and providing supply chain leaders with confidence in their operation – you know exactly what happened. This confidence enables leaders to make decisions faster and with more clarity over tariffs. It also builds a sense of belief that they can adapt to situations and find solutions to abrupt changes. 

Conversely, if you can’t access insights such as where shipments were at what point, or the various costs of different suppliers compared against their performance history, then maintaining this confidence becomes difficult. You’re making decisions blindfolded, and that’s when tariffs can become even more of a problem. 

Technology

Supply chain leaders face a paradox – the choice of technology platforms on the market is abundant, yet procuring the wrong solution can set operations back years. With lengthy implementation timelines, high costs and integration complexity, the stakes of technology decisions have never been higher. The question isn’t whether to adopt new tech, but how to identify solutions that deliver measurable value without consuming years of implementation effort or disrupting existing operations.

The potential decision paralysis from dealing with these choices is perhaps a factor as to why tech investments are stalling (another finding from the McKinsey survey). For supply chain leaders already managing stretched teams and ongoing system implementations, the risk isn’t just the choice of the wrong platform, but also the opportunity cost of time and resources. A 12-month implementation that pulls key personnel away from daily operations can be more disruptive than the manual processes it’s meant to replace. The question becomes: what technology can integrate without requiring operational upheaval?

Most supply chains weren’t built for the power of AI. Data sits in silos, it is not standardised, technology is not connected, data isn’t kept up to date, and the infrastructure just isn’t there to take advantage of what’s now possible.

Agentic AI and advanced automation promise significant value, but if companies don’t have adequate supply chain technology that effectively unifies data and provides real-time data analytics, then new advancements like AI agents won’t. They need to be incorporated into an already highly functioning system. 

Easing the pressure

Uncertainty and disruption are part and parcel of supply chains. In the year ahead, pressure to hit supply chain targets, navigate fluctuating tariffs and invest in technology that will produce value – not further disruption – will be the key trends facing the sector. What separates leaders who navigate these pressures successfully from those who struggle isn’t necessarily budget size or team capacity. It’s decision-making speed, backed by real-time, unified data.

Can you answer critical questions in minutes rather than days? When tariffs shift, can you immediately assess the impact on in-transit inventory? When targets tighten, can you identify which suppliers or carriers are underperforming? When evaluating new technology, can you distinguish platforms that integrate quickly from those requiring multi-year implementations?

This doesn’t require ripping out existing systems or embarking on transformation projects that consume years. Instead, it requires connecting the data that already exists but currently lives across fragmented carrier portals, forwarder spreadsheets, and email threads. The pressures aren’t going away – but the clarity needed to navigate them is achievable.

  • Risk & Resilience

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

8 April 2026

Estimated Read time

10Mins

CPO Strategy & SupplyChain Strategy was honoured to attend ethica26, a summit dedicated to eradicating human rights violations in Supply…

CPO Strategy & SupplyChain Strategy was honoured to attend ethica26, a summit dedicated to eradicating human rights violations in Supply Chains. The day provided valuable, relevant and shocking insights for leaders investing in ethical supply chains...

At ethica26, in London, produced by Slave-Free Alliance, Hope for Justice and sponsored by Exiger, one point was clear: human rights in supply chains define corporate credibility, resilience and long-term value. Ethica26’s packed agenda focused on action, not just rhetoric. Speeches and debates highlighted the urgency of making supply chains more ethical, resilient, and strategic.

The era of voluntary action is ending. New UK laws and the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) increase pressure on businesses from regulators, investors, and customers. ethica26 logically looked beyond compliance.

This one-day summit brought together over 300 senior leaders from legal, procurement, policy, compliance, NGOs, and survivor advocacy. The main takeaway: embedding justice in supply chain governance is crucial for transforming risk into resilience.

Co-chaired by Tim Nelson, CEO of Hope for Justice and Slave-Free Alliance and human slavery expert, Dr Laura Murphy, and moderated by experienced business transformation leader, Maria Villablanca, the programme combined policy briefings, executive panels, case studies, and survivor perspectives with practical tools for measuring risk, building resilience and creating long-term business advantage.

Nelson opened proceedings, joined by Dr. Laura Murphy, Professor of Human Rights and Contemporary Slavery at Sheffield Hallam University. “We decided to organise ethica26 because we knew that gathering high‑profile, passionate leaders and businesses into the same room, people who are genuinely committed to driving human rights forward in global supply chains, would spark inspiring conversations and create its own momentum,” Nelson told the hushed crowd.

Nelson then reminded the audience that St Patrick himself (for it was March 17th) was trafficked to a foreign country in the Fifth Century – shipped over the Irish Sea from Britain and forced into slavery. Slavery that still exists worldwide today.

​

A stark opening: the cost of inaction

From the outset, the calibre and diversity of speakers set the tone. Leaders from global organisations – including AstraZeneca, Novartis, Schneider Electric, Tony’s Chocolonely, and Exiger – joined representatives from the Ethical Trading Initiative, UN Global Compact UK, Principles for Responsible Investment, BSI, and NGOs such as Unseen and Footprint to Freedom. During the breaks, the Supply Chain Strategy team spoke with these senior leaders, campaigners, and practitioners active in modern slavery, due diligence and responsible sourcing.

​

Inaction won’t be tolerated

​Caroline Haughey, OBE KC, is a top UK expert on modern slavery. Her message was direct: “Corporate responsibility is not, ‘I did nothing wrong,’” she said. “Corporate responsibility is, ‘What did I do right? How can I prove that?’” Citing her experience in high-profile cases, she warned that inaction is a major risk. “Invest in improvement now, or face an uncertain future,” she said.

That urgency carried into the policy briefing from Alex Chalk KC, who outlined the direction of travel for legislation across the UK, EU and beyond, signalling increasing scrutiny on boards and executives. The conversation then quickly moved from regulation to capital markets.

In the panel on Human Rights as a Material Investment Risk, moderated by Matt Crossman, Stewardship Director, Rathbones, speakers, including Dame Sara Thornton of CCLA, Thomas Abrams of the Principles for Responsible Investment and Peter Nestor, Global Head of Human Rights, Novartis, explored how human rights performance is now directly tied to investment decisions. “Human rights due diligence is an extremely effective tool for staying ahead of financial risk,” Abrams explained, adding, “because the impacts materialise before the risks show up in the numbers.” 

Human rights are now recognised by the investment community as a material risk, the audience heard, underlining the shift from ethical considerations to a financial imperative. A view echoed by Thornton: “There is emerging evidence that taking human rights seriously is linked to long-term value creation and competitiveness,” she declared. “This isn’t just about compliance. It’s about strategic advantage and value creation.”

Moving beyond compliance

A recurring theme throughout the day was the gap between policy and practice. This was explored in a fireside chat moderated by Maria Villablanca, where Robert Williams, Senior Director Sustainable Procurement at AstraZeneca and Kanishk Negi, Director of Sustainable Procurement at Schneider Electric, discussed the challenge of embedding accountability beyond compliance. Panelists agreed: policies alone are now insufficient. Organisations must make human rights an integral part of procurement, governance, and everyday decision-making.

The agenda brought this to life through a series of case studies. Kitty Pandya, Partnerships Manager at Tony’s Chocolonely, shared lessons from its Open Chain model, demonstrating how responsible sourcing (in this case, cocoa sourcing) can be embedded commercially rather than treated as a bolt-on.

AstraZeneca’s Case Study featured Robert Williams, Tanya Murphy, Associate Director at AstraZeneca, and Rachel Hartley, who outlined how the company’s human rights risk assessments are shaping tangible projects and cross-functional collaboration. Meanwhile, Peter Nestor detailed the evolution of its Labour Rights 2.0 approach, translating strategy into operational reality across global supply chains.

​

When things go wrong

The complexity of implementation was matched by the challenge of response in the panel When Things Go Wrong, moderated by Giles Bolton, including speakers: Andrew Wallis, CEO at Unseen, Malaika Oringo, Executive Director at Footprint to Freedom, Dame Sara Thornton, Consultant, Modern Slavery, CCLA​ and Julia Black, Group Sustainability & Ethics Senior Manager, Hilton Food Group of Hilton Food Group. Together, they examined how organisations need premeditated responses to serious human rights allegations, the discussion highlighting that response quality – from escalation to remediation – can determine positive outcomes for workers, investors and the business itself. 

Andrew Wallis posited: “Ask yourself this question about your company: are you in the when camp or the if camp? In other words, when it happens, ‘we’re going to have to act fast and do it really well’ – or if it happens, ‘we’ll get around to thinking about it’. If you’re in the ‘if’ camp, you are not in a good place.” 

Oringo highlighted the need to transform the culture of the business to ‘on the ground’ to shine a greater spotlight onto injustices. “Instead of expecting someone to say, ‘Hello, I’m being exploited,’ you need to create trauma-informed spaces where people feel safe enough to come forward,” she said.

​

The evolving reality of forced labour

One of the most powerful contributions came from Dr Laura Murphy, Professor of Human Rights and Contemporary Slavery at Sheffield Hallam University, whose session on state-imposed forced labour cut through assumptions about visibility and progress. “What I’m here to tell you today is that the system of oppression hasn’t ended. It has changed. It has evolved,” she said, explaining how exploitation has shifted from internment camps into factories, farms and supply chains.

Murphy specifically focused on the forced labour of Uyghur and other Turkic and Muslim majority peoples that has emerged in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (Uyghur Region) of China. The 2023 Global Slavery Index (GSI) estimates that 5.8 million people were living in modern slavery across China on any given day in 2021.

“There’s no sense. There’s no understanding of how the Chinese government treats the Uyghur region as a colonial outpost or recognises its independence and ongoing rights abuses,” she explained. “But as you know, today is a quick catch-up. About a million to a million and a half people were put into internment camps where they received re-education, were separated from families, and suffered torture, rape, and sterilisation. Genocidal acts were inflicted on this group, about 12 million people; Turkic by origin, a minority in China, but a majority in their region. People have started to get a false sense that, since they’re not hearing about it much, it’s no longer happening,” she warned, highlighting the deliberate removal of visible signs of abuse to create an illusion of compliance.

Murphy brought the issue to a human scale by citing real cases. She described individuals forced into factory work against their will, despite clear resistance. “They say, ‘I don’t want to go,’” she noted, showing how pressure and intimidation override refusal. Her message for CPOs and supply chain leaders was direct: exposure to these risks is broader than assumed. Audits and supplier engagement are often ineffective under tightly controlled systems.

​Technology and the shift to action

If visibility is key in tackling human rights abuses, then technology has emerged as a critical enabler of that new approach. Lauren Elliott, Global Head of Client Delivery at Exiger, demonstrated how AI is transforming forced labour detection, enabling companies to map supply chains, identify risk and act in real time. “AI technology enables a shift to action,” she said. That shift to action enabled through AI’s parsing of unimaginable volumes of data, thus laying bare the risk for all to see. A crucial game-changer as organisations move beyond static audits towards dynamic, intelligence-led decision-making. 

Elliott was also a contributor to the Horizon Scanning panel that brought together a wide range of perspectives. Moderated by Tim Nelson, the discussion also featured Eleanor Lyons, the UK’s Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner, Kanishk Negi and Tahseen Anam of BSI. Together, they explored how regulation, investor expectations, technology and corporate practice are converging to reshape the future of supply chains. Murphy’s warning underscored the urgency of that shift with the likelihood of increased enforcement and global scrutiny. Murphy captured the urgency succinctly. “This is about to get much bigger… this is about to go viral,” she said, pointing to a likely wave of global enforcement and forced labour import bans.

From conversation to change

Ethica26 succeeded in bridging the gap between discussion and delivery. By convening policymakers, corporates, investors and campaigners in one room, it created a space where difficult truths were confronted and practical solutions shared. For supply chain leaders, the takeaway was clear. Human rights are no longer a compliance exercise or reputational safeguard. They are central to resilience, governance and competitive advantage. The question is no longer whether to act, but how quickly organisations can move from awareness to action – and whether they are ready for what comes next.

​Let’s leave the closing words to Tim Nelson, CEO of Hope for Justice and Slave-Free Alliance: “The energy, openness and shared purpose throughout the day were remarkable, across sectors and industries. This conference showed us that when businesses, investors, innovators and advocates come together, real progress follows.”

​Hope for Justice

Hope for Justice, headquartered in Manchester, is a charity working to bring freedom from human trafficking and modern slavery with an effective and proven multi-disciplinary model. Its programmes and training initiatives in the UK, USA, Ethiopia and Uganda reach just under 150,000 adults and children each year. Its wholly owned social enterprise, Slave-Free Alliance, provides services to companies and public bodies in countries including the UK, USA and Australia that are seeking to protect their operations and supply chains against the risks of modern slavery and labour exploitation. It offers a pioneering membership programme as well as training, consultancy, site assessments and more.

​

Special thanks from Tim Nelson: “I am so grateful to Marc Stanton, Rachel Hartley, Maria Villablanca and everyone else who helped organise the day and make the event such a major success, and to our lead sponsor, Exiger, for making it possible.”

Author

Nell Walker

Published

7 April 2026

Estimated Read time

5Mins

Alex Saric, Ivalua’s CMO, tells us how supply chain is shifting and where AI is succeeding – as well as where it’s lagging

Last month, we attended Ivalua NOW 2026, joining 1,500+ supply chain professionals in Paris to get an up-to-date view of the landscape. As part of this vibrant event we sat down with Alex Saric, Chief Marketing Officer of Ivalua, to dig into some of the ways the industry has shifted and evolved in recent years – and the role AI has to play.

In an article that Saric wrote for our sister brand, CPOstrategy, back in 2019, he said that organisations were under more pressure than ever to innovate at speed. Seven years on, the world has drastically changed. Between COVID-19 and the lightning-fast acceleration of AI, supply chain has evolved to an unprecedented degree. So the question is: what does innovating at speed look like in 2026 compared to 2019?

“Back then, we were still driving traditional source-to-pay digitalisation and providing the transparency that’s still needed in this more uncertain, volatile world,” says Saric. “That volatility only increases every year. I think most people, probably me included, assumed that it would calm down. But I’d say, in 2026, the impetus is on making AI – and particularly agentic AI – the kind of tool you want it to be. From something that answers a question for you to something that really executes and drives more output from procurement. It’s really about taking it from pilot to production at a rapid pace, where it’s actually driving business impact.”

Changing variables

Back in 2019, nobody could have predicted the acceleration of AI in the supply chain – not even Saric. “What’s interesting is that even if you go back five or 10 years, people were talking about the commoditisation of procurement technology, which has become relatively easy to use. The capabilities are getting smaller. If anything, that has now accelerated with AI and the disparities between one organisation and another are even higher. But no, I couldn’t have predicted this level of acceleration.”

Things have evolved even since 2025. At last year’s Ivalua NOW, Saric said that “the increasingly uncertain sourcing and procurement landscape is forcing the industry to assess the impact on organisations, reassess supply strategies, and it’s all happening so fast”. When asked if that is different now, the answer is a firm “no” – but the variables do keep changing.

“It’s almost as if you’re viewing the entire supply strategy as a game. For a while, there are clear optimisation strategies to sourcing that everyone is focused on and implementing,” says Saric. “But then, suddenly, all the rules change. It’s one thing if they change just once and you adapt, set different parameters, and optimise again. But the problem now is that they change overnight, and you have no idea when. That’s a massively complicated environment for procurement. Their job has become exponentially more difficult.”

AI isn’t transformational (yet)

It’s a topic both Saric and Franck Lheureux, Ivalua’s CEO, touched on during the introduction to Ivalua NOW 2026: that things have never been more difficult for supply chain professionals. Even with the wider (and more confident) use of AI across the industry, the pace of change and the geopolitical risks and pressures weigh heavier than ever. In fact, according to Saric, AI’s impact has hardly been transformational – yet.

“The nature of enterprise technology is that it’s always a bit slower to get adopted and rolled out,” he explains. “There’s extra scrutiny, there’s change management; all these factors that have to be considered compared to consumer technology. The biggest changes last year were theoretical for the most part. There were very few organisations actually using AI in a way that’s driving value. A sizable minority of our customers are using it actively in production and they’re driving value from it. The step which still needs to come is moving from having it as a handy assistant or a way to get information faster, and actually driving a difference in how people work.”

This isn’t going to happen overnight. However, Saric expects to have customers onstage at Ivalua NOW 2027 who have completely changed their way of working via AI, and that most businesses will be using it to some extent. It is certainly creating efficiencies and values, even if it’s a slow process. For example, the application of AI for user experience is proving to be one area where it’s coming into its own.

“It’s really enabled procurement to become a much more conversational experience,” Saric explains. “Broadly, that’s the biggest impact so far. But besides that, it’s also helping make better decisions to identify contracts that have certain clauses to drive standardisation and conduct assessments with suppliers. If there’s a performance issue or you want to suggest improvement plans, AI can also help with drafting RFPs. 

“There’s a whole range of pretty distinct skills that are saving a lot of time. In many cases, it’s bringing information and insights to the fingertips of the procurement users, rather than them wasting hours looking for that information.”

The procurement-IT alliance

More than technological advances like AI, strong inter-communication between procurement and the broader business is a key to success in modern organisations. Saric hosted a conversation during Ivalua NOW based around the collaboration between procurement and IT, and how to approach this partnership effectively. During this, he delved into his 25 years in the industry to guide the conversation. 

“What I’ve consistently seen is that the most successful procurement digitalisation projects typically had strong collaboration with IT,” says Saric. “With AI, it’s even more important. You really have to understand AI and ensure you’re not exposing your organisation to potential security risks, or violating other policies. There’s a lot of technical detail that needs to be understood.”

He continues: “IT is the department that’s best positioned to help guide procurement through that process. The second thing is that there needs to be proactive engagement upfront with executive sponsorship from both procurement and IT. You can’t simply slap an AI tool on top of a broken foundation and think that it will be able to find and decipher all the issues in your data. Having the right foundation is critical, and that’s another reason why IT is an important partner for procurement.”

  • Events
  • Together in Events

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

2 April 2026

Estimated Read time

6Mins

Tulsi Narayan, Executive Vice President of Commercial and New Payment Flows, Europe at Mastercard, on how outdated, legacy procurement systems can cause inefficiencies, high costs, and payment delays, and how organisations can successfully modernise operations with embedded payment and digital procurement tools.

Inefficiency, high costs and payment delays are some of the areas most feared by procurement leaders.

But today, many businesses continue to rely on manual invoice and payment workflows because legacy systems are deeply embedded in core finance operations. As a result, modernisation of back-end infrastructure is often delayed in favour of upgrading customer-facing technology, and many organisations perceive upgrading as risky, complex, or costly. 

Speaking exclusively to CPOstrategy, Tulsi Narayan, Executive Vice President of Commercial and New Payment Flows, Europe at Mastercard, explains why this uncertainty about the value a more digital approach could deliver, combined with ongoing pressures to reduce costs and maximise efficiency, often increases organisational risk aversion, reinforcing reliance on familiar manual processes rather than investment in digital transformation.

As a way of introducing yourself, can you please provide a brief intro as to you and your role please?

Tulsi Narayan: “In my role as Executive Vice President of Commercial and New Payment Flows, Europe at Mastercard, I lead our efforts to modernise supply chain payments and enable seamless, digital business transactions across the region.

“My team and I focus on pushing innovation forward, delivering solutions across commercial cards, B2B payables and receivables, bill payments, and domestic and cross‑border money movement. At the heart our work is helping businesses digitise, scale, and thrive in an ever‑changing landscape.”

Can you explain how outdated legacy systems cause inefficiencies and problems for companies? What is the true cost to organisations?

Tulsi Narayan: “Outdated legacy systems were not built to support modern digital tools and are therefore often time-intensive and labour-heavy, requiring significant human effort to complete routine tasks or correct errors from manual processing. This can lead to payment delays, operational disruptions, strained supplier relationships, and reduced competitiveness.

“Additionally, as regulatory and reporting requirements continue to evolve, manual and fragmented legacy processes can make meeting these obligations more resource-intensive and costly.

“Digitising financial processes addresses these challenges by enhancing automation, providing data-driven insights, improving security, and freeing up time for more strategic work, ultimately boosting efficiency and reducing errors. 

“Take embedded finance, which is reshaping B2B payments by integrating financial services, like virtual card technology, directly into the tools businesses already use; ERP systems, procurement platforms, and industry-specific applications. 

“In fact, 73% of those already using embedded finance in their procurement and payable processes say it has had a significant impact on enabling less manual work, and 84% agree that virtual cards specifically have strengthened their business’ relationship with suppliers. “

Where do Chief Procurement Officers and procurement leaders need to start if they want to modernise operations with embedded payment and digital procurement tools?

Tulsi Narayan: “As technology capabilities have advanced, business appetite for adoption has grown in parallel. Research shows that 93% of suppliers view procurement digitisation as a priority. So, while many organisations still rely on manual and paper-based workflows, there is clear momentum to embrace digital tools that improve efficiency, strengthen supplier relationships, and drive growth.

“For CPOs and procurement leaders, modernisation begins with a thorough assessment of procurement and payment processes to uncover inefficiencies, manual touchpoints, and bottlenecks that slow operations. While addressing these immediate priorities, it’s also important to consider solutions and capabilities that support strategic growth and long-term value, whether that be through automation, improved cash flow management, or enhanced data insights for example. 

“Even with the right technology, progress can stall due to internal resistance, unclear ownership between procurement and finance, or a lack of executive sponsorship. Aligning stakeholders around shared objectives and new ways of working is often one of the biggest challenges, particularly in large, complex organisations.

“Collaboration with payment partners can accelerate transformation, empowering procurement leaders to select the right technologies and capture measurable value from digitising procure-to-pay processes.

“Mastercard supports businesses at every stage of this journey, delivering secure, scalable, and automated procure-to-pay solutions. By embedding payments into procurement workflows, organisations reduce friction, increase control and visibility, and enable procurement teams to focus on strategic priorities rather than transaction management.”

What are some of the biggest success stories that you are seeing as a result of modernised procurement systems?

Tulsi Narayan: “One organisation that comes to mind is GEP, a leading provider of procurement and supply chain software. We recently partnered with GEP to integrate our virtual card capabilities into its platform, helping businesses manage B2B payments more efficiently. 

“Digital wallets are growing increasingly popular, with 81% of virtual card users agreeing that use of digital cards has strengthened their company’s relationships with suppliers. For GEP, using virtual cards allowed them to simplify their payment process, with buyers able to issue secure virtual cards automatically once a purchase is approved, removing the need for manual invoicing, while speeding up reconciliation and strengthening both security and compliance. 

“For GEP, working with Mastercard to introduce virtual card capabilities has resulted in faster and easier payments across all suppliers and buyers, and improved the day-to-day efficiencies, ensuring that their customers have more time to focus on the strategy side of their business.”

What are the biggest challenges in the way of procurement leaders on this journey today? 

Tulsi Narayan: “Whilst procurement leaders are often held back by the perceived effort and cost of upgrading legacy systems, concerns about security and fraud in modern digital solutions can also add to this hesitation.

“Of those who do not currently use embedded finance tools, 63% cite trust and risk concerns as a barrier to using embedded finance, with many anxious that new innovations will make them more vulnerable to attacks.

“Reality paints a different picture. The majority (74%) of business leaders that use embedded finance say it has had a significant impact on reducing fraud risks for their business, while users with virtual card programmes are more than twice as likely to say stronger compliance and fraud controls are a benefit of using embedded finance.

“The concern that digitisation will make companies less secure is holding many businesses back from the benefits of digital, automated tools. Modern, digital finance solutions can enhance visibility and control, improve risk management, and increase security, giving businesses greater confidence in their financial operations.”

In your view, what might the future of procurement look like?

Tulsi Narayan: “As with most sectors, procurement will become increasingly data-driven and intelligent. 

“With automation and advanced analytics, organisations will be able to anticipate demand, manage supply chain risk earlier, and optimise working capital more effectively. Automation is designed to enhance, not replace, supporting routine transactional work, freeing procurement teams to focus on strategy and value creation.

“At Mastercard, we support businesses in strengthening supply chain sustainability and resilience by embedding automation, intelligence, and flexibility into the procurement process. Solutions such as virtual cards play a pivotal role in working capital management, helping to keep supply chains moving efficiently by enabling buyers to pay, and suppliers to receive payment, faster.

“Ultimately, the future of procurement will see it serve as a strategic driver, powered by secure, scalable and automated digital tools that empower organisations to make smarter decisions, control costs, and build more resilient supply chains.” 

Read the full issue here!

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

Estimated Read time

6Mins

Dr David Feavearyear, Managing Director of Procurement Solutions at Liberty Blume, explores the role procurement plays in business transformation, particularly how organisations can create impact through capability, culture, and digital innovation.

At the risk of stating the obvious, the pace of change has never been faster – and it’s still accelerating. Over the past two years, most organisations have barely absorbed the implications of generative AI before being hit with the next wave of digitisation: agentic AI, autonomous decisioning, and increasingly sophisticated back-office automation. The challenge is no longer identifying new technology. It’s separating genuine value from noise, and turning blind optimism or fear into business outcomes. The truth is straightforward: technology is evolving far quicker than most organisations’ ability to adapt.

Despite the hype, the underlying principles of transformation remain constant. Liberty Blume’s Transform to Outperform study with FT Longitude reinforces what many of us in procurement have long known: sustainable transformation is rooted in people, process, data and technology – possibly in that order. You cannot automate dysfunction, nor can you hire your way out of broken processes. Real value comes from aligning behind measurable outcomes first, and then enabling the organisation to deliver at scale.

What is changing, however, is the urgency. As the report highlights, nearly 80% of business leaders expect transformation to be the primary driver of growth within the next two years. Organisations that have embraced agile, tech-enabled operating models are already outperforming their peers across revenue, productivity, cost efficiency and compliance. Those that haven’t are struggling to keep pace. It is becoming an existential challenge. 

And this is where procurement has a once-in-a-generation opportunity.

Procurement’s moment of reckoning

Historically, procurement has battled outdated perceptions: a function focused on process policing, supplier administration and risk containment. But the market is shifting decisively. 

The best procurement teams are no longer cost guardians – they unlock value. They are leveraging data, market intelligence and automation to accelerate business decisions, unlock savings, strengthen supply resilience and support the enterprise’s strategic ambitions.

Platforms such as Sirion, for example, have fundamentally changed what’s possible in contracting. AI-generated redlines, automated clause libraries, obligations tracking and intelligent contract repositories reduce cycle times dramatically. Processes that previously took weeks can be reduced to hours. However, adopting tools like this requires something deeper than simply implementing software. It demands new ways of thinking, new skills, and a willingness to challenge long-standing habits. Why do many organisations still manually negotiate NDAs? Because “that’s how we’ve always done it”.

Similarly, sourcing is being reimagined. Technologies like Fairmarkit enable teams to generate RFPs, score responses, and even run autonomous negotiations in a fraction of the time traditional approaches require. The question isn’t whether the technology works – it clearly does. The question is whether organisations are prepared to evolve their operating models to take advantage of it. 

Fear of the unknown remains the biggest barrier to progress.

A shift from enterprise suites to best-of-breed

For years, organisations defaulted to large ERP suites, and labour arbitrage as the answer to back-office complexity. But the Transform to Outperform study shows a decisive shift: agility now trumps monolithic design. “Best-of-breed” is becoming the architecture of choice, driven by speed of deployment, richer functionality, and the ability to innovate quickly without heavy enterprise-wide change programmes.

This shift is uncomfortable for traditional consulting partners, who grew accustomed to multi-year transformation programmes. But it’s a win for organisations ready to embrace targeted, outcome-driven interventions supported by modern integration layers and AI-enabled orchestration.

At Liberty Blume, we’ve embraced this shift fully, and are helping our customers on this journey. Across finance operations, procurement, payments, and specialty finance, we have built proprietary technologies that automate high-volume manual processes – from accounts payable to journal production – and free expert talent to focus on higher-value activities. Our work in process-capturing technology directly addresses Polanyi’s Paradox: i.e. that people know more than they can articulate. By recording and analysing real-world behaviour, our tools translate tacit knowledge into codified, repeatable workflows that can be automated at scale. The result is thousands of hours returned to the business and an uplift in quality, consistency and auditability.

Dr David Feavearyear

Transformation is now continuous

One of the strongest findings in the Transform to Outperform report is that organisations are “well past the ‘transform and done’ mindset.” Transformation is no longer a one-off programme – it’s a continuous capability. As Natalie Douglas, Liberty Blume’s CFO, notes, systems and processes must be designed for adaptability, because rapid change is now the norm, not the exception.

This message resonates across functions, but procurement is certainly not exempt from pressure to modernise. The report reveals that while HR and procurement play critical roles in accelerating enterprise transformation, both functions lag in demonstrating their full strategic potential. Nearly one-third of organisations believe procurement could deliver more value than it currently does – a finding that should sharpen the focus for all CPOs.

The human factor: Talent, mindset and change leadership

Technology does not deliver transformation – people do. And as the study highlights, the organisations outperforming their peers tend to invest equally across four pillars:

  1. Data infrastructure
  2. A skilled and agile workforce
  3. Technology integration
  4. Effective change management

Procurement leaders must curate talent that blends commercial acumen, digital literacy, and business partnering capability. Just as importantly, they must foster a culture where curiosity is rewarded, experimentation is safe, and adopting new tools is embraced rather than feared. Balancing technology and talent is the secret sauce to unlocking value. 

Change management is too often treated as a communications exercise. It is not. It is a behavioural shift. If procurement wants credibility as a transformation partner, it must demonstrate change leadership, not just technical competence.

Why CPOs are uniquely positioned to lead

The most successful organisations understand that procurement sits at the intersection of spend, risk, sustainability, innovation, and supplier performance. No other function has visibility across so many commercial levers and external market forces. This makes procurement an extraordinary catalyst for enterprise-wide value creation.

But leadership requires courage:

  • Courage to challenge outdated processes.
  • Courage to adopt new operating models.
  • Courage to change the skills and expectations of the function.
  • Courage to embed technology that disrupts the familiar.

Procurement is no longer a back-office function. It is a strategic engine for growth, resilience, innovation and efficiency.

Conclusion: The window of opportunity

The next two years will define which organisations thrive and become increasingly obsolescent. Procurement has a narrow but powerful window to lead the charge. By combining modern technology with human expertise, by embracing continuous transformation, and by anchoring everything in business outcomes, procurement can, and must, become a central catalyst for change.

The tools are ready. The insights are clear. The opportunity is now.

It’s time for procurement and the back, and middle office, to transform and outperform.

Read the full issue here!

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

Estimated Read time

3Mins

In this article, CPOstrategy explores five of the best ways to power a procurement transformation.

Clearly define goals

Every procurement transformation must start with a clear framework of how to achieve success. Leaders should define the objectives of a procurement transformation programme with measurable goals along the way that are aligned with the overall organisation’s strategy. These goals should go beyond simply cost savings and include the likes of value creation, risk mitigation, resilience and support for the wider business strategy. Transformations can fail when goals are vague or lack purpose which is why providing a clear direction can help position a procurement function in the right direction. Procurement isn’t transactional, it is a strategic value generator.

Create a detailed procurement roadmap

Once goals are clearly defined, the next part of a procurement transformation project should be about creating a roadmap on how to get there. Procurement transformations are filled with complexity so without a structured way forward, the path could get muddy. A roadmap should include analysis of current processes, areas for improvement and a playbook to meet objectives and achieve success. Key stakeholders should be able to see progress to ensure all parties are in alignment and on the same page with the pace.

growth in business and finance, growing graphs and charts with statistics and digits

Secure leadership buy-in

All procurement transformations need leadership support. Without buy-in, adoption won’t take off and resistance to change management will take place. Procurement leaders should seek to identify champions from senior management within the organisation to communicate its importance throughout the workforce and to allocate the necessary resources to achieving it. It is a key reason why clear goals and a roadmap should be defined prior to securing leadership buy-in as it will allow the vision to be trusted and should mean greater investment in the journey.

Leverage data analytics

Data is an important tool for any modern day Chief Procurement Officer. Data can be used for a plethora of different purposes including obtaining deeper insights into market trends or supplier performance and as a result powering better decision-making. Leveraging data analytics throughout the procurement process will help keep leaders on track and provide metrics and KPIs to measure against. Against a challenging and ever-changing geopolitical backdrop, procurement must transition from reactive to predictive. Analytics transforms procurement from a reporting function to a strategic advisor to the business.

Get suppliers on board

Success is difficult to achieve alone – procurement needs suppliers. Working in close collaboration with key, strategic partners will unlock significant value for procurement leaders and their teams. Building mutually beneficial and trusted relationships can act as a competitive advantage for organisations and help achieve transformation goals quicker. Engaging suppliers is important because it improves adoption of new tools and processes while also unlocking innovation and joint value creation. Engaging suppliers also ensures the external ecosystem evolves alongside internal changes.

Read the new issue here!

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

Estimated Read time

11Mins

Alistair Cane and Steve Ueckermann, Co-Founders of Axiom, discuss why tail spend is such a prominent issue for procurement teams and explain how their organisation is providing the solution.

Tail spend stands today as one of procurement’s most stubborn problems. 

It is unmanaged spend typically for low-value or infrequent purchases such as the likes of office supplies and other one-off purchases – accounting for around a fifth of a company’s overall procurement expenditure.

Tail spend can be a significant source of inefficiency for organisations and result in hidden costs, fragmented supplier relationships as well as missed saving opportunities.

Despite significant transformations, tail spend always seems to linger – not because teams aren’t trying to close the loop, but because existing solutions have never quite managed it.

Managing tail spend

Recognising this problem is Axiom Co-Founders Alistair Cane and Steve Ueckermann. During lengthy careers in procurement, they have felt this frustration first-hand and in Ueckermann’s mind, he believes the fundamental issue of tail spend is the fact it is structurally inconvenient for all involved. 

“It’s really too fragmented for procurement to manage manually, too low value per transaction for finance to scrutinise it and really invisible enough that nobody actually owns it,” he explains. “So both teams know that the problem exists, but the big issue here is the efforts managed. It’s always been outweighed by the perceived return that you get from it. I think this is where AI used properly can reduce the effort involved.”

Cane agrees with Ueckermann and adds that the key element is that users often need to purchase the products and services they need quickly. As a result, when it comes to tail spend, users will take the path that presents the least resistance possible in order to get where they need to go. “Often it’s not an issue of the system failing them, it’s just not serving them correctly,” explains Cane. “Users need things fast so they can get back to their day job. Think of the toolset that’s available to most organisations and their Source-to-Pay systems, they are geared to managing big strategic purchases. You’re talking weeks when it comes to the timescale it takes to onboard a new supplier in a Source-to-Pay environment in an enterprise organisation. That’s far too long for users who need to buy something in the next day or so.” 

One of the biggest challenges with managing tail spend is that sometimes the cost of overseeing it is greater than the value of the purchase itself. “When you think about how people categorise and define tail spend, people do it very differently,” explains Cane. “Most people would use a 80/20 rule, or they might use a spend threshold level. But ultimately what happens when you look at procurement organisations is they may only have 20% of their spend sitting in the tail, but they’ve actually got 80% of their resources trying to control this activity in an incredibly manual way.”

“The other area is the payment,” adds Ueckermann. “The payment layer is almost always completely disconnected from procurement. Even when the buying side is handled well, the moment the transaction hits accounts payable (AP), the data and compliance trail is broken. There’s a gap there that never gets closed and it’s where unmanaged spend lives.”

Alistair Cane

Data challenge

Buying and paying have historically been treated as separate actions and Ueckermann explains the reasoning lies within the data. “When you unify them, something fundamental changes and the guardrails on the buying side, approved suppliers, category controls, budget thresholds – these apply at the moment of payment,” he says. “You can’t circumvent procurement by going around AP because they’re in the same system. Today, they are definitely two different areas because you have a buyer going out and making a decision outside of procurement’s remit, and you’ve got the payment happening blindly through AP or Viacard with no backing data. When you get to look at the data, there’s normally not enough information there to actually understand what was bought.”

Indeed, as far as Cane is concerned, the importance of getting the data right cannot be underestimated. In his view, when that part is operating as it should be, the resulting transformation from a controller management perspective is significant. “When we look at the enterprise organisations that we’re dealing with, often we’ll ask them for a breakdown of their data,” discusses Cane. “It’s not unusual for the largest category of spend to be classified as ‘Other’, simply because they can’t understand what’s being bought by who, and they can clearly see when, but they just don’t have the level of detail to really be able to even start to think about how to control this area. 

“When you make that transformation, what you can see is extraordinary – both from a management perspective and big picture thinking of how to evolve the management and proper category strategies. But at the moment, I think it’s fair to say most organisations are flying in the dark and tail spend is considered as an annoying element of spend that people would just prefer to turn their back on and look elsewhere.”

Axiom MarketPay

Traditionally, purchasing cards (P-Cards) were used to streamline, low-value transactions and help enable faster purchasing. These allowed for controlled spending, more efficiency and improved supplier relationships. However, one of the major drawbacks of P-Cards from a compliance perspective is that authorisation only happens retrospectively after the event has taken place.

This is where Axiom’s MarketPay solution comes in. MarketPay is built to handle the full tail spend flow instead of fragments of it. It operates on a disclosed procurement agency model – which means Axiom acts on the customer’s behalf instead of as an intermediary. Powered by its procurement agent, it automates the steps that typically slows everything down from validating request data to enforcing thresholds and compliance. Every payment also runs through a global payment account held in the customer’s name which allows the team to stay in control at all approval stages.

“With MarketPay, the way the platform works is that all of that compliance, the approval of suppliers and the budget sign-off, happens at the gate before the transaction or activity even happens,” explains Cane. “What that is also doing at that stage is capturing incredible levels of data, which then allow people to make really strategic decisions moving forward. The control moves from being a retrospective control to a pre-purchase control. You are putting the power of compliance in the hands of the platform, not the onus on the purchaser or the effort on the procurement person. You’re letting the platform do a lot of the heavy lifting and it’s a massive game-changer.”

Steve Ueckermann

Agentic AI boom

Procurement is in the midst of a new era – one defined through the likes of agentic AI and digital innovation. In recent years, agentic AI’s popularity has boomed and today most companies are leveraging agents in one way or another. The major benefit of agentic AI is that it doesn’t just respond to instructions or prompts in ways that generative AI tools like ChatGPT does, agentic AI is more like an engaged colleague – able to take on tasks such as analysing data to predict outcomes, identify goals and execute workflows. Ultimately, agentic AI is designed to free up procurement teams to focus on more strategic tasks such as managing supplier relationships while the AI handles the repetitive, mundane work. 

“One of the challenges that people have with procurement systems generally if you are not in procurement is they’re not particularly intuitive,” explains Cane. “You almost have to know where to go on a procurement system to actually enact a transaction. What the agentic capability does is allow people to talk to the system in natural language and the system will then prompt them in terms of what they need to do. That’s a real game-changer in terms of the user experience. 

“One of the things that we get from both procurement and the business is we just don’t want to be spending a huge amount of time on these transactions. When you can literally talk to the system and it is self-populating and making decisions on your behalf in terms of what suppliers you can go to and approve, it then becomes a tool that both practitioners and users across the business actually want to use.”

Ueckermann adds that Axiom’s solution is helping procurement teams move the needle from a reactive approach to one capable of engaging problems head-on. “This platform is continually monitoring spend patterns, flagging non-compliant behaviors, indicating consolidation opportunities, servicing and actioning insights,” he explains. “It’s not just a dashboard, it’s actively involved in the process. 

“Across tail specifically, we don’t really have dedicated category management – it’s a piece that gets ignored entirely. What we’ve created is a system that backfills that gap in human intervention and makes it easy. That’s where agentic AI can fill the gap and the platform becomes the category manager of the long tail.”

Gone are the days of procurement sitting siloed and out of the way of the action. Today, the function stands as a driving force within an organisation with evolutionary technology tools in their possession to power transformation journeys. Cane reveals that “procurement has done procurement for the sake of it for too long” and what they want to do now is put the tools and platforms in front of the users who actually want to use them. 

“I think procurement’s great desire has always been to get spend under management,” stresses Cane. “In the traditional world, that means under people. What we’re looking at now is terminology that talks about spend under control and the control is being delivered through the technology. With control comes better data and with better data comes better insights and opportunities. What we’re seeing is a change in procurement mindset from a police or admin centre to managing these transactions to a really valuable part of the organisation that can make strategic decisions because they can see exactly what’s happening when and why.

“The ability to talk to the technology and ask it to run and generate reports while highlighting opportunities for insights and improvement is a complete game-changer because that was what was missing in procurement previously. Prior to this, people were sitting there throwing data at analyst teams hoping that they could put some shape around the data, let alone drive insights. It’s making a massive difference.”

Procurement’s evolution

Back in 2020, Axiom was founded with a mantra of doing something different. For Ueckermann and Cane, they have both witnessed first-hand the damage inaccurate data can do to the function and made it their mission to solve that procurement pain.

“It was always down to, ‘Oh, this is what I think, this is my gut feel, or what is the consensus amongst a number of procurement people.’ That’s just how decisions were made but I think we can move that on now to agnostic decision-making where you’re making objective decisions because the machine is being totally objective about that. When you’re talking about strategic procurement,you need the experience, the gut feel and the consensus but with tail spend it sits very comfortably with AI and the whole agentic piece.”

Cane adds that upon starting Axiom, the organisation had a mission to deliver insight and outcomes. He explains that their frustration from a collective 50 years of experience in procurement was that procurement professionals have been looking in the wrong place. “At the start of a transaction anywhere in the tail, if the technology is enabling you to capture the right data and make decisions on that data, then from day one you’ve got clean data into the platform,” explains Cane. “From there, every single transaction and activity that goes through the platform is recorded, it can be analysed and assessed, and it can be part of the data set that then the agents can go to work on to understand what’s happening. 

“There is going to be a fundamental shift between people leaving that old world of worrying about terrible data sitting in the ERP systems. With the technology now we are capturing clean data, and we’re using that technology to really understand what that data is telling us. We’re going beyond that to actually understand what decisions can then be made using that data and scenario planning. Then it is about putting that information in front of the buyer to make the right decision which is the fundamental shift. To my mind, procurement then stops being this procurement for procurement sake entity that sits in a hole somewhere in a business and starts to become a real value add to the buyers across the organisation.”

Future

Looking forward, few could argue procurement is in its most exciting period ever with an array of digital solutions at its fingertips to make life easier for leaders and their teams. It is clear the advantage lies within leveraging digital solutions to manage tail spend or risk inefficiencies and hidden costs creeping into the bottom line. Ueckermann believes that the next frontier of spend management is not far away from being realised. “I think the future is a world where spend is spend, not tail spend and strategic spend, it is all spend,” he explains. “And you can get there with proper data, fix the data in your tail, and do it properly with a platform like Axiom. Then the problem will go away.

“We’re not there yet, but as soon as the data improves and the models are trained, we will see that shift happen at a huge pace. There is a world where Axiom won’t even have a UI, it will just be a box that does things automatically. And that’s really where we think it will ultimately get to.”

“Spend is spend and it goes from spend that is either managed or unmanaged to all spend being under control,” adds Cane. “And that makes all the difference.”

Read the new issue here!

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

Estimated Read time

4Mins

Sean Park, Vice President, Procurement, AP and Transformation at Arm on redefining his organisation’s function

Arm: Unleashing SPORT to power procurement transformation

This month’s cover story features Sean Park, Vice President, Procurement, AP and Transformation at Arm, who reveals how an accelerated procurement transformation journey is redefining his organisation’s function.

When it comes to driving rapid procurement transformation, few are better equipped than Sean Park. Today, Park serves as Vice President, Procurement, AP and Transformation, at Arm and has reinvented the organisation’s procurement function since he joined the company in August 2023.

But the path to Arm has been an interesting and varied one for Park who has enjoyed a storied career. Having grown up in New York City, Park’s education led him to Arizona State University where he took part in a semester abroad to Germany. This move marked the beginning of a lifelong drive to experience life and work abroad, and he later spent significant time in Czechia, the Netherlands, Germany, Brazil and Japan.

It was only after returning to the United States after his first few international stints that Park first got involved with procurement and was even nicknamed ‘the procurement guy’ at a consulting firm…

Read the full story of Park’s incredible career inside!

Napco Trading: Procurement’s evolution into a front-line growth function

George Jreige, procurement manager of traded goods at Napco Trading, shares how procurement has become a strategic enabler of growth as the business expands across categories, partnerships, and markets…

The organisations willing to adapt are those that succeed. This is especially true at Napco Trading, which grew from foundations laid by its parent company in 1956 and has expanded from manufacturing into trading and

distribution. That growth required moving procurement closer to market entry, regulatory readiness, and supply continuity.

George Jreige, procurement manager of traded goods at Napco Trading, explains: “Procurement is no longer a function of ‘get me three quotes, and we’ll go with the best price’. It is a strategic function that creates value through realising the five rights of procurement.

Legacy scale with entrepreneurial agility This year marks the 70th anniversary of the wider organisation. “Napco National started as a small paper factory in the eastern province in Saudi Arabia in 1956, and it has witnessed exponential growth since then,” says Jreige. “We now boast a network of more than 19 factories distributed between Saudi Arabia and the UAE, with a solid global export network.”

That legacy now sits alongside a more entrepreneurial model inside the organisation. “When I joined in 2021, Napco Trading was three years old,” explains Jreige. “Back then, our core was selling our own manufactured products and our private label. The biggest transformation was in 2024 when we stepped out of our comfort zone. This is when we introduced our cereals and pet food categories and started doing distribution agreements. From this came new partnerships — with Diageo, Panasonic, and Moet Hennessy , for example.”

For Jreige, partnerships like these are about more than adding well-known names. They also add operational complexity, exposing the procurement team to new categories and route-to-market demands… Read the full story inside!

Elsewhere, we also feature insightful interviews with Malcolm Dare, Executive Director, Commercial at Sizewell C, who reveals all on building a lasting legacy in Suffolk, plus, Brian Steward, Director of Operations at Amazon Business, discusses how Amazon Business leverages Amazon’s world-class delivery and fulfillment network while addressing unique challenges that distinguish business customers from traditional consume. And we have revealing reports from the Manifest conference in Las Vegas… and lots, lots more!

Enjoy!

Author

Nell Walker

Published

26 March 2026

Estimated Read time

3Mins

Ivalua announced the winners of its annual global customer and partner awards at Ivalua NOW in Paris.

Ivalua’s customer awards recognise organisations that demonstrate exceptional impact, innovation, and tangible business outcomes. This year’s winners featured exceptional use of AI in procurement, rapid deployment, and effective supplier data management.

2026 Customer Award winners:

  • Technology Innovation and Excellence Award: Hutchinson
  • Procurement Trailblazer – Making a Difference: Körber
  • Procurement Community Team Spirit: TÜV SÜD
  • Best New Deployment: IPC International

IPC International commented: “This recognition celebrates the success of our Source-to-Contract deployment, which wouldn’t have been possible without exceptional collaboration”. “It shows how teamwork, strong partnerships, and a phased and structured approach to roll-out, can deliver digital transformation at pace,” noted Jenny Eisen, IPC International Project Lead.

Franck Lheureux, CEO at Ivalua, added: “Our customers’ achievements show the power of effectively combining people, technology, and processes. We are proud to support leading organisations worldwide and help them accelerate their ambitious transformation goals. Congratulations to this year’s award winners; we are honoured to be part of your journey.”

Read our overview of Ivalua NOW 2026 here

The partner awards recognize contributions to the success of Ivalua and its customers over the past year, based on joint business initiatives and the growth of certified consultants.

Partner Awards winners:

  • Global Partner of the Year: Deloitte
  • EMEA Partner of the Year: Capgemini 
  • AMER Partner of the Year: Deloitte 
  • APAC Partner of the Year: KPMG

Ivalua also recognized eight Value Award winners: KPMG (Northern Europe), PwC (Southern Europe/Middle East), Axys (France/Belux), Accenture (Procurement Transformation), Optis (Collaboration). Sourcing Champions (Channel Sales), Modali Consulting (Project Excellence), and Deloitte India (Ivalua Practice Development).

“From enabling organisations to fully harness our technology to helping us drive innovation, our partners play a vital role in Ivalua’s growth. The continued expansion of our partner ecosystem and community of certified Ivalua experts demonstrates the strong momentum we’re achieving together,” added Gabriel Giret, VP Global Alliances & Academy at Ivalua. “Congratulations to this year’s winners and thanks to all our partners for their ongoing, outstanding support.” 

Ivalua significantly expanded its partner ecosystem in the past year as Ivalua continued to gain market share and partner interest. Certified implementation consultants grew by 27% worldwide to over 3,100. Similarly, technology partners grew by 39% as Ivalua rapidly expanded its ecosystem. Ivalua is the Source-to-Pay platform of choice for many technology partners due to Ivalua’s comprehensive, extensible data model and intelligent workflows. Partner data can be fully captured in Ivalua’s platform and used to guide intelligent workflows, automatically driving customer spending based on company policies and changing market conditions.

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Author

Andrew Woods

Published

24 March 2026

Estimated Read time

2Mins

Royanna Chappell and Rick Goe reveal a transformation that moves fulfilment operations towards adaptable, software-driven operations

At Manifest 2026, conversations about supply chain transformation centre not just on automation itself, but on how organisations design operations to remain adaptable in uncertain markets. That theme comes sharply into focus during a joint discussion with Royanna Chappell, VP Business Development at Ocado Intelligent Automation, and Rick Goe, SVP Supply Chain at Distribution Management who detail an innovative and highly fruitful partnership.

From constraint to capability

Distribution Management, through its DM Fulfilment Services division, provides D2C and omnichannel fulfilment for brands and retailers. Built on a foundation of traditional distribution operations, the company increasingly supports fast-moving e-commerce clients whose product ranges and order profiles change constantly.

That shift, however, exposes the limits of conventional warehouse design.

“As we brought on third-party fulfilment into our product mix, we had SKU proliferation,” says Goe, SVP Supply Chain at Distribution Management. “Those SKUs got further and further away from the conveyor belt, which required our employees to walk, creating inefficiencies and productivity declines. It even had an impact on employee morale.”

Facility leases nearing expiration forced a strategic decision. Rather than retrofit ageing conveyor-heavy sites, the company chose to rethink its operating model entirely. “We had to decide who we wanted to be three years from that period all the way up to ten years,” Goe explains. “Did we want to invest in what we had, or be proactive and design for growth?”

For Chappell, VP Business Development at Ocado Intelligent Automation, flexibility is the defining advantage. “The reason I find AMRs so attractive is the adaptability,” she says. “Other technologies didn’t give operators this freedom. We took travel out of the equation and allowed people to be where work is, with work brought to them.”

Read the full story here!

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Author

Andrew Woods

Published

Estimated Read time

3Mins

We met up with leaders at CHEP, Elida Beauty, Sun Pharma, Stanford Medicine and Covenant Logistics, to hear how strategy is being remodelled

Supply chain resilience is no longer about recovery from isolated shocks. Leaders now describe disruption as continuous and systemic, demanding fundamentally different organisational thinking.

​Sandra Leyva Martinez, Head of Sustainability, CHEP Americas, explains that organisations must prepare for overlapping risks as opposed to isolated events: “We don’t have one crisis at a time anymore. Multiple events spanning environmental, social, political and technological forces are happening simultaneously and often amplifying one another. That changes how you think about resilience. It’s no longer about predicting what might happen. It’s about building systems that respond quickly and intelligently when things happen, and making sure collaboration and transparency exist across the value chain so organisations can move together rather than react in isolation.”

Sachin Mariguddi, Chief Supply Chain Officer, Elida Beauty believes resilience is as much cultural as operational: “The rate of change is accelerating so fast that waiting to react is no longer viable. Organisations have to lean into change, experiment, learn quickly and adapt continuously. Supply chains that succeed will be those that treat uncertainty as normal and build the capability to respond in real time rather than trying to predict every disruption in advance.”

Vickram Srivastava, Head of Supply Chain North America, urges leaders to reset expectations entirely: “Supply chain disruption is here to stay. Whether it’s geopolitical tension, climate events, trade shifts or operational bottlenecks, variability is now part of the system. Leaders must reset expectations with partners, build multiple scenarios and ensure they can respond quickly when disruption occurs rather than assuming stability will return.”

Amanda Chawla, SVP Chief Supply Chain and Post Acute Care Officer, Stanford Medicine says resilience must be built into organisational architecture: “I have to change the way I fundamentally think about resiliency – from an infrastructure standpoint, from a data standpoint, from a team and analytics standpoint. It requires redesigning how decisions are made, how information flows and how quickly we can respond when supply conditions change.”

Matt McLelland, Vice President of Sustainability and Innovation, Covenant Logistics highlights operational execution: “Resilience and sustainability both come down to what actually happens on the ground. In transport, that means understanding how freight moves every day and making practical decisions that work operationally, meet customer expectations and adapt to regulatory and market changes at the same time.”

Read the full story here!

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Author

Scott Luton

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Estimated Read time

2Mins

Supply Chain Now’s Scott Luton reveals an industry moving beyond AI hype to real-world execution

Manifest 2026 in Las Vegas felt different. One sharp friend of mine (Florent Guillet-Caillot) referred to it as a “a gigantic beehive, full of energy and enthusiasm for what the future holds.” And that was before the extra buzz generated with the networking happy hours that were prevalent amongst all the friendly folks in attendance.

I enjoyed the opportunity to connect with hundreds of colleagues and friends, lead a wonderful panel discussion, and conduct more than twenty interviews with leaders from across the supply chain ecosystem: operators, technologists, investors, educators, journalists, entrepreneurs and analysts.

And after all those conversations, several observations became clear to me. None are necessarily new, but they certainly represented a doubling and tripling down of major themes across the global supply chain industry. 

AI has moved from hype to execution

A couple of years ago, many conversations about AI in supply chain were still theoretical. At Manifest 2026, that wasn’t the case. In fact, my conversations in Las Vegas only added to my belief that those leaders that fail to take advantage of what has largely become the AI imperative…well, the costs to your competitive advantage have continued to rise dramatically.

In my conversation with Aadil Kazmi, Head of AI at Infios, he emphasized that the AI conversation has long shifted toward execution. Results are to be expected now; not demos and theoreticals.

One of the key points he raised was the power of unified data models. When order management, warehouse management, and transportation systems operate on the same foundation, organizations can actually act on intelligence rather than spending months stitching together fragmented datasets.

Read the full story here!

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Author

Andrew Woods

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Estimated Read time

2Mins

Barry Conlon and Brian Smith discuss how their organisations have spent 18 months deepening an integrated approach to freight execution

Supply chains can no longer treat freight security as a standalone function. It must be embedded across execution, technology and partnerships. To this end, Overhaul has built its reputation around supply chain risk management, combining real-time visibility, intelligence monitoring, incident response and cargo recovery services to help organisations protect high-value and sensitive freight. Overhaul’s platform aggregates operational and security data from multiple sources, applying analytics and monitoring to detect anomalies and manage risk across the shipment lifecycle, giving more control to shippers and LSPs. 

Banyan Technology sits closer to freight execution; its technology connecting shippers, brokers and logistics providers through integrated transportation management and data exchange tools that support planning, execution and financial settlement. The company’s role is to streamline freight decision-making while improving connectivity across participants within the transport process. 

The partnership between Overhaul and Banyan, 18 months old and counting, effectively links execution and protection into closer alignment. Banyan’s connectivity and workflow orchestration provide critical operational data, while Overhaul applies risk intelligence, real-time monitoring and coordinated  intervention capabilities. For both companies, this partnership reflects a wider shift across the industry. Security is moving closer to freight execution and has become part of day-to-day operational decision-making.

Unprecedented levels of freight fraud 

Cargo theft and freight fraud have long existed, but both highly-experienced executives describe a shift in intensity that is forcing the industry to rethink its defences. “I’ve just never seen such levels of, not just sophistication, but attempts, attacks against the supply chain,” says Conlon. “It’s at unprecedented levels.”  

Criminals exploit trusted relationships, operational speed and fragmented processes. They target breakpoints in the physical and digital movement of freight, moments where verification is weakest or processes slow down. The economics make the problem even more challenging. Conlon describes cargo theft as “vastly profitable and very low risk”, a combination that is attracting more organised actors into the space.  

Read the full story here!

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Author

Nell Walker

Published

11 March 2026

Estimated Read time

2Mins

Don’t miss out on this vital discussion around the human rights side of supply chain

ethica26, the human rights in supply chain leadership summit, is happening in London on the 17th of March. The event – presented by the Slave-Free Alliance, Hope for Justice, and Exiger – is a full day of expert talks and roundtable discussions, hosted at the Grand Connaught Rooms in London.

Don’t miss out – click here to request a place at the event.

Human rights violations threaten the operations, reputations, and resilience of supply chains all over the world. Businesses face growing regulatory, investor, and customer pressure to take a strong stance and make the correct decisions about human rights. ethica26 will bring together over 300 supply chain leaders across various industries to help chart and guide the future of more ethical supply chains.

The theme for this year’s event is From risk to resilience: Future-proofing supply chains. Read through the full agenda here.

Speakers for ethica26 include:

Tim Nelson

Co-Chair & CEO, Hope for Justice & Slave-Free Alliance

Dr. Laura Murphy

Professor of Human Rights and Contemporary Slavery & Co-Chair of ethica26, Sheffield Hallam University

Maria Villablanca

Moderator & Global Supply Chain Influencer, Maria Villablanca Consulting

Robert Williams

Senior Director, Sustainable Procurement, AstraZeneca

Lauren Elliott 

Global Head of Client Delivery, Exiger

Caroline Haughey OBE KC

Criminal Barrister, Furnival Chambers

Peter Nestor

Global Head of Human Rights, Novartis

Professor Dame Sara Thornton DBE QPM

Professor of Modern Slavery Policy at the Rights Lab, University of Nottingham

Eleanor Lyons

Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner (IASC)

Koray Köse

Futurist, Technology and AI Evangelist, Köse Advisory

…and many more.

Click here to request a place at the event and be part of the conversation.

This event extends beyond compliance. Secure your place today and join in the conversation.

  • Event Newsroom

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

4 March 2026

Estimated Read time

6Mins

The latest issue of CPOstrategy is now live and ready to read!

This month’s cover story features a truly insightful discussion with Gilles Néron, Vice President, Strategic Procurement at Air Canada, and Coralyn Ah-Moy, Senior Director of Procurement Transformation and Centre of Excellence who explain how a disciplined, people-led transformation is redefining value in one of the world’s most complex operating environments…

From source to strategy: How Air Canada rebuilt procurement as an enterprise enabler

When Air Canada launched its Unifier programme, the ambition went far beyond a conventional ERP upgrade. For the airline’s procurement function, it marked the moment to move from being a highly capable sourcing organisation to becoming a fully embedded enterprise partner, shaping cost discipline, operational performance and long-term value creation.

As Canada’s flag carrier, Air Canada operates in an environment defined by scale, complexity and constant volatility. Its procurement function must support a vast and highly regulated operation spanning fuel, maintenance, airports, catering & onboard products, IT, Data and Digital, corporate, commercial and crew accommodation & transportation, all while balancing cost discipline with safety, reliability and customer experience. External shocks such as fuel price volatility, supply chain disruption, geopolitical uncertainty and fluctuating passenger demand place further pressure on procurement to be both resilient and agile. 

In this context, procurement is not simply about buying well, but about managing risk, ensuring continuity of operations and enabling the airline to respond quickly to changing market conditions… Read the Air Canada story here…

Crescent Hotels & Resorts: Creating procurement guardrails, not handcuffs

When it comes to hotel management, the procurement landscape is vast and complex. Making sense of it requires expertise and wisdom, both qualities possessed by Adam Butts, Senior VP of Procurement at Crescent Hotels & Resorts…

Butts has been in the hotel management industry for over 23 years. This prepared him for the unique challenges that Crescent has presented. As a Senior Procurement Executive, Butts looks at five different dynamics when it comes to hotels: costs, operations, risk, owner interest, and guest experience. The latter really sets the guardrails, and always has to be top-of-mind for any possible change.

“Guest experience is number one, closely followed by owner interest,” he explains. “It’s non-negotiable. Being in an industry where guest experience is king, it’s very important that we’re always making sure we don’t do anything that disrupts it. Every decision we make has to enhance the guest experience, not minimise it in any way.”

Click here to read the full story.

Steag Iqony Group: AI, ESG and a new era of partnership


Across Germany’s shifting energy landscape, Steag Iqony Group is transforming procurement into a strategic force for resilience, sustainability and digital excellence. We speak to Chief Procurement Officer André Snoeijer, Head of Digital & Process Excellence Janet Würpel, and Head of ESG Julia Morks, to see how procurement is being rebuilt for a future defined by challenges, innovation and change…

In 2023, as Germany’s energy sector reeled from geopolitical pressure, supply volatility and increasing regulatory demands, Steag Iqony Group stood at the crossroads. The company had recently been divided into two entities: Iqony, focused on renewables and low-carbon solutions, and Steag Power, responsible for operating flexible, dispatchable power plants that ensure Germany’s vital security of supply.

For Chief Procurement Officer André Snoeijer, the division created significant operational complexity and required a fundamental redesign of procurement structures. “We wanted to separate the conventional assets from the renewable assets and prepare ourselves for the sale of the company,” he explains. “My task was to prepare two independent procurement organisations: one for Steag Power and one for Iqony.”

Click here to read the full story!

Unlocking the opportunity in supply chain challenges

“Challenges are opportunities in disguise.” Venkatesh Srinivasan is clear that the hand you are dealt with is what you make of it. And in the supply chain, on the back of myriad recent challenges the industry has been forced to deal with, many would agree that was sound advice.

Navigating supply chain challenges

Indeed, the likes of COVID-19, geopolitical issues and trade wars as well as inflation concerns are just some of the many hurdles the supply chain industry has had to mitigate. That isn’t to mention the rise of AI and sustainability as increasingly prominent items on the leadership agenda. 

Witnessing these disruptions first-hand is Srinivasan who, as a supply chain and operations executive with 20 years of experience in growth-oriented technology companies, is used to dealing with change. He possesses a diverse experience that covers automotive, consumer hardware, semiconductors, and climate tech. Over the years, Srinivasan has demonstrated success in building supplier partnerships and driving profitability and has rich experience in quality, sourcing, and working with suppliers in Asia and Europe for startups and large corporations. 

Srinivasan is keen to stress that what the supply chain is facing is a byproduct of the complexity of the global environment. “It’s a reflection of the world we live in,” Srinivasan tells us in our recent podcast. “It’s a function of our times and there is no denying that the past 20 to 25 years have been exceptionally turbulent. This decade alone has brought tariff pressures, preceded by COVID-19, which disrupted not only supply chains but also markets and demand. Now, with the rise of AI, we’re seeing renewed constraints on critical electronic components – echoing the shortages experienced during the pandemic.”

Reflecting further, Srinivasan sees similarities with the financial crash of 2008 which triggered a recession and forced many businesses to close. “Although the recession began in 2007, its second-order effects lingered well into 2014,” he tells us. “Even before that, we saw the dot-com crash and earlier economic shocks. There is no getting away from the fact the past 20 years have certainly seemed more unpredictable. 

“It’s easy to get consumed by geopolitics, macroeconomics, and monetary policy. But from a practitioner’s perspective, the priority is staying anchored to the company’s core mission. That means serving customers first, building products they value, and designing a supply chain that delivers those products at the right cost, quality, and speed. On top of that, you have to be prepared for it. That means figuring out what the edge cases are in your supply chain, anticipating disruptions, and having a plan of action well in advance. If you do a combination of those things, you will be in a very good position.”

One of the best ways to meet challenges head-on is to learn lessons from the past. If COVID-19 and tariffs proved anything it was the importance of diversifying supply chains and introducing greater regionalisation and nearshoring to be closer to end customers and reduce complexity…. Click here to read the full story!

Plus, lots, lots more!

Read the full issue here

Author

Nell Walker

Published

17 February 2026

Estimated Read time

2Mins

Exiger’s Executive Forum returns in March, enabling procurement and supply chain leaders to deep-dive into the latest the sector has to offer

On Wednesday the 4th of March, Exiger’s Executive Forum arrives at Great Scotland Yard in London. The title of this event is When geopolitics hits the P&L: Redesigning supply chains for structural conflict. Concerns around instability across the world are at an all-time high, and now is not the time for procurement and supply chain professionals to bury their heads in the sand. The Exiger Executive Forum is designed to lay the relevant issues out on the table, and remove fear in a way that’s still realistic.

SCS/CPOStrategy readers can click here to request a place at this exclusive forum. 

This particular event examines how various forces – including sanctions, export controls, financial restrictions, and resource nationalism – affect the realities of procurement. Geopolitical instability isn’t an external risk anymore; it affects every part of the supply chain. As a result, procurement leaders are redesigning contracts, sourcing strategies, and decision governance in order to turn potential disruption around.

March’s Exiger Executive Forum will focus on:

  • How Geopolitics Translates into P&L Impact
  • Supplier Liquidity, Financial Exposure, and Payment Fragility
  • Source to Processing and Assembly Concentration, Choke Points, and Structural Dependency
  • Specification Lock-In and Contractual Fragility
  • Decision Governance for Structural Conflict

Click here to request a space and join other supply chain professionals at the Exiger Executive Forum.

Agenda

6:30 PM – Welcome drinks
7:00 PM – Discussion & debate
8:00 PM – Dinner, discussion & networking

11:45 PM – Close

  • Event Newsroom
  • Events

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

30 January 2026

Estimated Read time

4Mins

Our cover story this month features Sören Petsch, Head of Procurement at Root, who discusses the revolutionary digital tools procurement has today…

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.  

Read the full story inside… 

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…

Read the full story inside!

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…

Read the full story inside!

Plus lots, lots more!

Author

Nell Walker

Published

27 January 2026

Estimated Read time

2Mins

The AI leader joins Hy-Tek to scale its IntraOne software platform

Hy-Tek Intralogistics, a leading provider of warehouse and distribution technology, is excited to announce today the appointment of Jim Peters as Senior Director, Software Development. In this leadership role, Peters will oversee the engineering and product development strategy, focusing on scaling high-performance teams and advancing the architecture of the company’s software solutions.


Peters joins Hy-Tek with over 18 years of experience in senior leadership roles, bringing deep expertise in systems architecture, cloud computing, and machine learning. He has a proven track record of building and scaling engineering organisations, having successfully managed global teams across on-site and offshore locations in the US, Europe, Australia, and Hong Kong.


Most recently, Peters served as Senior Software Engineering Manager at Vanderlande, where he led engineering and product teams in North America and Europe to develop next-generation Warehouse Execution Systems (WES). During his tenure, he was instrumental in updating legacy systems to modern development practices and piloting an Agentic AI development program to assist with system review and refactoring.


Robert Kluck, Vice President of Software Development at Hy-Tek Intralogistics, said: “Jim’s extensive background in WES development and his forward-thinking approach to AI and machine learning make him an invaluable asset to our technology leadership team. His ability to transform organisations using Agile methodologies aligns perfectly with our mission to deliver cutting-edge software solutions to our customers.”


At Hy-Tek, Peters will leverage his proficiency in transforming organisations and his experience with AI platforms to enhance decision support and development velocity. His leadership will be pivotal in driving the continuous evolution of Hy-Tek’s software offerings, ensuring they remain at the forefront of the supply chain industry.

  • Digital Supply Chain

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

Estimated Read time

4Mins

Procurement across Europe and the UK has reached a clear turning point. AI is no longer confined to pilots or…

Procurement across Europe and the UK has reached a clear turning point.

AI is no longer confined to pilots or experimentation. It is already shaping real decisions, real risk exposure, and measurable business outcomes. For today’s CPOs, the question is no longer whether to adopt AI, but how to apply it responsibly, transparently, and at enterprise scale.

Recent research from The Hackett Group, conducted in partnership with Zycus, highlights the growing role of AI agents in procurement transformation. The study found that 64% of procurement executives believe AI agents will drive the greatest transformational impact on procurement teams over the next five years, reinforcing the shift toward more intelligent, outcome-oriented procurement operating models.

This evolution, from traditional Source-to-Pay to Intake-to-Outcomes approach, forms the central theme of Zycus Horizon EU & UK 2026, taking place in Vienna, convening senior leaders, analysts and innovators to explore what procurement leadership looks like in an outcomes-driven, AI-enabled era.

Zycus Horizon EU & UK 2026 will be held from 10–12 March 2026 at the InterContinental Vienna.

What makes Horizon EU & UK different?

Horizon EU & UK 2026 is intentionally designed as a senior-level leadership forum, not a mass-market conference.

Over three days, 150+ CPOs and senior procurement executives from Europe and the UK will engage with enterprise practitioners and leading analysts to explore how procurement is evolving, from operational execution to outcome-driven leadership.

Speakers include leaders from organisations such as Bolt, Nippon Gases, Bank of Cyprus, Tenneco, Tiger Consumer Brands, Tate & Lyle and more, alongside analysts from Gartner, Forrester, and IDC.

This dialogue builds on broader industry recognition of Zycus’ approach to AI-led procurement, including its recognition as a Leader in the 2026 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Source-to-Pay Suites, reinforcing the importance of scalable, governed AI in enterprise environments.

From Source-to-Pay(S2P) to Intake-to-Outcomes (I2O), with Agentic AI

At the core of Horizon EU & UK 2026 is the transition from Source-to-Pay (S2P) to Intake-to-Outcomes (I2O).

As enterprises face sustained economic pressure, regulatory complexity, and increasingly interconnected supply ecosystems, procurement leaders are expected to deliver:

  • Faster, better-informed decisions
  • Clearer visibility into risk and performance
  • Outcomes directly aligned with business priorities

Agentic AI plays a critical role in enabling this shift, not as a replacement for human decision-making, but as a mechanism for intelligent orchestration, guided execution, and measurable outcomes.

Horizon explores how organisations are applying Agentic AI to:

  • Translate business intent at intake into governed, outcome-oriented execution
  • Embed human-in-the-loop controls to support compliance, auditability, and trust
  • Move beyond task-level automation toward connected, end-to-end decision flows

The focus is not on autonomy for its own sake, but on control, accountability, and business impact at scale.

What can attendees expect over three days?

Horizon EU & UK 2026 offers a balanced mix of strategic perspective and real-world insight, including:

  • Enterprise-led transformation stories from CPOs and global organizations, sharing what changed, what delivered results, and what they would approach differently 
  • Analyst insights cutting through market noise to highlight the trends shaping procurement leadership and technology adoption 
  • Live demonstrations of Agentic AI, showing how intelligent agents are influencing procurement decision-making, execution, and day-to-day operations 
  • Peer networking with 150+ procurement leaders and 20+ speakers, alongside curated experiences that reflect Vienna’s imperial charm 

Beyond the conference sessions, Horizon places strong emphasis on experience. From interactive ice-breaking activities to a Gala Awards Night, the event is structured to foster meaningful connection in a relaxed yet purposeful setting.

Why Vienna?

A setting designed for strategic reflection

Hosted in Vienna, Horizon EU & UK 2026 offers an environment that mirrors the event’s intent: composed, considered, and forward-looking.

Vienna’s blend of historic elegance and modern innovation provides the space for leaders to step away from daily execution and focus on longer-term procurement strategy, capability building, and leadership in an AI-driven era.

Looking ahead

Zycus Horizon EU & UK 2026 marks a pivotal moment for the procurement community across Europe and the UK.

As procurement enters an era defined by intelligence, outcomes, and accountability, Horizon offers a timely forum for leaders to align perspectives, exchange practical insight, and help shape what comes next.

Click here to find out more!

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

17 December 2025

Estimated Read time

5Mins

This month, we are focusing on the evolution of procurement in a rapidly changing territory: the Middle East.   Click…

This month, we are focusing on the evolution of procurement in a rapidly changing territory: the Middle East.  

Click here to read!

Sam Achampong: Unlocking procurement transformation in the Middle East

Our feature interview is with Sam Achampong, Regional Director of CIPS for the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific, who discusses how the procurement function has evolved within the region amid a wider diversification within the Middle East. 

Since Achampong first entered the Middle East in 2008 and significant transformation has taken place both within the region and in the procurement function itself since.  

“One of the main reasons I went there was because it was exciting. It gave me an opportunity to not just do roles where you’re turning the wheel. Every single role I went to was about setting up a team. The region has changed massively. If you look at Saudi who are going through the Saudi Vision 2030, which is a huge transformation exercise, the UAE did that back in 2007, and got to that level of maturity to diversify their economy fully away from reliance on oil back then and look at how the economy has changed. I think you can really see the ambition and change in what is happening in the region.”

Read the full story inside! 

Procuring Local Content: Real Estate Registry and Vision 2030

Sagri M. Alsagri, Director of Procurement at RER, explores RER’s role in supporting Vision 2030 through procurement by championing Local Content. It’s a pivotal moment in time for the Saudi Arabian economy as the Kingdom works towards its Vision 2030 goals. Saudi Vision 2030 is a catch-all for a sweeping, monumental initiative aimed at diversifying the Saudi economy, creating new jobs for Saudi nationals, and reducing the country’s reliance on oil. A key element of this initiative is a nationwide effort to refocus the economy on ‘Local Content’ — a conscious effort to use local resources — from Saudi workforces and domestic suppliers to locally made goods and services — throughout the economy. 

Read the full story here!

Hani AlSaigh: From policy to progress: How Saudi Arabia’s procurement transformation is shaping Vision 2030

Hani AlSaigh, Executive at a leading Saudi Company and Board member of the Saudi Procurement and Supply Chain Society, explores how Saudi Arabia is professionalising procurement, driving local content and embracing AI and sustainability as part of its national transformation…

Saudi Arabia’s procurement landscape is undergoing a bold, strategic transformation. As part of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030, organisations are moving beyond traditional, transactional procurement models towards building a function that is more mature, capable and adds strategic value. It is a reflection of the Kingdom’s ambition to redefine how organisations create value, while driving local content and sustainability.  

Read the full story here!

A.R.M. Holding: From transactional to transformational – a procurement revolution

Ahmed Raafat, Associate Director of Procurement and Supply Chain at A.R.M. Holding and his team, tell us how the private diversified investment group, with an evolving portfolio across real estate, cultural initiatives and community development, has redefined the role of procurement within the organisation. A function that is now a strategic partner to the business, driving measurable efficiencies and value…

Read the full story here!

Ismail Ibrahim Al Janahi: Driving growth through strategic procurement across the Middle East

Procurement across the Middle East is rapidly transforming from a back-office function into a strategic engine for national growth, innovation and global competitiveness. Procurement Expert and MCIPS holder Ismail Ibrahim Al Janahi reflects on the evolution of modern procurement, the importance of supplier ecosystems and the power of digital transformation, while sharing his vision for the capabilities and leadership required to shape the next decade…

Read the full story here!

Plus, lots, lots more!

Enjoy!



Author

Will Lovatt

Published

16 December 2025

Estimated Read time

4Mins

The CRO of Kallikor discusses how supply chain professionals can become more proactive and less reactive

Poor alignment of strategy to execution plans across supply chain operations coupled to a continuous mix of internal and external disruptions are leading to a culture of constant firefighting. Last-minute fixes and costly reactive changes to address even small bottlenecks are eroding margins and confidence at the top. And, for CEOs and CFOs, this short-term mindset in the operation leaves them incapable of making confident growth bets for the future.

Instead, decision-makers need a way to shift from firefighting to foresight, with access to a safe virtual environment that enables testing of long-term strategies, quantifying the impact of even the smallest changes and aligning decisions across finance, commercial, logistics and supply chain operations.

Starting anywhere

No more reactive, day-to-day problem solving to deal with demand changes or external factors. Instead, leaders can use composable simulation to target the real pressure points that constrain growth – whether that’s in-store operations, warehouse flows, transport strategy or outdated inventory policies. By tackling the bottlenecks that matter most, businesses gain the agility to act decisively.


With a joined-up model spanning areas of operation, changes in one domain which impact adjacent processes can be modelled together – avoiding greedy optimisation which favours one function, landing additional costs elsewhere in the business. Those might include warehouse design, store operations or network flow, with the power to move seamlessly between but balance the needs of different areas as needed. That flexibility gives executives the foresight to direct resources where they’ll unlock future growth, not just satisfy immediate local operational challenges.

From composability to adaptability

Composability is crucial for adaptability. With composable simulation, businesses can quickly adapt to changing requirements or conditions across the operation. New use cases or models can be added if needed, supporting targeted improvements on-the-fly, but critically balancing each of the elements of the end-to-end flow.

Firefighting mindsets have been exacerbated by rigid rules and policies, or guardrails, in supply chains, especially when they no longer fit today’s market dynamics. Composable simulation enables businesses to simulate different scenarios that challenge those guardrails.

The short and long-term impact of changing or removing certain policies or rules can be fully tested in a risk-free environment, enabling true foresight. It’s even possible to identify new effective ways of operating across the supply chain which may have been previously overlooked due to the established, siloed structures in place.

Accessibility that drives alignment

But even with the flexibility, impact and foresight offered by composable simulation, it only creates value if the insights are accessible to decision-makers at every level, so that impact is lessened if the platform is too complex for staff to leverage and C-suite leaders can’t gain the relevant insight.

Many old-school tools demanded near perfect data and data scientist level tech talent to deliver value. That’s no longer the case. Innovations in AI and no-code models mean composable simulation no longer requires spotless data or deep technical expertise. A happy by-product is that composable simulation avoids the downsides of data aggregation necessary to feed the traditional tools.

Even if substantial gaps are present in the available data, AI can synthesise the missing elements based on the available information. Through intelligent preparation of extensive simulation experiments it is possible to describe and fully explore complex scenarios which extend beyond the bounds of what could be achieved with ‘real’ data alone.  

The result is a safe environment for testing operational decisions and modelling real-world impact, accessible to all, from technical specialists to the C-Suite.

Targeted change, strategic impact

In short, composability allows businesses to leave firefighting in the past, challenge the rigid guardrails that have held them back and achieve much-needed foresight. By building modular simulation digital twins, leaders can test new strategies, expose outdated rules and see the ripple effects of every decision before committing capital. Instead of reactively addressing bottlenecks, the supply chain becomes the cockpit for growth foresight, where the C-suite can align investors, operations and strategy – and act boldly with confidence.

  • AI in Supply Chain

Author

Tom Swallow

Published

9 December 2025

Estimated Read time

8Mins

Leadership came together at the Amazon Business headquarters in Seattle to recall the past decade’s triumphs as well as future…

Leadership came together at the Amazon Business headquarters in Seattle to recall the past decade’s triumphs as well as future plans for Gen-AI in procurement…

Last year marked the 30th birthday of one of, if not the, most influential conglomerates in the world. This year it celebrates its most critical period for commerce as Amazon Business (AB) concludes its first decade – the next one showing even more promise of technical innovation and elevation of procurement in the corporate eye. 

At the Amazon Business Reshape event in Seattle, its very own leadership team offered profound words on the triumphs of its tenure and the ripple effects that will encourage continued customer focus. In the era of digital solutions, supply chain visibility and tech innovation, the talk of the event was the business’ undying commitment to customers – commercial and consumer. 

At the turning of a 10-year clock, influential figures gathered at the event to celebrate AB’s achievements that continue to align its customers with the trends in supply chain, procurement and commercial digitalisation. 

Customer focus remains at the core of Amazon

While Amazon’s intent has remained the same for decades, talks at the AB event swayed heavily towards a core topic – procurement. Specifically – and perhaps inevitably – the technologies it offers to companies in need of more intelligent solutions. 

In early discussions, Doug Gray, Chief Technology Officer at AB, outlined the procurement attention shift towards automation and analytics to maintain its long-standing customer-centric position. It was in this context that we learned of new, generative-AI-based technologies, and their involvement in procurement’s evolution. 

“Automation is no longer a future aspiration,” says Gray. “According to IDC research, 97% of procurement professionals say automation and AI are important to streamline their procurement processes.” 

In this context, he introduced Amazon Business Assistant—a conversational AI with deep Amazon business expertise—that will provide instant contextual guidance right where procurement managers need it. Besides this, there are myriad administrative changes to the AB platform, the majority essential for simplified digital procurement.

It is almost impossible to quote all the changes to the AB platform with such diversity of updates. These include deferred delivery for US customers, as well as delivery consolidation, security, invoice automation, locker-based restocking and inventory management, and so on. This is all part of AB’s drive to empower businesses and tailor customer support. 

This is the sum of the event and AB’s driving factor, according to Global VP Selley Salomon who said to the crowds in Seattle: “The programme goal is to empower employees to make over 95% of purchases without manager approval, saving time and improving the employee experience”. 

Backing procurement professionals and their decision-making


It has become evident over the AB’s lifespan that disruption may hide around any corner. Since gaining major awareness in the supply chain realm, procurement has become the defining factor of supply chain success—the building of resilient, risk-averse supply chains. 

Gray highlighted the significant lack of visibility in the face of inclining procurement pressures. This realisation has driven much of AB’s approach to its own evolution in order to provide its enterprise customers with more insight to influence more proactive sourcing activities. 

“Our North Star is to invent ways to help all procurement stakeholders move effortlessly from one step to the next,” Gray said. “I’m excited to announce several new Amazon Business features”. 


The features concerning procurement are, unsurprisingly, AI-powered—a welcome addition according to 63% of organisations who confirm the benefits. This is due to the fact that companies want deeper insights, and at record rates. They wish to simplify, yet ramp up their procurement without the inherent risks that come with an increase in speed. 

“Customer service is one of the first places where this acceleration is showing up,” said Gray. Then he addressed the room by saying “I’m sure this is something that everyone in this room has experienced, whether ordering groceries or making travel arrangements”. 

It comes as no surprise, then, that Amazon offers a host of services to equip businesses for the challenges ahead. For instance, intuitive spend-anomaly monitoring will give companies greater insight into their purchasing habits, allowing them to track trends, stay compliant, and ultimately make savings.

“Research shows that 65% of procurement peers report a lack of visibility across their organisations’ purchasing activity,” Gray added. “A challenge that only grows as teams expand across departments and geographies between scattered systems, siloed teams and shifting internal priorities, procurement and failure”. 

During further discussion, Jeff Austin, Global VP Supply Chain Services at Jabil, told Gray that “business-intelligence enterprise AI has caught up, so we’re putting it to work.” 

At Jabil, the focus lies in supplier data, internal purchase data, inventory information, and logistics information. Leveraging Amazon’s Gen-AI, Jabil is able to expand its data collection and leverage the tool to identify cycles from importing and sourcing to more external elements like weather changes, and the effects they create. 

Emma Chontos, Chief Procurement Officer and Head of Global Sourcing & Procurement at Intuit, was part of the conversation as it shifted towards generative AI—primarily discussing its current and future applications in sourcing. She gestured to the fact that Gen AI is largely underutilised in procurement. In doing so, she said “you need to start really, really small”. 

This is based on context from Intuit that can be found in the opening session. The company experienced significant benefits of Gen-AI implementation as a result of building tailored employee experiences that feed into the corporate system. The key point to take away from her was the need to simplify procurement prior to introducing any new or drastic measures, such as AI. 

“We’ve saved 1,000s of hours just sucking it in. It’s predictive, and it’s taken out the manual aspect. But then you start to get into other things. Sometimes you have the data, but you [lack] repetition. If you aren’t clear on that process, it’s just not going to work.” 

AI streamlines the undesirable processes

On the topic of AI and its innate ability to help employees shed much of their ongoing manual and repetitive workloads, AB recognises its influence on the uptake of such technologies. Brenda Spoonemore, VP of Commercial, Public and Strategic Sectors at AB, was on hand at the event to delve deeper into its applications across today’s most critical industries. 

One of her core messages about AI; its main incentive is to allow better human connection between employees and customers. 

“Let humans be humans,” Spoonemore says. “Let them do the things humans are really good at”. This comment follows her perspective on the relationship between people and AI as she nods to concerns of its takeover. The response was well-rounded, though, advocating the ability to harness both technological and hum capabilities. Spoonemore believes in each working collaboratively without compromise, which means letting AI handle processes, improvement, efficiency, and data to target areas within business operation. As for staff, the balance comes from authenticity, which is a fundamental human strength.  

Spoonemore explains that some businesses simply “don’t let humans be humans and do the things we’re good at, which is building relationships and getting deeper into problem solving”. 

She also emphasises the inevitability of AI—something that businesses can often turn a blind eye to. A crucial part for Amazon has been to take its customer mindset and translate it into human-AI collaboration. 

“I think reprogramming the software between our ears is the hardest part,” says Spoonemore. “At Amazon, we work backwards. We start with what the customer problem is like, what the problem is, and the opportunity.” 

She elaborates with an analogy: “If I had a magic wand, I’d want to be able to do x, y, z. And then you start to think, ‘well, there might be a way to do that’. It’s about rewiring ourselves to think differently”. 

Know the problem before AI can solve it

In terms of rewiring, Satya Mishra, Director, Product and Technology at AB dug deeper into different buyers and their purchasing journeys, stating the importance of effective data flows before implementing into AI. 

“Unidirection means from suppliers to your procurement system to your indefinite delivery contract (IDC) system,” says Mishra. “That’s actually incorrect. The data needs to flow in both directions.” 

Tying this into the idea of ‘starting small’, the talk on IDC Insights for Eliminating Manual Inefficiencies really honed in on the idea of incremental implementation. This was a core point of this year’s event—to get the simple things right before adopting technology for more intricate business functions. One of the biggest challenges for companies using AI is their understanding of how it fits long-term, but that gradual implementation can shed some light on workflow inefficiencies.

Mishra said procurement should always “pick up something that is low complexity, but high return in value.” He also stated—perhaps a core message for the entire event—is to “make sure that you have a very strong foundation built in”. 

This is exactly what Amazon Business strives to achieve following its hit in Seattle this year, and its upcoming 2026 event in Nashville – part of a growing calendar of customer-focused conferences showcasing its new wave of procurement foundations. In the process we expect to see the use of AI evolve among its customers.

  • Event Newsroom

Author

Nell Walker

Published

25 November 2025

Estimated Read time

2Mins

BeNeering’s MD and CRO dig into the company’s history with AI, and the necessity of seeing beyond the hype of new technologies

A privately-owned company with over 20 years of procurement digitalisation experience fueling it, BeNeering is at the forefront of the AI-powered revolution in its sector. BeNeering was founded in 2007. At the time, Christoph Moll, BeNeering founder and Managing Director, was busy implementing SAP SRM systems for large European multinationals. While this provided great experience, Moll could see the limitations – and he wanted to move beyond them. He wanted to do something more.

“That’s how BeNeering was founded,” he says. “We focused on consulting until 2013, at which point we transitioned to being a solutions provider. I cherry-picked a great development team, and I’m happy to say that the same strong team is with us still today. Stability is our value.”

Natalia Parmenova, Chief Revenue Officer, is an example of one such strong team member, who has enormous faith in the business. “From my perspective, BeNeering is a super special solution provider for a few reasons,” she states. “First of all, we believe in co-innovation. Everything we develop is built together with very large and advanced customers. We try to stay close to those customers, to people who are forward-thinking and developing their procurement functions, so we can develop solutions for them with them. We are not just inventing things we think are useful – we are basing our development on customer needs. That’s really important.”

Simplify and optimise

Many people fall into procurement accidentally. It’s a common story among procurement professionals, and a source of amusement considering how passionate many of them become about it. For Parmenova and Moll, however, it was a case of seeing the way the wind was blowing and following the scent of change.

“In 2001, when I was employed by SAP, I wanted to do things better to help users in procurement,” says Moll. “That was how it started for me. My vision was really to simplify and optimise steps and processes for both requestors and buyers.” 

Read the full story here.

Author

Nell Walker

Published

Estimated Read time

3Mins

Dafydd Llewellyn digs into why businesses need to be deliberate about how they use AI

Taking on a new leadership role can be both exciting and daunting. Dafydd Llewellyn is the CEO of HICX, having taken up the mantle in September. In fact, by the time we spoke with him, he’d only been at his post for five weeks – but he was buzzing with nothing but pure enthusiasm about it. At this crucial juncture, when the pace of change is faster than ever before, strong leadership is vital. As such, Llewellyn has his hand on the tiller as he guides HICX on the next part of its journey.

“We’re a supplier management platform,” he says. “Companies work with us because they want to transform their supplier management to become more unified, more strategic, and more intelligent. Ultimately, what that means is our customers’ businesses are really able to make the most and harness the power of the suppliers.”

AI in the real world

Being competitive in the modern day means being not just au fait with artificial intelligence, but having a deeper understanding of it. The theme of DPW Amsterdam this year, as with the New York event in June, was ‘Put AI to work’. While AI has been a topic of discussion for several years now, planning (and bracing) for its impact is a different matter. But HICX, led by Llewellyn, is ready.

“It’s great that DPW is focusing on AI,” he says. “At HICX, we are being very deliberate about the way we approach AI. The way we’re looking at it is really about using AI to allow procurement professionals to be more value-added in the tasks they do, and remove all the repetitive tasks that they really don’t want to be doing. They can drive more value for the business that way.

“So, we are looking at things around business processes and automation, right through to document capture, through to compliance checks; using AI agents enables us to do that,” Llewellyn continues. “I can give you a real-life example. If you think about the workflow for a new supplier in the old days, you’d have to have them involved to create that workflow. Now, we can use AI to create that workflow just by writing it in natural language.”

Read the full story here.

Author

Nell Walker

Published

Estimated Read time

3Mins

Richard Hogg and Michael Van Keulen discuss what the business stands for and how it is shining a spotlight on tomorrow’s procurement department

Green Cabbage is more than just a memorable name; it’s a procurement intelligence company that promises to deliver. A company that lives and breathes its win-win business model. Richard Hogg is the Managing Director. He is, in his own words, responsible for “planting and growing the cabbage across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa”. Michael Van Keulen, Chief Procurement and Customer Officer, is new to the business. However, he’s brought with him over 20 years of supply chain experience, and calls himself a procurement “enthusiast”. 

The aim of Green Cabbage’s unique name is to keep money at the forefront of people’s minds. “Plant the cabbage, grow the cabbage; green cabbage is a colloquialism for money in some places,” explains Hogg. “Just like how, in the UK, we’d say ‘dough’. We’re trying to save our customers green cabbage.”

Forging relationships

Green Cabbage’s Founder and CEO, Eric Cunningham, created the business with a goal to try to rebalance the relationship between buyers and suppliers. “Effectively, Eric and his colleagues were looking at supporting the procurement community in preparation for negotiations, whether that meant pricing, non-price terms, or negotiation strategies,” says Van Keulen. “After three or four years, in 2019, they had amassed enough data to launch Green Cabbage. That’s how we were born. It was effectively a combination of really deep, broad data sets with subject matter expertise in core indirect categories.”

For Van Keulen, coming into a young company as a new recruit, he has the benefit of a fresh pair of eyes with plenty of expertise. “The challenge as a practitioner has always been that, on one side of the table, you’ve got a buyer; on the other side, you’ve got a seller. But how much information do I have as a buyer, and how can I ensure that I’ve optimised that contract, no matter my decision?” says Van Keulen. 

“It’s not even just about price, but also terms, conditions, limitation of liability, indemnification, and other elements of that contract. That’s why I decided to join this organisation. I’ve always been passionate about procurement and supply chain. I love this profession, the community, and I really feel like Green Cabbage has the ability to take procurement to the next level of maturity.”

Read the full story here.

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

Estimated Read time

3Mins

Guests at Zip’s AI Summit – The Future Of Agentic Orchestration, CPOstrategy hears from Zip co-founder Lu Cheng, Director, Enterprise…

Guests at Zip’s AI Summit – The Future Of Agentic Orchestration, CPOstrategy hears from Zip co-founder Lu Cheng, Director, Enterprise Advisory, Michael Rooney, and their customers from Lighthouse and Flow Traders

When Lu Cheng, Zip’s Co-Founder and CTO, takes to Amsterdam’s TOBACCO Theater stage, there’s a sense of conviction that comes from having built something genuinely unique. Founded in 2020, Zip didn’t simply build another procurement tool. It created a brand-new category.

“My Co-Founder Rujul (Zaparde) and I started Zip around the premise that spend had decentralised,” Cheng explains to the sold-out crowd. “There were more requesters in purchasing than ever before, and procurement had become one of the most complex workflows in any business. We wanted to create one front door for employees to engage with procurement, giving visibility and control across the entire purchasing process.”

That vision became the foundation of procurement orchestration – a central layer that connects procurement, finance, legal, compliance, IT and other business functions through a single intake process. It’s a design that has since helped hundreds of enterprises simplify complexity, accelerate decision-making and drive measurable outcomes – attracting large enterprise customers across a range of industries, from AI leaders like OpenAI and Anthropic, to Prudential, Arm, AMD, and more

Across Zip’s customer base, the platform has delivered average annual savings of 3.6%, reduced cycle times by over 5%, and doubled compliant purchases. But for Cheng, the true differentiator lies in Zip’s approach to user experience and scalability. “We’ve seen over 50 million comments posted within Zip in the past year,” he notes. “That shows us it’s become a true collaboration space for procurement.”

The AI orchestration frontier

Zip’s next frontier is artificial intelligence and Cheng’s enthusiasm is palpable when he describes the company’s ambitions. “The orchestration layer is the perfect place to embed AI,” he tells us backstage, following his presentation. “All the data, systems and people are connected in one place, so our AI can make better, faster decisions.” Read the full story here!

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

Estimated Read time

5Mins

What does this year’s DPW 2025 theme – ‘Put AI to work’ – mean to you, and how does that…

What does this year’s DPW 2025 theme – ‘Put AI to work’ – mean to you, and how does that resonate within your organisation?

Tatjana Ozgoren, PepsiCo

I’m leading digital transformation in procurement, so clearly AI resonates very much. We’ve seen a tremendous evolution of artificial intelligence over the years, starting from traditional to generative. Now agentic AI is the talk of the town. I was just reading a research paper recently that was suggesting that up to 50% of what procurement professionals will do over the next five to seven years will change due to agentic AI. And I think we can argue different ways whether that would truly materialise or not. But the fact is, artificial intelligence is here in different forms, shapes and agents, and as a matter of fact, it’s very popular.

Marloes Strik, Zeiss

Oh, it’s the future, definitely and the future is happening now. And that’s also why I did my MBA thesis on this. The research concerned how mid-size companies can adopt AI? And I see a lot of companies still struggling with it, yet it brings so much value and not just for procurement. It brings value to the whole organisation. And that’s exactly the narrative we should have. It brings more reliability towards your customers. It gives brand protection and a faster time to market for your product.

Ashish Tiwari, Aptiv

AI is happening and the technology is evolving very fast. I think we (Aptiv) will give a little more ability and flexibility to AI when exploring new areas where the rule-based method is not needed, meaning AI will define its own rules and be able to deliver the outcome. I think it’s a simple scenario. When you start riding a bicycle, you don’t start straight away with a big bike, you start with a smaller bike and you have sliders. Then you get confident so you remove the sliders and you eventually get to the bigger bike. I think that’s the way it’s going to be. You will need an army of agentic AIs in your organisation. And over a period of time, when someone lays out their organisational structure, and they mention the name of the people, their role and their location, you will see agentic AI written out there with their location and the role they’re performing. 

Ilona Piekoszewska, Givaudan

AI speaks a lot to me. We’ve been discussing AI for many months or years now to say how do we really implement it? We have a successful story to tell because over the last 12 months we were able to deploy five different tools to help us resolve some of our major problems. The category strategies needed to be more dynamic, and so, this is where we deployed another tool. AI and digital are all about the good data. Data for me, is a crucial thing. We can’t imagine our team members in the future working seven or 10 tools. I think they are great separately, but how do we orchestrate that in the future? And this is what we are looking at together as a team to find a solution: one source of interaction for our teams and our internal customers. 

Tom Kniveton, Rolls Royce

As a company we have some restrictions around how we can use AI and where we can put our data and how our data is used. But fundamentally, we’ve started to use some of the capabilities around agentic AI that we see here at DPW. It’s allowed us to do a lot more. We know that procurement is growing all the time. We’re asking the same teams to do more and more and more. The scope’s growing. So, it’s just allowing us to pick up some of the work that perhaps people don’t feel like they can get to. We’re trying to see how it can work alongside people. That’s part of the challenge. But we’re making that step. 

Lars Bettermann, Bridgestone

The opportunities with AI are enormous, but success depends on how we apply it. Technology is only as good as the people behind it. As leaders, it’s our job to hire the right talent, build skills, and empower teams to use these tools effectively. There’s no way around AI; our stakeholders, management and suppliers all expect it. The question isn’t if we’ll use it, but how – and that’s exactly the challenge and opportunity facing procurement today.

Read the full story here!

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

Estimated Read time

2Mins

Unite’s enterprise sales manager, Bob Van de Laar, on transforming indirect procurement through transparency, efficiency and trust… As European procurement…

Unite’s enterprise sales manager, Bob Van de Laar, on transforming indirect procurement through transparency, efficiency and trust…

As European procurement faces unprecedented complexity, indirect spend remains one of its toughest challenges. Fragmented supplier bases, compliance pressures and the growing weight of sustainability reporting continue to stretch teams already asked to do more with less. 

For Unite, formerly known as Mercateo, tackling those challenges has been its mission for over 25 years. Building on its roots in European procurement, Unite now enables compliant, ESG-driven, and audit-ready procurement aligned with EU frameworks, such as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), German regulation for public procurement below the EU threshold (UVgO), and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive(CSRD) – promoting responsible, transparent, and fair business practices. As a trusted European alternative to global marketplaces, Unite champions a model built on trust, compliance and long-term partnership.

Today, Unite marks its next evolution – from marketplace to procurement partner – empowering procurement teams to achieve measurable performance built on efficiency, transparency and trust.

Van de Laar explains that procurement teams are being asked to juggle multiple priorities and want to focus on strategic initiatives. Still, indirect procurement often takes up a disproportionate amount of their time. Unite’s role, he says, is to simplify that through one environment that delivers efficiency, transparency and compliance without compromising control.

From marketplace to procurement partner

Unite operates as a platform that combines a marketplace with procurement services. across 12 countries, serving over 40,000 customers with access to over 100+ million products from thousands of pre-vetted suppliers. This provides organisations with broad choice while enabling procurement teams to maintain full oversight.

Traditionally, Unite’s strength lay in creating a single, digital buying environment for catalogue-based goods. But as markets mature and digitalisation deepens, the company has evolved into something more sophisticated: a procurement performance partner. Read the full story here!

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

Estimated Read time

3Mins

Without accurate supplier data, even the most ambitious digital transformations are doomed to fail. At DPW Amsterdam, Boston Consulting Group’s…

Without accurate supplier data, even the most ambitious digital transformations are doomed to fail. At DPW Amsterdam, Boston Consulting Group’s Tyler Vigen and TealBook’s Alex Denomme discuss why getting the basics right is the smartest move a CPO can make…

At this year’s DPW Amsterdam, amid a sea of stands proclaiming the virtues of artificial intelligence, automation and digital transformation, two procurement experts made a simple but crucial point: none of it works without reliable supplier data.

For Tyler Vigen, Managing Director and Partner at Boston Consulting Group (BCG), and Alex Denomme, Solutions Engineer at TealBook, the message is clear. Procurement’s grand ambitions for AI and automation are meaningless unless the foundation – supplier data – is clean, connected and current.

Garbage in, garbage out

“Just about every booth downstairs has AI on the back of it,” says Vigen, “but you can’t do AI unless you have the right data to feed it.”

Within procurement, BCG advises global enterprises on optimising operating models, integrating digital tools, and creating sustainable value through advanced analytics and AI. With experts such as Tyler Vigen at the forefront of digital procurement strategy, BCG is shaping how large organisations reimagine source-to-pay in an era defined by data and automation. Vigen advises clients across the US on procurement operating models and digital transformation. He’s seen time and again how poor supplier data can quietly cripple progress. “When a procurement leader tells me their team spends 30% of their time manually fixing supplier records, that’s a clear sign there’s a breakdown in the process for collecting that data,” he reveals. “It means you’ve either expanded your scope without resetting your data foundations or you’re working with inconsistent processes.”

Those inconsistencies ripple through the business. “If you’re spending that much time on manual data entry, your process probably isn’t deterministic,” Vigen adds. “Different people are producing different results depending on how they interpret things. You end up with inconsistent records, which causes chaos down the line.”

Entity Resolution: A persistent blind spot

One of the most persistent issues in procurement data management is entity resolution — the process of accurately identifying and linking supplier records to the correct legal entity, even when names, identifiers, or formats vary across systems. “Most organisations can’t tell how many unique suppliers they’re doing business with, or which ones share the same legal entity,” says Vigen. “That creates huge challenges. If a supplier knows more about how much you’re spending with them across divisions than you do, they have more leverage in negotiations. You’re also missing opportunities for consolidation and risk management.”

Read the full story here!

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

Estimated Read time

2Mins

With their latest venture, Levelpath, Scout RFP founders Alex Yakubovich and Stan Garber are rebuilding procurement from the ground up….

With their latest venture, Levelpath, Scout RFP founders Alex Yakubovich and Stan Garber are rebuilding procurement from the ground up. Their mission? To make the buying experience not just faster and smarter, but genuinely delightful…

Alex Yakubovich and Stan Garber, co-founders of Levelpath, take their seat, sporting identical ‘Delightful procurement’ bomber jackets. They spar with each other like a well-versed double act. After all, between the pair, they’ve already built and sold one procurement success story. Their first company, Scout RFP, was acquired by Workday for nearly $540 million in 2019. And, after leading Workday’s procurement practice, they walked away with a clear mission: to start over and rebuild procurement for the AI era.

Rebuilding procurement from the ground up

“After Workday, we wanted to start from a clean slate,” CEO Yakubovich explains. “Everything we’d learnt pointed to one conclusion – the world needed a completely new procurement platform, built AI-native from day one.” Levelpath’s entire premise rests on that idea. Where others are layering AI onto legacy systems, Yakubovich and Garber built theirs around it. “We built it from the ground up,” details Yakubovich. “That means every workflow and every process has AI embedded from the start, not added later.”

Garber, Levelpath’s President, adds: “It’s platform focused. We’re not a single app doing one job – sourcing, supplier management or contracting – we’re the framework that connects them all. The AI can tap into any part of the system at any time. That’s how software should work, but rarely does.”

The art of ‘delightful procurement’

Behind the technology lies a simple but powerful philosophy: procurement should be delightful, as endorsed by the branded bomber jackets. “Everything we do starts with that idea,” says Garber. “How do we make the experience delightful for everyone involved? The business user, the procurement professional, even the supplier.”

“We’ve had customers tell us they didn’t know procurement software could actually be enjoyable,” says Yakubovich with a grin. “That’s the whole point. The technology should get out of your way and let you focus on strategy.” Read the full story here!

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

Estimated Read time

3Mins

When BT Sourced’s procurement team took a closer look at tail spend, they found an ideal partner in Candex, aligned…


When BT Sourced’s procurement team took a closer look at tail spend, they found an ideal partner in Candex, aligned in their focus on simplicity and speed. Together, they’ve made buying, paying, and partnering smoother and more efficient, replacing complexity with digital ease. CPOstrategy took a chair with Diarmuid O’Donoghue, Head of the Digital Procurement Garage at BT Sourced, and Jeremy Lappin, Co-founder and CEO of Candex, to find out more…

Diarmuid O’Donoghue is Head of the Digital Procurement Garage at BT Sourced and his remit is clear: digitise procurement for one of the world’s most iconic technology companies. “My role involves scouting, piloting and implementing technologies across our ecosystem,” he reveals. “BT Sourced was set up to revolutionise how we do procurement. Building trust was vital – not just with our stakeholders, but with our suppliers too.”

When BT Sourced decided to reimagine how procurement operated across its global business, one of the earliest challenges it tackled was tail spend – that long, tangled list of low-value suppliers that quietly eats up time, energy and resources. This motivation led BT Sourced to Candex. “Tail spend management is messy,” O’Donoghue recalls. “It isn’t a true enabler for the business. We had thousands of small suppliers making up a small percentage of spend. We needed a solution that was compliant, simple for our users and global in nature. Candex ticked every box.”

A startup’s breakthrough

Since its founding in 2011, Candex has been redefining how enterprises manage their long tail of suppliers. What began as a solution to procurement’s long-standing challenge – handling countless small, low-value transactions – has evolved into a trusted platform for the Global 2000 that makes it effortless for companies to buy from any supplier, anywhere. Behind the vision are Co-founders Jeremy Lappin, CEO, and Shani Vaza-Wahrmann, Chief R&D Officer, who set out to bring simplicity and speed to every supplier relationship.

“We were out there hustling,” recalls Candex CEO and Co-Founder Jeremy Lappin. “We met with executives, searching for those first pilot partners who could help us prove the technology’s value. To BT Sourced’s credit, they’re an innovative team, and they recognised the potential and had the courage to take a chance on us.” Read the full story here!

Fotograaf: Daan Jeurens

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

Estimated Read time

2Mins

askLio CEO and co-founder Vladimir Keil explains how his company is leading the transformation toward agent-operated procurement and empowering teams…

askLio CEO and co-founder Vladimir Keil explains how his company is leading the transformation toward agent-operated procurement and empowering teams to focus on strategic impact over operational grind…

The world of procurement is in the midst of a profound transformation; one that moves beyond automation and analytics into a new frontier of collaboration between humans and intelligent agents. Few companies are pushing that frontier further or faster than askLio, the San Francisco-based start-up redefining how enterprises think about operational efficiency, scalability and value.

Founded by a team of AI engineers with backgrounds in Silicon Valley and SAP, askLio has created what it calls the ‘agent operating system’ for procurement; a platform that allows organisations to deploy a digital workforce capable of handling the heavy operational lifting, freeing procurement professionals to focus on strategy, collaboration and innovation.

For Vladimir Keil, askLio’s CEO and Co-Founder, the mission is simple yet radical. “Procurement teams are drowning in repetitive, transactional tasks, leaving no room for strategic work,” he tells us, in our media suite above the bustling crowd of DPW Amsterdam. “Even with all the amazing tools available, many employees still find procurement frustrating. We asked ourselves: is this really the best impact procurement can make? That’s where askLio comes in.”

Born in the age of agentic AI

askLio isn’t an older platform retrofitted with AI features; it is AI-native, built from the ground up at the same moment that large language models and agentic systems began reshaping enterprise technology. “askLio was born in the era of agentic AI,” says Keil. “We didn’t have to ‘make it AI-ready’ – it was designed that way from day one. Procurement is an incredibly text-heavy and unstructured space. For us, generative and agentic AI were the missing puzzle pieces to finally unlock automation that actually works.”

Read the full story here!

Fotograaf: Daan Jeurens

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

Estimated Read time

2Mins

This month’s bumper edition is bursting with exclusive content from DPW Amsterdam 2025. The theme this year was ‘Put AI…

This month’s bumper edition is bursting with exclusive content from DPW Amsterdam 2025. The theme this year was ‘Put AI to work’ for what was an unforgettable week. 2025 was DPW Amsterdam’s biggest conference yet. More than 1,700 people from 65 different countries and 37 industries made their way through the Beurs van Berlage doors with 129 sponsors, over 100 speakers across 70+ sessions filling the expo space with lively discussion and invaluable insights. Every seat was filled, all tickets sold out. There is a demand for DPW unlike any procurement conference out there today.  

“People always say that it’s the most exciting time to be in procurement, but I truly believe it,” DPW Founder, Matthias Gutzmann tells us. “Armed with the amount of innovation coming through, the next generation of leaders are so inspiring. I believe the future of procurement is being written at DPW Amsterdam.” 

We were certainly busy out in Amsterdam, meeting procurement leaders and AI vendors from a whole host of big-name enterprises, including… Zip, Axiom, PepsiCo, Pactum, BT Sourced, Bridgestone, Candex, Boston Consulting Group, Valdera, Tonkean, Rolls Royce, Zeiss, True ValueHub, Unite, Nomia, Levelpath, HICX, Givaudan, Köse Advisory, Aptiv, Green Cabbage, TealBook, askLio, BeNeering and Resourcely.  

DPW to one side for a moment, we were also lucky enough to enjoy a chat with Andrea Sordi, SVP Global Procurement for Indirect, Packaging & Energy at dsm-firmenich, who shares his insights on the most vital elements for procurement transformation and success.  Enjoy!

Read the latest issue here!

Cover image of CPOstrategy issue 66
Fotograaf: MichielTon.com

Author

Mark Boswell

Published

10 November 2025

Estimated Read time

5Mins

Procurement is entering a new era, one shaped by the accelerating capabilities of artificial intelligence and emerging technologies.

These innovations offer procurement leaders the opportunity to rethink how value is created, how decisions are made, and how teams operate. Written by Mark Boswell, a Partner at independent management and technology consulting firm, BearingPoint.

From drafting contracts to surfacing negotiation insights, these tools streamline workflows and empower users to make faster, smarter decisions. By integrating AI into daily operations, teams can unlock new levels of efficiency and responsiveness. For example, AI can assist in identifying relevant clauses from previous contracts, flagging potential risks, and suggesting alternative language based on organisational preferences. Enterprise AI tools like Copilot can help users navigate complex supplier data, generate reports, and prepare for stakeholder meetings, all within a familiar interface. But unlocking this potential requires more than just adopting new tools. It demands a strategic, human-centred approach that balances innovation with accountability.

Data: The Foundation of Intelligent Procurement

AI is only as powerful as the data it consumes. Clean, structured, and well-governed data is the foundation of any successful AI deployment or integration. Procurement teams must prioritise data readiness, ensuring that systems are configured to support intelligent automation, predictive analytics, and real-time decision-making. This means going beyond basic data hygiene. For instance, when supplier master data is standardised, AI can instantly flag duplicate vendors, detect missing compliance certificates, and even predict late deliveries based on historical patterns. Organisations must invest in data architecture that enables interoperability across platforms, consistency in taxonomy, and transparency in sourcing. Without this, even the most advanced AI tools will struggle to deliver meaningful insights.

Technology Implementation: A Strategic Journey

Deploying new technology is not a plug-and-play exercise. Success hinges on aligning tools with organisational goals, engaging stakeholders early, and embedding change management throughout the process. Piloting solutions with real organisational data helps validate their relevance and build trust across teams. Implementation must be tailored, not just to the technical environment, but to the culture and maturity of the organisation. Procurement leaders should focus on configuring platforms to reflect business priorities, user workflows, and compliance requirements. This ensures that technology adoption is not just functional, but transformational.

Human Oversight: Underpinning Responsible Innovation

While AI can accelerate processes and surface insights, human judgement remains essential, particularly in areas involving ethics, compliance, and strategic decision-making. Procurement leaders must design systems that keep humans in control, using AI to augment rather than replace expertise. This is especially important in high-stake scenarios such as supplier selection, contract negotiation, and risk management. AI can provide recommendations, flag anomalies, and streamline analysis, but the final decisions must rest with experienced professionals who understand the broader context – for example, an AI tool might suggest awarding a contract to the lowest-cost supplier, but a procurement professional may override that recommendation due to ESG concerns or geopolitical risk.

Tailored Solutions: One Size Doesn’t Fit All

Procurement challenges vary widely across industries and organisations. The most impactful solutions are those tailored to specific needs, whether that’s guided buying, contract clause comparison, or supplier risk analysis. For instance, a manufacturing company might prioritise AI tools that predict raw material price fluctuations, while a financial services firm may focus on AI-driven compliance checks for third-party vendors. Deep implementation expertise ensures that platforms are configured to deliver measurable outcomes, not just technical capabilities. This requires a consultative approach to technology deployment. Procurement teams should work closely with solution providers to define success metrics, customise workflows, and ensure that tools are embedded into day-to-day operations. The goal is not just to implement software, but to enable smarter, faster, and more strategic procurement.

Balancing Innovation with Accountability

As procurement embraces AI and new technologies, it must also strengthen its governance frameworks. This includes clear policies on data usage, ethical AI deployment, and supplier transparency. Procurement leaders must ensure that innovation does not come at the expense of accountability, fairness, or compliance. This is particularly relevant in areas such as ESG reporting, supplier diversity, and responsible sourcing. AI can help identify gaps, monitor performance, and generate insights, but organisations must remain vigilant in how these tools are used and interpreted.

Conclusion: A Human-Centred Future

The future of procurement is not just digital, it’s human-centred. AI and technology will play a critical role in shaping how procurement operates, but their success depends on how well they are integrated into the organisation’s culture, strategy, and values. The key is to ensure that AI is not just a novelty, but a trusted partner in the procurement process. This means training users, refining prompts, and continuously improving the underlying models based on feedback and performance. Procurement leaders must embrace this transformation with clarity and purpose. By investing in data, tailoring solutions, empowering users, and maintaining oversight, they can unlock the full potential of AI, while ensuring that procurement remains a strategic, ethical, and value-driven function.

The author is Mark Boswell, a Partner at independent management and technology consulting firm, BearingPoint.

Author

Nell Walker

Published

7 November 2025

Estimated Read time

3Mins

Benefit from expert conversations at the Exiger Executive Forum

Exiger, the AI-powered supply chain management platform, is hosting another of its executive forums on November the 18th at 6:30-11:45pm at the Great Scotland Yard Hotel, London. In partnership with CPOstrategy, the Exiger Executive Forum – entitled ‘False Security: The illusion of control in modern day value chains’ – brings together leaders from across the industry to discuss and learn about the way supply chains are being reshaped for the modern age.

CPOstrategy readers can click here to request a place at this exclusive forum

Supply chains are under stress the world over, due to ever-evolving regulations and geopolitical reorganisation. To assume your supply chain is immovable and under control is, at best, naïve.

This is why the Exiger Forum exists; to keep attendees informed and prepared. The speakers for the event are: 

Koray Köse

CEO and Chief Analyst, Köse Advisory & Senior Fellow, GlobSEC Geotech Centre & Board Member, Slave-Free Alliance

Sven Markert

Head of Supply Chain & Logistics Siemens Smart Infrastructure

Angela Qu

Advisor, Strategist and Former Chief Supply Chain Officer

Faysal Rahman

Director, Corporate Coverage – Global Defence Coordinator, Deutsche Bank

Scott LaFoy

Vice President, Nuclear and Technology Security Programs, Exiger

During the evening’s discussions, the panel will dig into how supply chains become more proactive and less reactive, as well as exploring insights on:

  • Regional concentration
  • Sanctions
  • Tariffs
  • Hidden risks
  • And Critical points of failure in supply chains

Click here to request a space and join other supply chain professionals at the Exiger Executive Forum

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

30 October 2025

Estimated Read time

4Mins

CPOstrategy sits down with global procurement and technology leader, Nedra Dickson, Interim President and CEO, WBENC, to explore why small…

CPOstrategy sits down with global procurement and technology leader, Nedra Dickson, Interim President and CEO, WBENC, to explore why small businesses are the most undervalued force in global supply chains – and how empowering them can unlock innovation, resilience and economic growth on a global scale…

In the world of procurement, conversations often circle around cost savings, risk mitigation and supply chain efficiency, often leading towards a bias – the bigger the supplier, the better the supplier. Yet for Nedra Dickson – a procurement and technology leader with a global track record working for companies such as Accenture – these discussions are missing a vital thread: the transformative role of small businesses in shaping economic resilience, innovation and community prosperity.  

In her view, procurement leaders hold a unique lever for change. By strategically integrating small and diverse suppliers into their sourcing mix, they can not only strengthen supply chains but also contribute to healthier economies.  

“If I look at this on a global scale, it is about creating jobs around the world. That’s the common denominator. Let’s create jobs and drive an economic impact,” she tells us.  

A true visionary  

Few procurement and supply chain leaders have made as lasting an impact as Nedra Dickson. A seasoned executive with over two decades of experience across technology consulting, operations management and procurement sourcing, Dickson has built a reputation not just for managing billions in spend, but for reshaping how global companies think about supplier diversity and sustainable procurement.  

As a former Managing Director at Accenture, Dickson held two vital roles. On one hand, she led Accenture’s Global Supplier Diversity and Sustainability Programs across 20 countries. On the other, she managed Europe Procurement Operations across 30 countries, overseeing more than $2.5 billion in procurement spend. Balancing these dual responsibilities required the kind of strategic vision, operational precision and people-centred leadership that have defined her career. “Profitability and responsibility can go hand in hand. Supplier diversity isn’t a side project. It’s good business.”  

Her impact at Accenture is perhaps best illustrated by the expansion of the firm’s award-winning Diverse Supplier Development Program (DSDP). What began as a focused initiative to mentor diverse businesses evolved under her leadership into a global model of success. With tailored curricula designed to help small and diverse businesses grow and integrate into multinational supply chains, the program extended across the US, Canada, UK, South Africa, Ireland and India. Plans for further expansion into Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Mexico followed in 2021, underscoring the program’s influence and Nedra’s vision for inclusive growth.  

Dickson’s vision is all about changing the very fabric of procurement. By embedding supplier diversity and sustainability into the DNA of global business operations, she has demonstrated that profitability and responsibility can coexist and that small businesses lay at the heart of her vision.  

The perception problem  

For all their potential, small businesses face stubborn misconceptions in procurement circles, according to Dickson. “People hear ‘small business’ and assume you’re just giving them work. That couldn’t be further from the truth.”  

Nedra sees a curious bias in corporate culture: startups are embraced as disruptors and innovators, while small businesses are judged as if they were fully scaled enterprises.  

“Leaders understand startups – they expect rapid scaling, they expect an IPO or acquisition,” she says. “Some startups aren’t even profitable yet, but they’re still seen as valuable partners. Small businesses, meanwhile, are held to the same standards as established corporations, which is unfair.”  

The result? Many large corporations overlook suppliers who could deliver competitive pricing, fresh ideas and unique capabilities simply because they don’t fit neatly into the procurement template.  

Risk models – often designed for large, well-established companies – compound the issue. Procurement teams default to incumbents because it feels safer. Large corporations are seen as having deeper pockets, better insurance and more capacity to absorb failure. “In a crisis, small businesses can pivot far faster than an 800,000-person organisation.”  

The pandemic drove this point home. While many multinationals were still convening committees to assess disruptions, small suppliers were reconfiguring processes and retooling operations overnight. The resilience of small businesses isn’t just operational either. It’s economic. They have a disproportionate impact on local hiring and community development, which in turn supports global supply chain stability.  

“Small businesses are ten times more likely to hire within local economies,” Dickson reveals. “When you strengthen a local economy, you fuel the broader economy. That stabilises your customer demand and your workforce…”

Read the full story here…  

I

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

Estimated Read time

2Mins

This month’s cover story features a genuine procurement and supply chain guru. CPOstrategy sits down with global procurement and technology…

This month’s cover story features a genuine procurement and supply chain guru. CPOstrategy sits down with global procurement and technology leader, Nedra Dickson, Interim President and CEO, WBENC, to explore why small businesses are the most undervalued force in global supply chains – and how empowering them can unlock innovation, resilience and economic growth on a global scale… 

In the world of procurement, conversations often circle around cost savings, risk mitigation and supply chain efficiency, often leading towards a bias – the bigger the supplier, the better the supplier. Yet for Nedra Dickson – a procurement and technology leader with a global track record working for companies such as Accenture – these discussions are missing a vital thread: the transformative role of small businesses in shaping economic resilience, innovation and community prosperity. 

Few leaders have made as lasting an impact as Nedra Dickson. A seasoned executive with over two decades of experience across technology consulting, operations management and procurement sourcing, Dickson has built a reputation not just for managing billions in spend, but for reshaping how global companies think about supplier diversity and sustainable procurement. 

In her view, procurement leaders hold a unique lever for change. By strategically integrating small and diverse suppliers into their sourcing mix, they can not only strengthen supply chains but also contribute to healthier economies. 

“If I look at this on a global scale, it is about creating jobs around the world. That’s the common denominator. Let’s create jobs and drive an economic impact.” 

Elsewhere, we also have insightful content from procurement leaders at Candex and Hitachi and an exclusive report from ProcureTEX, plus much, much more! 

Read the latest issue here…  

Author

Nell Walker

Published

Estimated Read time

3Mins

Exiger has been awarded a huge contract to help modernise the detection of transshipment for the US government

Exiger, the market-leading supply chain AI company, announced today that it has been awarded an exclusive, multi-million dollar contract by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to modernise the detection of illicit transshipment across global supply chains. Designed to evade tariffs, trade restrictions and sanctions, illicit transshipment is the practice of manipulating supply chains to disguise a product’s true country of origin. Exiger’s Trade AI will be adopted and deployed across CBP, serving as an additional tool for the US government’s transshipment detection capability.

Transshipment identification and enforcement are critical priorities for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and CBP. Convergent Solutions, Inc., DBA Exiger Government Solutions, will equip CBP enforcement offices and personnel across the US with access to Exiger’s AI platform and data to identify illicit transshipment at-scale and in real-time.

“Billions of dollars worth of global trade move through illegal transshipment channels that seek to bypass US restrictions,” said Exiger CEO Brandon Daniels. “A core CBP mission is to enforce US trade and forced labor laws, thereby helping ensure that American manufacturers and workers are competing on a level playing field. Exiger is proud to support this mission, bringing to bear the world’s largest proprietary supply chain database and the market’s most sophisticated AI.”

Exiger’s AI will be an additional resource available to CBP personnel to:

  • Detect illegal transshipment across global supply chains
  • Monitor and enforce tariff and trade regulations
  • Leverage Exiger’s proprietary AI models and trade intelligence data to enrich data in CBP systems and enhance decision making
  • Deploy AI-enabled validations of tariff classification, value and country of origin
  • Create automated bills of material for products and sub-components
  • Map the flow of raw materials and sub-components through global supply chains
  • Risk-score shipments in-real time
  • Collect tariff revenues earlier
  • Trace global supply chains to enhance import visibility and risk segmentation

Exiger’s proven AI solutions have been deployed across 60+ US Government agencies, including the Department of War, Department of State, Department of Energy, DHS, the intelligence community, and armed forces.

Exiger’s technology continues to earn top recognition. In April, Exiger was named an awardee on the Government Services Administration’s Supply Chain Risk Illumination Professional Tools and Services (SCRIPTS) Blanket Purchase Agreement, and was the highest-ranked unrestricted vendor awardee of the 10-year, $919 million contract. This year, Exiger was named a Leader in the 2025 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Supplier Risk Management Solutions, a Best-of-Breed Solution and three-time Value Leader in Spend Matters’ SolutionMap, and a Leader in Omdia’s Market Radar: Firmware and Software Supply Chain Security. Exiger also won a 2025 STEVIE® Award for AI Company of the Year.

  • AI in Supply Chain

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

1 October 2025

Estimated Read time

10Mins

For most of their careers, procurement and supply chain leaders have operated in what might be termed “peacetime conditions” –…

For most of their careers, procurement and supply chain leaders have operated in what might be termed “peacetime conditions” – globalised markets, relatively stable politics and just-in-time models optimised for efficiency. Well, that era is well and truly over. To that end, we were honoured to be invited to September’s Exiger Executive Forum in London, a gathering of procurement leaders, financiers and politicians to see how procurement leaders can navigate a new phase of supply chain revolution: ‘war-time readiness’… 

18/9/2025. The scheduling of the Exiger Executive Forum couldn’t have been more timely. Just a week ago, NATO planes downed Russian drones over Poland. Saturday will see three Russian fighter aircraft enter Estonia’s airspace without permission. Sunday will see fighter jets from Germany and Sweden scrambling over the Baltic Sea to intercept and track an unidentified Russian surveillance plane. These are perilous times. 

The Re-Arm Europe programme, backed by more than €800bn in funding and EU initiatives such as EDIP and ASAP, is addressing these concerns by placing the EU onto a wartime footing. However, this is not simply about tanks, jets and missiles – its impact will ripple far beyond defence primes. From chemicals to chips, logistics to software, sectors once peripheral are now central to Europe’s security as their supply chains edge towards the frontline. 

From efficiency to fragility 

September’s Exiger Executive Forum is made up of three exceptional leaders: Tobias Ellwood, former MP, soldier and Chair of the Defence Select Committee from 2020 to 2023, who brings a defence and policymaker’s view of Europe’s readiness; Faysal Rahman, Head of Defence at Deutsche Bank AG, who is strategically placed regarding the unprecedented EU defence spend and Koray Köse, Chief Analyst and Founder of KOSE Advisory, senior fellow with GLOBSEC, futurist, technology and AI evangelist and former Gartner Analyst and Supply Chain Executive, who connects geopolitics, AI and supply chain resilience at the sharpest edge of disruption with his massive global audience. Their host is Exiger’s Tim Fowler. 

At the latest Exiger Executive Forum, the group tackles how wartime economics redraws supply networks, creates new critical suppliers and redefines what resilience and readiness mean for global supply chains already under significant pressure, where the impact of the Re-Arm Europe programme is but another stress test. After all, if your suppliers are suddenly required as part of the war effort, or are considered security risks due to their location, how will you replace them?  

Be prepared

“You should definitely prepare,” Ellwood reveals. “What would happen, if say London didn’t have water or electricity for 72 hours? Who would you turn to? These are the questions we need to be asking ourselves. And once you get your mindset around those sorts of things, you can start preparing yourselves more widely for being able to procure in these difficult environments. Where are your supply chains leading? If they all go to China, then where’s your plan B?” he posits. “That might take you to Canada who are ready with a lot of the minerals, say, but the processing capabilities there are woefully behind. So there needs to be some direction, some vision, certainly some strategy to say we need to think of these things were the proverbial to happen. These are very difficult, but important questions and I think it’s really very wise for us to now consider them, however dark.” 

War-time readiness is going to massively impact supply chains across all sectors, but are procurement leaders ready to respond when wartime economics collide with fragile, globalised supply chains? Köse, expert supply chain and technology strategist, pulls no punches. “No, they’re not, and it’s not only their fault, it’s the fault of the economy. We work in a way where you look at quarterly reports and three-year plans because the worst thing for a CFO is for uncertainty to be built into the budget. They hate that. So, what they minimise is that uncertainty in the budget that then reflects into stiff procurement and supply chain targets, which reflects into savings targets. However, targets should always be focused on value maximisation and if you don’t get that, you should get out of procurement and supply chain.” 

Procurement’s historic back-office status, Köse argues, has left organisations exposed. Risk has been a KPI, but not fragility or resilience. “We’ve always measured cost, quantity, quality,” he details. “Never fragility or resilience. That must change.” 

The numbers he cites are sobering. In Germany, it would take until 2121 to rebuild stockpiles of ammunition back to 2004 levels. “Nothing works without security,” he tells the room. “And nothing works without supply chains. Procurement is no longer about buying things at the lowest cost. It’s about national resilience.” 

“Most organisations only invest in resilience after the last shock,” offers one audience member. “The problem is that resilience looks like an insurance policy. Nobody wants to pay for it until it’s too late,” he continues. “Resilience also means securing skills, not just materials,” declares another. Both perspectives reinforcing a central theme: procurement must expand its definition of resilience, from materials to people, from efficiency to adaptability. 

No one will escape

The forum is clear that wartime economics will not stay within the defence silo. Energy, pharmaceuticals, FMCG and tech will all feel the squeeze. Köse cites the EU’s Critical Raw Materials Act, which sets ambitious targets for mining, processing and recycling within Europe. “If you’re a CPO in pharma or FMCG, don’t think this won’t touch you,” he cautions. “Aluminium, cobalt, lithium – these are not just defence issues. Inflationary pressures, resource competition and talent shortages will hit everyone.”  

According to Köse you first need to establish security and the visibility into supply tiers, to be able to control your supply chain. “Because supply chains define your economic success, which then bolsters the social fabric and so on. The ripple effect. “And when we’re thinking about supply chain, we have always underestimated the role that we played in this because we have always been pushed in the back office. But now it’s the flip side. Why? Because of those unprecedented events such as COVID. ‘Supply chain, can you please help us? We need PPE, we need availability of vials for the vaccine.’ And then Ukraine happened, and then inflation happened, and then AI. Suddenly, the CPO and the CSCO are both under pressure and the focal points. This is the time to act and not to sit and wait.” 

Procurement’s new KPIs: fragility, resilience and agility 

So, what does resilience look like in practice? Köse suggests that the three converging levers: people, process, and technology are now complemented with integrating politics and economics – without the amplification resilience remains an illusion. He also warns against procurement’s obsession with cost. “It’s not cost management anymore. It’s revenue protection and maximisation,” he argues. “That means funding hidden champions, backing innovative startups and leveraging the financial sector and banks to unlock capital.” 

The technological revolution is creating both the problems and the possible solutions when reshaping procurement and increasing resilience. “We are still coming to terms with unmanned warfare,” Ellwood explains. “Simple drones costing a few hundred pounds are neutralising tanks worth millions. That changes procurement priorities overnight. It’s about volume, adaptability and speed. The lesson for corporate procurement? Traditional innovation cycles are collapsing. From 3D printers producing drone parts on the Ukrainian frontline, to Boston Dynamics’ robotic “dogs” potentially repurposed as weapons, procurement leaders must think beyond cost and consider adaptability as a strategic metric.”   

Even with capital and innovation, Europe also faces a coordination problem. Faysal Rahman, Head of Defence at Deutsche Bank notes that “27 countries, 27 defence ministers, 27 bespoke tanks are creating inefficiencies. Soft EU guidance on joint procurement has yet to deliver real standardisation”. Ellwood illustrates the absurdity with examples: British artillery pieces unable to fire Lithuanian shells; aircraft unable to use interchangeable refuelling systems. “There is no commonality in NATO beyond small-calibre bullets,” he warns. “That is madness in this day and age.” For procurement leaders in every sector, the takeaway is simple: fragmentation kills resilience. Standardisation, interoperability and collaboration must be procurement priorities. 

Mind the gap

So, how do we bridge the gap between the governments involved in these programmes and the commercial organisations? What advice can we give commercial organisations when they’re talking to government and vice versa? How can government help? “I think collectively you need to work out yourselves what you’d like to see happen rather than waiting for it,” Ellwood explains. “I’ve spent 20 years in parliament and in government and there’s an awful lot of reaction and ‘working the day’, not looking at the bigger picture, not looking at long term.

“Half the problems we’ve got now, including recognising where our rare minerals should come from is because China is very good at looking ahead 34 years. It’s always a lot easier if you are the dictator and you’re going to still be in power in 34 years, but for a parliamentarian, for a government and for a minister, you’re actually looking at the electoral cycle. My advice would be collectively work out your recommendations and then seek good advice from the people that can influence the decision-making. The ones that when all the meetings are finished, stay up late around the fire with the prime minister and work out what we should actually do. When you want thoughts to be shared it’s more powerful and has more clout, if collectively you work out what your recommendations are, slightly ‘across the table’.” 

Financing resilience: banks stepping in 

If fragility is a major problem for war-time supply chains, finance is certainly part of the solution. For procurement leaders, the implication is clear: access to finance is becoming a core enabler of supply chain resilience, hence the €800bn Re-Arm Europe fund. But agility is also essential. Unlike slow governmental RFP processes, banks are innovating with guarantees and bespoke lending models to get cash where it’s most urgently needed.

Rahman explains how capital is now being redirected to strengthen the supply chain itself – not just the primes at the top. “It’s not only large corporates that need capital,” he reveals. “It’s the smaller suppliers who are critical to the ecosystem. If one of Lockheed Martin’s 1,050 suppliers fails to deliver, the entire F-35 programme is affected. That’s why we struck a €500mn deal with the European Investment Bank specifically to fund SMEs in defence supply chains. Demand has been overwhelming. We closed that deal just months ago,” he notes. “And already 70% of the capital is gone.” 

Conclusion: preparing for the next shock 

From finance to fragility, drones to data engineers, one theme echoed through the Exiger Executive Forum: resilience is now procurement’s ultimate KPI. Rahman illustrates: “We’re starting to factor in these black swan events that are unlikely to happen in theory, but are becoming more and more common in practice.

The one thing that is extremely challenging is the uncertainty. If you look at any deal-making, whether it’s acquiring a company or giving a loan, the number one ingredient for making a deal is confidence. If you don’t have confidence, you can’t make that deal. That’s what we’ve started grappling with because the last three to five years have seen a lot of unprecedented events. How you manage that is really important. We’re also looking at issues around cybersecurity becoming a lot more prominent in the defence industry. If a missile or a satellite gets hijacked, how do you manage that risk?” 

For procurement leaders, the war-time readiness challenge needs us to prepare not just for yesterday’s disruptions but for tomorrow’s ‘unthinkable’. As we’ve discussed, that means rethinking metrics, partnering with finance, investing in innovation, and engaging with government. Because in an era where geopolitics and economics collide, procurement isn’t just about sourcing. It’s about securing the future. 

COMING UP: https://www.exiger.com/perspectives/exiger-executive-forum-false-security-the-illusion-of-control-in-modern-day-value-chains

  • Events
  • Risk & Resilience

Author

Sean Galea-Parc

Published

30 September 2025

Estimated Read time

2Mins

Our exclusive cover story this month centres around procurement evolution at ORO Labs, with CEO and co-founder Sudhir Bhojwani, Shachi…

Our exclusive cover story this month centres around procurement evolution at ORO Labs, with CEO and co-founder Sudhir Bhojwani, Shachi Rai Gupta, Vice President of Strategy and Innovation at ORO, and Lance Younger, EVP, EMEA GM and Global Partnerships – the trio having a proven track record in procurement transformation. And together, they explore the rise of the digital procurement ecosystem and how technology-led, strategic partnerships are transforming procurement. 

Inside ORO Labs

In September, ORO launched the ORO Partner Enterprise Network (OPEN). OPEN cultivates deep, lasting relationships with consulting and technology partners who share a commitment to innovation and customer success.  

“An ecosystem isn’t just a collection of digital solutions. It’s consulting partners, specialised tech providers, and human expertise all working together,” explains Lance Younger, EVP, EMEA GM and Global Partnerships at ORO Labs. “Each contributor brings unique value, whether it’s cutting-edge technology, research, or individual knowledge. By combining them, you unlock outcomes that no single solution could achieve: greater efficiency, stronger effectiveness, a far better experience, and stronger economics.” 

Leading ORO is CEO and co-founder Sudhir Bhojwani. Since founding ORO, his mindset of how no one single tool can do it all has never shifted. He affirms large enterprises need an ecosystem instead of just one solution, and ORO was built with that philosophy from the ground up. “Our architecture reflects that,” he explains. “For example, ORO included an embedded Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) layer from the very beginning, not as an afterthought, but as a core principle because we knew integration was essential”…

Read the full story inside… 

Elsewhere, we have a fascinating interview with Diageo’s Marisa Schoeman, VP of Planning & Logistics for Africa who talks about the beverage giant’s expansion across the region. And, we pay a visit to the Exiger Executive Forum to see how supply chains should prepare for war. And we grab some time with Brenda Spoonemore, VP at Amazon Business, to learn more about shifting procurement priorities, digitally-driven innovation, and overcoming the challenges of today’s economy…  

Plus, lots, lots more! Enjoy! 

Author

Jess Shanahan

Published

29 July 2025

Estimated Read time

7Mins

AI’s rapid evolution is creating both opportunity and urgency. AlixPartners lays out what needs to change — and why risk-takers will lead the way.

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in procurement is gaining traction with many organisations already looking at how the technology can improve processes. However, there’s scope to go beyond efficiency and instead focus on transforming value delivery. 

At DPW New York, we spoke to Amit Mahajan and Aaron Addicoat from AlixPartners, a management consultancy firm doing things a little differently. The organisation is advising its clients on how to implement AI to drive value, but it’s also using AI internally, too. 

“AlixPartners has a unique business model,” explains Addicoat. “We have a very senior model, very few junior resources. So now you imagine taking people with 10 or 15 years experience and now you equip them with AI… for us, it’s a huge unlock.”

This is about more than just productivity gains. AlixPartners focuses on using AI to transform the way procurement teams work, while crucially, maintaining the human touch.

How procurement professionals are using AI

With the support of technology, it’s possible to shift procurement from a cost-saving exercise to a potential revenue driver. Procurement teams are already looking for these opportunities, as Mahajan explains. “They’re starting to think about new ways of doing things,” he says. “It’s not just automation, but asking how do I leapfrog and do something differently?”

There are plenty of use cases where AI is helping with automation. This is a great place to start as it frees up human workers to do more valuable jobs that need a personal touch. “I have a client who’s using AI every day,” says Addicoat. “This allows them to review documents and contracts rapidly, to find key clauses and termination dates. They’re also using it in spend control processes to identify which things need to be reviewed more thoroughly.”

Many organisations are also using AI agentically to create their own bots. This gives teams a more accessible way to review information. “One example is a client who’s using AI for their business to help with acronyms,” says Addicoat. “They built it as an acronym tool to help break down the language barrier between different functions using different terms. This led to better engagement.”

This empowers employees across an organisation to be more autonomous while still getting the full picture. Agentic AI, especially, allows them to interact with information in a way that previously would’ve required specialist technical knowledge. Now, it’s possible to query information within a contract directly. 

“It’s about using agents and AI to look at anomalies within your procurement contracts,” explains Mahajan, “and be able to help the category analysts, the category specialists, and others to get more of those insights.”

While generative AI might be a hot topic, it’s not the only way to use the technology. In combining several sources of data and using AI to spot trends, it’s possible to create workflows tailored to the current environment. Addicoat explains: “We take a series of data inputs, such as weather patterns, lead times, contractual terms, inventory, and forecast. Then the AI generates the purchase order, queues it for review, and upon approval, places the order.”

This can help an organisation to place orders with the right supplier in the most timely fashion to avoid delays, and optimise for cost, for example. This fully automates the end-to-end process, using AI to interpret those important data signals.

While this is useful for procurement teams, it’s only the start. “Using AI in this way is really cool,” says Addicoat, “but what I found most fascinating is that you’re building a data model, and with AI layered into it, that over time can tell you how to optimise itself.”

This has huge implications for procurement teams looking to save money and drive revenue. “For example, it could tell us the commodity price at a certain point in time was low,” says Addicoat, “but because inventory capacity to hold resin was maxed out the client could only buy so much at that low price. So now investing in a new storage unit at a cost of a few hundred thousand dollars could, under the same scenario in the future, save millions of dollars..Data quality challenges

A roadblock that can stop procurement teams from fully embracing AI is a lack of quality data. With so many sources of information, often including paper-based documents, some might think it’s difficult to get the data AI needs to be truly useful.

“Don’t wait for everything to be perfect before you get started,” says Addicoat. 

This is a sentiment echoed by Mahajan: “Use AI to solve your data problem before solving your business problems.”

This requires a mindset shift. While AI can help cleanse, enrich, and structure existing unstructured data, it’s important to take the right approach. Shift from asking ‘what can we do with our data?’ to ‘what value do we need to create?’ and work backwards from there.

With this approach, the questions are less about the data and more about the business problem. This then allows you to use AI to work with the information you have to help answer those questions.

“Start with the value proposition in mind and work backwards,” explains Addicoat. “You can get data from anywhere — it has to serve a purpose.”

Bringing back the human touch

AI can free up procurement teams to focus on tasks that need more nuance and expertise. Using technology to automate workflows and make information more accessible has a huge impact on employee productivity. “It’s fundamentally transforming the way they work, the amount of work they can do, and the type of work they’re able to do,” says Addicoat.

There’s always the worry that with any new technology, the human element will be forgotten. “With every new advancement that comes in,” says Mahajan, “whether that was a steam engine or when computers came along, everybody wondered what they were going to do. But as humans, we always find ways to start doing higher-level work.”

This means that many professionals will find new ways of doing things. “Imagine all the mundane tasks you have to do in your daily job now,” Addicoat continues. “With these new ways of working, imagine the speed with which you can turn an idea into something real. All that time you free up allows you to go talk to people and build relationships that mean something.”

On the other side of things, the sheer volume of AI-generated content out there is going to drive people towards those more meaningful interactions. “You don’t know what to trust and what to believe anymore,” Addicoat says. “That’s going to lead to a resurgence in face-to-face content, being at the office, and being at events.”

AI’s impact on procurement talent

The talent landscape is changing. With technology playing a larger part than ever before, organisations don’t just need procurement professionals, they need adaptable, tech-savvy people. The nature of the job means that those in procurement need a wide range of skills. 

“We do everything,” says Addicoat, “legal, operations, supply chain, negotiation, analytics. Procurement professionals are generalists.” 

Tech plays into every element of that skillset, which means tech skills are becoming even more important for candidates applying for procurement roles. “Nobody goes to college thinking they’ll be a procurement professional,” says Mahajan, “but with AI and tech, that’s changing.”

With procurement often seen as a proving ground for leadership, embedding these tech-minded generalists could have a huge impact on the future. “We have a shortage of talent,” explains Addicoat. “But with more and more CEOs and COOs coming from procurement, that speaks volumes to what procurement does and the value it brings, as well as what the future holds.”

At AlixPartners, the passion for procurement is very clear with Addicoat saying: “There are only two kinds of people in the world: those who love procurement and those who don’t know it yet.”

Change is coming

With AI of all forms steadily gaining traction, procurement could change dramatically in the coming years. It’s the organisations that are willing to take risks and embrace change that will come out on top.

“AI has the potential to disrupt the whole management consulting world,” says Mahajan. “Firms focused on transformation will thrive.” 

With AI’s capabilities increasing rapidly, it’s difficult to predict what comes next. However, adaptability is key. “Hold onto your hat. In a year and a half, the world’s going to look very different,” concludes Addicoat.

Author

Jess Shanahan

Published

Estimated Read time

7Mins

We spoke to Chief Product Officer Prerna Dhawan about what it takes to move from experimentation to execution.

As AI continues to dominate conference stages and boardroom discussions, the pressure to use it is everywhere. As this technology becomes further embedded in enterprise strategy, many organisations are still grappling with how to apply it in a way that delivers real, measurable value.

Rather than focusing on AI for the sake of innovation, the question is how to align new tools with real business problems. That means looking beyond dashboards and pilots to deploy AI where it can simplify decision-making and improve processes.

At Beroe, this principle is central to how AI solutions are developed, deployed, and scaled. As the company behind the world’s leading procurement intelligence platform, Beroe provides real-time market data, cost analysis, and supplier risk assessments, empowering thousands of organisations globally to streamline operations and mitigate risks. Its latest advances in autonomous negotiation, supplier discovery, and predictive analytics show what it means to align AI with business objectives.

We spoke with Prerna Dhawan, Chief Product Officer at Beroe, during this year’s DPW New York conference. The discussion explored how procurement leaders can move beyond hype and start unlocking the full potential of AI.

Misalignment with business needs

There are plenty of real-world examples of how AI can improve efficiency within a business, from automating manual tasks like invoice processing to identifying new suppliers based on complex sourcing criteria. Accessing this technology is easier than ever with a wide range of tools available to procurement professionals. It can be tempting to jump on the bandwagon and integrate AI across every area of an organisation, but success requires a more nuanced approach.

The key is to ask the right questions, Dhawan explains: “We talk about all the latest and greatest technology out there, but what does it mean in practical terms? We need to ask, ‘How can I apply it today in the work I am doing as a head of product or as a procurement professional?’”

The allure of generative AI is especially strong, but business leaders should ask whether that’s the right solution for their needs. As with any decision, it’s important to consider the business problem. “It starts with a little bit of knowledge about what you’re looking for,” says Dhawan. “What are some of your biggest challenges, and which of those challenges could AI technology solve?”

Matching the right tool to the job

Once an organisation has identified a specific problem, it’s possible to find the AI solution that fits. While generative AI gets a lot of attention, other AI technologies and machine learning based systems might be more appropriate. 

In some cases, prescriptive, rule-based, or predictive AI could be a better choice to solve a problem without the need for a large language model. For example, forecasting commodity prices doesn’t require generative AI, just strong, contextual machine learning. 

“We are looking at AI across two dimensions,” says Dhawan. “Firstly, what is our offering to customers, in terms of procurement intelligence and autonomous negotiation technology. Second, we are looking at AI internally. Let’s say in product development, how do we use the latest AI solutions to accelerate our product development cycles so we can release new modules and capabilities more quickly.”

Regardless of the type of tool chosen, it should cover a high-impact use case. Integrating AI to solve a problem that only surfaces for a small group of people a couple of times a year won’t have a great return on investment. Instead, look for regularly occurring problems that, if fixed, could have a huge impact on productivity or quality. 

Reducing the cognitive load

We’re already bombarded by information, and the use of AI to add to this doesn’t make sense. “I don’t need another dashboard in my life,” says Dhawan. 

When implemented correctly, AI can make data more accessible while reducing cognitive load for users. The result is increased productivity and faster decision-making. 

“I think the power of AI is to simplify access to data. This is why ChatGPT has been a success: it democratises access to information. That’s what our B2B technology world is waiting for. It gives me something simple that allows me to talk to my data. Then I can focus on what insights I need to make a decision or take action.”

For most B2B users, the key is intelligent simplification. Look for ways to simplify access to data through agent AI tools and conversational interfaces. This brings the focus back to action rather than dashboards.

Inside Beroe

While many procurement teams are still exploring AI’s potential, Beroe has already embedded it across both its platform and internal operations. The company, founded in 2006, provides procurement intelligence to thousands of organisations worldwide. Its platform delivers the critical data that professionals need to make informed sourcing decisions, from commodity prices and risk indicators to ESG scores and supplier intelligence.

“We provide all data that procurement needs for decision making, whether it’s cost data, risk data, ESG data or price data,” says Dhawan. “Our reimagination of the future is not just giving access to more data but creating that layer of recommendations that help you make decisions at speed and scale.”

One of the clearest examples of this in action is Beroe’s new ‘autonomous negotiations’ platform resulting from its recent acquisition of negotiation technology business, nnamu.  Delivering a significant evolution in the procurement technology landscape the platform enhances the foundational elements of AI and game theory with Beroe’s industry-leading market intelligence and, according to Dhawan, it’s being deployed successfully in live sourcing scenarios.

“This is a technology that is being used for multilateral negotiations,” Dhawan explained. “It’s no longer just a POC or prototype, it’s live and being used at scale.” These new tools reflect Beroe’s core mission: to help procurement professionals minimise surprises and maximise margins. 

Crucially, Beroe isn’t waiting for perfect data to apply these technologies. Instead, the company is using AI to work with what’s available — cleansing, interpreting, and extracting value from both structured and unstructured sources.

“You can use AI for cleansing data – even paper contracts,” Dhawan says. “Historically, we thought data had to be structured. But now, with vision models and image analytics, that’s no longer the case.”

Rather than striving for 100% accuracy before taking action, Beroe embraces a more agile mindset that balances speed and precision. 

Is mindset holding procurement back?

The technology is ready. The use cases are proven. So why do so many procurement teams still hesitate to embrace AI? “There’s this subconscious fear that I think is a barrier to adoption,” she said. “And to some extent, it’s to do with our friends in Hollywood.”

There’s the myth that AI is a job-threatening black box, especially in industries where trust and experience are the backbone of good decision-making. For procurement, where professional judgement and business context are critical, the idea of handing over tasks to AI can feel risky.

But Dhawan believes this fear is misplaced. At Beroe, AI isn’t replacing procurement professionals, it’s augmenting them. Whether it’s surfacing new suppliers, automating elements of negotiation, or flagging risks earlier in the sourcing cycle, the aim is to enhance human decision-making. She says: “I think with the new kinds of AI technology that’s available to us, it is an opportunity for us in B2B tech to embrace more human-centred design with higher focus on UX.”

Looking ahead

Looking ahead to 2026 and beyond, Dhawan sees procurement evolving into a more personalised and responsive function – one where AI plays a critical role in both strategy and execution.

“We see hyper-personalisation coming, both in supplier relationships and internal stakeholder engagement,” she explains. “AI will be at the centre of that.”

Rather than one-size-fits-all sourcing strategies, AI will enable procurement teams to tailor their approaches to specific business units, categories, or even individual suppliers. This means smarter segmentation, more relevant insights, and stronger commercial outcomes.

Another key shift is the growing ability to connect macro events, such as geopolitical shocks or regulatory changes, with micro actions inside the business. AI can help procurement teams identify these signals earlier, respond faster, and still align with long-term goals such as cost efficiency or sustainability.

“It’s about balancing your fire-fighting reactions to market events with your long term goals and strategy,” says Dhawan. “Procurement needs visibility and flexibility at the same time.”

Beroe is already moving in this direction. Alongside its growing AI capabilities, the company is refining how it delivers intelligence, building agents and recommendation layers. These not only inform decisions, but also help teams take action on them. Whether that means automating routine negotiations or proactively flagging supply risks, Beroe is evolving to meet the needs of a procurement function that’s more dynamic than ever.

As Dhawan points out, the goal isn’t to overwhelm teams with more tools, it’s to make their lives easier. “It’s about reducing complexity and giving procurement professionals confidence in what to do next,” she concludes.

For many procurement leaders, AI still feels like a long-term ambition. But the solutions are already here, and through companies like Beroe, they’re already in use. The challenge now is not whether AI can deliver value. It’s whether teams are ready to adopt the mindset and cultural shift that will allow them to unlock that value.

Author

Nell Walker

Published

28 July 2025

Estimated Read time

6Mins

We caught up with Valdera’s Co-Founders to find out why chemical procurement comes with its own challenges.

Chemical procurement is one of the most complex and overlooked categories in the supply chain. Between navigating regulatory constraints, aligning on technical specifications, and finding qualified suppliers, even the most experienced procurement teams face major hurdles. That’s exactly the gap Valdera was built to solve.

Founded by sister-brother duo Sruti Arulmani (CEO) and Dheev Arulmani (COO), Valdera is an AI-native sourcing platform purpose-built for chemicals and raw materials. Rather than applying generic technology to a specialised industry, the team set out to reimagine chemical procurement from the ground up.

“Chemicals are one of the most complex sourcing categories,” says Dheev. “In order for a company to gain leverage from AI in this space, it must build the data infrastructure and the AI specific to this industry. That was the inspiration behind Valdera. Our vision was to partner directly with procurement organisations and help digitise that entire sourcing workflow all the way from supplier discovery to market intelligence to qualification.”

“Direct procurement is really at the core of your product’s margin,” adds Sruti. “In today’s economy, business leaders are focused on staying profitable, and that starts with ensuring the materials behind your products deliver on both margin and performance. Most of the physical products we touch and interact with every day come down to what they’re made of. That’s why we’re so passionate about chemicals and raw materials.”

The power of vertical AI models

While general-purpose LLMs are powerful, they fall short when it comes to industries like chemical procurement where context, precision, and deep domain expertise are crucial. Valdera has taken a different approach: building vertical AI specifically trained to understand the language, data, and complexity of chemicals and raw materials. 

“In procurement, especially for chemicals, one-size-fits-all AI doesn’t cut it,” says Sruti. “You need models that can interpret highly technical specifications, normalize data across formats and suppliers, and understand the nuances that determine whether a supplier can actually meet a request.”

That’s exactly what Valdera has built. “We will continue to layer the specificity of the chemical industry on top of an LLM that’s already good at structuring information and returning information in a useful way,” Sruti adds.

Dheev continues: “If you look at the generic LLMs available today, the challenge with these is that they fundamentally don’t work in this industry. The reason for that is that there are no LLMs that are trained on chemical specs. So what we’ve done is take those models and fine-tune them using our own proprietary dataset of chemical specs and properties, built over the last five years. That’s what positions us to drive real value for our users.”

Prioritising privacy

In the chemicals industry, data is sensitive. Trust is everything. Buyers are protective of their proprietary formulations, and understandably do not want their data used to train models that could benefit competitors. On the other side, suppliers are cautious about publicly listing their full product catalogs, especially when it comes to custom or high-value materials. Valdera was built with these realities in mind, and its platform is designed to protect both sides.

“In chemicals, suppliers are very protective of their proprietary catalogs,” Dheev adds. “And buyers are equally cautious about sharing proprietary formulations that go into their products. So there needs to be an independent third party that both sides can trust—someone who can facilitate discovery and sourcing without compromising confidentiality.”

“For us, it’s about protecting the interests of both buyers and suppliers,” Sruti explains. “We only use customer data to drive outcomes for that customer. We’re not here to train on anyone’s inputs or share information across the ecosystem. We’re here to help our customers get the best results for their business. That’s core to how we think about data privacy and partnership.”

The humanity of procurement

Even as AI becomes more powerful, procurement remains deeply human. Trust, context, and judgement are critical to strong buyer-supplier relationships, and no model can replace that. Instead, AI can enable teams to work faster, focus on strategy, and unlock new value across the supply chain. 

“Procurement is a human business,” says Sruti. “At the end of the day, it’s two people coming together and making an agreement. We believe that’s never going to change.”

Rather than add complexity or replace roles, Valdera’s AI helps teams do more with the resources they already have. That means less time spent on manual tasks like gathering supplier documentation or comparing specs and more time spent on strategic decision-making, relationship-building, and growing the business.

“Our customers don’t want to be buried in paperwork. They want to focus on the work that actually drives outcomes,” Sruti adds. “We’re here to take the most repetitive parts of the job off their plate so they can do that.”

“The chemicals industry is inherently relationship-driven,” says Dheev. “But today’s procurement teams are stretched thin. With Valdera, one person can now manage a broader scope: sourcing faster, accessing a wider network of qualified suppliers, and making smarter decisions in less time. That’s what’s getting our customers excited.”

Driving impact beyond cost

In chemical procurement, cost will always matter but it’s only part of the equation. The organizations leading the way are the ones thinking strategically: securing supply, expanding their supplier base, improving agility, and driving long-term value. That’s why more teams are turning to Valdera not just to cut costs, but to unlock a new level of visibility, access, and control.

“Our vision is to enable procurement professionals to leverage this data in order to give them market intelligence, expand their supplier network, and enable margin expansion,” Dheev concludes. “If you ask any of our customers, they’ll tell you savings are just table stakes when using Valdera. The real impact comes from levers like security of supply, innovation and sustainability. Those levers are harder to quantify, but they’re critical to the long-term success of the business.”

Implementing an outcome-based approach

In a crowded and fast-evolving tech landscape, it’s easy to get distracted by the promise of sweeping, all-in-one solutions. But the most effective procurement teams stay focused, starting with a clear understanding of their business goals and choosing technology that’s purpose-built to achieve them.

“Success starts with knowing the outcomes you’re trying to drive,” says Sruti. “Whether it’s sourcing the right chemicals, improving security of supply, unlocking savings, or advancing sustainability and innovation. Being clear about those goals is what helps you identify the right tools and partners to get there.”

That kind of clarity leads to faster wins and less wasted effort. “We always encourage customers to start where the impact matters most,” Dheev adds. “Don’t spread yourself too thin. Be specific about the problem you’re solving, define the KPI that matters, and test any solution against that. Just because a tool is popular doesn’t mean it’s the right fit. The best results come from targeted solutions that align with your most pressing priorities.”

Author

Jess Shanahan

Published

25 July 2025

Estimated Read time

6Mins

Candex exists to solve tail spend by removing friction and giving procurement leaders time to focus on what truly drives value.

Candex isn’t chasing trends for the sake of innovation. Instead, the company is focused on solving one of the oldest and most persistent challenges in enterprise procurement: getting rid of the noise. 

Most in procurement will be familiar with Candex. Co-founded by Shani Vaza, Chief R&D Officer, and Jeremy Lappin, CEO, Candex is a technology-based master vendor that simplifies onboarding and payments to small and one-time vendors. It delivers a fast, compliant, and easy buying experience for requisitioners, while procurement gains automation, visibility, and control, reducing the vendor master by up to 80%.

For years, procurement teams have battled fragmented data, manual onboarding processes, and administrative bottlenecks. This results in time and resources spent on tasks that add little value, while strategic initiatives suffer from a lack of focus. 

For many organisations, 70% of vendors account for just 5% of spend. With Candex, procurement can manage that long tail of spend without adding operational burden. This frees up teams to focus on strategic priorities, redirect spend to preferred suppliers, and drive more value across the business. At this year’s DPW New York conference, Jeremy Lappin and Chief Customer Officer Danielle McQuiston shared how their platform is helping procurement evolve beyond compliance and cost savings into something far more valuable: clarity.

Addressing the core problem

While many conversations at the event kept coming back to the use of AI, Candex is doing things differently. “AI will transform procurement by uncovering better, more innovative vendors,” says Lappin. “But every new vendor comes with the burden of onboarding and compliance. That’s where Candex makes a real difference—we streamline that process by enabling fast, compliant purchasing without the heavy lift of onboarding. As companies adopt AI, they’ll need a system like ours to truly benefit from what it reveals.”

It’s about bringing the conversation back to the core problem. Lappin continues: “Candex makes it possible to onboard and pay new vendors in minutes, and without setup delays, while keeping procurement firmly in control. That’s where we unlock both agility and compliance.”

Solving procurement’s data problem

After speaking to many procurement leaders at events such as DPW New York 2025, one topic of conversation stood out: that messy data can be a major hurdle to overcome before successful AI adoption can occur. Companies dealing with multiple affiliates for a single vendor can find their data ends up split, duplicated, and difficult to work with at scale. 

“The fragmentation of data is a very old problem,” says Lappin. “One of the reasons it occurs is because the data is organised by affiliates and isn’t aggregated properly. This creates enormous processes.”

A dedicated platform can take on the heavy lifting of sorting through this data, without the use of complex AI models. Lappin continues: “One thing that Candex does to help this problem with smaller vendors is auto-aggregating affiliates under one corporate umbrella. It’s going to massively reduce the data problem by directing that small spend through us.”

McQuiston adds: “Data is the foundation of all the decisions that procurement makes. And the fact that they can consolidate that data within Candex, and look at it only when it’s relevant to what actions they have to take, is a huge contribution to the space for procurement.”

The right data at the right time

Candex isn’t trying to flood procurement teams with dashboards. Instead, it delivers data when and where it’s needed, stripping away the noise to surface what’s important.

“Our customers tell us we filter out 95% of the noise and highlight just the actions that matter. It’s not just visibility, it’s visibility at the right moment,” says McQuiston. “We have amazing reporting that has hundreds of lines of precision data in there, but it’s also aggregated in a way that it calls out to the things that need attention rather than being bogged down with the rest.”

“Oftentimes the stuff that goes through us is the stuff that procurement doesn’t have the time to give its attention to,” explains Lappin. “I think one of the most powerful things we do is get rid of the things they shouldn’t care about so that it’s very easy to see what they should.”

Simplicity wins

Some procurement tools are complex, slow to adopt, and full of friction, but Candex takes a different approach. “The users just want to be able to operate and do the work that they need to do to serve their objectives,” says McQuiston. “Procurement doesn’t have enough resources to deal with all of the small things.”

Bringing the focus back to the core function of procurement simplifies processes and reduces noise. When working with a lot of small vendors, procurement teams can get bogged down with admin and data. This is where Candex takes on the weight of that burden, and allows the business to move forward.

“At the end of the day, Candex is a tool that is so simple from a user perspective, but still has the confidence of the procurement organisation,” McQuiston continues. “It also shines a better light on the procurement function, which often gets a black eye for being in the way of things.”

Real people

For Lappin, the hype around AI isn’t what makes a product great; it’s real-world validation from customers. “There’s only one way to get through the hype,” he says, “and that’s to find other companies that are using the products and loving them. I think that’s one of the things that has made us successful.”

It’s one of the strengths of DPW; these events showcase real use cases, not just demonstrations. This enables attendees to see the impact of new technologies for themselves, and connect with the people behind them. “DPW has the ambition to use real use cases rather than just relying on demos,” says McQuiston. “That’s what’s a little bit different about DPW compared to some other conferences; the proof is in the pudding.”

Lappin and McQuiston also highlighted the importance of customer-led innovation through Candex Connects – roundtables all over the world that allow procurement peers to meet, discuss the challenges affecting them, and learn from one another, as well as sharing their own inspirational use cases. “We’re not just providing a solution. We’re providing a space where our customers get together, discuss best practices,” McQuiston adds. “And I think we’ve done that really well.”

Procurement, repositioned

Ultimately, Candex is about more than just a tool. It’s about reshaping the perception and potential of procurement teams, giving them the freedom and focus to lead strategically. By removing some of the friction of dealing with myriad small vendors, procurement teams are empowered to drive deeper value.

“Our whole business is focused on agility and value creation,” says McQuiston. “We have to be compliant because our customers demand it, but it’s not really about cost savings when you talk about tail spend. Procurement has always been in a position where they believe they can squeeze something out of every purchase. We’ve gotten to a point in the evolution of the function where they realise there’s a portion they can’t squeeze anything out of. It’s powerful to be able to let that go.”

“Procurement needs to be involved in decisions around spend,” adds Lappin. “They help negotiate. They figure out the right vendors. They really are needed in this process, which is why it exists.”

Candex isn’t just solving tail spend, it’s redefining how procurement operates at scale. With built-in controls, full audit trails, and seamless integration with existing systems, Candex empowers procurement to lead strategically, reduce supplier bloat, and stay agile in a complex world.

Candex is proving that the biggest transformation comes from helping procurement teams reduce the noise and get back to the work that matters. 

Author

Nell Walker

Published

23 July 2025

Estimated Read time

6Mins

The proof, as they say, is in the pudding – and the evidence of TealBook’s increasingly-successful evolution lies in its client relationships.

We talked endlessly about data and AI at DPW New York 2025. A universal truth is that the successful implementation of AI requires clean data. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but businesses certainly need to have a decent handle on their data before adopting AI tools successfully. 

To help make this a reality, North American data and software company TealBook has recently announced a legal entity-based data model. It’s designed to resolve supplier records to the correct legal entities, map parent-child relationships, and enrich profiles with verifiable attributes, enabling accurate supplier data to flow seamlessly into procurement systems and AI applications. “This is part of a 12-year journey for TealBook,” says Stephany Lapierre, the company’s Founder and CEO. “Our vision has always been to build a way to enable procurement organisations to have high quality data with a lot of integrity. That way, you give them the trust they need to put data directly into their systems. 

“Twelve years ago, we underestimated the complexity of getting large enterprises to trust a third-party data solution. As part of our journey, we started using AI early on to find information where it exists on supplier websites and databases. We also started creating digital profiles in a structured way for procurement to access it, match it to their vendor master, and use it.”

TealBook’s data evolution

But, again, at the beginning, TealBook couldn’t be sure whether the data was high enough quality. In 2017, the company was primarily known as a supplier discovery application. It was positioned as a pre-sourcing engine to help procurement teams identify alternative suppliers. At the time, TealBook’s data and models enabled it to determine which companies were similar to others. This meant users could search and find comparable suppliers to expand their sourcing options.

“But that was just a way for us to deliver something that was underserved in the market,” Lapierre continues. “Then our customers started asking for certificates, which are hard to collect and match. They needed cleaner data. They felt they were under-reporting. So in 2018, we started to see whether our technology could refine the data more. We focused on certificates and supplier diversity. We collected great use cases along this journey, and the vision never wavered.

“Just last year we released a new technology – completely different, really sophisticated – allowing us to pull from a lot more data sources. We have provenance so our customers can actually verify where the data’s coming from. We can match it to vendor masters. And now, we also have this new model that includes 230 million verifiable global legal entities from across 145 countries’ registries. We marry this with global parent and child hierarchy, which is really hard for our customers to match themselves.”

Partnership with Kraft Heinz

Now, after 12 years of that vision, TealBook is deeply proud of what it’s achieved. Part of its ability to get to this point is due to early adoption from key customers. Kraft Heinz is a business which Lapierre describes as a “co-innovation partner”, and has been invaluable in helping TealBook achieve its recent goals.

From the perspective of Stefanie Fink, Head of Global Data and Digital Procurement at Kraft Heinz, the partnership has been an immediately valuable one. “It really started with having a visionary, like-minded relationship,” she says. “That’s an important piece of it, because my vision for procurement is that we are partners in our enterprise. 

“In order for us to do our jobs, we have to bring in the right data for use. This is where Stephany’s partnership and vision really resonated. We were really looking for diversity and we could make things easier for our partners, while making sure we had the right people in our ecosystem. We also had to lift up the hood and see what was underneath everything we’ve got. Stephany brought our vision to life. TealBook has evolved too, as we’ve seen; it’s more about orchestration and software-as-a-service. It has been a partnership of need and we cannot continue to do other things without this kind of partnership around data.”

When initially dabbling with this relationship, Fink was clear that Kraft Heinz had no desire to be taking care of more stuff. What she wanted from TealBook was a strong focus on good quality data. After last year’s product release from TealBook, Kraft Heinz already saw its data enriched by 25%. The recently-announced new data model gives the business and TealBook’s other customers the right structure tied to a legal entity, which is a highly credible anchor. “We’re able to do entity resolution – all automated – remove all the duplicates, and then you start with a clean, digitised vendor master,” says Lapierre. “That’s what brings further enrichment.”

The challenge of assessing data quality

Assessing its data before involving TealBook was important for Kraft Heinz, but challenging for such a large organisation. “We had to fail first and fail fast,” says Fink. “We tried some AI around fixing things early, but that didn’t work for us. It was a real eye-opener, realising where this next evolution could take us. Particularly regarding focusing on AI and agents for the right things, not the meaningless things. Before, we were asking agents to tell us if things were duplicates, when we should have been asking: what do these suppliers offer? Where is the innovation? Where is the value?”

What surprised Fink most when looking under Kraft Heinz’s hood was the lack of attention that was being paid to what the business was doing. “It was amazing that nobody had questioned it sooner,” she says. “So I said, let’s take this as a crawl, walk, run approach. I have a wonderful CPO who really understands where we want procurement to go as a function. She was excited about us just getting it done and getting people involved, and that’s what it takes: real pride in ownership of the data.”

Getting engrossed in GenAI

True partnership and an all-in approach has enabled Kraft Heinz to work successfully with AI. This is something some businesses are struggling with as the conversation around artificial intelligence grows louder. For Lapierre, as the CEO of a tech company, adopting AI successfully has meant trying and failing and being fully entrenched in AI as it has evolved.

“We’ve been using AI in our technology since 2016,” she states. “We’re an early adopter. We’d be talking about scraping data, and data in the cloud, and AI models, and our customers’ pupils would widen in surprise. We’ve come a long way and the market has come a long way. 

“The technology we deliver today wouldn’t be possible without the AI tools now at our disposal. We used to build models; we don’t do that anymore. We spend a lot of time investing in engineers to build and test models. That’s made us so much more efficient. I use GenAI every day for so many things now. I’m encouraging my team to be so involved in AI. That’s how you build expertise. You need really strong expertise to use GenAI well. 

“Getting good with AI is about taking risks and having a leadership team that pushes for new things. Suddenly, the successful use of AI becomes a habit.”

Author

Nell Walker

Published

Estimated Read time

7Mins

Why businesses should prepare themselves for AI by not getting lost in the whirlwind of hype and focusing only on what works for their needs.

With AI being the topic of conversation for procurement professionals right now, it’s easy to get lost in the maze of conflicting information. Vroozi is a procure-to-pay platform powered by robust AI capabilities to deliver meaningful use cases. CEO and Co-Founder, Shaz Khan, takes approaching AI the right way very seriously. 

For Vroozi, the use of AI is a two-sided coin. It’s an organisation that talks about AI both in production and consumption. AI is a tool that has been a game-changer, because it has enabled Vroozi’s software and technology engineers to be able to rapidly prototype and develop code. And that code is beneficial for creating feature sets and capabilities that the company wants to introduce to the market.

“Similarly, we take steps to look at how a customer interacts with our software for the first time,” Khan explains. “The implementation process is also ripe for consuming and producing great results with AI. Imagine you go through some type of interview wizard where you prompt the system based on your region and industry. The system will self-configure according to your business unit. This is real intelligence that understands your business at a different level, as well as the competitive landscape, and brings in best practices to deliver incredible results.”

Getting the approach right

Having said that, Khan freely admits that we’re in the early innings of AI adoption. For him, leaders should adopt a multi-pronged approach to implement AI. The first move is to assemble a team. “One key area with AI is that a lot of companies are relying on outside experts that don’t know the business and the goals that they’re trying to achieve,” he explains. 

“You should invest in your own people before you invite outside parties in. Bring that education and assemble a use case, before assessing the problems you’re trying to solve and determining whether AI is a good tool set or capability to solve the problem. If these things match up, execute the game plan, bring in the right technologies and the right expertise, and only then bring AI capabilities into your workforce.”

The challenges

With this being the “early innings”, there are also barriers and challenges. The main issue, from Khan’s perspective, is security. “There’s a trust aspect that has to be looked at,” he explains. “There’s also an ethics aspect. Are you delivering the right results? And how much autonomy are you giving AI and its agents to go out and deliver those results for you without any human interaction? I think the companies that get it right will strike a balance between the trifecta of automation, really great AI technologies, and a balance of human interaction to create an overall output.”

There’s also the question of data. If the data isn’t clean, output will be compromised and lead to poor results. We haven’t seen the worst of what can happen, Khan believes, and AI has the potential to create scenarios that are hard to recover from, if used poorly. “We need to prepare ourselves now to prevent those types of potential calamities from happening,” says Khan. Which is the entire point of DPW: for procurement and technology leaders to educate and learn about best AI practice. 

This allows people to cut through the, as Khan puts it, “hysteria” around AI that can cause problems for businesses. They’re rushing to solve problems, and while leveraging AI can be a component of a complete holistic toolkit, it can’t be the only answer. “A lot of companies today still struggle with getting their businesses off spreadsheets,” he states. “AI should be an equaliser and enabler to get it right.”

Structuring unstructured data

For Khan, in order to ready themselves for AI, procurement professionals and practitioners need to be absolutely committed to data management and governance. “What companies often forget is that much of today’s data is unstructured. It’s not neatly stored in databases – it might be a chat, an image of a spec sheet, or a contract never digitised. This unstructured data often can’t be used by AI models today, so companies risk only addressing a small part of the challenge. Data governance has to be an ongoing exercise.”

Having said that, Khan is keen to differentiate between clean data and perfect data. In fact, many procurement professionals we spoke to at DPW New York 2025 said the same. The message is: don’t wait around for everything to be perfect, or you’ll never start.

“Good enough data is just fine,” Khan says. “But if you’re going to continue to feed your AI engines and algorithms bad data, your outputs will be compromised. Companies need to have data governance strategies and upfront policies in place so that they can manage this, independent of the people that offer them.”

AI creating a complete picture

While treading carefully is important, Khan is equally keen to extoll the many virtues of AI for procurement professionals. There are many incredible use cases already, and AI tool sets and algorithms can effectively interrogate a company’s data and give them the answers they require. AI enables these users to have a complete picture of their buying cycle, and allows them to get additional information for where they can pivot.

“This is where the true power of agentic AI will come into play,” says Khan. “When you can fully trust the system inputs, AI will be able to orchestrate those processes autonomously, and present that information to an end user for final decision.”

Khan is very excited about what Vroozi is doing within its own AI layer. The business looks at AI and intelligence as a pervasive thread across its entire tech stack. Every aspect of its platform has some kind of AI enablement, although it’s not an AI-first company. 

“We follow three distinct areas where we are thriving on the AI front,” says Khan. “First is intelligent document processing. Can we take structured and unstructured data such as contracts, quotes, work orders, and invoices, and populate them automatically onto a screen without any human touch? Processing invoices might require an army of people typing in data, and they might not capture it all. But an AI toolset can take millions of records and process them simultaneously. That’s the power of AI.”

The power of hyper-personalisation

The second area is what Vroozi calls hyper-personalisation, where it intensely personalises the platform to meet a company’s preferences and needs. It’s about how AI can find trends and not only predict the user’s needs, but also help take the next steps. This includes finding suppliers and ordering things that are needed, so that workflows aren’t disrupted.

“Then we also have what we call the push economy,” says Khan. “AI’s power is in pushing and giving people head starts. So when you talk about AI algorithms and look at analytics, it’s about how AI can present to companies in the procurement space when they need to lock in favourable pricing on products and services, and predict when you are seeing potential fraud scenarios based on trends and patterns. You need a lot of data for those AI models to train on, which is why I say we’re in the early innings. It takes time, but it’s incredibly powerful when you get to that point.”

The benefits ahead

At such an exciting time for procurement, 2025 and 2026 look bright for leaders in this space. Not only procurement, but also supply chain and FinTech, are set to benefit from what AI can do with data. 

“There’s going to be a focus on how to capture and harness data, and feed it into AI in a way that produces results,” says Khan. “What we’ll see in the next two years is that AI has now learned from the data that’s been fed into it. You’re going to see higher-quality results and better outcomes. Again, I would caution companies to define the problem first. Then determine if AI is an absolute enabler and game changer. We believe AI can be an influencer and supercharger in terms of productivity. However, there needs to be specific use cases that make sense for corporations. 

“In 2025 and beyond, you’re going to see great technologies embedded into organisations that really work.”

Author

andrew woods

Published

9 July 2025

Estimated Read time

2Mins

The Trump administration has extended its “Liberation Day” and country-specific reciprocal tariffs, originally paused in April, to now kick in…

The Trump administration has extended its “Liberation Day” and country-specific reciprocal tariffs, originally paused in April, to now kick in on August 1 via executive order. These tariffs will affect 14 countries unless trade deals can be agreed and they will ripple through global supply chains, complicating cost control, contract compliance, and delivery timelines. So, what do the experts assess as the best chance, from a procurement perspective, of navigating what may be a turbulent period ahead?

European automakers, pharma manufacturers, and more brace to contend with the threat of an EU-US trade war as Trump announces new metal tariffs.
Tariffs come into effect on August 1st
  • Melanie Hilton, SVP of Customer Success at GS1 US, notes that with tariffs “a branding advantage is emerging.” More specifically, “Made in the USA” is more than a marketing slogan—it’s a trust signal. Consumers increasingly prioritize local production, sustainability, and transparency. Small businesses that emphasize U.S.-based sourcing can turn supply chain shifts into a competitive edge, attracting shoppers looking for reliability and ethical sourcing.” 


  • Pierre Lapree, CPO at SpendHQ, notes “in many companies, tariff exposure is still buried: country of origin isn’t linked to suppliers, HTS codes aren’t standardized, and finance teams are working from assumptions, not facts.” As far as solutions go, even high-cost AI investments won’t help unless these blind spots are filled in. 

  • Richie Daigle, a supply chain evangelist at Tive, says “This isn’t normal volatility; it’s a structural shift. When every player rushes at once, just in time becomes just in chaos. Companies are front-loading orders to beat the new deadline, but when everyone rushes at once, ports clog, equipment disappears, and reliability collapses. The real cost won’t be the duties: it’ll be the $20,000 perishable container stuck at a congested port. We’re already seeing manufacturers dual-sourcing high-tariff items and smart players are rerouting through secondary ports and stockpiling inventory. But this creates new vulnerabilities. Thieves target less-secure alternate routes, and overstretched carriers could cut corners on security. Security is something more people should be talking about, because tariff chaos is creating a golden era for cargo thieves.”

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

8 July 2025

Estimated Read time

4Mins

Amazon Business offers Mathnasium a global logistics network with hundreds of thousands of suppliers, streamlining purchasing and providing a flexible supply chain with…

Amazon Business offers Mathnasium a global logistics network with hundreds of thousands of suppliers, streamlining purchasing and providing a flexible supply chain with fast delivery

Amazon has announced that Mathnasium Tutoring has selected Amazon Business, the company’s online business-to-business store, for its key business purchasing needs. Mathnasium is North America’s leading math-only supplemental education franchise, with over 1,000 centres across the U.S.

Amazon Business makes business purchasing simpler by offering the same easy-to-use experience customers know and love from Amazon. Since launching in the U.S. in 2015, Amazon Business has empowered organisations of all sizes through vast selection, competitive pricing, and a convenient shopping experience. Amazon Business drove $35 billion in annualised gross sales in 2023, and now has more than eight million customers worldwide, including 96 of the Fortune 100, 66 of the FTSE 100, and 38 of the DAX-40 companies.

New data from Argon & Co highlights high executive confidence and low concrete investment into meeting Scope 3 goals as regulations tighten.

With Amazon Business, Mathnasium is able to purchase key items to meet their students’ needs like pens, pencils, notepads and printer toner. These tutoring essentials – as well as gift cards and other toys for their famous “reward cabinet”— come from a wide range of suppliers, all delivered quickly and reliably to support their learning centres.

“At Mathnasium, we know that confidence in the classroom starts with support behind the scenes. That’s why we rely on Amazon Business for our business purchasing needs—so we can spend less time managing supplies and more time empowering students,” said Aimee Mack, Regional Vice President for New Center Openings at Mathnasium.

Whether it’s a small startup looking to streamline its purchasing process or a large organization seeking to optimise its global supply chain, Amazon Business offers scalable solutions that can be tailored to meet specific business requirements.

The familiar Amazon shopping experience

Amazon Business tailors the best of Amazon to meet business customers’ needs. It helps organisations streamline purchasing with access to millions of products, competitive business-only pricing, and fast, flexible delivery.

Amazon Business also offers organization-ready features that deliver immediate operational value, like multi-user accounts, custom approval workflows, tax-exempt purchasing, and consolidated invoicing. Its ability to simplify receiving operations by consolidating shipments reduces interruptions and creates more predictable inventory management, allowing educators to maintain focus on supporting student learning.

“The equation is simple: trusted selection plus fast delivery equals more time for students. By using Amazon Business, Mathnasium is subtracting procurement headaches and replacing them with a streamlined, scalable approach. It’s a formula that adds up for educators, and one we’re proud to stand behind,” said Brenda Spoonemore, Vice President at Amazon Business.

Unique value meets global scale

Amazon Business delivers unique value through a combination of innovation, global reach, and customer obsession that’s unmatched in business procurement. The service isn’t just adapting consumer solutions for business needs—it’s fundamentally reimagining business purchasing for the digital age. For educational institutions like Mathnasium, this means accessing a vast selection of education-related suppliers through a single, streamlined interface that maintains necessary oversight.

This technology provides tools that enable large organisations to maintain control and visibility across their procurement processes, even as their workforce rapidly expands and diversifies.

The Business Prime membership enhances this value proposition by offering organisations access to fast, free shipping on millions of items, along with powerful analytics and spending controls that optimise the management of decentralised purchasing.

Innovation-driven solutions

Amazon Business also leverages cutting-edge technology to transform business buying from a routine administrative task into a strategic advantage. Innovation is in Amazon Business’s DNA – it constantly iterates and evolves its AI capabilities to stay ahead of business needs. This isn’t about incremental improvements – it’s about fundamentally transforming how businesses buy, leveraging cutting-edge technology to make procurement simpler, smarter, and more efficient.

Amazon Business applies the same state-of-the-art AI and machine learning models that power the familiar Amazon shopping experience to business procurement challenges. This includes offering customers sophisticated, intuitive AI-powered data analytics tools to streamline their business buying experience and save their organizations time and money.

Other innovations, like Guided Buying, help organizations align purchases with their goals, allowing them to set preferences for products, suppliers, and businesses, ensuring purchasing decisions support company initiatives.

About Amazon Business

Amazon Business makes business buying simpler by offering the same easy-to-use experience customers know and love from Amazon. Since launching in the U.S. in 2015, Amazon Business has empowered businesses of all sizes through unmatched selection, deep discounts, and smart capabilities. Working closely with customers to understand their business buying challenges, Amazon Business continues to develop new technologies that make it easy for organizations and administrators to define, meet, and proactively measure progress toward their purchasing budgets and goals. Amazon Business is now a strategic partner to businesses in 10 countries including Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. 

Visit the Amazon Business Storefront, Amazon Business Blog, and @AmazonBusiness to learn more.

Author

Matt Johnson

Published

7 July 2025

Estimated Read time

4Mins

By Matt Johnson, CEO of Commercial Services Group  The UK’s new Public Procurement Act came into effect in February this…

By Matt Johnson, CEO of Commercial Services Group 

The UK’s new Public Procurement Act came into effect in February this year, bringing bold ambitions and considerable change. But is the public sector ready to maximise the opportunity?

The Act promises to move procurement beyond box-ticking compliance, offering greater social value, better SME opportunities, and fairer, more transparent processes to benefit communities. 

To explore readiness for this shift, we surveyed over 500 senior executives and procurement leaders across local government, health, housing, education, and blue light services. The mood is optimistic, tempered with pragmatism. While the purpose of the Act is clear, successful delivery will require focus, support, and access to the right training.

Major digital transformation programs have “often failed” to deliver their intended value, according to a new government report.
London City Scenery big data

Confidence is high – but capability gaps persist

Despite concerns about strategic prioritisation, there is good news: 84% of respondents are confident in their ability to deliver on the National Procurement Policy Statement (NPPS) priorities, and 76% see the Act as a genuine opportunity for change rather than just a compliance exercise.

However, challenges remain. Only 28% feel ready to meet the Act’s transparency requirements, and 33% report limited or no knowledge of the Act or NPPS. While local government reported higher readiness, the NHS and education sectors were less confident. The ambition is clear, but operational readiness varies.

Is the new Act a strategic priority?

Many organisations are hopeful, but our findings suggest procurement is often being led by middle management rather than championed at board level. Although contracts started before 24 February 2025 will remain under the old regulations until 2029, now is the time to act.

Over half (55%) of CEOs said the Act is high on their agenda, yet only two-fifths (40%) of Heads of Procurement feel their senior teams are fully engaged. This matters because embedding a culture of transparency, collaboration, and social value demands visible commitment from the top. Without it, reform risks being seen as an operational task rather than an organisational priority.

Collaboration: welcome but not easy

A significant majority (80%) of organisations plan to collaborate under the new Act to achieve stronger outcomes in service consistency, community impact, and value for money. Yet nearly a third are unsure if they have the resources, and 32% state a lack of internal expertise as a barrier. Collaboration across complex sectors, such as blue light services, adds further challenges.

That said, effective collaboration can deliver big results. For example, we worked with the Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA) to simplify their overly complex procurement processes. New frameworks enabled direct awards and broader supplier access, leading to faster, more efficient procurement of critical safety and rescue equipment, all while staying compliant.

Smarter procurement, with the right tools and support, can make collaboration achievable, even in high-pressure environments, but it must be seen as a strategic priority.

Social value – from ambition to delivery

A key aim of the Act is to support environmental and social goals. Yet only 42% believe it will significantly advance their net zero ambitions, and almost a quarter (24%) expect little or no impact on equity and inclusion. This highlights the gap between big goals and practical delivery. 

To bridge it, implementing the aims of the act quickly is imperative so the fullest extent of their benefits can be felt soonest.

Moving from awareness to action

The principles of the Procurement Act are already shaping procurement activity, and early adopters will be best placed for a smooth transition. Organisations that focus on delivering real-world outcomes, not just compliance, will stand out.

To realise the full potential of reform, public bodies will need ongoing support, practical tools, and structured frameworks:

  • Managed services to fill resource gaps and provide end-to-end support.
  • Frameworks that simplify procurement and reduce complexity.
  • End-to-end contract management that ensures compliance and focuses on value.
  • Tailored training to close the readiness gap and build sector-wide confidence.

The new Act isn’t just about compliance, it’s a chance to deliver smarter, more purposeful procurement that provides lasting value for communities.

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

2 July 2025

Estimated Read time

3Mins

JAGGAER has introduced to customers and partners its latest bold leap forward in enterprise procurement transformation. JAI, pronounced “Jay”, an…

JAGGAER has introduced to customers and partners its latest bold leap forward in enterprise procurement transformation. JAI, pronounced “Jay”, an intelligent human-guided AI orchestrator, provides next-level guidance and navigation. And also offers a critical opportunity to deliver new value.

As agentic AI is beginning to reshape global commerce, JAGGAER has reimagined the relationship between procurement and technology. JAI is part of JAGGAER One and an evolution of JAGGAER Assist. JAI is an embedded conversational chatbot powered by LLMs, incorporating Q&A capabilities, PO invoice anomaly detection and Gen AI drafting & summarisation with new, more powerful orchestration. With JAI customers will experience intuitive and efficient end-user experiences across the platform – all with an equally important “Human in the Loop”. 

Streamlining procurement

JAGGAER customers can start using JAI Assist today, a conversational assistant with contextual coaching that streamlines procurement by answering questions, guiding navigation, and initiating tasks like RFP creation and supplier evaluation. Looking further ahead into 2025, JAI Copilot will offer advanced contextual support, identifying outliers and suggesting actions, with real-time guidance across sourcing, contracting, and supplier management saving hours of analysis – followed by JAI Autopilot, the no code/low code agentic platform for autonomously managing complex procurement workflows to elevate strategic decision-making.  

Beginning this fall, JAI will offer the full orchestration of intelligent features by developing agent orchestrators to handle tasks like forecasting, spend management, cash flow management, contract management, and RFx automation, into a unified, conversational, and outcome-driven experience. 

JAI has been designed to revolutionise how users engage, decide, and deliver outcomes. While to date AI agents have been mainly able to execute tasks such as PO match and supplier outreach end-to-end, JAI is able to orchestrate those agents in copilot mode with its human users, toward a business goal. JAI thus is a trusted digital advisor that coordinates across domain agents—be it sourcing, contracting, or category strategy. The JAGGAER AI roadmap sees JAI evolve into an autopilot, enabling truly autonomous procurement thanks to their ability to execute adaptive as well as deterministic workflows independently, while users act as high-level overseers and decision-makers. 

Intelligent procurement

“Today, we’re not launching a feature—we’re activating the intelligence foundation for JAGGAER’s future”, says Jon Lawrence, Chief Product Officer at JAGGAER. “This isn’t about adding AI to procurement. It’s about transforming procurement into an intelligent system—one that learns, adapts, and gets better with every decision. JAI is how we’ll scale expertise, accelerate outcomes, and unlock a new era of value for our customers.” 

Author

Stephan Donze

Published

1 July 2025

Estimated Read time

5Mins

When it comes to generative AI adoption, procurement departments are often touted among the fastest-moving functions in enterprise organisations. Research…

When it comes to generative AI adoption, procurement departments are often touted among the fastest-moving functions in enterprise organisations. Research from Deloitte shows  45% of Chief Procurement Officers who have deployed AI are already seeing 2-5x return on investment—a benchmark that’s driving significant new investment in the space. According to procurement executives who hit the conference circuit in recent weeks, this is just the beginning as departments turn their focus to advanced analytics, contracting automation, and supplier intelligence while legacy system challenges persist. 

Written by Stephan Donze, CEO of document management company, AODocs.

The Promise and Peril of AI in Procurement 

When implemented with proper foundations, AI can transform how procurement officers work. Successful AI deployments help teams automatically evaluate supplier proposals by analysing pricing structures, delivery timelines, and compliance requirements across hundreds of submissions simultaneously. AI systems can detect hard-to-spot changes in supplier conditions—flagging when a vendor quietly adjusts payment terms or delivery clauses between contract versions. These systems excel at selecting the best offers by weighing multiple criteria simultaneously, from cost optimisation to risk assessment, and can automatically generate comprehensive RFPs based on historical successful procurements and current market conditions. 

However, rushing to implement AI without solid document management foundations can accelerate costly mistakes rather than preventing them. Consider the procurement officer who makes a critical sourcing decision based on the wrong version of a supplier’s commercial conditions, resulting in budget overruns when the actual terms differ significantly from what the AI analysed. Or the team that overlooks an essential appendix in a complex proposal because their AI system couldn’t access or properly categorise supporting documents, leading to supplier selection based on incomplete information. Perhaps most concerning are scenarios where AI processing outdated contract versions allows unwanted automatic renewals to proceed, locking organisations into unfavourable terms they thought they had renegotiated. 

When AI operates on the wrong documents—outdated versions, incomplete files, or improperly categorised information—it doesn’t just fail to deliver value, it actively amplifies the consequences of poor document governance. In procurement, where decisions involving millions of dollars hinge on contract details and supplier terms, ensuring AI works with accurate, complete, and current information becomes mission-critical. 

Blind AI procurement is leaving organisations open to cyberattacks and a lack of visibility into organisations’ tech stacks.

A ‘document management problem’ 

Chaotic file systems are creating operational headaches for procurement teams of all sizes. Some departments are rushing ahead with AI deployment on existing SharePoint libraries, while others are taking a more cautious approach until they can establish proper document governance. 

Procurement leaders are making it clear that regardless of which AI platform they choose, establishing unified document management comes first. Modern procurement teams process millions of documents daily—from supplier proposals and contracts to compliance certifications and performance reviews—and AI is only as good as the document management system behind it. 

Organisations are investing heavily in consolidating information from legacy repositories while maintaining strict version control and audit trails. One insurance company reported reducing the staff needed to support legacy content management systems while dramatically improving response times for procurement teams seeking supplier information. 

Managing AI expectations and rollout strategy 

When procurement organisations first look at AI deployment, there’s often a desire to tackle everything at once—contract analysis, spend dashboards, supplier risk assessment. Most successful implementations have narrowed that scope, focusing on high-impact use cases first. 

Deloitte data shows that 38% of procurement organisations have already piloted or deployed AI for spend dashboards, while 19% are using it for RFI/RFP/RFQ generation. Contract summaries and key terms extraction, help desk management, and intake management each capture 18% of current implementations. 

Looking ahead, 57% of CPOs plan to explore AI for enabling functions in data and analytics, while 55% are targeting contracting applications. These represent procurement’s most ambitious AI applications yet but will require significant expectation management around timeline and complexity. 

Executing on AI while keeping legacy systems functional 

Current implementations show procurement departments generating significant value from AI, with returns coming roughly half from improved analytics and decision-making capabilities, while the remaining half involves productivity gains from automated document processing. 

The integration challenge is substantial. Legacy ERP systems, contract management platforms, and supplier databases often use incompatible data formats and proprietary APIs that can take months or years to connect to modern AI platforms. Most procurement organisations deal with Oracle databases, legacy file shares, and various cloud repositories that don’t communicate with each other. 

Many organisations are implementing intermediate document management layers that can connect to both legacy systems and modern AI platforms. These solutions provide the unified access that AI requires while maintaining connection to existing procurement systems. 

The Document Management Foundation 

Forward-thinking procurement leaders recognise that investing in unified document management creates the essential platform for true digital transformation. When properly implemented, this foundation delivers measurable returns—procurement professionals reclaim significant portions of their workweek as AI handles supplier research and document retrieval that once consumed hours daily. 

The transformation sequence matters critically. First consolidate and govern documents, then leverage AI to extract maximum value. Companies that reverse this order and rush to AI deployment over chaotic document environments amplify existing problems rather than solving them. 

Modern document management platforms offer features procurement departments need for AI readiness: version control and de-duplication, configurable archiving policies, advanced search capabilities, and security controls across supplier data. These systems serve as the essential bridge between legacy data accuracy and modern AI accessibility. 

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

11 June 2025

Estimated Read time

3Mins

The latest edition of CPOstrategy is now live!

Our exclusive cover story this month features Marcelo Stefani, Global Chief Procurement Officer, who discusses the strategies, philosophy, and goals of swapping from PepsiCo’s localised approach to a global one…

Procurement’s importance within the business landscape has scarcely been clearer than now. Unprecedented levels of disruption to global supply chains via the Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, aberrant weather events and international trade uncertainties have centralised procurement as not just a strategic enabler, but a functional imperative. 

Gone are the days where procurement operated in the background; now it’s a fundamental component of top-level strategy. For a complex multinational like PepsiCo, the depth of value offered by a robust, technologically enabled and strategically versatile procurement organisation is abundantly clear. 

Marcelo Stefani, Global Chief Procurement Officer at PepsiCo, took charge of the food and drink giant’s worldwide procurement efforts in 2023. For Marcelo, taking the reins at the top of PepsiCo’s procurement function meant re-examining the fundamental principles governing its supply chain operations.  Read the full story here!

Elida Beauty: Reviving iconic brands through procurement transformation

Riteesh Padhi, Chief Procurement & Supply Officer at Elida Beauty, tells us all about the company’s independence from Unilever, and how this has given 23 neglected brands the revival they needed…

It’s a rare gift to be able to shape a business’s procurement function from its very beginnings. Elida Beauty started life as an offshoot of Unilever, gathering together 23 brands formerly under the Unilever umbrella, and giving them a new lease on life. Three senior leaders at Unilever were tasked with figuring out how to bring together a set of geographically spread brands across multiple sub-categories, and turn them into a single, unified business. 

As Elida Beauty has gradually extricated itself from Unilever – now a fully independent company owned by Boston-based PE firm Yellow Wood Partners – those previously neglected brands are beginning to thrive once more. 

One of the first to join the new team was Riteesh Padhi, Chief Procurement & Supply Officer at Elida Beauty. He was formerly the Global Supply Chain Transformation Director at Unilever, and jumped at the opportunity to tackle the challenge Elida presented.

Padhi is at the helm of the company’s strategic vision and the operational delivery of a fully outsourced, cost-competitive, agile supply network. Elida Beauty is composed of 23 well-known beauty and healthcare brands, across Skin Cleansing, Skin Care, Deodorants, Hair Care & Styling, and Baby & Cotton, and operating in North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. Padhi takes care of each of them, and that’s a challenge – but one he’s more than equipped for. Read the full story here!

Read the full issue here!

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

6 May 2025

Estimated Read time

4Mins

Opella: Procurement built on innovation and strategic partnerships This month’s exclusive cover story features a fascinating interview with Opella CPO…

Opella: Procurement built on innovation and strategic partnerships

This month’s exclusive cover story features a fascinating interview with Opella CPO Marie-Pierre Goyenetche and her team who discuss building better supplier relationships, promoting innovation, and developing a more agile, efficient, value-driven procurement function.  

2025 promises to be a pivotal year for Opella — currently the consumer healthcare division of French healthcare giant Sanofi; soon to be carved-out into an independent entity backed by private equity — as the organisation finds its way in a sector where major large-scale traditional pharma organisations have increasingly refocused their business models on Life Sciences, whilst creating space for their former consumer-focused divisions to compete and succeed in the fast-moving consumer health (FMCH) arena.

A new outlook

Adjusting to this new environment requires a change in outlook for Opella, as the challenges facing the company, as well as the strategies that will see it capitalise on new opportunities, are very different to the ones that worked before. “We are undergoing one of the most significant separations the industry has seen in recent years, and perhaps for years to come,” says Marie-Pierre Goyenetche, Chief Procurement Officer at Opella. 

Read the full story here!

Technology Innovation Institute (TII) – building an innovation-driven procurement function

Elsewhere, we also feature a compelling insight into the procurement function at Abu Dhabi’s TII (Technology Innovation Institute), which sees how procurement leaders are enabling technological innovation at scale and pace. 

In the business world, it has been impossible to ignore procurement’s functional evolution since the turn of the century. As new tools emerge to support the more strategic, value-unlocking role of procurement, we are growing used to constant change and transformation. Witnessing a modern progressive procurement function created from scratch, with no legacy systems and established processes, is fascinating. While procurement at TII has evolved in recent years, much of the team’s work has been focused on its genesis.

The Abu Dhabi-based Technology Innovation Institute (TII) is a leading global research institution ‘dedicated to pushing the frontiers of knowledge’. Its teams of scientists, researchers and engineers work in an open, flexible and agile environment to deliver new and disruptive breakthroughs in the fields of advanced materials, directed energy, AI and digital science, propulsion and space, autonomous robotics, quantum technology, biotechnology, renewable and sustainable energy, cryptography, and secure systems. 

Pioneering procurement

As a brand-new research institute in 2020 at the cutting edge of technology and science, TII had to build a procurement function to support its pioneering work from the ground up. Buying decisions were being made on the fly, with no centralised function in the modern sense. It would be two years before the senior leadership team could develop a robust, progressive procurement function.

Juan Pelayo leads this development as Head of Procurement, bringing experience as an industrial engineer and providing essential expertise and organisational know-how during rapid growth. “The growth has been tremendously fast,” he says. 

Read the full story here!

And that’s not all. We also have a raft of ‘hot topic’ deep dives from leading global procurement practitioners plus all the latest news and events…

Read the latest issue here!

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

28 January 2025

Estimated Read time

3Mins

Read in brochure format

Here is just some of the incredible content we have on offer this month! Expo City Dubai: The evolution of…

Here is just some of the incredible content we have on offer this month!

Expo City Dubai: The evolution of procurement  

We see how procurement is underpinning the growth of a brand-new city, with Expo City Dubai’s procurement leaders. We speak to Anis Tabka, (SVP Procurement & Contracts), Hani Al Najjar (Director Of Procurement), Bogdan Cotirlan (Procurement and Contract Director) and Munmun Khaitan (Senior Manager of Procurement and Contracts)… 

The Middle East is changing. Possibly nowhere on Earth has transformed as quickly and dramatically.  

Dubai is a city spearheading this transition. Its city limits are pushing further and further in every direction, as the UAE metropolis undergoes incredible growth.  

Dubai is the focus of much of the world’s attention on the Middle East. None more so than when Expo 2020, the first World Expo in the Middle East North Africa & South East Asia region, attracted over 24 million visitors, despite the challenges of a global pandemic.  

The theme of Expo 2020 was “Connecting Minds, Creating the Future” with three subthemes: Opportunity, Mobility and Sustainability. Such was the scale behind the planning and delivery of the event, the ambitious project required highly experienced and talented project leaders and teams. From a procurement and supply chain perspective, that person was Anis Tabka.  

With a CV that lists some of the world’s biggest enterprises – latterly with Siemens and Du across multiple continents – Tabka was appointed as Expo 2020’s Chief Procurement Officer in 2019. A safer pair of hands they would have struggled to find…

Read the full story here!

Ping Identity: Customer-first Strategic Sourcing & Procurement

Digital identity is the lifeblood of every organisation because it is both the entry point, and gateway to great user experiences.  

Ping Identity’s platform is a one-stop shop for managing identities, access, and governance. The company works with enterprise organisations to manage more than eight billion digital identities around the world to deliver best-in-class customer experiences combined with uncompromising security through its AI-driven platform. Ping helps these organisations protect their employees and customers from significant challenges such as fraud, data breaches and account takeovers.

Matthew Row is the Global SS&P Director at Ping Identity. Like many before him, Row fell into procurement by accident and even had to ask what procurement was after being offered a graduate role in the function. “Since then, I’ve had so much fun delivering business transformation from building cost management in financial services after the financial crisis to establishing greenfield procurement functions in rapidly growing technology companies,” he tells us. “The most recent experience is in building SS&P functions in private equity owned technology companies over the last five years. I’ve had fun taking the best practice I’ve learned from working in leading SS&P functions in the FTSE100 and pragmatically applying this in smaller technology companies. It’s enabled me to deliver award winning SS&P functions rapidly by rightsizing the function for the business and enabling it to scale rapidly as the business grows.”

Read the full story here!

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

17 December 2024

Estimated Read time

4Mins

Everyone here at CPOstrategy hopes you’ve had a successful 2024 and wishes you all the best for the new year!

To celebrate, we’re proud to deliver a very special end-of-year edition of CPOstrategy. 

CPOstrategy magazine cover image

Read the latest issue here!

The 2024 ProcureTech100

The 2024 ProcureTech100 highlights the most innovative and customer-centric procurement technologies that are reshaping the industry. And in conjunction with this year’s PT100 launch we are sharing exclusive PT100 content to help you prepare for the year ahead. 

Our 8 digital procurement trends for 2024 identifies those key technological gamechangers shaping the future of digital procurement at large – and their influence is particularly evident in this year’s winning solutions of the PT100.  

We have also gleaned some incredible insights from those at the cutting edge of the procuretech transformation to see how they are predicting the future of the function, and its transformation. You won’t be disappointed. 

Read the full story here!

TransUnion: Procurement as a business enabler

We meet Damon Ascolani, SVP, Head of Global Procurement, Facilities, Real Estate, and Travel at the global credit reporting agency TransUnion to see how procurement there is evolving into a trusted business enabler… 

TransUnion LLC delivers a highly prized product. Trust. Whether you’re a financial institution looking to loan money, or a consumer looking for credit education tools, TransUnion is able to provide the necessary assurances needed for both parties to move forward, with confidence. As TransUnion puts it: “We’re committed to ensuring every individual is reliably represented in global commerce so consumers and organizations can transact with confidence and achieve great things. We call this Information for Good.” Read the full story here!

Keltbray: Infrastructure Services Limited: Strategic, Sustainable Procurement

The past 20 years have seen some radical changes to the ways organisations structure and operate their value chains. Financial crises, geopolitical conflict, digital transformation, worsening climate change, and the jarring impact of the COVID-19 pandemic — have all profoundly altered the way companies navigate the procurement process. For those working in the procurement sector, the world looks very different compared with the one at the turn of the millennium. So too does the procurement process. 

A whole new approach to procurement

“When I started in this field 20 years ago, our focus was very different. Back then, we were called the buying department, and we were measured strictly by how much money we saved the company,” explains Lukasz Olszewski, Head of Procurement at Keltbray Infrastructure Services Limited (KISL). 

Read the full story here!

ORO Labs: Solving procurement operations challenges

ORO Labs is the procurement orchestration platform for modern companies. It is on a mission to make processes better, faster and more agile in procurement and supply chain. ORO offers self-driving workflows which enable more efficient, collaborative, compliant purchasing with a personalised user experience and smarter decision-making. 

Dharani Jeyaprakasam is a Solution Design Architect at ORO Labs. Having previously served 17 years at IBM in a variety of roles, Jeyaprakasam joined ORO Labs after feeling dejected about whether orchestration mattered to the world. After speaking with CEO and founder Sudhir Bhojwani, she realised she wanted to join the journey. “I was just blown away by the passion that Sudhir showed. This is especially when it comes to the problems we were trying to solve,” explains Jeyaprakasam. “There was this honest person trying to give me the same information that I felt myself. He was honest and accepting that there is a flaw in the product and that is what we’re trying to fix. And that honesty was the real attracting factor for me.”

Read the full story here!

Author

Nell Walker

Published

14 November 2024

Estimated Read time

6Mins

There were many inspiring themes on peoples’ lips at DPW Amsterdam 2024, including collaboration. One of the major reasons procurement…

There were many inspiring themes on peoples’ lips at DPW Amsterdam 2024, including collaboration. One of the major reasons procurement professionals flock to DPW is the opportunity to learn from their peers, strategise with them, and make connections in order to partner up and grow. We sat down with Dr Matthias Dohrn and Sudhir Bhojwani, business collaborators of several years who prove the benefits of coming together for growth.

Dohrn is the CPO of BASF, a global chemical company, making him responsible for direct, indirect, and traded goods. Prior to this role he headed up a business unit – and things weren’t going well. It got to the point where the question of how to drive performance became a priority. The business needed to consistently drive value, not just be, in Dohrn’s words, a “one-hit wonder”. 

“I’ve been in a lot of meetings where people come together and say, ‘we should do something’ – but the next month, you have the same meeting and nothing has changed,” Dohrn explains. “Structuring an organisation in a manner that really drives and extracts value, that’s key.”

This eventually led to meeting with ORO Labs and asking how it could help BASF build a solution that enabled the growth it needed. Sudhir Bhojwani, CEO and Co-Founder of ORO Labs, knew Dohrn already from his SAP Ariba days He even credits him with explaining what ‘supplier management’ means. When he co-founded ORO Labs, his team wanted to focus on being a procurement orchestration platform and build smart workflows. 

“When Matthias was running his business unit, as he mentioned, he had this Excel-based process where he was running thousands of measures,” Bhojwani explains. “It was an interesting process. We let him know that our workflow could solve his problems way more efficiently. So we worked with this business unit at that time and saw some positive results. Roughly a year later, Matthias took over as CPO and wanted to bring in the same structure that we’d implemented at the business unit, but on a bigger scale.”

Kicking off the project

Getting this project off the ground meant having a business case, first and foremost. This required actually sitting down with the people who do the ordering, because procurement needed to understand the options it had. “So, with every plant in BASF – all approximately 150 of them – we had to talk to them, and look at the individual spend of each plant,” Dohrn explains. “This included direct procurement of raw materials, energy, logistics, indirect spend for services, and so on. Then we had brainstorming workshops, generating between 30 and 50 improvement measures per workshop.

“Then, because it’s bottom-up, you bring in the performance management tool to prioritise the measures. Then you go through the business case and confirm the value. As these measures go through the implementation levels, it’s very satisfying because you can see how you’re making progress in driving value every day. The people who own the measures set the timeline themselves, and there are incentive schemes behind the best ideas.”

Driving value to motivate people was a priority from the start, and something BASF discussed with ORO Labs early on. People are able to see the status of their measures thanks to ORO Labs, which means they’re able to see the results and also see other peoples’ great ideas. “You create a wave of people who are driving value, much faster,” Dohrn adds. 

Addressing the challenges

From Bhojwani’s perspective, there were multiple challenges when approaching BASF’s requirements. Fundamentally, ORO Labs was building a brand new workflow, as BASF required a very different take on what that means. ORO understanding how that translated to what BASF needed was the first challenge.

“We needed to understand the structure Matthias has, and what the work streams should look like,” Bhojwani explains. “We had to figure out how to model these work streams within our tool in a way that made sense. An indirect work stream is not the same as something in direct material; those things are very different. So here’s where our workflow tool worked quite well. We could customise how direct material work streams should behave, compared to indirect work streams, how country A should behave compared to country B, and so on.

“It was important that we could bring flexibility, and that we could solve workflow problems in innovative ways. Another challenge was the user experience part. We had to make sure that the system worked for everybody, otherwise nobody would participate in the system. We had to keep working on it, keep fixing it, and that took a good 18 months of tweaking. The biggest thing has been understanding how BASF actually generates value, and how a workflow can help. It’s been very interesting.”

Identifying the value

Collaborating with ORO Labs has unlocked an enormous amount of value for BASF. Dohrn has seen the business come together thanks to the work that was put into communicating and collaborating with every site across businesses and functions, and BASF is continuing to conduct workshops for further improvement. There’s also, of course, the EBIT being gained from the business cases, putting BASF on track to generate sustainable savings.

“There’s been a real mindset change,” Dohrn states. “We’re now really focused on value, and we’re using this ORO Labs tool to hold each other accountable. You can see the progress every day. We call it the iceberg because you can see below the implementation levels. Everything starts off below the water line – no value created yet, just potential. Then you see it moving beyond the zero line into the positives, and every day I can see the difference between now and yesterday with just a click. It’s so fulfilling to see what we have created.

“We’re able to see the interaction with the plants, the interaction between people, and interaction with the requisitioners, and we can create something positive together. I think that’s huge. It’s only going to bring more and more value over the next few years. People are used to the tool now, they find it easy. It has created value and everyone’s happy because the cost pressure on the plants has gone down.”

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

Estimated Read time

6Mins

Tonkean is built differently. Tonkean is a first-of-its-kind intake and orchestration platform. Powered by AI, Tonkean helps enterprise internal service…

Tonkean is built differently.

Tonkean is a first-of-its-kind intake and orchestration platform. Powered by AI, Tonkean helps enterprise internal service teams like procurement and legal create process experiences that transform how businesses operate. The transformation hinges on four key functionalities, intake, AI-powered orchestration, visibility, and business-led configuration (no-code), which internal teams leverage to use existing tools better together, automate complex processes across teams and tools, and empower employees to do better, higher-value work. 

Jennifer O’Gara is the Senior Director of Marketing, Director People and Talent at Tonkean. O’Gara’s route into procurement came when Tonkean became active within the space. “While we initially focused on solving complex process challenges across entire enterprises, we quickly realised how much procurement could benefit from this approach,” she explains. “Procurement processes are inherently complex and collaborative and cross-functional, making them a perfect fit for Tonkean’s orchestration capabilities. We were right. Since we entered the market, we’ve been blown away by how enthusiastically process orchestration has been received. That’s keeping us excited about procurement.”

This year, DPW Amsterdam 2024’s theme was 10X, with a focus on the importance of companies aiming for a moonshot mindset instead of an incremental approach. As far as O’Gara is concerned, achieving 10X improvements in performance is within reach for procurement, but it requires a shift in how the function thinks about growth. “It’s not just about doing more of the same faster—it’s about fundamentally rethinking the processes that drive your business,” reveals O’Gara. “Your processes are like your company’s infrastructure. When you optimise at the process level, you don’t just create incremental gains; you can fundamentally transform the way you operate at scale. You can remove bottlenecks permanently, facilitate easier collaboration org-wide, and drive true, reliable automation across all your teams and systems. The result is exponential performance improvements that can be sustained over time. Aiming for 10X isn’t just a lofty goal—it’s achievable. The key is focusing your improvement efforts at the process level.”

However, the journey to 10X isn’t straightforward. Some organisations believe they can just layer new technology on top of old processes. According to O’Gara, this won’t unlock 10X growth and will still leave your company lagging behind. “Getting to 10X starts, instead, with building better processes—and moving away from the idea that any one technology will do the trick,” she says. “For example, AI. AI is powerful, but it’s just a tool, and it’s only valuable if used strategically. To truly unlock 10X improvements in performance, you need to integrate technologies like AI into your core processes in a way that’s structured, strategic, and scalable. You will only ever be as innovative or adaptive or as effective as your processes are dynamic, dexterous and dependable. How do you build better processes? That’s where process orchestration comes in.”

Process orchestration refers to the strategy — enabled by process orchestration platforms — of coordinating automated business processes across teams and existing, integrated systems. These processes can facilitate all procurement-related activities. Importantly, they can also accommodate employees’ many different working preferences and styles.

Instead of simply adding to an organisation’s existing tech stack, process orchestration allows companies to use their existing mix of people, data, and tech better together. One promise of process orchestration is to finally put internal shared service teams like procurement in charge of the tools they deploy.

This goes a long way towards solving one of the enterprise’s most vexing operational challenges: the inefficiency of over-complexity born of too much new technology. It also allows procurement teams to truly make their technology work for them and the employees they serve. As opposed to making people work for technology. Process orchestration breaks down the silos that typically separate working environments. No longer do stakeholders have to log in to an ERP or P2P platform to submit or approve intake requests, just for example. The technology will meet them wherever they are.

“It helps you create and scale processes that can seamlessly connect with all of your existing systems, databases, and teams, while accommodating the individual needs of your employees and meeting them in the tools they already use,” adds O’Gara. “Orchestration allows you to automate processes across existing systems—like ERP, P2P, and messaging apps—so data flows automatically between them. It allows you to surface technologies like AI when and where they’re most impactful for stakeholders.”

Speaking of AI, it remains one of the biggest buzzwords in procurement. Indeed, anything that offers Chief Procurement Officers cost savings and efficiency will prick their ears, but the question remains: can the industry fully trust it? O’Gara believes it is ‘overhyped.’ “When it first emerged, it wasn’t just seen as a new tool—it was almost treated like magic,” she explains. “The hype still hasn’t died down, and that’s been a problem. It’s created unrealistic expectations and skewed perceptions of what innovation with this sort of technology actually entails; I can’t tell you how many procurement leaders have admitted to us that they’re getting pressure from the C-suite to invest in AI-powered tools just because they have ‘AI’ in the name.”

While clear with her scepticism regarding generative AI’s current place in the market, O’Gara recognises its potential. “Generative AI’s potential is huge—especially if it’s deployed strategically at the process level,” she reveals. “It could truly transform procurement, shifting teams from transactional roles to strategic partners who are involved early in the buying process and appreciated for their unique expertise—and for the unique business value procurement alone can deliver. But AI on its own isn’t going to save procurement. The reality is, many organisations jumped into the AI hype without a real strategy, and that’s why they haven’t seen its full value yet. The key is integrating AI thoughtfully into core processes—that’s when we’ll start seeing its real potential.”

With an eye on the future, O’Gara expects the next year to continue to revolve around AI adoption, but in ways that deliver real value. “I think we’ll see procurement truly stepping into a more strategic role, with businesses recognising procurement as a key partner, not just a back-office function,” she says. “This shift will be driven in part by new technology, especially process orchestration and AI, helping procurement bridge gaps in communication and collaboration across teams. Another big trend will be the rise of personalised, consumer-like experiences in procurement—making buying and approval processes smoother, more intuitive, and better tailored to the needs of individual users. It’s an exciting time, and we’re just scratching the surface of what’s possible.”

Author

Nell Walker

Published

Estimated Read time

6Mins

When we’re talking about technology in procurement, the importance of partnership is a major component for success. No business is…

When we’re talking about technology in procurement, the importance of partnership is a major component for success. No business is an island, and joining forces with experts is, increasingly, the direction many move in for the sake of growth. 

At DPW Amsterdam 2024, we met many businesses who were looking around at the procurement sector in search of either what direction to move in next, or who they can help. The event is one that brings people together to learn, to teach, to discover the cutting edge of procurement, and be inspired by it. So when we sat down with the CEO of Fairmarkit, Kevin Frechette, it wasn’t surprising that he brought Nick Wright, who leads bp’s Procurement Digital Garage, into the conversation.

For Frechette, one of the best things about working in the advanced procurement technology sphere is joining forces with other businesses to help them keep improving, and vice versa. “Having the chance to work with people like Nick, who are pushing the envelope when it comes to autonomous sourcing, is amazing,” he explains. “We’re fired up to be at DPW, absorbing this atmosphere.”

While it’s something of a running joke in the procurement world that most professionals in the sector don’t deliberately choose it, Wright actually did. “I went to university and thought ‘wow, I fancy a career in procurement or vendor management’. I know a lot of people don’t have that story, but I’ve been doing something I’m passionate about from the beginning. I love making deals, whether I’m buying a car, a house, or something for BP.” The Procurement Digital Garage he leads exists to look at problems being faced across procurement, and figuring out possible solutions. 

For Frechette, the intention wasn’t to start a company in the procurement space, but his team quickly saw the opportunities within it. “We had this ‘aha’ moment,” he says. “It was a tough pivot. There was a lot of debate, a lot of late nights. I’m super glad we made it because we got to be in a space where people can be forgotten about, and we’re able to give them centre stage.”

The realistic approach to 10X

DPW itself exists to put procurement under the limelight. Each event is themed in a way that gets conversations flowing around the next big thing in procurement. For Amsterdam 2024, this theme was 10X – something Frechette believes isn’t achievable right off the bat.

“It’s something to strive towards,” he says. “It’s something where you work on getting a little better every single month, every quarter. You keep getting those small wins, and you build credibility. There’s no silver bullet. You just have to start the journey and learn as you go.”

For Wright, it’s about not getting caught up in the hype, but figuring out what’s realistic. “There’s a lot of hype out there, and the beauty of something like my team at the Procurement Digital Garage is to weed out that hype, because what’s right for us might not be right for someone else. Having a team that’s out there in the market, testing and figuring out what’s real, will put you in good stead.”

“There’s a leap of faith element that can be challenging to achieve, before you can really strive for 10X,” Frechette adds. “It’s like Amara’s Law: humans typically overestimate the value of technology in the short term, but underestimate it in the long term. So the hype is needed. We have to help people on that journey and sometimes, a leap of faith is needed. For the people that risk it, it’s exciting, and they’re then well positioned for the future.”

However, again, managing expectations is important. “People might be on the sidelines expecting a 10X solution,” says Wright. “But the reality is, you’re going to get 5% here, 10% – smaller pockets of improvement.”

The benefits of advanced technology are absolutely being seen at this stage, but being realistic about the future outcomes is important. “The benefits are there – not at the scale of 10X – but if you just make a start, you’ll achieve wins,” says Frechette. “You broadcast those wins across the organisation. That generates excitement, and then you can work on the next thing because you have ground swell.”

How ‘the future’ has changed

What’s interesting is that this 10X focus, this drive towards incremental wins, has reframed the way businesses plan for the road ahead. ‘The future’ used to mean having a three or five-year plan. Now, the future is only 12 months away.

“The thought process right now is ‘what can we do that’s super optimistic in just 12 months’?” says Frechette. “Then you can put in realistic time frames and set off on a sprint to get there. You have to be able to move fast. We have launches every two weeks now, and we have to be flexible with our roadmap along the way. But we always know where we’re going – we have a north star.”

“To me, that’s the only way to do it,” Wright adds. “I don’t have a crystal ball. Nobody knows what’s going to happen in two or three years. So what’s the point of creating a plan that’s going to get you to a certain point in those two or three years? You have to work on small iterations, make adjustments, change direction as necessary.”

It’s part of what makes Fairmarkit and BP an active partnership – the ability to be flexible and open up discussions at every point. It’s all about real-time feedback and trust-building, to the extent that both parties feel like they’re on the same team. 

The right people in the right places

Because ultimately, it’s the human element that makes transformation happen. Having the right people in place is one of the elements that’s key to making sure implementing advanced tech for the sake of business strategy works at all. “It’s about access to talent and making sure you’ve got a capable user group that can make the most of that technology,” says Wright. “You don’t need to be a data scientist, but you do need to have the right mindset to take advantage of the tools you’ve got.”

“I agree – you have to get the right people on the bus,” adds Frechette. “You all have to be committed to going on the journey together. Prioritise where you start and where you’re going to have the most value with the lowest risk, and have people on your side who can give suggestions and ideas.”

While the much-discussed talent shortage can create challenges there, DPW as an entity proves that not only does procurement keep becoming more appealing and exciting, but where there are gaps, there are digital tools. “I’ve noticed a lot of folks under 30 who are here at DPW Amsterdam, and they’re genuinely interested in procurement,” says Wright. “We’re at a tipping point that makes me really excited about the profession I’m in.”

Author

Nell Walker

Published

Estimated Read time

6Mins

‘Digitalisation is just the beginning’ according to Crowdfox, a business which aims to improve procurement by bettering the ordering process…

‘Digitalisation is just the beginning’ according to Crowdfox, a business which aims to improve procurement by bettering the ordering process while lowering costs. That tagline speaks to Crowdfox’s dedication to advancing procurement using the exciting tools the sector now has at its disposal, and this push to innovate is being driven, in part, by Martin Rademacher, Crowdfox’s CSO. We sat down with Rademacher at DPW Amsterdam 2024, the exciting vibe of the event spreading far and wide around us. 

Rademacher is responsible for everything to do with Crowdfox’s customers. From sales, to marketing, to customer onboarding and success, and everything in between – that’s Rademacher’s wheelhouse. His background is in management consulting, with a focus on procurement and supply chain. So, while he started out in sales, he soon decided that procurement was the direction to move in.

“During my time as a consultant, I found procurement very interesting because it’s so versatile,” explains Rademacher. “Of course, it’s about the transactional phase with suppliers – but also you’re so connected with R&D, production, logistics, and so on. You have so many fields of application.”

10X thinking

At DPW Amsterdam, the overall theme of the two-day event was 10X. The concept of the 10X rule is around taking a goal you’ve set for yourself and multiplying it by 10. It’s an aspirational tool, coaxing all of us to aim higher. In procurement, that means innovating.

“In the last two years we’ve seen tools like ChatGPT trigger some big adaptations in the procurement world,” says Rademacher. “I think there is the opportunity now to achieve 10X in terms of efficiency gains. Especially when it comes to making better decisions, more quickly, in order to analyse data. We’re now finding out what AI can really do, and focusing on how that can help with strategy.”

For Rademacher, he believes people have the right tools to achieve 10X – it’s now about implementing those tools properly, and having the right culture.

“In the last couple of years, implementing tools has become much easier than it was a decade ago,” Rademacher continues. “They’re so well designed that they fit into large procurement systems, and can connect with other best-of-breed tools. I’d say implementation should be the focus, but it’s not that complicated anymore. AI tools especially are really intuitive. As a result, you don’t need much in the way of change management. People just intuitively cooperate with AI.”

The question of security

The big challenge, Rademacher believes, is data protection. When it comes to barriers preventing a 10X approach, concerns around data privacy are among the biggest issues. As a result, organisations have to take the necessary precautions before plunging into making major technological changes, or risk falling at the first hurdle.

“In the EU, it’s all about data protection,” says Rademacher. These concerns led to the Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act) coming into force in the EU in August 2024. It was created in response to the rise in generative AI systems, and ensures that there’s a common regulatory framework for AI within the European Union. “Companies are very concerned about their data, but I wouldn’t call this an obstacle – more like a challenge.

“The key is making sure you have a protected environment. Start with a pilot in a limited space, for instance, and then make sure you can find a solution you can control in a safe environment that suits your operations.”

Shooting for the stars

With these measures in mind, it’s never been easier to implement new technologies and aim for that ambitious 10X goal. Certainly, advanced tools have never been more accessible, or more straightforward for businesses to educate themselves about. Even as recently as two years ago, integrating multiple elements of advanced tech – like genAI – wasn’t really possible.

“It definitely wasn’t easy to combine sources the way we can now,” says Rademacher. “Now, you can provide a much better user experience experience not only for procurement professionals, but for anyone who takes advantage of what procurement introduces to the company. Finding the supply to fulfil your demand is so much easier now. You no longer have to have difficult conversations starting with an email to your procurement professional to identify whether you’re allowed to purchase from a certain vendor, and whether they’re vetted or not. Streamlining processes like that makes that information quick and easy to identify.”

Additionally, we’re at a point with advanced technology where the tools we have access to are capable of handling more and more volumes of data at an extremely fast pace. “In consulting, for example, every project started with an analysis of the status quo of a firm,” says Rademacher. “We’d figure out who the vendors are, the categories, and the spend. Depending on the workforce, this could take one or two weeks. Now, with the tools we have access to, you can gather this information in 24 hours.”

The evolution continues

While we’re seeing many of the benefits that come with genAI and other advanced technologies already, it’s only the beginning of what we can achieve using these tools. GenAI is at a peak right now, but according to Rademacher, it might take another five years to achieve its full productivity level. “There’s also this ambitious idea going around of fully autonomous procurement, and it’ll likely take a good 10 years to reach that level of productivity,” he adds. “On the other hand, nobody is talking about robotic process automation anymore because we’re almost there with that already.”

Another challenge is data quality. The cleanliness of an organisation’s data can make or break its use of advanced technology, which is where making the right connections with service providers comes in. “It’s a good example of when to find the right partner,” says Rademacher. “Find someone from the innovative tech space who you think you can rely on. Don’t try to do it all on your own – that’ll just hold you back more and more. Be bold; find the right partner to make the most of your data and that helps you constantly improve. There’s a lot of talent out there, a lot of solutions that are really helpful for organisations of all sizes. You’ll improve step by step.”

There’s no doubt that it’s an exciting time for procurement. The atmosphere at DPW Amsterdam 2024 was electric for that exact reason. The event, in Rademacher’s words, has “a really strong influence on the sector and enables attendees to learn about how the landscape is developing in real time”.

“The AI-driven future is already a reality for us,” he states. “We’re beyond the pilot phase with our AI tool, ChatCFX, and now we really want to drive market share. 2024 going into 2025 sees us in a good position with high user visibility, and now we’re adding ChatCFX to the game, pushing it into the European market. We’re at DPW Amsterdam to meet the players who are looking for a solution exactly like ours, making it an invaluable place to be.”

Author

Nell Walker

Published

Estimated Read time

6Mins

The buzz of DPW Amsterdam draws in the most innovative minds across the industry. They’re there to have riveting conversations…

The buzz of DPW Amsterdam draws in the most innovative minds across the industry. They’re there to have riveting conversations with their peers, to inspire, to teach and learn in kind. And they’re there to keep an eye on an industry that doesn’t stop changing for the better.

This is a big part of the appeal for Fraser Woodhouse. Woodhouse leads the digital procurement team within Deloitte in the UK. His team historically focused on large-scale transformations, providing a backbone for suite implementation. Increasingly, however, it’s turning its attention to helping clients navigate a plethora of technology solutions. The goal is to help them build and scale, and take advantage of some of the more niche functionalities available. These are things that can be highly daunting for many customers, which is why Deloitte is there for support.

“We’re helping clients ask the big questions,” Woodhouse explains as he sits down with us at DPW Amsterdam 2024. “How do you connect the technology in a way that allows data to flow from one system to another? How do you deal with processes that are connected to solutions which all have their own release cycles? How do you approach change management? That underpins so much of where the value is going to be achieved, and a lot of the providers will be focusing on it. They just might not have the same capability that Deloitte can provide.”

For Woodhouse, getting involved with procurement was a total accident. He even left the sector at one point, but his strong foundational knowledge – and the exciting landscape procurement is enjoying right now – lured him back in. “It changes faster than I can get bored with it, that’s for sure,” he explains. “Procurement is fascinating.”

Aspiring to greatness

Especially now, with constant conversations around genAI, 10X, and beyond. Procurement is only becoming more interesting, more enticing, drawing young professionals in to fill gaps in the talent pool. 10X was actually the theme of DPW Amsterdam this year, a notion that’s on everyone’s lips. And for Woodhouse, it’s absolutely something to aspire to.

“Aiming for 10X is sensible. You just have to consider your timescale. I’d caution against running before you can walk, but a culture of experimentation is important. Running small-scale pilots can help you hone in on where you really want to see value, or where value is likely to be generated. Starting with requirements is a fundamental thing at the moment, but you shouldn’t underestimate how long that will take. And it’s a continuous consideration, because requirements change. Just keep trying to refine your solution in order to take advantage of everything that’s out there right now.”

Fotograaf: MichielTon.com

Having the wrong mindset is one of the major barriers to adopting 10X thinking. It all starts with the company’s culture, and whether that’s one of growth or not. “I imagine most of the people here at DPW Amsterdam have already made that mental shift,” says Woodhouse. “Last year, people were still trying to understand how they, as big companies, could utilise startups. That’s changed now, and it’s amazing to see companies that were startups three years ago working with all these big enterprise customers. 

“They have scaled and grown in partnership with those customers. Mindset is so important, and having the wrong one will only create barriers and missed opportunities.”

Always improving, never slowing down

When it comes to the advantages that technology has brought to procurement in the last few years, the list is endless. Procurement has gone from an overlooked segment of any given organisation, to having a seat at the table and helping make major business decisions. 10X thinking – whether it goes by that name or not – has been spreading across the segment and fuelling businesses to aim higher.

“The layers of automation have really improved,” says Woodhouse. “A year or so back, there were a handful of use cases that you could truly automate, but now you can do it at a much larger scale. Another big change is around security concerns. There are more tried and tested case studies to draw upon now, and solutions are more readily available. You don’t necessarily have to be a pioneer, because someone else has already taken that first step.”

The question of data

Something else that holds businesses back, despite the innovation at their disposal, is an element that can be harder to change: poor quality data. When trying to implement advanced technology solutions, bad data can make or break their success.

“It’s always useful to focus on that and have a dedicated work stream,” Woodhouse advises. “You need someone who really understands data. I think there’s a tendency to try to boil the ocean before you even get going in your transformation, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Cleaning up your data before you start, and having a fresh foundation will help you make decisions on what to implement on top of that good data. 

“Doing all of that is obviously hugely beneficial, but it’s going to slow you down, in many cases. There are ways around that, like embedding the cleanup of data within the new processes. Data is important – we shouldn’t underestimate that – but there are different approaches to solving the issue of poor quality data, like buying it or using genAI to restructure your data into something more powerful. Either way, you need a strategy.”

Novel thinking 101

Some businesses fall into the trap of thinking that they can’t achieve specific things because their data isn’t in the right position, but novel thinking around data can allow them to still drive forward. “You’ve just got to focus on it. You can’t assume the data’s going to fix itself,” Woodhouse adds. 

Novel thinking is certainly something that can be seen at DPW events, and DPW Amsterdam 2024 was no exception. People congregated there to learn, to share stories, to inspire. For Woodhouse, the magic of the digital procurement sector right now is that everybody recognises that their journey has no end. While that may be daunting, it’s a positive thing and keeps procurement professionals striving for more.

“It’s a continuous improvement journey, and I think the best-performing organisations will recognise that, and invest in the business capability to continue that journey,” Woodhouse concludes. “That’s how you get proper value. I love hearing about how people frame problems differently, and how they approach the solutions.”

Author

Nell Walker

Published

Estimated Read time

6Mins

Making procurement slicker, more streamlined, is the name of the game right now – and this is precisely why Globality…

Making procurement slicker, more streamlined, is the name of the game right now – and this is precisely why Globality exists. It’s an organisation which leverages advanced, native-built AI to make sourcing more autonomous for Fortune 500 and Global 2000 companies, meaning it has a finger on a pulse of the technology tools procurement now has access to as the industry shifts and evolves.

Keith Hausmann is the Chief Customer Officer at Globality. He has been working in procurement since the early 90s, both in industry as a service provider, and now, at a technology company. He came to Globality from Accenture, where he ran the operations business. During his first real job after college, Hausmann was also part of a training program at a major Fortune 500 company, working closely with a COO. At some point they got into a conversation about salespeople seemingly having an advantage over procurement people due to their access to information, knowledge, and training. The COO suggested that they launch a company to help support procurement. For Hausmann, it was a serendipitous entry to the industry.

“I came to Globality because I saw the business was struggling with how to scale, automate, and deliver a differentiated user experience. Ultimately, I found it really compelling, and joined about five years ago.”

Achieving 10X thinking

Hausmann admits that the concept of what procurement is has only been defined relatively recently, and he’s been in the industry long enough to have seen the shift happen and suddenly accelerate over the last few years. Now, procurement professionals are in a position where they’re able to think big, and they have the tools to support that way of thinking. One of the most-discussed topics right now is 10X, whereby businesses are setting targets for themselves that are 10 times greater than what they can realistically achieve.

“There continues to be, and always has been, so many mind-numbing manual activities that go on in procurement spaces,” says Hausmann. “We’ve built small armies of teams to handle those things. I think 10X has prompted us to take a step back and ask if there’s now technology that can uplift the role of people in the function and take on some of those automatable tasks. Whether that’s writing RFPs, discovering suppliers, or analysing proposals – these are all things that can be automated in today’s technological world. With 10X thinking, you can imagine the many, many, many things that can be automated and just go after them. 

“There are barriers, of course. The biggest one is not being able to convey a compelling vision of what we want people to do in the new world. It’s not necessarily about making them go away – it’s about making their daily jobs, lives, and work more valuable. There are so many things around category thinking and strategy that don’t get done because people are spending so much time on tasks that could be automated. So I think the barrier is creating that vision and that plan to shift the operating models, roles, and the skill sets to something new and different.”

People power

Hausmann believes that if roles are reshaped and honed in response to automation, it’s less likely that there will be resistance to change because employees will know exactly what they’re doing, rather than being concerned about their future. “They have to know what they’re doing before they jump on board. It just requires a mindset change and good change management.”

Hausmann believes it’s down to the CPO to drive that change management by conveying the activities, impacts, roles, and operating model they envision. If they can paint a picture of how humans can impact things in a new way, alongside the new technology rather than against it, suddenly it’s an exciting prospect and people are keen to make a bigger impact. 

CFOs and CPOs joining forces

While CPOs now have a long-deserved seat at the table to help push change business-wide, CFOs’ roles are also expanding and having an increased impact on procurement. “I think they’ve always influenced what’s going on in procurement,” says Hausmann. “CFOs are the champions of many things, but certainly improving the bottom line of the company. They’re also champions of using technology to make the organisation more resilient, more scalable, and more efficient. There was a time when people thought that the CTO or CIO would be doing that, but more often than not, the CFO is the ultimate owner of improving business impacts. More and more, we’re seeing our customers leaning on the CFO to help them make decisions about investments that have a big impact through technology and AI. 

“These days, the relationship between the CFO and CPO is wildly different to what it once was, and CFOs are showing more interest in procurement as a function than ever, making a difference to the bottom line. It makes sense because, in theory, procurement controls one of the biggest cost line items in a company, besides raw headcount.”

Matching the pace of technology

The fact that we still need to focus on change management and relationships confirms that the way procurement is changing isn’t just about the technology. Far from it. However, technology is moving at an incredible pace and needs to be taken seriously. There are things that are possible now which couldn’t be done even one or two years ago.

“A few years ago, technology couldn’t write an RFX document for you,” Hausmann says. “Technology could not instantaneously bring to light the most relevant suppliers from within a customer’s supply base, or in the broader market. It couldn’t write a contract, or an SOW, or a work order. It can now. Those are things that are near and dear to my heart that were impossible 3-5 years ago.”

With these tools in mind, procurement professionals are able to think about the future in short-term stints. Five-year plans are no longer good enough when it comes to the way procurement is shifting – a year is now the maximum for putting plans in place. 

“I’ve always thought that procurement, from the perspective of technological advancement and investment perspective, should sit under a broader business umbrella,” says Hausmann. “I’d guess that probably 50% of companies in the world right now have some kind of program in place to save money or improve agility by investing in technology. And speed to market is more important than ever, so sourcing can’t be a bottleneck.”

Looking ahead, Hausmann expects to see many of the unique, differentiated technology providers becoming interoperable together, because big enterprises want services that operate and scale well in combination with others. 

“We’re seeing that a lot, and working with our customers on how we improve interoperability and integration,” he says. “Tools will become more seamless, more easy-to-use, more scalable. Another big thing is, and will continue to be, analytics. It’s a hot topic in procurement, and I think there are profound opportunities to be deployed. For Globality, we’ll continue to endlessly innovate on user experience, ease of use, and beyond.”

Author

Nell Walker

Published

Estimated Read time

7Mins

“I’m overwhelmed,” are Matthias Gutzmann’s first words when asked about DPW Amsterdam 2024. At the end of the bustling two-day…

“I’m overwhelmed,” are Matthias Gutzmann’s first words when asked about DPW Amsterdam 2024. At the end of the bustling two-day event, we sat down with Gutzmann, the company’s founder, and Herman Knevel, DPW’s CEO, for a debrief. Gutzmann also quite rightly pointed out that the final word on summarising those 48 hours is in the hands of the sponsors and attendees, but if the countless conversations we had with said sponsors and attendees are anything to go by, it was the best DPW event yet. And Gutzmann and Knevel agree.

“I really think that’s the case,” says Gutzmann. “We almost doubled the number of exhibiting startups, we had over 120 sponsors, more startup pitches than ever, and all the feedback I’ve heard so far has been amazing. There are always things you can do better, but I’m absolutely happy.”

Across the 9th and 10th of October, DPW Amsterdam welcomed over 1,300 attendees through its doors at Beurs van Berlage, Amsterdam. Those attendees arrived from 44 countries across 32 industries, and the event itself featured 72 sessions with 140 speakers across five stages. It’s abundantly clear that people are deeply passionate about DPW.

“On day one, it was already packed at 8:30 in the morning,” Knevel states. “The energy in the room was contagious, and the numbers speak for themselves. The startups, the innovators, the corporates, the mid-market – everybody who’s here has a genuine interest in what these guys are bringing to the procurement space.”

Reconnecting with the vision

Gutzmann describes that intangible energy as “bringing a little bit of joy back to procurement”. For many years, procurement was a very ill-defined concept – almost as ill-defined as the role of CPO. The shift has been a quick one, accelerated further by the COVID-19 pandemic, and events like DPW Amsterdam are part of the reason why. CPOs having somewhere to go, to meet, to learn about the procurement landscape is vital, hence that inspiring energy that permeates every DPW event.

“A lot of people are missing that vibe,” Gutzmann continues. “It’s why I founded DPW. I was inspired by Mark Perera [Chairman of DPW], who I worked with at Vizibl, and had great technology while also being so inspiring. I realised we needed to connect founders with CPOs. I think every CPO should talk to one startup founder per week, at least. It’s important that we listen to their vision.”

Striving for 10X

The core of those visions for the 2024 event revolves around the concept of 10X, the idea being that you set targets for your business that are 10 times greater than what you think you can realistically achieve. It keeps people ambitious, always striving for greatness, and it’s especially prevalent in startup culture – hence Gutzmann’s belief that CPOs should be connecting with them more.

“Deciding on 10X for this year’s theme was serendipity,” says Knevel. “The term came along and Matthias said, ‘this is it – this is what we need in procurement’. This is what the industry needs, and we’re exploring it, diving deeper.”

“Last year’s theme was ‘Make Tech Work’, which was all about getting the basics right in order to scale,” Gutzmann continues. “This year we said, ‘how can we take it further?’ We are entering the biggest wave of AI yet. That technology is giving us the opportunity and the possibility to scale outcomes. The world around us is changing so fast, so we need to be more agile, scalable, and faster in procurement. It’s a very ambitious, maybe lofty theme, but it’s a mindset more than anything else.”

“It’s the mindset that drives innovation and speed,” Knevel adds. “That’s really important in this age of procuretech and supply chain tech.”

When it comes to honing that 10X mindset, it’s all about having a purpose in mind. A lot of the procurement professionals we spoke to at DPW Amsterdam called this a ‘north star’, which is the phase Gutzmann uses too. “That’s where it starts. There’s so much procurement can do. There are so many problems in the world, and I believe procurement can be the solution to many of those. So I think it starts with the CPO and their leadership, their vision. You also have to embrace startup innovation, be more experimental in the way you work, instigate new ways of working, and be bold in your thinking. You also have to remember it’s okay to fail.”

Growing DPW

Something that’s particularly impressive about DPW Amsterdam 2024 is that it’s actually the second of the year. Back in June, DPW ventured into the North American market with an intimate summit held in New York City, which CPOstrategy was fortunate enough to be invited to. Planning one wildly popular event a year is one thing, but venturing into a whole new part of the world with an additional one is incredibly dedicated.

“I’m a bit more conservative when planning ahead, so there probably wouldn’t be a New York event without Herman encouraging me,” says Gutzmann. “I’m glad he said ‘let’s go for it’. It was a short-term plan, but it was ultimately very successful and the right decision.”

Knevel adds: “The feedback we got from sponsors and delegates was quite impressive. They were asking for more. And it’s not just Matthias and myself – we have a great team here. This is a massive production, but we made the jump and it’s paid off.”

Inspiration for 2025

When it comes to the lessons Gutzmann and Knevel have learned in response to this event, it’s more about narrowing down the influx of ideas DPW gives them. By the time we spoke with them at the end of the Amsterdam 2024 event, their heads were spinning with inspiration.

“I have so many ideas,” says Gutzmann. “Every year we reinvent the show, so we never rest. We’re always asking what we can do better. How can we improve? I think this year we maxed out the number of sponsor stands that are possible to have. We doubled the number of under-30 attendees. There’s the potential to go a little deeper on the talent side, connecting students with the corporates and building a proper program around that.”

There was also the Tech Safari this year. The idea was to make the expo hall easier to navigate, since it was more crowded than ever this year. Members of the DPW team acted as ‘super connectors’ to help attendees find the right solutions and help startups find new customers. The aim was to simply make it easier for everyone involved to find what they’re looking for in small groups,enabling them to find who they wanted, talk to them, and ask questions. It turned out to be an amazing interactive experience for people, making sure they felt thoroughly looked after and valued.

“Plus there’s an opportunity to cater more to the corporates coming in,” Gutzmann continues. “Perhaps we will build a custom program for them around the event. Some of them are already coming in with teams and doing annual leadership meetings outside of the venue, but I think there’s scope to show them solutions and do some workshops within the event. We can also do more with day zero, where we have site events. There’s much more we can do.”

Giving CPOs what they want

As for the broader future of the event, DPW’s heart lies in Amsterdam and will continue to do so. The organisation is building its team even further and putting strategies in place for future events, allowing it to move forward. “We follow the demand of what our customers want,” Knevel says. That’s what really drives DPW and how the event is themed and set up. The organisation listens to CPOs so it can give them exactly what they need, and what will help the industry level up further and further. 

“There are things we’re still developing,” says Gutzmann. “For example, the podcast studio [something introduced in its current form for 2024] is something Herman is very passionate about, so it was great to test it out here. There’s more we can do with that. We have so many ideas and it’s important to engage our amazing team on these ideas and see what they think along the way.”

“We’re ideating a lot,” Knevel adds. “And we’re asking our ecosystem what we should do more of.”

“Ultimately, we’re bringing in the voice of the customer to make sure we’re giving them what they want and need,” Gutzmann concludes. “That’s the whole purpose of DPW.”

Author

Nell Walker

Published

Estimated Read time

6Mins

It’s impossible not to be inspired by the energy at a DPW event. DPW Amsterdam 2024 was buzzing with that…

It’s impossible not to be inspired by the energy at a DPW event. DPW Amsterdam 2024 was buzzing with that same energy, its attendees soaking in information and inspiration from speakers, peers, other experts. We caught up with Rujul Zaparde, Co-Founder and CEO of Zip, at the event to dive into the procurement landscape and chat about the specific qualities DPW brings to the sector.

Zaparde is the Co-Founder and CEO of Zip. At the beginning of Zip’s journey, Zaparde and his fellow founder, Lu Cheng, based the company around their own experiences as end-users of the procurement process. They took their lived confusion around having multiple intakes for a contract, for the purchase request, and all the different complicated components of the process, and created a solution.

“And so, we started Zip and created the category of intake and procurement orchestration. We’re very grateful to have been named the leader in the category,” says Zaparde, in reference to having just been named a category leader in IDC’s first ever Marketscape for Spend Orchestration.

So, as is often the case, procurement is something Zaparde fell into. In this case, he got involved with procurement specifically to solve pain points. Prior to Zip, he was a Product Manager and Cheng was an Engineering Leader, both at Airbnb; they knew very little about procurement. “We were just end-users,” he explains. The upside of this was that they were able to come into the industry fresh, without the baggage and legacy issues that can come with being in a sector for a long time.

UX first

“At Zip, we really try to take a user experience first approach,” Zaparde continues. “What we found is the highest leverage change you can make in any procurement organisation is to make it easier for your employees to actually adopt and follow whatever the right process is. If you do that, then all of finance, procurement, accounting, and even IT find that they’re suddenly swimming with the current, not against it. And you can’t do any of that unless you solve for user experience.”

Taking away problems, the way Zip does, also takes away a barrier to ambition. The theme of DPW Amsterdam 2024 was 10X, a term on the lips of many across all sectors. Once immediate issues and pain points are addressed, 10X is something businesses can aspire to, with many talks and workshops during DPW Amsterdam focusing on how to approach this.

Getting the mindset right

For Zaparde, 10X thinking is a necessity for growth. “You have to aim for 10X to even end up at something X,” he explains. “That requires ambition. I also think that when you think in terms of 10X, and your mindset is angled towards incremental change, you’re much more open to thinking of solutions that are perhaps a little more risky. It changes your perspective.” 

A mindset shift needs to happen before anything else. This involves considering the needs of procurement and the wider company, having a north star in mind, and then breaking changes down to an incremental level. 

“Then you can start to think about the steps you need to take to get there,” Zaparde explains. “A big component of this is bringing along your peers and stakeholders across every function that’s tangential and critical to the core procurement workflow and path.”

Innovating for good

The work Zip does is indicative of the shift towards continuous improvement and advanced technology that procurement has been going through in recent years. There are things that are possible now that weren’t possible even a year ago, thanks to the vast innovations being made. One of the hot topics right now is generative AI, something that’s opening up a world of possibilities.

“It’s the elephant in the room right now,” says Zaparde. “With the capabilities that gen AI unlocks, you can automate a lot more. That allows you to cut down a lot of the transactional and operational work that procurement and sourcing organisations are doing. Procurement is tired of the status quo. It’s been an underserved function for over 20 years, and I’m glad that’s finally changing. I feel privileged for myself and Zip to be part of the conversation, and that we’re seeing all these amazing changes happening.”

Zaparde believes we’re already seeing the benefits of the major changes that have occurred over the last couple of years in procurement. In fact, he knows this, because Zip has helped its customers save around $4.5bn of spend over the last two years, which is an astonishing statistic.

“One customer of ours, Snowflake, achieved over $300m in savings alone,” Zaparde continues. “We’ve seen tangible benefits already. The way procurement is evolving isn’t a hypothetical thing – it’s really happening.”

Fragmentation on fragmentation

The key, again, is overcoming base level issues for the sake of evolution. This is precisely what Zip provides, after all. But sometimes, the issue is at a data level. Unclean data is something that technology leaders are talking about a great deal right now, with some feeling that it holds them back from implementing new technology. Zaparde believes that businesses should be questioning why their data isn’t clean from the start, rather than worrying about trying to cleanse existing data.

“You don’t just clean your data – the real question is why is your data not clean in the first place?” he muses. “You have to have a clean entry point for it. I don’t think I’ve ever spoken to a Fortune 500 CPO that said they had clean data. I think it’s because of the upstream processes in intake and orchestration. If all the cross-functional teams – the IT review, the legal review, the finance – are being manually shepherded by the procurement operations organisation, then how can you possibly end up with clean data?

“People are keying the same information into multiple systems, which might mean they answer in similar – but different – ways. So you end up with fragmentation on fragmentation. But if you have one single door to that data, you’ll be able to drive only clean data, because it’s a funnel. If you let everyone have different swim lanes that never intersect, you won’t have clean data.”

As 2025 approaches, Zip has multiple product capabilities and features coming up that Zaparde and his team are very excited about. This includes leveraging gen AI, something we’re seeing incredible utilisation of across the sector.

For Zaparde, attending events like DPW Amsterdam to talk about what Zip does and interact with peers and clients alike is a joyous part of his job. “DPW is really accelerating the rate of change in the procurement industry. That’s very much needed, and it’s energising to see so many incredible people from the procurement world in one place. I love spending time with these forward-thinking procurement leaders at this event.”

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

13 November 2024

Estimated Read time

2Mins

This is a very special edition, thanks to DPW/2024!   It is safe to say the world’s biggest and most…

This is a very special edition, thanks to DPW/2024!  

It is safe to say the world’s biggest and most influential tech event in procurement and supply chain lived up to its billing last month. Boasting over 1,300 attendees from 44 countries across 32 industries and 72 sessions featuring 140 speakers across five stages alongside 120 sponsors, 84 startup pitches over 14 tech domains, the numbers speak for themselves. Procurement gets excited about DPW. And we’re excited to bring you an exclusive DPW takeover edition of CPOstrategy, where we bring you all the excitement, fresh from Amsterdam!  

Read the full issue here!

DPW Amsterdam group shot
Fotograaf: MichielTon.com

Every year, DPW selects a different theme to set the tone for the conference’s conversation. This year, 10X was chosen: the idea that organisations should aim for a moonshot mindset instead of seeking incremental growth. In procurement and supply chain, 10X thinking essentially means fostering a progressive diverse culture where calculated risks are embraced, reimagining and rewiring traditional processes. Thus moving from legacy tech to disruptive technologies, and leveraging AI and automations that deliver tenfold improvements in efficiency, cost savings, and supplier relationships. Inside this bumper issue are over 100 pages dedicated to this unique event and the people who make it so special. 

But that’s not all! We also have exclusive content and fascinating insights from Masdar City, Saudi Esports, Microsoft and UMS. 

Enjoy! 

Author

Adam Spurdle

Published

15 October 2024

Estimated Read time

4Mins

Consumers today are more environmentally conscious than ever, making sustainable procurement essential for businesses aiming to thrive. By integrating Corporate…

Consumers today are more environmentally conscious than ever, making sustainable procurement essential for businesses aiming to thrive. By integrating Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) principles into procurement processes, organisations can go beyond traditional criteria like price and quality to include environmental and social factors, supporting their sustainable development goals. Writes Adam Spurdle, COO at Communisis Brand Deployment.

Unilever’s Sustainable Living Plan is a prime example of this. Launched in 2010, this initiative aimed to align profit with purpose by decoupling business growth from environmental harm while enhancing social impact. With ambitious goals like sourcing 100% of its agricultural raw materials sustainably, Unilever shows us that sustainable procurement can create real value—not just for the company, but for all stakeholders.

Tim Mawhood, Executive Director, GHD Advisory, answers our questions on supply chain sustainability and procurement’s role in driving ESG transformation.

Consumers are cutting businesses no slack when it comes to sustainability, and so procurement has to meet high environmental, social and ethical standards. It’s only by taking consumer demands seriously that companies will start to significantly reduce their environmental footprint, promote fair labour practices, and improve their reputation. 

However, it’s not only about reputation and ethics. A sustainable approach to the supply chain also helps to mitigate risks associated with supply chain disruptions and regulatory compliance while also leading to cost savings through improved efficiency and waste reduction. 

As resources become scarcer and consumer expectations evolve, sustainable procurement ensures that businesses remain resilient and competitive, ultimately contributing to a more sustainable future for all.

Despite its benefits, unfortunately sustainable procurement does come with some challenges.

Initial Costs 

Sustainability often comes with an initial price tag that can be daunting for businesses. The higher cost of sustainable materials may deter companies focused on cost-containment, keeping consumption of sustainable products low. 

However, as sustainability becomes the norm, increased competitiveness within supply chains will likely drive prices down. By starting their sustainability journey now, businesses can position themselves for greater savings and environmental value over time, ultimately balancing those initial expenses with long-term financial and ecological benefits.

Supply Chain Complexity

Navigating diverse regulations across countries poses a significant challenge for businesses. Different regions have varying sustainability requirements, making compliance complex, especially in less mature markets where partners may not yet recognise the value of sustainable practices. 

To overcome this, organisations must stay informed about regulatory changes and actively engage with stakeholders to promote sustainable sourcing and practices, ensuring consistency across their supply chains.

Ian Thompson, VP Northern Europe at Ivalua, explores the road to supply chain recovery, starting with procurement’s source-to-pay process.

Data Visibility

A lack of standardised metrics for measuring sustainability can complicate efforts to track and compare environmental and social impacts. Inconsistent tracking methods and varying approaches to sustainability can lead to confusion and conflicting results for the same product. This challenge is amplified when sourcing for multiple clients. 

To improve data visibility, businesses should adopt unified standards for traceability and carbon output, leveraging technology to streamline data collection and reporting across their supply chains.

Culture and Incentives

Establishing the right organisational culture is essential for driving meaningful change in procurement. Currently, many procurement functions prioritise cost savings over sustainability gains, creating a capital-focused culture rather than one centred on carbon reduction. 

To create a culture that prioritises sustainability, businesses need to align incentives with environmental objectives, scrutinising purchasing volumes and actively working to reduce their carbon footprint.

Lack of Visibility

Inconsistent data flows and limited collaboration among stakeholders can cloud transparency in supply chains. When systems are not cooperating and data anomalies arise, tracking goods and operations becomes particularly challenging. Siloed operational units and a reluctance to share information further complicate matters. 

To improve visibility, organisations should encourage collaboration and open communication across departments, breaking down silos to achieve a clearer understanding of their entire supply chain.

Getting technical

Technology, including AI, is starting to be more widely used to improve chain visibility. By incorporating AI into their analytics processes, organisations can analyse large amounts of data, uncovering patterns and insights that lead to better-informed decisions. 

Integrate AI with IoT and cloud computing allows for continuous monitoring of supply chains in real time. So, rather than being reactive to issues, AI can help businesses anticipate potential disruptions, including downtime, and optimise their operations in light of that. Some AI platforms even provide recommendations on how to mitigate these disruptions and improve workflows, including exploring alternative suppliers, managing production schedules, and improving logistical routes.

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

8 October 2024

Estimated Read time

7Mins

Click here to read it! Our exclusive profiles this month include… City and County of Denver: Collaboration at the Heart…

Click here to read it!

Our exclusive profiles this month include…

City and County of Denver: Collaboration at the Heart

Denver is one of the United States’ most spectacular cities. As the largest city in Colorado, it is located at the base of the Colorado Rocky Mountains and is home to picturesque views and warm weather for a good part of the year. 

Lance Jay heads up procurement at the City and County of Denver. According to Jay, his procurement function touches most entities within the municipality which leaves little time for boredom. “From arts and venues to parks and recreation to Denver International Airport and street maintenance and everything in between, the role is certainly varied,” he explains. “We’re buying everything from airplane de-icer to road paint to golf course fertiliser; no one day is the same for us. We are constantly dealing with something new and we’re buying everything and anything.”

Scaling efficiency

It is fair to say procurement has been given a tough hand in recent times. Ultimately, standing still hasn’t been an option. The past few years have been dominated by external problems such as COVID-19, wars and inflation among other black swan events. It has meant that the importance of having a finger on the pulse of the latest problems is key to long-term success, something Jay is well aware of.

“Part of our mission and vision is being agile and efficient,” explains Jay. “And if you look at the last four or five years, things like working from home and having virtual meetings, really didn’t exist before. For us, it was going from in-person bid openings to doing virtual bid openings which was challenging at first. In the past 12 to 14 months, the use of AI has also increased and is being incorporated into a lot of different things.

“We have many vendors now using AI to submit their bids. We need to look at the bids and see if they were AI-generated versus the vendor doing the work. So, a lot of those old school procurement things are still valid, but we have to pivot a little bit and shift how we do things to be either more technology savvy with AI or be able to incorporate it into the business. Because things are now moving at such a fast pace, if you aren’t agile, you’re going to get left behind.”

For Jay, he values being open to alternative ways of working and not keeping operations the same because that is what is safe. He explains that within the City and County of Denver, the organisation is continuously searching for new ways to harness efficiency.

Read the full story here!

Microsoft: Innovation and agility in procurement 

Change is the only constant, and the changes affecting the global procurement industry seem as though they are, indeed, constant.

The shockwaves thrown out by the COVID-19 pandemic are fading, but not gone; in their wake, geopolitical tensions, environmental instability, and rapidly advancing technologies are reshaping the ways in which we source and secure the goods and services upon which modern organisations rely. From consumer expectations to cybersecurity threats and a trending shift from globalised supply chains towards nearshoring and resilience-driven sourcing, procurement in 2024 would be almost unrecognisable to someone working in the industry just a few years ago. 

There are many ways to meet new challenges and changing circumstances, however.

Jayna Bundy, the new head of Microsoft’s indirect procurement business unit, stresses the value of bringing “a broader finance perspective” to the role. Bundy moved into procurement from Microsoft’s treasury department, where she has worked for almost two decades. “My finance background has allowed me to help connect the dots between our supplier strategies and the broader financial goals of the company,” she explains. “The skill sets I developed in treasury, such as managing cash flow, cost efficiency, technology and innovation, business relationships, and risk management, translated well into the procurement space. My passion for innovation and technology, which I honed in treasury, also aligns well with the current focus on digitising procurement, especially in light of the rise of GenAI.” 

A year after taking on her role, I sat down to speak with Bundy about bringing a new perspective to procurement, cultivating agility, nurturing innovation, and harnessing the potential of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI). 

Moving to procurement 

Bundy stepped into her current role in May of 2023, where she is responsible for overseeing indirect procurement at Microsoft. 

She and her team support Microsoft’s businesses with engagement and sourcing for a variety of categories including professional services, technical services, marketing, among others. They also manage business process outsourcing for enterprise programs, including a centralised employee device program, which ensures cost efficiency in device purchasing across Microsoft’s 220,000+ employees.

Additionally, Bundy’s team handles supplier relationship management, responsible procurement and compliance, focusing on supplier security, sustainability, privacy, risk management, and diversity. “We also have a Center of Excellence that oversees source-to-pay technology, innovation, and procurement-related mergers and acquisitions, such as onboarding Activision Blizzard after Microsoft finished the acquisition in October of last year,” she adds.  

Stepping into a procurement role was a noteworthy change of direction for Bundy. “I’ve been at Microsoft for 19 years as of April, and for 18 of those years I was in treasury,” she says.

Read the full story here!

Pan Pacific: The art of procurement excellence

Pan Pacific Hotels Group’s Alice Kwek on procurement in the hospitality industry, the importance of building a strategic function, and why continuous learning, training and curiosity have been instrumental to her success…

If you want to know what a consummate career in procurement and supply chain looks like, you could do worse than look at Alice Kwek’s CV. In more than 20 years in the industry, Alice has amassed the kind of skills, expertise, and experience that few can match, working her way from a first buyer role through successive positions in the marine, offshore, and oil and gas industries, before taking a series of more senior leadership roles in hospitality and travel. In 2023, she brought the breadth and depth of this experience to luxury hotel company, Pan Pacific Hotels Group. And all this, she says, having first stumbled into the profession unexpectedly. 

“I was first given the opportunity to learn about procurement when I was working at a marine offshore company,” Alice says, reflecting on an impressive career, “I rapidly developed a passion for the industry that has lasted. My first role was as a buyer, responsible for handling purchases, negotiations, and supplier relationships – it was a level of hands-on experience that gave me real, practical insights into the operational aspects of the profession and reinforced my interest in procurement.” 

Read the full story here!

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

19 September 2024

Estimated Read time

6Mins

Welcome to Issue 54 of CPOstrategy!

This month’s exclusive cover story is a big one!

We were granted access to the group procurement team at Bosch to produce an incredible insight into purchasing and supply chain at the global provider of technology and services… 

Read the new issue here!

Bosch purchasing powering pack: Teaming up governance, procurement & service 

As with any large and successful enterprise, procurement and supply chain play a vital role in the competitiveness of Bosch, whilst also aiding the company’s efforts towards a sustainable future. The company generated sales of €90bn in 2023 and its purchasing volume exceeded 50% of turnover. Keeping the purchasing and supply chain function competitive, agile, and sustainable is a huge undertaking. A mission that requires both strategic independent agility and a collaborative, community-minded culture that can draw upon its vast network of insights.  

The person overseeing the procurement functions across Bosch’s four business divisions is Thomas Schulte, Head of Governance, Supply Chain Management Purchasing. Like many of his colleagues, he was attracted by the idea that he and Bosch could change the way that people live, in a meaningful and compassionate manner. “In purchasing, you have this opportunity to meet people, to create things and to make a change,” he enthuses. “And this is something I find extremely inspiring.” 

Read the full story here!

Amazon Business: Why CPOs need a seat at the C-suite table

Stephanie Lang, Director and General Manager for Amazon Business, highlights the significance of the CPO role and provides actionable takeaways for businesses looking to leverage their product leadership effectively

The role of the Chief Procurement Officer is in the midst of seismic transformation and change.

No longer a back-office role hidden in the background, today’s CPO has risen to become one of the most important components of a company’s operations. Out of sight no longer.

Witnessing the evolution first hand is Stephanie Lang, Director and General Manager for Amazon Business. Lang speaks exclusively to CPOstrategy and shares her extensive experience and expertise, shedding light on why CPOs are integral to an organisation’s strategic and operational success. The discussion covers various facets of a CPO’s responsibilities, including driving product innovation, aligning strategies with business goals, and fostering cross-functional collaboration. 

Lang also explores how CPOs serve as the bridge between market needs and company capabilities, thus playing a crucial role in sustaining competitive advantage. 

Read the full story here!

Teamviewer: A unique approach to procurement

Alexander Pilsl, Director of Procurement at TeamViewer, talks AI, agility, and driving procurement transformation with a unique approach to leveraging the partner ecosystem…

The world is changing. New challenges, from geopolitical instability to rising fuel costs to the worsening climate crisis, are conspiring to create what a recent procurement industry report referred to as “an environment of permanent crisis”. Old value chains are no longer stable or profitable in the ways they used to be, and organisations are fighting to find new methods of tackling this new era defined by disruption. 

Alexander Pilsl, Director of Procurement at TeamViewer

In the face of this new reality, savvy companies are looking for new ways to position procurement within their organisational structures. And not only avoid the challenges posed by the modern procurement landscape, but leverage new strategies and technology to unlock value for the business. In turn, a new breed of more agile, more collaborative procurement functions is emerging, focused on leveraging technology and their partner ecosystems in equal measure. 

Modern procurement

“I think TeamViewer was exceptionally smart to recognise that the world, and therefore the expectations placed on procurement as a function, has changed,” says Alexander Pilsl, Director of Procurement at TeamViewer. Pilsl joined TeamViewer in November of 2023 with a mandate to create a modern, value-driven procurement function delivering on both the traditional goal of cost containment, but also in the ESG and risk management spaces, all the while maintaining the function’s exemplary record on compliance.

“When I arrived at TeamViewer, I found a solid procurement process built around a theme of compliance,” Pilsl recalls. TeamViewer went public in 2019, and put a lot of strategic emphasis on meeting the regulatory and compliance requirements that accompany that transition. “I arrived and found a PO compliance rate north of 95%,” says Pilsl. “That’s just incredible. I’ve never seen anything like that. The mandate, then, was to modernise to meet the new challenges posed by the procurement sector, and deliver new value without losing that level of compliance.” 

Read the full story here!

Creactives: Artificial intelligence with a human touch

Adriano Garibotto, Co-founder and Chief Sales & Marketing Officer at Creactives SpA, discusses the generation of enormous benefits for CPOs and supply chain chiefs through a unique brand of AI…

A​​rtificial intelligence has opened an ever-expanding universe of possibilities and opportunities as it continues its breathless acceleration. The genie is well and truly out of the lamp, and we must all find the most positive uses of its power. None more so than in procurement and supply chain where AI is reconfiguring the functions at every level.

Adriano Garibotto is Co-founder and Chief Sales & Marketing Officer at Creactives SpA, which creates and deploys AI solutions for procurement and supply chain digitisation. He has joined us for a discussion on just how Creactives and its unique AI tools are generating enormous benefits for CPOs and supply chain chiefs, covering spend analytics, master data governance, and procurement guidance automation.

As well as being responsible for sales and marketing at Creactives -headquartered in Verona, Italy and with offices in Spain, Germany, and France, Garibotto is also a member of the company’s board, along with fellow Co-founders Paolo Gamberoni and Francesco Bellomi, CEO and CTO respectively. Garibotto takes us back to the beginning. The very beginning.

The very beginning

According to many historians, there were three inscriptions written upon the ancient Greek Temple of Apollo at Delphi, one of which resonates with Garibotto: ‘Know thyself’. “4,000 years ago, the Greeks said everything that is needed,” he explains from his Verona office. “And we are still there. To know yourself in procurement implies answers to four questions. What I buy? From whom I buy? When and how? These are the questions you need to be able to answer if you want to set your benchmark, if you want to set your starting point, if you want to be able to answer who you are, OK? Who you could be will depend on the negotiation and other things. But what you are today is something that comes up from the analysis of the data, which is the point where everything starts.”

Read the full story here!

Author

Nell Walker

Published

28 August 2024

Estimated Read time

4Mins

We caught up with Shachi Rai Gupta from ORO Labs to discuss the importance of orchestration in procurement.

Simplifying procurement in smart ways is the ultimate goal for ORO Labs. Utilising the best of AI, ORO Labs aims to implement procurement orchestration across sectors, creating an experience that is simultaneously automated, augmented, and humanised.

Shachi Rai Gupta is VP Strategy at ORO Labs, with a wealth of transformation and technology experience behind her. Rai Gupta’s sharp eye on procurement has allowed her to witness the rise and fall of various trends, and understand what the sector needs as it – along with technology – evolves. 

We caught up with Rai Gupta at the DPW NYC Summit back in June, a special North American version of the event. Procurement trends, especially AI and orchestration, were very much the theme of the day, prompting lively conversations amongst some of the world’s most influential procurement leaders.

Procurement as a net positive experience generator

For Rai Gupta, the trends right now are guided by the fact that procurement has more of a  strategic and evolved role than ever, giving the function the opportunity to have a great impact on the enterprise bottom-line and the environment and community at large 

“Procurement is morphing into a function where one of its biggest responsibilities is to be a net positive experience generator,” she explains.

“Procurement really is a service function for the whole business stakeholders. We, as procurement professionals, need to see things through the lens of the business. This includes what issues the business is trying to solve, and meeting the business where it’s at for good collaboration.

“It’s also important to make this experience as easy as possible, rather than cumbersome and time intensive. That needs to be catered and customised to the individual business segments.”

Prioritising the planet

Another area Rai Gupta is seeing talked about a lot is sustainability. This topic has, for some, been sidelined a little in favour of advanced technology. But it’s just as important as it’s always been, and it’s vital to keep the discussion alive – especially in procurement.

“More and more, companies are realising the impact they’re having on the environment,” Rai Gupta explains. “It’s an increasing priority on all our agendas. The technology is still nascent in that space, in the sense that there aren’t good ways to do benchmarking or tracking. That’s going to be an interesting space to watch out for.”

The next generation

Another hot topic of the DPW NYC Summit was the talent shortage. We at CPOstrategy discuss this topic a lot with procurement professionals, and there’s no one answer for fixing the issue.

“There’s a dearth of good digital talent,” Rai Gupta states. “The skillset you need today in procurement is very different from what we’ve had before. To be able to leverage that, to really make use of the procurement teams you have and the operational model you want, it’s a different challenge. The structure of your team is more important than ever. 

“While that shortage is there, when you do have the right people in place in procurement, that’s where the department shines,” Rai Gupta adds. “That’s where procurement becomes a group of trusted advisors for the business, providing proactive opportunities. We wear a lot of hats in procurement, and we’re stepping up to a new level of evolution.”

Advanced tech for good

And, of course, AI and orchestration are terms on everyone’s lips right now – procurement included. AI is, in Rai Gupta’s words, “a solver”. Many of the blockages and challenges procurement is experiencing as it evolves can be solved, or at least aided, by AI and orchestration. “There’s so much tech out there,” Rai Gupta states. “AI is one such possibility. Every segment of procurement comes with its own risks and requires its own expertise and tool sets. 

“To manage that whole ecosystem is where that orchestration comes in. There’s a real beauty in this because it’s collaborative. It makes the whole bigger than its parts.”

Author

Nell Walker

Published

15 August 2024

Estimated Read time

4Mins

We chatted with Johan-Peter Teppala from Sievo about why procurement needs to use technology wisely.

When CPOstrategy attended the DPW NYC Summit back in June, one of the buzzwords of the day was trends. Trends in procurement, trends in technology, and how to combine the two. The event was filled with productive discussions around how procurement can benefit from data and advanced technology. This led to a hopeful vibe throughout the day, despite and because of acknowledgements of procurement’s shortfalls. 

We caught up with Johan-Peter Teppala, Chief Customer Officer of Sievo, at the NYC conference. For Teppala, that hopefulness is something he took away from the event. “It is great to see so many companies out there with keen interest in adopting new securities and technologies,” he says. “Procurement has increasing demand to do more with less, which explains also the need for technology to drive efficiency and to deliver more. I think it’s just inertia that’s slowing us down.”

However, advanced technology is helping shift the inertia that’s so prevalent across procurement. “Developments in GenAI have been exceptionally fast, especially recently,” Teppala adds. “With an increasing amount of practical Gen AI use cases, this has become a topic that touches each and everyone in procurement. At Sievo, we are dedicating R&D budgets to AI innovations. We have quickly been able to ramp up many practical use cases for our clients to deliver business value in this area.”

Using data and technology wisely

Teppala continues: “Sievo strives to withhold our position as the leading Procurement Analytics partner for large enterprises. We are driven by the goal to close the data-to-action gap. We believe analytics alone has zero value, it’s the actions that we take that drive the value.” This was a topic that was repeated several times during the DPW NYC Summit.

“As a result, SIevo’s goal is to ensure our customers can use their time most efficiently. We help them make business-impacting decisions and best use their expertise, whilst Sievo automatically surfaces insights that they can take action on. First and foremost, our work is about carving out insights. And once you have those insights, how do you automate those actions to create opportunities? That’s definitely one thing we’re keen to solve.”

Sievo is also focusing its attention on gen AI – how it can be adopted and what the use cases are. “AI for data cleansing has been around for a while,” says Teppala. “Right now, Gen AI is getting really good traction from a technology point of view. It’s not just insights, but adopting AI into chat interfaces, and reaping the benefits with implementable actions. It’s amazing.”

The changing talent landscape

The increased adoption of AI is going to also change the talent landscape within procurement. Another heavily-discussed topic during DPW NYC was the talent shortage and how it has the potential to slow procurement down. However, advanced technology may be the thing that accelerates it once again.

“The talent you need is changing,” says Teppala. “The procurement mandate has widened  beyond delivering cost savings. Now, it’s also about driving sustainability initiatives, emission reductions, increasing diverse spending, and preventing supply chain risks. Procurement has to be creative and resource-effective for reaching ideal outcomes. This is a big challenge but also a big opportunity and also impacts the talent needed in procurement. 

“You don’t necessarily need to hire superstars who know everything. It’s about teamwork. Building a procurement team out of people who possess all these modern talents, who can support each other. I can’t know whether this is going to solve the talent shortage, but at least we’re shifting towards a different kind of talent as capabilities change. 

Teppala concludes: “We need to be thinking more about what kind of team we actually want to build – not just what kind of really good, talented individual we can find.”

Author

Nell Walker

Published

13 August 2024

Estimated Read time

4Mins

For a company like TealBook, data is king. The organisation helps businesses to navigate the complex supplier landscape by offering…

For a company like TealBook, data is king. The organisation helps businesses to navigate the complex supplier landscape by offering a foundation of high-quality data. This is something that’s often sorely missing in procurement.

“We have a data problem,” Stephany Lapierre, CEO and Founder of TealBook, told us when we caught up with her at the DPW NYC Summit in June. “It’s always been my view that we don’t have a software or people problem – it’s data. If we could achieve better data – no matter the data stack, no matter the maturity, no matter the vertical – it would be truly transformative.”

Creating a data foundation

Lapierre has watched procurement’s attempt to tackle advanced technology without good data. Simply buying software is the easy part. Some have even tried to build their own architecture around that software. However, that’s often unsuccessful and highly manual. This is what led to the creation of TealBook.

“We’re in this pursuit of how we can deliver to the market,” Lapierre states. “We’ve been building a trusted data foundation for eight years.” More recently, the second version of TealBook’s service is significantly more powerful than the first. This allows it to ingest data at speed and set up new data sources within a couple of hours. “The more data sources, the more suppliers we’re covering, the more attributes per supplier. And, the more signals to improve the TrustScore and the confidence behind the quality of our data.”

Never ignore the fundamentals 

The fact that quality data is all too often overlooked in procurement in favour of advanced technology was something of a theme at the DPW NYC Summit. The opinion of Lapierre is that there’s little point in implementing advanced tech without first having usable data in place. Many others at the event felt the same.

“It’s like buying a house because you love the house, but paying no attention to its foundation, plumbing, or electrics,” she explains. “Procurement has been buying up technology solutions, wanting to see the workflow, the UI, what it can do. However, people aren’t asking where that data comes from. How is it being evaluated? What about the compliance side of having suppliers populating a portal?

“Procurement has more and more requirements to get more and more data, so filling the gaps becomes more difficult. There are also increasing demands for transparency, and for regulators to have better quality information. When you’re reporting something, you have to really trust that information. That’s how you give confidence to your board or leadership team.”

A shift in focus

The upside of this disconnect is that Lapierre fully expects the pursuit of better data to be a key trend in procurement over the next few years. “I’ve found that no-one talks about the data layer in procurement,” she states. “They brush it under the rug or underestimate how critical it is to use data to feed large language models for better insights. As data becomes more accessible, the need for a trusted data foundation becomes more important. You need good data posture.”

With this very topic being discussed openly at prestigious events like the ones DPW hosts, procurement professionals and leaders are actively working towards solving this blockage. “The problems have to be solved in order to leverage the exponential value of Gen AI, automate workflows, and bring intelligence in across all these functions,” Lapierre continues. 

“Consider: what would it mean to your business if you could actually solve that data problem, drive better outcomes, and truly digitise the procurement function?”

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

23 July 2024

Estimated Read time

3Mins

Brendan Ryan, Client Director for Coventry Building Society within the Cognizant Business Group, discusses the evolution and development of the partnership

Since 2016, Cognizant and Coventry Building Society (CBS) have built a strong alliance.

The partnership began when the Society asked Cognizant to review their test services and the collaboration later developed into advisory and consulting. Throughout the years, the relationship has evolved and Cognizant recently developed Coventry Building Society’s strategy for cloud transformation, helping them align their business values with their technology.

Overseeing the key strategic relationship is Brendan Ryan, who serves as Client Director for Coventry Building Society within Cognizant. Ryan reveals the partnership is very much a long-term and collaborative effort. “Working in partnership and collaboration with Coventry Building Society, we were particularly successful around the end-to-end journey from advisory to delivery,” explains Ryan. “As part of the Society’s cloud transformation journey, we were able to select the cloud provider, assess their migration readiness, ensure their security and compliance controls and improve their resiliency. We also looked at derisking their legacy on on-premise infrastructure estate as part of it to make sure they’re more resilient.”

Cognizant is a professional services and IT consulting business operating with a global workforce of around 350,000 people. The company differentiates itself across banking, financial services and other industry verticals on digital modernisation and cloud transformation. Ryan believes the collaboration works well due to both companies’ open and transparent approach. “Cognizant is very flexible in the way we work, and Coventry Building Society is also very easy-going in their approach to us too.

Brendan Ryan is the Client Director for Coventry Building Society within Cognizant

“Outside of the day-to-day consulting and delivery, we’ve worked with them through their outreach programmes while also taking the suit off and getting dirty with them,” Ryan explained, pointing to several of Coventry Building Society’s community projects that Cognizant has supported, including painting a local youth centre and running careers fairs. “Having that more personal engagement with them is important. At the end of the day, it’s a relationship and a partnership we’re trying to build, and trust plays a vital role. It’s not just a transactional engagement.”

Looking ahead to the future of the partnership with the Society, Ryan is full of optimism for the direction of travel. “It’s exciting times for Cognizant as we embark on new endeavours and as a partner, we’re looking forward to supporting Coventry Building Society as best we can on that journey,” he says. “We’d like to inject a lot more innovation into the way they work, their infrastructure and application estate, particularly around generative AI, but also foster an innovation agenda within their user base.”

Click here to read more about Coventry Building Society’s journey towards operational transformation, ESG leadership, and positioning procurement as a creator of social value and community engagement.

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

Estimated Read time

3Mins

Our cover story this month features a fascinating discussion with Rebecca Howard, Head of Supplier Relationship Management at Coventry Building…

Our cover story this month features a fascinating discussion with Rebecca Howard, Head of Supplier Relationship Management at Coventry Building Society who talks operational transformation, ESG, and procurement as a creator of social value and community engagement… 

Social values

The role of procurement has changed. Today, the function has become a driver of so much more than cost reduction and business continuity. In the past few years—especially since the pandemic—procurement’s potential to not only support sustainable practice, digital transformation, and supply chain resilience, but to champion the values of the business as a whole has become increasingly evident.  

Coventry Building Society touches the lives of millions of people across the UK. We help them save and borrow to support their goals and livelihoods. “We’re owned by our members and our core belief is that we put our members first,” says Rebecca Howard, Coventry Building Society’s Head of Supplier Relationship Management. “Our members want us to keep their money safe and have an impact on people’s lives. That’s why our purpose is making people better off through life.”  

Read the full story here! 

Innovation

Elsewhere, we also have an exclusive interview with Deputy Chief Procurement Officer of IDEMIA’s Smart Identity division, Mark Janssen who discusses his procurement journey with IDEMIA. It’s a role that’s putting trust at the heart of his approach to partnership, procurement, and innovation…

For governments, trust in a company like IDEMIA to deliver reliable identity solutions is vital. Vital not only to the wellbeing of their citizens and institutions, but for national security. Mark Janssen, Deputy Chief Procurement Officer of IDEMIA’s Smart Identity division, emphasises this: “If a government runs out of identification documents, it triggers an immediate crisis.” Without valid forms of ID, he continues, citizens can’t travel, buy a house, or register a newborn child. 

Read the full story here! 

Plus, we have exclusive content from Amazon Business, Tonkean and much, much more! 

Read the latest issue here! 

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

Estimated Read time

3Mins

Shelley Salomon, VP of Global Business, Amazon Business, discusses her company’s commitment to fostering gender diversity in procurement.

Procurement’s gender imbalance isn’t new.

Traditionally, the function was regarded as a male-dominated profession. But change is afoot, in more ways than one. While a digital transformation amidst technological innovation is well-publicised, another evolution is underway within the workforce.

Gender diversity has become an important component of many company strategies globally. While progress to encourage more women into procurement has already started. There still remains an imbalance, particularly among those holding leadership positions. With current statistics suggesting around one in four leadership positions are held by women, there is still room for improvement.

So, is progress happening quickly enough? Shelley Salomon, VP of Global Business at Amazon Business, discusses her organisation’s commitment to fostering gender diversity and how women can reach parity in procurement. 

In your opinion, where is procurement today in terms of women’s representation in 2024?

Shelley Salomon: “Women’s representation in procurement has seen progress these past few years, but there remains room for further improvement. Gartner’s data shows that women comprise 41% of the supply chain workforce. It’s encouraging to see greater gender diversity within the industry.

“While these statistics are encouraging, they also highlight ongoing challenges. Particularly at the leadership level. Only 25% of leadership roles are held by women. This disparity underscores the need for sustained efforts to promote gender diversity and support women’s ascension to senior positions within procurement.

“My perspective on this trend is one of cautious optimism. The progress we see is promising, reflecting a growing recognition of women’s unique contributions to procurement roles. Diverse perspectives and gender equity are vital for effective decision-making and problem-solving. Additionally, multiple credible studies show that companies with the greatest gender balance in the C-suite are likelier to achieve above average financial results. However, much work must be done to ensure these advancements translate into lasting change.”

While progress to encourage more women into the workforce seems to be underway, there is still a major disparity in the number of women leaders in procurement. What is the best way to go about rectifying this? 

Shelley Salomon: “I believe there’s a significant opportunity to welcome more women into procurement leadership roles. By establishing robust mentorship and sponsorship programmes, organisations can provide invaluable guidance, support, and networking opportunities. Thus empowering women to thrive in their careers and gain visibility within the organisation. Investing in inclusive leadership development programmes is essential. These initiatives focus on building inclusive skills and readiness for leadership roles, continuing to foster a more inclusive and dynamic workforce.

“In my opinion, implementing inclusive hiring practices that actively promote gender diversity, such as using diverse hiring panels and conducting blind recruitment processes, is essential to minimising biases. 

“Lastly, setting clear, measurable goals for increasing the number of women procurement leaders and regularly reporting on progress to hold leadership teams accountable can drive meaningful change. By taking these proactive steps, organisations can create a more equitable environment that supports the advancement of women into leadership roles within procurement.”

Read the full story here!


Author

Andrew Woods

Published

Estimated Read time

3Mins

Sagi Eliyahu, Co-Founder and CEO at Tonkean and Alejandro Fernandez, Head of Global Procurement at Semrush, discuss the power of intake orchestration and procurement’s rise to the top of the agenda in the c-suite.

In a world with almost endless possibilities, why waste time on manual or outdated processes?

Technology is an enabler in everyday and business life. It is there as a vehicle of change and a weapon of efficiency. When used correctly, AI can help people focus on higher-value and more fulfilling work – which is what an entire generation of people crave today. The problem is, technology is not leveraged as efficiently or as strategically as it could be today — especially in enterprise back-office operations, like procurement. 

This is where Tonkean comes in. Tonkean is a first-of-its-kind intake orchestration platform. Powered by AI, Tonkean helps enterprise internal service teams like procurement and legal create process experiences that transform how businesses operate. In part by changing how internal teams leverage smart technology to empower the employees they serve to do better, higher value work.

Process orchestration

Process orchestration refers to the strategy — enabled by process orchestration platforms — of coordinating automated business processes across teams and existing, integrated systems. These processes can facilitate all procurement-related activities. Importantly, they can also wrap around an organisation’s existing systems and accommodate employees’ many different working preferences and styles.

Instead of simply adding to an organisation’s existing tech stack, process orchestration allows companies to use their existing mix of people, data, and tech better together. The true promise of process orchestration is to finally put internal shared service teams like procurement in charge of the tools they deploy.

This goes a long way towards solving one of the enterprise’s most vexing operational challenges: the inefficiency of over-complexity born of too much new technology. It also allows procurement teams to truly make their technology work for them and the employees they serve. As opposed to making people work for technology. Process orchestration breaks down the silos that typically separate working environments. No longer do stakeholders have to log in to an ERP or P2P platform to submit or approve intake requests. The technology will meet them wherever they are.

All in one place

Enter Sagi Eliyahu, Co-Founder and CEO at Tonkean. He explains that over the past few years, Tonkean has focused more on procurement specifically. In part because the challenges the procurement function faces day-in and day-out represent perfect orchestration use-cases. Procurement processes touch so many different teams, tools, and departments. Poor procurement performance can often be traced back to the fact that all these moving parts otherwise aren’t able to communicate easily with each other. Tonkean was built to address exactly that problem. 

“We saw that our procurement customers were having great success with it, but the market started to heat up as well,” he reveals. “It made sense because it happened for us on the procurement and legal side. They are teams that are very central to an organisation and their process is never just siloed into their tools and department. You need that idea of orchestrating all the different moving parts for it to have high adoption, faster cycles, better quality and compliance.”

Tonkean and Semrush partnership

One of Tonkean’s biggest customers is Semrush. Semrush, in turn, understands the potential of orchestration in procurement well. As a result of Tonkean’s intake orchestration capabilities, they’ve almost halved cycle times for intake requests — from 19 days to just 10. Alejandro Fernandez, Head of Global Procurement at Semrush, works closely with Eliyahu and Tonkean and couldn’t be happier about the collaboration…

Read the full story here!

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

16 July 2024

Estimated Read time

7Mins

Supply chain 4.0 – where preparedness and opportunity meet in the digital supply chain 

Supply chains matter. One break in the link and manufacturers can be left with costly disruptions that bring the entire operation to a standstill – and the problem isn’t going away soon. According to McKinsey research, disruptions lasting a month or longer now happen every 3.7 years on average. Whether it is issues securing raw materials, a steep rise in shipping costs, labour shortages, geopolitical conflicts, or sustainability concerns, the pressure is mounting on manufacturers to diversify their supplier partnerships and introduce more flexible operations. For manufacturers determined to create more resilient supply chains, Andrew Newton, Business Central Consultant at Columbus UK, argues that a digital transformation of supply chains will be integral to the industry’s ongoing survival. 

Industry 4.0 has been the main driving force behind recent supply chain transformation with the introduction of IoT technologies such as cloud, data analytics, and AI throughout the manufacturing ecosystem. This includes smart factories that enhance manufacturing with Industry 4.0 tech and smart products offering internet-based services. 

It’s now time for the supply chain to step up to the 4.0 digital plate. Market leaders, particularly in the automotive and electronics sectors, have already launched digital transformation initiatives to establish flexible and high-performing supply chains. And manufacturers of all sizes can learn from their example on how to achieve sustainable change. 

When disruption is constant, an organisation’s preparation for supply chain changes will provide a significant competitive advantage. From effective data connectivity to reshoring operations, operationalising AI, and implementing a long-term sustainability agenda – successful manufacturers must be able to incorporate these factors into supply chains to drive innovation and redefine how products are created, developed, and delivered to meet evolving consumer demands. 

Unearth actionable findings within the data haystack 

Many businesses now have extensive data archives spanning several years, including substantial sales orders and operational performance records but the ability to extract maximum value from this data remains a common challenge. Manufacturers want to establish robust connections with shop floor assets to unlock enhanced operational efficiency and make more informed decisions. However, many lack the data-related skills to successfully link their machinery or manage the influx of data streams from sensors. 

This is where the introduction of business intelligence dashboards with Supply Chain 4.0 can offer real-time production insights to inform decisions, boost efficiency, cut costs, and refine product quality. 

The convergence of operational technology (OT) and information technology (IT) adds to the data challenge, particularly where legacy equipment is still in use. It is important to recognise that the solutions being implemented require tailored approaches due to the unique demands of each manufacturing organisation. Developing applications within a business can be tricky, with not every business having the in-house data skills to do this. 

Custom applications that don’t require extensive coding expertise can address this digital skills gap. Versatile solutions that combine low-code services, self-service analytics, and automation for instance, can make it easier for manufacturers to create applications that precisely align with their specific needs, boost efficiency, and innovate in the process. The establishment of a reliable data environment with Supply Chain 4.0 ensures that manufacturers can enhance decision-making and operational efficiency, all while reducing costly errors. 

Operationalise AI to stay one step ahead 

AI has left a mark on every industry and when it comes to the manufacturing landscape, the story is no different. Already many businesses are using AI tools to process real-time data from shop floor sensors to provide manufacturers with immediate insights and action, especially if quality measures breach thresholds. But the capabilities of AI don’t stop at detection. 

Manufacturers must consider many factors in production and delivery, such as demand versus capacity and how much materials cost along the supply chain – and this is where unsupervised AI can be a useful tool for risk identification and market trend forecasting. 

For instance, AI can suggest preferred suppliers to purchase from based on their supply chain history or issue alerts for impending weather events affecting supply chains. Social media analytics enabled by AI can also be used to project patterns to better understand where the market is heading but it can’t fully predict the future. Instead, the role of AI with Supply Chain 4.0 is to help manufacturers identify shifting consumer interests and trends, spot market trends relating to offerings or brand, and forecast waning or growing interest in product types. 

I want it now! Proximity sourcing can help meet customers’ changing expectations 

As supply chain disruptions become part of the new business environment, it’s time for manufacturers to end the reliance on disparate and siloed operations and instead look to nearshoring as the answer. 

Customer expectations around delivery times are changing, with 62% of UK consumers now expecting next-day delivery when ordering online – an expectation that traditional offshoring business operational models now struggle to match. Yes, regional or local supply chains can be more expensive and add another level of complexity, but they do allow for greater inventory control and bring the product closer to the end customer, which reduces overall lead times. This reduction with Supply Chain 4.0 ensures that manufacturers can promote higher customer responsiveness and allows for constant improvement and innovation based on consumer feedback. 

Nearshoring also provides an opportunity to clamp down on miles covered and will help manufacturers introduce a circular approach to operations. With over 4 in 5 UK adults recognising their role in lessening their environmental footprint, it is clear that the manufacturing industry needs to mirror this popular attitude – and technology will play a key role here. Automation techniques for instance can improve traceability and visibility over the entire product line, highlighting how businesses use and waste materials, along with how they can reuse products for better forecasting and reduce fossil fuel usage and pollution. 

Particularly in the food industry, conscious consumers will base their buying behaviour on transport miles and the environmental impact of the product’s journey. If manufacturing businesses are able to clearly share this information with transparent supply chains, they will not only open themselves up to a larger customer pool but will also play a major role in tackling environmental challenges in the industry. 

Long-term commitment to sustainability goals 

Nearshoring is certainly one way that manufacturers can become more sustainable but with customer sustainability expectations rising, companies now have to show a long-term commitment to creating greener supply chains. 

Many businesses are making efforts to report on internal sustainable efforts such as energy consumption but extending reporting down the supply chain poses challenges, such as effectively reporting on a supplier’s energy usage. To achieve a comprehensive sustainability profile, this reporting must span the entire supply chain. 

Supply Chain 4.0 brings sustainability reporting tools that provide comprehensive tracking and analysis of environmental and social impacts, which will enable manufacturers to make informed decisions, ensure regulatory compliance, and communicate sustainable practices transparently. Manufacturers are looking to achieve this connectivity, particularly in linking shopfloor equipment usage with sustainability goals. 

Leading organisations are pushing for data standardisation among their supply chain suppliers but this brings its own set of pros and cons. Increased standardisation can make the supply chain more efficient and easier to review, potentially reducing a company’s risk. However, there’s more work needed to establish this standardisation. 

As public and regulatory interest grows, having a clear view of supply chain processes will become even more important. In the short-term, expect leading companies to keep investing time and effort to better organise their supply chain data. 

Supply Chain 4.0 – where preparation and opportunity meet in the digital supply chain 

Digital transformation is a long and complex journey but preparedness plays a key role in achieving optimal outcomes. Through the process of transformation, manufacturers can more effectively adapt to ever-shifting business conditions and evolving customer demands with Supply Chain 4.0, all while maintaining a competitive edge. 

The issue remains that each manufacturer faces their own unique scaling challenges that require a calculated approach to processes, planning, and implementation to create a sustainable business model. Often companies have growth ideas but lack a clear path to achieve them. The identification of key supply chain trends will set apart the laggards from the market leaders

Read the full issue of SCS here!

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

Estimated Read time

4Mins

Businesses have been forced to navigate and adapt to these challenges to ensure continuity, limit interruption and reduce risk

From Brexit to the pandemic and the current geopolitical conflict, the supply chain industry has faced a flood of challenges in recent years. This has caused disruption to supply chains. Businesses have been forced to navigate and adapt to these challenges to ensure continuity, limit interruption and reduce risk. 

Alice Strevens, Director Human Rights and Social Impact, Mazars 

As part of this, it’s increasingly important for businesses to ensure they have robust human rights due diligence processes in place. These processes support companies in their decision-making during crises, and help them identify risks in their supply chains. This ultimately protects them in both stable and unstable times. 

Human rights and environmental due diligence provides a basis on which to address environmental, social and governance issues that impact supply chain resilience. Companies that respond to crises with an approach based on due diligence are more likely to protect their relationships with suppliers. Plus, they get to mitigate the impact on workers in their value chain. An example of this is during the Covid-19 pandemic. Many companies saw buyers abruptly cancel orders, request refunds in full and pause orders for months. With many suppliers facing reduced sales at the time, it led to questions as to whether businesses were working alongside suppliers. Or taking advantage of the circumstances to get reduced costs. 

It’s important to learn from these lessons to build strong sustainable supply chain strategies. This will help businesses remain resilient both in stable times. And in the face of significant events. There isn’t a perfect formula. However, the concept of double materiality (i.e. considering sustainability matters from both the perspective of the impact on people and the environment, and the perspective of the financial risks and opportunities to the business) is helping businesses to assess sustainability-related risk strategically.  

Supplier engagement will ensure long-term success 

Building a sustainable supply chain for the long-term requires engagement and collaboration with supply chain partners. Long-term relationships can provide a basis to share challenging risks and impacts transparently. Human rights and environmental due diligence foregrounds the importance of engagement and collaboration to mitigate identified risks and build resilience. 

The responsible supply chain strategy should be integrated into the overarching sourcing strategy and supplier engagement approach. Delivery against the strategy should be built into performance targets and incentives. Regular reviews of impacts, targets and KPIs should be conducted at board level. Making use of the latest technological developments, including assessing their risk for social/environmental concerns and measuring and tracking performance. This will help companies stay ahead and be prepared in their processes. 

An evolving regulatory landscape calls for preparedness 

Another important point to keep in mind is the legislative landscape. This is especially pertinent in the EU, as the rules will make previous voluntary standards now mandatory and will impact large companies. This includes those in their supply chain, including in the UK. 

Companies should therefore look to base their strategies on the authoritative voluntary frameworks on conducting human rights and environmental due diligence. Primarily the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises on Responsible Business Conduct. This will set them up for meeting legislative requirements down the line. For example, Mazars and Shift co-wrote the UNGP Reporting Framework, which provides a framework for companies to adopt responsible practices, and manage human rights risks. 

The future of supply chain is now 

Ultimately, companies and suppliers should work together to ensure collaboration and a robust strategy which takes all parties into consideration. Listening to feedback and promoting good communication between stakeholders will ensure smooth sailing during the business-as-usual times. And the more tumultuous periods. 

Implementing long-lasting strategies and creating resilience to risks will increase business’ market access and promote their financial value. Thus ensuring that they deliver quality goods and gain loyalty among suppliers. 

Read the full issue of SCS here!

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

Estimated Read time

4Mins

Recent research conducted by InterSystems highlights a critical challenge within supply chain organisations in the UK and Ireland

Recent research conducted by InterSystems highlights a critical challenge within supply chain organisations in the UK and Ireland: nearly half (47%) cite their dependency on manual processes for data collection and analysis as their primary technological hurdle. This reliance not only leads to inaccuracies and delays in accessing data but is also a significant barrier to the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), which almost one in five (19%) anticipate will be the trend that most impacts their supply chain. 

Mark Holmes, Senior Advisor for Supply Chain, InterSystems 

For AI and ML adoption to be successful, models must be fed healthy, unified data. This requires supply chain organisations to move away from manual data collection and analysis and adopt a robust data strategy to underpin their efforts. This data strategy will sit at the heart of AI and ML initiatives but will also play a bigger role in the business’ overall operational strategy. 

Developing a smart data strategy 

A smart data strategy should encapsulate three things: data collection, analysis, and integration into organisational operations. This is where technology like the smart data fabric comes in, helping supply chain businesses to do all three things and bring their data strategy to life. 

Built on modern data platform technology, the smart data fabric creates a connective tissue by accessing, transforming, and harmonising data from multiple sources, on demand. In particular, smart data fabric technology allows supply chain businesses to leverage usable, trustworthy data to make faster, more accurate decisions. 

With a wide range of analytics capabilities, including data exploration, business intelligence, and machine learning embedded directly into the platform, supply chain businesses will also gain new insights and power intelligent predictive and prescriptive services and applications faster and easier. 

Once these solid data foundations are in place, supply chain organisations can begin to unlock the real potential of AI and ML to augment human decision-making. 

Applying AI and ML across the supply chain 

The use of AI and ML can deliver operational change across supply chain organisations, from improved demand sensing and forecasting, to optimised fulfilment. For instance, SPAR, the world’s largest food retailer consortium, has turned to ML to solve some of the difficulties it was experiencing in streamlining and optimising end-to-end fulfilment processes in stores across Austria. 

Operating in the extremely fast moving food and beverage sector, and with more than 600 merchants in Austria, SPAR Austria required a better way to help managers of local stores control their inventory. It consequently deployed ML for real-time sensing of demand shifts to optimise replenishment and strengthen its supply chain network. This has significantly improved on shelf availability (OSA), demand forecasting, productivity, and time to decision. In turn, it also helped SPAR increase revenue and efficiencies. 

ML can also be used for production planning optimisation, using different constraints including transportation cost, or component inventory allocation to improve fill rate and optimise product shelf-life, productivity, cost, and revenues. Additionally, with access to AI and ML-driven prescriptive and predictive insights, organisations will be able to reroute or resupply at the drop of a hat, helping to maintain operations, achieve on-time in-full (OTIF) metrics, and ensuring customer satisfaction. 

The automation and optimisation of these different processes also has a material impact on those working in supply chain operations. It transforms their work from reactive to proactive efforts. With less time spent on processing, more time is freed up for strategic thinking to improve fill rates and lower transportation costs, for example, making their role more rewarding and value-adding. 

A strategic approach to AI-driven transformation 

The transformative potential of AI and ML in supply chain management hinges on a smart data strategy that moves beyond manual processes to a seamless integration of robust data collection, analysis, and usage. By adopting smart data fabric technology, supply chain organisations can resolve their primary technological hurdles, transitioning from reliance on inaccurate and delayed data to leveraging real-time, actionable insights that fuel AI and ML initiatives. This strategic shift not only enhances operational efficiency and decision-making but also paves the way for predictive and prescriptive capabilities that dramatically improve demand forecasting, inventory management, and overall supply chain responsiveness. 

The success stories of companies like SPAR Austria demonstrate the profound impact of integrating AI and ML into supply chain operations. These technologies both optimise operational tasks and empower employees by shifting their roles from mundane, reactive tasks to strategic, proactive engagements that add significant value to their organisations. By adopting a smart data strategy and embracing these advanced technologies, supply chain businesses will realise benefits that extend beyond operational efficiencies to include improved customer satisfaction, increased revenue, and a stronger competitive edge. 

Read the full issue of SCS here!

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

8 May 2024

Estimated Read time

7Mins

Satya Mishra, Director, Product Management at Amazon Business, discusses how CPOs have become an important voice at the table to drive digital transformation and efficient collaboration.

Harnessing efficiency is at the heart of any digital transformation journey.

Digitalisation should revolve around driving efficiency and achieving cost savings. Otherwise, why do it?

Amazon is no stranger to simplifying shopping for its customers. It is why Amazon has become a global leader in e-commerce. But, business-to-business customers can have different needs than traditional consumers, which is what led to the birth of Amazon Business in 2015. Amazon Business simplifies procurement processes, and one of the key ways it does this is by integrating with third-party systems to drive efficiencies and quickly discover insights. 

Satya Mishra, Director, Product Management at Amazon Business, tells us all about how the organisation is helping procurement leaders to integrate their systems to lead to time and money savings.

Satya Mishra: “More than six million customers around the world tap Amazon Business to access business-only pricing and selection, purchasing system integrations, a curated site experience, Business Prime, single or multi-user business accounts, and dedicated customer support, among other benefits.

“I lead Amazon Business’ integrations tech team, which builds integrations with third-party e-procurement, expense management, e-sourcing and idP systems. We also build APIs for our customers that either they or the third-party system integrators can use to create solutions that meet customers’ procurement needs. Integrations can allow business buyers to create connected buying journeys, which we call smart business buying journeys. 

“If a customer does not have existing procurement systems they’d like to integrate, they can take advantage of other native tools, like a Business Analytics dashboard, in the Amazon Business store, so they can monitor their business spend. They can also discover and use some third-party integrated apps in the new Amazon Business App Center.”

Why would a customer choose to integrate their systems? Are CPOs leading the way?

Satya Mishra: “By integrating systems, customers can save time and money, drive compliance, spend visibility, and gain clearer insights. I talk to CPOs frequently to learn about their pain points. I often hear from these leaders that it can be tough for procurement teams to manage or create purchasing policies. This is especially if they have a high volume of purchases coming in from employees across their whole organisation, with a small group of employees, or even one employee, manually reviewing and reconciling. Integrations can automate these processes and help create a more intuitive buying experience across systems.

“Procurement is a strategic business function. It’s data-driven and measurable. CPOs manage the business buying, and the business buying can directly impact an organisation’s bottom line. If procurement tools don’t automatically connect to a source of supply, business buying decisions can become more complex. Properly integrated technology systems can help solve these issues for procurement leaders.”

Satya Mishra, Director, Product Management at Amazon Business

Beyond process complexity, what other challenges are procurement leaders facing?

Satya Mishra: “In the Amazon Business 2024 State of Procurement Report, other top challenges respondents reported were having access to a wide range of sellers and products that meet their needs, and ensuring compliance with spend policies. 

“The report also found that 52% of procurement decision-makers are responsible for making purchases for multiple locations. Of that group, 57% make purchases for multiple countries.

“During my conversations with CPOs, I hear them say that having access to millions of products across many categories through Amazon Business has allowed them to streamline their supplier quantity and reduced time spent going to physical stores or trying to find products they’re looking for from a range of online websites. They’ve also shared that the ability to ship purchases from Amazon Business to multiple addresses has been very helpful in reducing complexity for both spot-buy and planned or recurring purchases. Organisations may need to buy specific products, like copy paper or snacks, in a recurring way. They may need to buy something else, like desks, only once, and in bulk, at that. Amazon Business’ ordering capabilities are agile and can lessen the purchasing complexity.”

How should procurement leaders choose which integrations will help them the most? 

Satya Mishra: “At Amazon Business, we work backwards from customer problems to find solutions. I recommend CPOs think about what existing systems their employees may already use, the organisation’s buying needs, and their buyers’ typical purchasing behaviors. The buying experience should be intuitive and delightful. 

“Amazon Business integrates with more than 300 systems, like Coupa, SAP Ariba, Okta, Fairmarkit, and Intuit Quickbooks, to name just a handful. With e-procurement integrations like Punchout and Integrated Search, customers start their buying journey in their e-procurement system. With Punch-in, they start on the Amazon Business website, then punch into their e-procurement system. With SSO, customers can use their existing employee credentials. Our collection of APIs can help customers customise their procure-to-pay and source-to-settle operations. This includes automating receipts in expense management systems and track progress toward spending goals. 

“My team recently launched an App Center where customers can discover third-party apps spanning Accounting Management, Rewards & Recognition, Expense Management, Integrated Shopping and Inventory Management categories. We’ll continue to add more apps over time to help simplify the integrated app discovery process for customers.

“Some customers choose to stack their integrations, while others stick with one integration that serves their needs. There are many possibilities, and you don’t just have to choose one integration. You can start with Punchout and e-invoicing, for example, and then also integrate with Integrated Search, so your buyers can search the Amazon Business catalog within the e-procurement system your organisation uses.”

Are integrations tech projects?

Satya Mishra: “No, integrations should not be viewed as tech projects to be decided by only an IT team. Integrations open doors to greater data connectivity and business efficiencies across organisations. Instead of having disjointed data streams, you can connect those systems and centralise data, increasing spend visibility. You may be able to spot patterns and identify cost savings that may have gotten lost otherwise. 

“It’s not uncommon for me to hear that CPOs, CFOs and CIOs are collaborating on business decisions that will save them all time and meet shared goals, and integrations are in their mix of recommendations. 

“One of my team’s key goals has been to simplify integrations and bring in more self-service solutions. In terms of set-up, some integrations like SSO can be self-serviced by the customer. Amazon Business can help customers with the set-up process for integrations as well.”

How has procurement transformed in recent years?

Satya Mishra: “Procurement is no longer viewed as a back-office function. CPOs more commonly have a seat at the table for strategic cross-functional decisions with CFOs and CIOs.

“95% of Amazon Business 2024 State of Procurement Report respondents say the purchases they make mostly fall into managed spend. Managed spending is often planned for months or years ahead of time. This can create a great opportunity to recruit other stakeholders across departments versus outsourcing purchasing responsibilities. Equipping domain experts to support routine purchasing activities allows procurement to uplevel its focus and take on higher priorities across the organisation, while still maintaining oversight of overarching buying patterns. It’s also worth noting that by connecting to e-procurement and expense management systems, integrations provide easy and secure access to products on Amazon Business and help facilitate managed spend.”

What does the future of procurement look like?

Satya Mishra: “Bright! By embracing digital transformation and artificial intelligence to form more agile and strategic operations, CPOs can influence the ways their organisations innovate and adapt to change.”

Read the latest CPOstrategy here!

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

Estimated Read time

8Mins

Anthony Payne, Chief Marketing Officer of HICX, tells us how working collaboratively with suppliers on sustainable procurement practices could act as an organisation’s competitive advantage.

Sustainability isn’t just a ‘nice to have’ anymore – businesses don’t have much of a choice in the world of 2024.

With ESG regulations now locked in place, organisations must comply or risk significant penalties. In order to achieve sustainability objectives more effectively and efficiently, collaborating with suppliers represents a real opportunity to get there faster.

When businesses work with suppliers to reach sustainability goals, they need access to the most accurate supplier data possible. However, obtaining this data isn’t necessarily straightforward. Ultimately, suppliers own it and need to provide it.

This means it is in a business’s interest to form and maintain a great working relationship with suppliers.

Anthony Payne, Chief Marketing Officer of HICX, the supplier experience platform, discusses the benefits of being supplier-centric and how giving brands a better experience adds value to organisations.

Anthony Payne: “There is a direct link. A good supplier experience makes it easier to communicate with suppliers because it allows for collaboration, whereas the opposite can harm communication efforts. For example, when businesses need ESG information, many will survey a broad group of suppliers even though the questions don’t apply to everyone. This is easier for the business. But it means every supplier who receives the survey must investigate whether it applies to them. The experience is more likely to frustrate suppliers than to help them offer the best information.

“Rather, we can help suppliers to help us by communicating better. The way forward is to segment suppliers into groups and send them only relevant requests. This creates a more positive experience in which suppliers are better able to provide helpful information.”

What about their motivation to help sustainability efforts – does this also rely on supplier experience?

Anthony Payne: “Yes, because if the culture of the business-supplier relationship is one in which each party looks out for themselves, then suppliers won’t be terribly motivated to offer the most helpful ESG information. It’s just human nature. Whereas if a business creates an environment in which suppliers can collaborate with them, then they’re more likely to become a customer-of-choice. This is a status worth having. A recent HICX survey showed that while 49% of suppliers would go the extra mile for their biggest customer, as many as 73% would make the effort if this was a customer-of-choice.

“Ultimately, if businesses give their suppliers a good experience, then more suppliers should be willing to provide helpful ESG information – even if it means spending a bit more effort.”

Anthony Payne, Chief Marketing Officer of HICX

What are some of your most effective strategies and best practices to building a future-proof ESG framework?

Anthony Payne: “Businesses can futureproof their ESG frameworks by viewing suppliers as value-adding partners. This principle suggests three ways to engage suppliers…

“First, have a corporate mindset in which every employee views every supplier as a valued partner. If COVID-19 taught us anything it’s how much we rely on suppliers. When the pandemic hit, non-strategic suppliers such as providers of IT equipment and protective personal equipment suddenly became as central to operations as those who supplied the main ingredients. If we take the view that ‘all suppliers matter’, then it becomes easier to treat them all as partners in the same eco-system and we can work together towards common goals.

“Then, through this lens, we can market to suppliers. In customer marketing, a business would require a certain action from customers – such as getting them to buy a product, read a newsletter or attend an event – and so would motivate this behaviour. Similarly, in procurement, we can appeal to suppliers in a way that encourages them to participate in ESG activities, for instance, by providing helpful carbon emission information. 

“One way to encourage the desired behaviour with suppliers is to segment them into the appropriate categories and send them only necessary messages. This is what a marketer would do with customers. By viewing suppliers as partners and introducing supplier marketing and segmentation, you can improve suppliers’ experience and get the most from them.”

What are the biggest barriers that organisations face to delivering more sustainable practices within their organisations?

Anthony Payne: “Once supplier data has been captured, however, the challenge continues because it must be maintained as a golden source of truth. Not having accurate supplier data is a major barrier to delivering sustainable practices because it means that businesses cannot see who all their suppliers are and what they’re doing. 

“Thankfully, with robust onboarding and data management in place, businesses can keep their supplier data up-to-date and accurate so that it can inform good sustainability decisions.”

What is the best way for procurement teams to assess and prioritise the suppliers they work with? How do you juggle environmental impact vs value to company?

Anthony Payne: “The best way to assess and prioritise suppliers is to have visibility. Businesses need to know who all their suppliers are and what they’re doing, at any given time. Only once leaders are informed, can they make the best environmental decisions.

“It’s imperative to manage environmental impact with suppliers, regardless of how much value they bring a company. Apart from the moral obligation to protect the environment, businesses also have their reputations to consider. An environmental infringement that gets exposed – no matter how deep in the supply chain it might occur – is very likely to cause reputational damage, which can have a knock-on effect on sales and share price. 

“In addition to brand reputation, businesses can also face expensive fines, if their suppliers are found to fall short of environmental regulations.”

Anthony Payne, Chief Marketing Officer of HICX

What are the challenges and opportunities when it comes to supplier diversity?

Anthony Payne: “The challenge is to source the right suppliers in the first instance and then be able to report on their activity. We know that finding diverse suppliers in the UK can be difficult. While the US market is more mature, supplier diversity is growing here. Considering this, many suppliers that could qualify as “diverse” are not yet certified. Additionally, when diverse suppliers are indeed certified, there is no guarantee that their skillsets will match your needs. 

“Thankfully there are ways in which businesses can proactively grow their networks of diverse suppliers. For starters, leaders can equip people within the organisation who work with suppliers, to find diverse suppliers by educating them and putting policies in place. Further, there are practical steps one can follow – such as defining the criteria for what qualifies a supplier as diverse in various territories and then finding the right businesses by searching online directories, desktop research and asking for recommendations.

“Once suppliers that are considered to be diverse are indeed found, they bring much value. Apart from being able to make a positive sustainability impact, the expectations of regulators, shareholders and consumers can be met. The by-product of this is a positive reputation which has economic benefits. 

“The opposite logic also applies, and failing to capture supplier diversity value becomes a missed opportunity. For instance, when third-party expectations to support supplier diversity are missed, this can damage brand reputation which hurts sales figures and share price. Also, the unique offerings that diverse suppliers can offer will be missed, and with it the chance to make an impact. Therefore, it’s sensible to make the most of the diverse suppliers that you worked so hard to find.”

Do you have any tips for readers who want to make the most of the diverse suppliers they have sourced?

Anthony Payne: “Yes, you can start by knowing that it’s possible to make the most of the diverse suppliers you find. You can do this by following a stepped approach. 

“Start by onboarding new suppliers who are considered ‘diverse’ with processes that reliably capture their information. This way, your diversity programmes can be well-informed. It’s hugely valuable to be able to tell, at the touch of a button, where a particular supplier might be based. Also, what qualifies them as ‘diverse’? And while they might hold diversity status today, how can we be sure it still applies tomorrow? 

“With all the right information collected at the start of each relationship, then it’s a good idea to instill processes that drive everyone who works with suppliers to spend more with those who are considered as diverse. As more diverse suppliers join the organisation, then you need to keep their data accurate. Do this by digitally transforming the procurement landscape to make master data a priority. With robust processes, it’s possible to maximise your relationships with all suppliers.”

How optimistic are you about the future of ESG within procurement?

Anthony Payne: “I am very optimistic about the future of ESG within procurement, because, we’re seeing the supplier experience movement grow in the UK and the US. For instance, we’re seeing new job roles come out in this area as the principle is popularised. And we know that having good Supplier Experience Management programmes in place sets up business to procure in the most ESG-friendly way possible. 

“And so, with Supplier Experience Management becoming increasingly popular, we believe that the future for sustainability is bright.”

Read the latest CPOstrategy here!

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

Estimated Read time

3Mins

DHL Group’s Erik-Jan Ossewaarde discusses the power of partnerships in the transition towards a green supply base, and how proactively fostering supplier relationships contributes to a more sustainable ecosystem…

It’s hard to believe we’ve reached the 50-issue landmark. It’s been such an incredible journey and thank you to every single person who has helped us along the way! And our 50th issue has a suitably fitting cover story with which to mark this moment.  

Read the latest issue here!

DHL: The power of sustainable partnerships 

DHL Group’s Erik-Jan Ossewaarde discusses the power of partnerships in the transition towards a green supply base. And how proactively fostering supplier relationships contributes to a more sustainable ecosystem 

Procurement has an important role to play in applying supplier sustainability initiatives in most organisations. We all know that. But, if you want to understand what that looks like in practice and how you transform the function to deliver on that promise, you could do a lot worse than spending time with Erik-Jan Ossewaarde and his strategy, sourcing, and procurement colleagues in his global cluster, as we were lucky enough to. Their job is to play a crucial role in delivering on the near-unmatched sustainability commitments set out by world-leading logistics company DHL Group to reach its goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.  

DHL: how proactively fostering supplier relationships contributes to a more sustainable ecosystem 

Read the full story here!

Aquila Group: Purposeful procurement in mind 

We speak to Özer Ergül, Group Head of Procurement at Aquila Group, about the way the business is leveraging its position to influence suppliers and improve ESG across the board 

Investment and asset development company, Aquila Group, is one that takes sustainability seriously. It invests in and develops clean energy and sustainable infrastructure assets, meaning a focus on ESG is baked into the business with more than 15 years’ experience focused on climate change. And for Özer Ergül, Group Head of Procurement at Aquila Group, it’s the perfect canvas for his passions and expertise to come together. 

Ergül’s background is a mixture of aerospace, automotive, and for the last two decades, energy. He started off his career as an Air Force officer and moved into the automotive world in the 1990s, just as the sector was undergoing huge and exciting changes. “Those early roles shaped my way of working, my way of thinking,” Ergül explains. “They showed me how to solve problems collaboratively, and I still use those tools and that knowledge to this day.” 

Read the full story here!

Plus, we have fascinating exclusives with procurement leaders at Amazon Business Services, HICX and many, many more. Plus, all the latest news and events affecting procurement and its practitioners. 

Here’s to the next 50 issues! 

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

22 April 2024

Estimated Read time

3Mins

Unmanaged spend makes dark purchasing one of the biggest challenges facing procurement teams in uncertain economic times.

As 2024 continues, procurement leaders are increasingly finding themselves under pressure to deliver strategic wins and drive efficiency. 

Economic slowdowns, logistical disruptions, and looming political turmoil only serve to ramp up the urgency with which procurement teams need to find new ways to minimise costs while ensuring continuity throughout the value chain. Over 60% of procurement leaders report being worried about the impact of interest rates on their ability to invest during 2024, while

57% fear a recession during the year. 

As a result, procurement teams continue to invest heavily into digital transformation. Many are adopting AI, spend management platforms, and automation. 

However, efficiency gains within the procurement function itself might not be enough. This is especially true given the fact that many procurement budgets suffer from the influence of “dark purchasing”. 

What is dark purchasing? 

Dark purchasing occurs when companies source goods and services without the oversight or approval of procurement. Dark purchasing can stem from poorly organised procurement processes, leading to an opaque, decentralised purchasing structure. It can also occur as a form of corruption or negligence—again, thanks to a lack of procurement department oversight.  

Whatever the cause, dark purchasing typically often results in higher costs, increased risk, and a lack of control over the supply chain. This harms the organisation, as funds are misdirected—both harming the company’s bottom line and preventing procurement from gaining the visibility they need to drive efficiencies. 

The problem is almost ubiquitous. In 2023, a Globality report found that 82% of CPOs believe that their organisation’s indirect spend is poorly managed. 

Bad data keeps procurement in the dark 

A major contributor to dark purchasing is a lack of visibility stemming from bad procurement data. 

A troubling 75% of procurement executives doubt the accuracy of the data they present to the rest of the business. As a result, 79% of non-procurement executives  lack the confidence to use procurement’s data to make strategic decisions. Largely, this seems to stem from the fact many procurement teams still have manual processes embedded at critical points in their workflows. Specifically, speadsheets used for data entry and emails for communication account for the bulk of legacy procurement processes. Almost 80% of procurement professionals said their procurement teams do not have dedicated management software. This lack of software makes it significantly harder to track and manage their performance. Just under three-quarters were still using spreadsheets. 

Manual processes increase time spent and, correspondingly, capacity for human error. Therefore, manual procurement increases the chances that blind spots will emerge where dark procurement can flourish. 

Eliminating dark purchasing 

A recently published paper from AmeriQuest argues that eliminating dark purchasing can increase procurement savings by 25%. In order to eliminate the phenomenon, procurement teams need to target the twin levers of control and visibility. 

Largely, “dark purchasing depends on non-standardised processes and human error.” Therefore, eliminating the capacity for these within procurement and the organisation at large is a critical step. 

“One of the first steps companies can take to fight dark purchasing is to clearly identify and assign procurement responsibilities within an organisation,” they write. In particular, internal stakeholders and C-suite executives “need to buy into the importance of a transparent procurement process” for dark procurement to be meaningfully reduced.  

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

5 April 2024

Estimated Read time

6Mins

Tamra Pawloski, Head of Global Leveraged Procurement and Corporate Real Estate at Corteva Agriscience talks procurement excellence

Our CPOstrategy cover story this month is…

Corteva Agriscience: Driving digital transformation in procurement  

Tamra Pawloski, Head of Global Leveraged Procurement and Corporate Real Estate at Corteva Agriscience, talks process automation and talent development. Plus, she reveals how to drive continuous improvement while managing more than $3bn in spend…  

Procurement leaders in today’s procurement sector face an ever-shifting landscape fraught with new challenges and mounting responsibilities. In light of shifting geopolitical pressures, souring economic conditions, and the worsening effects of the climate crisis, staying competitive requires constant evolution and agility. The strategic value of procurement has gained greater attention too. And so the expectations placed upon the function have also increased.  

Tamra Pawloski, Head of Global Leveraged Procurement and Corporate Real Estate at Corteva

“When you get down to the root of it, the biggest challenge is that change is constant. If you stay still then you’re not going to be competitive,” reflects Tamra Pawloski.  

Read the full story here!

Orange County: Procurement is all about relationships 

Maria Agrusa, Chief Procurement Officer at Orange County, California, emphasises the invaluable contribution of her staff, whom she regards as the cornerstone of her organisation’s success…

Maria Agrusa, Chief Procurement Officer at Orange County

Innovative strategies. Smart technology. Solid contracts. Every procurement manager knows these too well. “However, without  inspired and motivated procurement professionals, the procurement buzzwords are meaningless.” Maria Agrusa, the Chief Procurement Officer at Orange County, emphasises the invaluable contribution of her staff, whom she regards as the cornerstone of her organisation’s success. “Quality and engaged staff are indispensable for accomplishing our tasks”, Maria asserts. With over 25 years of experience in government contracting, Maria brings a wealth of knowledge and a strong commitment to elevating the procurement profession. Indeed, she was awarded Procurement Officer of the Year in 2020 and 2023 by the California State Association of Counties. Her diverse background spans various government procurement sectors, including healthcare and military. It’s a career that provides her with a breadth of experience that she aims to continue sharing with her procurement agents…

Read the full story here!

Focal Point: Empowering procurement to optimise  

Focal Point’s Anders Lillevik and Alice Gumo discuss procurement in the digital age. And how their end-to-end solution enables the function to modernise, optimise, and drive value…

How do you run a successful procurement department on Excel and email, or on legacy infrastructure that makes the job more challenging than it needs be? The short answer, as Anders Lillevik and Alice Gumo can unsurprisingly attest to, is you can’t. At all. And that’s truer today than ever, with procurement professionals facing increased pressure and complexity. The need to add value beyond savings, for one, and a greater need for visibility and transparency across an increasingly broad remit of activities. Activities such as ESG, diversity and inclusion, and risk mitigation.

Read the full story here!

Sanofi: Clinical supply chain innovation  

Landry Giardina, Sanofi’s Global Head of Clinical Supply Chain Operations Innovation & Technology talks data-driven performance, resilience, agility and operational excellence within the clinical supply chain area… 

Landry Giardina, Sanofi’s Global Head of Clinical Supply Chain Operations Innovation & Technology

Sanofi has a mission: to chase the miracles of science to improve people’s lives, and sometimes that means starting over with Plan B, Plan C, or even Plan Z. Because to do so means to work across the most complex disciplines to solve problems, to push the boundaries and not be afraid to take smart risks. To dedicate everything to making life better for people everywhere. None of that happens without continuous and groundbreaking R&D and clinical trials to prove the medicines and vaccines it creates are safe and efficient for millions of people around the world. Which makes Landry Giardina and his colleagues’ jobs absolutely essential…

Read the full story here!

SourceDay: Delivering a higher level of performance and visibility in your supply chain  

Tom Kieley, CEO and co-founder at SourceDay, discusses his company’s secret sauce and how it has risen to the top of the pile, delivering unified supplier collaboration for manufacturing customers.  

Some of the best innovation is born through frustration with existing offerings.  

Tom Kieley, CEO and co-founder at SourceDay

Having built their careers in manufacturing, SourceDay’s founders grew tired of unnecessary costs, increased risk, and wasted time and productivity caused by ineffective supplier communication and incorrect ERP data. This led them to create a solution that would prevent direct materials inventory surprises and unnecessary costs. While also rebuilding trust between manufacturers, distributors, and their suppliers.  

Today, SourceDay is a bi-directionally integrated platform for any ERP where the purchase order (PO) demand is generated. The company delivers 100% of purchase order demand to suppliers through the lifecycle of a PO. This is to ensure suppliers have no surprises and always have the most real-time, accurate source of truth. An ERP streamlines many of a company’s internal processes, but when it comes to keeping track of critical PO changes in a timely manner, procurement teams are still stuck in manual work. Spreadsheets, emails, and post-it notes…

Read the full story here!

Werfen: Procurement and supply chain excellence through teamwork  

Don Perigny, Director Supply Chain, at Werfen, a Specialised Diagnostics developer, manufacturer and distributor, reveals how a strong work culture can achieve incredible success during challenging times…  

It takes a village to raise a child,’ purports a famous African saying. It’s certainly a phrase that has struck a note with Don Perigny, Director Supply Chain at Werfen. For Perigny, the ‘village’ is Werfen’s supply-chain and procurement team, although he does extend the sentiment to Werfen’s wider network. It’s Werfen’s suppliers and partners who have kept the former professional sportsman busy at the company for over 21 years.  

Don Perigny, Director Supply Chain, at Werfen

Werfen is a worldwide leader in the area Specialised Diagnostics for Hemostasis, Acute Care, Transfusion, Autoimmunity and Transplant. The Company also has an OEM division, focused on customised diagnostics. Werfen’s annual revenue exceeds $2bn with a worldwide workforce of 7,000, operating in approx. 35 countries and more than 100 territories through its network of distributors.  

We join Perigny at his office in Bedford, Massachusetts. He’s just back from a week at Werfen’s San Diego offices, where he spent some quality time with his extended (work) family. And it’s soon clear that the people, the culture and what Werfen does for the world is crucial to Perigny and the wider workforce at the company…

Read the full story here!

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

1 April 2024

Estimated Read time

3Mins

CPOstrategy explores five ways CPOs can attract (and retain) top tier talent and why there is no one simple solution.

Only a small fraction—less than one-fifth—of procurement directors and executives are confident in the ability of their current talent pool to meet the future demands of their organisations’ procurement functions. While these leaders were relatively confident in their current talent pools, the survey revealed a significant drop in confidence levels when considering their ability to address future demands. 

The industry-wide talent shortage affecting procurement teams is driven by the compound forces of an increasing procurement workload, and the increasingly strategic nature of the field. Procurement is not just purchasing anymore; procurement professionals are expected to have greater business acumen, technical knowledge, and be “orchestrators of value” within the business. It is vital that the procurement leaders of today attract, retain, and develop the procurement professionals of tomorrow if they want to leverage the strategic potential of procurement beyond simple cost-containment. 

1. Competitive salaries

Offer competitive salaries and benefits packages to attract top talent. This is while demonstrating the value placed on procurement expertise within the organisation. There’s plenty of content out there focused on company values and work-life balance to attract talent without paying for it. But just as cost is still at the heart of procurement you still need to pay people what they’re worth.

2. Professional development opportunities 

Provide opportunities for continuous learning, skill development, and career advancement through training programs, certifications, and mentorship initiatives. Old attitudes concerning employee loyalty are disappearing faster than the housing market. Jobs that don’t provide room to grow will be vacant before long. 

3. Embrace flexibility

Remote and hybrid jobs attract seven times more applicants than in-person roles. Despite what some opinion columnists at Business Insider and Bloomberg say, no one wants to live and die in a cubicle. Casual Fridays are hell on earth, and managers who resist flexible working arrangements need to face up to the fact that they are not only fighting a losing battle, but also hindering their company’s hiring potential in the process.

4. Foster a collaborative environment 

Create a collaborative and inclusive workplace culture that encourages teamwork, innovation, and open communication. It is about fostering an environment where top talent can thrive and contribute their best. Businesses that practice DEI give themselves access to new and diverse perspectives. This is especially essential in an era of increased supplier diversity and nearshoring. 

5. Use tech and make a big deal out of it

Getting the chance to apply cutting edge digital solutions to real-world problems is what people get excited about. By highlighting your organisation’s commitment to leveraging cutting-edge technologies and innovative procurement practices, your procurement roles will seem appealing to those eager to embrace new tools and methodologies. Successfully (and visibly) leveraging technology will also help combat the fact that, when it comes to recruiting younger staff, procurement’s reputation as a back-office function can hold it back. Leveraging AI, big data, and automation successfully can be highly impactful in boosting the function’s profile.

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

29 March 2024

Estimated Read time

3Mins

Technology and training are working together to lighten the administrative load faced by procurement teams.

Over the last 18 months, attitudes towards ongoing economic (and political, oh, and climate) uncertainty seem to have finally pushed past a tipping point. Discussions of a return to some pre-2020 normal baseline appear to have been replaced by a more honest interrogation not of how we get back to where we were, but how we learn to deal with how things are. 

Geopolitical, economic, and climate instability aren’t going anywhere, and the organisations that learn to adapt to this new state of affairs will be the ones to generate real value from their functions. “Procurement and finance teams are increasingly tasked with enhancing their organisation’s spend management,” writes Ruth Orenstein, Senior Director of Product Management at Tipalti. “This is crucial to ensure financial stability and resilience against fluctuating macroeconomic conditions.” 

The growing trend, Orenstein notes, is a shift towards a “streamlined, decentralised P2P process, emphasising the importance of employee experience and the adoption of procurement-related processes.” 

Rather than centralising procurement decision-making within a single department, decentralised procurement takes a freer hand, allowing individuals to make purchases for their own departments, instead of pushing all purchasing through a centralised team. Procurement, even for a mid-sized organisation, can encompass a huge variety of purchases., which can range from which ergonomic mouse pad to buy for a remote contractor to sourcing thousands of tonnes of raw material weighed against cost, time to delivery, and ESG goals. 

When different teams specialise in different product categories, or when handling smaller and less impactful purchases, decentralising the procurement process can increase the speed and agility of an organisation’s spending. 

Decentralised procurement: risk vs reward 

There are obviously risks to adopting a more decentralised procurement strategy. Handing over purchasing autonomy to department buyers or individual employees carries an increased risk of overspend, fraud, and more dark purchasing throughout an organisation. There is also a risk that teams will spend an outsized amount of time monitoring spend, chasing down policy violations, and generally not saving any time. 

However, the advantages can be significant, and procurement teams that successfully create strong procurement guidelines and parameters (digital marketplaces that allow department buyers to make acquisitions from a pre-approved list of goods can be a functional halfway point between centralised and decentralised procurement), as well as effectively educate non-procurement personnel in good buying strategies can successfully lighten their load, create greater agility, and overall improve the overall process throughout the organisation. 

If every company in 2015 was a tech company that required employees to have a basic knowledge of the IT stack, by 2025, every company might just be a procurement company. 

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

28 March 2024

Estimated Read time

2Mins

With cyber attacks on the rise, Chief Procurement Officers need to take a more active role in protecting their organisations.

The number of attacks against supply chains is rising at an alarming rate, and increasingly it is the case that a business’ most common vulnerability is their supplier ecosystem. “If your company were to get breached, there is a 70% probability it will be through one of your vendors,” noted Norman Levine, a senior manager at Omnicom in a 2021 webcast. By 2025, Gartner predicts that 45% of organisations around the world will have been the subject of a cyber attack on their software supply chains. 

Increasingly, then, CPOs have a meaningful role to play in standing between potentially risky suppliers and their organisations. 

Robust cybersecurity

However, the increasingly complex and digitalised nature of the procurement sector isn’t making this job any easier. Baber Farooq, a senior VP at SAP Procurement Solutions wrote in a recent op-ed that “As companies and consumers increasingly rely on global, interconnected supply chains, procurement operations are now a favourite target for cybercriminals.” 

According to a 2023 survey of CPOs by Deloitte, fewer than 3% of procurement leaders felt they had “high visibility” beyond the first tier of their supplier network. 

“If enterprises don’t know who they are doing business with—directly and indirectly—it is almost impossible to manage risk proactively,” Farooq writes. 

Setting the standard

Only by setting standards for their suppliers that garner real visibility deep into their supplier ecosystems, and then supporting that visibility with periodic monitoring is essential. 

“For procurement leaders to avoid risks, they need to start from square one. That means performing due diligence during the supplier selection process and implementing continuous monitoring across their extended supply chains throughout their relationship,” argues Farooq. 

“Risk Ledger reports that over 20% of organisations do not conduct cybersecurity due diligence before entering a contract. On top of that, 23% of suppliers do not have formal agreements in place with their third parties regarding security clauses. These situations compound the risks of cyberattacks and make an organisation increasingly vulnerable to a breach.” 

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

27 March 2024

Estimated Read time

3Mins

Renowned procurement tech conference DPW has announced its first United States event will take place in New York City in June 2024.

DPW has revealed it will host its first United States event in New York City following the event’s success in Amsterdam.

Having made its name in the Netherlands, DPW will now host its inaugural North American event at the NeueHouse Penthouse in New York on 12th June, 2024.

DPW in New York

The event will aim to spread awareness of DPW’s presence in a new market together with launching partners as it begins to expand out of operating solely in Amsterdam.

Back in November, founders Matthias Gutzmann and Herman Knevel travelled to Silicon Valley, California, to discuss an expansion into the United States.

Founder Matthias Gutzmann

Gutzmann said since 2018 he has harboured ambitions of bringing a procurement conference to New York. “Sitting in my Brooklyn apartment, I envisioned something revolutionary, something capable of harnessing the immense potential of digital procurement in unprecedented ways,” he confirmed. “Fast forward to today, DPW has evolved into the leading tech ecosystem for procurement and supply chain, with our annual event in Amsterdam drawing thousands of attendees and driving impactful change on a global scale.

“For years, I’ve been urged to bring DPW to the United States, and I am proud to say that day has finally arrived. Launching our event in the city where it all began is not only a milestone for DPW but a deeply personal achievement. The DPW NYC Summit is much more than just an event – it’s a testament to perseverance, innovation, and the power of a vision realised. Let’s shape the future together!”

Growing at speed

Knevel believes adding New York to its already popular Amsterdam event will bring another dimension to the organisation’s offering. “We want to engage with the community in the ecosystem on the East Coast and the Americas,” explains Knevel. “It’s also not the same format as Amsterdam as we bring people and the ecosystem together for a day with some great solutions and customers. It’s about understanding the ecosystem there a bit better and we plan to grow over the years to come.”

Since the launch of DPW in 2019, the conference has grown from strength to strength. In its October 2023 edition, DPW welcomed 1,250 procurement professionals with more than 2,500 virtual attendees watching along at home.

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

26 March 2024

Estimated Read time

3Mins

Procurement leaders have an outsized role to play in reducing Scope 3 emissions on the road to net zero.

Chief Procurement Officers (CPOs) have been noticeably elevated within the business structure over the past few years — rising from pen-pushing back office functionaries to “orchestrators of value”. 

CPOs are expected to deliver on more than just cost; supply chain resilience, agility, process innovation and, of course, ESG targets all increasingly fall within the realm of procurement, as company leadership increasingly looks to the function as a source of innovation, efficiency, and risk-avoidance. And, there’s no mistaking the risk that lies in failing to adequately address ESG targets. As Matthias Gutzmann, founder of DPW, wrote in a recent article for Fast Company, it’s “no secret that consumers are becoming increasingly conscious of not only what they’re buying, but who they’re buying it from, and how ethical those companies are.”

Unrelated to sustainability targets, but widespread boycotts levelled against Starbucks for their association with the Israeli government’s ongoing genocide of Palestinians, union busting practices across the US, and also anti-union practices as a direct result of pro-palestinian sentiment expressed by the SWU, have been a not so insignificant part of the coffee giant’s losing billions of dollars as its share price lurched downwards throughout December. Starbucks isn’t even on the BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanctions) list, and still shed 7.4% of its share price in December. 

It’s a high profile example, and not a typical example of a failure to comply with ESG goals (although “don’t be associated with a right wing government’s efforts to ethnically cleanse over 30,000 people” feels like it should probably make it onto most organisations’ to-do list) but the consequences are a clear reminder of the changing landscape that awaits organisations that fail (or just don’t want) to act ethically. 

Gutzmann also notes that, in addition to hurting revenues, “These preferences also trickle down into employee attraction and retention, as Gen Z workers stepping into the workforce actively seek out organisations that share their values.” The result is the public actively favouring what he calls “purpose-driven” organisations. 

However, there’s a significant challenge inherent in behaving with more ethical integrity and purpose as an organisation: while promoting ethical practices and environmentally friendly operations within your organisation is challenging enough, it pales in comparison to the task of ensuring such standards are adhered to throughout the entire sour-to-pay process. 

For many companies, fixing their supply chain—whether that means tracking and curtailing Scope 3 emissions or distancing themselves from suppliers associated with deforestation or human atrocities like modern slavery—falls firmly at the feet of the CPO. Gutzmann notes that “While the transition to becoming a purpose-driven company requires buy-in from everyone within an organisation, perhaps no executive has had to take on more new responsibilities than the [CPO].” 

If 90% of an organisation’s greenhouse gas emissions, for example, originate in its supply chain—along with other sources of environmental impact like resource and water consumption, human impact, land use, and more—then understanding and taking steps to curtail the negative impact of that supply chain is an essential part of a CPO’s role. 

Gutzmann argues that CPOs will need to become “ethical sourcing enforcers”, adding that the benefits will often outweigh the cost. Not only will CPOs driving genuine ESG reform in their operations avoid potential risks from an alienated customer base but, he adds, “when asked if they would be willing to pay more for a product they could be sure was ethically sourced, more than 83% of consumers said yes. And we’ve seen that companies who prioritise ethical sourcing (ranging from outdoor clothing brand Patagonia to the ice cream giant Ben & Jerry’s) are rewarded with massive praise from consumers while also boasting impressive bottom lines.”

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

25 March 2024

Estimated Read time

4Mins

N-SIDE VPs Amaury Jeandrain and Charlotte Tannier discuss their organisation’s partnership with Sanofi and look ahead to a brighter future.

Transparency. Good partnerships need it to survive.

For N-SIDE and Sanofi, it has been a key ingredient to what has made the partnership successful for the past eight years.

Since late 2015, N-SIDE has established and built on a strategic partnership with France-based pharmaceutical company Sanofi, aimed at optimising the firm’s clinical trial supply chain. The partnership helped digitalise Sanofi’s clinical supply chain while driving greater performance and waste reduction.

Harnessing efficiency

N-SIDE is a global leader in increasing the efficiency of life sciences and energy industries by providing software and services that optimise the use of natural resources, facilitating the transition to a more sustainable world. Founded in 2000, N-SIDE has built deep industry knowledge and technical expertise to help global pharmaceutical and energy companies anticipate, adapt, and optimise their decisions. In the life sciences industry, N-SIDE reduces waste in clinical trials, leading to more efficient, faster, and more sustainable clinical trials.

Amaury Jeandrain, Vice President Strategy of Life Sciences at N-SIDE, has witnessed first-hand the development of the partnership since he joined the company in January 2016. “Very quickly, the value of risk management and waste reduction was perceived internally and this partnership ended up growing to become one of our largest. Today, Sanofi is the company at the forefront of a lot of the innovation co-created with N-SIDE.”

Amaury Jeandrain, Vice President Strategy of Life Sciences at N-SIDE

Pharmaceutical companies of varying sizes use N-SIDE solutions to avoid supply chain bottlenecks in their clinical trials, decrease risks and waste, control costs, reduce time-to-market and speed up the launch of new trials. N-SIDE’s focus is on four key pillars to bring high levels of efficiency into Sanofi’s clinical supply chain: best-in-class supply chain, people, analytics and innovation.    

Charlotte Tannier, Vice President of Life Sciences Services at N-SIDE, adds that the key differentiator is the transparency between her organisation and Sanofi. “We trust each other and know that we can be fully open with them,” she explains. “We like to build new things together and co-develop innovative solutions.”

Charlotte Tannier, Vice President of Life Sciences Services at N-SIDE

Teaming with Sanofi

Having defined a clear route to success through the Sanofi partnership, Amaury is keen to point out that the relationship has acted as something of a catalyst for future business collaborations with other companies. “There are a lot of good practices that were initiated with Sanofi that now became a standard in our industry,” he discusses.

Looking ahead, the future of the partnership looks bright and is showing no signs of slowing down. Charlotte explains that the next step is all about “integration.” “For the moment, we have multiple teams and departments that are using the N-SIDE solutions, and many other software are used as well within the organisation. The focus in the short term will be to enable a unified IT landscape and environment,” she reveals. “The objective will be to be fully integrated and to increase the impact of the data they own. Because we believe, with Sanofi, that the way forward is through data. We are also planning to help Sanofi leverage more of the data that we’re generating together to increase its impact.”

As technology continues to evolve and organisations become even more digitally mature, partnerships built on transparency and trust will be in demand. N-SIDE and Sanofi already have that head start.

Click here to read more about how Sanofi is driving data-driven performance, resilience, agility and operational excellence within the clinical supply chain.

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

14 March 2024

Estimated Read time

5Mins

In this innovative partnership, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts as the two companies focus on taming tail-spend with an on-demand platform with embedded change management.

Businesses have been leaving money on the table for years. For most organisations, (indirect) tail spend flies under the radar because of the large number of lower-value transactions, a fragmented supply base, and a poor user experience. This results in process inefficiencies and lost savings opportunities that can be eight to 13 percent higher than with more competitive sourcing.

Simfoni and Kearney set out to solve this problem, joining forces on solutioning tail spend management. The partnership pairs Kearney’s rich heritage and expertise in procurement transformation and change management with Simfoni’s composable analytics and spend automation technology. The result is a comprehensive global delivery model that significantly improves tail spend management, which until now has been a major problem for large and smaller organisations alike.

“We started our journey over three years ago,” says Stefan Dent, co-founder of Simfoni. “It takes some time to form a bond. You get to know one another working together on client engagements and then you realise that the relationship is really working, so you double down on the commitment.”

Simfoni helps businesses “see spend differently” leveraging data analytics to gain a deep understanding of user needs across everyday ‘tail spend’. Founded in 2015, Simfoni is a leading provider of tail spend, spend analytics, and e-sourcing solutions for large and midsize businesses around the globe. Simfoni’s platform uses machine learning and AI to accelerate and automate tail spend management, saving time and money. Its solution quickly ingests and organises complex data to uncover opportunities to optimise tail to higher value spend. Simfoni emphasises rapid value delivery through on-demand spend automation solutions that are operational in weeks rather than months.

Remko de Bruijn, senior partner at Kearney

The Kearney–Simfoni partnership delivers a unique and powerful proposition, combining Simfoni’s digital tail spend solution with Kearney’s know-how and ability to launch a transformation and unlock the promised value, says Remko de Bruijn, a senior partner at Kearney. “There are many digital procurement solutions around, but frankly, many of them aren’t delivering the promised value, typically because of challenges with user adoption and change,” he says. “Kearney continuously assesses solutions in the market, with one of our other partners, ProcureTech, and together, we concluded that Simfoni is leading in tail spend. This is how we found each other.”

Kearney is a leading global strategy consulting firm founded in 1926, with more than 5,700 people working in more than 40 countries. The company works with more than three-quarters of the Fortune Global 500 as well as with the most influential governmental and nonprofit organisations. Kearney is a partner-owned firm with a distinctive, collegial culture that transcends organizational and geographic boundaries—and it shows. Regardless of location or rank, the firm’s consultants are down-to-earth and approachable, with a shared passion for doing innovative client work that realises tangible benefits for their clients, in both the short and long term.

“We see Simfoni as a powerful solution to realise savings in indirect tail spend. It’s about not only data and spend automation, but also the customer experience,” De Bruijn says. “This is crucial when dealing with everyday spend as most users are non-procurement professionals.”

Kearney aids businesses in implementing Simfoni’s solution quickly, mitigating risks associated with unmanaged spend and vendors. “The attractive thing about Simfoni is that the solution manages tail spend—optimising both spend and vendors—with the savings funding the digitisation. It’s a tail spend solution that delivers a comprehensive service,” De Bruijn says. “Simfoni will even pay the tail suppliers with Simfoni becoming the ‘One Vendor’ for the tail, which creates additional benefits in accounts payables and working capital.”

Simfoni and Kearney both operate globally, which is important since their customers often operate in multiple regions around the world. “It’s a very interesting and powerful proposition,” De Bruijn says.

Stefan Dent, co-founder of Simfoni

Simfoni designed its tail spend platform from the ground up. The company founders came from the procurement domain, having worked in a variety of procurement leadership roles and at other procurement technology providers. “Let’s face it, existing solutions never solved tail spend, which accounts for around 80 percent of your vendors and transactions and around 20 percent of spend value,” Dent says. “Until now, the only options were BPOs, where you effectively outsource your tail to be managed by humans in a lower-cost country, or you use self-service bidding platforms. These solutions deliver some value, but it’s like putting a plaster on a wound.  You never properly cure the problem.” 

Simfoni’s platform is unique in that it is first and foremost a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution with integrated buying services and digital procurement content components that connect with a client’s existing systems, or Simfoni can operate autonomously. Dent says that’s not even the best part. “The user experience is the most important element because, as Remko pointed out, most tail spend users are not procurement professionals,” he says. “Our users are in R&D, IT, plant operations, or marketing. They want an intuitive, easy-to-use solution to source and buy goods and services to support the everyday needs of their business. This is where traditional eProcurement systems fail.”

Dent says Kearney is an ideal partner being a trusted advisor to many of the world’s largest organisations. Kearney’s expert knowledge of procurement and transformation are a vital part of the offering. “Kearney’s input and expertise is crucial as Kearney helps our clients scope their tail spend program and update their procurement operating model while Simfoni frees up resources, allowing the client to focus on higher-value activities,” he explains. “At the end of the day, technology alone doesn’t solve tail spend. It’s about change. Kearney helps our clients make that digital shift. That’s why our partnership is so powerful because together we provide a comprehensive change and a digital solution as a package. The opportunity for our clients to finally control and optimise tail-spend is huge.”

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

13 March 2024

Estimated Read time

8Mins

Linda Chuan, Chief Procurement Officer at Box, discusses the value of delivering effective and long-lasting change management in procurement.

Being at the forefront of change requires a specific type of person – it’s not for everyone. 

But for those that are equipped to deal with the volatile and at times, disruptive, nature of change, that’s where the rewards can be uncovered. 

Knowing this all too well is Linda Chuan. She is a seasoned sourcing and procurement operational excellence executive with a public accounting background and a strong ability to execute from vision and strategy. Her innovative experiences with organisations large and small have culminated in a unique, but practical end-to-end view and understanding of business processes. Chuan’s approach to problem-solving is holistic, mixed with a blend of discipline, creativity, agility and resilience. She has demonstrated successes in her execution and delivery with real results time and again, while also leading successful transformational digitisation strategies.

Procurement’s transformation

The industry she serves has undergone quite an evolution in recent times. Having transformed from a back-office function into a dynamic, exciting, enterprise division at the forefront of change. Procurement and its professionals have been on quite the journey in recent times. As such, Chuan explains that the space is, in fact, so unrecognisable that even its definition has changed. “Procurement started out as purchasing for primarily manufacturing companies decades ago,” she discusses. “Then it evolved from purchasing to procurement where the practice and the profession required more skills around understanding contract verbiage and how the commercial terms would impact the business. There was a little bit more skillset required, legal terms, understanding contracts, all the way to what we know today as strategic sourcing.”

Fast forward to 2020’s Covid pandemic and procurement was forced to shift again amid significant disturbance to supply chains. As a result, procurement was swiftly elevated to the c-suite and became front of mind for most CEOs globally as businesses looked to tighten their belts while urgently finding alternative methods of supply.

“Following Covid, I think we, as procurement professionals, are now mandated to be even more than strategic sourcing and add value to the company,” affirms Chuan. “We’re asked to look ahead and think about the macroeconomics as well as the microeconomics and how it could impact the company and get that translation to direct company impact earlier. This is all while being able to help either prevent large risks or promote opportunities within the company so they can then maximise what’s happening out there in the marketplace versus where everyone was reacting to what has already happened and trying to be prepared for what was coming.”

Tech disruption

Disruption has meant procurement was propelled to become even more strategic and forward-facing following a recent surge of black swan events as technology takes a firmer grip on the space. “The whole profession has evolved, especially over the last 10 or 15 years, where we’re becoming increasingly more strategic and important to a company.”

The company Chuan serves is a cloud content management company that empowers enterprises to revolutionise how they work by securely connecting their people, information and applications. Founded in 2005, Box powers more than 115,000 businesses globally, including AstraZeneca, JLL, Morgan Stanley, and Nationwide. Headquartered in Redwood City, CA, Box has offices across the United States, Europe and Asia. Chuan joined Box over four and half years ago and was recruited to help with establishing the firm’s procurement function and building it from the ground up.

“Any engagement or relationship with a third-party provider, whether it’s buying widgets, purchasing services or even SaaS across the entire company is under my scope,” she explains. “Box has grown globally to reach new regions such as Japan and Poland to UK and Australia. We’ve continued to grow even throughout the pandemic. It’s my third role to establish and build out a sourcing and procurement organisation from the ground up. I find that to be so rewarding and every company’s a little different. What might’ve worked in my previous roles may not work at Box. I love having to tailor and think about which processes and what systems could work that would fit each company’s specific and unique culture, executive level preferences as well as the employees. It’s very exciting.” 

Blank canvas

For Chuan, her passion is to make things as easy as possible for the end user. She likes to think about a procurement organisation as a service firm. “We’re like a small entrepreneur company within an enterprise,” she tells us. “Our customers are our internal employees. As the company and the employee base grows, the customer base increases too. To me, it’s really imperative that we think about the user experience because every company has policies to check off, but who really ensures that we are compliant to those policies? A lot of other larger companies find it’s easier to make the policy a mandate where employees must follow, but I find that with high-tech companies, it’s more of a case of “influencing” rather than “mandating” in that kind of environment.

“In order to establish more of a centralised process where all of the employees would have to come through this one system and one intake, it has to be so user-friendly or else people are not going to want to come to you. If you make it easy for them and design the process in such a way that the policy is already incorporated, then employees will want to utilise the process. It should feel like they’re just going through the process, but they’re walking through the actual compliance policy and ensuring that we’re doing all the right things to protect the company, but they shouldn’t have to feel the burden of it.”

The Box Advantage

According to Chuan, unless she can show her people a new process or system that’s guaranteed to be more efficient, she understands there will be a degree of reluctance to accept change initially. “I’m already thinking about the whole change management programme at the beginning of when I need to select a solution, especially if there was an RFP involved, rather than waiting until we’ve selected a solution and are in the implementation phase. To me, that’s too late,” she explains. “Change management happens when a project has been approved for you to go find a solution or when the project has been initiated by your senior executives through an investment committee meeting or via a software review committee. That’s where change management actually starts.”

Chuan is passionate about harnessing a positive company culture. She stresses within Box operating with a mentality of collaboration, transparency and inclusiveness holds the key to success. Chuan explains that one of her best strategies is to imagine herself as an owner of a company as it leads to better decision-making. “It’s about always trying to think about doing the right things by the right people,” she discusses.

Secret sauce

“The culture is so special and it’s truly about walking the talk versus just talking the talk. It’s about making that culture real and living every single day like our two founders, Aaron Levie and Dylan Smith. The culture itself makes it easy to collaborate and build that relationship and that trust with my fellow employees, knowing that the procurement sourcing organisation is there to help protect them and make the company better. Doing it together is so much easier than trying to push through by yourself, and I call it with every deal that ‘it takes a small village’. We have a really, really good relationship with our legal department and with our vendor trust department. I am enjoying a level of engagement and utilisation of my function more than any other company I’ve been blessed to be a part of. The culture at Box is our secret sauce.”

Given the speed at which the procurement function is shifting, being proactive to the latest trends in transformation could be the key between success and failure. Indeed, one of the most highly anticipated innovations of the past few years ChatGPT has captured the imagination of procurement professionals globally. The race to explore the technology and examine how the natural language processing tool could be introduced into processes is already underway. However, its arrival brings with it fresh fears that AI is here to replace humans.

Future-facing

According to Chuan, that couldn’t be further from the truth. “I don’t see it as taking jobs away, I see it as improving our job and work life,” she explains. “Most people don’t want to do those mundane, low-level data entry, tactical tasks anyway. But if you don’t have people or the right system checking that the data going in is of good quality, then you can’t count on the reporting and the analytics on the backend. But the problem is that people don’t want to do it. Wouldn’t it be perfect to have a replacement with AI, robotics and machine learning that could do all of the things that people don’t really want to do anyway?”

Looking ahead

Having said that, Chuan is clear that there must always be some form of human influence and oversight over AI. One of procurement’s biggest challenges in 2024 and beyond is making new tech work for each respective organisation. Chuan believes procurement, and indeed the world, isn’t to be ruled by technology, but instead used as a tool. “There has to be some kind of monitoring and human judgment to QC/QA the results,” she says.

“I don’t think we’re at the point where machines can replace judgemental thinking. I think we need to have an eye on ensuring we’re doing the right thing ethically by people and making sure that we’re using technology responsibly. Let’s say we do all of that, the increase in the level of job productivity that AI could bring to many people should outweigh people’s fears. I don’t think we should be fearing it. I think we should be looking at it from an analytical and strategic view and get excited about the prospect of having all the time to be more innovative and forward-thinking. To me, that’s where the fun and rewarding work is.”

Hear more about Linda Chuan’s passion for delivering change management in procurement in our CPOstrategy Podcast.

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

12 March 2024

Estimated Read time

8Mins

This issue’s Big Question explores whether procurement would be better prepared should a similar situation occur.

COVID-19 affected everyone in different ways.

It caused death, illness, chaos and disruption the world over. It shut down airports, overwhelmed the NHS and left our streets empty. With March 2024 marking four years since the UK announced its first national lockdown, how ready would procurement and our supply chains be in the event of a similar scale this time around? 

To go forward, unfortunately, we must look at the chain of events last time around.

Having been declared a global pandemic on 12th March 2020 and with cases of coronavirus accelerating to uncontrollable levels, many businesses’ supply chains collapsed. When the pandemic hit, businesses were left footing the bill for billions of pounds worth of unsold goods, causing inventory-to-sales ratios to rise high.

As a result of lockdowns, organisations were left with no choice but to cut their activity or shut down entirely for a brief period as guidance continued to change at little to no notice. As such, production was halted in factories across the world causing mass layoffs and redundancies across the majority of industries, particularly in manufacturing and logistics, resulting in a reduction in shipping which affected delivery times globally. 

Consumer demands also shifted significantly. The demand for personal protective equipment (PPE) as well as the likes of toilet paper and pasta rose dramatically. There was an increase in office furniture amid a surge in demand in remote working. This, alongside the likes of government help such as furlough, helped enable a surge in demand for e-commerce as consumers bought online in record numbers. The shift in demand for goods led to a reduction in experiences such as attending events, eating at restaurants or going out to pubs.

In order to meet this increase in demand, factories pumped out goods quicker than ports could handle them. US ports were full of exports from Asia with too small of a workforce to unload them and too few truck drivers to transport the goods. While ports were full, compounding the issue was a labour shortage, especially truck drivers. And talent remains a concern to this day to procurement and supply chain.

But COVID-19 is only one of procurement’s fires. There’s been the Suez Canal disaster, wars in Ukraine and Israel and inflation concerns to contend with too.

So if the worst were to happen and another ‘black swan’ event was to take place, what lessons has procurement learned? 

Jack Macfarlane, Founder and CEO, DeepStream

As a result of the generative AI boom, Jack Macfarlane, Founder and CEO, DeepStream, believes that  the industry is in a much stronger position to overcome a future pandemic. “It proved that procurement needed to brush up on its ability to adjust to black swan events swiftly by investing in the right technology and training for the industry to respond to sudden challenges and changes,” explains Macfarlane. “With the growing use of generative AI, the industry is now in a much stronger position to contend with a future pandemic. Generative AI can scrape vast datasets regarding global trends, using the data to predict shortages, price fluctuations and supplier risks before they happen. 

“Regardless of the industry you’re in, procurement leaders should always focus on ensuring the right policies are in place to prevent declining quality control in a future black swan event.” 

Omer Abdullah, Co-Founder and Chief Commercial Officer at The Smart Cube

Omer Abdullah, Co-Founder and Chief Commercial Officer at The Smart Cube, agrees that procurement finds itself in a more secure place than that of four years ago. “Procurement is undoubtedly readier than it was prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. CPOs and their teams have learned where potential value drivers are, and they also understand supplier relationships and supply chain intricacies more intimately,” he reveals. “Procurement has also moved further along the digital spectrum. Organisations have tools at their disposal to operate effectively, and on a dispersed basis, should a similar event take place. Additionally, there are now far more risk management solutions in place versus before the pandemic – allowing practitioners to identify problems, and potentially risky situations, before they arise. Add to this more diversified supply chains and established alternative sources for essential categories, and the function is far more prepared than pre-2020.”

However, Abdullah went on to explain that while “no one would be absolutely ready for another unexpected pandemic”, he insists the industry did learn lessons from COVID-19. “It must be noted that there’s still a recency effect at play – procurement professionals tangibly remember the pandemic’s impact,” he explains. “As time progresses, though, this may change but for now, the industry knows how to operate if a comparable scenario were to unfold soon.”

Bindiya Vakil, CEO and founder of Resilinc

Bindiya Vakil, CEO and founder of Resilinc, believes the pandemic has showcased how better prepared companies are for the next global disruption. “Fortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic taught businesses some valuable lessons. Not nearly as many companies are flying blind in the face of disruption,” explains Vakil. “Many organisations learned that having visibility into their entire supplier network is the foundation for mitigating disruptions. Mapping their supply chain down to the part-site level and then using AI-powered technology to monitor it 24/7 for potential threats gives procurement leaders an early-warning system with actionable insights to make mitigation plans within hours.”

Vel Dhinagaravel, CEO and President Beroe Inc

While Vel Dhinagaravel, CEO and President Beroe Inc, reveals that COVID-19 “took the mask off” procurement and exposed the true character of teams. “Some were much more partnership-oriented and some a lot less. Some of these memories endure and will either help or handicap their responses to future disruptive events,” Dhinagaravel reveals. “During 2020-2022 as different countries and regions were in varied states of lockdown there were tremendous constraints on supply chains. As a result, procurement got an opportunity to be part of discussions around product mix optimisation and product pricing which previously had been largely off limits to them.”

He adds that while the future is uncertain, he believes the function is in a healthier position to thrive should the worst happen again. “Post-pandemic, these relationships have endured, and we have also seen these teams consciously building agility and resilience into their operating models and supply chain,” he discusses. “They’ve been using data and analytics as key levers to get visibility of their supply chain and suppliers – identifying points of failure, assessing scenarios, and proactively running simulations to develop diversification strategies. While these actions don’t give procurement a crystal ball to predict the next disruptive event, it puts them in a much better position to be able to handle another pandemic or major supply chain shock.”

Betsy Pancik, Senior Vice President at Proxima

And Betsy Pancik, Senior Vice President at Proxima, says that the pandemic was procurement’s “time to shine” with business leaders recognising the importance of a robust procurement function to keep business running smoothly. “COVID-19 caused major supply shortages, which drove price surges and quality issues – many procurement teams had to quickly mobilise capability and capacity to support immediate business needs,” she explains.

“Some companies learned this the hard way by not having the right processes and teams in place, which led to insufficient inventory, spend increases, and strained supplier relationships. Many companies realised the need for alternative suppliers to prevent these issues in the future and started proactively seeking additional sources of supply. Others realised the need for emergency buying procedures, systems, and processes that enable quick action, automated buying, supply chain visibility, and investment in talent – all of which will help businesses respond in a more organised and robust way if a similar situation were to happen again.”

In truth, procurement teams learned a lot from the events of March 2020. Procurement and supply chains can’t be complacent. The function can’t afford to let the mistakes of the past define its future. Supply chains must have alternative methods of supply and Chief Procurement Officers must be agile and ready to respond. Procurement can’t drop the ball and must stay ready. 

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

11 March 2024

Estimated Read time

9Mins

Edmund Zagorin, Founder of Arkestro, discusses his company’s rise as a predictive procurement orchestration platform.

“What if there was a better way to compare quotes from suppliers?”

This question led Edmund Zagorin down a road of discovery which culminated in turning an idea into a start-up.

While working as a procurement consultant, Zagorin observed how much time his sourcing teams spent building Excel pivot tables. The problem? Category experts needed to identify potential errors in supplier submissions at the item level before an award scenario could be properly evaluated. Together with childhood friend Ben Leiken, who had risen to become an engineering and product leader at SurveyMonkey, the idea was to find a way to automatically pre-populate text in a sourcing project with little to no manual data entry required from procurement users of suppliers. Leiken had seen firsthand the impact that so-called “smart defaults” could have on survey completion. And Zagorin knew that in procurement, more completions would mean more supplier offers, which could yield better commercial outcomes for the procurement team. Arkestro, then Bid Ops, was born.

Studies show that when procurement is able to predict a plausible range of commercial outcomes ahead of a supplier offer, there is enormous leverage created when the buying entity names the price. Summarising the past decade of research, Lewicki et al.’s 2007 “Essentials of Negotiation” states that “…whoever, the buyer or the seller, made the first offer… determined the final selling price, with higher final prices when a seller made the first offer than when a buyer made the first offer.”

For this reason, Arkestro customers began delivering material higher cost savings outcomes than traditional RFPs and RFQs, a fact that caught the attention of Ariba co-founder Rob DeSantis. Together, Zagorin and DeSantis brought together an experienced management team, led by IBM and Ariba alum Neil Lustig as CEO. Lustig’s experience as CEO of Vendavo, a predictive pricing company used by sell-side teams to achieve better negotiated outcomes, made him ideal to scale Arkestro into a global juggernaut.

Edmund Zagorin, Founder, Arkestro

Today, Arkestro is the leading predictive procurement orchestration platform that enhances the impact of procurement’s influence, especially for large manufacturing enterprises across any procurement activity and spend category that involves collecting a quote from a supplier. Arkestro turns the traditional procurement process on its head: instead of the supplier creating a quote or proposal and then a procurement analyst using competitive offers and benchmark data to decision the desirability of that offer or action an approval, Arkestro customers use a predictive model to benchmark a potential quote before contacting suppliers, putting procurement in a position of leverage to either ask for their desired outcome using an AI-generated Suggested Offer or generate an Instant Counter-Offer to any quote.

Arkestro then helps customers persistently monitor the changes in quoted price for this item across all procurement activities, tracking trends and changes and helping teams proactively uncover the optimal procurement configuration for each item and basket with respect to timing, geography, quantity, lead time and other attributes.

By embedding game theory, behavioural science and machine learning models directly into the procurement process, Arkestro enables customers to dramatically accelerate cost reduction projects, often with existing preferred suppliers and attain their best available cost outcome for every unique item more frequently and at greater scale across their spend. This predictive procurement approach is especially helpful for technical procurement categories such as highly engineered components, materials and capital equipment, as well as categories like metals, chemicals, food ingredients, MRO, packaging, logistics and even IT.

Enterprises who are on a journey to create sustainable and antifragile data quality for their procurement function are turning to Arkestro as the predictive approach eliminates the two manual steps that tend to introduce errors into item-level identifiers: the step where the supplier creates a quote, and the step where procurement analysts have to validate, correct, give feedback and approve it. By using a predictive model to generate and validate supplier offers, Arkestro offers a continuous improvement path for enterprises whose digital procurement journey includes cleansing item-level data to create a true item-based “data foundation.”         

Transformation journey

And since its founding in 2017, Arkestro has been on quite the transformation journey. The company has expanded rapidly and scaled its product – as well as for spend categories and industries served – globally. In a little over half a decade, Zagorin, Leiken and their team have created a true enterprise grade AI infrastructure platform that can be embedded into the likes of spend management giants SAP Ariba or Coupa or used as a standalone database and application.

Despite significant success in a relatively short space of time, Zagorin is keen to stress that his initial vision was to solve a problem that he was also experiencing in the market. “Our growth has corresponded to a great degree with a widening of the aperture of where we feel predictive technologies can make an impact for procurement teams,” he discusses. “I think one of the other things just from a paradigm standpoint is that procurement processes involve a lot of manually created data. There’s a lot of data entry on the supplier side, procurement side and on the stakeholder side throughout the process. Every keystroke in every process introduces the possibility of human error.”

Predictive procurement is a new approach that suggests the data before a human user enters it. What Arkestro has introduced is the idea of predictive and working with customers to apply that at different stages of the procurement process through AI. “One of the things that’s also been interesting, and you’ve seen this in other areas of AI, is that you can cross a threshold where at some point in the model it gets good enough that it really provides exponentially more value as it’s being used,” he says. “As opposed to software, which traditional software degrades over time, it gets stale and the interface feels clunky. As new interfaces come out, AI has almost the opposite dynamic where it actually gets better. It’s smarter by itself just by people using it. That’s also been pretty exciting to see.”

Procurement’s evolution 

Indeed, the procurement space is in a state of flux. Amid significant transformation driving the function forward, it has never been such an exciting time to be involved in the industry. The rise of AI and machine learning is having a seismic impact with there also being hopes that new technology could reduce the need to bridge talent gaps.

“If you asked five years ago what’s holding procurement back from digitally transforming the operation and living out your full potential, I think a lot of procurement professionals would’ve said how hard it was to hire,” Zagorin explains. “People were saying: ‘Oh we have data quality issues where it’s really hard to actually know what we’ve spent, what our spend per supplier looks like for our core geographies, let alone what we paid for each individual item. We went out and bought a bunch of digital platforms and we’re struggling to gain adoption which is related to the data quality issues.’ This is what I heard from executives when I was working in procurement. Because traditionally,  if you have a process and it’s not being consistently used, then it’s not going to accurately represent the most important attributes or business logic of the data that’s moving through it.”

Despite the positive introduction of tech innovation, procurement has also had its challenges. Supply disruption as a byproduct of COVID-19, wars in Ukraine and in Israel as well as inflation concerns, it is fair to say the function has never been more talked about in the C-suite.

“Boom, there’s the next wave of Covid, or suddenly there’s a war somewhere in the world,” he shares. “It has felt like there’s always something and it really creates context switching for procurement teams which is stressful, plus being bad for productivity. This is especially the case for digital transformation projects in procurement, and it’s also demotivating because it makes people feel like they’re not making progress. This then means that the length of the project elongates and you have this kind of stuck-in-the-mud feeling that it’s hard to get quick wins and generate momentum. That’s what customers are thinking about as they are looking in the market to find a true partner not just for their digital journey, but for their AI journey.” 

Given the speed of procurement’s evolution, there are voices that believe the function requires a rebrand. Gone are the days of procurement being regarded as a back-office function hidden away out of sight, today it stands as an exciting, dynamic force at the forefront of innovation. “I live in California where job titles are a little bit looser generally,” explains Zagorin.

“If we look at procurement needing a rebrand, the big challenge that I see with procurement is that the structure of a lot of these categories doesn’t necessarily correspond with either the activities associated with them or with the relationships with the suppliers within those categories. What we have in procurement with ‘category management’ is we’re frequently asking procurement professionals to be a jack of all trades and master of none within their categories. Perpetual ‘crisis-mode’ is not a recipe for letting up-and-coming procurement professionals develop the category knowledge and domain expertise that are traditionally necessary.”

Procurement’s bright future

Looking ahead, Zagorin believes there has never been a better time to be working in procurement. “The profession has a lot to offer, and it really is this huge engine of value creation at most big companies,” he explains. “Arkestro serves enterprise manufacturing companies typically with multiple plant locations which buy at both the corporate and the plant level creating a lot of item-level data quality issues. What we’re seeing is the ability for companies to get live on Arkestro in a matter of days and often deliver a payback period for their entire solution costs in a matter of weeks.

“If you look at deployments of enterprise technology five years ago, that’s a stark difference in terms of what procurement’s promising versus what it’s delivering and the time-to-value. We have a new generation of startups, from intake to tail spend to what Arkestro does, more on the strategic side and or on technical procurement categories and direct materials, often starting with a bill of materials and handling all the back-and-forth with the suppliers up to allocation, awarding and the purchase order. You have this cohort of startups that’s just getting bigger and more people are using us to run large physical manufacturing operations. There’s not a lot of direct competition in the space of these growth-stage startups. 

“I think what’s going to happen is more and more companies are going to say if it makes business sense and we think there’s tangible value in doing it, then let’s find a way to test and learn. Let’s find a way to try it out to implement it in one geography or for one business unit or category and just see how it works. Five years ago, it was always easy to say we’re too busy or we have other stuff going on. What’s changing today is if you’re not testing and learning constantly from new technology, you’re going to miss out because the stuff that’s happening right now is world-changing.

“Generative AI and novel technical approaches to on-demand superintelligence are going to be as impactful to many enterprises as the development of the internet, not to mention human society at large. The people who are playing around with it and staying curious and running experiments are going to create a lot more value. They’re going to have a lot more fun, and they’re going to build great teams and organisations that lay the groundwork for the next generation of procurement professionals.”

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

8 March 2024

Estimated Read time

5Mins

Changing requirements, shifting demographics, and new technologies are conspiring to create a procurement talent shortage.

Two of the biggest challenges facing procurement leaders are recruitment and retention. Staffing issues were identified as one of the biggest risks facing procurement in the next two years by Amazon Business’ 2024 State of Procurement Report, as the procurement function “broadens in scope while facing staffing shortages”. 

It seems as though the more critical procurement becomes to the modern enterprise, the more the cracks in the talent pool begin to show. With increased technological adoption and a growing emphasis on strategic operations (compared to a traditional transaction-focused approach) in the procurement function, solving the talent shortage is more critical than ever. 

As we’re still in early 2024, we’ve put together the top five factors driving the talent shortage, as well as how procurement leaders can address them in order to capitalise on the opportunities in the industry and meet the strategic objectives of the business as a whole. 

1. Digital transformation

Ironically, the very trend that’s driving the rise in procurement’s fortunes is also one of the biggest factors fueling its talent shortage. As digital transformation reshapes the procurement function from top to bottom, it also means that the skills necessary to succeed in procurement roles are changing. Even a few decades ago, a procurement job was a mixture of relationship management and sending invoices. Now, there’s AI to grapple with, big data analytics, and an expectation that the department will be a key strategic driver of efficiency, sustainability, and supply chain resilience. The skill sets that make a successful procurement team today aren’t the same as they were even a few years ago. 

How to fix It: Education and development should be at the forefront of anyone’s mind looking to build a successful procurement function. Upskilling and growing the team’s knowledge base is almost always more cost effective than hiring externally, but you should also know when to look beyond the department to fill a talent shortage, even if that just means sniffing around the IT department for anyone not nailed down.  

2. Competition (internal and external) 

If (almost) every procurement team is short on staff (well, 86% of them, according to Amazon Business), then it’s no surprise that competition for top talent is fierce. Salaries are rising, and the fact the talent shortage is affecting departments other than procurement means that procurement is in competition, not only with other procurement teams, but with other departments in its company for talent and the money to pay that talent. 

How to fix It: Smaller firms without the resources to compete might consider outsourcing their procurement functions, engaging third parties like a business might engage a legal team or a management consultancy.

3. Messaging and awareness 

Or lack thereof… Seriously, procurement may be the exciting new frontier of digital transformation and strategic optimisation, but traditionally the department has largely existed as an afterthought—a place where purchase orders go to be rubber stamped. The nature of the role may be changing, but perceptions are harder to shift. If the preconceived notion is that procurement is a stodgy, backwards profession, then it’s unlikely to attract the best and brightest graduates, let alone funnel MBAs into a procurement-specific pipeline early on in their education. 

How to fix it: Take a leaf out of the broader supply chain discipline’s book and go on a two-pronged charm and educational offensive. By working with educational institutions and recruiting heavily from adjacent industries with transferable skills (increasingly easy to do given the increasingly digital-first nature of the discipline), new talent can be enticed into the procurement space and developed from there by existing veterans. 

4. Demographic shifts 

Tied into Number 5, the natural changing of the guard is a large part of what’s ushering in a more discerning labour force. It’s also seeing Boomers and Gen X either exit the workforce into retirement or be promoted up into senior management, where the skills that made them an asset to the company on a day-to-day basis are less important to their roles. 

Also, as Millennials age up towards middle management there aren’t as many members of Gen Z entering the workforce to replace them. It’s the same further up the chain as the populous Baby Boomers are replaced with the relatively sparse Gen X.  

How to fix it: One way to encourage a smoother transition from one generation to the next—especially in an industry where relationship management plays such a huge role—is to encourage mentorship and development aimed at transferring skills and key knowledge from senior staff to lower (even entry level) positions. 

5. The Great Resignation 

Sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as a general rise in pro-labour sentiment across the economy at large, the last few years have seen a spectacular rise in employees quitting the roles that couldn’t be bothered (or afford) to pay them enough or treat them fairly. The consequences for mismanaging teams are much higher in a world where the stigma over changing roles regularly for better pay, hours, and working conditions has more or less evaporated. 

How to fix it: It should be obvious, but people keep quitting their jobs, so the message must not be getting through. The age of pizza parties and casual Fridays are over. Employees expect more from their employers, whether in terms of wages, benefits like healthcare, work-life balance, and other meaningful contributions to quality of life. In addition to benefits on paper, fostering positive cultures, creating opportunities for development and salary advancement are all a big part of not only attracting new talent but keeping it as well.  

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

7 March 2024

Estimated Read time

2Mins

CPOstrategy cover star this month is Kristina Andric, Supplier Manager IT at Tetra Pak and recent CIPS Young Talent winner, who discusses the procurement landscape from her perspective and how Tetra Pak is nurturing young procurement leaders like her… 

This month’s cover star is Kristina Andric, Supplier Manager IT at Tetra Pak and recent CIPS Young Talent winner, who discusses the procurement landscape from her perspective and how Tetra Pak is nurturing young procurement leaders like her… 

As a household name in food processing and packaging, Tetra Pak stands by having a customer-centric, strong, and competent procurement function.

As a result, it’s always working hard to evolve, which includes seeking out new procurement talent wherever possible. This is how Kristina Andric, Supplier Manager IT, became part of the team and kick-started an exciting career. 

Read the latest issue here!

Andric started working at Tetra Pak in 2018 via a trainee programme called Future Talent. The programme lasted two years and gave trainees the opportunity to understand Tetra Pak from multiple perspectives. Andric was rotated throughout different parts of the organisation and across different geographies, the idea being to give young people a holistic view of the company before taking on a permanent role.  

“Embracing change marked my career since the beginning,” she reflects. “My curious nature thrives on the opportunity to engage in diverse experiences and continuous learning. Challenges motivate me and develop my potential, so every change has been to my benefit. I’ve enjoyed it all.” 

Elsewhere, we also have fascinating insights into procurement hot topics such as optimising tail spend with Simfoni and Kearney, amplifying procurement’s influence with Arkestro, while Box looks at The Art Of Procurement As A Change Agent. Plus, we detail 5 ways of tackling procurement’s talent shortage and discuss being prepared for future pandemics…

Enjoy! 

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

16 February 2024

Estimated Read time

4Mins

Could generative AI be the answer to procurement’s problems: fewer workers, more work, and a rising bar for digital literacy.

It’s news to no one that the nature of the procurement industry has changed.

Spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic, an industry-wide surge in digital transformation, and the rising immediacy of the climate crisis, procurement has never been more important, or more complicated. However, as the industry’s demands grow and evolve, many procurement teams find themselves in need of skilled individuals that simply aren’t there.

A recent study conducted by Gartner found that just one in six procurement teams believe they have “adequate talent” to meet their future needs. That means just 15% of CPOs were confident in their future talent pools and ability to recruit skilled individuals, even if they believed their current staffing was sufficient to meet demand today.

Concerns over “having sufficient talent to meet transformative goals based around technology, as well as the ability to serve as a strategic advisor to the business,” were the primary cause of skill shortage stress, according to Fareen Mehrzai, a Senior Director Analyst in Gartner’s Supply Chain Practice. Essentially, the changing nature of procurement means not only that today’s procurement teams are unprepared for the discipline’s continued transformation from back office buyer to “orchestrators of value” in the executive team, but face an increasingly sparse hiring market as the requirements for a new procurement recruit become increasingly complex to satisfy.

Generative AI: Making digital accessible

Generative AI exploded into the public consciousness in 2023 with the launch of image generation tools like Midjourney and DALL.E, as well as chat-bots like Chat-GPT, powered by large language models. Investment has been immediate and almost unthinkably massive. In late 2023, it was estimated that generative AI startups were attracting 40% of all new investment in SIlicon Valley, and Bloomberg Intelligence estimates that the market for generative AI, valued at $40 billion in 2022, will be worth as much as $1.3 trillion in the next decade.

In the procurement and supply chain sectors, specifically, CPOs are reportedly dedicating 5.8% of their function’s budget, on average, to generative AI, according to a Gartner report from January.

Now, whether or not generative AI has the society-spanning, epoch-disrupting economic and social impact people are predicting (personally, I remain unconvinced, and anyone who disagrees can either fight me in the metaverse or try to run me over with a self-driving car) actually manifests, there’s no denying generative AI’s potential as a useful tool if adopted correctly.

Especially in an underskilled, rapidly digitalising procurement sector.

How can generative AI help procurement?

While Generative AI will never write a (good) movie script or create a piece of art that anyone with any taste would find genuinely moving, there are some things it does very well. Namely, it is very good at not only taking in and processing huge (and I mean huuuuge) amounts of chaotic, poorly structured information and answering questions about it, but most importantly, it can understand prompts and give results in simple, conversational language. There are still limitations and kinks to work out, however.

Generative AI still deals with hallucinations. However, the ability to input huge amounts of data and analyse that data in a conversational format could alleviate a lot of the technological literacy related teething problems that appear to be at the heart of the procurement skills shortage.

An EY report notes that, in the Supply Chain and Procurement space, generative AI has massive potential to: “Classify and categorise information based on visual, numerical or textual data; quickly analyse and modify strategies, plans and resource allocations based on real-time data; automatically generate content in various forms that enables faster response times; summarise large volumes of data, extracting key insights and trends; and assist in retrieving relevant information quickly and providing instant responses by voice or text.”

The future of Gen AI

Generative AI can be a source of simplicity for procurement teams at a time when new technologies often add complexity and necessitate upskilling or new hires. EY notes that a biotech company using a generative AI’s chat function has had positive results when using it as a way to inform its demand forecasting. “For example, the company can run what-if scenarios on getting specific chemicals for its products and what might happen if certain global shocks occur that disrupt daily operations. Today’s GenAI tools can even suggest several courses of action if things go awry,” write authors Glenn Steinberg and Matthew Burton.

Adopted correctly, generative AI could not only empower procurement teams to handle the pain points of today, but also tackling the looming threat of the skills shortage in an industry facing a relentless demand for skills that may not be in adequate supply for years to come.

By Harry Menear

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

15 February 2024

Estimated Read time

3Mins

Public sector purchasing stands to gain the most from data-driven procurement, and so far has done the least.

Data-driven analytics have the potential to empower CPOs with greater understanding of their ecosystems, value chains, and internal operations. Big data can shine a light on places where there’s room to create efficiencies, contain costs, and mitigate risk.

In the June 2023 issue of Government Procurement, Steve Isaac notes that analytics can create significant benefits in areas like negotiation, vendor segmentation and yearly planning. He goes on to note, however, that “advanced analytics and data science haven’t exactly broken into the public procurement zeitgeist. It isn’t the subject of keynotes at the annual conferences and meetings … It isn’t a qualification line on most procurement job listings. For most agencies—even large ones—introducing advanced data science is not a priority.”

It’s not altogether shocking that, while the private sector is investing heavily in the potential benefits of data analytics and other digital procurement tools—with the global procurement software industry predicted to exhibit a CAGR of over 10% between now and 2032—public sector procurement lags behind. Isaac notes that it’s a “chicken and egg” issue with the case for a robust data science function hinging on the benefits of that investment being understood, which requires them to be felt, which can’t happen until investment, but… and so on.

However, there’s a case to be made that this delay in data science investment by public sector procurement agencies is one of the critical stumbling blocks also preventing public sector procurement from adopting artificial intelligence, machine learning, and other cutting-edge technology with the potential to solve a lot of the recurring public sector pain points.

Raimundo Martinez, Global Digital Solutions Manager of Procurement and Supply Chain at bp, noted in a recent interview with the MIT Technology Review that “everybody talks about AI, ML, and all these tools, but to be honest with you, I think your journey really starts a little bit earlier. I think when we go out and think about this advanced technology, which obviously, have their place, I think in the beginning, what you really need to focus on is your foundational [layer], and that is your data.” Martinez stresses the importance of building a strong data foundation that allows CPOs to take advantage of emerging technologies in their supply chains.

It’s not as though public procurement departments are short on data either. Isaac argues that, “if data is a precious resource, governments are gold mines.” Governments collect huge amounts of information all the time. The widespread adoption of digital ERP systems, eProcurement, supply chain management software and vendor performance sites is now doing a great job of mining that data.

As noted in a report by researchers from the Government Transparency Institute, a European think tank, “The digitalisation of national public procurement systems across the world has opened enormous opportunities to measure and analyse procurement data. The use of data analytics on public procurement data allows governments to strategically monitor procurement markets and trends, to improve the procurement and contracting process through data-driven policy making, and to assess the potential trade-offs of distinct procurement strategies or reforms.”

By Harry Menear

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

14 February 2024

Estimated Read time

3Mins

From compliance to being an efficiency driver, there are more benefits to sustainable procurement practices than environmental ones.

The main obstacle cited by procurement leaders (as well as those outside the procurement and supply chain functions) to adopting sustainable procurement practices is cost.

According to Edie’s “The Business Guide to Sustainable and Circular Procurement” report released in November 2023, “Costs and Finances” was considered one of the biggest barriers to “Improving Sustainable Procurement For Your Operation”. In a survey of procurement leaders, 76% considered cost to be one of the biggest issues, compared to the distant second and third options: “Lack of Data” (54%) and “Lack of Understanding on Sustainability (38%).

However, in addition to the fact that the benefits of collective climate action dramatically outweigh its short term costs (existential threats are like that), there are sound arguments to be made for sustainable procurement practices from a business point of view as well.

The sustainability benefits incurred by reducing environmental impact in the supply chain can, according to the Edie report, be a catalyst that helps respond to a plethora of issues and considerations.”

Closing the loop to create a more circular supply chain can be driven from within the procurement function, and can do a lot to protect the S2P process from pricing volatility and supply chain disruption—something increasingly on the mind of industry leaders, as indicated by Dun & Bradstreet’s Q1 2024 Global Business Optimism Insights report, which highlighted “a downturn in global supply chain continuity due to geopolitical tensions, trade disputes, and climate-related disruptions in maritime trade causing both higher delivery costs and delayed delivery times.”

There is also the fact that meaningful adoption of sustainable practice in the S2P value chain can have a meaningful financial benefit to brands as a whole. Sustainability is an issue on which consumers vote with their wallets. According to the World Economic Forum, “sustainable procurement practices can help deliver a 15-30% increase in measurable brand equity and value”. Consumers, suppliers, and partners all value sustainable practice as a meaningful demonstration of company quality, and—especially in terms of public opinion—consumers are becoming savvier when it comes to differentiating meaningful change from empty rhetoric.

There’s more economic benefit than brand value adjustment that comes along with reexamining procurement practices from a sustainability perspective. The same report by the WEF noted that “embedding sustainability into procurement practices can actually help reduce departmental costs for procurement by 9-16%.” Evaluating processes for the sake of exploring green options often exposes existing inefficiencies, siloes and poor planning that can then be rectified rather than being left unexamined.

While business leaders continue to shy away from perceived profit loss as a result of pursuing more sustainable practice in their procurement functions, when handled correctly, it can be a source of more than just emissions wins.

By Harry Menear

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

13 February 2024

Estimated Read time

3Mins

As procurement becomes more important, digitally-driven, and strategic, so has the role of the Chief Procurement Officer.

15 years ago, the Chief Technology Officer role rarely appeared on a roll call of the C-suite outside Silicon Valley. If you weren’t a tech company, you had a “head of IT” or even just an “IT guy”. Now, “every company is a technology company”, and every boardroom has a CTO. (And a Chief Information Officer, and a Chief Security Officer, and probable a Chief Digital Transformation Officer, and so on).

As technology has changed the way that we do business at a near-molecular level, so too has it changed the roles of the leaders overseeing it. No longer can you have someone in your C-suite who is technologically illiterate, just like you can no longer be a tech genius without at least a little flair for business. As the role has become more integral, it has become more strategic, and the demands placed upon executives and employees have changed.

That’s all ancient history, but history repeats itself. The same thing is happening to procurement right now.

In the last several years, the procurement function has started to show genuine signs of transformation from what David Ingram, CPO for Unilever, calls a “insular, contract-and-process-heavy organisation to a wider, more insightful function that is connected to what is happening in the broader market.”

Hervé Le Faou, CPO at Heineken, goes further, stating that “Fundamentally, the CPO is evolving into a ‘chief value officer,’ a partner and co-leader to the CEO who is able to generate value through business partnering, digital and technology, and sustainability, which are new sources of profitable growth in a shift toward a future-proof business model.”

A white paper from AI procurement company Zycus points out that the role of CPO has grown to include new duties, and preexisting duties have become more important in an increasingly fast-moving, easily-disrupted business landscape. “Today, CPOs are responsible for compliance. They play an active role in merger & acquisitions and participate in strategic initiatives. This is in addition to handling supply risk management, environmental responsibility, as well as the traditional job of ensuring cost-efficiency,” the report’s authors note. “Hence, it comes as no surprise that some companies have started inducting CPOs into the board of directors. In many others, the employee- hierarchies are undergoing a change, with procurement function reporting directly into the C-level executives or the board. The CPOs of today enjoy greater autonomy and improved control over budgets than before.”

As a result, the role of CPO has transformed from a tactical, functional one to something broader, more strategic, and typically more autonomous.

By Harry Menear

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

12 February 2024

Estimated Read time

3Mins

Risk management has risen (almost) to the top of CPOs’ priority list for 2024. Here’s how they’re tackling it.

If ever the world truly reached a state of “new normal”, that state is one of constant disruption.

Even by the time the COVID-19 pandemic threw the world’s supply chains into a state of utter turmoil in March of 2020, procurement teams were already dealing with a heightened state of disruption. The US-China trade war that defined most of 2019 had barely simmered down before most of Australia was on fire and a US drone strike killed Qasem Soleimani which made an escalating war with Iran look like a very real possibility. Lockdowns, protests, earthquakes, war in Ukraine, spiking oil prices, genocide in Palestine, and both the accidental and purposeful disruption of shipping through the Gulf are just a smattering of the disruptions to which procurement professionals are becoming accustomed.

“After the last few tumultuous years, procurement teams are still facing steep challenges in getting ahead of supplier and supply chain risks,” writes Greg Holt, Product Marketing Director at Interos. “Unfortunately, there are no signs that the heightened frequency of disruptions we’ve seen over the last few years will abate in 2024.”

It’s clear that the procurement teams that learn to manage risk on a daily basis will be the ones that fare best in a world increasingly defined by geopolitical instability and a collapsing climate.

Procurement risk management strategies

Risk management is not a one-time process, nor a single overhaul of policy; managing risk requires constant oversight and frequent reevaluation to ensure you avoid disruption today and are ready for problems that will arise tomorrow.

Streamline your data, break your silos

Procurement departments are often repositories of some of the best risk management data in the whole organisation, gathering large amounts of information on suppliers and other external factors. Procurement departments that take a more purposeful approach to their risk data can quickly establish themselves as repositories of “data, assessments, monitoring and alerts,” becoming “trusted partners who can maintain the risk intelligence needed to support the business with insights, trends and a common view of the risks posed across the extended supplier ecosystem.”

Automate away human error

While there is no shortage of questions when it comes to applying automation to complex tasks (not to mention new pain points and sources of risk), correctly implementing automation can create immediate benefits when used to take repetitive, resource intensive tasks out of human hands. Repetitive, menial tasks are common in procurement systems, and are the most prone to human error. Automation tools can reduce errors and free up time for procurement workers.

Use digital transformation to diversify your supplier ecosystem

There’s a limit to the amount of decision making and supplier diversification achieved by human means. There’s simply too much decision making to be juggled. However, with the help of AI, procurement departments can diversify and adjust their supplier ecosystem much more effectively and to a greater degree. For example, the South Korean government has adopted AI-powered decision making to nearshore a significant portion of its procurement spend. Now, 75.6% of the government’s total procurement spend is now awarded to SMEs through the evolution of its AI platform.

By Harry Menear

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

9 February 2024

Estimated Read time

3Mins

Interest and investment in generative AI has been massive, but does the technology actually have the capacity to meaningfully change the procurement industry?

Since the arrival of large language model-powered chatbots, like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, the corporate landscape has been frantically striving to invest in and adopt generative AI.

Executives floated (I mean salivated over) the possibility that generative AI could replace a staggering number of roles throughout virtually every sector from law to content creation and entertainment. Well, just look how well that turned out. The legal backlash has, in many cases, been severe and, just over six months into the generative AI hype cycle, cracks are beginning to show.

Whether we’re talking about the ethical issues of training LLMs and image generators on the work of artists and writers without their knowledge or consent, the fact generative AI will just make stuff up sometimes, or the revelation that running something like ChatGPT consumes the energy equivalent of 33,000 US households per day, the issues with generative AI just keep mounting. Despite these issues, generative AI is monopolising the tech investment landscape, with 40% of all Silicon Valley investment in the first half of 2023 being poured into GenAI startups.

But what about the applications? Surely all these issues and all this money is going into generative AI technology for a reason, right? Surely we all learned our lesson from the Metaverse, the crypto bubble, NFTs, and streaming and… I guess we didn’t, did we?

Well, actually, there are a few, but they won’t look like the Wild West of content generation we’ve seen so far.

In the retail sector, for example, 98% of companies plan on investing in generative AI in the next 18 months, according to a new survey conducted by NVIDIA (a company with an admittedly vested interest in selling shiny new GPUs). Early examples of adoption in the sector have included personalised shopping advisors and adaptive advertising, with retailers initially testing off-the-shelf models like GPT-4 from OpenAI.

However, many retailers are recognising that the strength (and weakness) of generative AI is that you only get out what you put in. That’s why the technology is, ultimately, useless as a way to replace creative roles like writers and artists. However, as a brand communicator meticulously trained on a specific set of data with carefully updated parameters, it could be invaluable. NVIDIA’s report notes that “many are now realising the value in developing custom models trained on their proprietary data to achieve brand-appropriate tone and personalised results in a scalable, cost-effective way.”

Generative AI trained on a company’s internal and customer-facing databases, web presence, and curated information resources could conversationally recommend, educate, and explain critical information to employees, customers, and business partners effectively and consistently. In an industry where communication relies on clarity and an understanding of large quantities of information, like procurement, the applications suddenly start to look a lot more appealing.

Chatbots and negotiation bots trained to converse with suppliers, programmed with company approved negotiation tactics and the latest pricing information, could automate a great deal of complexity out of the Source to Pay process.

I think the looming issue is the impact of generative AI adoption on a company’s Scope 3 emissions, as 2024 will unquestionably be defined by greater scrutiny on these sources of pollution. However, it seems that however many issues the more widely known aspects of generative AI have, the technology itself could still have a role within the procurement function of the near future.

Does it justify all the investment, hype, and endless industry media thinkpieces? I guess only time will tell. 

By Harry Menear

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

8 February 2024

Estimated Read time

2Mins

An overabundance of digital solutions and a dearth of trust in procurement data presents a unique challenge for CPOs.

The digitalisation of the procurement sector is well underway, with the global procurement software market set to grow by $11 billion over the next decade, with demand for cloud-based procurement solutions and automated and efficient procurement processes driving this revenue growth.

Procurement efficiency drive

However, a proliferation of digital tools across the procurement landscape points to the growing danger of inefficiency and lack of clarity when it comes to CPOs’ digital transformation strategies. A report by procurement software vendor Productiv found that “procurement and IT are being inundated with software access, vendor intake and renewal requests,” leading to a 32% uptick in the number of SaaS apps procurement departments are running, and a steadily growing workload for purchasing departments as they manage, on average, 700 vendors across various indirect procurement categories.

“This patchwork of tools across various steps of the vendor management lifecycle has created technology, team and data silos,” notes Aashish Chandarana, Chief Information Officer, Productiv. “Instead of increasing efficiency, these tech stacks start adding up to a lot of manual work to bring everything together.” The result is less time and less data to support generating meaningful insights to drive the necessary efficiencies that procurement needs to start producing for the business.

Frequently, it also seems, procurement spends so much time managing sprawling, disconnected tech stacks, that it doesn’t have the time to ensure its data is trustworthy either. A SpendHQ report found last year that “79% of non-procurement executives express limited confidence, or none at all, in utilising procurement’s data for making strategic decisions.” CPOs might recognise the critical nature of accurate data in driving decisions, but so far it seems as though the industry is struggling to ensure the accuracy and reliability of procurement data throughout the wider organisation.

Big Data potential

The potential of big data, effectively harnessed, is tremendous in the procurement process—potentially creating true visibility in otherwise murky or completely opaque value chains, highlighting opportunities for cost containment and efficiency, and helping flag risk factors that could preempt disruption.

Organisations looking to maximise the potential applications of data within their organisations need to be simultaneously mindful of the need for a decluttered tech stack and verifiable, trustworthy data if they are to avoid the pitfalls currently affecting the sector. 

By Harry Menear

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

7 February 2024

Estimated Read time

5Mins

Costas Xyloyiannis, CEO of HICX, discusses why it’s time for leaders to take a fresh view of the data problem, and plan to reduce emissions.

The start of the year is a good time for business leaders to consider their progress against net zero commitments. It also nudges us nearer to carbon-cutting milestones, the nearest of which is in 2030. By this time, businesses across the globe need to have halved their carbon emissions. So, if they haven’t already, now is the time to step up delivery.

But first, there’s a barrier to overcome. Behind every credible net zero win, is credible carbon data. The problem is it’s in very low supply. Good data relies on good emissions information from suppliers, and securing it is notoriously difficult.

As 2024 gets off to a start, it’s time for leaders to take a fresh view of the data problem, and plan to notably reduce emissions. To enable net zero success, we can assess supplier relations in three areas: the power play, digital processes, and a principle that works tremendously well in marketing.

Suppliers are in the power seat

Gone are the days when suppliers view their role as subservient. If the Covid-19 pandemic showed business leaders anything it’s just how much they depend on suppliers – and not just a strategically relevant few. In 2020, we saw non-strategic suppliers, such as PPE and IT providers, become crucial to operations overnight. Since then, businesses have continued to need a broader range of their supplier networks. When further supply chain disruptions brought continued uncertainty, that dependence deepened. Today, as businesses require increasing amounts of carbon information, the fact that we need suppliers is cemented.

Despite this, how big businesses work with their suppliers is often outdated and counter-productive to their goal of gathering good information.

Digital processes are in the Stone Age

Bringing supplier relations into the 2020s will take some serious shifts. First, it’s time to assess the digital processes for managing suppliers, which frankly are not up to the task. A hybrid setup of old and new technology, often poorly integrated, stops procurement teams and their suppliers from communicating well. It causes other friction too, like logging in and out of multiple tools just to perform simple tasks, a headache for both parties.

Additionally, the various tools are data traps. Every time a supplier uses a tool, it collects and stores their data. Siloed in this way, supplier data can quickly become duplicated and outdated, because it’s difficult to maintain. Unreliable master data is no good at fuelling automated workflows, and so procurement teams get stuck with manual processes.

These clunky manual processes together with the frustrating communication methods are not a recipe for successful relations. Given that businesses lean so heavily upon suppliers to receive data for carbon reporting, it’s fair to say that the approach to supplier relationships must change.

Friction is building

When starting a business relationship, most suppliers don’t sign up for this level of friction. What they expect is to put in their first purchase order, deliver their first product, send their first invoice, and repeat. In a perfect world, they will simply transact and renew.

In practice, however, the relationship is not so simple. Businesses need more from suppliers than just transacting – for one, they need a significant amount of information for compliance and innovation reasons and of course on carbon activity. So, businesses send their suppliers an abundance of information requests.

Suppliers, then, who simply want to transact, must field these requests. Further bugbears such as manual processes, disparate ProcureTech setups and poor communication practices, make it difficult to respond. A recent Supplier Experience survey found that over a third of suppliers are expected to login to 10 or more systems, nearly half struggle to resolve queries with their biggest customers, and 61% find it challenging to do their best work. Yet, while suppliers don’t find the situation productive, it continues. Why? Because businesses need their carbon information.

Suppliers want a partnership

An important consideration is that suppliers have agency. When they have limited stock or an idea, they can choose who gets it. When it comes to making the effort to dig up vital carbon information they have a choice. This isn’t to say that suppliers purposefully hold information back. This would be unlikely because they too want the relationship to work. But when they are swamped trying to fulfil their original mandates whilst figuring out complex tech and deciphering information requests, the little time and energy they do have to provide information might well go to a customer-of-choice.

It’s no different in the consumer world, where shoppers decide which brands to buy from. Businesses can’t force consumers to buy from them, so marketing teams get involved and work their magic. They encourage people to spend their hard-earned, limited money on products which they may or may not need, by showing them value, often in the form of an emotional appeal.

Similarly, businesses can’t force suppliers to spend their limited time giving carbon information. But they can sweeten the experience. There’s an opportunity, therefore, for Procurement teams who manage suppliers to change things up. Rather than bombarding suppliers with information requests that they will struggle to fulfil, they can borrow the principle of ‘encouragement’ from Marketing. Procurement can show value to suppliers, according to what’s important to them, with the view to receive value in return. 

So, as we start a new year, business leaders can take a fresh perspective on how suppliers are engaged. By understanding the dependence on suppliers, this relationship can be improved. Ultimately, by viewing suppliers as partners, simplifying digital processes and “marketing” to them, business leaders can lay the groundwork for net zero.

By Costas Xyloyiannis, CEO of HICX

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

6 February 2024

Estimated Read time

5Mins

Luke Abbott, Co-Founder and CEO at Equipoise, discusses the art of accelerating sustainable procurement with artificial intelligence.

In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, sustainability is not just a buzzword; it’s a necessity. As organisations strive to reduce their environmental footprint and drive social improvements in their supply chains, sustainable procurement emerges as a pivotal strategy. With the advent of artificial intelligence (AI), the potential to revolutionise sustainable procurement practices has never been more promising.

Understanding sustainable procurement

Sustainable procurement is the integration of environmental, social, and economic considerations into procurement decisions, to reduce adverse impacts upon society, the economy, and the environment1. As businesses grapple with the repercussions of climate change, dwindling resources, and increasing stakeholder demands, sustainable procurement offers a pathway to not only mitigate risks but also seize new opportunities.

The AI advantage in sustainable procurement

AI, with its ability to process vast amounts of data, automate tasks, and identify intricate patterns, is poised to be a game-changer for sustainable procurement. By leveraging AI, organisations can:

Enhance sustainability data collection

Scope 3 is the hottest topic in sustainable procurement and many organisations are grappling with the question of how to measure the greenhouse gas emissions of their suppliers. Understanding this, especially beyond the first tier, requires extensive data collection. If you were to focus on your top 100 suppliers and ask your tier n-1 suppliers to do the same, when you get to tier 3 (which is probably nowhere near the end of the supply chain) you need to engage a staggering one million companies. At this point, manual data collection and analysis is out of the question for time-strapped organisations. AI tools, such as Avarni2, streamline this process, ensuring comprehensive and accurate data acquisition.

Predictive analytics for sustainability risk management

Managing sustainability risks in today’s intricate global supply chains presents challenges such as monitoring vast supplier networks, handling overwhelming sustainability data and rapidly adapting to sanctions, media reports and regulations, all while maintaining a pristine reputation. AI offers a solution by providing real-time monitoring of supply chains, predictive analysis of potential disruptions, seamless data integration for a comprehensive view, automated reporting for enhanced transparency, and scenario analysis for strategic planning. AI tools, like Versed AI3, continuously monitor vast amounts of supply chain data, ensuring real-time tracking of sustainability factors. This real-time monitoring allows companies to identify potential risks before they escalate, enabling procurement teams to proactively address disruptions and uphold sustainability standards.

Automation

According to Deloitte’s 2023 Global Chief Procurement Officer Survey4, over 70% of CPOs have seen an increase in procurement-related risks, and only a quarter feel equipped to predict supply disruptions timely. Furthermore, internal challenges like talent loss and organisational complexities add to the burden. By automating routine tasks, AI not only alleviates these pressures but also empowers procurement professionals to focus on high-value initiatives, such as supplier education on sustainability priorities. Generative AI tools like ChatGPT can expedite market research, strategy formulation, and contracting processes, allowing teams to be more agile and responsive in this volatile environment.

AI in action

Unilever’s Sustainable Living Plan5 has been at the forefront of leveraging AI to drive innovation in sustainable procurement. In 2023, Unilever highlighted how they have been using AI and digital technologies, from the launch of their first digital tool to the recent formulation of the world’s first green carbon detergent6. 

“We’re using AI to help identify alternative ingredients that can strengthen the resilience of our supply chain, making our formulations more sustainable and cost-efficient, and simplifying them by reducing the number of ingredients without impacting a product’s quality or effectiveness.” –  Alberto Prado, Unilever R&D’s Head of Digital & Partnerships. 

Through a data-driven approach, Unilever has been making smarter, faster, and sharper decisions to optimise its portfolio of brands and products. Their commitment to sustainability is further emphasised by their ambitious goals, which include climate action to achieve net zero, reducing plastic usage, regenerating agriculture, and raising living standards within their value chain7. 

Limitations and due diligence

While AI offers transformative potential, it’s crucial to recognise its limitations. The accuracy of AI predictions and recommendations hinges on the quality of data fed into the system. In the realm of sustainable procurement, this means ensuring that the data sources are reliable and comprehensive. Regular audits, cross-referencing with trusted databases, and continuous training of AI models are essential to maintain the integrity of AI-driven insights. 

The 2023 Gartner Hype Cycle for artificial intelligence8 underscores the significance of addressing the limitations and risks of fallible AI systems. It emphasises the need for AI strategies to consider which innovations offer the most credible cases for investment, ensuring that AI’s transformative benefits are realised while mitigating potential pitfalls.

The future of AI in sustainable procurement

As we gaze into the future, the synergy between AI and sustainable procurement is poised to grow stronger. With advancements in machine learning algorithms, natural language processing, and predictive analytics, AI’s potential to drive sustainability will only amplify. The Gartner report highlights the rise of generative AI, which is reshaping business processes and redefining the value of human resources. Such innovations, including generative AI and decision intelligence, are expected to offer significant competitive advantages and address challenges associated with integrating AI models into business processes.

However, a conservative outlook suggests that while AI will be a significant enabler, the onus remains on organisations to embed sustainability into their ethos and operations.

In conclusion, as the business landscape becomes increasingly complex, the fusion of AI and sustainable procurement offers a beacon of hope. By harnessing the power of AI, organisations can not only navigate the challenges of today but also pave the way for a sustainable and prosperous future.

Luke Abbott, Co-Founder & CEO @ Equipoise

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

5 February 2024

Estimated Read time

5Mins

From cost-containment to carbon emissions, here are the 10 things that should be top of mind for every chief procurement officer in 2024.

In the year to come, procurement will continue to transition from a back office function to a boardroom value-driver. Chief Procurement Officers and other leaders will need to increasingly reevaluate their relationships to the rest of the business as procurement not only becomes an increasingly vital source of business wins, but also a central piece of the puzzle when it comes to emissions reduction and resilience throughout the supply chain.

From generative AI to the skills shortage, there’s a lot that CPOs could be focusing on in the year ahead. We’re kicking off the new year with our list of the top ten things CPOs should be prioritising in 2024.

1. Drive significant value for the business

That’s why the first priority of all CPOs in 2024 is to apply technology, new operational organisation, hiring practices, sustainable strategy, cost containment, and every other trick and technique in order to create value for the business. Increasingly, CPOs are transitioning from logistical and cost-cutting functionaries to “orchestrators of value” and that will only become more apparent as the year (and decade) wears on.

2. Drive digital transformation

As mentioned before, procurement is a process that’s reinventing itself before our very eyes, embracing new digital technologies and ways of working that increase efficiency and drive value for the business. CPOs are increasingly important integrators of technology into the business, and should all be prioritising ways to implement technology over the coming year. However, it’s important to beware that technology for technology’s sake is even more dangerous than sticking it out with a legacy system… 

3. Reduce environmental impact

Knowing may be half the battle, but once CPOs have an understanding of the environmental impact their S2P process has, they must prioritise finding ways to mitigate that impact. From a stricter regulatory landscape to a more perceptive and angry public, a meaningful environmental sustainability strategy is no longer “nice to have” or even necessary: it’s long overdue.

4. Understand your Scope 3 emissions

More than 60% of procurement leaders in the US, UK, and Europe surveyed in a recent report say that their Scope 3 emissions reporting process is more of a “take your best-guess” approach than a process of gathering concrete, reliable information.

The S2P process is one of, if not the, biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions for every company on earth, and understanding the consequences of working with one supplier or another (and then accurately reporting that information) is a huge part of the journey to net zero. CPOs who fail to prioritise transparency in their S2P process will find themselves actively hindering their organisations’ environmental ambitions at a time when procurement has the potential to be the biggest driver of positive environmental impact in many organisations.

5. Cultivate your supplier ecosystem 

As much as technology is playing a bigger and bigger role in the procurement process, no CPO should discount the importance of building genuine, strategic relationships within their supplier ecosystem. Obviously, some industries are doing better than others, but in many areas (like the fashion industry, where “Those in charge of contracting suppliers for fashion brands say they are investing in longer-term strategic partnerships,” but their suppliers “tell a different story”) there’s still need for improvement. 

6. Don’t buy into the hype (too soon)

In 2021, it was self-driving cars. In 2022 it was the metaverse. And last year saw the world get absolutely bent out of shape over the promise of generative artificial intelligence. However, much like NFTs and blockchain (another thing everyone was spending a lot of money trying to figure out how to make money from for a while), the promised trillions of dollars of economic impact from these technologies has yet to translate into meaningful business applications. Even the hyperloop was abandoned this year.

Procurement is an area with a huge amount of potential for digital transformation, and adopting the right technologies for the right reasons is what’s going to separate industry-defining success stories from all those dudes who went blind at the Bored Ape Yacht Club convention.

7. Mitigate risk to the supply chain

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the global source to pay (S2P) process has transitioned from a “just in time” approach to a “just in case” one. As climate change disrupts agriculture and manufacturing across the global south, and events like the Yemeni blockade of the Suez canal in order to hinder Israel’s occupation of Palestine hinder the movement of goods between regions, CPOs should prioritise diverse buying strategies that mitigate risk to their S2P processes.

8. Be a source of cost-containment

Inflation was a defining characteristic of the economy in 2023, as corporate price gouging (amid other factors) caused cost-of-living to spike. In a world of rising prices, and supply chain unpredictability, controlling costs will fall increasingly to CPOs in 2024. Cost reduction targets have been hit less consistently across the industry in the last few years, thanks largely to inflation and the pandemic’s disruption of global supply chains. Going into the year ahead, CPOs who can find a way to successfully meet their cost containment targets will find themselves with a serious leg up over their competition.

9. Don’t lose existing talent

The world is in the midst of a growing resurgence in the power of labour, as class consciousness and anti-capitalist sentiment rise. The old propaganda about loyalty to companies that would replace that employee in a heartbeat doesn’t work anymore, and workers are increasingly understanding (and demanding) their true worth, and it sent shockwaves through the service, autoworker, and entertainment industries in the US last year alone.

With the tech sector still leading the world in brutal mass Q4 firing and rehiring strategies, and labour movements within massive logistics firms like Amazon growing stronger by the day, 2024 promises to be defined by more strikes and other examples of direct action, not less. CPOs in the middle of a talent shortage should prioritise giving their employees reasons to stay beyond gym memberships and company pizza parties.

10. Hire top talent

The nature of procurement is changing. As the discipline becomes increasingly digitalised, not to mention plays a more strategic role within the modern enterprise as a whole, the skills that make for a good procurement professional aren’t the same skills that were on job listings ten, or even five, years ago.

In 2024, CPOs should constantly reevaluate the skills necessary not only to do the job now, but to tackle the procurement challenges of the next few years when hiring.

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

2 February 2024

Estimated Read time

8Mins

In our new feature, Shaz Khan takes us through a day in his life leading operations as CEO at Vroozi.

The procurement industry is on the cusp of a golden age. The quality and breadth of software that we will have at our disposal will be able to solve pain points in ways we have never seen before. As CEO of Vroozi, every day is spent with the mission of trying to spearhead these innovations in sourcing and procurement tech forward. However, in order to keep a proper work-life balance and not burn the candle at both ends, I have to ensure that my days are organised in such a way that I can maximise productivity while leaving enough room to let my mind and body recharge.

My mornings typically look the same. I wake up every day at 6am and I spend the hour either checking emails or getting on phone calls with partners and clients who are located in different time zones. My wife and I love a great cup of coffee and she brews a mean French press every morning which I happily imbibe as we prep to take our youngest child to school.

After morning drop off, I always do some type of workout from 8am to 9am, a quick morning hike, weight training, or some type of cross-fit routine. Physical activity is important to me and I like to get my blood pumping first thing in the morning. I am based in Los Angeles and I love to take advantage of the favourable climate and conduct my daily morning leadership meetings when possible. We have built a great team and culture at Vroozi and I always want to start the day with complete alignment on our company objectives.

For the rest of the morning, I am involved in a mix of meetings with management, status calls with different departments, and direct sales calls. I try to schedule most of my meetings during these hours so that by 1pm, I can focus on my own work without distraction. I fit lunch somewhere within these time slots depending on when I find an opening, but it ranges from day to day. From 1pm to 4pm, I get to do the work I need to do to review items of importance — from various documents, contracts, or simply just game planning and overall strategy.

As a CEO, there are three major areas I am laser focused on. The first area involves evangelising the overall vision of the company, both internally and to the outside market. It is important to set a solid vision and mission statement for your team but also provide clear guidance to the market on your differentiators, value proposition, and capabilities in the simplest of terms. My second responsibility is Chief Recruitment Officer. I want to ensure that I am actively recruiting and building the best team. Of course, a big part of that involves hiring talent from outside the company, but I strongly believe in promoting from within — ensuring there is a proper promotional path for high performers within the company.

The third responsibility has two components: Innovation and Sales. I subscribe to the notion that tech CEOs should spend 50% of their energy innovating on the product and the other 50% driving sales and distribution for the product lines. CEOs need to educate themselves on the products and services that they’re selling and how to sell it. You cannot offload that responsibility to other people. You should immerse yourself in all aspects of the product and influence the roadmap of that product. That’s why it’s critical to be able to support sales efforts directly or indirectly.

After 4pm, I check in with the management team to see if there are any urgent action items or issues that need to be unblocked. I like to spend a portion of my day with core management to ensure we understand organisation goals and that we’re doing what is needed to achieve them. If we see some slips in the process, we’ll address the things we need to do to fill in those cracks. We are a tech company and much of our focus revolves around the pace and quality of innovation with our software platform. Are we responding to customer needs quickly? How quickly are we approving new features on a product roadmap that we feel is meaningful to the company mission? How quickly are we demonstrating value not only to our existing customers but to prospects in our sales cycle? Are we retaining customers and growing with them?

Shaz Khan, CEO, Vroozi

When selling software, customer retention and expansion is critical. We strive to maintain the same level of enthusiasm, service level, innovation and attention for both our long-standing customers and new customers in a consistent manner. The same way you expect a retail chain at a mall to look and feel relatively the same whether you are in Texas or California, we want our services to be consistent and world-class regardless of region and market.

As top management, you should not be the final verdict in every required key decision. You should be able to empower leadership with a framework for decision making and risk management and trust that business is moving in a continuous state of motion. You have brought leaders in for that very purpose—to lead departments, mitigate risk, and execute strategy. However, problem solving is absolutely a necessary part and art for any C-Suite executive. My approach is very action-based. If there is a problem in a department that I see is not getting addressed to the company’s satisfaction, I will actively pull up a chair and sit down with that department to ensure we don’t leave until we outline an approach to solve the issue at hand.

Leaders need to entrust the team that they have gathered around them to solve day to day problems and challenges. But CEOs also need to be active so that problems in the business can be addressed and remediated quickly.

I also draw a line in the sand where I will never go searching for problems to solve. There’s a trust that you build with your executive team to get that work done. Regardless if I’m handling the problem or one of my direct managers is handling it, I believe that if any item will take you less than 10 minutes to complete, get it done immediately. This is how you are able to streamline business operations without letting issues pile up month after month unaddressed.

Once I deal with any important matters at hand with upper management, I’ll take a break and wind down with dinner with the family or coaching my daughter’s league basketball teams. My last shift of the day is around 9pm where I will check in with our international team and partners and customers. I take any calls required from those overseas teams when it comes to product development or sales opportunities.

After 10pm, I make sure to shut down and prepare for the next day. It’s important to set boundaries when you’re off the clock. I don’t subscribe to the philosophy that you have to work all hours of the day to prove your worth. Being CEO will already require plenty of sacrifice and commitment within the title. You have to always be on and there is no real concept of a weekend or a holiday. But that does not mean that we must burn out. I always try to find time to disconnect and decompress, whether with music, art, or physical activities.

The procure-to-pay industry will see some dramatic and fantastic changes in the next couple of years and Vroozi is positioned to not only adapt to these changes but to lead these changes with our AI-based technologies. There will be an increasing proliferation of technologies within the procuretech ecosystem that will augment company resource pools with smart AI-enabled assistants. These advanced tools will streamline purchasing and payment transactions, and foster improved collaboration between buyers and suppliers, ultimately enhancing supply chain operations.

In the next three years, procure-to-pay will emerge as a vital organisational function, not only driving improved operating margins and enhancing productivity through intelligent document processing but also acting as a key catalyst for innovative supply chain developments between suppliers and buyers. This will involve capabilities that will span predictive analytics on pricing trends, supply chain scenario planning, and digital payment alternatives with AI assistants who will recommend the best course of action to take—both within the software technology map, but also with additional solutions beyond it to further strengthen your business case or outcome.

With these changes on the horizon, I anticipate shifts in my day-to-day. Before COVID, I was on the road for half the year, as I firmly believe you have to be physically present whenever possible rather than relying on management via Zoom or other video conference tools. As we continue to expand in 2024, I expect to dedicate more time to travel, engaging directly with customers, partners, and participating in key events.

As I prepare to hit the road this year, my typical day will often look different. However, regardless of my location, my routine will maintain a structured focus on developing the best possible product and getting that product in the hands of as many customers as possible.

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

1 February 2024

Estimated Read time

7Mins

CPOstrategy explores this issue’s Big Question and uncovers if now is the greatest time to be in procurement.

Procurement has a unique opportunity.

Amid unprecedented digital transformation and innovation, it finds itself in a state of flux and momentum. For professionals who like change, procurement is the place for them. The years of procurement standing still are long gone, its position in the c-suite is only becoming increasingly secure and prominent.

As Covid outlined, businesses need flexible and agile supply chains that are equipped to deal with local or global disruption based on macroeconomic factors. This could be an aforementioned pandemic, wars like the ones we’ve seen in Ukraine and Israel in recent years or other external issues such as the Suez Canal disruption or inflation concerns. Procurement’s time is now. 

At DPW Amsterdam 2023, the notion that procurement exists in today’s world as an exciting function that spearheads the c-suite. In comedian and host of DPW, Andrew Moskos’, opening welcome, he noted procurement’s transformation and shouted. “Procurement used to be boring but now we’re all rockstars. We run the company, we’re in the c-suite, we run ESG, sustainability, risk and 80% of the spend of a company goes through us.” His message was met with loud applause from a capacity crowd at former stock exchange building Beurs van Berlage.

Michael van Keulen, CPO, Coupa

According to Michael van Keulen, Chief Procurement Officer at Coupa, it’s the feeling of ‘no two days are the same’ which keeps him energised and feeling refreshed about meeting new challenges in the space. “I wear so many different hats every single day,” he explains. “I always say sometimes I’m an accountant, others I’m an environmentalist. Sometimes I’m the treasurer or a finance person, but I’m also sometimes a psychiatrist. Sometimes I’m a doctor, a nurse, a lawyer, a judge, an environmentalist and yes even a wizard.

“I never know what my day looks like. I can plan it, but something may happen where everything goes out the window. Procurement will always be going through some type of disruption. It’s about how you drive the competitive edge and how you drive value despite that. Procurement is the best gig in the world. It’s great that more people have started to see that now too.”

Right now, generative AI is the latest craze causing quite the buzz in procurement. Indeed, its noise is loud with its true influence yet to be determined. But it’s worth remembering generative AI didn’t start with ChatGPT in 2022. Chatbots actually go back to the 1960s. Among the first functioning examples was the ELIZA chatbot which was created in 1961 by British scientist Joseph Weizenbaum. It was the first talking computer program that could communicate with a human through natural language. But, given the introduction of a far more advanced model – ChatGPT – gen AI isn’t just making waves in procurement but across industries globally too.

Daniel Barnes, Community Manager, Gatekeeper

For Daniel Barnes, Community Manager at Gatekeeper, the stakes are high. As a self-confessed change agent, he believes procurement stands at a make-or-break moment. “You’ve got people who are stuck in the past that are archaic with what they’re doing. Then there’s those who are really pushing the profession forward,” he explains. “I see it as a moment in time where procurement kind of goes one in two ways. It’s extinct in terms of how it used to be. There’s solutions which have automated workflows and are doing the work that traditional procurement people used to do. We can pull people along, but there has to be a willingness to change or it’s not going to happen. That’s why I think it’s great to see people that are showing that willingness. They may not have the answers, but they want to learn.”

Alan Holland, CEO, Keelvar

According to Alan Holland, CEO of Keelvar, he is bullish and optimistic about procurement’s future, stressing that decision-making for the function is easier than ever before. Holland affirms tomorrow is “very bright” as procurement enters an era with intelligent software agents that can automate workflows and make the human workday more efficient. “There’s a whole new range of possibilities where creative and thoughtful planning will provide a competitive advantage for organisations. Procurement can be far more influential in how successful their companies can be. It’s a game-changer.”

Scott Mars, Global V

Scott Mars, Global Vice President of Sales at Pactum, affirms procurement’s in its golden age given the number of vendors operating within the procuretech ecosystem has hit soaring heights. He tells us, “I was speaking with a CPO recently and he said 10 years ago you could name the procure to pay and ERP vendors on one hand, now there’s hundreds of them and all these periphery vendors for AI and spend. The most visionary procurement leaders aren’t just looking at these all-encompassing solutions, they’re bolting on niche solutions into their ecosystems to make their teams more efficient. I think we’ll start to see a consolidation in the coming years of all these little companies into a few larger players to do really an end-to-end type solution. I expect someone to come up with a solution to close the loop in procurement.”

Stefan Dent, Co-Founder, Simfoni

While procurement, like many industries, is still plagued by talent shortages, there is hope that AI could hold the answer. But while its influence is crucial in one hand, is there a risk that the industry could go too far the other way and become over reliant on technology? Stefan Dent, Co-Founder at Simfoni, believes soon Chief Procurement Officers will soon be thinking differently about their workforce. “This is arguably the best time for people to join procurement, as you’ve got this great opportunity to embrace digital and make it happen. Young people can question ‘Well, why can’t it be done by a machine?’ They’re coming in with that mindset, as opposed to fighting being replaced. I think for graduates coming into procurement, they’ve got the opportunity to play with digital which is a wonderful thing.”

Matthias Gutzmann, Founder, DPW Amsterdam

Today, procurement, and its professionals, find itself amid meteoric change. Indeed, its future could be anything. Matthias Gutzmann, Founder of DPW Amsterdam, believes it is time for procurement to create a buzz about the profession. “It’s the best time to be in procurement,” he explains. “It’s the most exciting era to be in procurement and supply chain. We need to get loud about it and celebrate that fact.” 

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

31 January 2024

Estimated Read time

7Mins

Timothy Woodcock, Director of Procurement at CordenPharma, discusses the new wave of change following acquisition and amid transformation

We have a bumper issue of fascinating exclusives this month!

Corden Pharma: Powering Change

Timothy Woodcock, Director of Procurement at CordenPharma, discusses the new wave of change following acquisition and amid transformation 

Change is here, get busy. Indeed, some organisations are further along a transformation journey than others.
For CordenPharma, a Contract Development and Manufacturing Organisation (CDMO) partner, they are right on track. 

CordenPharma supports biotech and pharma innovators of complex modalities in the advancement of their drug development lifecycle. Harnessing the collective expertise of the teams across its globally integrated facility network, CordenPharma provides bespoke outsourcing services spanning the complete supply chain, from early clinical-phase development to commercialisation. Recognised as a key partner to the pharma industry, CordenPharma provides state-of-the-art know-how, an integrated product offering end-to-end capabilities from early-stage development to commercial large-scale manufacturing. 

A closer look 

Timothy Woodcock has been the Director of Procurement at CordenPharma since October 2022 and is based in Basel, Switzerland. He explains that since joining over a year ago, while it was a “good start”, he admits to discovering some surprises after closer inspection. “There was a lot of information to get to grips with at the start and it was spread wide and thin,” he tells us. “But the team is certainly key and they have helped me pull it together through solid collaboration and engagement. Of course, there were a few surprises in the process realm, but that’s what makes this challenge so interesting to me.”

Read the full story here

carbmee: Carbon management for complex supply chains

Prof. Dr. Christian Heinrich, Co-Founder at carbmee, discusses his organisation’s journey to being the trusted solution provider for carbon management.

​​carbmee means carbon excellence for complex supply chains. It is the carbon management solution for automotive, manufacturing, chemical, pharmaceuticals, medtech, hi-tech, logistics, and FMCG industries. Whether to assess emissions holistically throughout the entire company, product or suppliers, carbmee EIS™ platform can create the transparency required for uncovering optimal emissions reduction potential and at the same time, stay compliant with upcoming regulations like CBAM.

carbmee’s journey

Christian Heinrich has been the Co-Founder at the organisation since January 2021. While some executives end up in procurement and supply chain by mistake, for Heinrich he affirms it was “always” the industry for him. As far as he’s concerned, collaboration is a big piece of the puzzle and Heinrich points to his diverse experience in a range of different industries and sectors which have helped him along the way to forming carbmee. 

“This was actually one of the reasons my co-founder Robin Spickers asked me to leverage my supply chain knowledge,” he says. “Robin had expertise in sustainability areas like Product LifeCycle Assessments and I had that in procurement and supply chain. We connected together and created carbmee to have scope 1, 2 and 3 solutions for carbon accounting and carbon reduction, which also combines the lifecycle analysis.”

Read the full story here!

Hemofarm: Strength through glocal procurement

 Zorana Subasic, Director SEERU & PSCoE Cluster Procurement at Hemofarm A.D. reveals how a glocal approach is transforming procurement at the pharmaceutical… 

Zorana Subasic is all about people. She heads up procurement for Hemofarm, the largest Serbian exporter of medicinal products, with a share of more than 70% of the total pharmaceutical. It sells pharmaceutical products on four continents in 34 states and, since 2006, has been part of the multi-national pharmaceutical giant STADA Group. 

Meeting the challenges

Zorana explains that her priority is focusing on people, both within her team and in the wider company, a priority that has been even more important during the last few challenging years and has impacted her leadership style.  ”These are areas that were new for me – managing people in ‘business as usual’ times is completely different to what we’ve been through in the last two or three years. It has affected people, and how it was for me to manage people in difficult times – understanding the challenges around us and making sure that people also understand the challenges.”

Read the full story here!

Elon: Procurement as a strategic partner

Onur Dogay, CPO at Elon Group, reflects on a year of procurement evolution and making the function an indispensable partner to the organisation…

A lot can happen in a year. Just ask Onur Dogay. In late summer 2022 he arrived in Sweden from his native Turkey to take the helm of a complex and evolving procurement environment at Elon Group AB, the Nordic region’s leading voluntary trade chain for home and electronic products. That he joined just a month after a significant merger that cemented the company’s market-leading position was no coincidence. Rather, Dogay was brought on board with a specific mission: use his industry experience and passion for transforming procurement to sustain the company’s market status while spearheading growth in new areas of retail and electronics. 

And he hasn’t slowed down since. In little over 12 months, Dogay has overseen a procurement evolution that includes setting a new data strategy that’s aligned with the broader company vision, shifting procurement’s role to be less transactional and more of a strategic business partner, improving communication and partnerships both internally and externally with suppliers, and overseeing the greater use of data and technology to enhance forecasting and planning capabilities. 

A seasoned procurement professional

A glance at Dogay’s CV to date leaves little surprise at his success. He is a seasoned procurement professional, with more than 20 years’ experience in procurement leadership positions working across internationally dispersed teams in Europe. “My background is particularly strong in retail, consumer electronics, telecom, and IT business units,” he explains, “including at Arcelik, one of the world’s largest manufacturing companies, and also for one of the biggest retailers in Europe, MediaMarkt. At the time of the merger in 2022 here at Elon Group, this experience, as well as the good relationships I had with many of the suppliers and brands we work with now, was the perfect match for the company.” 

Read the full story here!

Microsoft: A sustainable supply chain transformation

In the past four years, Microsoft has gained more than 80,000 productivity hours and avoided hundreds of millions in costs. Did you miss that? That’s probably because these massive improvements took place behind the scenes as the technology giant moved to turn SC management into a major force driving efficiencies, enabling growth, and bringing the company closer to its sustainability goals. 

An exciting time

Expect changes and outcomes to continue as Dhaval Desai continues to apply the learnings from the Devices Supply Chain transformation – think Xbox, Surface, VR and PC accessories and cross-industry experiences and another to the fast-growing Cloud supply chain where demand for Azure is surging. As the Principal Group Software Engineering Manager, Desai is part of the Supply Chain Engineering organisation, the global team of architects, managers, and engineers in the US, Europe, and India tasked with developing a platform and capabilities to power supply chains across Microsoft. It’s an exciting time. Desai’s staff has already quadrupled since he joined Microsoft in 2021, and it’s still growing. Within the company, he’s on the cutting edge of technology innovation testing generative AI solutions. “We are actively learning how to improve it and move forward,” he tells us. 

Read the full story here!

Click here to read the entire magazine!

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

Estimated Read time

4Mins

Data is the key to unlocking new opportunities and managing risk, but capitalising on the opportunities of data in procurement is not without challenges.

Over the past few years, the procurement sector has been thrust into the limelight, as CPOs are increasingly being identified as drivers of value creation, cost containment, and risk management.

In addition to business and process innovations, a lot of the changes in the role of procurement are due to a wave of digital transformation sweeping the industry. If digital transformation is the engine driving this elevation of the procurement function, then data is the fuel powering it.

Effectively capturing, organising, and utilising data to generate meaningful insights can produce significant benefits for the procurement process. However, costly investment into data analytics, flawed adoption strategies, and oceans of bad data can turn all the potential for wins into a whole new source of risk for the business. This week, we’ve gathered our top 3 challenges CPOs face when incorporating big data into their operations.

1. Bad data

No, I don’t mean Lore from Star Trek: TNG. Bad Data is a fundamental and pervasive risk to procurement professionals looking to empower their analytics. It’s also a far more widespread problem than many executives would like to believe. Last year, a report by SpendHQ found that 75% of procurement professionals doubted the accuracy of their procurement data, leading to almost 80% of executives outside the procurement function lacking confidence when it comes to making decisions based on that data.

In order for it to make any meaningful contribution to reducing costs, mitigating risk, promoting sustainability and driving meaningful change within the business as a whole, the data used by procurement has to be accurate. Pierre Laprée, chief product officer of SpendHQ, noted in the report that “procurement teams must do more to build and maintain influence within their organisations, including removing the dependency on spreadsheets to become more efficient.”

2. Choosing the right technology

Collecting, managing, and drawing insights from your procurement data is a matter of using the right digital tools. However, choosing the right digital tools—especially with CPOs often facing pressure from stakeholders to transform their operations digitally—can be a complicated prospect with potentially severe negative consequences ranging from sub-par outcomes and wasted budgets to catastrophic data breaches.

A report by Productiv found recently that, while “procurement and IT are being inundated with software access, vendor intake and renewal requests,” the number of applications and subscription services being managed by the average business has risen by more than 30% in the past two years. Combined with growing workloads, skill shortages, and an unclear vision for handling these growing technology stacks, Productiv’s report notes that “this patchwork of tools across various steps of the vendor management lifecycle has created technology, team and data silos. Instead of increasing efficiency, these tech stacks start adding up to a lot of manual work to bring everything together.”

3. Creating spend data visibility

Dark purchasing refers to the phenomenon of procurement expenses incurred outside a business’ defined procurement process. It’s uncontrolled spending that procurement can’t see, but that still gets added to their numbers at the end of the quarter.

Big data and procurement is often thought of in terms of its ability to help understand the world outside the business’ walls—logistics, pricing, supplier behaviour throughout the market in response to market changes—but effectively deploying data analytics to understand why dark purchasing is happening, when, and by whom is a vital step in figuring out how to reduce its impact on the company.

Unfortunately, this presents a serious challenge, as many procurement departments lack a cohesive data organisational strategy; data is often scattered throughout multiple silos in the organisation, hidden from procurement in much the same way that unapproved purchasing hides until quarterly expense reports. Overcoming this challenge and creating a holistic, accurate view of company spend—both within the procurement function and outside it—is one of the greatest opportunities and challenges presented by the infusion of big data into procurement.

By Harry Menear

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

30 January 2024

Estimated Read time

3Mins

B2B procurement is headed for a new, more dynamic, digitalised era defined by a more strategic approach to traditional processes and new challenges.

The procurement industry isn’t a back-office function anymore. Much like the transition of IT departments from obscurity to the C-suite over the past 10-15 years, procurement is making its way into the limelight.

“We are entering a new era of smart business buying where senior leaders are understanding the impact procurement can have on efficiency and overall company success,” said Alexandre Gagnon, vice president of Amazon Business Worldwide, at a recent Amazon Business event attended by more than 1,000 procurement leaders across the public and private sectors.

“The procurement function is now cross-disciplinary, spanning both functional and strategic purviews as buyers are planning to invest more in technology and optimisation while future-proofing their companies and organisations,” added Gagnon.

Procurement’s transition

The 2024 State of Procurement Report released by Amazon Business in conjunction with the event points to an array of indicators that the nature of procurement is fundamentally changing. From the traditional procurement workloads concerned with day-to-day purchasing, to a more recently emerged responsibility of future-proofing the business against disruption (by another pandemic, for example), procurement’s goals are “ever-growing”.

In order to keep up, the discipline is “transforming at lightning speed,” claims Gagnon in the introduction to the report.

Data gathered from over 3,000 procurement professionals supports this inclusion. Key findings include the fact that 95% of decision-makers say their organisation currently has to outsource at least a portion of their procurement to third parties, the fact that 95% of decision-makers say their procurement function has “room for optimisation”, and 53% of respondents who say their procurement budgets will be higher in 2024 than they were this year.

Tech-driven procurement

Technology investment is expected to be high on the agenda, as procurement leaders attempt to bring increased visibility and resilience to their departments. A remarkable 98% of decision makers said they were planning to invest in analytics and insights tools, automation, and AI for their procurement operations, with the (anonymous) VP of purchasing at a major global bank in the US saying that “Making investments in the right tools and technology [is critical] because you rely on data as a procurement organisation. There is … spend data, contractual data, invoices, and more. Without the right tools in place, you can only do so much [with your data].”

Reflecting on the changing role of procurement in the modern enterprise, Gagnon added that “Ultimately, procurement not only keeps operations running, but plays an integral role in achieving key organisational goals, and with smart business buying, companies have procurement solutions to serve as a growth lever for organisations.”

By Harry Menear

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

29 January 2024

Estimated Read time

2Mins

The assistant will use natural language processes and AI to perform “thousands of procurement tasks”.

The latest in a small flurry of generative AI-powered virtual procurement assistants is hitting the market. Earlier this month, Relish, a B2B app developer based in Ohio, announced the release of its new procurement assistant—a virtual assistant product powered by generative artificial intelligence and designed to intuitively interact with users while performing “thousands of procurement tasks”.

“What we’re offering is a solution that truly frees users from the menial to engage in the meaningful,” said Ryan Walicki, Relish CEO, in a statement to the press. He added that the Relish Procurement Assistant would revolutionise the way businesses handle their procurement systems and processes, claiming: “By leveraging large language models, this single interface spans all procurement systems and platforms and can be custom fit to any enterprise solution ensuring workflows are never interrupted.”

The rise of generative AI

Relish isn’t the first company to utilise a combination of generative AI and large language models, like ChatGPT, to create a more naturalistic interface between users and complex systems for managing data. In November, Californian tech firm Ivalua released an Intelligent Virtual Assistant powered by generative AI as part of its platform, making similar claims that the technology would eliminate busy work, freeing up employees for more strategic activities.

Relish works in a similar way, plugging into an existing procurement management platform, and using artificial intelligence and natural language processing to “intuitively interact” with users in a conversational way, giving them detailed insight into their workflows.

According to Relish, the technology can perform numerous tasks, including supplier management, sourcing, contract management, supply chain, and purchasing.

Where Relish differs from other offerings on the market is in its alleged ability to “[adapt] to any platform and workflow preference.”

According to Jeremy Reeves, Relish Senior Vice President of Product: “The adaptability helps users get the most out of their procurement enterprise software, maximising their return on the investment… It brings a new dimension to how users will go from being taskmasters to being conductors of their enterprise systems.”

By Harry Menear

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

26 January 2024

Estimated Read time

4Mins

Sapio Research found that just 48% of organisations are confident they are accurately reporting Scope 3 emissions through their P2P process.

More than half of the 850 procurement leaders in the US, UK, and Europe surveyed earlier this year could not claim to be “very confident” in their organisation’s ability to accurately report Scope 3 emissions, according to a new study conducted by Sapio Research and commissioned by Ivalua.

While 48% of leaders were confident in the accuracy of their companies’ reported emissions figures, nearly two-thirds (62%) of leaders surveyed admitted that “reporting on Scope 3 emissions feels like a ‘best-guess’ measurement.”

A significant majority of the organisations were confident that they are on track to meet net zero targets. However, the report also found that many don’t have plans in place for:

  • Adopting renewable energy (78%).
  • Reducing carbon emissions (68%).
  • Adopting circular economy principles (72%).
  • Reducing air pollution (67%).
  • Reducing water pollution (63%).

Procurement’s role

It has long been recognised that procurement has a vital role to play in the reduction of environmental impact in organisations’ supply chains, with as much as 90% of a company’s emissions falling within the Scope 3 band.

“Organisations are aware they must urgently address sustainability and understand the cost consequences of not doing so. But this lack of confidence paints a negative picture,” comments Jarrod McAdoo, Director of Sustainable Procurement at Ivalua.

“A lack of perceived progress could fuel accusations and fears of greenwashing, so it’s important to remember that obtaining Scope 3 data is part of the natural maturation process. Many sustainability programs are in their infancy, and organisations need to start somewhere. Estimated data can help determine climate impact and contribute to building realistic, actionable net-zero plans. Over time, organisations will need to make significant progress on obtaining primary Scope 3 data and putting plans in place, or risk financial penalties as well as ruining reputations in the long run.”

Regulatory and public scrutiny continues to mount against both public and private sector polluters. A report released in December highlighted the devastating annual emissions by militaries around the world, finding armed forces to not only be one of the world’s largest fossil fuel consumers (5.5% of all global emissions), but that the US military alone has a larger environmental impact than some developed countries. The scale of military contribution to the climate crisis, in addition to the lack of transparency when it comes to disclosing those figures, is a major issue that is also echoed in the private sector of the civilian world. 

Are some companies ‘unintentionally greenwashing?’

In the private sector, both activism and legislation continues to move (too slowly, but it’s a start) against corporations responsible for the climate crisis and pollution. In the UK, the High Court in London ruled that Nigerians affected by oil spills the corporation promised to clean up can bring legal action against the British multinational. The state of California is itself suing America’s largest oil companies for their role in exacerbating and covering up the effects of climate emissions for decades.

More recently, corporations that rank among the world’s largest polluters have been accused of adopting environmentally friendly rhetoric in order to make themselves appear more committed to environmental sustainability than they, in actual fact, are. The practice, known as “greenwashing”, has been criticised by politicians, activists, and members of the scientific community.

McAdoo notes that the inability to accurately report Scope 3 emissions—taking a “best-guess” approach—could be a contributor to organisations looking to avoid unintentionally greenwashing their emissions data by misrepresenting themselves.

“Nearly two-thirds of U.S. organisations agree that an inability to measure supplier emissions accurately makes it hard to turn words into action,” McAdoo continued. “There is a clear need to adopt a smarter approach to procurement. Organisations need granular visibility into their supply chains to ensure they can measure the environmental impact of suppliers but also collaborate with suppliers to develop improvement plans. Only with this transparency can organisations showcase meaningful sustainability progress and avoid accusations of greenwashing.”

By Harry Menear

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

25 January 2024

Estimated Read time

2Mins

Coupa Software and Acquis Consulting Group has released an eBook offering tips on how to navigate the challenges of the procurement landscape.

A new eBook from Coupa Software and Acquis Consulting Group providing guidance on how to navigate the challenges of the procurement landscape has been released.

The eBook offers real-life success stories from the likes of Dent Wizard, Sun River Healthcare and Eyecare Partners while uncovering essential strategies for enhancing efficiency and driving growth.

Additionally, the eBook provides expert guidance on mastering procurement and compliance in today’s economic landscape as today’s leaders are forced to re-examine their internal processes, particularly when it comes to business spend management.

As a result of rising inflation, as well as the cost of capital and labour, it has meant businesses need to identify new ways to improve margins, drive sustainable growth and scale productivity. However, many existing solutions at mid-market companies are already stretched to the limit.

This led to Dent Wizard, Sun River Healthcare and Eyecare Partners coming to the same conclusion – digital transformation can take painful and antiquated processes and make them stress-free and efficient.

The new eBook is considered a must-read for leaders seeking to overcome the complexities of today’s procurement space amid a challenging economic climate.

To find out more about how Dent Wizard, Sun River Healthcare and Eyecare Partners recommend organisations can transform their business spend management, download Coupa and Acquis’s free eBook here.

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

24 January 2024

Estimated Read time

3Mins

AI and Machine Learning-powered analytics could help security teams flag and prevent fraud in their procurement functions.

Procurement fraud is costly and hard to prevent, but with the right tools, organisations could see red flags earlier and respond in time rather than too late.

According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (CFE), organisations lose 5% of their annual revenue to fraud, with the median loss per case totalling $117,000, and the average being $1.7 million.

Supply chains and procurement functions are especially vulnerable to fraud—often comprising long and winding networks, intricate webs of relationships, vast inventory assets, and multiple transactions along the S2P journey. The procurement and supply chain functions of retailers and manufacturers are especially vulnerable.

Frequently, procurement fraud is the result of a malicious individual within the organisation, although vendors and partners can also be responsible. Bid rigging, intellectual property infringement, inventory theft, and product counterfeiting are all examples of occupational fraud within the procurement process.

To address these challenges, companies must implement proactive measures. The CFE report noted that nearly half of fraud cases occurred due to a lack of internal controls, or an overriding of insufficient existing controls. It also found that anti-fraud controls were effective, resulting in lower losses and quicker fraud detection.

Fraud is prone to thrive in the procurement process, and can have devastating consequences, but the fight against the threat isn’t hopeless, and new technologies are proving especially effective in stamping out the issue.

In addition to traditional anti-fraud measures like strengthening internal controls, performing due diligence, and conducting regular quality checks, organisations can fight fraud in their procurement and supply chain functions by harnessing the power of AI and Big Data.

Fighting fraud with Big Data

AI analytics of Big Data sets can do more than improve efficiencies and predict trends in the movements of goods; these types of analytics excel at pattern recognition and, once correctly trained, can identify subtle changes in activity within the procurement function and supply chain that could point to fraud.

According to Isabelle Adam, an analyst at the Government Transparency Institute in Budapest, and Mihály Fazekas, founder of the Institute and assistant professor in the School of Public Policy at Central European University, “With the increasing use of electronic and online administrative tools — such as e-procurement platforms — making administrative records readily and extensively available in structured databases, public procurement has become a data-rich area.”

This wealth of data, if improperly handled, can become a place for fraud to hide, but if big data analytics are applied, they argue, it “can serve as a tool for auditors to identify and prevent fraud and corruption.”

By Harry Menear

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

23 January 2024

Estimated Read time

4Mins

The top seven trends driving procurement’s transition from the back-office to the boardroom in 2024.

The year ahead has the potential to be a watershed moment for the procurement industry, as infusions of leading edge technology and process innovation conspire to enable procurement’s shift from spend management to strategic leadership. Increasingly, leadership is recognising the potential of procurement to guard against risk, drive sustainable practice, and be a key enabler in helping the business identify and capitalise on new opportunities.

Reflecting on the past several years, we’ve looked ahead to bring you the seven trends defining the procurement landscape heading into 2024 and beyond.

1. Procurement takes centre stage

Procurement is undeniably on a journey from being a back-office cost-cutting function to a key driver of strategic wins for the business. In 2024, procurement teams should continue to capitalise and build upon existing wins as they continue their optimisation journey. For those lagging behind, the time to begin their transformation from functionary to value orchestrator is now.  

2. More space strategic, value-add work

A vast majority of decision makers surveyed by Amazon Business last year revealed that they needed to outsource elements of their procurement function to a third party. It’s a known fact that the current procurement industry struggles with a lack of the necessary human resources, skills, and systems to keep pace with mission critical operational demands. With those demands only expected to get more complex in 2024, procurement teams need to find ways to spend less time on low value manual work and refocus their efforts on high-level, strategic activities. Adopting low-code platforms, AI, process automation, and other technology could be a way to execute on this necessary transformation.

3. More investment (and hype) surrounding AI, automation, and analytics

2023 was the year when generative AI exploded into the spotlight, attracting massive amounts of hype, interest, and investment. However, just a few weeks into 2024, you can see excitement starting to cool, as organisations struggle to find effective applications that justify the price of admission.

In 2024, we can expect to see massive AI utilisation in data analytics, in process automation, and other elements of the S2P process, but generative AI adoption in ways that produce meaningful benefits are likely more than 12 months away.

4. Low code, higher automation in S2P platforms

Managing the source to pay process is increasingly complex, and time consuming to orchestrate. In 2024, with pain points like this increasing complexity (due to climate instability, compliance regulations, etc.) and talent shortage, the adoption of more low-code platforms will increase the ability of procurement teams to automate significant elements of their operations.

5. Scope 3 comes under greater scrutiny

A recent report found that around two thirds of procurement professionals in the US, UK, and Europe feel that their Scope 3 emissions reporting is more “best-guess” than hard fact. With regulatory scrutiny—not to mention public opinion—growing less and less lenient with regard to greenwashing and climate inaction, procurement teams need to make 2024 the year they take meaningful action to create transparency beyond Scope 1 and 2 emissions.

This obviously represents a significant challenge. Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions are relatively straightforward compared to the sprawling, often opaque morass of Scope 3. Inaction is not an option, however, if organisations are to meaningfully pursue their net zero by 2030 targets. 

6. Mission-critical Big Data

Collecting, managing, and effectively drawing insights from big data is and will remain one of the defining challenges for the modern enterprise. A proliferation of data from IoT devices, cloud-based platforms, and a general increase in the amount of technology being integrated into the procurement process (not to mention an increase in awareness of how important it is to gather as much data as possible) is leaving some industry players overwhelmed.

Vast silos of data with no meaningful way to draw insights from the unstructured mass create more problems than they solve. 2024, then, should be the year that procurement not just recognises the importance of data, but the absolute criticality of putting systems in place to manage it effectively.

7. AI achieves greater autonomy in planning tasks

Even as the shockwaves of the COVID-19 pandemic recede from the global supply chain, macroeconomic forces still conspire to place increased pressure on supply chains and procurement teams. Forward planning is more important than ever and procurement professionals are finding themselves increasingly struggling to meet the demands of “a more complex, multi-tiered, more nuanced world.”

Using artificial intelligence to more effectively run scenario analysis could have a transformative effect on the S2P process, allowing low-touch planning driven by AI to eliminate manual work, analyse data at scale, identify and flag anomalies, and even start making suggestions to humans as to how to proceed. There is still some doubt over AI’s ability to handle tasks consistently with minimal human oversight, but the tide of public opinion is starting to change. 

By Harry Menear

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

22 January 2024

Estimated Read time

2Mins

New data from Emergen Research suggests the procurement technology market will be worth approximately $17.9 billion in 2032.

Increased adoption of cloud services, artificial intelligence (AI) and process automation are driving strong growth in the global procurement software market.

According to a report released this week by Canadian market research firm Emergen Research, the global procurement software market is expected to register a rapid revenue CAGR of 10.4% over the decade following the 2022 financial year—from a global valuation of $6.67 billion at the start of the forecast period to $17.90 billion in 2032.

The report’s authors found that “increasing use for cloud-based procurement solutions and rising need for automated and efficient procurement processes are key factors driving market revenue growth.”

The talent challenge

In the face of a talent shortage—exacerbated by growing demand and increasingly supply chain complexity—the report expects to see cloud-based procurement systems attain widespread adoption.

“Cloud-based procurement systems have many benefits such as easy deployment, flexibility, scalability, and lower infrastructure costs. This software allows for real-time access to procurement data, leading to better informed and timely decisions,” note report authors. “In addition, this software also makes it possible for companies to access procurement software at any time and from any location, which makes it easier to manage procurement procedures globally.”

Is automation the solution?

Artificial intelligence and machine learning will also support procurement teams in overcoming the pain points presented by the skill shortage, stricter regulations, and supply chain instability. The report suggests that the technologies—if correctly adopted—could be instrumental in “helping companies to automate increasingly complex procurement processes while enhancing decision-making.”

However, high up-front costs may present an insurmountable barrier to entry for some organisations, and a deterrent for others, the report notes. These costs include software licensing fees, implementation costs, training expenses, and any required hardware upgrades. Emergen researchers also note that concerns over data privacy and cyber security could slow adoption of cloud-based solutions.

By Harry Menear

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

19 January 2024

Estimated Read time

7Mins

Kathleen Anne Harmeston discusses some of the key items sitting on the 2024 agenda amid seismic digital transformation.

Procurement, in my opinion, has experienced one of the largest direct knock-on effects of unprecedented inflation and geopolitical issues over the last two years (including supply-chain issues caused by Brexit, the US-China Trade War, and European instability of the Russia-Ukraine War).

Procurement’s challenges

We are seeing this impact in the form of cost increases across nearly all industries and challenges in securing and maintaining reliable, dynamic, and cost-effective supply partners.

Boardrooms are struggling to understand why they should invest further funds to bolster the CPO remit, including investment to help them technologically revolutionise the business and the function. Possibly this is due to a lack of visibility on how procurement can be a high performing business partner, which offers a proactive, seamless, automated and value-adding service supporting profitability and ESG efforts. CPOs are now tasked to sell the benefits of investing in procurement over and above the safety blanket of ‘cost reduction’ as the signature sell.

The above obstacles will also be underpinned by the phenomenal opportunity of integrating AI into the procurement function alongside many other digitisation opportunities. Those companies who welcome technological innovation of their P2P systems and supplier management processes are likely to have better competitive advantage and risk management as a consequence.

Kathleen Anne Harmeston

CPO’s five key items on the 2024 agenda

The general consensus I have gained from speaking with my peers are:-

  1. Profitability (of course).
  2. Agility and digital readiness within the P2P and business management systems.
  3. Delivering ESG for the firm and not just  giving  “lip service” to the exercise.
  4. Risk management within the elaborate complex web of supply chain networks.
  5. Driving Innovation through the supply chain.

2023 saw the same old issues in limited control over and transparency in third-party spend. This was due to supply instability, semi manual processes, rising costs and value leakage from off-contract spend.  With this in mind, boardrooms are more likely than ever to push back on the CPOs call for further investment. But this creates a circular argument of investment needed in the function, combined with business’ commitment to approved supplier compliance to meet the board challenges in 2024. 

Moving to 2024

Digital readiness has become imperative as team members continue to work in hybrid or remote ways, but also because inefficient manual processes and limited digital visibility and automation of spend management causes significant lost opportunity and risk. Recent studies from KPMG and SAP show that 37% of procurement processes are still semi auto and manual and 77% of Executives complain they cannot access a good spend data real time. These studies have been further supported by research from Ivalua which states:

  • 53% of procurement and supplier management processes have yet to be digitised.
  • 22% of procurement teams estimate that they are wasting their time each year dealing with paper-based or manual processes.
  • 50% of procurement leaders think the rate of digitisation within procurement is too slow.
  • 47% say existing procurement systems are not flexible enough to keep up with constant change and market uncertainty. 

Inefficient procurement processes often result in disorganised data management and reporting -ultimately leading to executive frustration. These issues further invite problems such as duplication of payments or delays in payment.

What are the technological innovations for 2024?

The shape and structure of the procurement division in the future will change quite dramatically with the ever-increasing integration of AI. When the second wave of more sophisticated generative AI software arrives – which improves its reliability of output, data leakage, and data security – AI and machine learning may well plug the gap of manual human input for certain portions of the procurement division. With AI (or any kind of automatic digitization for that matter) we will soon embrace the automation and celebrate the headcount savings in procurement, and instead ask for investment in greater strategic skills and the next level of development for our procurement staff.

AI truly has the potential to transform procurement. From specifically supply chain management, to helping with demand forecasting and inventory management to logistics optimisation, new product development cycle time improvement, and supplier engagement. AI will also help with managing our spend via creating predictive reports for cost reduction opportunities.

Specifics for CPOs look for in 2024

Advanced AP Invoice Automation Platforms

Advanced accounts payable invoice automation platforms process invoices in any format with good speed and accuracy. It means going touchless eliminates the pain of managing paper invoices. By reducing the cost per invoice, shortening cycle times, and increasing spend control, these cloud-based electronic invoicing systems offer built-in matching and automatically identify errors, duplicates, and overpayments. They ensure payments are only made for ordered and received goods. Many APIA platforms can be tailored to specific organisational needs. This is with features like cognitive OCR invoice capture, smart coding, and invoice approvals to further streamline the process. These platforms can integrate with existing financial or ERP systems for seamless digital payments. While their advanced features like duplicate invoices and fraud checks, along with integrated exception handling, demonstrate the future of invoice processing in the P2P cycle.

Mobile P2P solutions

Mobile platforms are becoming more useful and available in the P2P process by shifting to cloud and software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions. The convenience of mobile apps allows users to manage procurement activities on the go. This is also while offering real-time access to crucial data and processes. This mobility not only increases efficiency but also enables quicker decision-making. CPOs can also integrate their P2P systems with other cloud-based applications, such as ERP, CRM, and BI, to create a seamless and holistic view of your procurement performance.

Data analytics and visualisation

Data analytics tools are the applications that enable you to analyse your P2P data in an actionable way. These tools will help you improve your decision making, performance measurement, and reporting. For example, you can use dashboards, charts, and graphs to visualize your spend patterns, savings achievements, and compliance levels. You can also use predictive analytics, machine learning, and natural language processing to generate forecasts for your P2P strategies. Visualisation software has also made huge strides in being able to share new product development ideas. This is also while helping progress the supplier collaboration and management agenda.

Integration of blockchain for greater transparency and security

Blockchain technology is rapidly transforming the P2P sector with its unparalleled transparency and enhanced security features. By integrating blockchain, businesses are able to establish immutable records for every transaction. This will significantly boosting both transparency and security within their procurement processes. This technology is particularly effective in fraud prevention and compliance adherence and supply chain tracking.  It ensures that each transaction is reliably recorded and easily verifiable, underscoring its growing importance in the P2P landscape.

Supplier collaboration

Supplier collaboration is the practice of building long-term and mutually beneficial relationships with your key suppliers, based on trust, transparency, and value creation. It can help you improve your supplier performance, reduce risks, and drive innovation. For example, you can use supplier portals, e-procurement platforms, and digital contracts to communicate with your suppliers more effectively. You can also use supplier scorecards, feedback mechanisms, and incentives to monitor and reward your suppliers for their performance.

Sustainability and social responsibility

Global supply chains are complex and can be multi-tiered. This presents a serious challenge for CPOs with limited visibility into the supply chains for sustainability and social responsibility.  AI-powered reporting will enable teams to keep track of supplier and product information. This is via using global data sources from different countries, regions and languages. The key is to raise the issues and gain the sponsorship to address the risks proactively. Mapping systems and technology can help but only if this policy is embedded within the business. There is movement from tier one contract management of supply chains to managing the supplier networks.

User experience and engagement

User experience and engagement with your P2P system, such as ease of use, functionality, design, and feedback is important for the function. Alongside engagement, it can help you increase your user adoption, satisfaction, and loyalty. For example, you can use mobile apps, chatbots, voice assistants, and gamification to make your P2P system more accessible, intuitive, responsive, and fun.

Concluding remarks

The P2P landscape in 2024 will be shaped by technological advancements and a shift in business priorities. From the integration of AI and blockchain to the emphasis on sustainability and mobile solutions, these trends are redefining how companies approach procurement and supplier relationships. Despite executive reluctance to engage in further investment, during periods of inflation and market stagnancy, digitisation must be embraced with the option to either pivot or perish. Adoption of new systems and processes requires training and capacity planning within procurement departments. This is so that the business-as-usual services can continue without a downturn in service levels. Businesses that adapt to these changes will enhance their operational efficiency and position themselves strategically for future growth and success.

By Kathleen Anne Harmeston, CEO, CXO, Director, Advisor, C Suite Coach

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

18 January 2024

Estimated Read time

2Mins

Fairmarkit has revealed a partnership with ServiceNow and unveiled an automated quoting integration in a bid to scale efficiency.

Fairmarkit has announced a new partnership and integration with ServiceNow to boost productivity for customers.

The company, which is a leading autonomous sourcing solution set on transforming the procurement of goods and services, has unveiled an automated quoting integration with the ServiceNow platform to drive efficiency.

Scaling efficiency

It is anticipated that the move will help enterprise procurement increase spend under management, source goods and services efficiently as well as operationalise DEI and ESG initiatives through an automated quoting process.

With Fairmarkit’s automation, AI and GenAI capabilities embedded within ServiceNow’s Source-to-Pay Operations solution, end users can automatically create, send and award quotations from within the ServiceNow interface which streamlines processes and decreases turnaround time for competitive quoting.

Buyers maintain the same level of user experience and functionality they expect from Fairmarkit sourcing including reduced cycle time, greater visibility into spend, higher savings and improved compliance and diversity maintenance from within the ServiceNow interface.

Initiated via a ServiceNow sourcing request, requests for quotes (RFQs) are automatically sent to suppliers and bids are collected and presented to the user for an award decision within ServiceNow. Once an award is made, a purchase requisition is created and the customer’s desired ServiceNow workflow is continued.

Revolutionising the way forward

Kevin Frechette, CEO of Fairmarkit, commented: “Fairmarkit’s integration with ServiceNow furthers our commitment to revolutionising the way all organisations buy and sell. We are fired up to work collaboratively with joint customers to ensure the most user friendly and efficient purchasing process possible.”

Kirsten Loegering, VP, Product Management – Finance & Supply Chain Workflows at ServiceNow, added: “From enterprise end users to seasoned procurement professionals, automated quoting with Fairmarkit will simplify the intake-to-award process, while also increasing opportunities for costs savings and efficiency gains. Establishing this partnership with the market leading sourcing solution opens the door for enterprises to bring more spend under management, enables end users to competitively quote with little effort, and paves the way for more value and less manual work.”

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

17 January 2024

Estimated Read time

2Mins

The ability to scale available space up or down on demand could provide procurement teams with an invaluable degree of flexibility.

From retailers to manufacturers, enterprises that handle large amounts of product and raw materials have always needed places to put it. As a result, the vast majority of industrial real estate is devoted to warehousing, with 11.1 billion of the 14.8 billion square feet of industrial real estate in the US classified as warehouse space.

Warehouse square footage is essential, not only to logistics, but to the procurement department. You can’t buy things if there’s nowhere to put them. Procurement teams working to support the needs of the business as a whole are therefore bound by the limitations of the physical space the business maintains for storage.

Changing demands

A procurement function’s ability to respond to changing demands—either from within the company or when performing direct procurement in anticipation of demand from without—is limited by the physical warehousing space maintained by the enterprise. However, more space isn’t always the solution, as real estate is costly to buy, develop, maintain, secure, and so on. Small and even medium sized enterprises may not have the capital or resources to maintain their own warehouse space, and—in an era of e-commerce-first business models—may have more distributed business models than can be supported if warehousing space is internally owned.

The answer to giving procurement teams the flexibility they need to store, move, and acquire necessary stock for the business could lie in On-Demand Warehousing.

On-demand warehousing

The model “allows eCommerce businesses to access warehousing solutions as and when needed, without making a long-term commitment, through a pay-as-you-go system,” write Dr Banu Ekren, Dr Ismail Abushaikha and Dr Hendrik Reefke in a recent report. By using a platform to purchase space within a larger warehouse on a short term basis, businesses gain the flexibility to grow (or shrink) their procurement of inventory in line with the demands of their business, without the need for long-term rental agreements or costly real estate purchases that the business “might” grow into down the line.

On-Demand Warehousing platforms can also reduce environmental impact by consolidating inventory from multiple buildings into singular facilities—reducing the need for heat, electricity, etc.

By Harry Menear

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

16 January 2024

Estimated Read time

3Mins

From shared responsibility to “blackmail”, an array of relationships exist under the umbrella of “partners” in the source-to-pay value chain.

Whether in earnest or just in cynical pursuit of a hot new buzzword, it seems like no one in the procurement and supply chain sectors actually buys things anymore. Instead, goods are sourced from a strategic partner—implying a simple transaction has been replaced by a closer, more meaningful and, supposedly, beneficial relationship.

For example, in the fashion industry—traditionally one of the most transactional industries for buyer-supplier relationships—McKinsey’s 2023 CPO survey found that even between fast fashion brands and their suppliers, relationships are becoming more strategic, long-term, and mutually beneficial.

The number of transactional relationships reported by CPOs in the fashion industry reportedly fell by more than 50% between 2019 and 2023, from 22% to just 10%. That number is predicted by McKinsey’s analysts to drop to just 3% by 2028, as more than half of relationships in the industry evolve into “long-term strategic partnerships with volume commitments”.

The future of strategic partnerships?

According to McKinsey, the future of strategic partnerships between procurement teams and their supplier ecosystems looks bright in the fashion industry. This should be good news across other fields like medical supplies, consumer goods, food, and industrial manufacturing—as fashion is perhaps the industry with the most historically hostile relationship between buyer brands and the suppliers who manufacture their clothes, often for no guarantee of purchase, at rates so low they often result in untenable labour conditions. If some of the most predatory supply chains on the planet can grow into thoughtful, considerate strategic partners, then it surely bodes well for the rest of the world.

Or it would, if any of that were particularly true.

I’m not saying McKinsey or the CPOs that took their survey were lying. I’m sure they truly do believe their transactional relationships are evolving into strategic partnerships. But, as Maliha Shoab pointed out in a piece for Vogue Business this week, while “Those in charge of contracting suppliers for fashion brands say they are investing in longer-term strategic partnerships,” their suppliers “tell a different story.”

The reality is that research conducted by Fashion Revolution found that just 12% of brands publish a responsible purchasing code of conduct (virtually the same as last year and the year before that), and data gathered by Sanchita Saxena—visiting scholar at the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights and senior advisor at human rights-focused consultancy Article One—points to truly collaborative and strategic partnerships between procurement teams and their suppliers being much rarer than procurement executives would seem to believe.

Reimagine supplier relationships

Some suppliers Saxena spoke to even characterised their relationships with fashion buyers as “blackmail”, revealing to Vogue Business that one supplier in particular recalled: “The company was threatening [us] saying, if we don’t agree on a reasonable discount, maybe next season [our] business volume might be affected. We were also told that if we don’t give the discount then there might be cancellations coming, and that kind of pressure… I wanted to give them a $20-25,000 discount, but eventually with the pressure I have to probably agree on almost double that amount… we didn’t want to offend them by any means.”

Other relationships were more mutually beneficial, and it does seem as though there is some action behind the partnership rhetoric in some areas of the fashion industry.

The point is, however, that procurement professionals’ imagined relationships with suppliers may be a whole lot more strategic than they actually are. There is a fundamental power imbalance between supplier and buyer in many industries, where small organisations farther up the value chain struggle to dictate terms to large corporations looking to cut costs more than build meaningful long term relationships.

By Harry Menear

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

15 January 2024

Estimated Read time

3Mins

The five most important challenges for procurement teams to meet in 2024 and beyond, according to Amazon Business.

It’s no secret that procurement is undergoing the same backroom-to-boardroom transformation (dare I say “glow up”) that the IT department went through over the last decade. If every business in 2023 is a technology business, then by the end of the decade, it doesn’t feel unreasonable to claim every business will be a procurement business.

However, with prestige and importance comes pressure. The modern procurement function already faces challenges, from supply chain disruptions and rising prices to the existential need to reduce emissions, which will only grow more complex as the discipline moves close to the forefront of the modern enterprise. It’s no wonder that, while Amazon Business’ “2024 State of Procurement” report found that the majority of procurement budgets (54%) were set to rise next year, an overwhelming number of respondents confirmed that their procurement functions are in need of optimisation.

With 2024 still in its first month, we’ve broken down the five highest priorities for procurement leaders to focus on over the next 12 months, as well as heading into 2025.

1. Retaining and developing existing talent

Lastly, even more important than attracting new talent, the number one priority for procurement teams in 2024 will be retaining the talent they already have, and developing those procurement professionals to marry knowledge of the business and industry with an understanding of new trends, techniques, and technologies.

2. Attracting top talent

A report released by Gartner in December found that more than 85% of procurement directors and executives believe that their teams contain “adequate talent” to meet the future needs of their organisations’ procurement function. The demands placed on procurement professionals are changing, as the adoption of new technologies make the profession more data-driven and strategically focused on business value creation than ever. An evolving profession means attracting new talent will be a vital priority for procurement leaders in the coming years.

3. Reducing purchasing costs

Cost was king before the pandemic and, while procurement teams may have more than just their bottom line in mind, it’s still one of the most important differentiators for the function. Not only is procurement a key driver of efficiency within the modern enterprise, but costs are rising across the industry, with Amazon Business reporting that “Costs and Budgets” were the leading risk factor facing procurement over the next two years.

4. Refining procurement practices across organisations

Even as a newly celebrated discipline with a greater role to play in the modern organisation, a key indicator of a successful procurement strategy is that, most of the time, other departments don’t know it’s there. A successful procurement function empowers other parts of the business to make purchases with autonomy, supporting them in making decisions that are compliant, efficient, and cost effective. Developing the procurement practices that create good procurement habits across an organisation—not just in the procurement department—will be a key priority for procurement teams going forward in 2024.

5. Building more resilient, agile supply chains

If the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic taught us anything it’s that disruption is not a matter of “if” but “when”. Global supply chains—driven almost exclusively by cost-cutting parameters for decades—were decimated by the pandemic, and in the wake of lockdowns it has emerged as hard-won wisdom that the procurement departments of the future need to look at more than cost when building a supply chain. In the Amazon Business report, 81% of respondents revealed that they have internal or external mandates to purchase from different types of certified sellers.

By Harry Menear

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

12 January 2024

Estimated Read time

6Mins

Blockchain promises added transparency and security for the procurement process, but are the benefits worth the price of admission?

Blockchain—the decentralised ledger technology that powers cryptocurrencies and NFTs—could be an immensely disruptive force in the procurement and supply chain management sectors. We’re going to take a look at how blockchain might impact procurement, and whether it represents a meaningful innovation or if the costs outweigh the benefits.

Blockchain: the hype

Using a combination of different technologies, including distributed digital ledgers, encryption, asset tokenization, and immutable record management, blockchain creates an unbroken and tamper-proof (in theory) chain of information.

For example, storing the entire service history of a vehicle, the transaction history of a house, or the provenance of a piece of art on a blockchain theoretically renders it trustworthy and incorruptible. A potential buyer could review the timestamped information included on the blockchain and be confident in its accuracy. In principle, blockchain could reduce or remove the need for intermediaries in highly regulated and complex transactions—like real estate, for example.

“Have you bought a house lately? Imagine if you could have transacted with the seller directly, even though you had never met, confident that the deal would be recorded in a way that neither of you could change or rescind later,” write Gartner analysts David Furlonger and Christophe Uzureau, suggesting that “You wouldn’t have to reconcile rafts of personal information with a real-estate agent, mortgage broker, insurance agent, property inspector and title company” if you were making a transaction using the blockchain.

Furlonger and Uzureau suggest that record keeping and verification is just the beginning and, once developed and combined with other technologies (characterised by lots of hyper and limited real world applications) like artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things, and the Metaverse, the real potential of the technology will be unleashed, creating “whole new social and economic constructs in the peer-to-peer age of Web3.”

Blockchain: the reality

In actuality, Blockchain outside of applications for cryptocurrency isn’t actually… very interesting? It’s certainly not new. Blockchain technology not used to underpin a cryptocurrency is just a distributed append-only data structure. Often there are some users that are allowed to make additions to the structure. In the real estate example used Furlonger and Uzureau, that might include the homeowner, a surveyor conducting an appraisal of the property, the utility company providing electricity and water to the house, and professionals hired to perform maintenance on the property. A private blockchain could collect and verify the history of a property like rings on a tree, and provide an authoritative account that is, in theory, free from tampering. The thing is, that sort of verification is called a consensus protocol, and they’ve been around since before the 1960s—as have append-only data structures.

The reality is that the new, shiny applications for blockchain aren’t actually very useful. Supposedly, Blockchain technology offers up a way to verify information (or conduct a transaction) without relying on an intermediary, or blindly trusting a third party. “Trust-less” is the phrase that gets thrown around a lot. However, the result is often that you’re just trusting the technology underpinning the blockchain over a human or a public institution.

Building trust

As Bruce Schneier pointed out in an article for WIRED, “When that trust turns out to be misplaced, there is no recourse. If your bitcoin exchange gets hacked, you lose all of your money. Your bitcoin wallet gets hacked, you lose all of your money. If you forget your login credentials, you lose all of your money. If there’s a bug in the code of your smart contract, you lose all of your money. And if someone successfully hacks the blockchain security, you lose all of your money.”

One glaring example was the 2019 case of cryptocurrency exchange CEO Gerald Cotten, who died while being the only person with the password necessary to access US$145 million worth of other people’s Bitcoin. Far from being trustless, it would seem the people who lost access to their money were placing their trust in a single individual who died, leaving them no physical or legal recourse to get their money back.

There’s also the very valid criticism of blockchain-based technology that it’s an environmental disaster. NFTs caught most of the heat for this over the past few years, but all blockchain-based technology needs to be stored somewhere in a constantly active server. As noted by the NASDAQ in a report from earlier this year, “The energy consumption of blockchain technology results in significant greenhouse gas emissions, which contribute to climate change.”

So, blockchain is bad?

Not necessarily. I, personally, will stake what reputation I have on the fact NFTs and cryptocurrencies are misguided and valueless gimmicks at best and insidious, cynical techno-cults (that burn fossil fuels more enthusiastically than the UV lights at the Bored Ape convention burned out crypto bros’ retinas) at worst.

However, remember the boring version of blockchain technology? The append-only data sets we talked about before may not be new or especially sexy, but they’re an element of blockchain technology that could be incredibly useful for the procurement sector.

Blockchains in procurement

The procurement sector has traditionally struggled with opacity. Sourcing goods—especially from overseas markets—through networks of distributors and middlemen can muddy the waters and conceal vital steps in the source-to-pay process. The origin of goods, labour practices, contact with modern slavery or deforestation, can all be concealed in a murky supply chain.

Tracing the progress of an item from its raw materials through to a finished product is “often a challenge for today’s supply chains due to outdated paper processes and disjointed data systems that slow down communication. The lack of data compatibility exposes supply chains to problems like visibility gaps, inaccurate supply and demand predictions, manual errors, counterfeiting, and compliance violations,” notes an AWS report. However, with blockchain, procurement and supply chain management organisations can “document production updates to a single shared ledger, which provides complete data visibility and a single source of truth. Because transactions are always time-stamped and up to date, companies can query a product’s status and location at any point in time. This helps to combat issues like counterfeit goods, compliance violations, delays, and waste.”

Global network

If the documentation of, say, a shipment of EV batteries, can trace a direct line from a lithium mine in Australia to a factory in China through a global network of suppliers, all the way to their arrival at a factory in Ohio, the procurement department sourcing those batteries can scrutinise every piece of the value chain much more effectively for quality control, potential counterfeiting, and ESG compliance. 

It’s not as flashy as Dogecoin, but it’s actually useful, especially as corporations make efforts to divest major polluters or other parties with poor ESG practices from their supply chains in an effort to reduce Scope 3 emissions and stop propping up reprehensible practices like modern slavery and deforestation.

By Harry Menear

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

11 January 2024

Estimated Read time

3Mins

Next generation AI tools can offer unparalleled visibility into the sustainability of organisations’ supply chains.

There are increasing pressures on procurement departments to be a driving force in their organisations’ sustainable goals.

The process of buying, shipping, and generally moving physical products about is one of the larger sources of carbon emissions for the modern enterprise.

For consumer companies, supply chain operations typically account for more than 80% of greenhouse gas emissions, creating “far greater social and environmental costs than its own operations”, according to a study by McKinsey. The environmental impact of a company’s operations, and their extent into Tier 2 and Tier 3 emissions, is also becoming a more prominent part of the conversation, making the decision of who to partner with and for what more pertinent to an enterprise’s sustainability goals than ever before—especially as T2 and T3 emissions become the target of new ESG regulation.

The path to sustainable practice is increased visibility into procurement practices, supply chain impact, and the supply chains of ecosystem partners. Increasingly, procurement teams are artificial intelligence (AI) for these insights.

Responsibly sourced startups

The demand for AI-powered sustainability in the procurement sector is already driving investment in promising new tools. The Copenhagen-based startup Responsibly was founded in 2021, and in October 2023 managed to leverage its work on AI-driven sustainable procurement tools into a $2.4 million funding round, aiming to further develop its project of  “democratising access to sustainable procurement”.

The company combines an AI model with large data sets to allow users to analyse their suppliers and potentially take action to restructure their procurement practices. The data analysed relates to suppliers’ carbon emissions and links to deforestation, but also their gender pay gap, human rights records, and more. The company has already accumulated several high profile clients, including the CERN research facility.

Data-driven, sustainable decision making

The success (and sustainability) of a supply chain is, first and foremost, an issue of visibility. Decision-making to reduce carbon emissions, cut costs, and improve resilience is almost universally a matter of understanding the factors affecting what has traditionally been a very murky, complex, impenetrable system. Using AI to maintain visibility into upstream manufacturing, purchasing, and logistics channels is critical in a world where supply chains are more complex, and the critical eyes of regulators and other organisations within a company’s ecosystem are more prone to scrutiny, than ever before. 

For any organisation looking to operate more sustainably—especially in a climate of net zero commitments and increased regulatory scrutiny—the next generation of AI models, powered by advanced analytics, intelligent algorithms, natural language processing, and real-time processing of huge data sets, represents a way to understand the source to pay process on a more granular level than was previously possible, and a path to making the necessary decisions for a more sustainable supply chain.   

By Harry Menear

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

10 January 2024

Estimated Read time

2Mins

Global provider of ESG performance Sphera has announced it has purchased SupplyShift.

Sphera has confirmed it has completed an acquisition for SupplyShift in a move to enhance its supply chain offering.

In a press release on Tuesday (January 9th), Sphera, which is a leading global provider of ESG performance and risk management software, revealed it has purchased the supply chain sustainability software firm.

Supply chain network

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Santa Cruz, California, SupplyShift has built a supply chain network of over 100,000 suppliers, where buyers and suppliers engage and share information quickly in order to manage risk and facilitate supplier regulatory compliance.

The solution provides supply chain transparency and supplier mapping at any tier as well as data analytics, supplier scoring and traceability.

SupplyShift has customers and business partners globally, and the company’s portal is used by a variety of customers across industries, from worldwide retailers to Fortune 500 brands.

Growth journey

Paul Marushka, CEO and president, Sphera, said: “SupplyShift has seen tremendous growth with its software solution that allows for direct communication with suppliers and customers and enables the seamless collection of their Scope 3 emissions data, which helps suppliers improve their supply chain ESG performance.

“As more regulations are passed that demand transparency, the SupplyShift solution will become indispensable in meeting global regulatory requirements and stakeholder expectations. Bringing SupplyShift’s portal into the Sphera family will expand our current offerings and enable us to provide unparalleled Scope 3 and ESG tracking and reporting capabilities. We are pleased to welcome SupplyShift’s customers, colleagues and solution to Sphera and look forward to helping our combined customer base accurately track and report their Scope 3 emissions and be compliant.”

Alex Gershenson, SupplyShift’s CEO and founder, added: “SupplyShift was founded on the idea of leveraging software to drive sustainability initiatives, and for 11 years we have been empowering companies to understand their supply chain ESG risk and performance.

“We are excited to join the Sphera family and take data availability to a new level through the combination of Sphera’s industry-leading ESG data and SupplyShift’s Scope 3 data collection abilities. Through SpheraCloud, Sphera’s SaaS platform, and its LCA solutions, we can help even more customers track their Scope 3 emissions and manage their supply chain sustainability.”

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

9 January 2024

Estimated Read time

4Mins

Procurement teams are under mounting pressure to minimise disruption and contribute value to the business. Here’s how Generative AI could help.

Across all industries, the unprecedented disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, along with the “growing need for procurement to enable growth, mitigate inflation/risk, and drive significant levels of value” has, according to Deloitte’s 2023 Global CPO Survey, afforded businesses’ procurement function “a seat at the table.” However, with the recognition of procurement’s importance comes responsibility and, increasingly, pressure.

The procurement function of a modern enterprise is one of the final remaining frontiers where truly value additive transformations can occur. Cutting costs, identifying new efficiencies, and pursuing more sustainable practice throughout the supply chain are non-negotiable KPIs for all procurement teams.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) have long been a part of successful procurement and logistics strategies—automating manual and menial tasks, freeing up professionals to focus on more strategic objectives. The recent advent of generative AI, underpinned by natural language processing (NLP), pattern recognition, cognitive analytics, and large language models (LLMs), however, has the potential to support procurement professionals in new, more impactful ways than ever.

Here are our top X ways that generative AI can help procurement professionals deliver on the demand for smarter buying, more ethical sourcing, and the holy grail of an unshakably resilient supply chain.

1. Predicting Disruption

If the last three years have taught us anything, it’s that the supply chain is a fragile thing. Organisations struck by the pandemic that failed to adapt and recover as fast as their competitors are, at the very least, facing a harsher world today than they were in 2019, with many having been absorbed by more resilient, faster-moving competitors. Even with the pandemic behind us, its effects are still being felt, and disruptions are a fact of life.

In case of a disruption, procurement teams need to be able to identify and respond quickly—something only 25% of firms are able to do, according to Deloittle’s 2023 procurement industry survey.

AI tools bring a heightened ability to identify patterns and analyse large data sets to the procurement department, dramatically increasing procurement professionals’ ability to identify disruptions (both within the organisation and in the market as a whole) before they happen and adapt accordingly.

2. Textual Data Analysis

Artificial intelligence has been used to sift through large data sets for years, but Generative AI may allow the scope of those data sets to expand by orders of magnitude. The ability for ML-powered LLMs to analyse large amounts of unstructured textual data, such as news articles, social media posts, contracts, and customer feedback could create a wealth of new insight and recommendation generation opportunities to benefit businesses’ procurement functions.

Procurement professionals will have an additional angle from which to evaluate vendors, examine their compliance status, gather market intelligence, and assess risk. Unstructured text remains one of the great untapped data resources, and LLMs have the ability to convert that raw data into actionable insights for the procurement function. 

3. Intelligent Recommendations

In addition to internal purchasing recommendations based on compliance, generative AI could also be used to create highly personalised, granular criteria for business buyers. An AI-powered buying tool could, for example, scrape hundreds of thousands of item listings, eliminating results based on millions of data points, to create proposed shopping carts for particular applications weighted by any number of criteria determined both by company policy and the buyer’s own preferences.

4. Automated Compliance

Generative AI’s ability to analyse large, unstructured data sets and draw complex, human-like conclusions from them that are then translated into insights and decision recommendations could be transformative for handling compliance in procurement.

A generative AI model could be used to monitor company-wide activity for anomalous or non-compliant purchasing behaviour—alerting the procurement department if an issue arises. In addition to creating more freedom for buyers outside the procurement function, and freeing up time within procurement that would otherwise be spent reviewing company spend for compliance, a Generative AI could be used to make intelligent spending recommendations in order to increase compliance with minimum spend contracts, for example. 

By Harry Menear

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

8 January 2024

Estimated Read time

5Mins

Keith Hartley, CEO of LevaData, discusses why procurement’s golden age is now amid the rise of transformative tech solutions.

“This is the golden age to be in procurement.”

Keith Hartley, CEO of LevaData, doesn’t hold back.

Similar to his passion for surfing, he is constantly on the lookout for the next challenge to tackle. The company he leads is an integrated, AI-powered supply management software platform that is transforming direct material sourcing by helping companies reduce costs, mitigate risk, and accelerate new product development.

Given the trajectory of the procurement function’s journey over the past 10 years, few could doubt the change the space has seen. Indeed, procurement was once a back-office function siloed out of sight, but today it stands front and centre in business operations as a key cog in the machine. Hartley recognises that while it is an exciting time, procurement is still a laggard and restrained. “I would say we’re woefully behind in procurement,” he admits.

“The function’s teams are typically not ones to raise their hand and demand the tools they need to do their job. If you’re a salesperson and you work in a Customer Relationship Management system, it’s a given you need a system to do your job, and if you’re in finance, it’s a given you need an ERP system. When you turn to procurement, there’s not widespread acknowledgement that you need a tool like LevaData to do your job.”

Keith Hartley, CEO of LevaData

Powering smart supply chains

LevaData powers the smartest supply chains in the world by constantly analysing business objectives against real-time market activity and community intelligence. The company is trusted to deliver improved margins, control risks, generate new product velocity, and achieve multi-tier supplier engagement with purpose-built tools for quick collaboration and decisive actions. LevaData creates a competitive advantage with transformational and predictive insights. “What we are replacing are spreadsheets and emails, but some major companies are still 100% reliant on them,” discusses Hartley. “It’s an antiquated way of doing business. Macroeconomic shocks aren’t new, and obviously Covid was a significant one. With these shocks in the global supply chain, you must understand the impact on your specific business.”

Hartley speaks to how at the end of the day, companies still need to make a profit. “It’s about finding alternative sources of supply and buying the parts at the right price. These are challenges that don’t go away; in fact, they were heightened during Covid and have continued with ongoing geopolitical tensions. The reality is there are always macroeconomic shocks that cause supply to be constrained and prices and lead times to be variable. This has a direct impact on how organisations deliver results and drive revenue growth. Covid really heightened the need for companies to get this workflow in order, and that’s what LevaData has been addressing. The procurement people have been thrust into the light. If they don’t have the tools they need, then they’re stuck. The job is incredibly complex, and procurement needs all the help it can get in today’s world.”

The arrival of generative AI

As generative AI continues to emerge in conversations in procurement and beyond, its rise has caused much excitement within organisational structures. Indeed, OpenAI’s ChatGPT’s launch in late 2022 has only amplified this conversation, with many eager to harness the benefit of efficiency and cost savings as quickly as possible. But just because it’s new, does it make it right?

“It’s early days. It’s mostly hype so far in terms of how it’s being adopted and brought forward, but I’ve never seen a faster accelerated hype cycle than gen AI [has] right now,” explains Hartley. “LevaData is a leader in AI and is using it in two areas of our product. We’re still in the early infancy of AI and what it can do. We use AI to help us contextualise all the different data sources. We take over 154 data sources and blend them. This is data that doesn’t make sense together. Most data-heavy people tap out at about 12 or 14 data sources because the mathematics gets so complex. The complexity has kept the indirect procurement providers away from this space.

“The second part where we use AI is where we identify parts based on savings potential. There’s a lot of potential for the generative piece incorporating an even larger number of data sources. This is huge. AI is going to change a lot and will take some time, but I’ve never seen such a rapid hype around AI before.”

Procurement’s golden age

Looking ahead, Hartley is full of optimism and enthusiasm for procurement’s future and believes we are entering the “golden age.” “The best part is that we’re just at the very start,” he explains. “If you’ve been in indirect procurement for the past 50 years, you’ve been wowed by Coupa, JAGGAER and Ariba, as they have sold the world on the benefits of source-to-contract and procure-to-pay workflows. That works well for indirect procurement, when you are buying pencils, chairs and laptops in volume. But the more complex workflow of sourcing direct materials, the very materials that you turn into products to sell in the market, has largely gone unnoticed. Fortunately, companies have realised the direct sourcing opportunity, and started investing in AI-powered tools like LevaData.

“Legacy spreadsheets and email should no longer be the de facto standard for direct material sourcing. With the convergence of AI, big data, and analytics platforms, procurement professionals can be the heroes they and their company deserve. The next decade is going to be a wild ride in procurement.”

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

5 January 2024

Estimated Read time

7Mins

At DPW Amsterdam 2023, we chat with procurement leaders to find out why the conference is regarded as one of the most influential tech events in procurement today…

Koray Köse, Chief Industry Officer, Everstream Analytics

“When you go to events that are this disruptive that are actually giving you an environment like a concert where people have a very positive vibe, that’s when the best experiences are shared and people open up. If you listen, you now understand what the real challenges are. If you’re at a conference that is very formal, then you get a very different feeling. It is the casualness of DPW that helps the authenticity of every company and its challenges.

“It’s a unique environment where you get very authentic, bold, blunt, but truthful statements of perception of actuals, desires, future vision, and also conversations about how can we as a community do things differently? How can we as potential future partners do things differently? And how can tech concatenate value and how can we actually now do that in a partnership with companies that we don’t even consider clients at this point? They’re not clients, but they share exactly what they want and those are benefits. 

“I think it’s almost like an incubator environment because a lot of ideas are formed here. Lots of connections are made and a lot of deals for vendors are done too. You look at the floor and there are about 120 vendors all here for the same reason, it’s amazing. To get that concentrated over 48 hours, a lot of people will walk away and need to process what happened and the conversations they had. Then we look forward to next year.”

Koray Köse, Chief Industry Officer, Everstream Analytics

Ashwin Kumar, Vice President, GEP

“DPW has given me some insight into what kind of options there are. Sometimes I go through the booths and I see two solutions and question how they’re different. At first, I think they’re doing the same thing. And then once they start explaining, you find out the nuance. Now I understand this may not be applicable for this client of mine that I’m working with maybe this is for a company that’s growing at 30%, not for someone who is already there and growing at 2% or 3%. 

“I think that way DPW has helped me understand how do you stitch different things together and then take it to a client and say, ‘this is the ecosystem you need at this point in time. It could change in six months, or three months, we don’t know. Go with it for now and you don’t have to worry about being married to that solution for too long.’”

Ashwin Kumar, Vice President, GEP

Kathryn Thompson, Partner, Deloitte

“I think DPW shows us the art of the possible in digital procurement. It shows us if you were unconstrained and you could do anything, what would you choose and build? You don’t have that in some of the other tech conferences that are a bit tied into an infrastructure they need to build. I love this what if idea we have here. I think it’s fabulous we have this confluence of organisations that need these tools, all the different startups and solutions to bounce ideas off and work out the future. DPW has real energy and passion like no other. You must get your message across in three minutes or it’s gone, that passion is brilliant because there’s nothing similar.”

Kathryn Thompson, Partner, Deloitte

Scott Mars, Global Vice President of Sales, Pactum

“This to me, especially for Europe, is the premier procurement technology event. All the main vendors, our competition as well as our peers are here. There’s many CPOs in attendance alongside procurement and digital transformation leaders so for us as a vendor, it really is a great audience. We love having the ability to network with our peers or other vendors, potential partners and these procurement leaders and visionaries so it’s definitely a great opportunity to do that. It is certainly one of the best procurement events I’ve ever been to. They do a great job here at DPW.”

Scott Mars, Global Vice President of Sales, Pactum

Karin Hagen-Gierer, Chief Procurement Officer, Scoutbee

“Whenever I go to conferences, I get to see the latest technology exhibited. I can have conversations with many people in a very short period of time. Number two, for me as a CPO, I come here as well to meet my peers and have good conversations. Amsterdam is always a good place to come and maybe combine business with pleasure.”

Karin Hagen-Gierer, Chief Procurement Officer, Scoutbee

Gregor Stühler, CEO, Scoutbee

“Procurement people are incredibly busy and getting a hold of them is quite difficult. Having them all in one spot is super helpful. One key challenge for procurement software providers is that the buying centre is not the same. If you sell sales software or whatsoever, it’s usually the same buying centre. You approach the Chief Revenue Officer or something like that. In procurement, it’s not always the CPO that decides on the tech. But DPW is filtering out and attracting the talent that is making those tech decisions and it’s extremely valuable for the startups and for the tech companies as well.”

Gregor Stühler, CEO, Scoutbee

Alan Holland, CEO, Keelvar

“This event has actually been a catalyst for some of the transformation we’re seeing in procurement. Matthias and his team have grown together best-of-breed vendors and they realised early on that change is afoot and legacy systems are going to become part of the history of the space. He embraced these vendors which are coming up with exciting new developments and provided us with a venue to put our best foot forward and present ourselves to other large enterprises with an appetite for understanding what innovation was required. We’re very grateful to Matthias, we’ve worked with him from day one and we think he’s done fantastic work here.”

Alan Holland, CEO, Keelvar

Prerna Dhawan, Digital Lead, Procurement, The Smart Cube

“I think DPW raises the profile of procurement. DPW has elevated the function because procurement is no longer seen as the industry that thinks of digital at the end. It’s not a laggard anymore. I attended the first DPW event pre-Covid and thought it was brilliant then but it’s got bigger and better since. We talk about this in procurement, you get innovation from your suppliers but if you think about innovation when it comes to technology you have to be open to talk to vendors and that doesn’t happen in other conferences the way it does here. I think DPW has created that platform for learning from each other to happen.”

Prerna Dhawan, Digital Lead, Procurement, The Smart Cube

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

4 January 2024

Estimated Read time

6Mins

CPOstrategy explores this issue’s big question and uncovers what the impact of gen AI is in procurement.

The true possibilities of what can be achieved via AI is still being unearthed.

Indeed, the influence of new technology will only grow from here and new digital tools are being introduced all the time.

When it comes to generative AI, there is perhaps a misunderstanding that it is a new innovation. But the history of gen AI actually dates back to the 1960s. Among the first functioning examples was the ELIZA chatbot which was created in 1961 by British scientist Joseph Weizenbaum. It was the first talking computer program that could communicate with a human through natural language. It worked by recognising keywords in a user’s statement and then answering back through simple phrases or questions, in likeness to a conversation a human would have with a therapist. While ELIZA was seen as a parody and largely non-intelligent, its introduction has paved the way for later advancements in Natural Language Processing (NLP) and the future of generative AI.

Fast forward to today and the gen AI conversation and wider tech landscape looks very different. In late 2022, OpenAI launched ChatGPT – technology which has shaken the procurement function and beyond. ChatGPT interacts in a conversational way with its dialogue format making it possible for users to answer follow-up questions, admit mistakes, challenge incorrect answers and reject unsuitable requests. As such, the chatbot has created quite a buzz which has been felt across the globe.

Generative AI’s misconception

Speaking to us exclusively at DPW Amsterdam, Gregor Stühler, CEO at Scoutbee, believes there are some misconceptions around ChatGPT and the nature of how accurate the data it provides actually is. As is the case with any new technology, these things take time. “It’s always the same. It happened with electric cars, nobody thought that would solve the battery issue,” he discusses. “I think we are right at the peak of the hype cycle when it comes to those things and people have figured out what they can use it for. With wave one of gen AI, it is fine to have hallucinations of the model and if something is spat out that is not supported by the input. 

Gregor Stühler, CEO at Scoutbee

“But by the second use case, hallucinations are not okay anymore because it’s working with accurate data and should not come up with some imaginary creative answers. It should be always supported by the data that is put in. This is very important that people understand that if you train the model and if you have the right setting, those hallucinations will go away and you can actually have a setting where the output of the model is 100% accurate.”

Data security

Michael van Keulen, Chief Procurement Officer at Coupa, agrees with Stühler and despite obvious benefits such as time and cost, he stresses caution should be used particularly when it comes to valuable tasks. “If you look at ChatGPT, it’s fine if you’re looking for recommendations for something low-risk. I need something for my wife’s birthday next week, you input three things that she loves and ask it to help. It’s great,” he tells us. “But it comes from data sources on the web that aren’t always governed, controlled or trustworthy. It’s whatever is out there. What about the algorithms that come with ChatGPT? I don’t know what’s influencing the search criteria. On Google, if you pay you are at the top of the search bar. But I don’t know what ChatGPT is governed by.”

Michael van Keulen, Chief Procurement Officer at Coupa

Managing data leakage

Danny Thompson, Chief Product Officer at apexanalytix, explains that one of the biggest challenges with generative AI is being aware of a leakage of sensitive information combined with a contamination of important data. “We have a database of golden records for 90 million suppliers who are doing business with Fortune 500 companies and that is the best information we’ve been able to accumulate about the suppliers and their relationships as a supplier to large companies,” he tells us.

Danny Thompson, Chief Product Officer at apexanalytix

“We want to make sure we’re not loading sensitive information into a generative AI function that might allow just random people to access that data. Ultimately the customers in the space that we’re operating in are serious companies moving around large amounts of money and facing real risks that they have to manage. It’s really important that the data that they have is either highly accurate or at least they understand the degree to which it’s accurate. This means if you’re using the solution that you don’t understand the level of trust you can have in it, then you shouldn’t be using it yet.”

Can generative AI bridge the talent shortage?

Amid talent shortages in procurement, there are some sections of the procurement space questioning to whether AI and machine learning can plug the gap and reduce the necessity of recruitment. Naturally, this raises the debate of whether robots will replace humans. Stefan Dent, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Simfoni, adds that while AI and machines won’t replace humans, it will mean people will need to find new forms of work and take on higher-value roles.

Stefan Dent, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Simfoni

“The shape and structure of the modern procurement function will change quite dramatically and people will need to upskill,” he discusses. “A lot of the work will be taken over by the machine eventually either 20%, 50%, and then a hundred percent. But the human needs to have that in mind and then plan for that next three to five years. The procurement function of the future will be smaller, and they should purposely be doing that, to then look at solutions to find a way to enable it to happen naturally.

Future proof procurement

“For someone who’s joining procurement now, you’ve got this great opportunity to embrace digital. Young people can question ‘Well, why can’t it be done by a machine?’ They’re coming in with that mindset as opposed to fighting being replaced by a machine. I think for graduates coming into procurement, they’ve got the opportunity to play with digital and actually change the status quo.”

As we look to the future, gen AI and new forms of technology will continue to change the world and the way we work. In the short term, work is expected to continue to upgrade the user experience and workflows through gen AI in order to build greater trust for the end user. As transformation continues to happen, businesses and wider society must embrace new types of AI to thrive and stay ahead of the latest trends. The potential that gen AI tools possess is expected transform the workplace of tomorrow while delivering value-add such as time and cost savings on a day-to-day basis.

Given the speed of evolution and development, it is yet unimaginable exactly what form the digital landscape will take in years to come. However, that horizon brings with it fresh opportunity and excitement revolving around a whole new world of technology at our fingertips. The future is digital.

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

3 January 2024

Estimated Read time

3Mins

RPA promises increased efficiency, lower costs, and an end to staffing issues, but can procurement teams implement successfully?

Though it’s less frequently associated with automation than its more robot-friendly cousin logistics, procurement is a discipline that’s undergoing a radical transformation.

“Your new procurement employee will work 24/7, never call in sick, rarely make mistakes,won’t complain, and never ask for a raise. Of course, this is not your typical worker, but a procurement software robot—or bot.”

— Automation in Procurement: Your New Workforce is Here, KPMG, 2020

Although it reads like the opening paragraph of an abandoned Nanowrimo project started by someone who’d just finished I, Robot, I assure you this report released in 2020 by consultancy KPMG is an entirely serious endeavour. Although the global clamour to replace employees with robots may have died down a little now that a few million professionals have been dragged kicking and screaming back to the office, the benefits that automating elements of the procurement function could deliver are hard to deny.

RPA is big business and isn’t going anywhere. In 2022, the global robotic process automation market was estimated at $2.3 billion. It’s expected to grow at a CAGR of 39.9% between this year and the end of the decade.

From multinational corporations to the US Department of Homeland Security, robotic process automation (RPA) is emerging as a popular way to manage complexity within a large supply chain, automate repetitive tasks, and enhance the capabilities of a procurement department. The US DHS’ procurement department, for example, spent just under $24 billion across about 60,000 transactions in 2022, and is increasingly handing the responsibility for contractor responsibility determinations, as well as automating tasks for the Customs and Border Protection—allegedly cutting jobs that took an hour down to just a few minutes.

As KPMG’s report stresses, “leveraging procurement bots is the next logical step as organisations look to benefit from advancements in digital capabilities.”

RPA adoption in procurement—the Benefits

  • Added visibility
  • Improved efficiency
  • Reduced costs

Large amounts of traditional procurement processes involve repetitive tasks like requisitioning, purchase order management, checking compliance, andanalysing spend, supplier onboarding, and more can be automated using an RPA bot. This is not only because RPA is getting smarter, but also because businesses’ procurement functions tend to be more consolidated within a single platform that is more closely integrated with the business in a modern enterprise. In a sufficiently digitalised system, there’s little to stop RPA from creating efficiencies by eliminating menial tasks.

Likewise, by integrating RPA into a company’s enterprise resource management (ERP) platform, it gains access to vast amounts of data that can then be tracked, analysed, and used to draw insights faster than a human could hope to tackle the same task. Most modern supply chains comprise several different pieces of specialised software, and making each one talk to one another smoothly can create serious pain points for procurement teams, but RPA can do a great deal to smoothe over the cracks.

RPA Risks and How to Overcome them

  • Data exposure
  • Lack of oversight
  • Misguided direction and overspend

As mentioned above, RPA works best when fully integrated into as much of your system as possible, with access to as much data as you can feed it—especially with modern RPA using AI to make more and more intelligent decisions based on raw and unstructured data sets. Obviously, this creates a potentially huge, glowing weak point in your company’s cyber security framework. Because RPA bots replace human workers, they need access to the privileged information that humans have, and those bots are just as—if not more—vulnerable to attack.

RPA bots can automate a great deal of tasks, but it’s easy to lose track of the fact that they’re just bots and, without proper oversight and direction, they could create inefficiencies, security flaws, and breach compliance—all costly problems, especially if the typically costly technology fails to address the original inefficiencies or issues it was bought to resolve.

Automating procurement processes could undeniably lead to increased efficiency, lower costs, and a more resilient procurement function, but only if implemented with intentionality, and given proper oversight once up and running.

By Harry Menear

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

2 January 2024

Estimated Read time

2Mins

Wary of overdependence on overseas suppliers, the South Korean government is investing heavily in increasing the resilience of its public procurement process.

The South Korean government announced last month plans to establish a commission to oversee and coordinate plans to make the country’s procurement process more resilient. This announcement comes on the back of concerns over the vulnerability of South Korea’s “critical industrial” supply chains.

A state-backed fund expected to exceed 5 trillion won ($3.79 billion) is being set up to “secure stockpiles of critical supplies and support investment in relevant businesses and facilities”, with a long-term goal of divesting Korean industries from overdependence on procuring materials from single country suppliers.

Specifically, urea (like ammonium phosphate used in fertiliser manufacturing) and graphite (used in the production of batteries for electric vehicles) are both considered critical materials for Korean industrial activities, and supplies of both originate almost exclusively from China.

An Editorial published in the Korea Times noted that a recent export restriction of urea product shipments from China has caused a spree of panic buying. “What matters is that China accounts for 95 percent of Korea’s ammonium phosphate imports. Desperate to cope with a growing sense of crisis especially among farmers and relevant industries, the [Korean] government came up with a package of measures designed to secure key materials on a stable basis.”

The government will procure a reserve of 12,000 tonnes of urea in order to create a 130 day buffer to safeguard against future disruptions.  

The way ahead

At a meeting of the new commission on Monday, Korean Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho commented that “Recently, supply chain risk factors for items directly related to core industries and people’s livelihoods—such as urea, diammonium phosphate and graphite—are increasing,” suggesting that devising a national procurement strategy less reliant on Chinese exports would be essential, given the fraught economic and political histories between the countries. 

Moving forward, the commission said it would designate materials and items for intensive monitoring, selected from among 200 options identified as being of critical importance and potentially vulnerable to supply chain disruption by a government study conducted in 2021. Magnesium, tungsten, neodymium and lithium hydroxide were included in the previous listing. In addition to urea products, the Korean government is expected to increase its stocks of graphite, 90% of which comes from China.

By Harry Menear

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

1 January 2024

Estimated Read time

3Mins

Protect your procurement function in the year ahead by avoiding the biggest risks on the industry’s radar.

The last few years have seen unparalleled disruption to the source-to-pay process, from resource shortages and pricing hikes, to new regulatory restrictions and changes in consumer tastes. In the Amazon Business 2024 State of Procurement report released in November, researchers point out that “Many of the top risks … have the potential to disrupt procurement operations with little warning, underscoring the need for preparedness.”

1. Rising Costs and Inflation

The past year has been defined by runaway inflation in the US and beyond, and while it has translated into record corporate profits (researchers estimate now that corporate profits are responsible for around 60% of inflation, following a Kansas City study in 2021) it has been biting from the supplier side as well, with the price of everything from materials to labour rising over the last 18 months. Procurement teams should analyse their budgets and plan accordingly, in order to ensure they can secure the goods and services the business needs without compromising cost containment.

2. Supply Chain Volatility

War, genocide, unrest, and other sources of market volatility can smash a supply chain overnight. The procurement process works best when things are reliable, consistent, and predictable. The very best procurement teams know that this is a fantasy, and that geopolitical, economic, and environmental changes can all contribute to risk that needs to be met with agility and resilience.

3. (Failed) Technology Disruption

From self-driving cars to the metaverse, the last few years are littered with more examples of technological megatrends that failed to disrupt anything or really even materialise than a Phoenix, Arizona parking lot is littered with Waymo crash test dummies. Failing to adopt new and disruptive technology is a risk to your business, but overspending on hype is a much easier trap in which to stumble.

4. Cybersecurity

Data remains one of the most precious resources on the planet, and with the rise of generative AI sparking fresh debate over intellectual property and privacy, organisations will need to be more mindful of their data than ever before. This isn’t unique to procurement, but it remains a function of the business that has a lot of contact with the outside world, especially third party organisations soliciting contracts. Procurement staff should receive regular cyber security training and departments should conduct regular risk assessments in order to avoid presenting an easy target.

5. Increased Regulatory Pressure

Despite the lacklustre Cop28, record profits for the oil and gas industries, and all signs pointing towards a failure to prevent an era of “global boiling”, regulations got a little bit stricter for corporations in the last few years. Compliance will become an increasingly challenging target for corporations to hit as the decade continues. Procurement teams—as functions with some of the biggest sway over scope 3 emissions—will play a large role in keeping their organisations on the right side of the regulations, and could even be a big part of meaningful sustainability-focused change.

6. The Skill Shortage

As procurement becomes a bigger driver of innovation and profit margins for organisations, the gaps between existing skills and future requirements are showing wider and wider. Five out of six procurement leaders don’t believe they have the talent on tap to meet the challenges of the near future, and the increasingly digital-first, strategic nature of the role threatens to place demands on existing functions that they never expected to face.

Procurement leaders who recruit, develop, and retain skilled professionals will have a profound leg up over the competition in 2024 and beyond.

By Harry Menear

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

29 December 2023

Estimated Read time

2Mins

Procurement has the potential—and the responsibility—to go beyond switching out plastic straws for paper in the quest for Net Zero.

Across the public sector—and increasingly in the private sphere as well—organisations are committing to the necessity of a net zero future. While emissions reduction efforts often begin with scope 1 and scope 2 emissions, analysis of holistic environmental impacts in supply chains often expose scope 3 emissions as being the source of as much as 90% of an organisation’s greenhouse gas emissions.

With the majority of an organisation’s carbon impact originating outside the organisation itself, it increasingly falls to the procurement function to make intelligent, sustainability-motivated decisions in order to draw down indirect emissions and foster a culture of sustainability within their supplier ecosystem.

However, while investment in increasingly sustainable source-to-pay processes is rising, many procurement teams describe the pursuit of net zero as a serious challenge. In Europe, companies earmarked an average of 27% of their total investment budget into improving sustainability this year, a 16% rise in sustainability investment.

Nevertheless, more than 43% of companies surveyed in a recent report had not set a net zero goal, and, within the 32% of organisations with a net zero target of 2030, many procurement professionals reported that “limited data, complex supply chains, and limited control over supplier emissions” presented serious obstacles.

The report notes that, while “procurement organisations firmly have net zero on their agenda,”, other factors like the need to keep costs low are impeding their efforts. Another report by the World Economic Forum—this time focusing on public institutions as drivers of sustainable procurement—also acknowledges the trepidation with which public and private sector organisations view the possible costs of pushing for net zero.

However, the WEF notes that “Pursuing net-zero goals in public procurement will boost the green economy,” estimating that “the private investment and new jobs triggered by greener public procurement, in aggregate, will boost global GDP by around $6 trillion through 2050 – a significant proportion of the green economy’s total GDP of $70 trillion.”

While the short term might represent an increase in costs, the long term benefits for organisations that manage to drive a successful net zero green transition, both in their own organisations, and supply chains, will be substantial. Adopting procurement practices that require green certifications from suppliers (even subsidising green activities within their ecosystems by paying higher prices for suppliers who can demonstrate their green credentials) can drive meaningful reductions in the scope 3 emissions for organisations throughout both the public and private sectors.

By Harry Menear

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

28 December 2023

Estimated Read time

2Mins

Incorporating SEO techniques into your procurement strategy can empower and optimise your organisation’s source-to-pay process.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, digital transformation has emerged as a more critical strategic goal for procurement executives than ever.

Now, resilience, agility, and visibility have become vital qualities of the modern procurement function alongside the drive to lower costs and increase speed. Integrating a digital-first approach into more stages of the procurement process can, according to a Gartner study, lead to a 20% increase in revenue and a 50% reduction in process costs.

However, digital transformation needs to be considered and intentional—haphazardly adopting new tools and processes for the sake of something new and shiny will cost more than it saves, and cause more problems than are solved.

One highly effective form of digital transformation that’s often applied outside of the procurement process is search engine optimisation (SEO). Applied to the procurement function of a business, SEO techniques can help buyers reach either a wider pool of suppliers, or a more specific set of suppliers more tailored to their needs—or both, as necessity dictates.

SEO has a lot of potential to help automate routine procurement operations, allowing for procurement staff to focus on more strategic objectives and partner relationship management. Supplier discovery, as well as other elements of sourcing, can be automated with an SEO integration, and the correctly optimised online presence can be used to attract suppliers.

Four steps to SEO optimisation in procurement

  1. Know your terms. By identifying the key phrases and terms associated with your business and objectives, you can start to define an SEO strategy.
  2. Embed your terms. Take your chosen SEO terms and ensure they are a part of your brand identity across existing websites, social platforms, etc.
  3. Create content. White papers, blog posts, and media placements all increase your visibility and presence within the procurement sector.
  4. Assess, Adjust, Optimise. Constantly measure your engagement, work to understand your suppliers and partners, and iterate improvements of your strategy in response to results and the changing context of the marketplace.

By implementing an SEO strategy, procurement teams move beyond the confines of their immediate ecosystem, casting a wider net that can lead to increased competition between suppliers, lower costs, and access to new goods or resources that may have significant knock-on benefits for the business at large.

By Harry Menear

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

27 December 2023

Estimated Read time

5Mins

As AI continues to emerge in a big way, Vicky Kavan, Vin Kumar and Nicolas Walden explores what the AI opportunity is in procurement?

Procurement is a hard function to impress. Other parts of the business can afford to get carried away now and then, but not procurement. Everything in procurement comes down to finding value and then making sure you don’t overpay for it.

Artificial intelligence (AI) might seem like just the kind of emerging new technology that procurement would shy away from. But, as many procurement leaders already understand, this would be a big mistake. In our work with the world’s largest companies, we see two kinds of major emerging AI opportunities you won’t want to miss. The first group – how we execute our procurement using, for example, new autonomous sourcing systems – can save millions today. While the second – the advent of AI-driven automation and enhancements across almost every industry and areas of spend – will help save you even more tomorrow.

Savings today

In terms of the impact of AI, procurement executives predict that supply market intelligence (50% of respondents), contract management (43%) and bid optimization (37%) will be some of the greatest opportunity areas for AI technology.

Despite this, and even as most AI and generative AI systems remain pilot projects, autonomous sourcing systems are already transforming how procurement functions operate at large multinationals. Many procurement executives have told us that they find these systems, which can automate execution in either tactical or strategic areas and provide enhanced decision support, extremely valuable:

  • Clients tell us these systems are helping them reduce cycle times dramatically – from months to weeks or weeks to days – and cut costs by 10% or more. Supplier discovery?  Shorter. E-sourcing? Shorter. Contract development? Shorter. While it is in the early days, time savings of 30% or more can be possible.
  • When MTN Group, an African multinational telecommunications giant, installed its Procurement Cockpit platform, the system paid for itself in four weeks because the AI-enabled software quickly identified new opportunities, consolidated pricing insights from around the sprawling corporation and accelerated negotiation preparation.
  • These systems are now making themselves useful across a range of sectors. Procurement executives at a major U.S. retailer, major European telecom and major European energy company all told us that these systems have saved time and money. Use cases include replacing the need to write detailed requirements, sourcing questions and even contracts through the use of modified templates through to tactical price negotiations.

Strategic drive

From strategy to insights, sourcing and negotiating ­– to contract drafting and supply risk management – AI-enhanced systems will make procurement faster and simpler. Although feature sets and value propositions vary from vendor to vendor, promising  autonomous sourcing systems fundamentally change how technology engages with stakeholders using chatbot-style interfaces to summarise requirements as an output of discussions; search and identify providers of products based on a variety of market, process and business considerations; prepare request for proposals and contracts; and maintain a higher degree of compliance with regulations. Some of these systems can even execute simple one-round negotiations. At the moment, Globality, Fairmarkit and Pactum (for negotiations) are three of the biggest names in this space.

Savings tomorrow

Eventually, we expect that AI-enhanced functionality is likely to yield major cost savings in almost every spend area, business function and industry sector.

Contact centres or marketing services, for example, could already send out automated posts and even voice responses that mimic the voice of your choice. A travel agency might be able to supplement human customer service with a robot concierge, making it possible to achieve a much greater level of service than ever before. Such changes won’t happen immediately – implementing them is not a quick win – but AI enhancements will be a huge source of value and service improvements down the line.

Category managers, be advised: the general consensus among purchasing executives we polled recently is that fleet, digital tech, advertising and general equipment are the categories that will benefit most from AI-enabled technology.

Of course, as with most powerful tools, AI-powered services also create new sets of potentially considerable risks. For example, you will need to make sure that your contracts are clear about what your vendor can do with your data – can it be aggregated in a large language training model? If that model leads the company to develop a more advanced service, do you want to be compensated for your contribution? Are you covered for potential liabilities if you transfer customer data to your AI vendor and your customer’s information is somehow revealed? If you work with an AI vendor and create intellectual property on its platform, who owns that new product? There are many new angles and issues that you will need to consider.

Looking ahead

Over the next five to 10 years, AI is likely to transform many aspects of business, including procurement. Based on The Hackett Group’s analysis of 44 Level 2 processes across the source-to-pay, end-to-end process – for a company performing at the median of our database – there is a potential to reduce staff by up to 46% over the next five to seven years.

Clients have told us they see digital technology (including AI) as the most transformative trend facing procurement in the next few years (71%) – more important than data (51%) or environmental, social and governance, and sustainability (47%). For procurement professionals, how the work is done and where they will find value are both likely to change dramatically. Given the speed with which we expect these opportunities and their attendant risks to develop, now is a good time to start thinking about the opportunities AI can create for your team.

By Vicky Kavan, Vin Kumar and Nicolas Walden

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

26 December 2023

Estimated Read time

4Mins

Just how much of the procurement process can be automated, and who does it help?

It’s hard to argue that 2023 will be remembered as the year that generative AI exploded into the public consciousness. Image and text generation in the form of ChatGPT and Midjourney ignited excitement, controversy, contempt, and a fervour to adopt in equal measure. The generative AI industry is predicted to be worth more than $660 billion per year by the end of the decade.

But while there’s no denying that generative AI will be a part of the economic landscape of 2024 and beyond, it’s not yet clear what that will look like. More importantly, it’s no guarantee that generative AI will, uh, generate any ways for the technology to make back the hundreds of billions already spent to develop it. 

It wouldn’t be the first major trend to be backed to the hilt by big tech firms, only to dissolve into nothingness like that racoon who drops his cotton candy in a puddle. In stark contrast to 2022, this year’s tech roundups and trend predictions have put a conspicuous lack of emphasis on the metaverse. Now, to be clear, the fact that Yahoo Finance calculated that “Mark Zuckerberg’s $46.5 billion loss on the metaverse is so huge it would be a Fortune 100 company” is great news for those of us who didn’t want to spend our thirties attending meetings in a glowing virtual mallscape surrounded by cutesy, animated versions of our bosses and coworkers. Huge relief. It’s also quite funny. More relevantly to the topic of generative AI is the cautionary tale that, unless big, expensive technological developments can be monetised, they will disappear.

So, how do we monetise generative AI?

How to make generative AI useful

Technology is most valuable when it solves problems, and saves time and money, or at least improves people’s quality of life—when there’s a measurable benefit of some kind, sometimes to humanity, and usually to shareholders. That’s the stuff that sticks around.

While its applications and capabilities—especially when it comes to creative tasks or just the ability to make something actually original—are limited, generative AI may actually be a good fit for the procurement sector, potentially solving a major issue the industry is currently experiencing.

Generative AI and the Procurement Skill Shortage

The procurement sector is short on talent—with five out of six procurement leaders claiming they will lack skills, staff, and other vital human resources in the near future. This is the case for several reasons, but primarily: an ageing workforce is starting to retire faster than new hires can skill up; also, the requirements of the job are becoming more technology centric as procurement digitally transforms, leaving departments underskilled even if they’re no understaffed; and lastly, the amount of work for procurement functions is increasing overall, as it becomes more of a driver of business efficiency and innovation.

If generative AI could be used to reduce procurement teams’ workload by automating certain aspects of the job, it could be a key piece of the puzzle when it comes to solving the skill shortage.

Retail giant Walmart has been successfully running pilot projects using its AI-powered Pactum solution to automate supplier negotiations. According to Deloitte, not only did Walmart find it “helpful for landing a good bargain, three out of four suppliers prefer negotiating with AI over a human. This strongly indicates that the ecosystem is ready to embrace this disruption.” While I’m not sure if this example is an endorsement of AI or an indictment of Walmart’s procurement team, the ability for generative AI to take over routine communication, negotiation, and other interactions in the source-to-pay process could free up huge amounts of time to focus on more strategic activities.

Gen AI’s future

It’s not hard to imagine that both buyers and suppliers could input their desired results and parameters into a generative AI negotiator and outsource the relationship management entirely. Out of curiosity, this morning I set up ChatGPT in two windows and had it conduct an RFP, tender negotiation, and sale agreement for the sale of an order of self-sealing stem bolts between O’Brien Enterprises and Quarks. It was a very civil, if slightly roundabout affair, and everyone seemed to come away happy—hacky business journalists especially.

Goofy demonstrations aside, there’s real potential for significant elements of routine communication and relationship management in the procurement process to be automated, or at least assisted by generative AI. If correctly combined with data analytics on contextual information ranging from weather patterns, commodities pricing, and supplier behavioural history, a generative AI could offer useful insights to procurement professionals while its generally low threshold for usability allows less tech-savvy procurement professionals to harness more powerful digital tools.

By Harry Menear

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

25 December 2023

Estimated Read time

3Mins

How Big Data can increase resilience, mitigate disruption, and help procurement teams spot danger before it’s too late.

In the procurement sector, successfully managing risks while achieving your other strategic objectives is what sets a successful procurement function apart from those that can expect to experience disruption. Today, however, procurement teams face greater risk than ever before as supply chains become more complex, ESG goals become more ambitious, and the parameters for compliance get narrower. 

Technology—powered by artificial intelligence and big data analytics—is radically digitalising the procurement process. While this has the potential to increase efficiency, revenue, and accelerate the procure-to-pay process, it has also driven complexity. Luckily, digital transformation also holds the key to managing this complexity. Digital tools, powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning, can tackle larger and more complex amounts of information than ever before. These analytical tools and their more powerful capabilities in turn have seen viable data sets balloon to include vast quantities of structured and unstructured data from throughout the supply chain, gathered together under the umbrella of Big Data.

Data source

Big Data, in gathering together vast amounts of information about every aspect of the source-to-pay process, in addition to broader contextual information ranging from economic instability to weather patterns, can help procurement professionals build up a more comprehensive, nuanced understanding of their procurement process than ever before. The level of visibility is unprecedented, even in a sector where supply chains are more complex than they’ve ever been.

Complex supply chains are more prone to disruption. More moving parts and longer distances to travel mean higher likelihoods of things going wrong. Michael Higgins, founder and CEO of Clutch, wrote recently that “risk is inherent at every step of the supply chain, from moving raw materials to manufacturers and between manufacturers and the distributor,” adding that “The added value of big data analytics is predicting potential disruptions, giving procurement managers time to make intelligent decisions.”

Procurement transformation

Advanced analytical tools can be used to track the weather, potential disruptions to agricultural or construction operations, political unrest like demonstrations or riots, and changing legislature that may affect everything from compliance to price. Because Big Data analytics are increasingly capable of collecting and analysing all of these factors and more, procurement professionals have the capacity to counteract sources of risk that traditionally would have seemed as inevitable as an act of divine wrath.

The risks to a supply chain are really representative of risks to your suppliers and their networks. Big Data analytics is also granting insight into the workings of—allowing a huge number of variables tied to each supplier to be tracked and used to make decisions. The result is a more agile and reactive procurement process that can analyse and respond to data analytics in real time, as opposed to trying to make best guesses based on past results and limited human judgement.

Procurement is truly transforming from the back office to the boardroom—becoming more strategic, digitally empowered, and complex than ever before—and Big Data analytics are increasingly a vital part of the function within the modern source-to-pay process.

By Harry Menear

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

21 December 2023

Estimated Read time

0Mins

Walmart turns to Indian suppliers to meet procurement needs, aiming to buy $10 billion worth of goods per year by 2027.

US retail giant Walmart is shifting its procurement strategy in response to a sea change in fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) manufacturing from the Global South.

The company recently announced a new partnership with major Indian bicycle manufacturer Hero Ecotech—part of a larger commitment to grow its annual procurement of Indian direct export goods to $10 billion per year by 2027.

Broadly speaking, Walmart’s strategy is to accelerate its procurement of goods from “categories where India has expertise.” These include food, consumables, health and wellness, general merchandise, apparel, homewares and toys. Additionally, Walmart spokespeople have noted that India—which is home to the third largest pool of scientists and technicians in the world—“has some of the brightest minds in innovation, and we want to explore potential solutions to challenges in our value chain with these innovators and startups.” 

Andrea Albright, Executive Vice President of Sourcing at Walmart commented: “India is well-positioned to support increased demand for products by Walmart customers, and we are excited about our partnership with Hero Ecotech. This collaboration furthers our work to strengthen resiliency in our global supply while contributing to economic growth worldwide.”

Accelerated growth

India’s manufacturing sector is booming. Led by the automotive, electronics, and textiles sectors, Indian manufacturing is projected to reach $1 trillion in the next three years, according to a report by Colliers. A surge of investment—both domestic and international—is driving this growth, with the state of Gujarat receiving the lion’s share of the growth as the region is “becoming India’s manufacturing powerhouse.”

In order to support the development of its procurement network among Indian suppliers, Walmart has also announced plans for an invite-only event to be held in New Delhi this February, where “Indian export-ready suppliers are invited to apply to pitch their products to our buyers for Walmart U.S. stores and Sam’s Clubs,” and “Innovative Indian companies are invited to pitch solutions addressing sourcing challenges across apparel, general merchandise, fresh and packaged food, health and wellness, and consumables. Pitches may lead to pilot projects within Walmart’s value chain.”

By Harry Menear

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

20 December 2023

Estimated Read time

2Mins

A consortium of volunteers from California have slowly restructured their state schools’ digital procurement process. Next year, it plans to go national.

Procuring digital goods and services for public schools in the US has reportedly been a fraught process for decades. A fractured landscape between underfunded public institutions and a private tech sector has struggled to even accurately assess students and regulators’ needs, let alone finding the right edtech (education technology) to meet those needs. 

This is all made harder by an increase in the amount of technology being integrated into schools—whether that’s good, bad, or maybe both, it’s undeniably expensive. The global education technology market was valued at $123.40 billion in 2022 by Grand View Research. It’s expected to expand at a rate of 13.6% between now and the end of the decade.

The power of education for procurement

Edtech is also a wide umbrella, with examples ranging from apps, overhead projectors, and chromebooks for students to thousands of screens, digital signage, and “content management platforms” like those found in Christopher Columbus High, an all-boys prep in Miami which the South Korean tech giant Samsung has transformed into a “connected campus”. In the US, procurement functions working for individual school districts are often forced to work with smaller budgets, fractured regulatory landscapes, and to compete with private schools with larger budgets that drive overall prices in the sector up.

Tired of inefficient processes and uneven contracts, a consortium of procurement professionals working in the California public school system are looking to change the edtech procurement process in the US.

The Education Technology Joint Powers Authority (Ed Tech JPA) was formed “out of frustration” with the existing system, or lack thereof, in 2019. The volunteer group, made up of procurement specialists and school purchasing professionals, has spent the past four years streamlining procurement for digital products and services, leveraging the buying power of multiple schools to negotiate prices, buy in bulk and save money.

From a grouping of school districts located in Irvine, San Juan, San Ramon Valley, Fullerton, Clovis, El Dorado County and Capistrano Unified districts, the consortium has grown to include 163 member districts that educate around 2.3 million students. The organisation has been awarded 23 procurement contracts to date, and is growing rapidly in education.

At the California IT in Education (CITE) conference, held in Sacramento during November, JPA President Brianne Ford, predicted that next year would see the program expand beyond California and make group bargaining procurement for edtech a national feature of the US school system.

By Harry Menear

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

19 December 2023

Estimated Read time

8Mins

CPOstrategy’s cover story this month features a fascinating discussion with Rick Sisk, Director of Procurement at Gen4 Dental

CPOstrategy’s cover story this month features a fascinating discussion with Rick Sisk, Director of Procurement at Gen4 Dental, who explains how he’s revolutionising procurement for the dental industry, and why doctor-led care is so important…

Read the new issue here!

Gen4Dental: Changing the procurement landscape for dentistry 

Gen4 Dental is an organisation that strives to be a true partner to dental practices. It is a truly dentist-first DSO, promoting excellence at every level and working to improve by at least one percent every day. Through mergers and acquisitions, the organisation is also growing at an incredible rate, and this expansion and ambition requires a sturdy procurement department to support it. Enter: Rick Sisk, Director of Procurement at Gen4.

Prior to Sisk joining Gen4 Dental, the procurement landscape certainly wasn’t what it is today. The organisation has grown so quickly in its short lifetime; Sisk says that Gen4 has expanded so rapidly in a way that had the potential to cause problems. “When I came in, there was no real purchasing platform. I called my industry friends and said ‘hey, I need help’. We needed to start at ground zero. I had all these ideas and I was told that procurement was mine to shape. I was really excited about that…”

Read the full story here!

RBI Procurement: Success through technology, innovation and community building 

We speak to Edzard Janssen and several of his team members at Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) to see how the procurement function is enhancing value creation, mitigating risk and dealing with increasing regulatory requirements… 

Now, more than ever, procurement leaders are having to harness innovation as they seek to prosper in highly uncertain times. Successful procurement teams are fostering emerging technologies and strategically aligned operating models and processes as they strive to unlock value across their enterprises. The procurement function at the Austria-based Raiffeisen Bank International AG (RBI) is such an entity, dedicated to delivering value through a future-orientated approach, at scale. 

Edzard Janssen, Head of Group Procurement, Outsourcing & Real Estate Management at RBI, joined the Austrian bank in 2011, where he was tasked with building a state-of-the-art value-creating function. The latest strategy of RBI Procurement focuses on four strategic areas as guidance for all initiatives: value-centric procurement, state-of-the-art capabilities, mastering the data journey and safeguarding the bank. 

1. Value-centric procurement: Focusing on value, not on price, and what truly brings value to the bank. 

2. State-of-the-art capabilities: The procurement systems, the total procurement infrastructure landscape and the capabilities of staff. 

3. Mastering the data journey: Harvesting and utilising the huge pools of data across the bank. 

4. Safeguarding the bank: Covering regulatory compliance, IT and cybersecurity as well as operational and business risk. 

Value-centric procurement 

The ability to deliver value-centric procurement is of course directly related to strategic sourcing and Janssen and his team have made great strides in recent years, establishing an innovative category management approach at the bank. “There are two parts that cover the source-to-pay process,” Janssen tells us from his Vienna office.

“One is the sourcing part of the process mainly fueled by the capabilities of our people and strategy formulation – the right way of approaching the market is pretty much driven by the quality of the people running the process. And then you have the second part of the process: procure-to-pay. So, doing the call-offs and executing the contracts. All that is powered by the quality of systems and efficiency of processes.”

Read the full story here!

Tipico Services: A single source of truth 

We speak to Kiran Menghnani, Director, Tipico Services Ltd (part of the iGaming and Sports Betting brand Tipico Group) to see how he and his team have transformed procurement at the company… 

Kiran Menghnani, Director Tipico Services Ltd – part of the online iGaming and Sports Betting brand Tipico Group – almost stumbled into procurement by accident. As the Malta Head-Officed enterprise Tipico Group started to experience rapid growth midway through the 2010s, combined with complicated regulatory developments, the maturity of the Group realised the tangible need for a dedicated procurement function.

And in 2016, Gibraltar-based Kiran, who had already been with the company since 2011 building internal processes and structures, was asked to look into creating a future-ready procurement hub that could deliver a more strategic and agile business-facing function. 

Tipico had a somewhat disjointed procurement approach to purchasing, prior to its transformation, a situation that resulted in a lack of transparency and an antiquated siloed approach. It was clear to Kiran whilst settling into his new assignment, that as the company continued to grow at pace, that this casual approach to procurement needed to change.

“We were still a young but rapidly growing company. We needed to work fast to get the tasks done while finding our way when dealing with our suppliers. Now the responsibility was on me to better understand the pain points being faced. And so I went about asking the basic questions challenging any purchasing requests. Has the contract been reviewed internally? Is there any data processing by the supplier? Has the price been benched with the market? How can I access past/existing contracts?”

“I soon started to realise that I wasn’t getting the answers to comfort me as Director, and that this humble piece of paper called a contract needed more attention, so I needed to protect both myself and the company as regulatory requirements had evolved. And that’s how this journey really started: someone questioning as to what we were doing and accepting that there were obvious gaps and opportunities.”

Read the full story here!

Richmond’s Department of Procurement Services (DPS): Leadership, relationships and the power of technology 

We speak to Rene Almaraz, Director, Department of Procurement Services, City of Richmond, Virginia to see how public procurement is transforming at the city… 

The values of the City of Richmond’s Department of Procurement Services (DPS) are set out on the opening page of its first ever annual report: teamwork, integrity, innovation, customer focus and leadership. The report is the work of the department’s relatively new director, Rene Almaraz, and his staff, and highlights the team’s achievements – in fiscal year 2023 – and priorities for the future, and also the guiding principles that influence how and why decisions are made.

Almaraz says: “Our goal is to build an organisation that’s more nimble, that provides faster and higher quality service, and supports the customer to the highest degree possible, which includes explaining to them why and when they should follow a specific process.  This, in turn leads to how we can get it done better the next time.”

It will be two years in January since Almaraz took on the role, with clear goals for creating a more agile department that delivers for internal customers and the people of Richmond…

This brings us to two of the points on the DPS list of values: teamwork and leadership. This means within the department itself, but also with external partners, suppliers and customers. The DPS team has grown by around 40% to 28 staff since Almaraz took the reins, as he explains. “We’ve needed to grow. Before I got here, coming out of the pandemic, there wasn’t a lot of stability in terms of headcount. It’s now stabilised and we’ve built a good team here, a really focused team. Plus, I’ve received a lot of support from my leadership and my peer departments to continue improving.”

The team has grown, but can be considered relatively small when you consider the scope of work they’re responsible for, which is why collaboration is so important for Almaraz and, above all else, trust and communication within the team. He explains: “I’m a huge believer in trust – my staff has to trust me, that I’m doing the right thing.  I need to know when to communicate and what to communicate, but they’ve got to trust me and then I must trust them.”

This mutual trust allows everyone to feel inspired and to grow, he says, and develop the skills needed to conduct complex procurement projects. Part of this means asking for help when it’s needed and, crucially, learning from mistakes. Almaraz adds: “Be honest with me: if you need some support, let me know. This is a project I’m giving you so you can grow and so I can grow. We’re going to lead and put this department on the map, through our expertise and professionalism. That’s our objective here.”

Read the full story here!

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

Estimated Read time

2Mins

Ask Procurement—a generative AI procurement solution—is being developed for the market by IBM using Dun & Bradstreet’s “huge data cloud”.

In order to develop more effective and market ready digital solutions for supply chain and procurement professionals, IBM is partnering with Dun & Bradstreet, a data-dealer with access to vast quantities of raw information gathered from a wide variety of sources, as well as cutting edge analytical tools. Together, the companies will work on expanding the capabilities of IBM’s watsonx to expand their use of generative artificial intelligence (AI).

Through the collaboration IBM and Dun & Bradstreet intend to develop multiple offerings for clients to incorporate into their AI workflows, leveraging IBM’s AI and data platform, and fueled by Dun & Bradstreets’.

Ask Procurement

The leading solution in development, according to an IBM press release, is Ask Procurement, a generative AI-powered procurement solution that will “help empower procurement professionals to unlock new data and insights with a 360-degree view into all aspects of a company’s business relationships to help increase savings, reduce time, and mitigate the potential for risk.”

Ask Procurement is expected to use Dun & Bradstreet’s platform, but feature watsonx supported models and other generative AI capabilities “fueled by Dun & Bradstreet’s vast Data Cloud.” The solution is expected to be available to procurement teams in the second half of 2024, integrated with Dun & Bradstreet solutions or an enterprises’ existing ERP or procurement solution.

“At Dun & Bradstreet, being a trusted data partner and a responsible AI partner to organisations are synonymous,” said Ginny Gomez, President, North America, Dun & Bradstreet. “As two trusted brands that bring nearly 300 years of combined experience to the businesses we serve, Dun & Bradstreet and IBM are ideally suited to help companies responsibly navigate the rapidly evolving generative AI space because we know their business environments and processes well. And with hundreds of thousands of organisations globally relying on us every day, we believe there is no better company than Dun & Bradstreet to lead the industry and our clients into the future.”

By Harry Menear

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

18 December 2023

Estimated Read time

2Mins

The HS2 rail project promises over 300 work packages, ranging from £1 million to £500 million for 2024.

The 2024 procurement pipeline for the HS2 rail project promises a £1 billion “boost” for British businesses, as the project administrators reveal details for a slew of contracts available over the coming year and a half.

The contract opportunities, collectively worth over £1 billion, give a heads up to potential suppliers looking to boost their order books and grow their business in the year ahead. So far, UK businesses have secured over £17 billion worth of work on HS2 and 2024 promises even more opportunities to get involved.

“Forward planning is absolutely crucial for businesses, so we’ve worked closely with our stations and civils contractors to develop a simple procurement pipeline setting out what we’ll need and when,” commented Robin Lapish, HS2’s supply chain lead.

HS2 – London with Manchester

HS2—a 140 mile high speed rail network project originally slated to connect London with Manchester—was first announced under the UK’s Labour government in 2009. In the 13 years since its announcement, the project has experienced delays, cost overruns, and controversies. Construction began in September of 2020.

According to the UK’s Institute for Government, while the project was initially estimated as “delivering £2.40 of benefit for each pound of public money spent, the government had revised the BCR down to 1.8 in 2013,” and “Lord Berkeley estimated that HS2 would only deliver £0.66 for each public pound spent, predicting both higher costs – at £22bn more than the 2019 Chairman’s stocktake – significantly reduced benefit from both passenger demand and train frequency, and less ambitious predictions of economic growth.”

As of February 2023, HS2’s total cost to date was calculated at £24.7 billion, and its BCR was calculated as having dropped to .80 following a reduction in rail use after the pandemic—prompting Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to announce the cancellation of the Birmingham to Manchester leg of the line.

Harry Menear

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

15 December 2023

Estimated Read time

2Mins

From risk management to real-time trendspotting, Big Data is injecting unprecedented speed, agility, and visibility into the procurement process.

Every company in the 2020s is a data company — just like every organisation in the 2010s was a software company.

This presumably goes all the way back to when every company was a sharp rocks and oxen firm. For the modern enterprise, identifying how the technology du jour empowers successful organisations in your industry and harnessing it for your own ends is just as vital to success today as it was for the Egyptians in 3,500 B.C. to figure out as quickly as possible where the Sumerians were getting all those cool, new, super shiny and sharp new rocks.

Nowhere is this more true than in the procurement sector. A place where harnessing Big Data can drive new efficiencies, improve resilience and agility in the face of disruption. This is done all while helping procurement teams understand their business in real-time.

However, this doesn’t mean that Big Data analytics adoption has been simple, easy, or without risk. The disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted most of a company’s value chain is dependent on external third parties.  There’s only so much you can get done without engaging with organisations up or down your value stream.

Procurement teams can typically find themselves managing expenses accounting for about 50% of a business’ revenue — sometimes overseeing spend in the billions of dollars. Procurement’s ability to maintain and navigate increasingly complex networks of relationships can be hugely enhanced by the power of analytics. However, adopting the wrong analytics platform, feeding it the wrong information, and drawing the wrong conclusions can be disastrous.

By gathering data from both internal and external sources, then analysing it with the appropriate tools, procurement teams have the capacity to create powerful insights in less time than ever before.

Combining environmental information (weather patterns, crop cycles, raw materials pricings, political unrest, etc.) with rich data generated within a company’s operations, mean that procurement teams using Big Data analytics have a significant leg up when it comes to predicting trends, finding favourable prices for buying, and sourcing inventory from a diverse network of suppliers so as not to place undue stress on their partner network. Reduced costs don’t hurt matters, either.

By Harry Menear

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

14 December 2023

Estimated Read time

2Mins

A closer look at some of the best tools to help your procurement function capture the potential benefits of a world powered by big data.

Procurement is becoming an increasingly data-driven field. Correctly gathered, organised, and analysed, Big Data sets can help a procurement department do everything from increase efficiency and reduce costs, to make more ESG-conscious decisions or shore up their supply chain against unexpected disruption. However, managing huge amounts of structured, unstructured, internal, and external data can present a significant challenge for procurement staff. This is especially true when procurement professionals haven’t needed to also be data analysts until recently. This means there might be understandable skill gaps in your team.

Luckily, there exists a wealth of digital tools designed to capture, analyse, and generate insights from massive amounts of data. This is all specifically catered towards enhancing and elevating your procurement function. Here’s a closer look at five digital tools to help maximise the potential of Big Data in your procurement function.

1. GEP Smart

With AI-powered spend analysis, as well as strategic sourcing, purchase order processing, and invoice management, GEP Smart is one of the more broadly capable and robust procurement tools on the market. The platform is capable of absorbing, collating, and converting large data sets into everything from compliance procedures to supplier management strategies.

2. Kissflow

For smaller organisations still in the process of growing their procurement teams, Kissflow can help bridge the gap between a legacy or underdeveloped procurement function and where it needs to be with less emphasis on learning complex new digital tools. Kissflow is all about being simple, accessible, and customisable. The platform handles basic procurement functions natively, but integrates with a huge variety of other tools and programs.

3. Coupa

Focused largely on spend management, Coupa unified, streamlines, and empowers the source-to-pay process. The firm uses Big Data analytics to manage working capital and forecast budgets, giving procurement professionals more visibility over finances.

4. Tamr Procurement Analytics

Tamr Procurement Analytics specifically targets the problem of siloed data within the supply chain, helping procurement professionals quickly unify their data sets and start using artificial intelligence to generate insights at speed. The AI and machine learning decision engine underpinning Tamr’s platform enriches user data while also curating it against a rigorous set of standards to ensure quality.

5. TARGIT Decision Suite

TARGIT is a business intelligence and analytics tool that can gather observations from throughout the supply chain. This allows them to be more easily converted into actionable insights. The platform embeds directly into internal and external-facing portals, allowing a procurement team to share dashboards with the entire supply chain network. By creating a holistic impression of the entire supply chain, TARGIT improves the results of its predictive analytics, increasing efficiency and resilience.

By Harry Menear

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

13 December 2023

Estimated Read time

4Mins

At DPW Amsterdam, Kathryn Thompson and Fraser Woodhouse, Partner and Director at Deloitte, discuss the rise of generative AI and the impact on procurement.

Procurement is changing.

That’s something that isn’t lost on Kathryn Thompson, a Partner at Deloitte.

As part of her role, she leads the Sourcing and Procurement Market Offering within Deloitte’s Consulting division in Europe, Middle East and Africa. Originally from Australia, Thompson has worked in procurement since 1996 and has observed quite the evolution over the past two and a half decades.

Procurement’s transition

Over the years, procurement has shifted from a traditional back-office function to an entity operating at the fore of a company’s strategy. Having been involved in the industry for more than 25 years, Thompson has had a front-row seat to procurement’s digital transformation. While she affirms that AI has changed procurement, she isn’t convinced that generative AI is changing the space – yet.

Kathryn Thompson speaking at DPW Amsterdam 2023

“We see lots of AI tools pulling from different data sources to apply intelligence to different decisions,” she explains. “But the generative part, beyond contract summaries or pulling together draft RFPs, remains to be seen at scale.  One of my more sophisticated clients has run 300+ Proof of Concepts in AI across their business, including and beyond procurement, and admits they are yet to scale or drive meaningful ROI from any POC. At the moment, the generative AI side for us, isn’t getting past proof of concept or the pilot stage yet.”

Fraser Woodhouse is a Director at Deloitte and has been with the firm since February 2019. He believes that procurement and sales teams will use gen AI for RFPs over the next six months. “I think they’ll do it without telling anyone,” he explains. “It will eventually get to a point where I think that sort of crutch will become a necessity. When it’s built into the enterprise platforms, people will forget how to write contracts because the AI does it automatically. People will even use it to write their emails.”

The AI dilemma

AI on its own is pointless – it simply doesn’t operate the way you need it to. That’s why the importance of making tech work in a way that creates efficiency has never been more important. For Woodhouse, he insists it’s about putting a human at the right place in the process. “One of the solutions I saw was a gen AI assistant helping write an RFP built in, but then the supplier has a gen AI assistant helping do the response to the RFP as well,” he tells us. “Very quickly you’ve got two AIs negotiating with each other, and that doesn’t work unless a human is curating stuff at that point in the middle.”

Given the ease of AI usage, there is a discussion as to whether tech implementation could go too far the other way. Could humans lose the ability to perform simple tasks they previously wouldn’t have thought twice about? But Woodhouse is quick to dispel that myth and believes that despite the growing reliance on technology, people won’t be rendered useless. “People didn’t forget how to communicate when spellcheck came around, they could communicate better,” he explains. “If you are a supplier and are responding to an RFP and you’re pressing their generative AI button to build the response and five of the other suppliers are doing the same thing, who’s going to stand out? The ones who wrote it themselves or at least edited it and had meaningful input.”

“You can use AI for the transactional, easy stuff but there must be a value underpinning it,” adds Thompson. “The winners are going to be the ones that are human about things.”

Fraser Woodhouse and Kathryn Thompson speaking to CPOstrategy at DPW Amsterdam 2023

Procurement’s place

With such significant innovation happening, it is seen as a transformative time to be in procurement. As automation speeds up, the necessity to upskill new graduates coming into the workforce and encourage them to learn higher-value work earlier in their career journeys is becoming increasingly important.

“Covid and the following work from home attitude has a lot to answer for,” explains Thompson. “Pre-Covid, you would rarely work from home. Consultants, suppliers, delivery partners always went to the client’s site. That’s where innovation, creativity, results that are more than the sum of their parts happen. That’s not replicable by generative AI. We need to get everyone back out there and doing things. Rather than replacing jobs, we’re replacing tasks. The tasks that we’re replacing are the likes of data analysis, synthesising, and summarising. Hopefully, it means we’re doing real-life negotiations, brainstorming and innovation instead which are the things that people love to do. Fingers crossed, it just means the bar goes up.”

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

12 December 2023

Estimated Read time

2Mins

Automotive supplier Continental has chosen to work with JAGGAER to implement its global purchasing strategy while driving digitalisation.

Spend management firm JAGGAER has announced it is working with automotive supplier Continental to push its digitalisation agenda.

In a press release published on Monday (December 11), it was revealed the manufacturer will use JAGGAER’s spend management tools to implement its global purchasing strategy. The JAGGAER ONE suite will counteract previously isolated solutions and harmonise the areas of purchase-to-pay, source-to-contract and business partner management.

A multi-stage rollout is set for launch, beginning in Germany and the United States before being slowly expanded globally.

The release detailed that one of the most important factors for Continental choosing JAGGAER was due to the extensive and highly standardised range of functions of JAGGAER ONE, which already covers many existing requirements. In addition, this not only ensures a quick time-to-value, but also ensures a low implementation risk. Continental confirmed it found JAGGAER’s multi-ERP capability “particularly impressive”, with a total of 30 ERP systems needing to be connected.

Following the project’s launch earlier this year, the implementation of JAGGAER solutions within Continental will take place in several stages. Initially, the company will focus on the procurement of non-production materials and raw materials. It will start with the optimisation of the source-to-source contract process. In the next project phase, Continental will focus on the procure-to-pay process to ensure security of supply for employees globally. This is done via predefined catalogues and to optimise follow-up processes.

As well as the global rollout and digitalisation, there are also plans to expand the use of software to direct purchasing.

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

11 December 2023

Estimated Read time

3Mins

Efforts to address climate and social issues in the procurement process don’t have to be siloed, argues a new report from Business Fights Poverty.

With more than 90% of a company’s environmental impact originating within its supply chain, not its internal operations, corporations are under greater pressure than ever to divest and draw down their Scope 3 emissions.

At the same time, other Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) issues concerning gender disparity, minority representation, and workers’ rights are also more clearly in the spotlight than ever before alongside climate change. 

However, a report published on 5th December by social impact-focused network organisation Business Fights Poverty, argues that while there is “an urgent need for transformative action on environmental and social issues such as climate change, biodiversity loss, poverty and inequality,” there exists a tendency in the corporate sector to tackle these “complex and fast-moving challenges by simplifying them and breaking them down into separate, smaller issues”.

The result is often that solving issues of climate, social, and ecological justice becomes a zero-sum game, with one issue neglected at the expense of others, because of a siloed approach manifesting itself beneath the ESG umbrella. The report argues that, not only is this approach antithetical to the ideals of ESG initiatives, but “an integrated and systemic approach that recognises the interconnectivity of the challenges across environmental and social issues” is more effective at tackling these issues.

The report, titled Supply Chain Decarbonisation with a Gender Lens: Practical Guidance for Global Businesses, notes that vulnerable groups, especially women, are especially vulnerable to the effects of climate change. It goes on to provide guidance for corporate procurement strategists and leaders, describing how to ensure that “women are both unharmed by decarbonisation strategies, and that their participation in any benefits generated in the process is secured.”

Four Gender-Sensitive Routes to Procurement Process Decarbonisation

  1. Supplier incentives: Recognise and co-brand with suppliers who are emerging as leaders on decarbonisation and/or gender.
  2. Procurement policies and choices: Source from and encourage women-led businesses that are providing low carbon solutions
  3. Product and services design: Switch to renewable energy and upskill women to participate in the switch.
  4. Business model innovation: Promote a circular economy that includes women, for example decent work for waste and recycling pickers.

The need for decarbonisation in the procurement process is pivotal. As of Q4 2023, nearly 40% of Fortune 500 companies have now set Net Zero targets. It’s not good enough, and the actual meaning of Net Zero is being eroded and worked around by corporations looking for ways to continue harming the environment and damaging the global social fabric while making record profits. But it’s a start. 

“Whilst a growing number of companies are investing resources to better understand, account for, manage and reduce their supply chain emissions, little attention is being devoted to the role of, and impacts of interventions on, the people working in those supply chains,” urges the report. “The decarbonisation strategies of large multinational companies with complex global supply chains have impacts on workers around the world, both positive and negative.”

By Harry Menear

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

8 December 2023

Estimated Read time

2Mins

Only one in six procurement teams have “adequate talent” to meet their future needs, as industry demands grow and evolve.

Fewer than a fifth of procurement directors and executives believe that their teams contain “adequate talent” to meet the future needs of their organisations’ procurement functions.

In a recent survey of 111 procurement leaders, analyst firm Gartner found that, while procurement leaders remained fairly confident in their current talent pools, when asked about their ability to meet future demand, confidence plummeted.

“Procurement leaders are generally confident in the current state of their talent and the ability to meet their near-term objectives,” commented Fareen Mehrzai, Senior Director Analyst in Gartner’s Supply Chain Practice. “However, our data shows that chief procurement officers (CPOs) are worried about the future and having sufficient talent to meet transformative goals based around technology, as well as the ability to serve as a strategic advisor to the business.”

The threat of an industry-wide talent shortage has been looming for several years, and isn’t constrained to the procurement and supply chain sectors.

In the UK, half of all employers expect to face talent and skills shortages when recruiting procurement and supply chain professionals—something 20% of firms believe will be exacerbated by Brexit. In Europe, firms say they already lack “highly qualified procurement personnel”, with 78% of procurement leaders surveyed as part of a recent Accenture report “increasingly confronted with skills shortages in their procurement departments.”

A Different Beast: Procurement Professionals’ Key Competencies “Shifting”

One of the key reasons that procurement leaders lack confidence in their industry’s talent pipeline to meet future demands is reportedly the shifting nature of the modern procurement function.

“Procurement leaders are aware that the competencies required to drive transformation are different from traditional procurement skills, and that there are significant gaps between their current and future needs for the most important competencies,” Mehrzai said. Only 4% of surveyed leaders said that no gap existed between their current capabilities and their need for technology and data skills, with 68% of leaders saying technology and data skills had become more important to the operation of their procurement function in the past year.

Increasingly, procurement is a data-driven, technology-focused sector, but it appears the development and recruitment of available talent lacks behind the sector’s need to not only drive transformation within the business but also serve as a strategic advisor to its key decision makers. As generative AI and data analytics are adopted in greater concentrations across the sector, the demand for professionals who are primarily equipped with technology and data-centric skillsets — at the potential expense of a traditional procurement background — will only increase.

By Harry Menear

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

7 December 2023

Estimated Read time

5Mins

At DPW Amsterdam 2023, Prerna Dhawan, Chief Solutions Officer at The Smart Cube (a WNS company), tells us about the importance of remaining focused on fixing the problem and not leveraging technology for technologies sake.

“You don’t need AI or even gen AI for the sake of it.”

In today’s world, everyone is obsessed with what’s new and fresh. Like in most other functions, in procurement, the latest craze is generative AI, with ChatGPT being one prominent example. Despite new technology’s clear benefits, such as cost and time savings, it’s important to keep the problem you’re trying to solve and the business impact you’re looking to make front of mind.

Prerna Dhawan is the Chief Solutions Officer at The Smart Cube. Like many of her peers, Dhawan recognises the potential that new technology brings but also shares concerns. “Like everyone else, we’ve been on that bandwagon as well,” she tells us. “For us, there have been two key learning so far. We have already done one live deployment of gen AI. We went live with our gen AI model earlier this year, which enables users to skip the stage of manually searching for content on Amplifi PRO, our on-demand procurement intelligence platform. You just ask the question and our platform leverages a custom NLQ framework and gen AI to provide a natural language response. Using a combination of our own AI models and gen AI provides a more dependable, accurate response as pure Gen AI isn’t fully functional for all types of analysis and can’t be trusted completely.”

Navigating AI adoption

Indeed, there has been criticism from some sections about ChatGPT providing hallucinations and making key data up. For multi-million pound organisations responsible for high levels of spend, this isn’t good enough. A second learning Dhawan is keen to get across is that she believes that gen AI is being dominated by hype. She explains that with any “new shiny object”, it should be treated with caution.

“I’ve tried to explain this a little bit, but everyone is excited about new things. A recent example is another use case where we were experimenting with our digital assistant,” she explains. “There was a point where we used a 100% gen AI approach, and we were still getting issues and hallucinations where the queries weren’t being answered correctly. The team said we needed to make it work and I explained that, ultimately, a client needs to solve the problem, they’re less hung up on how this is done. Sometimes people get lost with the technology and the approach. You have to ask yourself, are you solving the problem? If the answer is to just input a human and you don’t need AI, then do that.”

Prerna Dhawan, Chief Solutions Officer at The Smart Cube, sits down with CPOstrategy at DPW Amsterdam 2023

The journey

Armed with more than 16 years of experience in developing client solutions, managing strategic relationships, defining product strategies and driving profitable growth, Dhawan has worked with procurement, supply chain and corporate strategy teams across many global 2000 companies. Throughout her career, she has helped them embed intelligence and analytics as enablers of competitive differentiation and business transformation, along with The Smart Cube’s co-founders Gautam Singh and Omer Abdullah.

The Smart Cube is a WNS company and is considered a trusted partner for high-performing intelligence that answers critical business questions. The Smart Cube works with clients to figure out how to implement answers faster through customer research, advanced analytics and best-of-breed technology. The firm transforms its data into insights – enabling smart decision-making to improve business performance at the top and bottom line. Together with WNS, expert resources are combined with leading digital technologies, merging human intelligence and AI with innovation.

Digitally-enabled future

While AI’s challenges should be acknowledged, Dhawan is in no uncertain terms about the importance of stepping out of comfort zones and meeting fear head-on. Change can be a divisive topic with human nature being to cling on to what’s familiar. However, this can result in becoming reactive and failing to keep up with competitors.

Prerna Dhawan, Chief Solutions Officer, The Smart Cube

“As leaders, if we want to change the game of procurement and redefine the value we create for a business, we have to be more open to embracing new things,” she explains. “If you learn what the capabilities of new technology are and where you can actually use it, everything has strengths and weaknesses. Ask yourself – do you want to be an early adopter or do you want to be a laggard in your industry? All of this has the potential to give you that competitive advantage. It’s about being open, experimenting at pace, but also not being blinded by the magic and assuming everything will just work. There will be changes needed to your processes and people’s mindsets.”

Procurement’s future

With the future of procurement set to continue to be digitally-enabled and full of innovation, Dhawan believes the function now has its seat at the table and is ready to thrive.

“If I look at my journey from when I started in procurement, clients were asking questions like ‘Who are the suppliers in the market? How do I get the best price?’ Procurement is now getting involved at the new product development stage and is even advising the business on what ingredients to use while taking a more total value approach,” she discusses. “When you’re thinking about the product, do you want to put in palm oil or sunflower oil based on sustainability considerations, and how can you justify additional costs of a sustainable supply chain? Procurement isn’t just supporting the bottom line but also influencing the broader business goals of sustainability, innovation and resilience. It’s a great time to be here.”

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

6 December 2023

Estimated Read time

4Mins

Conrad Smith, Founder and CEO at Graphite Systems, discusses the similarities between Formula One and procurement amid significant digital transformation.

“Our business, like the F1 driver, knows to go fast.”

You’d be forgiven for thinking that procurement and Formula One are worlds apart at first glance. However, to Conrad Smith, Founder and CEO at Graphite Systems, they are actually a lot closer than initially meets the eye. A petrolhead by his own admission, Smith shared the stage with Haas Team Principal Guenther Steiner at DPW Amsterdam 2023. As a purchaser with almost 30 years of experience, Smith has overseen quite a transformation during his procurement career. He says that with everything going digital, you would assume that purchasing would accelerate. But it is, in fact, the opposite.

The pace of purchasing

“Over these 30 years, you would think purchasing would be getting faster,” he tells us. “Business is speeding up, but purchasing is slowing down – that’s stunning. When you think about it, where else in the world is slowing down when everything’s going faster and faster? Even though we’re investing in Coupa and Ariba and all of these expensive purchasing tools, it’s still slowing down. Our business stakeolders know business is speeding up, and so their tolerance is going away. In the nineties, when you onboarded a supplier, you just needed commercial data, name, address, tax, and banking.”

Conrad Smith (left) with DPW founders Matthias Gutzmann and Herman Knevel

Having been founded in February 2019, Graphite Systems is the premier supplier life cycle and risk management solution. The emergence of risk and due diligence has become a primary function within procurement. Vendor due diligence during the procurement process ensures users can identify and mitigate the risks present with a vendor they want to do business with during the contracting process. For Smith, he believes that this transformation has been 15 years in the making.

“I think that it was typical that a purchasing leader would point to other stakeholders and say it’s legal that’s holding this up, privacy or security. They’re the ones stopping the process from happening,” he explains. “And quite frankly, I’ll admit, those were my early thoughts. This is like a hot potato – I don’t want to be owning it. I look stupid because of the slowness I described. Think how stupid the business thinks we are when they come and say, I’m working on a project, I need this consultant here on Monday. And our best response is that it’ll take weeks or months to onboard the supplier”           

“Weeks matter, and we need to go through all this risk and due diligence. It’s really important to do the risk and due diligence, but we can’t do that at the expense of the speed of business. While business is quicker, in every measure that you look at, purchasing is going slower. It’s dumb, and the business knows that, and it means we lose credibility. It needs to happen, but we need to be very intelligent about it and not just do things the same ways we’ve always done them.”

Conrad Smith with Haas Team Principal Guenther Steiner at DPW

Procurement’s changing

Smith explains that one of the reasons he can relate to the F1 analogy is that while cars are going faster than ever, the drivers are far safer today. “Every year, we see massive accidents take place,” he tells us. “I think last year, a car that was flipping head over heels tumbling and hit the fence before slamming into the ground but the driver was okay,” he explains. “There’s this principle that is very important in almost any situation where somebody says, you can have this or you can have that. It’s a false choice.

“You have to pick speed, or you have to pick safety. If you go in with a requirement that says it has to be fast and it has to be safe, that’s the F1 example. You have to go into purchasing and say it’s a non-negotiable. It has to be fast and safe. How can we rethink the design so it can go fast and be safe? That’s really my passion, and it’s possible. It doesn’t mean it’s easy, but it’s possible. Frankly, in the case of this purchasing problem, it’s way easier than it should be. But we’re still stuck on passing paper back and forth instead of just saying, there’s my profile. Everything you need is in my Graphite profile – just like everything you need to know about me [as a professional] is in my LinkedIn.”    

The future of creation, management, and sharing of data and documents between buyers and suppliers absolutely needs to evolve from emails, spreadsheets, and PDFs into a modern social network architecture. This transformation of information sharing has already proved its speed and efficiency in most other aspects of our lives. It’s time to quit wasting time and money on supplier onboarding and embrace modern technology in this critical procurement process.

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

5 December 2023

Estimated Read time

5Mins

Anthony Payne, chief marketing officer of HICX, tells us why we won’t reach net zero unless we fix data collection.

As we approach COP28, large manufacturing brands are in the net zero spotlight. It’s been a year since the UN Expert Group released Integrity Matters, a report clarifying the exact metrics brands must meet if they wish to claim net zero success. Those planning to do so, account for around half of the world’s largest listed companies, according to the latest Stocktake, a number which has doubled in the last two and a half years. Despite this momentum, however, brands are slow to implement.

Now, with the conference marking another year closer to the 2050 Paris Agreement and other deadlines, it’s time to step up delivery. What this means is that the strategies behind net zero pledges need a boost.

As a supplier experience evangelist and a marketer, I view this challenge through a different lens. The way in which we engage suppliers to get their data needs significant improvement. And the way forward is to market to suppliers.

A growing conundrum

Most of today’s major brands have expensive procurement technology with which to engage suppliers, technology that has often evolved to be complex, clunky, and hard to use. As a result, supplier adoption of these tools is low, and therefore supplier engagement in projects to cut carbon and provide quality information is low. Brands have the challenge therefore of getting suppliers to adopt their expensive tech and engage in net zero efforts.

Additionally, we’re seeing that what each party expects from the brand-supplier relationship, is misaligned.

Anthony Payne, chief marketing officer of HICX

Suppliers, at the start of the relationship, are highly incentivised to work with a brand and they want to get to three things: the first purchase order, delivery of that first service or product, and payment. From that point, they just want to continue transacting and renewing business. This is their “steady state.”

A brand’s steady state, on the other hand, is more complex. In addition to transactional work, brands need a continuous flow of information around compliance, quality, performance, tax, carbon footprint and an awful lot more. Nowadays, brands also want to be efficient and automated. This brings new technology, whether it’s extensions to established technology or new specialist tools. Of course, with new tools come new processes. 

Suppliers, as we’ve discussed, primarily want to receive orders, deliver on them and be paid. But now, they are also expected to respond to requests for a whole set of information, on a continuous basis. They’re also facing a lot of change in the form of ever-complex technology landscapes and evolving processes – and this isn’t just for one brand, it’s for all their customers and it’s leading to suppliers suffering from what we sometimes call, ‘initiative fatigue.’

The need for brands to collect data is here to stay and it’s time to deal with the thorny issue of how we can get suppliers to adopt the necessary tools and engage in net zero requests.

We need suppliers

Further to this conundrum, brands face something of a basic and rather obvious truth; they need suppliers. For example, brands need suppliers to provide carbon information, ideally using the tech setups that already exist, and they need them to engage in this activity over and above “business as usual”.

Why then, don’t more brands make their suppliers’ lives easier? We’re missing a trick. Let’s flip the way in which we work with suppliers – rather than bombarding suppliers with information requests, let’s encourage them to do what we need.

We can learn from marketing

Let’s turn our attention to another department, one that has had to apply the principle of encouragement rather than force. Marketing cannot force potential customers to buy or adopt a product or service, instead, it engages customers, encouraging them to adopt or buy. This is usually by appealing to a need or emotion.

What’s obvious in the customer-facing world is customers have a choice. For example, as much as I would love to be able to require an audience to buy what we’re selling, to come to our events and read our content, I obviously can’t insist.

This is now, more than ever, the same with suppliers. Like potential customer, suppliers have a choice. The fact that brands need suppliers in order to collect net zero data, gives suppliers more agency. Suppliers now get to exercise choice through their behaviour, and it’s this choice that is absolutely central.

Now don’t get me wrong. It’s not that suppliers want to veto what brands need from them, it’s more that they’re facing too much noise in the form of new technology, information requests and the resulting processes. They’re overwhelmed.

If you want suppliers to engage in your net zero efforts, think differently. Simply piling on more pressure won’t get the best of them. Rather, let’s think more about persuasion and encouragement, and how to show them value. The marketing process involves engaging customers, building strong relationships with them and offering them value, with the purpose of capturing value in return. You’ll see three-quarters of this process is about how we appeal to customers, not the other way around.

If we apply this concept to suppliers, we get a useful way of thinking about the relationship. Why don’t we engage suppliers more, build stronger supplier relationships and create value for them? If marketing is anything to go by, the result will be that we capture value from suppliers – like getting them to complete compliance questionnaires, do forecasts, take part in quality programs and log into (and actually use) those expensive systems.

Rather than trying, in vain, to force suppliers to engage in net zero activity, let’s market to them.

Now, as net zero delivery dates creep closer, brands can empower themselves to step up by stepping into the shoes of suppliers and appealing to them. As we explore new ways of working with suppliers, who knows what solutions could be inspired?

By Anthony Payne, chief marketing officer of HICX, the supplier experience platform

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

4 December 2023

Estimated Read time

4Mins

Costas Xyloyiannis, CEO at HICX, discusses why the time is now for supplier experience in supply chain and procurement and its rise to the top of conversations in the space.

“I feel like the focus is shifting.”

Gone are the days of supplier experience being hidden away in the background. Today, it sits as an increasingly important target area within the procurement and supply chain space. But it hasn’t always been this way.

For Costas Xyloyiannis, CEO at HICX, he is pleased to see supplier experience’s conversation grow. “I’ve been in this space for 23 years and even if we go back three or four years ago, no one was talking about it,” he tells us. “It’s great to see a movement beginning to happen.”

Speaking with CPOstrategy at HICX Supplier Experience Live in Amsterdam, a day before DPW Amsterdam kicked off, he revealed how satisfying it was to see its evolution take place. And clearly there’s a market for it. Scores of people filled the Tobacco Theatre in Amsterdam all eager to listen to the many discussions and speakers attending the half-day event. “It is very satisfying because you see people’s minds changing in the same way that it did for the customer and employee experience,” he explains. “What you have to think about is that almost every company is also a supplier so it’s in your interest to focus on the supplier experience side. In another context, you’re also a supplier and people should understand that we’re all in it together. If you don’t think about solving it, then you’re going to have that pain yourself.”

Driving Supplier Experience

Indeed, it’s an issue that needs solving. Xyloyiannis explains that not understanding the necessity of supplier experience is a common misconception because it affects everyone in different ways. “Sales and marketing are the ones likely to understand what it means to be a supplier but they’re detached from the problem,” he says. “They are probably going into a portal and filling things in many times, it’s just not procurement doing it so that’s why they can’t make the connection. What we all need to realise is that focusing on supplier experience is in all of our interest. Ultimately, you have to think it’s just the right way of solving a problem because I create efficiency for myself and I’m also a supplier.”

HICX Supplier Experience Live in Amsterdam in October 2023

Xyloyiannis goes on to explain that if the focus is on supplier experience, an opportunity has been presented to create net efficiency – which is a massive win for all. “This benefits everyone because it’s not a zero-sum game,” he says. “If you think about business cases of other solutions, it’s we’re going to fire people and cut headcount. If I take the US government example of 150 million a year to DNB, this would’ve been a saving they would make without impacting any other functions internally. No heads would have to be cut; nothing would have to be outsourced. In a way, it’s free money for everyone when you can create net efficiency.”

Moving forward

Today’s Chief Procurement Officer has a lot on their plate. Amid navigating continuous innovation and transformation, ESG’s ever-increasing influence and battling inflation concerns all on the back of an already disruptive few years, procurement finds itself at an interesting moment. But looking ahead to 2024, supplier experience has its seat at the table and will only become a hotter topic in the years to come, according to Xyloyiannis.

“A lot of leading companies are putting huge amounts of focus on it,” he tells us. “Henkel posted on LinkedIn last year that they were driving their whole strategy around supplier experience. Then you’ve got Heineken and Unilever who are getting more involved in the space too. I think it is very much at the forefront, particularly in companies which produce goods and services. Supply chain has become very global and there’s a benefit to outsourcing and all these things, but it does make it very fragile. That’s why now it’s become important to focus on supplier experience because we have such a high dependency on one another.”

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

1 December 2023

Estimated Read time

6Mins

In this article, Veridion’s CEO unveils the exciting world of AI in Supplier Discovery, shares the company’s journey into data enrichment, and concludes with some behind the scenes of how the company is enhancing its Search API with natural language capabilities, paving the way to data-driven future in procurement and beyond.

In today’s world, global supply chains are facing persistent volatility and disruptions, leaving procurement companies extremely exposed to the fluctuations of markets and the associated risks from vendors. This unstable environment highlights the necessity of innovative approaches in procurement management, particularly the adoption of AI-powered intelligent data.

Deloitte’s 2023 Global Chief Procurement Survey reports that 89% of companies worldwide have been negatively impacted by inflation-related cost risks in the last year, with 79% also facing substantial supply shortages. These figures underscore the critical need for innovative strategies and technologies to address these challenges in procurement.

Embracing AI for supplier discovery: A game-changer in procurement

Perspectives from Veridion’s CEO, Florin Tufan

As procurement firms aims to master the complexities of the evolving supply chain landscape, artificial intelligence (AI) emerges as a transformative solution that promises significant benefits, especially in enhancing supplier discovery.

Veridion, a company at the forefront of data enrichment and innovation, is leveraging AI to streamline data-driven growth across many areas within industries. Florin Tufan, Veridion’s CEO, offers candid perspectives on the opportunities and challenges presented by AI in procurement, with a special focus on its capacity to refine the supplier discovery procedure.

Tufan talks about how leveraging AI for supplier discovery is transforming procurement from a process constrained by limited information and relationships to one that is dynamic, informed, and resilient. AI-enabled data allows companies to comprehensively understand the supplier landscape, enabling them to analyse and evaluate a vast array of suppliers quickly and efficiently.

“We come from a world where it wasn’t possible to learn everything about the entire universe. If you had three suppliers for one highly important thing, you’d much rather spend a lot of time strengthening that relationship and putting better protection in place. There was no easy way to ask about others and question whether you were working with the right ones while finding out if you had enough resiliency. No, you want to work with the best ones so that you’re covered and get on with the work no matter what.”

However, Tufan also highlighted that while AI has the potential to significantly cut down the time companies spend searching for new suppliers, it’s not a magic wand that instantly fixes all procurement issues. There are still things to be fixed in the supplier discovery process.

CPOstrategy speaking with Veridion CEO Florin Tufan at DPW Amsterdam

Veridion’s approach:  Addressing the need for a more proactive and comprehensive approach in supplier risk management

Tufan’s insights suggest a pressing need for a more proactive and comprehensive approach in supplier risk management.

Tufan pointed out a critical shortfall in the procurement strategies of many large companies—they lacked sufficient redundancy in their supply chains. When the pandemic struck, these companies scrambled to identify and connect with the best possible suppliers in various regions. However, the process was fraught with inefficiencies. “The discovery phase alone took weeks, and that was before even determining if those suppliers were a suitable match. By the time companies could establish redundancy, it could be two years later, and that’s simply too late,” Tufan explained.

He observed that the focus in procurement has traditionally been on what is known about the top suppliers based on past interactions, often neglecting the broader, more holistic view of a supplier’s status and potential risks. “There are numerous instances where companies face downturns or disruptions due to economic or political factors, and their clients often find out too late,” Tufan noted.

Who is Veridion? The company’s journey to data enrichment in procurement

Veridion, a Romania-based company, operates in the segment of source-of-truth business data, providing comprehensive and up-to-date insights on private companies. The company’s solutions are addressing particularly procurement, insurance, and market intelligence data challenges and are powered by AI and machine learning capabilities. This technology enables Veridion to extract maximum value from data, enabling efficiency and innovation for their customers.

One of Veridion’s earliest projects in procurement, which significantly contributed to its exploration of data enrichment solutions, involved collaborating with semiconductor companies seeking to diversify from China and US manufacturers planning to onshore to South America. This experience gave CEO Florin Tufan and his team deep insights into the complex challenges of global supply chain relocation. Tufan described this journey as both humbling and enlightening, particularly in understanding the significant impact of supply chain shifts on everyday products.

The company’s approach to addressing these challenges has been methodical and innovative. By leveraging AI and machine learning, they have developed more efficient ways to harness data, enabling businesses to make informed decisions in rapidly changing environments. This approach is not just about providing data but enriching it to offer meaningful, actionable insights.

Veridion has become a key player in transforming how companies approach procurement and supply chain management. By focusing on data enrichment and leveraging advanced technologies, they have positioned themselves at the forefront of this critical industry, offering solutions that are as dynamic as the markets they serve.

This “incredible journey”, as described by Tufan, exceeds the goal of business expansion. It’s about comprehending and effectively responding to the complex challenging of global with real-time, accurate data.

Looking forward: Veridion’s CEO perspectives on latest technology innovations

“I’m 99% percent excited! At the core, we’re an AI company.”

Florin Tufan’s vision for the latest cutting-edge technologies and innovations such as generative AI is one of optimism and excitement. He sees it not just as a technological leap, but as a tool that will become integral to daily life and business operations, enhancing efficiency and connectivity across the globe.

When asked what big news is coming soon, Florin announced an upcoming enhancement to their Search API, set to launch this year. This significant update introduces semantic search capabilities, leveraging natural language processing to enable more intuitive, human-like search experiences. With this advancement, users will be able to conduct searches that closely align with their specific needs and queries.

Veridion’s Search API is modernising multiple procurement processes from supplier search to enrichment, setting a new standard of excellence with first-class vendor data. By incorporating advanced AI capabilities, this intelligent search engine has made significant strides in deduplication, cleansing, and enriching master data, addressing a critical challenge many companies face. Organisations often struggle to understand the full potential of their existing supplier networks for sourcing opportunities. Veridion’s data-centric approach ensures that companies can now leverage their current supplier base more effectively or find new ones, uncovering hidden opportunities and driving efficiency in procurement strategies.

It looks like Veridion is reshaping the procurement landscape, turning complexity into clarity and offering an unparalleled user experience. The company is marking a paradigm shift towards a more efficient, data-driven future in procurement and beyond.

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

30 November 2023

Estimated Read time

6Mins

Maarten van der Borden, Customer Transformation Director at Celonis, discusses the influence digital tools such as generative AI is having on procurement’s workforce.

“When something new arrives on the scene, people have a tendency to immediately think of the worst-case scenario.”

Maarten van der Borden is a Customer Transformation Director at Celonis. As AI gets increasingly complex and advanced, there are concerns from some sections of the workforce that robots will take human jobs in procurement. Indeed, one of the biggest draws of automation is the cost savings and efficiency it brings, with AI able to complete some tasks almost instantly. But van der Borden challenges that notion and believes technology should be used as an enabler.

AI’s impact on jobs

“AI will, in my opinion, not replace anyone anytime soon,” he reveals. “What it will do is make life easier and change the way we operate. In the late 90’s, we couldn’t envision what having a mobile phone would be like. When those were first introduced, we thought how annoying it would be that you would always be reachable. Now we can’t imagine living without a phone.

“I don’t envision the elimination of procurement positions due to AI. Rather, a significant shift may occur in the transactional aspects of process analytics. Currently, individuals proficient in creating complex Excel macros or adept at extracting and transforming data into actionable insights are highly valued. These roles are likely to undergo changes, but this should be seen as an opportunity for enhancement, not a threat. It’s crucial to recognise this. My belief is that AI won’t be replacing jobs, particularly in procurement where human involvement is key. The role of technology should be to empower and improve processes in procurement, not to replace the human element.”

Maarten van der Borden, Customer Transformation Director at Celonis

The journey

Over the years, Van der Borden has distinguished himself through a series of impactful transformations and strategic developments, primarily at the nexus of IT, business operations, and finance. His journey has been marked by the successful management of large-scale programs, where his ability to engage cross-functional teams and collaborate with stakeholders at all organisational levels has consistently led to the achievement of key goals. Notably, he has a history of taking on complex and challenging projects, steering them from concept to completion under stringent conditions. This track record has established him as an influential change agent, known for transforming underperforming organizations into models of high performance and efficiency.

Having began his career in the Dutch Military, he experienced a similar journey to many procurement practitioners. Van der Borden fell into the space by a “happy accident” and never left.

He shares, “I didn’t know much about procurement initially, but I quickly grew to love it.” His journey led him to DS Smith, a major packaging organisation, where he successfully spearheaded a comprehensive global procurement transformation. Subsequently, he transitioned to head the finance transformation within the same company. In this role, he sought a tool that could effectively navigate the unique challenges of procurement compared to finance.

“I needed something that would show me how our financial processes really ran. It meant finding the most impactful inefficiencies and developing an action plan to deal with them.”

Celonis today

This search brought him to Celonis’ process mining capability, a product that resonated with him so profoundly that he decided to join the company. “Right now, I am a Customer Transformation Director at Celonis, which means I help our customers organise themselves around this solution because I firmly believe implementing a tech solution by itself doesn’t do anything. We will always need the human element to make the change and create value, based on the insights tech provides. I’m very happy to be here.”

Today, Celonis is the global leader in process mining, providing companies with a modern way to run their business processes entirely on data and intelligence. The firm pioneered the process mining category more than a decade ago when it first developed the ability to automatically X-ray processes, find inefficiencies and implement immediate, targeted, and automated action to resolve them.

Gen AI drive

Procurement is in a transformative moment. At DPW Amsterdam, generative AI was the buzzword on attendees’ lips everywhere you looked. For van der Borden he acknowledges how rapidly the space is changing as a result of an increased influence of digital tools.

“To me, the first big thing to realise when we talk about gen AI is the democratisation of data and process analytics,” explains van der Borden. “I think what’s really important is that procurement realm to me is a prime example of where gen AI can have a huge impact. I think what gen AI will do is open up the capabilities of analytics to a much wider audience than today. People who may previously have trusted some Excel sheets or PowerPoint slides presented to them to make decisions can now freely explore, or even converse with their own data and make informed decisions themselves. You start to build a community of data analysts rather than just having consumption of data analytics. That to me is the big game changer that gen AI is actually providing procurement with.”

Procurement’s perception

CPOstrategy sits down with Maarten van der Borden, Customer Transformation Director at Celonis, at DPW Amsterdam 2023

By its own common admission, procurement used to be boring. A function hidden out of sight and kept far away from the c-suite. Now, it’s front and centre, firing on all cylinders. Indeed, the Covid pandemic helped drive it towards the top of the agenda, in addition to other enablers such as transformation and ESG. For van der Borden, he believes procurement is beginning to shake off that old skin and be seen as more of a strategic function.

“We’ve received a bad reputation in the past because the impact has not always been clear,” he tells us. “Some analysis that people do on procurement as a strategic function is to ask what’s the real impact? Yeah, you manage the supply and demand but as long as I have my blue ball point where and when I need it, you’re doing a good job. If things start to fall over then procurement used to get the blame. What I’m really happy to see is that more and more CEOs are seeing procurement as a strategic function, not only driving value in the financial domain but also more and more as the primary contributors to a more sustainable future and the guardians of our corporate brands.

An evolution

“There’s been a noticeable evolution in procurement, particularly in the merging of processes like source-to-pay, procure-to-pay, and purchase-to-pay. Our definitions in these areas haven’t always been crystal clear. However, when you delve into purchase-to-pay, it’s apparent that this is where the transactional activities occur. Due its very transactional nature, this phase is measurable and reveals the outcomes of our upstream actions in sourcing. I’ve observed that these areas, despite often being managed by separate divisions or functions, are intrinsically linked. The transactional aspects are commonly seen in shared services, while the sourcing aspects represent traditional procurement.

“Bridging these two areas, in my view, is a significant shift. This is where technology truly demonstrates its value. By integrating and examining the transactional processes to understand their shortcomings, we can trace back to the root causes, often found in sourcing. This integration is fascinating to me. It allows us to assess the real impact of our efforts.”

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

29 November 2023

Estimated Read time

2Mins

DPW has announced it is expanding into North America following the success of its Amsterdam offering.

DPW has announced it is expanding into North America following the success of its Amsterdam event.

Founders Matthias Gutzmann and Herman Knevel revealed the news via LinkedIn to confirm a move that will see significant growth into new territories.

Gutzmann exclusively told CPOstrategy: “Marking a pivotal moment for DPW, our expansion to the US isn’t just about growing our footprint, it’s about building on our ongoing momentum over the last few years and bringing the enthusiasm and expertise of DPW.

“We aim to bridge procurement organisations with innovative startup founders and change makers, fostering the growth of a digital procurement and supply chain ecosystem in North America.”

Accompanied by a photo of the duo outside Google offices in Silicon Valley, California, he posted on Monday (27th November): “I am currently in #SilliconValley together with Herman Knevel, gearing up for an exciting week filled with meetings with tech giants, founders, visionary partners and future collaborators.

“Having previously led the expansion of Procurement Leaders | A World 50 Group Community into North America, I must say I feel extra energised to bring my experience and strong relationships within the North American market for the benefit of DPW.

“Stay tuned for more updates as we embark on this exciting phase of growth and innovation!”

Founders Matthias Gutzmann and Herman Knevel

​​Since launching DPW in Amsterdam in 2019, the conference has grown from strength to strength and is now widely regarded as the biggest and most influential tech event in procurement and supply chain on the planet. The conference welcomed over 1,250 procurement professionals with more than 2,500 virtual attendees watching along at home in its 2023 edition in October.

Last year’s event was held at the former stock exchange building, the Beurs van Berlage, with the theme called “Make Tech Work” which focused on turning digital aspirations into a reality. DPW Amsterdam has already been announced for October 9 and 10, 2024, next year.

Further details about DPW North America will be revealed in due course.

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

28 November 2023

Estimated Read time

3Mins

At DPW Amsterdam 2023, Sigbjørn Nome, CEO and Co-Founder at Ignite, discusses the importance of a people-first mindset in procurement.

“It’s super important to get the right people in procurement.”

Sigbjørn Nome, CEO and Co-Founder at Ignite, is passionate about talent. The company is now armed with 60 employees and has become an organisation of choice for many graduates in Norway. According to Nome, building a positive environment that empowers staff holds the key to long-term success and growth in procurement.

“We’ve managed to get a good reputation in Norway and recruit top talent,” he tells us. “In the beginning, we used the best students and offered internships to help us build the first version of the product. Then we built a good relationship with the universities in Norway and we’ve also recruited lots of senior hires too. There’s a great combination of talent within Ignite.”

Sigbjørn Nome, CEO and Co-Founder at Ignite

Procurement transformation

Ignite is an advanced yet simple spend management solution that gives customers the power of correct and holistic data, transparency, and actionable analytics to empower data-driven decision-making. This way, customers not only save money and avoid risk but also make smarter choices and drive value across their organisation. Ignite provides a one-stop shop to consolidate, clean, and enrich data, get advanced procurement analytics, conduct supplier assessments, as well as holistically managing suppliers and contracts and quickly and automatically estimating their Scope 3 CO2 footprint.                             

With a background in consulting, Nome worked on a variety of procurement transformation projects and has witnessed significant potential in the space. Having decided to form Ignite in 2016, the organisation began as a consulting firm but it was later decided to be delivered as a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company. “As a consulting business, you are cashflow positive and you earn money from the get-go. While for a SaaS business, you need to invest a lot in product and productive development,” he tells us. “It is quite a challenging change. As a business owner, you also need to sell and be more out there to get customers. There’s been a lot of challenges and one of those has been building the team which I’m really proud of.”

Procurement’s evolving function

Procurement is changing. Traditional procurement revolved around delivery, cost and quality. Now, given the nature of environmental challenges as well as the necessity of data analytics, people with diverse skill sets are needed more than ever before. Nome believes it’s about changing the mindset of procurement. “You’ve got to shift that mentality because the function is so different today,” he explains. “In the future, it’s going to be a more collaborative function because procurement teams cannot win alone.”

With that future in mind, Nome recognises the space is a different beast today than it was a decade ago. Change dominates the industry and the players that embrace transformation will be the ones who win. “You need to use procurement as a lever to get change done,” he tells us. “It’s not enough anymore to look at your business only, your responsibility also extends to your suppliers. It’s about where you spend your money and your negotiation power because customers will look at that. I would say the regulation demands will offer a broader perspective, not only looking at your business but also how you spend your money.”

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

27 November 2023

Estimated Read time

6Mins

At DPW Amsterdam 2023, Alan Holland, CEO of Keelvar, tells us about the acceleration of digital transformation in procurement and what it means for the next generation of the workforce.

Keelvar’s mission is simple – to help procurement teams globally to scale sourcing excellence.

Keelvar is powered by unique artificial intelligence, designed by category experts, to deliver significant savings and operational improvements for global enterprises such as the likes of Siemens, Coca-Cola, Samsung, Novartis and more. The company was founded in Europe’s largest AI research lab by a team of computer scientists and engineers specialising in AI, optimisation and game theory applied to strategic sourcing. Keelvar has raised $42 million to date in funding to accelerate product development and global growth.

The company is led by Alan Holland who has served as CEO since the company’s foundation in September 2012. Indeed, in his first year, he led the organisation to win the Cork Company of the Year in the small company category, and the firm has more recently been awarded a Gartner Cool vendor.

Having previously served as a lecturer in artificial intelligence in University College Cork’s Computer Science Department, Holland specialised in Optimisation, Game Theory and Algorithmic Mechanism Design. Such experience has helped give Keelvar an edge in terms of innovating with offerings that exceed competitors’ technical capabilities. This enables Keelvar to define an entirely new category of the solution, putting Keelvar in an ideal position to lead this new category that Keelvar has called autonomous sourcing.

CPOstrategy sitting down with Alan Holland, CEO at Keelvar, at DPW Amsterdam 2023

Evolution at scale

Procurement is in a state of flux. The industry is experiencing unprecedented amounts of innovation and change in a way which has ripped up the playbook of what went before it. However, Holland believes it is only in the past half decade or so where transformation has really started to take place. “If we look at the last 10 years, the first five of those procurement was very slow to change,” he discusses. “What we saw were technology landscapes dominated by a small number of large suites vendors who had acquired many companies, but most enterprises were satisfied in buying all the modules they would need to run their procurement function from one vendor. Rarely was it the case that the various modules did what their customers needed. Some of them might have worked in some ways, but others just didn’t serve the need at all.

“In the second five years of our being, things started to change. We did start to notice an increasing acceptance that best-of-breed was the way forward and that enterprises needed to accept that if they were to get the buy-in from their stakeholders, then they needed to work with a combination of best-of-breed vendors and piece together their specific technologies landscape rather than just buying it in bulk from one. I would say it was gradual at first and then suddenly, but it’s only been suddenly in the last couple of years. The pandemic likely accelerated some of that change.”

Trust first

Holland explains that in recent years, large multinationals are placing an increasingly important level of trust in smaller, best-of-breed vendors such as Keelvar to allow them to run their sourcing events and meet niche demands. He believes that in the past it simply wouldn’t have happened and strives to prove that faith right. “I suppose that’s a process where enterprises are gradually increasing their trust in what are smaller vendors, but these smaller vendors are becoming bigger because we’re serving hundreds of large enterprises,” he explains. “We’re gaining in strength and momentum and the barriers to adopting best-of-breed at scale are lowering and the market willingness to jump those barriers is increasing. That momentum is just gathering more and more force.”

Alan Holland, CEO at Keelvar

Using tech as an enabler for talent

Procurement’s talent shortage and the ways to bridge has been a hot topic for years. Whoever you speak to within the industry, everyone will have a different viewpoint. Some say procurement needs a rebrand, others say it’s a lack of education while others think technology could hold the key. For Holland, he believes it’s about making tech work and freeing up people in procurement’s time to focus on more value-add work that will help solve strategic goals.

“What is attracting graduates to procurement now is working with intelligent systems that are powered by AI and that allow them to be strategic and not working on routine or tactical tasks because machines are taking over the data-intensive areas of processing these workflows,” he tells us. “Our second product, which we launched about three years ago is autonomous sourcing. These are sourcing bots that are intelligent software agents that you can now design, build, and operate your own sourcing bots. If you’re somebody who understands best practices in sourcing, you can now build automated workflows so that instead of having to run sourcing events one by one and get through 15 or 20 a year, now you could design bots that are running hundreds of these events per annum.”

Procurement’s bright future

While not only opening up people’s day, using technology as an enabler to make life easier also acts as a way of encouraging the next generation into the industry. “What you’re doing is freeing up many other people’s time to spend on relationship management or innovation discovery and talking to the market, finding out what new suppliers you should be dealing with, visiting suppliers to check things are in order,” he says. “And that is the type of work that people enjoy doing. Machines are taking more of the data-intensive work off their tables, and machines are not good at work related to establishing trust. Machines have no empathy, but people do. The soft skills in procurement are becoming ever more important because the machines are taking over the harder skills. That is leading to a transformation in the type of work that procurement is doing.

“It’s also leading to a transformation in the interest levels that graduates emerging from universities have for this sphere. When it used to be that they were first introduced to a legacy system and told that this is what they needed to use to do their job. Young workers are coming with higher expectations about software and rightfully so, and enterprises are reacting to the need to satisfy the technology requirements of younger recruits now, which is a very good thing. It’s accelerating that digital transformation that we are seeing.”

The next step

Looking ahead, Holland is full of positivity for the future and believes decision-making in procurement is easier than it’s ever been. He believes tomorrow is “very bright” as procurement enters an era with intelligent software agents which can automate workflows and make the human workday more efficient. “There’s a whole new range of possibilities where creative and thoughtful planning will provide a competitive advantage for organisations and procurement can be far more influential in how successful their companies can be. It’s a game-changer.”

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

24 November 2023

Estimated Read time

5Mins

At DPW Amsterdam 2023, Brandon Card, Co-Founder and CEO at Terzo, discusses the rise of his organisation amid the COVID-19 pandemic and how it used the disruption to its advantage.

Terzo means third in Italian.

With the two founders having Italian heritage, they chose to describe what they set out to build – a platform that brings third parties together.

Terzo uses powerful AI technology to extract, analyse, and visualise its customer’s contract data. Terzo’s AI data extraction capabilities also reach beyond contracts and can solve an organisation’s document problems, from invoices to POs and more. Its platform was designed on the foundation of contract intelligence, providing business teams the necessary data to improve productivity, optimise spend, reduce costs, and manage risk and governance across their entire supplier ecosystem. Terzo is the first solution to provide critical data and terms to both legal and business teams to make decisions together.

Terzo’s journey

Brandon Card is the Co-Founder and CEO at Terzo. His company’s journey’s start was an interesting one, having been founded days before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdowns that then ensued. But, reflecting on the disruptive nature of the situation, Card believes it actually helped get Terzo up and running quicker. “It just accelerated our timeline because we wanted to build fast,” he reveals. “When we put the team together, we had this concept that we wanted to get the product out as fast as possible. We knew that with Covid happening there was going to be a huge shift in how people were working. People were going to need to buy new solutions faster and it’s going to be harder to control spending. We knew procurement was going to have a host of challenges across the supply chain with this interruption with Covid. Our team on the engineering side believed we need to build faster.”

This led to Terzo’s team on the engineering side of the house to work diligently throughout the rest of 2020 and into 2021 on building code and new releases with the vision of getting the Terzo product into the industry quicker. “We thought we might be able to help procurement given the challenges they have now with all of these new needs that the business is going to bring,” he says. “We probably built the product about 50% faster just because there were no distractions so there’s pros and cons when everything happens in life. Our team really worked well together and they buckled down and they took that time to focus on Terzo. It’s something I’m very proud of this team for doing that.”

Brandon Card speaks with CPOstrategy at DPW Amsterdam 2023

Developing relationships

A big part of what Terzo does revolves around strengthening relationships by uniting teams to unlock insights so organisations can make smarter decisions and maximise value from suppliers, customers and partners. Card believes this mantra holds the key to long-term success in procurement.

“It’s critical for us because when we think about whether we’re doing spend analytics or contract intelligence, it’s all about understanding the relationship with these different entities you’re working with,” discusses Card. “We’re not there yet but my big vision in the future is to build an enterprise relationship intelligence platform to understand every single business that you’re working with, whether it’s a customer, a supplier or a partner. The truth with these big organisations, a lot of their suppliers are also partners or customers. These relationships are very complex and they’re very critical to innovation.

“If you’re doing anything in the cloud right now, if you’re doing anything with AI or even autonomous driving, you need partners to get this done. You can’t build it in-house. And years ago, people would build in-house. When we were young growing up in the nineties, everyone had to build their own data centres and build their own software. We’re in a world now where you can go and turn things on online in a few minutes, and that’s where we want to be so you can push product out faster, competitive advantage, and I think these relationships are critical to procurement having a competitive advantage and driving value for the whole business.”

Procurement’s place

In today’s world, procurement is in the driving seat. The function isn’t siloed anymore, stuck in a back-office room and out of the way of everyone else. Despite such significant innovation, there is sometimes a perception that procurement is still boring. For Card, he believes one of procurement’s biggest challenges is changing that age-hold mentality of procurement within a c-suite.

“It’s about educating the CEO or the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of large organisations just how critical procurement is. A lot of them just don’t understand,” he tells us. “That’s the challenge we have, and that’s something we want to change. In the future, the CFO is going to treat the head of sales the same they treat the CPO. Right now, the chief revenue officer gets special treatment in every organisation. If you run sales, you’re treated differently because you bring in revenue. If you’re procurement, you’re lucky if you’re at the table. But I do see that changing.”

While Card believes this shift is already beginning to happen with younger CFOs, change such as this doesn’t happen overnight. “By doing this, you’re going to have a really balanced organisation and reduce risk while optimising their costs,” he discusses. “Ultimately, they’re going to be more efficient, and the teams are going to be working a lot better together. There’s going to be a better culture when leadership buys in because then procurement feels valued. They work harder, and that vibe carries throughout the organisation. That’s something that we want to help push for procurement but we know it’s going to take time.”

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

23 November 2023

Estimated Read time

5Mins

At DPW Amsterdam 2023, Danny Thompson, Chief Product Officer at apexanalytix, tells us about the art of developing trust amid significant innovation in procurement.

Trust.

Apexanalytix needs to build quite a bit of it. As a company which protects $9 trillion in spend and prevents or recovers more than $9 billion in overpayments annually, its client portals actively support over eight and a half million suppliers.

Indeed, apex has revolutionised recovery audit with advanced analytics and the introduction of first strike overpayment and fraud prevention software. Today, apex is a leading global force in supplier management innovation with apexportal and smartvm, now the most widely used supplier onboarding, compliant master data management, and comprehensive third-party risk management solution in global procure to pay. With over 250 clients in the Fortune 1000 and Global 2000, apex is dedicated to providing companies and their suppliers with the ultimate supplier management experience. A big part of that experience is based on building trusted supplier-buyer relationships.

Danny Thompson is the Chief Product Officer at apexanalytix and has been with the organisation since July 2015. Now in his third role with the company in eight years, Thompson reflects on his journey with the organisation with positivity. “I came in as a product manager working on our portal product,” he tells us. “And after a short time, because I was a former customer, at Pfizer and International Paper Company, and was an internal voice of the customer, they ended up having me drive messaging with marketing. Recently, we hired a great new leader of marketing who has taken that over fully so I’m dedicated full time to product again. So it’s been a great experience for me.”

Gen AI surge

One of the hottest topics on the CPO agenda in recent months has been ChatGPT. Wherever you go within the industry, you’ll likely find a conversation being had about the technology’s possibilities, as well as perhaps its limitations or challenges – and Thompson is equally keen to explore.

Danny Thompson speaks with CPOstrategy at DPW Amsterdam 2023

“There is certainly a lot of attention being paid to gen AI in the industry, and within our company as well,” says Thompson. “I think it’s because of the shock value of ChatGPT hitting the world and people are really stunned by its ability to interpret natural language and come back with really good information in response to questions that are being lobbed at it. There’s a lot of excitement around what it could do as well as what other generative AI solutions can do to help solve procurement, supplier risk and supplier information problems. We are making progress, and have introduced some generative AI functions, but Generative AI presents some challenges right off the bat that we are working hard to solve as quickly as we can.”

One of these issues is the hallucination problem that is being questioned within the space. This is where AI tools like ChatGPT lack factual support for some of the information provided. “There’s a statement at the bottom of the page which states you can’t rely on results being factual,” Thompson affirms. “When it comes to supplier information and risk management, that’s a problem.”

Managing risk

And it is such an important sticking point that Thompson stresses when it comes to supplier risk information, it is about being careful that the usage of generative AI, in its current state, is used for guidance rather than fact-finding. “Another challenge is around leakage of sensitive information combined with contamination of sensitive or important information,” reveals Thompson. “We have a database of golden records for 90 million suppliers who are doing business with Fortune 1000 and Global 2000 companies. That is the best information we’ve been able to accumulate about suppliers and their relationships as a supplier to large companies. Some of that data is publicly available and some of it is more sensitive. We want to make sure we’re not loading that sensitive information into a generative AI function that might allow random people to access that information. We’ve got to be careful about that leakage of data.”

The opposite is true, as well.  Thompson reveals that his team asked the generative AI-tailored questions which they assumed would be pulled from their own database. The findings were less than ideal. “The responses had been contaminated with public information which was full of inaccurate data,” he tells us. “We’re figuring out how to draw those boundaries, as well—to protect sensitive data while also preventing contamination.”

Trust first

This showcases the importance of trust once again to an organisation like apex. The companies it serves are moving significant sums of money around and the potential risks are sizeable. For Thompson, there can be no greater responsibility when using AI tools. “The data must be either highly accurate or at least they understand the degree to which it’s not,” he says. “If you don’t understand that level of trust you can have in it, then you shouldn’t be using it yet.”

With an unprecedented amount of technological innovation at procurement’s fingertips, the industry is evolving at a rapid pace. It’s placed at a unique moment with digital transformation being swept up throughout the space. While this brings obvious advantages such as time and cost savings, it also means increased cybersecurity threats. “There are more threats coming in as a result of AI,” says Thompson.

“One of the biggest challenges our clients us our solutions to solve for is fraudsters trying to take over a supplier’s account and intercept their payments by submitting fraudulent account change requests. One of the typical ways companies catch these is very often the request is coming through very poorly formatted emails with bad grammar. But what we’re seeing is the bad guys have started using generative AI to create really convincing bank account change requests so there are increased threats to be aware of. But this increase in the availability of information is also make easier the whole process of knowing your supplier and knowing the risks associated with them. And Generative AI is going to allow you to quickly get help to understand how to mitigate a given risk much faster and easier than it’s ever been before.”

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

22 November 2023

Estimated Read time

5Mins

At DPW Amsterdam 2023, Daniel Barnes, Community Manager at Gatekeeper, discusses the evolution of the procurement function and the influence tools such as generative AI are having in the space.

“It might sound harsh, but people just won’t have a job if they don’t change.”

For Daniel Barnes, Community Manager at Gatekeeper, his thoughts are clear. Technology is here and it’ll only get more advanced.

Barnes has been the Community Manager at Gatekeeper since June 2022. The company he works for is a next-generation Vendor & Contract Lifecycle Management (VCLM) platform that was born in the cloud and works on any device. Gatekeeper has a strong focus on collaboration, clear actionable data, obligation and compliance tracking, email alerts and most of all ease of use. The firm has a ‘zero training’ mantra driving a fanatical focus on usability that results in an application internal stakeholders and suppliers can use effortlessly.

The Gatekeeper Platform provides a suite of vendor management, contract management, kanban workflow, collaboration and reporting features. Customers can extend the functionality of Gatekeeper with additional modules to meet their required use cases, as well as integrating with over 220 third-party solutions.

Technology potential

Since joining the company, a key consideration for both Barnes and Gatekeeper has been the influence of generative AI. However, Barnes explains that while the potential of the technology is exciting, they are being strategic about how to leverage AI.

“We’re probably taking it a little bit more of a slower approach,” he tells us. “We have a contract summary function at the moment which means for any contract we summarise it so that anyone in the business can get a really quick understanding of that contract. We’re also exploring whether we’re going to bring in a Gatekeeper bot that allows us to get insights analysis in a very conversational manner. One thing we really believe is that contract and vendors aren’t just for procurement or legal. Everyone in the business has to contribute to make these successful. A lot of the issues, data and information behind these are legally complex. Procurement language is difficult when you’re talking about RFPs or you’re talking about risk. Someone in the business doesn’t care about that, they just want to get whatever they have brought, they want the service, they want it performed, they want it on time and they want a good relationship. We’re trying to figure out how to use AI like that.”

CPOstrategy speaking with Daniel Barnes at DPW Amsterdam 2023

The rise of Gen AI

Generative AI isn’t exactly new. In fact, it actually dates back to the 1960s. Among the first functioning examples was the ELIZA chatbot which was created in 1961 by British scientist Joseph Weizenbaum. It was the first talking computer program that could communicate with a human through natural language. But, given the introduction of a far more advanced model – ChatGPT – gen AI is the name on not only procurement’s lips but the wider world too. Barnes questions what you need to make AI successful at implementation.

“You get data and most procurement and legal teams have an issue with data because they don’t have it in one place,” he explains. “We fundamentally believe in this three-pillar approach. It’s to restore visibility and to have all your vendors and their contracts in one place. From there, you take control of that by digitalising all of your processes. Once they’re digital, you can track and automate them from various data points that you have in your vendor and contract records. That allows you to safeguard compliance, whether that’s regulatory, legislative or by contractual obligations. They’re all different forms of compliance that you need to track. Most teams are really struggling just with those. When we talk about gen AI, the reality is most teams are still so far away from even being able to realise those benefits. Today, gen AI looks powerful once you have the pillars in place and I’m really excited about its future.”

Procurement’s evolution

Indeed, procurement stands at a unique moment. With some in the space used to operating a certain way through legacy systems and others embracing a digital transformation and the technological innovation that brings with it, Barnes recognises that people who are reluctant to change could be left behind. “I think there has to be a willingness to change,” he tells us. “I’ve been talking about change in procurement since 2019, and I would say 80% of people who are engaged are hesitant and don’t want to change. That’s a really big concern. But my biggest worry is they don’t want to know in the first place. One of my fears is you’ve got so many solutions that genuinely can eliminate work in procurement teams. I’m worried for those people who don’t want to change because what are they doing when their work’s automated?”

The future

Barnes, who also hosts the World of Procurement podcast and YouTube channel, believes there is a current cultural divide in procurement and the industry is at a make-or-break moment. He affirms procurement will go “one of two ways”.

“You’ve got people who are stuck in the past that are archaic with what they’re doing. Then there’s those who are really pushing the profession forward,” he explains. “I see it as a moment in time where procurement kind of goes one in two ways. It’s extinct in terms of how it used to be. There’s solutions that I’ve seen which have automated workflows and are doing the work that traditional procurement people used to do. We can pull people along, but there has to be an initial willingness to change too or it’s not going to happen. That’s why I think it’s great to see people that are showing that willingness. They may not have the answers, but they want to learn.”

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

21 November 2023

Estimated Read time

4Mins

Last month, CPOstrategy travelled to DPW Amsterdam. Here are five takeaways from the biggest and most influential tech event in procurement.

1. Digital transformation isn’t just about tech

David Rogers, author of The Digital Transformation Roadmap, delivered an important keynote that highlighted that digital transformation doesn’t just mean technology. He told the audience, “The hard part about transforming organisations isn’t about tech. It’s about making the technology work for your customers and for your business.”

He expressed the importance of delivering value in your organisation while also describing the art of rethinking business to define what growth opportunities there are by thinking differently about customers, competition, data, innovation and value. Rogers provided guidance to the audience and unveiled a five-step digital transformation roadmap. These are: define a shared vision, pick the problems that matter most, validate new ventures, manage growth at scale and grow tech, talent and culture. Rogers explained to the attendees gathered before him, “ChatGPT is not your strategy. Fall in love with the problem and not the solution.”

2. Building connections

DPW welcomed more than 1,250 procurement professionals over the two days while also hosting more than 120 procuretech solutions. New digital cards which were worn as lanyards around an attendees’ neck allowed for instant connections to be made and eradicated faffing about for contact details or losing important business cards. The buzz and hum of chatter in the air across the conference was audible. A walk around the two expo halls, both kitted out with dozens of tech solutions each offering something different to engage with ensured plenty of choice of destination. Many booths provided gifts which added a personal touch, such as Gatekeeper’s dragon or Omnea’s socks.

While the virtual only events in years gone by during the Covid period served a purpose, nothing could beat the sense of community and valuable face-to-face meetings that attendees were provided with.

3. Gen AI is a game-changer

If you were a fly on the wall in most conversations, a common theme would appear more often than not – generative AI. Indeed, the technology dominated thoughts at DPW Amsterdam 2023 which has only been accelerated given the ever-increasing influence of OpenAI’s ChatGPT which only launched a year ago. But gen AI isn’t only about chatbots, AI adoption was prevalent across the floor with each procuretech ecosystem showcasing its own spin on new technology as well as fresh and innovative ways of offering services.

Generative AI is firmly on the tips of people’s tongues. While its possibilities appear limitless, its rise to prominence has led and will continue to cause debate about how far its capabilities can reach in its current form. Expect that to continue.

4. People are still the secret sauce

As exciting as new technology is, without good people your operations are doomed to fail. While there have been concerns from some sections of the space that robots are here to replace humans, DPW Amsterdam’s conversation revolved around making tech work for us and about using technology as a tool to make day-to-day life easier.

Ultimately, even chatbots require a human at the other end to make the correct inputs otherwise all the end user receives is data without direction. While discussions were had as to whether AI can help plug talent gaps, all it means is that boring, outdated data-entry tasks will be taken over by machines and allow the next generation of the workforce to focus on greater value-add work that will lead to increased efficiency for themselves and the company they work for.

5. Now is the greatest time to be in procurement

In comedian and host of DPW Amsterdam Andrew Moskos’ opening speech he reflected on procurement’s evolution and transformation. “Procurement used to be boring but now we’re all rockstars. We run the company, we’re in the c-suite, we run ESG, sustainability, risk, and 80% of the spend of a company goes through us.” It was quite the welcome – and set the tone for the subsequent two days.

With an unprecedented amount of innovation at a practitioner’s fingertips in today’s ever-evolving and transformative world, the future is what procurement makes it. Gone are the days of procurement being some boring back-office function hidden out of sight, the industry has had a sudden injection of life via digitalisation.

Matthias Gutzmann, Founder of DPW, exclusively told us: “It’s the best time to be in procurement. It’s the most exciting era to be in procurement and supply chain so it’s an amazing time that we need to celebrate and get loud about it.”

DPW Amsterdam 2023 certainly did that.

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

20 November 2023

Estimated Read time

7Mins

Michael van Keulen, CPO at Coupa, discusses the emergence of gen AI and whether procurement is in a golden era amid technology transformation.

Generative AI, or gen AI for short, is one of the hottest topics in procurement today.

Indeed, the introduction of ChatGPT has only accelerated its prominence into wider consumption. Gen AI allows its users to quickly generate new content based on inputs. These models could include text, images, sounds, animation, 3D models or other types of data. One of its biggest draws is the ability to understand different learning approaches and allows organisations to move quickly to leverage large quantities of data.

But despite obvious benefits such as time and cost, Michael van Keulen, Chief Procurement Officer at Coupa, stresses caution should be used particularly when it comes to valuable tasks. “If you look at ChatGPT, it’s fine if you’re looking for recommendations for something low-risk. I need something for my wife’s birthday next week, you input three things that she loves and ask it to help. It’s great,” he tells us. “But it comes from data sources on the web that aren’t always governed, controlled or trustworthy. It’s whatever is out there. What about the algorithms that come with ChatGPT? I don’t know what’s influencing the search criteria. On Google, if you pay you are at the top of the search bar. But I don’t know what ChatGPT is governed by.”

Van Keulen is a passionate and seasoned procurement evangelist with a comprehensive track record of driving value through business transformation at global companies. Since March 2020, van Keulen has been the Chief Procurement Officer at Coupa, a leader in cloud-based business spend management software, where he is responsible for driving best-in-class procurement practices across the company, supporting business development and being a source for peers looking to elevate and transform procurement. Van Keulen is especially passionate about building teams, driving value, organisational transformation, CSR, and diversity and inclusion.

CPOstrategy speaks with Michael van Keulen, CPO at Coupa, at DPW Amsterdam

The rise of AI

In the case of Coupa, the firm has been conducting its community.ai platform for the past decade which has been at the heart of the company’s strategy. Community.ai analyses real-time spend data, applies AI to compare company’s metrics against others and offers ways for organisations to be more efficient, profitable and sustainable. Van Keulen believes that the biggest difference between what Coupa offers and what gen AI provides is the trust factor.

“At Coupa, we measure information based on real spend, data and suppliers that are doing real business together – the internet isn’t doing that,” he discusses. “We’ve got nearly $5 trillion of spend under management from real transactions and real suppliers. That number continues to grow as customers and suppliers join the Coupa community. Pretty much all of our customers have trusted us with access to their sensitive data which we anonymize and then share back with the entire Community.  As a member of the community I know I can trust it because it comes from a source that is reliable, sanitised, relevant and well-governed. As well, we have certain standards and algorithms that we built-in all based on outcomes that our customers are looking to receive.”

Van Keulen believes there is a misconception in procurement that ready-made data sets are out there that are capable of meeting customer requirements. “The truth is most tech companies out there today don’t have access to customer data because their customers won’t let that happen,” he explains. “But at Coupa, our customers have already given us access to their data. This means we now have a real, reliable, accessible, governed and structured data set that has been anonymized.  When we then apply AI, you actually get prescriptions that are meaningful and relevant to procurement. I think the misconception is that this type of data set is easily found, but it’s not, we’ve been building this for over 10 years. There’s no other company out there that has the same level of spend data as Coupa.

“It’s the same as Google Maps. The only way that Google Maps works is because everybody uses it.  It allows me to get from A to B to C to D, back to A in the quickest time and with the least amount of disruption. The only way that that works is because we’re all using it. And I look at AI no differently in spend as I do with AI in my private life.”

Michael van Keulen, CPO at Coupa

Bridging the talent gap via AI

The need for fresh talent in procurement has never been so important. Procurement, like many industries, is lacking a defined path to welcome the next generation of talent, a feeling which has only been amplified on the back of COVID-19. This means the need to find ways to meet that shortage head-on, whether that’s through education, an industry rebrand or via AI. In van Keulen’s mind, he believes developing the correct tech landscape could hold the key.

“I’ve actually said this for a while,” he explains. “For too long, we brought in super smart people and then we would let them work in some antiquated old-school ERP, in Excel and run RFPs in emails. Nobody wants that, especially the current workforce because they’re used to and have been raised with Amazon, they all have TikTok accounts and are used to all these other e-commerce websites which have very seamless systems. If they come into the workforce and I let them work in some outdated ERP environment with email as the means of communication, that talent is either going to leave procurement because they think it’s boring or they’re just going to leave the overall organisation and work somewhere else. We don’t want that to happen, so you need to have the right tech landscape in place.”

Once the strategy is formed, van Keulen explains that is where the fun of procurement begins. “Then procurement’s the coolest function in the world and we will close the talent gap,” he says. “The talent is out there, they’re just not coming to procurement. They’ll go to finance, marketing, legal or IT instead. If you execute procurement properly, it’s the best because you’re right at the heart of everything. But you need the right people, operating model and operationalisation of your procurement process as well as the right technology. You need all of those elements or it’s never going to work.”

The greatest time in procurement?

Given the disruptive nature of global challenges and its ripple effect on procurement and the supply chain over the past few years, organisations are increasingly waking up to the importance of developing greater strategic relationships with suppliers. COVID-19, inflation issues, natural disasters and wars have meant today’s CPOs have been forced to firefight and think more strategically than ever before. Van Keulen recognises the turbulent nature of recent years and believes major transformation is already underway in procurement. “Historically most executives in any company would pay very little attention to their supply chain,” he reveals. “Due to recent events, companies are realising that they need to be closer to their suppliers. Perhaps in the past, the CEO would only spend a small fraction of their time with suppliers but those metrics are changing rapidly.”

As the ground lies in procurement, some sections of the industry now believe it is the industry’s greatest era given the level of possibilities. Widely considered a back-office function tucked in a corner and working in a silo, procurement is a totally different beast in today’s world. For van Keulen, he likes the variety.

“I wear so many different hats every single day,” he explains. “I always say sometimes I’m an accountant, others I’m an environmentalist. Sometimes I’m the treasurer or a finance person, but I’m also sometimes a psychiatrist. Sometimes I’m a doctor, a nurse, a lawyer, a judge, an environmentalist and yes even a wizard. I never know what my day looks like. I can plan it, but something may happen where everything goes out the window. Procurement will always be going through some type of disruption and it’s about how you drive the competitive edge and how you drive value despite that. Procurement really is the best gig in the world and it’s great that more people have started to see that now too.”

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

17 November 2023

Estimated Read time

5Mins

Giorgio Sarno, Senior Data Scientist at Stratio, on how AI and ML can unlock data from both internal combustion and electric vehicles to reduce their carbon footprint and hasten the transition to zero-emission transport.

A single bus journey pollutes 82% less than the same journey by car.

For this reason, a small decision like taking public transport instead of driving is a big step towards lowering emissions. If we then consider the significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions that transport operators can achieve by implementing eco-driving solutions or by transitioning to electric vehicles, choosing the bus over personal vehicles becomes an even more sustainable choice. Transport operators are already moving in the right direction in terms of minimising the environmental impact of their services, and they’re doing so by leveraging vehicle data.  

The bus is essentially a black box, where vehicle technical data is locked and remains largely inaccessible to transport operators. However, by automating the collection and analysis of this data, fleet managers can rely on artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) algorithms to implement a predictive maintenance approach. This means that vehicle sensor data can be turned into actionable insights to help reduce the carbon footprint of internal combustion engine (ICE) buses, hasten the transition to zero-emission transport, and minimise breakdowns and downtime, resulting in a more reliable public transport service.

Car vs Bus

With cars representing 72% of EU road transport emissions, it’s key to make public transport the preferred form of travel. However, in order to create a push towards shared mobility and leverage the environmental benefits of public transport, operators and public transport agencies need to ensure it can live up to the promise of reliability, getting passengers where they need to be, when they need to be there. To guarantee reliability, it is necessary to turn our attention back to the most crucial component of public transport: the vehicle. 

AI predictive maintenance is like a digital stethoscope for buses, enabling operators to tune in to the state of health of their vehicles’ critical systems and components. By collecting the data from built-in vehicle sensors and analysing the patterns that indicate the condition of components, maintenance managers can leverage real-time, actionable insights to inform their decisions. AI can identify tricky faults that humans could overlook – tracing leaks in the compressed air system or the wear and tear of brake pads, for example. 

With such a system in place, bus operators can depend on real-time monitoring to assess whether their vehicles’ brake pads need to be replaced, meaning that parts can be ordered in bulk and that maintenance can be scheduled during off-peak periods to avoid service disruptions. Maintenance and repairs can be scheduled automatically and more accurately, contributing to better fleet utilisation and cost savings. More importantly, by preventing equipment failure, vehicle breakdowns can be pre-empted to reduce downtime and protect both revenue and customer experience.

Reduced resource consumption & enhanced asset lifecycle management

The data on equipment behaviour, failure modes, and degradation patterns can also inform asset management strategies, including engineering decisions related to repair, replacement, or refurbishment of components and systems. By extending the useful life of assets and maximising their performance, operators can minimise waste generation, reduce the need for new equipment production, and lower the environmental impact associated with resource extraction, manufacturing, and disposal. 

Moreover, early identification of sub-optimal operating conditions enables engineers to fine-tune equipment settings, adjust operational parameters or identify faulty components, reducing energy consumption and resource waste. By optimising resource utilisation, operators can function at higher energy efficiency, reduce carbon emissions, and enhance the overall sustainability of their operations. 

Curbing ICE emissions

Predictive maintenance solutions can also be used to inform eco-driving strategies to further reduce the carbon footprint of ICE bus road usage. By analysing driver patterns, optimal RPM and idling time, operators can implement strategies to lower fuel consumption and put in place a range of continuous improvement processes. Arriva Czech Republic has recorded a saving of 942 litres of diesel per vehicle per year using this approach. This equates to 2.6 tons of carbon dioxide emissions avoided per vehicle, per year. 

Speeding the transition to EVs

For transport operators, new EV technology poses challenges as well as opportunities. It comes with new breakdown patterns and failure modes and requires a new knowledge-set to minimise life cycle costs and optimise battery maintenance and route management. Additionally, the greater up front, maintenance and infrastructure costs of the transition mean that operators must have a detailed strategy in place to minimise the impact of the shift on their bottom line.

Just as with their ICE counterparts, by combining the granular collection of vehicle data and large-scale data processing with autonomous AI systems, public transport operators can gain valuable insights from the new EV data they have access to, creating a continuous feedback loop that constantly increases the ways in which data can be leveraged. The performance, faults, and range of EVs can be analysed and used to inform the planning of smooth, efficient, and profitable operations. 

Predictive battery analytics for example can provide an accurate, comprehensive view of the battery health evolution of an EV bus, allowing for effective route planning and charging requirements, as well as usage optimisation metrics to extend the lifespan of the vehicles. This is crucial given the high proportion of the overall cost of an electric bus that the battery represents. By leveraging State of Charge (SoC) and Depth of Discharge (DoD) data, fleet managers can understand if the operation profile can be changed to maximise battery life, reducing the total cost of ownership of electric buses. This type of analysis is fundamental for an operationally successful and profitable EV fleet deployment. 

The future of AI and ML for public transport

By onboarding next-gen AI and ML predictive maintenance technology, the future of sustainable, affordable, and highly efficient public transport is promising. The actionable insights on potential component failures, fuel consumption and operational efficiency offer full control over the health of both ICE and electric buses. This can be harnessed to enhance reliability, encourage passengers to move away from private car usage, curb emissions and wastage through inefficient driving and maintenance strategies, and pave the way for a smoother and faster transition to EV usage. 

AI is constantly learning, picking up data about different categories of vehicle and enabling fine tuning for improved operations. It is a system that will keep on growing with huge benefits and impact, contributing to the goals of sustainable and reliable public transport. With some operators already implementing predictive maintenance, the approach will become more ubiquitous in 2023 and beyond, representing the new frontier when it comes to smoother, more efficient and environmentally friendly operations. 

By Giorgio Sarno

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

16 November 2023

Estimated Read time

7Mins

Matthias Gutzmann, Founder of DPW Amsterdam, discusses the conference’s rise to prominence, reflects on challenges and reveals future plans.

“Our challenge is always around asking ourselves how can we make DPW Amsterdam better every year?” 

It’s fair to say Matthias Gutzmann, Founder and CEO of DPW Amsterdam, doesn’t believe in standing still and resting on his laurels. 

​​Since launching DPW in 2019, the conference has grown from strength to strength and is now widely regarded as the biggest and most influential tech event in procurement and supply chain on the planet. And despite welcoming over 1,250 procurement professionals with more than 2,500 virtual attendees watching along at home in its 2023 edition in October, Gutzmann is eyeing continuous improvement. 

​​In 2018, Gutzmann was researching procurement conferences to showcase his then-employer, Vizibl, a startup. He was frustrated by the options. The existing conferences were prohibitively expensive for a limited startup budget, lacked investors, and failed to attract an audience of startup businesses, which is critical for the development of digital capabilities and to drive innovation. Identifying this gap in the market, Gutzmann left his job in New York, moved into his parents’ house in Germany, and invested his entire personal savings to launch DPW Amsterdam.​​     ​​ 

“As soon as one conference finishes, we’re already thinking about the next one,” he explains. “We all sit down and think about how we can improve the experience and what new technologies we can bring in next time. It really is a 12-month process to bring it all together.”  

Bringing DPW to life

Held at the former stock exchange building, the Beurs van Berlage in Amsterdam, this year’s theme was “Make Tech Work” which focused on turning digital aspirations into a reality. There was a deep dive into discussions surrounding AI and machine learning in procurement, digital transformation strategies, sustainable procurement, supplier collaboration, risk management as well as innovation and disruption. The two-day event was centred on ensuring the vision of digital procurement happens now and how organisations can be challenged to deliver results instantly instead of only concepts and theories. 

Despite significant success, Gutzmann maintains that there are some difficult aspects to get right in order to make the magic happen on the day. DPW ​Amsterdam ​builds client booths themselves instead of allowing sponsors to bring them themselves. “That’s a massive undertaking to get this done because we need all the design elements from the sponsors,” he says. “It’s that quality standard but we know it comes with more work instead of just allowing people to bring their own stuff. We have Simone Heeremans, Head of Production, who is amazing and oversees logistics such as catering to the suppliers. 

​​“There is also the sales part of the conference which is selling the tickets and sponsorships. We have created this pull for the conference that we didn’t need to build a proper sales team around it. That said, there’s always a stress factor to get the numbers we want every year and grow it. So far, so good.”​     ​​  

​The uniqueness of the conference, the problem it solves, and the timing of the launch in 2019 were the basis for today’s success and fast growth.  
 
WHAT MAKES DPW AMSTERDAM SO UNIQUE?  

​Matthias Gutzmann:​​  

​​​1. THE AUDIENCE​​ 

​​​Traditional procurement conferences only attract procurement professionals. But, DPW Amsterdam recognised the need for breaking this silo and for more collaboration in order to harness the potential of new digital technology, targeting an audience of procurement professionals, business leaders, suppliers, startups, data scientists, investors, and young talents No other procurement conference brings this variety of people together.​​ 

​​​​ 

​​​2. WORLD’S BIGGEST STAGE FOR PROCUREMENT STARTUPS​​ 

​​​DPW Amsterdam is built to bring startups into the procurement ecosystem. In 2023, we displayed over 50 startups, giving delegates a unique insight into procurement innovation.​​ 

​​​​​ 

​​​3. ATTENDEE EXPERIENCE 
I always thought procurement events felt boring – and I felt lost in a sea of guys wearing suits and ties. So, at DPW, our goal is to make procurement cool and sexy. Not an easy feat, I know. Our dress code at DPW Amsterdam is strictly “startup casual.” You’ll see t-shirts, hoodies, and sneakers from attendees, exhibitors, sponsors, and speakers alike. This dress code embodies our entrepreneurial spirit. But it also breaks down barriers– and levels the playing field between big-shot enterprise CPOs and 20-something startup founders. 

​​​Better than ever

A large focus for Gutzmann and his team has been tweaking the formula of the virtual experience. Due to the impact of COVID-19, DPW was forced to cancel its 2020 conference before offering a virtual-only event in 2021. The experience, although different, was praised for its ‘TV feel’ and still created a buzz for those watching at home. However, with day-to-day life returning to a new normal, DPW Amsterdam reverted to an in-person conference in 2022 but offered a hybrid solution for those keen to watch the action from afar. “There wasn’t really anything special about it,” he discusses. “If you run an eight-hour live stream from only one stage, you aren’t likely to keep people watching. That’s why this year we asked ourselves: what can we do to increase the virtual experience? So we did just that.” 

This year, Gutzmann and his team set about creating a pop-up broadcast studio to generate a television feel with live coverage from podcaster and host of Let’s Talk Supply Chain Sarah Barnes-Humphrey, as well as a reporter conducting interviews on the expo floor. “Now we’ve got cameras moving around which helps bring the whole conference to life,” explains Gutzmann. “We’ve really ramped it up this year and turned it into a large production.” 

Up until this point, DPW has run solely in Amsterdam which Gutzmann believes has acted as his organisation’s competitive advantage. It is this approach that has enabled DPW to allow it to reach the level it is today. Hosted at the Beurs van Berlage, Gutzmann is full of admiration for the historic building which was built in 1896. According to Gutzmann, he believes it is what sets DPW​ Amsterdam​ apart from other conferences operating in the space.

“We love it here, it’s unique and I feel it’s a key part of the experience,” he says. “But we’re becoming bigger and we might need to build something completely from scratch. Every year, we think about how we can do things differently. I don’t know if bigger is necessarily better, it’s also about the quality of the solutions we bring in. My goal is to map out the entire end-to-end tech ecosystem and bring in that diversity of solutions.” 

Bright future

Procurement, like many industries, is suffering from a talent shortage. The need to find ways to plug that gap, whether that’s through education, industry rebrand or AI, has never been so crucial. With an eye on the future, Gutzmann believes in procurement’s workforce of tomorrow and gave out around 100 free student passes this year. “When we talk to CPOs everyone’s talking about talent shortages so we understand the need to bring in that next generation and show them that procurement could be the way forward for them,” he says. “I think in the context of digital, who better to do digital than the next generation? They are more tech savvy so we need them and it’s a great opportunity for both sides because they can meet CPOs and it’s also becoming a place for recruitment too. We are doubling down on young talent 100% and it’s a win-win.” 

Gutzmann is candid about the future of DPW ​Amsterdam ​and is always open to feedback while striving for continuous improvement. He believes in the value of innovation and shaking things up in order to best meet attendee’s needs. “I always think we can always bring in new speakers, but this year’s agenda was incredibly strong,” he discusses. “It’s really about listening to the people. Ultimately how can we be more relevant around the solutions as well here? How can we better matchmake people? I was wondering about how we can work pre-event with some of the corporate attendees that are coming to the conference around mapping out their challenges to then have more meaningful matchmaking at the event because it’s an innovation showcase here as well. There’s more value to be had but we know that also comes with more work. There’s always more we can think about.” 

With an unprecedented amount of technology at procurement’s fingertips today, Gutzmann is in no uncertain terms about what the next chapter of the space holds. “It’s the best time to be in procurement,” he explains. “It’s the most exciting era to be in procurement and supply chain. We need to get loud about it and celebrate that fact.” 

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

14 November 2023

Estimated Read time

2Mins

CPOstrategy explores five barriers companies are faced with in terms of sustainable procurement.

A robust sustainability strategy isn’t only a ‘nice to have’ any longer, it is quickly becoming one of the top items on the agenda in procurement.

Many organisations are implementing sustainability programmes with a view of helping them to cut costs, make their companies more competitive and secure a greener future for all.

But, adopting a greener way of working isn’t necessarily straightforward. Here are five barriers companies are faced with in terms of sustainability in procurement.

1. Acceptance from senior employees

Change isn’t always welcomed. Executives, particularly those that have been served the industry for a significant time period, aren’t always receptive or quick to embrace new strategies. Without buy-in from senior executives, positive change is trickier to achieve. However, by informing employees of the considerable advantages by making a shift, it could lead to an easier experience with less pushback.

2. Limited time and resources

Time, funding, and other resources are vital in ensuring the best results from sustainability. On a busy schedule, it can be challenging to implement a sustainable procurement policy but it is important to retain the knowledge that it won’t be achieved overnight.

3. Lack of support from suppliers

In a similar way to senior employees, getting suppliers on side can also be a hurdle. As suppliers are separate from your company, they potentially have less resources available or a different mindset. Suppliers may not recognise the importance of sustainability in the same way which could lead to a misalignment of priorities.

4. Higher costs

The prospect of a higher cost is one of the biggest concerns companies have when thinking about sustainable procurement. After switching to a sustainable procurement strategy, costs do tend to rise but by not switching sooner, it could lead to organisations paying even more in the future. For companies without a sustainable strategy, they will have to question whether they can afford to watch competitors implement green strategies and the impact this will have on what their customers demand.

5. Accessing the right technology

Technology can be an influential tool to help drive an organisation’s sustainability goals. Sometimes, a different set of digital tools to what is already existing within a company is necessary to make more of a concerted environmentally friendly effort. However, this comes with the caveat of new tools being time-consuming and requiring training to improve skills and knowledge. But once up to speed, using technology will mean greater efficiency to scale sustainability strategies.

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

13 November 2023

Estimated Read time

3Mins

CPOstrategy examines why replacing legacy systems could hold the key in procurement to achieve long-term success.

As technology evolves, modernising legacy systems in procurement becomes essential.

Change management is never straightforward or linear. Indeed, legacy systems are familiar to an organisation and the workforce might be reluctant to embrace a new way of working, or at least at the very beginning.

But how much damage is clinging to outdated processes doing to an organisation?

Replacing legacy systems

“For many organisations, legacy systems are seen as holding back the business initiatives and business processes that rely on them,” according to Stefan Van Der Zijden, VP Analyst at Gartner. “When a tipping point is reached, application leaders must look to application modernisation to help remove the obstacles.”

People often like their routines and a preferred methodology of how something is completed. This can lead to pushback from the workforce about the purpose of ‘fixing something if it isn’t broken.’ And the point of change for the sake of change is a valid one, up until an alternative which is going to demonstrate tangible benefits. The truth is that most legacy systems don’t allow for growth with older technology often not able to interact with newer systems and processes. In ‘7 options to modernise legacy systems’, Gartner pointed out six main drivers of application modernisation with three from a business sense and three from an IT perspective.

These are business fit, value and agility as well as cost, complexity and risk. If a legacy application isn’t meeting new requirements needed by a digital business, it needs to be modernised to fit properly and should be enhanced to offer greater value to the business. Without agility, a digital business will struggle to keep pace with the latest trends or craze and put the organisation at risk of falling behind competitors. Whereas from an IT side, if the total cost of ownership is too high or if the technology is too difficult to use, then modernising could be vital.

Overcoming resistance to change

Ultimately, change management is an essential component of any Chief Procurement Officer’s role. It can range from a small swap, such as a change of supplier, to wide-scale amendments such as altering the way goods and services are acquired or implementing a procurement or software transformation. According to data from group purchasing firm Una, 70% of change management efforts fail. In order to combat this, there are three key steps to overcoming resistance to change. These are engagement, managing resistance and not neglecting training.

Market disruptions, evolving customer demands and the necessity for a digital landscape has forced businesses’ hands. They are now faced with the task of completing legacy modernisation as a matter of urgency to deliver innovative products and services quickly and efficiently. Failure to do so could lead to being reactive instead of proactive – a risk that in today’s fast paced and ever-changing world that should be taken with caution.

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

10 November 2023

Estimated Read time

5Mins

Erik Oberländer (DE), Manager, Procurement Advisory, PwC, discusses how to combat inflation and maximise savings through game theory.

Material scarcity, rising inflation, exploding energy prices, and an unstable geopolitical situation pose procurement challenges like never before.

The right negotiation strategy is not only essential for companies to achieve cost savings but is also absolutely vital for survival.

In the current market situation, securing material availability often takes top priority. In this case, negotiations with suppliers must be based on partnership and close cooperation. On the other hand, if contract volumes have been awarded in competition between multiple suppliers with a high degree of shiftability, the use of game theory should be considered.

But what does the game-theoretical negotiation approach look like? In a classic bilateral negotiation, the focus is on convincing the other party with the right strategy and tactics, a convincing storyline, and compelling arguments for one’s own position. In contrast, the game-theoretical approach involves developing a bidding mechanism that maximises the competitive dynamics between suppliers. The design of the bidding mechanisms is based on insights from numerous scientific theories.

In fact, since the 1990s, several Nobel Prizes in Economics have awarded in the field of game theory. This scientific approach opens up new perspectives in complex negotiations and makes it possible to forecast how people tend to behave. In strategic procurement, many companies use game theory in bids and negotiations. After realising unimaginable savings results, procurement teams are electrified and absolutely convinced of the effectiveness of game theory.

Game theory in procurement

The two most relevant and commonly used bidding mechanisms in procurement auctions are the Dutch (ascending bid increments) and English auction (descending bid increments). In combination with other elements, such as qualification and ranking rounds, they can maximise competitive pressure through credible market transparency.

However, when developing any game-theory-optimised bidding mechanism, many questions should be asked. For example: How should the lots be formed to create the greatest possible competitive pressure? What decision will a supplier make if it is assumed that they want to maximise their own benefit – and how do you optimise the bidding design to take this into account? With what bidding design can you put the best suppliers under pressure?

These criteria are met:

Game theory is fascinating – with demonstrable successes that cannot be achieved through classic negotiations, with the consistency and “purity” of its systematics, and with the surprising realisation that some game-theoretical approaches have been intuitively and unconsciously used to increase strategic competition and minimise risk aversion.

Many procurement teams believe this approach only applies to certain categories of goods. This is a misconception. Generally, only three criteria will be met. We call them the 3Cs:

•Comparability: All relevant decision parameters will be taken into account and is monetised through a bonus-malus evaluation. The offers of participating suppliers are comparable, and award decision is based on total cost of ownership.

•Commitment: The award decision is completely open. All participating suppliers are released by the department, and all cross-functions can win the contract on their own. In addition, it is clearly communicated that there will be no renegotiations or vetoes in further procurement committees.

•Competition: There must be more than one supplier interested in the scope of the award. Only this way can a competitive situation be created that is maximised with the help of a tailored award design. The right incentives for suppliers must be identified, and the appropriate signals set.

Possibly, not all of these criteria are met at the beginning of the project, but they can be developed together in cross-functional teams (consisting of colleagues from procurement, engineering, quality, logistics, and sales).

How the award is carried out:

Once the 3Cs are met, suppliers must be prepared for the award event. In transparent communication, the mechanism and rules are explained, and any uncertainties are clarified. No supplier should be unsettled, because only if the supplier has fully understood the mechanism, can he behave optimally, and the award mechanism can achieve its full effect.

The award day is then carried out with suppliers on-site or virtually via eAuction tools. Especially for larger award volumes, it is advantageous to have suppliers on-site, as signals are also sent to suppliers between rounds. In addition, you can literally feel the tension level and adjust the bid steps accordingly.

Virtual implementation facilitates the scaling of the approach with multiple providers. Smaller award volumes are carried out quickly and without great coordination effort. The selection of the appropriate tool provider is crucial. Not all tools can map more complex award mechanisms and adapts to specific individual starting situations.

Here are the first steps:

It must always be considered that game theory is a complex science and cannot be simply applied. The preparation time for the design of award strategies is often underestimated and set too low. To become a good game theorist, it is not enough to attend a weekend course or read a book. In fact, the unprofessional application of game theory can do more harm than good. Therefore, it is strongly recommended to be accompanied by a coach during the first use – only with this expertise are amazing negotiation results possible.

It is not always easy to delegate final decision-making authority to a mechanism, but it is worth it. Successful awards can ignite the fire in procurement teams. It is important to generate maximum enthusiasm, support cross-functional cooperation, and institutionalise negotiating skills in procurement teams.

By Erik Oberländer (DE), Manager, Procurement Advisory, PwC

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

9 November 2023

Estimated Read time

2Mins

CPOstrategy compiles five ways that ChatGPT can transform procurement amid the rise of generative AI in the space.

ChatGPT is seen by many as a catalyst for the next wave of technology transformation.

The technology, which was developed by OpenAI, has quickly become the buzzword of the year and one of the hottest topics on the c-suite agenda.

And its promise extends to procurement – an industry that relies heavily on the need for achieving efficiency, transparency and cost savings. Having already made its mark on a variety of industries already, procurement hopes that by embracing ChatGPT it will allow teams to make greater strategic decision-making to drive long-term value.

Here are five ways ChatGPT can transform procurement.

1. Rapid research

Through ChatGPT, time-consuming and cumbersome tasks such as research can now be completed almost instantly. Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT can analyse significant amounts of data and provide insights on market fluctuations while also searching for new suppliers, products and capabilities to secure better deals.

2. Automated procurement processes

ChatGPT can be used to discover patterns and identify trends which will allow procurement teams to make data-driven forecasts. Through leveraging predictive analytics, organisations can anticipate demand, optimise inventory levels and manage their supply chain more effectively.

3. Easier communication with suppliers

Tools such as ChatGPT can improve supplier performance tracking through automating data collection and analysis. Its focus on cooperation and transparency throughout the procurement process allows for stronger supplier relationships and more innovative thinking.

4. Enhanced risk management

A major benefit of generative AI in procurement is improved risk management and the ability to foresee potential dangers. Through identifying potential hazards such as financial instability among suppliers or non-compliance with procurement processes, ChatGPT can help businesses manage and reduce risks.

5. Cost savings and increased efficiency

ChatGPT can help organisations to save costs by automating operations, increasing stakeholder participation and allowing real-time data analysis. By reducing the amount of time and effort for tasks like evaluating bids and selecting a vendor, ChatGPT could shake up the procurement process immeasurably.

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

8 November 2023

Estimated Read time

7Mins

At DPW Amsterdam, Gregor Stühler, CEO and Co-founder of Scoutbee, and Karin Hagen-Gierer, CPO and Strategic Advisor at Scoutbee, discusses the rise of chatbots and their influence in procurement.

Scoutbee was created with the idea of improving supply chain resilience through AI and big data to transform the way organisations use supplier data to discover and connect with suppliers.

The company, which was founded in 2015, offers an AI-powered Scoutbee Intelligence Platform (SIP) which uses graph technology and predictive and prescriptive analytics to deliver holistic supplier visibility that helps procurement make confident supplier decisions, drive cross-functional efficiency and optimise existing technology investments.      

Scoutbee’s AI-driven data foundation connects teams to any data point, internal, external, third-party and more, as well as any data combination necessary to orchestrate a resilient, competitive and sustainable supply base.

Gregor Stühler is the CEO and Co-founder at Scoutbee. He believes that waiting to invest in AI tools and underlying data training will be companies’ greatest sustainable disadvantage of the next decade. “AI is not an off-the-shelf product, so you can’t buy AI unless it’s a pre-trained AI on a specific use case but then it’s not a competitive edge,” he tells us.

“A competitive edge only emerges when you have a clear use case and training on top of that. The companies that start using those AI solutions sooner with their data have much better training in place. As a result, they’ll always be ahead of the game quite significantly. Companies that use off-the-shelf AI products will do well, but the ones that actually take it meaningfully and start trading on their own use case and their own data will be the ones that will be accelerating.”

Gregor Stühler, CEO and Co-founder and Karin Hagen-Gierer, CPO and Strategic Advisor, at Scoutbee

AI – Changing the game?

Karin Hagen-Gierer is CPO and Strategic Advisor at Scoutbee. She explains that there are a multitude of ways in which tools such as generative AI are having an impact on procurement to change the game.      

“AI is great to help with mundane and boring tasks,” she discusses. “It can help us with vendor requests that come in and can be appropriately channelled. It can help your colleagues to navigate procurement. When they have questions, they can interact with a chat solution and be guided in a much better way to find what they want much quicker. I think if we look at how it can enhance our teams’ effectiveness, it is really in market analytics, supplier searches, supplier evaluations, and ChatGPT that could help us broaden the spectrum. If you then look to more tailored solutions like Scoutbee then it’s a very different ball game that procurement professionals have at their fingertips. I’m noticing a drive on both efficiency and effectiveness in this space.”

Despite AI’s draws, Stühler is well aware of the challenges and hesitations around digital technology. As far as he is concerned, there are two waves of generative AI to be aware of.  “Wave one is about having a prompt and how tools such as ChatGPT can help with that,” he says. “For example, what are 10 RFI questions for aluminium cans?

“Wave two is where I merge and synthesise all of my data into our large language model and it has reasoning to drive decision-making and scenario planning. You do have to be careful though because you have to give the system all your critical data but you don’t want to input this into an open model. This means the use case has to be that you deploy a large language model in your own infrastructure, and own your own graphic card that will never actually leave your organisation.

Gregor Stühler, CEO and Co-founder at Scoutbee

“This is the biggest concern that we’re seeing because ChatGPT has brought a lot of progress but also a lot of questions. Now, when people hear that we want them to merge their data into a large language model that’s completely private, we’re met with some resistance when we explain to them that their large language model is running on their very own graphics card that we don’t have access to. That tends to give them more comfort to put their data into it,” he continues.

Stühler adds that he believes there are some misconceptions around ChatGPT and the nature of how accurate the data it provides actually is. As is the case with any new technology, these things take time. “It’s always the same. It happened with electric cars, nobody thought that would solve the battery issue,” he discusses. “I think we are right at the peak of the hype cycle when it comes to those things and people have figured out what they can use it for. With wave one of generative AI, it is fine to have hallucinations of the model and if something is spat out that is not supported by the input.

“But by the second use case, hallucinations are not okay anymore because it’s working with accurate data and should not come up with some imaginary creative answers. It should be always supported by the data that is put in. This is very important that people understand that if you train the model and if you have the right setting, those hallucinations will go away and you can actually have a setting where the output of the model is 100% accurate,” he further emphasises.

Procurement’s potential

According to Karin Hagen-Gierer, there is an incredible opportunity to create value in procurement today. Following unprecedented global challenges over the past few years, CPOs have never been in the boardroom so often – something she’s keen to stress.      

“The value of procurement through crisis has been proven,” she says. “We tend to say, it’s not a core business, but very often if things don’t go right, it becomes core very quickly and you are in the CEO’s office more than you might like. It’s the breadth of the role that allows to drive value: You impact the P/L impact, topline, and the ESG agenda to name a few. But then there is a need to future-proof your team’s skill set around how you can drive more impact from being more effective in the respective tool sets you’re using, the questions you’re able to solve solutions for. Additionally, you have to work on improving your efficiencies. Teams are not getting bigger, so you need to be enabled in a very different way to really drive all this value.”

Karin Hagen-Gierer, CPO and Strategic Advisor at Scoutbee

Stühler reflects on the past and admires the transformation procurement has undergone in the past decade since he joined the industry. “I came to procurement in 2012 and even then I remember this function being solely responsible for paying invoices and calling trucks to arrive sooner – at first glance,” he says. “Combined with the crises that now happened over the last couple of years, post-Covid has proven procurement’s value – and the impact organisations such as Scoutbee can make.    

“I think two key things will happen in the future. Firstly, the tech landscape is exploding so quickly that there must be a consolidation that will happen. Secondly, when it comes to generative AI I think those pragmatic use cases will become the new normal. ChatGPT will be like Google today to get insights. Generative AI and large language models will get increasingly powerful over time and will help if you feed it the right data and connect it to different data streams that you have internally. It can become this true copilot and help you with complex scenario planning and make you aware of weak spots in your supply base while helping you to strategically take the right steps. The future is exciting,” he concludes.

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

7 November 2023

Estimated Read time

6Mins

Stefan Dent, co-founder at Simfoni, and Richard Martin, CEO at Thinking Machine, discuss the power of data in procurement and the future of AI.

“See spend differently”.

Simfoni is revolutionising how businesses spend their money – via data. In today’s ever-changing world, everything is underpinned by data at Simfoni.

Founded in 2015, Simfoni is a leading provider of spend analytics, Tail Spend and eSourcing solutions to global businesses. Simfoni’s platform utilises machine learning and AI to accelerate and automate key parts of the procurement process which saves time and money while creating a pathway for supply chain sustainability. Its solution quickly distils and organises complex spend data to help discover opportunities and savings. It also gets up and running in days with an on-demand spend automation solution.

Indeed, Simfoni aims to take the hassle out of procurement through its automated, fluid platform that offers a unique pay-as-you-save pricing model which reduces barriers to technology adoption. Through fused revolutionary technology with AI-enabled content and deep expertise to automate, streamline and simplify procurement. Simfoni’s composable platform provides a selection of advanced automation modules that help customers sky-rocket savings and achieve sustainability objectives.

Stefan Dent, co-founder, Simfoni

Stefan Dent co-founded Simfoni and now serves as Chief Strategy Officer. He tells us his organisation was created ‘with a purpose to be different’. “A lot of customers have been working on full suite solutions for some time, which was seen as a sort of panacea for all ills that would solve everything,” says Dent. “It solved some areas such as direct spend, but these are large, mega expensive solutions that aren’t particularly agile. Ultimately, we came up with our own solution which is purposely different. We launched as a composable, agile solution that works with existing systems to boos ROI on tech spend. We apply next-gen technology to procurement that democratizes access to digital procurement tools – opening-up digital solutions to organizations of any size and across any sector. It means we can open our solution up to the masses and not just for large organisations.”

Relationship with Thinking Machine

Simfoni is powered by analytics. Its analytics solution informs spend, as well as watching how change is measured and performance is tracked over time. Now eight years old, Simfoni has fostered alliances with several younger companies offering specialist tools which have been embedded within the Simfoni platform. One such company is Thinking Machine, led by CEO and Founder Richard Martin.

Thinking Machine was founded in 2019 by Martin after he discovered the industry needed to find a better use of data to address ‘complex spend’ such as in Telecoms where you have multiple vendors, manual and frequent billing, changing tariffs and users. Martin explains that he witnessed all types of companies going through the same problems instead of only large companies. “Thinking Machine was developed as a way to give customers a single source of revenue across all services, pricing and demand but in a way that can be done at the very lowest level,” says Martin. “We would take all that complexity and be able to roll it up into actionable evidence that could be reconciled against their top-level financial numbers. It gives procurement directors the tools they need to actually be in the driver’s seat when it comes to their procurement operations.”

Developing key, strategic relationships with partners that can be depended on is an essential component to the success of any long-term business relationship. Simfoni relies on Thinking Machine to help manage its load and enable customers to go deep with Thinking Machine to extract even more value from their data. “We offer our clients the opportunity to go deep within certain domains,” discusses Dent. “We can then bring in Thinking Machine to help extract even more value from the data on complex spend.

Stefan Dent and Richard Martin speaking to CPOstrategy at DPW Amsterdam

“Thinking Machine’s application will ingest a large quantum of complex data. Their tools work like magic and allows data to be put into a readable format so they can make sense of the actual spend and quickly identify optimisation opportunities. This is part of our philosophy to work with niche technology partners because we shouldn’t do everything, so we need to put our resources where it counts. Resources like Thinking Machine work well by plugging into us, which means we offer incremental value to our clients without them going to market separately.

“It can also be very hard for a young company to work with large corporates because they’re untried or untrusted. This means for a company like Thinking Machine to connect with Simfoni is a win-win for everyone.”

Procurement’s bright future

Given the space procurement finds itself in today, the future is set to continue to be transformative. For Martin, he believes the introduction and influence of generative AI tools will help meet challenges in procurement head-on. “For the first time you see how it’s actually possible to be a unicorn with a 10-person team,” he explains. “The scales of efficiency are just out of this world. In terms of the procuretech industry, I think we’ve had a problem for a while now because there’s been all these best-of-breed solutions that are doing bits and pieces but is very difficult to stitch together into one cohesive platform that customers can make use of without having to know how to use 50 different tools.

“I think Gen AI offers a path to helping to smooth over some of those challenges and figuring out how to bring these things together. I think enterprises are going to start finding a lot more value in having all these best-of-breed solutions, such as Thinking Machine and Simfoni, while being able to use AI as a way to put this together into more of a single common layer that they can access. It is a very exciting time.”

For much of the past decade, Dent explains that he has believed that machines will take over mundane and outdated ways of working. Now, with the influence of tools such as Open AI’s ChatGPT, that digital future has only been accelerated and change the workforce of tomorrow. “Most CPOs of today are saying they need more headcount but I think they will soon be thinking very differently,” he discusses. “We predicted some time ago that Procurement departments will get smaller in headcount, maybe by even up to 50%. The procurement function of the future will be a lot smaller, leaner, and meaner.  Procurement teams will be more intelligent and strategic, in terms of both the people employed, and the digital tools used to manage spend.”

While Dent believes AI and machines won’t replace every human in procurement, it will mean forward-thinking teams need to embrace new technology with humans taking on higher-value roles. “The shape and structure of the modern procurement function will change quite dramatically, and people will need to upskill,” he discusses. “A lot of the work will be taken over by the machine eventually either 20%, 50%, and then a hundred percent. But the human needs to have that in mind and then plan for that next three to five years. The procurement function of the future will be smaller, and they should purposely be doing that, to then look at solutions to find a way to enable it to happen naturally.

“This is arguably the best time for people to join procurement, as you’ve got this great opportunity to embrace digital and make it happen. Young people can question ‘Well, why can’t it be done by a machine?’ They’re coming in with that mindset, as opposed to fighting being replaced by a machine. I think for graduates coming into procurement, they’ve got the opportunity to play with digital and change the status quo which is a wonderful thing.”

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

Estimated Read time

4Mins

Scott Mars, Global Vice President of Sales at Pactum AI, discusses his organisation’s solution amid procurement’s digital transformation.

AI. It’s everywhere, all at once.

Procurement is one of the leading industries when it comes to embracing new solutions and ways of working. The space is waking up to the massive value that can be created through autonomous negotiations. And making a name for itself in the procuretech ecosystem is Pactum.

Pactum is an AI-based system that helps global companies to automatically offer personalised, commercial negotiations on a significant scale. The system adds value and saves time for both the Pactum client and their negotiation partner by aligning values to determine win-win agreements via easy-to-use chat interface that implements best-practice negotiation strategies.

Scott Mars has been the Global Vice President of Sales at Pactum AI since December 2022. He explains that his organisation is always striving to grow and expand its service offering. “At Pactum AI, we’re defining the space,” explains Mars. “We’re a creator for autonomous negotiations, we work with some of the world’s largest organisations and we’re really looking to expand the pie. The name Pactum originates from the Latin definition of an informal agreement between two parties. We can do up to 10,000 negotiations at once and unlock hundreds of millions of dollars of savings for our clients. We’re typically looking at tail-end suppliers and tail-end spending that no one’s touching. In many cases, that represents 80% of the negotiations.”

Exponential savings

Mars highlights a recent example of incredible savings achieved through Pactum AI’s solutions in a short space of time. Recently, Pactum worked with a travel and leisure firm in the UK to introduce its autonomous procurement solution. “We conducted a very brief implementation over two weeks, which led to a much larger enterprise rollout,” he discusses. “The CPO was actually on holiday while we implemented the autonomous procurement solution with his team. This involved optimizing payment terms with some of his long-tail suppliers.

“When he got back from holiday, there were 50 DocuSigns sitting in his emails, all related to extending payment terms. Many of them were remarkable successes, resulting in an average extension of negotiated payment days by more than 30 days and a 3% average gain from negotiated discounts and discount periods. This means we secured an average discount of 3% on each invoice when paid within the agreed-upon discount term. Our unwavering commitment to enhancing overall value not only positively impacts our clients but also extends to their suppliers, creating a win-win scenario for all involved.”

With AI having such a transformative effect on procurement, achieving efficiency and cost-effectiveness is more streamlined than ever through digital tools. But being alert to new threats, particularly in a space that is so open to innovation, does bring data security concerns. Mars recognises the challenge of cybersecurity and affirms Pactum ensures the safety and confidentiality of sensitive procurement data remains secure in chatbot interactions.

Digital future

“Everything is hosted in a private cloud, so each customer has a private instance. It means all of our data is secure from a generative AI perspective,” he tells us. “Large language models (LLMs) are great, they’re creative but they have their problems which means we’re only using safe LLMs. All of our negotiation design is kept in-house, and we use rule-based explainable AI which means all the data is secure per each customer. We have the largest repository of behavioural science, so those learnings are shared across our customer base, but all the customer data and all their negotiations are private to each customer.”

Looking ahead, Mars is excited about procurement’s digital future and explains Pactum AI’s vision is to transform global commerce. “At the moment, we’re only doing buying, but we are looking to move into the sales side as well,” he discusses. “Large companies have a huge footprint. For example, the Fortune 500 is 66% of the US economy. The plan is for us to move into selling which will give us the scale to transform global commerce. It’s definitely a grand vision, but we do feel that we’ll move from buying into selling and transform global commerce.”

For procurement generally, Mars is adamant that the space is in its “golden age” with the magnitude of vendors within the procuretech ecosystem hitting unprecedented numbers. “I was speaking with a CPO recently and he said 10 years ago you could name the procure to pay and ERP vendors on one hand, now there’s hundreds of them and all these periphery vendors for AI and spend,” he reveals. “The most visionary procurement leaders aren’t just looking at these all-encompassing solutions, they’re bolting on niche solutions into their ecosystems to make their teams more efficient. I think we’ll start to see a consolidation in the coming years of all these little companies into a few larger players to do really an end-to-end type solution. I expect someone to come up with a solution to close the loop in procurement.”

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

2 November 2023

Estimated Read time

3Mins

ORO Labs has announced it has raised $34 million in Series B funding led by Felicis with participation from existing investors.

ORO Labs has announced it has raised $34 million in Series B funding led by Felicis with participation from existing investors including Norwest Venture Partners, B Capital, and XYZ Venture Capital.

The move will see increased support for ORO Labs, which is a global SaaS provider and creator of the world’s foremost smart workflow orchestration platform for procurement, as it scales international and platform growth.

This latest round closes at the one-year milestone of ORO’s launch and the company’s November 2022 $25 million Series A, bringing total investment raised to $60 million.

ORO orchestrates company spend and supplier management across siloed systems and data to improve procurement workflows, increases visibility and makes it easier for business users.

ORO Labs co-founders Sudhir Bhojwani and Lalitha Rajagopalan

Humanising the procurement experience

The innovative platform helps companies quickly create intake workflows, build an integrated and orchestrated procurement tech stack, and dramatically simplify user engagement with purchasing throughout the organisation.

“We’re on a mission to humanise the overall procurement experience, simplifying and guiding end-to-end supplier engagement for efficiency and compliance,” said Sudhir Bhojwani, CEO and co-founder at ORO Labs. “Our Series B financing is further validation, not only of our success in executing, but also the opportunities as we continue to develop and scale ORO for international expansion and a host of new use cases – bringing incredibly easy start-to-finish procurement to even more organisations for agile operations and happy employees.”

“Our 2023 CFO survey identified procurement as the top pain point for CFOs and the number one spending priority,” said Victoria Treyger, general partner at Felicis Ventures. “ORO’s platform approach to orchestrating and simplifying workflows is driving adoption with global Fortune 1000 companies across a range of industries from financial services to pharma. Sudhir, Lalitha, and Yuan share a rare combination of deep procurement knowledge with the passion and insight to transform the category.”

ORO Labs co-founder Lalitha Rajagopalan noted, “I’m personally thrilled to have a woman investor joining the ORO board. Victoria brings keen go-to-market insight and a genuine love for procurement that will help us continue to scale our business, as well as a diverse perspective that aligns with important supplier inclusivity imperatives for our enterprise customers.”

Tackling the future

In use by leading global Fortune 200 enterprises, ORO provides organisations with a next-generation platform that streamlines procurement and reduces supplier cycle time using workflow automation. From intake to spend control, and contract management to supplier relationships, ORO’s smart procurement workflows empower organizations to optimize efficiency and drive success.

“Coordinating a global procurement organisation effectively and holistically with all stakeholders involved is a constant challenge for any enterprise,” noted Matthias Dohrn, President of Global Procurement for BASF. “ORO allows us to better do our part as procurement and orchestrate and scale thousands of value-generating procurement and business measures across the globe, understanding KPIs from a global perspective to streamline our processes, better engage employees and to generate EBIT. The low-hanging fruits are gone, and to manage thousands of improvement ideas, you need a tool to deliver – this for us is ORO.”

The news comes after ORO Labs was announced as the growth stage track winner of DPW‘s DEMO 2023 competition at DPW Amsterdam last month.

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

1 November 2023

Estimated Read time

5Mins

At DPW Amsterdam, Ashwin Kumar, vice president at GEP, discusses procurement transformation and what tomorrow’s challenge could look like.

Transformation. Procurement has witnessed quite a bit in recent years.

Given the widespread adoption and acceleration of AI and data-driven processes over the past decade, change has been a necessity rather than a nice to have.

Evolution of AI transformation

Ashwin Kumar is not unfamiliar with change. Having worked at GEP since May 2008, he has had a front-row seat to the transformation and change procurement has overseen. Now Vice President, he tells us about the evolution of the procurement function and how the landscape is shifting to meet future market demands.

“I think the way we see the industry evolve over time is because we started with web 1.0, simple ERPs that were fragmented with no easy way to connect systems,” he tells us. “Data was all behind firewalls and it was very expensive to manage or mine data. Then we had a big technology breakthrough in cloud systems where the people who were managing the storage said they had a solution. You can just simply push data out of the cloud and what we saw was a lot of that control that the CIOs had on data architecture and the software systems and solutions was being given to different functions.

“A lot of that enrichment of data happened because of the cloud platform that enabled it. Back in 2010, we made the decision to move away from a SaaS platform because even then we believed the future was cloud and that’s where data is going to be which could mean a gold mine. Our CEO made a very conscious decision to basically stop a really good product that was working and move to the cloud platform.”

Ashwin Kumar, Vice President, GEP

The GEP difference

Today, a global leader in AI-driven procurement and supply chain transformation, GEP helps enterprises take the lead and, using the power of data and digital technology, to stay ahead in the connected global economy. More than 1,000 engineers have spent the last 7 months to design and launch GEP’s new AI-native, low-code platform for sustainable procurement and supply chains, GEP QUANTUM. This new platform, launched last week, powers GEP SMART, the industry’s leading source-to-pay procurement application, GEP NEXXE, its next gen supply chain solution, and GEP GREEN, enabling companies to track, measure and achieve their ESG goals.

With the transformative power of AI, GEP enables businesses to operate with greater efficiency and effectiveness, gain competitive advantage, boost profitability and maximise both business and shareholder value. GEP helps global enterprises across industries and verticals build high-performing, resilient and sustainable supply chains.

Investing in dedicated spend analytics and solutions has become an essential part of the procurement process. Data is king and ultimately the more companies know and can predict, the better off they’ll be. However, some companies are still lagging behind when it comes to adopting digital tools created for better visibility and transparency. Kumar questions the reason for this and points to the possibility that there could be a perception that digital tools were hype or a fad – but affirms spend visibility is the real deal.

“If you look at spend data, if I’m the business stakeholder, you’re coming and showing me things that happened six months before,” he tells us. “One of the things we actively tell customers is to understand that there is a difference between spend and cost. Spend is basically the last AP data that you get, which means it’s not even current.”

Procurement’s greatest time?

Given the disruptive nature of the past few years, procurement has had to stand up and be counted. For Kumar, he reflects on global challenges such as Covid, a war in Ukraine and inflation and its knock-on effect on procurement and the supply chain. He maintains that it’s a “difficult time” to be in the industry at the moment given the hurdles procurement and the wider world has faced head-on recently.

“We started off with Covid where we went and told suppliers, sorry, I don’t have money to spend so I’m going to stop spending,” he tells us. “Two months later, you tell them there’s a supply shock and since I’m your preferred customer, can you do something for me? Make sure my products are getting to me on time. Then six months later, there was a war in Ukraine where you were testing suppliers to see which side they were on and questioning whether or not to do business with them. After that, there were inflation concerns so things are constantly changing and you’re pivoting from one problem to another.

“It now means you need to have a platform ecosystem with multiple solution options so that there isn’t a single point of failure and avoid the need for a “transformation” every two years. Given the pace at which things are changing in the macro environment, those single points of failure are quickly going from lack of supply to resilience to risk to people to visibility. It could be something else tomorrow, it could be ESG tomorrow, we simply don’t know. I could have a really good risk assessment tool, but that might not be my focus six months from now – it could be something else. So resilience in the form of digital ecosystem housing different point solutions is paramount.”

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

31 October 2023

Estimated Read time

2Mins

Vizibl has revealed the launch of a new sustainability target programme to help large organisations get supplier engagement for sustainability initiatives ready to launch within four weeks.

Vizibl has announced the launch of its Science-Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) Framework aimed at helping large organisations get supplier engagement for sustainability programmes ready to launch within four weeks.

The new configuration will allow companies to get started with their supplier raw spend data, which Vizibl first intakes.

The move will also see data cleansed, normalised and enriched, mapped and loaded onto Vizibl’s sustainability launchpad for emissions.

Organisations can also use the launchpad to quickly visualise emissions hotspots or which suppliers have committed to a SBTi.

Companies can quickly select cohorts of suppliers to add to supplier engagement programmes and start taking action after four weeks.

The new configuration will also allow all the supplier engagement action that’s been taken to decarbonise their supplier base, in one central location using the Vizibl platform, to mitigate against the rising tide of risk from upcoming and existing ESG regulations.

The process

This process follows SBTi’s supplier engagement guidance steps and leads the organisation through the process.

It will also mean automating key steps of the framework that would otherwise be administratively intensive spreadsheets.

The programme ready to launch is aligned to a UN-backed global sustainability standard for supplier engagement in the SBTi.

It supports Vizibl customer’s evidence of the collaborative actions associated with upcoming mandatory ESG regulations around scope 3 reduction.

It is also underpinned by a library of supporting content specifically to guide the organisation further to achieving science-based targets.

Once the programme is ready to launch, the Vizibl team is ready to walk the organisation through the launch process.

The team also supports the ongoing programme rollout and maintenance, continuously monitoring progress to ensure the programme meets agreed objectives.

“With mounting ESG regulatory pressure on businesses, ensuring our customers have the tools they need to quickly and accurately assess and improve sustainability performance across their supply base is key to Vizibl,” commented Richard Hogg, CEO at Vizibl.

“Ensuring that our customers can build a body of evidence that shows the efforts they’re taking, both at speed and at scale, to engage their suppliers to decarbonise their supply chains, is critical to meeting net-zero targets.”

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

30 October 2023

Estimated Read time

5Mins

Koray Köse, Chief Industry Officer at Everstream Analytics, speaks to us exclusively at DPW Amsterdam and discusses the importance of leading from the front in the supply chain

Everstream Analytics sets the global supply chain standard.

Through the application of AI and predictive analytics to its vast proprietary dataset, Everstream delivers the predictive insights and risk analytics businesses need for a smarter, more autonomous and sustainable supply chain. Everstream’s proven solution integrates with procurement, logistics and business continuity platforms generating the complete information, sharper analysis, and accurate predictions required to turn the supply chain into a business asset.

Koray Köse is a supply chain expert, futurist and multi-lingual thought leader, CPO, researcher, and published author. He specialises in working with CSCOs, CPOs, CIOs and other c-level executives while possessing more than 20 years of success in developing global supply chain and sourcing strategies, re-engineering and transforming business processes, and maximising financial resources. Köse is experienced in designing new business frameworks, risk and governance processes and deploying full-scale ERP and procure-to-pay systems to drive efficiencies through digital transformation. He is an expert in industries such as automotive, pharma, life sciences, IT, electronics and FMCG and has served as Chief Industry Officer at Everstream Analytics since June 2023.

Koray Köse, Chief Industry Officer, Everstream Analytics

World’s first Slave-Free Alliance

Recently, Everstream became the world’s first Slave-Free Alliance (SFA) validated modern slavery and forced labour technology provider. Everstream’s collaboration combines the firm’s multi-tier supplier discovery and AI-powered risk monitoring and analytics with SFA’s proprietary forced labour intelligence to expose unknown risks and protect global supply chains from modern slavery and exploitation.

“We’ve had issues in supply chain before, like conflict minerals for instance was a big topic,” Köse tells us. “Legislation came that was rather weak, where companies can say we can’t confirm nor deny that we have conflict minerals in our products. Modern slavery takes it to a whole different level. In essence, you may get import issues the moment that you might be suspicious, or the government import controls may say, ‘this comes from a specific region that has general exposure’. You basically have a disruption in your supply chain.

“If you forget about the business side, your business is actually promoting ethics that your own company in its statement and the way you live don’t align with and you didn’t know about it. So unknowingly you have actually incremented the issue that you are tackling on your own and within your environment. For us it was important to live up to the promise and look for an NGO that is impactful, has a mindset that is all about partnership and not blaming or shaming, it’s about changing the environment.”

Breaking down barriers

Around 50 million people worldwide are living in modern slavery. It remains a serious problem in nearly every region, with over 40% occurring in upper-middle to high-income countries. Due to the opacity and complexity of today’s global supply networks, companies are increasingly vulnerable to the risk of forced labour. According to a study cited by Slave-Free Alliance, 77% of companies expect to find modern slavery somewhere in their supply chain. Through this alliance, Everstream will actively contribute to enhancing capabilities and eradicating modern slavery and forced labour from global supply chains.

“We started that partnership to transfer our knowledge and also get insights from their end and understand what the upcoming issues were in the arenas of modern-day slavery that we should keep an eye on and how to help our clients to be informed and avoid getting exposed,” says Köse. “That’s where I started to talk with Hope for Justice and have collaborated with them during my time at Gartner as well. Then legislation is pushing the matter to the forefront of supply chain issues.

“Now, there is also financial impact and disruption and there’s the ability to do good and live up to the promise of your own vision and the way you want to conduct your business. Then I wanted to put our product to test and make sure that it lives up to the promise and if it doesn’t then we fix it. We went through a validation process and we got 90% plus accuracy in the feedback, which is important as it’s another confidence boost that we’re doing the right thing and we should continue on that path. We are the first world’s first validated modern-day slavery solution to tackle the issue – we’re very proud of that.”

The value of due diligence

In today’s fast-paced world, due diligence has become more important than ever. Companies must ensure they are generating the best value for money and that the product that they’re purchasing actually meets their needs. Köse believes companies almost have no choice in 2023.

“It’s an element that is not only preserving value, but it also creates it too,” he explains. “In the past it was more like a checkbox exercise that you conducted because everyone thought it was the right thing to do. Meanwhile, you had spillovers that you didn’t know about. It’s almost like what I don’t know, I don’t care. Since transparency requirements have been augmented significantly and the realisation of transparency as a value driver has dropped through Covid almost instantaneously in the c-level boardroom, compliance has become a value driver.

“It’s not just a checkbox exercise where you say that you are compliant. It is an affirmation of your product quality, brand and innovation that speaks to the customers and the choice they make. If you are concatenating beliefs and values to your product in that moment, you just have created a customer and that customer will be retained throughout the lifetime that you actually care about what they care about.”

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

26 October 2023

Estimated Read time

2Mins

Zip has been named as the most innovative fintech solution after being recognised with an award.

Procuretech firm Zip has announced its platform was chosen as the Most Innovative Fintech Solution by the 2023 Tech Ascension Awards.

The awards evaluate the top innovations in fintech, judging applicants based on technology innovation, market research and competitive differentiators.

Class-leading vendors recognised by the awards deliver technology that solves critical industry challenges and produces valuable business outcomes for customers.

Zip, which delivers an industry-leading intake solution, provides enhanced spend visibility, integrations into a company’s tech stack and new AI capabilities to accelerate workflows and identify savings.

The company’s platform modernises procurement workflows with a single front-door for employee purchases.

Setting the standard

“Our intake-to-pay solution is a revolutionary approach to procurement, and we’re thrilled to be recognised,” said Rujul Zaparde, co-founder of Zip.

“Zip not only improves efficiency across every business function but contributes to a new, highly improved employee experience by solving first for employee adoption of spend controls.

“We’re on a mission to continue setting the gold standard for procurement. Zip is the only platform that seamlessly streamlines procurement processes from intake all the way through to payments.”

The Tech Ascension Awards applicants are judged based on technology innovation, market research, hard performance stats and competitive differentiators.

The awards acknowledge leaders in enterprise and consumer technology. Two panels of enterprise and consumer industry experts judged submissions based on factual company descriptions. They were also measured on relevant statistics and data points as well as distinctiveness in the marketplace.

“As AI, cloud and interoperability serve as the new driving forces, we’re honoured to recognise these leaders in innovation,” said David Campbell, CEO, Tech Ascension Awards.

“We look forward to continuing to recognise companies that hold the power to transform the financial landscape for the better, driving advancements that improve accessibility, security and simplified experiences for users.”

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

25 October 2023

Estimated Read time

8Mins

Georg Rösch, Vice President Direct Procurement Strategy at JAGGAER, discusses his organisation’s approach amid significant transformation and evolution

Procurement is at a sliding doors moment – its direction of travel could go one way or another.

The influx of new technology makes procurement a dynamic and interesting industry in 2023. Following global challenges felt around the globe, procurement practitioners have had to step up in the face of adversity. To the industry’s credit, procurement has so far come through it but now it’s about embracing the world of today and finding ways to deal with pressing issues such as ESG and the knock-on effects of a war in Ukraine while also navigating inflation concerns. Of course, all this is on the back of COVID-19, of which the aftermath is still felt in some quarters.

In a recent CPOstrategy Podcast, Georg Rösch, Vice President Direct Procurement Strategy at JAGGAER, tells us all about how spend management giant JAGGAER is helping procurement teams overcome the challenging backdrop and discusses digitalisation strategies within the space.

Georg Rösch, Vice President Direct Procurement Strategy at JAGGAER
Georg Rösch, Vice President Direct Procurement Strategy at JAGGAER

The road in which procurement professionals end up where they do is always an interesting one. Can you tell us why procurement was the path you chose which led to your journey to JAGGAER? 

Georg Rosch (GR): “I would say I stumbled into the procurement space. Growing up, I was always a technology person and had a very early interest in computers. When everyone was playing video games, I was playing around with software and started coding. Eventually, one thing led to another, and I found myself in a small procurement startup in Vienna in development. This is really where I found out that this is interesting stuff. 20 years later, it’s crazy to think I’m still doing it because I didn’t even know this field existed and I think that is felt industry wide. But I still love it and getting to combine procurement with technology is something I’m really interested in.” 

In your view, how would you explain JAGGAER and sum up what differentiates it from other players in the space?

GR: “JAGGAER has been around for more than 25 years and came together through a lot of mergers and acquisitions. I came through from a branch that was local to Austria and the company has become one of the largest procurement software vendors out there. What I really like about JAGGAER is our vision of autonomous commerce. First of all, it sounds weird for a procurement software vendor not to have the word procurement in the tagline. But that’s done on purpose, because when you think about what a procurement software firm really does, it’s about communication and collaboration between buyers and sellers.

“For a while, JAGGAER was really good at the indirect procurement side which revolved around the whole P2P process. That’s really where a lot of our business came from. But this has evolved over the past 20 years into more of the source-to-contract process that’s being added which is proving so important. It’s not just the execution, but also the strategy of how you build everything and how you find the right sources. As part of autonomous commerce, we created four pillars. It’s networked, intelligent, comprehensive and extensible which spells NICE so it’s very easy to remember.”

Can you expand on the NICE strategy that JAGGAER has developed? What is its true meaning?

GR: “Networked basically means you collaborate with your suppliers, buyers, sellers, partners – everyone. It’s like the modern-day town square where the commerce happens – it’s the foundation of everything. Then it needs to be intelligent which means the question isn’t just about what data you have, but how do you intelligently use the data to drive the processes? Next, you have comprehensive. That encompasses all the functions you have starting from analytics, category management, supplier management, sourcing contracts, ePRO, supply chain management and quality management. It’s all of these beautiful things and how they work together. 

“Finally, extensibility means a lot of different things. It means being open to communicating with other systems. With our platform, you can bring in a lot of external data – ESG and sustainability, risk, enriched supplier data, and more – from our partners into our solution. This allows you to make smarter decisions across the procurement cycle. Another aspect is that not every company is the same. Extensibility also means, ‘how can I tailor the solution to my needs?’ This completes the picture that we are working towards here at JAGGAER.”

The procurement space itself has undergone major transformation over the past decade and suddenly, it is so much more than just a back-office function out the way of everyone else. What has been the catalyst for its transformation in your opinion?

GR: “Procurement is really at a make-or-break moment. Supply chain and procurement have been really in the spotlight in the last couple of years. It’s been a case of ‘oh my, there aren’t any shipments coming anymore’ or ‘people are not buying the stuff that they bought before because our whole way of life changed.’ So, we were working from home, and we were not going out to restaurants or buying new clothes because we were all in our tracksuits all day. Society shifted. This meant procurement and supply chain management was really important because they needed to navigate all of this.


“This is why expectations and visibility of these functions rose during that time. But now we’re at a critical point. Can those functions deliver the value that they should? And can they continue this momentum? This is why I’m saying we’re at the make-or-break moment and there are a lot of companies that really made this transition and change to where procurement is an advisor to the business which is so critically important. Think about everything that’s not going away such as ESG with the environmental element, human rights and the governance of those different processes. Procurement is playing such a critical role of managing all these different agendas within our board level topics today.”

How is JAGGAER driving value to companies in a way that perhaps it didn’t before?

GR: “At JAGGAER in procurement, you want to cater to the most mature companies but many of your potential customers are not the most mature firms. It’s a challenge and that’s the balance that you need to strike. You have to be ahead of the curve and in front of the market, so we take this very seriously. We have a dedicated team that’s only working on what we call innovation to uncover questions like how do we use these new technologies? How can we bring this into the solution? How do we drive value for our customers with these things? We did this by coming up with what we call a maturity matrix, where you can see which step of the maturity scale you are on right now.


“It’s five steps in total but no one is at step five yet. The current technology that exists today is at step four, but the space is constantly changing. As a customer, they can measure where they are and say, ‘I might be a two at that process, but I’m a three at that’ and work out what needs attention. They can ask themselves the question, should I even do this? Does this make sense for me as an organisation? We really try to work with those maturity models because it helps us whenever we work with a customer to assess where they are and tell them this is where you can go, and this is what you can achieve by doing that. 

“It helps us have the right conversations with our customers which was part of the vision of autonomous commerce. We have autonomous commerce as our North Star and know where we and the industry are aiming for, so it’s imperative our customers know the way too.”

How important is it that any technology introduced actually serves a purpose instead of being introduced for technologies sake?

GR: “People love technology, I love technology. But in business, we shouldn’t use a tool just because we like it. Tools should drive value. I won’t use something just because it sounds fancy. I’ll take whatever solution can truly solve the problem. At JAGGAER, when we evaluate solutions, we always consider what really helps us as an organisation and what drives value. At the end of the day, we are here to make our customers successful.  And how is that success measured? Each customer might have different KPIs, but in the end, it’s driving valuation and value for the company. Value can look different for your organisation, whether it’s higher customer or shareholder value. We have to be very pragmatic about the means of how we help because what works for one company potentially doesn’t work for another.”

What does the future of procurement look like to you? How exciting/challenging does the road ahead look for the space?

GR: “I believe it’s continuing the path that we’re on right now which is bringing more data and market intelligence into the whole procurement process. Procurement overall has to move away from gut feeling decision-making. Success stems from bringing all the information that’s needed for procurement into a solution for data-driven decision making. What I’m seeing right now is more strategic information regarding important topics such as environmental impact and human rights. All of this should make a difference and influence the decision making in procurement. This is how procurement drives the sustainability agenda of the company and reliability across the supply chain. This is really where I see procurement going. It’s about taking in all this information, being the advisor to the business, and making the right decisions to drive the company strategy. The future is exciting.”

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

24 October 2023

Estimated Read time

5Mins

CPOstrategy explores this issue’s big question and questions whether procurement is in need of a rebrand in order to get to the next level

Does procurement need a rebrand?

Procurement’s transformation in recent years has been exponential. 

As an industry which has embraced technology at scale, there is a greater clarity in spend, expanded category coverage and increased return to shareholders. But is there enough awareness about procurement and is it doing itself a disservice? Procurement professionals aren’t often known for being great marketers. But in today’s fast-paced world, being sure an audience can understand something quickly is essential. Without strong brand potential, procurement is risking not living up to its full potential.

For example, procurement’s brand is often left to customers to work out. To many, people think that procurement is solely about purchasing or negotiating contracts. However, they are often unaware just how innovative and exciting procurement can be. From some sections, procurement is still sometimes thought of as some back-office function tucked away out of sight. But now, particularly in the face of massive challenges over the past few years, procurement has become so much more.

Solving talent shortages

Shaz Khan, CEO and Co-Founder of Vroozi

In a recent CPOstrategy Podcast, Shaz Khan, CEO of Vroozi, discussed how rebranding procurement could help solve its talent shortages. He believes the space must be more strategic than just finding themselves there one day. He told us how corporate procurement is currently in a “golden age” and that by making job roles more relatable it could encourage fresh perspectives to enter the industry on purpose instead of by accident. “When you say you work in procurement, try explaining that to your family or friends because it takes a while! In reality, we as human beings in our day-to-day lives are sourcing every single minute of every day,” he explained.

“We are sourcing where our dry cleaning is, we’re negotiating at the farmer’s market for carrots. When we look at corporate procurement, we need to ask ourselves, do we need to be rebranding this function? We need to get more individuals not just falling into procurement by accident and make it more measured and predictive.”

What’s holding procurement back?

Executives “falling” into procurement has long been a common joke shared among those in the industry. But in what other line of work does such a high proportion of the workforce accidentally stumble upon their chosen industry and end up staying? It is both a compliment and an achilles heel to procurement but ultimately that method leads to periods of talent shortages which is what the industry is experiencing today. Procurement’s talent problem is not just down to one thing, given how COVID-19 impacted the industry and people’s decision to opt for a career change in the post-pandemic world. In order to address the problem, it all starts with education.

Pauline Potter, Director of Procurement at Evri

“I certainly didn’t know that this was a profession when I was at university and I don’t think I’m alone in that,” explains Pauline Potter, Director of Procurement at Evri.

“It all seems crazy to me because I genuinely think this is such a fantastic career path that people can take. It’s hugely variable with loads of paths you can go down and you can apply a similar skillset to all kinds of businesses. I think the first thing procurement can do to address the talent shortage is raise the profile when recruiting.

Nicolas Walden, Associate Principal at The Hackett Group, agrees in the importance of rebranding procurement but also believes that a lack of education could be holding procurement back. “I was talking to a CPO recently and he was saying when he looks across Europe, there’s only a small number of universities that actually offer degree level qualifications in procurement or supply chain,” he says. “I know from colleagues in the United States that there’s many more universities there that offer this level of education. This can create the entry point of a pipeline of talent for the future. This means they’ve got the skills, mindset and the training in what we need in terms of modern procurement.”

Recruitment in procurement

Khan highlights the opportunity procurement has to redefine how it presents itself to the workforce of tomorrow. It is his belief that getting rid of the misconceptions surrounding procurement could hold the key. “Higher education and the lack of programmes going forward after graduating is a real problem,” he adds. “Corporate procurement can be an incredible entry level area because it centres around data. You’re leveraging cutting edge toolsets and are making an impact on the company – your job isn’t boring. It’s not pushing paper back and forth or getting on phone calls with suppliers to talk about delivery schedules.”

Fadi El Mouallem

And procurement roles don’t just have to apply to ‘procurement people’. Global procurement executive Fadi El Mouallem affirms that people could add their valuable transferable skills from other industries and be successful within the space. “I like to attract talent from different industries, not just procurement or finance,” he discusses. “I’ve had the likes of project managers, salespeople and engineers come into procurement and they all made a career out of it.

Success is making them feel that they belong, so they can grow into this space and make an impact. If they choose to leave procurement later, then that’s fine.”

Procurement, like many industries, has been through a tough time. But as a sector very much at the forefront of technology innovation the future looks equally exciting and bright. By rebranding procurement, being open to people from all walks of life and empowering the talent of tomorrow to emphasise that this could be the place for them to thrive, it could bring positive change that will stand the test of time.

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

23 October 2023

Estimated Read time

4Mins

CPOstrategy visits HICX’s first Supplier Experience Live as organisations gear up to remove friction and become a customer of choice.

Supplier experience has never been such a hot topic.

After decades in the darkness, the importance of supplier experience is finally on the agenda.

Truthfully, success can’t be achieved alone. Without happy, committed and strategic supplier relationships, a business will stagnate. And now, organisations are waking up to the potential a robust supplier base could unlock.

The rise of Supplier Experience

Earlier this month, HICX launched its first-ever Supplier Experience Live the day before DPW Amsterdam. Hosted at the Tobacco Theatre in Amsterdam, it was recognised as an official DPW Amsterdam side event. The event’s vision was to help organisations use supplier experience to remove friction and become a customer-of-choice.

The half-day event began with a welcome from Ragnar Lorentzen, Chief Commercial Officer at HICX, who opened the door to the world of supplier experience and the market developments that have led the way. Lorentzen handed over to the first keynote speech from Dr. Elouise Epstein who explained that the ERP system was dead. Epstein suggested that the solution could be how well you exchange data with third parties.

Following Epstein was a panel discussion that featured Ruth Bromley, Director of Procurement Enablement at Heineken, Adam Hubbard, Senior Manager of Supply Chain, Governance and Performance at EDF which was moderated by Tommy Benston, VP of Global Client Management at HICX. The conversation advised of ways to gain a competitive advantage in procurement and supply chain through supplier experience management. Bromley highlighted three key learnings: speed, standardisation and simplicity, believing in a “single source of truth”.

Dr. Elouise Epstein
Dr. Elouise Epstein

Driving supplier adoption

Later, Anthony Payne, CMO at HICX, discussed how to drive supplier adoption and engagement through supplier marketing. Payne explained the value of segmentation which is the process of dividing the market into subsets of customers who share similar characteristics. Payne equipped the audience with six recommendations to take forward and advised them to use caution with the language they use with suppliers. Following the coffee break was Duncan Jones, former Vice President and Principal Analyst at Forrester Research, who unpacked the reality of how to decide on the correct types of solutions in the new best-of-breed era amidst a transition away from the traditional database-centric approach.

The afternoon continued with a panel discussion involving Marc Bengio, Senior Director and Head of Technology Enterprise Procurement at Johnson & Johnson, Lance Younger, CEO at ProcureTech and Jacy Bassett, VP of Professional Services, to explore the topic “Demystifying the technology landscape: How do you architect for Supplier Experience?” Each speaker gave their viewpoint on how to arm the procurement function of tomorrow to meet the challenge of an ever-changing digital world. The conversation offered guidance and counsel amid an explosion of transformative solutions in the space.

Costas Xyloyiannis, CEO at HICX
Costas Xyloyiannis, CEO at HICX

Bright future

Finally, Costas Xyloyiannis, CEO at HICX, took to the stage to announce the launch of IUBN which he explained was a streamlined way to identify legal entities in a bid to create net efficiency within the supply chain. One system, one time, everywhere.

Speaking exclusively to CPOstrategy at the event, Xyloyiannis told us, “It’s pretty significant running an event like this. I’ve been in the space 23 years, and finally, I feel like the focus is shifting. Two or three years ago no one was talking about supplier experience so it’s great to see a movement starting to happen. It is very satisfying because you see people’s minds changing in the same way that it did for the customer and employee experience.

“What you have to think about is that almost every company is also a supplier so it’s in your interest to focus on the supplier experience side. In another context, you’re also a supplier and people should understand that we’re all in it together. If you don’t think about solving it, then you’re going to have that pain yourself.”

Supplier experience is just getting started. Reimagine the possible.

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

20 October 2023

Estimated Read time

2Mins

Global research and advisory giants Deloitte and DPW has announced a partnership to bring procurement innovation to organisations.

Deloitte and DPW has announced a partnership to bring procurement innovation to organisations.

Under the terms of this strategic alliance, DPW LABS, the consulting arm of DPW, and Deloitte will work together to refine the boundaries of innovation in procurement.

From problem and strategy definition to proof of concept and deployment, through the DPW LABS innovation capabilities and digital ecosystem and Deloitte’s global transformation capabilities, the move allows for impact to be delivered at scale.

Deloitte is a global provider of audit and assurance, consulting, financial advisory, risk advisory, tax and related services.

The firm, which is a member of the Big Four in professional services, currently has about 330,000 employees in more than 150 countries and territories. 

Founded in 2019, DPW stands as a global leader in procurement innovation. DPW LABS empowers organisations to identify and seize collaborative innovation opportunities with DPW’s line-up of pioneering startups, scale-ups, and tech innovation experts.

Herman Knevel, co-founder and co-CEO at DPW, said: “We are excited about this strategic partnership with Deloitte.

“This partnership will enable us to join forces and make tech work, expand and complement our impact at global scale.” 

Michiel Junge, partner of sourcing and procurement at Deloitte, added: “We are united in our mission to make procurement awesome.

“The partnership with DPW will enable our clients to tap into DPW’s capabilities and ecosystem and define their procurement future.”

The move comes after DPW welcomed over 1,250 procurement professionals to Amsterdam for its annual conference.

DPW Amsterdam has quickly made its name as a hub of innovation and collaboration. It is one of the biggest and most influential tech events in procurement and supply chain.

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

19 October 2023

Estimated Read time

3Mins

CPOstrategy travels to the Netherlands to soak in the atmosphere of one of the world’s biggest and most influential tech events in procurement and supply chain – DPW Amsterdam 2023

“You are the reason why DPW exists.

“It’s been my mission from day one to break procurement out of its silo and create what I call the end-to-end ecosystem and that is you.”

Digital Procurement World (DPW) Founder Matthias Gutzmann’s first address to the crowd gathered before the main stage had a clear tone of appreciation.

The rise of DPW Amsterdam

Today, DPW Amsterdam is one of the world’s biggest and most influential tech events in procurement and supply chain. Its exponential rise in a relatively short space of time is undeniable. Its story began with a frustrated Gutzmann having discovered a lack of procurement conferences to showcase his previous employer. This led to Gutzmann finding a gap in the market and set about solving the issue himself. He left his job in New York, moved into his parent’s house and invested all his savings to launch DPW. Months later, DPW’s launch conference in September 2019 welcomed 400 industry leaders while being praised from across procurement. Under the watch of Gutzmann and co-CEO Herman Knevel, DPW’s influence and pull has only grown since.

This year’s event was located at the historic former stock exchange building, the Beurs van Berlage. Built in 1896, the building breathes character and history. Its architecture and rich past, alongside its central Amsterdam location, showcases its sense of place and being.

DPW Conference, Amsterdam 2023

Innovation

DPW Amsterdam has quickly made its name as a hub of innovation and collaboration. This year, more than 1,250 procurement professionals gathered to connect, learn and innovate, while over 2,500 virtual attendees watched along at home. The buzz and hum of chatter was audible, the sense of excitement evident. And the attendees were certainly in for a treat. This year’s theme was “Make Tech Work” which focused on turning digital aspirations into a reality. There was a deep dive into discussions surrounding AI and machine learning in procurement, digital transformation strategies, sustainable procurement, supplier collaboration, risk management as well as innovation and disruption. It was all centred on ensuring the vision of digital procurement happens now and how organisations can be challenged to deliver results now instead of only concepts and theories.

Speakers across the two days included renowned experts and visionaries including the likes of Dr. Elouise Epstein, Partner at Kearney, Yossi Sheffi, Director of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and author David Rogers, among dozens more. Sarah Barnes-Humphrey led superb virtual coverage of the event and allowed those unable to make it to still feel a part of such an important conference in the procurement calendar. There were book signings from Sheffi and Atif Rafiq, eye-catching tech innovations showcased on stage and even an appearance from F1 legend and Haas Formula One team principal Guenther Steiner.

DPW's founder Matthias Gutzmann

Digital future

To sum up, in comedian and host of DPW Amsterdam Andrew Moskos’ opening speech he reflected on procurement’s evolution and transformation. “Procurement used to be boring but now we’re all rockstars. We run the company, we’re in the c-suite, we run ESG, sustainability, risk, and 80% of the spend of a company goes through us.”

Change is here and procurement holds the cards. Let’s Make Tech Work.

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

18 October 2023

Estimated Read time

4Mins

CPOstrategy examines 10 of the best ways to use artificial intelligence (AI) in procurement

Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the biggest buzzwords in procurement. Everyone wants to get their hands on it and introduce it into their strategies.

Particularly in procurement, AI is often talked about being the answer to all challenges. It can be used to overcome complex problems and deliver efficiency while also being introduced within software applications such as spend analysis, contract management and strategic sourcing.

In this article, we will list 10 of the best ways to use AI in procurement.

1. Machine learning spend classification

AI algorithms can help categorise, clean and classify data automatically. Machine learning spend classification helps detect patterns and uses them for prediction while allowing for better decision-making. Examples of spend classification techniques include supervised learning, unsupervised learning in vendor management and classification reinforcement learning. 

2. Natural Language Processing (NLP)

National Language Processing (NLP) is the branch of artificial intelligence focused on understanding, interpreting and manipulating human language. It can be used to gain valuable data and information to streamline time-consuming processes. Information contained in legal documents can be interpreted through AI for the procurement of relevant data. It allows procurement professionals to get ahead and use an AI assist engine to receive alerts to proactively monitor progress. It also allows for compliance over the life of multiple agreements with the same or several vendors.

3. Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) mimics human actions to eradicate repetitive tasks. While not strictly AI in the traditional sense, RPA does provide procurement with opportunities to improve process efficiency and is part of the wider family of AI. It can assist with the likes of contract management, input identification as well as purchase request and order submission, among more benefits.

4. Anomaly detection

With AI being able to process vast amounts of data quickly, it is able to stay up to date on the latest developments and changes in the procurement space at speed. Automated notifications on things such as anomalies, new opportunities and recommended activities allows for immediate action to be taken and provide suggestions on what should be done instantly. Rapid detection will ensure risks are mitigated and resolved before they become problems.

5. Purchasing

AI can be utilised to automatically review and approve purchase orders. Chatbots can be used to check the status of acquisitions or automatically approve virtual card payments. AI can analyse data and assess the reliability and quality of suppliers based on predefined criteria. This helps the purchasing team select the best suppliers quickly and accurately.

6. Contract management

Contract management can benefit through using AI to create, store, review, index, retrieve, analyse, negotiate and approve agreements. A big benefit delivered by contract management solutions that use AI is standardised metadata reporting which eliminates the need for category managers and legal counsels to manually read contracts to gain insights into the commercial part of their supplier relationships.

7. Supplier risk management

Supplier risk management is an important part of the procurement process and is around understanding what happens if a supplier fails to meet its obligations. To combat this, AI can be used to monitor and work out potential risk position through Big Data. Millions of different data sources are screened in order to provide alerts on potential risks within the supply chain.

8. Accounts payable automation

AI can automate most manual tasks in accounting such as data entry and invoice routing. Using AI for this substantially reduces procure-to-pay cycles, minimises the need for humans to get involved and integrates multiple workflows into a seamless process.

9. Strategic sourcing

Using AI in strategic sourcing is a key tool in a procurement practitioner’s arsenal. AI can be used to manage and automate sourcing events while also leveraging machine learning for the recognition of bid sheets, as well as specialised category-specific e-sourcing bots such as raw materials and maintenance.

10. Automated compliance

AI can also be used as a valuable tool for compliance officers to help work out potential risks, monitor employee behaviour, generate reports, provide recommendations as well as educating employees about the importance of compliance. For organisations without a source-to-pay system, compliance is a useful alternative and allows procurement teams to seamlessly compare payment terms, identify duplications as well as determine non-compliance.

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

17 October 2023

Estimated Read time

4Mins

This month’s cover story features Fiona Adams, Director of Client Value Realization at ProcurementIQ, to hear how the market leader in providing sourcing intelligence is changing the very face of procurement…

It’s a bumper issue this month. Click here to access the latest issue!

And below are just some of this month’s exclusives…

ProcurementIQ: Smart sourcing through people power 

We speak to Fiona Adams, Director of Client Value Realization at ProcurementIQ, to hear how the market leader in providing sourcing intelligence is changing the very face of procurement… 

The industry leader in emboldening procurement practitioners in making intelligent purchases is ProcurementIQ. ProcurementIQ provides its clients with pricing data, supplier intelligence and contract strategies right at their fingertips. Its users are working smarter and more swiftly with trustworthy market intelligence on more than 1,000 categories globally.  

Fiona Adams joined ProcurementIQ in August this year as its Director of Client Value Realization. Out of all the companies vying for her attention, it was ProcurementIQ’s focus on ‘people power’ that attracted her, coupled with her positive experience utilising the platform during her time as a consultant.

Although ProcurementIQ remains on the cutting edge of technology, it is a platform driven by the expertise and passion of its people and this appealed greatly to Adams. “I want to expand my own reach and I’m excited to be problem-solving for corporate America across industries, clients and procurement organizations and teams (internal & external). I know ProcurementIQ can make a difference combined with my approach and experience. Because that passion and that drive, powered by knowledge, is where the real magic happens,” she tells us.  

To read more click here!

ASM Global: Putting people first in change management   

Ama F. Erbynn, Vice President of Strategic Sourcing and Procurement at ASM Global, discusses her mission for driving a people-centric approach to change management in procurement…

Ripping up the carpet and starting again when entering a new organisation isn’t a sure-fire way for success. 

Effective change management takes time and careful planning. It requires evaluating current processes and questioning why things are done in a certain way. Indeed, not everything needs to be changed, especially not for the sake of it, and employees used to operating in a familiar workflow or silo will naturally be fearful of disruptions to their methods. However, if done in the correct way and with a people-centric mindset, delivering change that drives significant value could hold the key to unleashing transformation. 

Ama F. Erbynn, Vice President of Strategic Sourcing and Procurement at ASM Global, aligns herself with that mantra. Her mentality of being agile and responsive to change has proven to be an advantage during a turbulent past few years. For Erbynn, she thrives on leading transformations and leveraging new tools to deliver even better results. “I love change because it allows you to think outside the box,” she discusses. “I have a son and before COVID I used to hear him say, ‘I don’t want to go to school.’ He stayed home for a year and now he begs to go to school, so we adapt and it makes us stronger. COVID was a unique situation but there’s always been adversity and disruptions within supply chain and procurement, so I try and see the silver lining in things.”

To read more click here!

SpendHQ: Realising the possible in spend management software 

Pierre Laprée, Chief Product Officer at SpendHQ, discusses how customers can benefit from leveraging spend management technology to bring tangible value in procurement today…

Turning vision and strategy into highly effective action. This mantra is behind everything SpendHQ does to empower procurement teams.  

The organisation is a leading best-in-class provider of enterprise Spend Intelligence (SI) and Procurement Performance Management (PPM) solutions. These products fill an important gap that has left strategic procurement out of the solution landscape. Through these solutions, customers get actionable spend insights that drive new initiatives, goals, and clear measurements of procurement’s overall value. SpendHQ exists to ultimately help procurement generate and demonstrate better financial and non-financial outcomes. 

Spearheading this strategic vision is Pierre Laprée, long-time procurement veteran and SpendHQ’s Chief Product Officer since July 2022. However, despite his deep understanding of procurement teams’ needs, he wasn’t always a procurement professional. Like many in the space, his path into the industry was a complete surprise.  

To read more click here!

But that’s not all… Earlier this month, we travelled to the Netherlands to cover the first HICX Supplier Experience Live, as well as DPW Amsterdam 2023. Featured inside is our exclusive overview from each event, alongside this edition’s big question – does procurement need a rebrand? Plus, we feature a fascinating interview with Georg Rosch, Vice President Direct Procurement Strategy at JAGGAER, who discusses his organisation’s approach amid significant transformation and evolution.

Enjoy!

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

28 September 2023

Estimated Read time

5Mins

HICX CEO Costas Xyloyiannis on why we should turn the spotlight toward the experience suppliers receive as they serve big manufacturing brands.

What’s clear from Deloitte’s Global Chief Procurement Officer Survey 2023 is that environmental and social governance (ESG) is now firmly on the corporate agenda. This year, it leapt right up the priority list, from seventh place to second.

Elevating ESG, however, is tough to deliver. In practice, it is hugely dependent upon good supplier data, which is notoriously hard to achieve and maintain. Exploring why turns the spotlight to its source: suppliers. So, do suppliers themselves cause brands to struggle with data? 

Supplier experience expert HICX’s CEO, Costas Xyloyiannis, says they do – but only reactively. Where we really should turn the spotlight, he believes, is toward the experience suppliers receive as they serve big manufacturing brands. 

Letting data live across teams will harm it

The way in which big brands work with suppliers creates too many entry points for their data. Each digital tool which employees use to engage suppliers is an opening. And by default, suppliers deposit their data in whichever tool they’re expected to use. 

For example, when working with a major brand, suppliers are expected to use different tools for placing orders, sending compliance surveys, assessing performance, and doing many other tasks. Furthermore, most employees across the business work with suppliers in some way. Each time the parties work together in one of these tools, it stores the supplier’s data. And when we step back and look at all the data across the brand, as a whole, it is very compromised.

When the master dataset is created this way, it gets peppered with duplicated, incomplete, and outdated entries. Regrettably, in this format, it misguides decisions – including those which shape ESG activity. 

The best team to own supplier data is overrun

Brands can reverse this weakness by addressing the data problem. But someone needs to do it. Despite so many teams contributing to and using supplier data, there is no one perfect owner for the job.

There is a function, however, which is closest. Procurement. As it already runs the relationship with suppliers, Chief Procurement Officers (CPOs) can probe adjacent issues – such as data. 

A consideration though, is that Procurement teams already have mandates, which they are stretched to deliver. Eating into the function’s bandwidth is the necessity to tackle inflation, demand surges, driver shortages, and other Covid-19-related issues. Also waiting for the function’s attention is digital transformation, an area in which it seriously lags. 

Put data at the heart of current strategies

Looking at Deloitte’s latest survey results, there is an opportunity for CPOs to work smart. There is a clear path for CPOs to fit the brand’s data goal at the heart of their two top strategies, “increasing supplier collaboration” and “investing in digital transformation.” Supporting this approach is in the interest – and arguably the responsibility – of all C-suite executives. 

How then can fellow executives get involved? First, we can help Procurement’s collaboration strategy by reforming how every employee sees suppliers. Too often, suppliers are just a means to save costs. And while saving costs is important, it’s not everything. Untypically, cost savings slipped off the podium in this year’s survey, into fourth place. This shift in focus – away from squeezing suppliers and towards collaborating with them – will bode well for brands that want to perform in ESG. But only if everyone in the organisation can adopt the mindset.

If they do, brands can offer suppliers a better experience which will encourage them to contribute to improving data. It is human nature to want to give back. Further, we learnt in a recent HICX survey that suppliers are 20% more likely to “go the extra mile” for brands they rate as customers of choice. Therefore, it’s likely that suppliers will want to participate.

But a willingness to hike data quality is not enough. In addition to company mindsets, brands must tackle a second obstacle: digital processes.

Redefine what it means to digitise

Next, we can help Procurement to revamp the tools through which everyone engages suppliers. We know that too many entry points pull down data quality. The opportunity, then, is to guide the way in which Procurement digitises so that the brand and function can gain control. Thinking about processes in this way is real digital transformation.

Today’s situation makes maintaining reliable data very hard. Any attempt to cleanse data is undermined by the inflow of new data from multiple sources. It’s like trying to clean the ocean. The rate at which new pollution enters the ocean outstrips most efforts to remove it. And in both cases, it makes sense to control the inflow. 

In a digital environment, this means fitting a solid data foundation. A data foundation, in practice, is a central repository with one front door that is monitored and through which all new data must come in. Master data can be sent to other tools. The rule however is that they can only borrow the data, and never alter it. Good data resides in this foundational repository, where it is looked after. 

A word of caution though: be aware of quick fixes. A deeper look at the “multiple entry points” situation reveals a deeper integration challenge. Established tools, such as source-to-pay suites through which Procurement and Finance work with suppliers, don’t always mix well with newer tools on the market. One remedy is to use established suites fitted with newer features. But this fails to address the data quality goal. It reminds me of the famous quote by Henry Ford: If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses. Using old suites fitted with new features is like using a faster horse. It’s a stopgap. Rather, let’s stop good data’s tendency to evade ESG leaders when they need it most. Let’s tackle underlying issues once and for all. 

Building for the future

Truly digitising, of course, gives suppliers a better experience too, which drives the collaboration goal—and sets in motion a virtuous cycle. 

Now, suppliers who once fed the ESG data problem can contribute to its solution. Leaders who help their CPOs to collaborate with suppliers and digitally transform, for the greater enterprise, can steer supplier behaviour and keep good data. And this, as we know, is the fuel to ESG success.

By Costas Xyloyiannis, CEO, HICX

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

12 September 2023

Estimated Read time

4Mins

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Welcome to issue 43 of CPOstrategy!

Our exclusive cover story this month features a fascinating discussion with UK Procurement Director, CBRE Global Workplace Solutions (GWS), Catriona Calder to find out how procurement is helping the leader in worldwide real estate achieve its ambitious goals within ESG.

As a worldwide leader in commercial real estate, it’s clear why CBRE GWS has a strong focus on continuous improvement in its procurement department. A business which prides itself on its ability to create bespoke solutions for clients of any size and sector has to be flexible. Delivering the superior client outcomes CBRE GWS has become known for requires an extremely well-oiled supply chain, and Catriona Calder, its UK Procurement Director, is leading the charge. 

Procurement at CBRE had already seen some great successes before Calder came on board in 2022. She joined a team of passionate and capable procurement professionals, with a number of award-winning supply chain initiatives already in place.

With a sturdy foundation already embedded, when Calder stepped in, her personal aim focused on implementing a long-term procurement strategy and supporting the global team on its journey to world class procurement…

Read the full story here!

Adam Brown: The new wave of digital procurement 

We grab some time with Adam Brown who leads the Technology Platform for Procurement at A.P. Moller-Maersk, the global logistics giant. And when he joined, a little over a year ago, he was instantly struck by a dramatic change in culture… 

Read the full story here!

Government of Jersey: A procurement transformation journey 

 Maria Huggon, Former Group Director of Commercial Services at the Government of Jersey, discusses how her organisation’s procurement function has transformed with the aim of achieving a ‘flourishing’ status by 2025…

Read the full article here!

Government of Jersey

Corio: A new force in offshore wind 

The procurement team at Corio on bringing the wind of change to the offshore energy space. Founded less than two years ago, Corio Generation already packs quite the punch. Corio has built one of the world’s largest offshore wind development pipelines with projects in a diverse line-up of locations including the UK, South Korea and Brazil among others.  

The company is a specialist offshore wind developer dedicated to harnessing renewable energy and helps countries transform their economies with clean, green and reliable offshore wind energy. Corio works in established and emerging markets, with innovative floating and fixed-bottom technologies. Its projects support local economies while meeting the energy needs of communities and customers sustainably, reliably, safely and responsibly.  

Read the full article here!

Becker Stahl: Green steel for Europe 

Felix Schmitz, Head of Investor Relations & Head of Strategic Sustainability at Klöckner & Co SE explores how German company Becker Stahl-Service is leading the way towards a more sustainable steel industry with Nexigen® by Klöckner & Co. 

Read the full article here!

And there’s so much more!

Enjoy!

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

18 August 2023

Estimated Read time

1Min

Pauline Potter, Director of Procurement at Evri, discusses her firm’s drive to delivering sustainability and offering best-in-class solutions.

Today, Evri stands as the UK’s biggest dedicated parcel delivery firm and is armed with more than 18,000 couriers.

It has over 8,500 local one-stop ParcelShops and lockers and a growing network of best-in-class hubs and depots. Founded in 1974, Evri has undergone significant transformation over the years, most recently a successful rebrand with Hermes UK in March 2022. And overseeing the company’s procurement function is Pauline Potter. A Cornell University graduate in the US, Potter trained as an engineer before moving into consulting at KPMG and Efficio.

Indeed, setting the standard in procurement isn’t easy. It takes hard work, dedication and a drive to consistently deliver and meet customer demands, particularly in today’s world. However, to companies like Evri, they take challenges in their stride.

In our recent CPOstrategy Podcast, Pauline Potter, Director of Procurement at Evri, discusses her firm’s driving sustainability while at the same time delivering best-in-class solutions while maintaining its position as the UK’s biggest dedicated parcel delivery company.

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

1 August 2023

Estimated Read time

2Mins

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Welcome to issue 42 of CPOstrategy!

This month’s cover story sees us speak with Brad Veech, Head of Technology Procurement at Discover Financial Services.

CPOstrategy - Procurement Magazine

Having been a leader in procurement for more than 25 years, he has been responsible for over $2 billion in spend every year, negotiating software deals ranging from $75 to over $1.5 billion on a single deal. Don’t miss his exclusive insights where he tells us all about the vital importance of expertly procuring software and highlights the hidden pitfalls associated.

“A lot of companies don’t have the resources to have technology procurement experts on staff,” Brad tells us. “I think as time goes on people and companies will realise that the technology portfolio and the spend in that portfolio is increasing so rapidly they have to find a way to manage it. Find a project that doesn’t have software in it. Everything has software embedded within it, so you’re going to have to have procurement experts that understand the unique contracts and negotiation tactics of technology.” 

There are also features which include insights from the likes of Jake Kiernan, Manager at KPMG, Ashifa Jumani, Director of Procurement at TELUS and Shaz Khan, CEO and Co-Founder at Vroozi. 

Enjoy the issue! 

Author

Nell Walker

Published

10 July 2023

Estimated Read time

5Mins

CPOstrategy is a proud partner of ProcureCon Asia Transformation is on the lips and minds of every procurement and supply…

CPOstrategy is a proud partner of ProcureCon Asia

Transformation is on the lips and minds of every procurement and supply chain professional right now. Procurement is increasingly being recognised for its vital role at the core of any business, thanks to the fact that CPOs and other supply chain professionals are executing enormous changes for the benefit of their organisations. 

Set to be a major theme at ProcureCon Asia this year, running between the 11th and 13th of July at the Equarius Hotel in Singapore is the topic of transformation. Procurement professionals from all over the globe will come together to share ideas, make connections, and learn more about the profession through interactive learning and keynote speeches from experts.

All hands on deck

Ter Long Tay, Group Director at JTC Corporation, is one of the event’s illustrious speakers. For him, procurement transformation is a necessity, and requires the full support of the entire business.

“Procurement needs to reimagine its purpose and the role it plays,” says Tay. “It must go beyond the traditional efficiency, productivity, and management of procurement lifecycle. Successful transformation entails understanding the business and partnering with stakeholders on the decision-making process and the strategy of the company. It means being able to create value and have a seat at the table.”

Tay himself has a long history of victories in the procurement sphere. Years of experience in the real estate industry and centralised procurement at JTC gave him and his team the opportunity to understand each element of the business and their considerations better, and procurement – hand-in-hand with digitalisation – has been able to offer added value through the knowledge and experience gained from this involvement. Alongside insights gleaned from data, the business has been able to evolve through informed decision-making.

“For example, in a review of our procurement policies for infrastructure development, we were able to achieve a good ratio of partner vendors supporting our business while maintaining a healthy share of new entrants,” says Tay. 

“This allows us to achieve a balanced outcome of value for money, business continuity, and industry development. We had intentionally used procurement as a lever to achieve other strategic outcomes, leveraging procurement to test or nudge the market in terms of specific sustainable solutions and investing in R&D for long-term benefit.”

CPOstrategy is a proud media partner of ProcureCon Asia 2023. Quote “CPOSTRATASIA15” for 15% off tickets here.

Woodlands North Coast, JTC

Meeting challenges head-on

Of course, there are often hurdles for procurement professionals to jump in order to successfully implement transformation. No big change is without its challenges, and Tay is experienced enough to understand where the pain points lie. For him, procurement has always been viewed through a certain lens, regardless of whether that lens still fits, and that can hold some businesses back. However, increasingly, the department is being looked to as a value-add creator of change.

“Traditionally, procurement has been viewed as transactional,” Tay explains. “Supporting operations while helping businesses reduce costs and increase profits. Now, companies are looking at procurement to achieve long-term business objectives. Arising from the pandemic,  businesses are actively reviewing their supply chains and changing from a ‘just-in-time’ mindset to ‘just-in-case’. 

“There is also significant traction regarding sustainability, and procurement is the department supporting new objectives more than ever.”

Seletar Aerospace Park, JTC

Business-procurement collaboration

Tay is bringing all of this expertise to ProcureCon Asia 2023, in order to share his knowledge with his peers and discuss solutions with other procurement professionals. The reason he wanted to speak at the event came from a ‘pay-it-forward’ mindset; he’s benefited enormously from speakers at previous summits sharing their own wisdom, and hopes to help others by sharing his own knowledge.

“I’ll be discussing the aspects of good business-procurement alignment,” Tay says. “Plus, the value procurement brings, how procurement can support the wider business through managing tensions – such as profits, governance, and risk management – as well as sustainability, and whether procurement is a leader or a follower.”

Tay hopes that focusing on business-procurement collaboration will achieve added value for those attending the summit. “Through collaboration within the procurement community, we can cross-pollinate ideas across different industries, encourage each other through success stories and learn from mistakes. We never walk alone in our procurement transformation journeys.”

For himself, Tay hopes to have the opportunity to network with his peers and continue gaining useful information and insights, as he has at previous events. “I want to learn from the best-in-class in the procurement community,” he concludes.

Read our other ProcureCon Asia preview here.

ProcureCon Asia is the leading procurement summit gathering and connecting CPOs and Heads of Procurement from the biggest companies in Asia. ProcureCon Asia 2023 will be happening from 11 – 13 July at the Equarius Hotel, Singapore. To learn more, click here.

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

23 June 2023

Estimated Read time

2Mins

CPOstrategy-Magazine-41
Read in brochure format

Welcome to issue 41 of CPOstrategy!

This month’s exclusive cover story features a fascinating insight into the procurement function at lighting giant, Signify.

A forward-thinking enterprise constantly reevaluating and adapting its operations against an ever-changing landscape, Signify has recently transformed its procurement function. And so we join Luc Broussaud, Global Head of Procurement/CPO and Arnold Chatelain, Transformation Program Director for Signify’s Procurement Organization to see why, and how, they have evolved procurement at the company.

Signify is a global organisation spread over all continents and Luc heads up the procurement function. According to Luc, he and his team no longer engage in traditional transactional procurement, but instead leverage digitalisation to deliver competitive prices as well as what they call ‘concept saving’, “Which is how we redesign or improve our product; leveraging the knowledge of our suppliers to make it cheaper, more efficient, easier to manufacture and install, and more sustainable for the planet.”

CPOstrategy - Issue 41

Luc joined Signify in 2018, after being the CPO of Nokia (based in Shanghai) and has always been working within procurement. He joined Signify with a broad skillset and a wealth of experience. “I joined because the people I talked to, from the COO to the CEO and CFO were all incredibly knowledgeable and passionate about procurement,” he reveals. Read the full story here!

Not only that, but we also have some incredible insights from procurement leaders at Heijmans, Datadog, HICX, DPW, ProcureCon Asia and SourcingHaus Research! Plus, the very best procurement events of 2023.

Enjoy the issue!

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

17 May 2023

Estimated Read time

1Min

We explore the transformation of sustainability in procurement & visions of a future where sustainability & procurement are fully integrated.

Dr Carsten Hansen, Founder of SourcingHaus Research and Consulting Group, explores the transformation of sustainability in procurement and envisions a future where sustainability and procurement are fully integrated and mainstreamed.

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

3 May 2023

Estimated Read time

2Mins

STADA graces the cover of CPOstrategy this month!

Our exclusive cover story this month features Alan Rankin, Chief Procurement Officer at STADA, who discusses his company’s journey to offering a best-in-class procurement function.

Few industries can say that statement with certainty. But for the pharmaceutical industry during the COVID-19 pandemic, finding a solution quickly was non-negotiable.  

Indeed, Alan Rankin, Chief Procurement Officer at STADA, acknowledges the role his sector played in helping to combat one of the biggest health crises of all time. He says the COVID-19 period made him “extremely proud” to be part of the industry. “The pharmaceutical industry worked hard to come up with a solution during a time when governments struggled to cope with what happened,” he recalls. “The industry had a real impact on the world being able to handle the situation and not going into financial meltdown. That alone makes me so proud to be in this space.” 

Read the latest issue here!

Today, STADA stands as a renowned manufacturer of high-quality pharmaceuticals. The firm operates with a three-pillar strategy consisting of consumer healthcare products, generics and specialty pharmaceuticals. Its consumer healthcare brands such as Hedrin, Nizoral, Grippostad and Zoflora are among the top sellers in their respective product categories…

Not only that but we also have fascinating discussions involving all the hot topics around the procurement function at the moment, with George Schutter, Former Chief Procurement Officer at the District of Columbia, Noemie Chetty, Director of Procurement of the Seychelles’ Public Utilities Corporation (PUC) and Trevor Tasker, CEO at EMCS Industries. Plus, Bob Booth Senior Partner, Finance & Supply Chain Transformation at IBM Consulting details how AI could affect the procurement function. “We are now witnessing a tipping point in the application of AI at real scale, and CPOs are wondering how this impacts them and their colleagues. This article aims to equip CPOs and their teams with some ideas to consider and some pointers on applying AI in a professional capacity to their company,” he reveals.

All this and lots, lots more!

Enjoy!

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

14 April 2023

Estimated Read time

6Mins

Jolyon Bennett, CEO of Juice, discusses how sustainability has moved to the forefront of his organisation’s operations

A green approach is quickly transitioning away something that is ‘nice to have’ to an essential component of a company’s strategy.

To Jolyon Bennett, who heads up UK tech accessories manufacturer Juice, being environmentally friendly is non-negotiable. Bennett has transformed the mobile phone accessories sector, having consistently introduced a series of quality, vibrant and consumer-focused products to market, ranging from portable power banks through to super-fast chargers.

He takes us under the bonnet of his firm’s sustainability drive.

You have recently removed all single-use plastic from your entire product range – why?

Jolyon Bennett (JB): “Why wouldn’t you? Single-use plastic is one of the biggest polluters in manufacturing – it uses 3% of the entire planet’s oil consumption. This year, it’s forecast that there will be 50kg of plastic waste for every single one of the eight billion human beings on planet earth – that’s a lot! Consumers, manufacturers and brand owners like myself all need to get on board with the fact that we’re going to need to use and re-use plastic packaging to make different things.

“Why have we done it? Because it’s totally the right thing to do. We need to stop making so much plastic and we need start reusing what we’ve already got. We need to stop cutting down trees in order to make paper and cardboard – let the trees grow and re-use what we’ve got. It just makes sense on a planetary level to stop consuming quite so much and start being just a bit more content with what we’ve got. Why do we need to make ‘new new new’ all the time?”

What have you used instead of virgin plastic?

JB: “We’re reusing, reusing, reusing. Did you know that recycled plastic – depending on its quality and density – can be recycled and re-used between seven and 200 times. Isn’t that unbelievable? It’s such an amazing material. Plastic is a vibe, and we should be re-using it. Juice is using post-consumer waste such as Evian bottles to make speakers, old milk cartons to make power banks and so much more!”

Why do you love plastic?

JB: “I just think we’ve got a lot of it so why not reuse it? I admire the material because it’s so durable – it’s an incredible scientific breakthrough to be able to make something that’s not only waterproof and heatproof but lasts for up to 3,000 years. There are so many different elements that make plastic a great material. I would prefer it if we didn’t have any, but that’s not going to solve the current (and ever-growing) problem of plastic waste finding its way into our oceans, and burying it isn’t the answer either. The problem is with us humans is that we just shy away from the truth – l don’t want to shy away, I want to face these problems head on and meet the challenge.”

Has Juice taken a financial hit to make this happen?

JB: “As an example, we sell around three million cables a year (based on last year’s figures) and each piece of packaging that we are making using post-consumer waste costs us between $0.15 and $0.25 more, so as a minimum, our increased cost for doing this is almost half a million dollars. But I still think it’s the right thing to do. Money is made up – the world could end and money would no longer matter, so let’s stop making decisions based purely on money and let’s start making decisions based on the right thing to do.”

How do you rate the overall quality of the ‘Eco’ products compared to the ones they have superseded?

JB: “There is absolutely no difference whatsoever, so I rate them just as highly.”

Do customers really want these eco products or is this more for your own conscience?

JB: “I don’t suffer from guilt so in that respect I don’t feel driven by my conscience to do this – doing the right thing has its own gravity and its own way of whisking you forward. Generally, I believe that people and businesses that do the right things will prosper. I’m a firm believer in the philosophy of ‘do the right thing and good things will happen’ so it’s a strategic choice to do something that has a positive impact because positive things attract positive things. While not every consumer or every retailer is especially interested in our sustainability drive, I do think this is shifting slightly. Maybe I do have a conscience, but the reality is that it’s the right thing to do, and the right thing gets rewarded in the end.”

Are retailers keen to stock them?

JB: “We haven’t given them a choice! We changed all of our products because we wanted to and we are adamant that even though the materials we are using are different, our products still perform just as well, if not better.”

Should other tech brands follow suit?

JB: “Of course they should, and we would happily help them do so. We’re willing to introduce other tech brands to our suppliers and guide them through the same process we’ve taken, sharing our knowledge – including the hurdles we’ve overcome – because it’s the right thing to do. I don’t understand why any brand would want to continue producing virgin plastic when they don’t have to, it just doesn’t make any sense to me.”

What advice would you give to other brands wanting to embark on this process of removing single-use plastic from their products?

JB: “Do it. Stop messing about – get on with it and do it. Although it may cost you a bit more in the short term, we’ve proven that consumers do generally buy more of your products if you are making the right decisions towards the environment, so you will reap this extra cost back whilst also doing the right thing.”

What is next for Juice?

JB: “I want Juice to be a brand that limits its impact. We’re currently doing this with our manufacturing and through our supply chain and the way that we conduct ourselves in general. I want to start releasing products that have a positive impact on humans as well as the planet – I’m a firm believer that everyone can win. There will always be a demand for technology, so I don’t believe that we should be fighting against it, however, I would very much like to see people taking their technology off grid.

“My dream is to be able to take every mobile phone on planet earth off grid and start generating our own personal electricity. I want to create products that link to your activity – imagine if you could run 5k and the kinetic activity could generate enough energy to a charge a device such as a phone or a laptop while you do it? I’m interested in organic solutions to current chemical problems such as organic battery cells using salt water and algae as a storage method of electricity – so much so that we’re currently in discussions with a photosynthesis harvesting electronics brand about using photosynthesis as a charging capability!

“I want to get more connected with nature and I think you can have it all – I think we can still enjoy modern technology as well as the beautiful world around us. If we can utilise our intelligence in the right way, we can all live in a perfectly harmonious symbiotic relationship with amazing technology products and a sustainable environment for all wildlife.”

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

5 April 2023

Estimated Read time

7Mins

Paul Farrow, Vice President of Hilton Hotels’ Supply Management, sits down with us to discuss how his organisation’s procurement function has evolved amid disruption on a global scale

The hospitality industry has endured a rough ride over the past few years.

Following the COVID-19 pandemic which stopped the world in its tracks and now with millions facing a cost-of-living crisis, it’s been a period of unprecedented disruption for those involved in the space and beyond.

But it’s a challenge met head-on by Paul Farrow, Vice President of Supply Management at Hilton Hotels, and his team who have been forced to respond as the world continues to shift before their eyes.

Farrow gives us a closer look into the inner workings of his firm’s procurement function and how he has led the charge during his time with Hilton Hotels.

Could we start with you introducing yourself and talking a little about your role at Hilton Hotels? 

Paul Farrow (PF): “I’m the Vice President of Hilton’s Supply Management, or HSM as we call it. I’ve been with Hilton Hotels for 12 and a half years, and my role is to head the supply chain function for our hotels across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

“Over the past few years, Hilton has grown rapidly and has now got 7,000 hotels in over 125 countries globally. What is really exciting is Hilton Supply Management doesn’t just supply Hilton Hotels and the Hilton Engine because we also now supply our franchisees and competitive flags. While we have 7,000 hotels globally, Hilton Supply Management actually supplies close to 13,000 hotels. That’s an interesting business development for us, and a profit earner too.”

You’re greatly experienced, I bet you’ve seen supply chain management and procurement change a lot in recent years? 

PF: “The past two to three years have been tremendously challenging on so many industries but I’d argue that hospitality got hit more than most as a result of the Covid pandemic. Here at Hilton, supply management was really important just to keep the business operational throughout that tough time, but I’m delighted to say we’re fully recovered now.

“Looking back, it was undoubtedly difficult, and you only have to look at the media to see that we’re now going through a period of truly unprecedented inflation. On top of the normal day job, it’s certainly been a very busy time.”

Hospitality must have been under an awful lot of pressure during the pandemic… 

PF: “Most of our teams as a business and all functions have worked together far more collaboratively than ever before through the use of technology and things like Microsoft Teams and Zoom. Trying to work remotely as effectively as possible changed the way we all had to think and the way we had to do. Now we’re back in the workplace and in our offices, we’re actually looking to take advantage of that new approach.”

Inflation, rising costs, energy shortages, as well as drives towards a circular economy means it’s quite a challenging time for CSCOs and CPOs right now, isn’t it?

PF: “Those headwinds have caused and created challenges of the like that we’ve not seen before. The war in Ukraine and Russia has meant significant supply chain disruption and supply shortages of some key ingredients and raw materials. China is a significant source of materials and they’re still having real challenges to get their production to keep up with demand.

“All the local and short-term challenges are around energy and fuel pricing, so throughout the supply chain that’s been a major factor to what we’ve had to deal with. On top of that is the labour shortages. We rely heavily throughout the supply chain and within our business to utilise labour from around the world. In my region, particularly from say Eastern Europe as well as other businesses all fighting for a smaller labour pool than we had before. We are fighting with the likes of the supermarkets, Amazon’s, not just other hotel companies to capture the labour pool we need both in our properties but also within our supply chain supplies themselves.

Hilton operates a rather unique procurement function, doesn’t it?  

PF: “We trade off the Hilton name because our brand strength is something that we are able to utilise and we’re very proud of, but we’ve also got additional leverage by having that group procurement model.

“We’ve got essentially two clients. We’ve got our managed estate which is when an owner chooses to partner with Hilton, they’re signing a management agreement because they want the benefit and value of the Hilton engine. That could be revenue management, how we manage onboarding clients and customers through advertising, as well as the other support we give in terms of finance, HR, marketing and sales as well as procurement.”

HSM is a profit centre and revenue driver through its group procurement model but how does this work?

PF: “Our secret sauce is our culture. It’s our people and that filters across all of our team members and indeed all of our functions. The key strategic pillars are the same for health and supply management around culture, maximising performance and so on as they are across the overall global business.

“Across our 7,000 plus hotels, the majority are actually franchised hotels because that’s the legacy of what still is the model in the US. When I joined Hilton 12 and a half years ago, the reverse is true where nearly all of our hotels in Europe, Middle East and Africa, and indeed in Asia Pacific, were and are managed. In the Europe, Middle East and Africa regions right now we’re building up close to a 50/50 split between managed, leased and franchised.”

What has pleased you most about the roll-out of the HSM?

PF: “It’s certainly not been easy because we’ve got 70 countries that sit within our region here in EMEA and Hilton’s penetration in those individual countries is very different. We may have 100 hotels in one of those markets and only one or two in specific countries. Our scale and our ability to get logistics solutions is different by market.

“Getting everyone on board to what we want to achieve to our guests and to our owners means we have to pull different levers. We have very effective brand standards. If you’re signing up to Hilton, you’re signing up to delivering against those brand standards that we believe are right for our organisation.”

What kind of feedback have you had from your clients? 

PF: “Integrity is in our DNA, and we work very closely with our suppliers who we value as partners. These are long-term relationships, and we work hand in hand because we have to see that they’re successful so that we can be successful – it’s really important to what we do and we constantly look for feedback.

“With our internal and our external customers, we’ll have quarterly business reviews and so we’ll get that feedback through surveys where we are asking them to tell us what we do well and what we could do better. Our partners are now asking what additional value can you do to bring support to our organisation through ESG? So that’s what’s on the table now when it wasn’t before. But it’s not just that – it’s about the security of supply competitiveness, competitiveness of pricing, and a whole bunch of other very important things as well.”

Looking to the future, what’s on the agenda for the next few years?

PF: “We’re out there meeting and greeting people in person and there’s always new opportunities that make things exciting in what we do and how we work. Innovation’s very high on our agenda and we’re very proud of what we do in food and beverage. In non-food categories, it’s about how we support our owners and our hotel general managers to find that competitive edge and do the next big thing ahead of our competitors.”

Anything else important to know?

PF: “One thing we’ve been able to take full advantage of is how we’ve been able to grow our business by bolting on new customers. I think it’s fantastic that our competitors choose to use Hilton Supply Management because they benchmarked what our capabilities are and how competitive we are.

“Another key part of the agenda is environmental, social and governance (ESG) sustainability. Responsible sourcing and everything that sits within that is front and centre of what we do. Within that you’ve got human rights, animal welfare, single use plastics as well as general responsible sourcing like managing food waste. The list is very long, but they’re all very important.”

Check out the latest issue of CPOstrategy Magazine here.

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

Estimated Read time

2Mins

CPOstrategy catches up with Sam de Frates, who has been leading procurement transformation at Mars, Incorporated, to discover how one of the world’s largest enterprises has put people at the heart of its plans…

Our exclusive cover story this month, sees us catching up with Sam de Frates, Vice President, Commercial – Europe, CIS & Turkey at Mars, Incorporated, and the leader of procurement transformation at the company, to discover how one of the world’s largest enterprises has put people at the heart of its plans…

Read the latest issue here!

CPOstrategy Magazine cover - Issue 39

Talk of technological change and digital transformations often excludes the most vital tools in delivering meaningful value within an enterprise: the people. Because new tools, processes and capabilities only truly maximise their value if they are shaped by the very people that require their services. The adoption of technology without the human touch can be an expensive opportunity missed.

An experienced procurement leader who has worked at some of the largest companies on earth, de Frates joins us for a chat from his London office to discuss how digital procurement at Mars has evolved under his guidance, whilst the company undergoes cross functional changes at scale – a hugely significant transformation with Mars Associates and its suppliers at its heart…

Elsewhere, we also we discuss the hottest topics within the procurement function, with Paul Howard, Chief Commercial Officer at New Zealand Defence Force and Manuele Burdese, Sr Director, Head of Business Insights & Analytics Strategic Sourcing & Procurement, Bristol Myers Squibb. Plus, we have some incredible insights from Efficio, Ivalua and Hilton Supply Management.

Enjoy the issue!

Andrew Woods

Author

Sean Galea-Pace

Published

29 March 2023

Estimated Read time

6Mins

Here are 10 of the most important leadership skills that CEOs need to demonstrate in 2023.

In today’s world, a CEO needs to be lots of things to different people. The importance of having the leadership skill to being able to lead through unprecedented disruption was highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic and helped to define what makes a good CEO.

Here are 10 of the most important leadership skills that CEOs need to demonstrate in 2023.

1. Clear communication

Communicating effectively with employees is one of the most vital skills any leader can have. By adopting a transparent mindset, it leaves little room for miscommunication or misunderstandings. But rather than just being eloquent, CEOs should deliver meaningful content too. A CEO needs to be able to communicate the essence of the business strategy and the methodology for achieving it.

2. Strong talent management strategy

People are the most important component of all businesses. CEOs who are able to recruit and retain key employees have a greater chance of increasing productivity and efficiency. After recruiting good people, the key to retaining them is by harnessing a positive work environment that empowers employees to succeed.

3. Decision-making

As a leader, thinking strategically to make effective decisions is vital to the success of an organisation. Making decisions is a key part of leadership as well as having the conviction to stand by decisions or agility to adapt when those decisions don’t have the required outcome. While all decisions might not be favourable, making unpopular but necessary calls are important characteristics of a good leader.

4. Negotiation

Negotiation is a fundamental part of being a CEO. In a top leadership position, almost every business conversation will be a negotiation. Good negotiations are important to an organisation because they will ultimately result in better relationships, both with staff inside the company and externally. An effective leader will also help find the best long-term solution by finding the right balance and offering value where both parties feel like they ‘win’.

5. Creativity and innovation

Being quick-thinking and ready to explore new options are great skills of a CEO. Creative leadership can lead to finding innovative solutions in the face of challenging and changing situations. It means in the midst of disruption, of which it has been increasingly prevalent, leaders can still find answers for their teams. Creative CEOs are those who take risks and empower employees to drop outdated and overused practices to innovate and try new things that could lead to greater efficiency.

6. Agility

Without agility over the past few years, businesses would have failed. CEOs were forced to embrace remote working following the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic whether they liked it or not. Now, faced against a potential recession, these macroeconomic events are unavoidable and have to be managed carefully. Effective leaders will have their fingers on the pulse and ready to respond to changes.

7. Strategic forecasting

Creating a clear path forward is essential to achieving uninterrupted success. The ability to look into the future and identify trends and issues to then react to is vital. Good CEOs are able to plan strategically and make informed decisions to set goals and plan for the future easily.

8. Delegation

CEOs can’t do everything. A leader tends to be pulled in a number of different ways every day and it is impossible to be on top of everything. This means the importance of bringing in a team of people who are trusted and skilled in their respective areas of expertise. Successful CEOs are expert delegators because they recognise the value of teamwork and elevating those around them.

9. Approachability

An approachable CEO who welcomes conversation and is an active listener will help employees feel at ease raising issues or concerns. This approach will help build strong relationships with staff and customers and encourage a healthy culture which is beneficial to employee retention. Leaders with strong, trusting and authentic relationships with their teams know that investing time in building these bonds which makes them more effective as a leader and creates a foundation for success.

10. Growth mindset

If a CEO arms themselves with a growth mindset it allows them to meet challenges head-on and evolve. This shines a light on improving through effort, learning and persistence. As others may back down in the face of adversity and upheaval, successful CEOs will strive to move forward with confidence. Those with a growth mindset are unlikely to be swayed as they have the tools needed to reframe challenges as opportunities to grow.

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

26 January 2023

Estimated Read time

7Mins

Sara Malconian, Chief Procurement Officer at Harvard University & Jim Bureau, CEO of JAGGAER explain how ESG & the Circular Economy is changing the evolution of procurement.

We speak to Sara Malconian, Chief Procurement Officer at Harvard University and Jim Bureau, CEO of JAGGAER to see how ESG and the Circular Economy is changing the evolution of procurement…

Sara, how have you seen your role evolve as a procurement leader over the years as ESG and supplier diversity come into focus? 

Procurement leaders have gone from ‘cost cutters’ to ‘problem solvers’ within their organisations. Our core mandates used to be to drive cost savings and efficiency. We were hyper-focused on getting the most out of the organisation’s spend and supplier relationships. Those priorities haven’t gone away, especially in today’s inflationary environment, but the expectations of the procurement function are significantly higher and broader today. 

Procurement functions saved their companies during COVID and the confluence of disruptions that followed. We showed we are a strategic linchpin. We are now looked upon to drive value and impact and strategically guide our organisations to achieve broader goals, including diversity and environmental, social, governance (ESG). Internal stakeholders realised the benefits of procurement and sought help with advancing their department’s agendas or solving their challenges. We listen to their needs, allocate the right resources, and ultimately enable them and the overall organisation to be successful.  

I’ve been in procurement for over 20 years, and I can honestly say you’d be hard-pressed to find a more rewarding and exciting career. Procurement professionals have a real opportunity to make a tangible difference within their organisations, communities, and the world through the way we source products and services. 

What is Harvard doing to have a positive impact on society? Can you share some examples, Sara?

Across the Harvard community, students, alumni, faculty, and staff are advancing scholarship and teaching on the world’s most significant challenges, and everyone wants to do their part to address inequities. Supplier diversity and inclusion have been a priority for Harvard for years, but we wanted to make even more of an impact and really invest in the growth and development of diverse businesses, especially as the pandemic highlighted inequities and disparities within our communities.

In 2021, we formed the Office for Economic Inclusion & Diversity (OEID), which is dedicated to reaching out to diverse suppliers, giving them opportunities, and providing them with tools, training, and resources to be successful. The office also encourages the use of underrepresented business enterprises (UBEs) in the purchasing of all goods, services, and construction at Harvard and standardises procurement practices with these businesses across the university. 

We’re proud of the work this office is doing. We’re actively training suppliers on Harvard’s policies and how they can work with us. We’re creating a central location for them to access bid and RFP opportunities. UBEs can also apply to be mentored by Harvard Business School students.

We’ve created a dashboard to track and analyse spend with diverse suppliers across all of Harvard’s schools and measure progress over time. Everything we’re doing is aimed at increasing spend with our existing diverse suppliers, as well as the number of diverse suppliers that work with Harvard, and helping these suppliers grow their businesses.

Jim, why is prioritizing ESG and supplier diversity important and what steps can companies take today to progress in their journey? 

Beyond being the right thing to do, investors, boards, regulators, customers, and employees now expect organisations to prioritise ESG and diversity initiatives and walk the talk. There’s also a clear business impact. Supplier diversity drives competitive bidding processes that lead to cost savings. Working with partners who are sustainable and have different ideas and perspectives fuels innovation and creates a competitive advantage. Sourcing from a sustainable and diverse supplier pool also reduces risk by broadening organisations’ access to multiple resources for various materials, products, and services. 

One of the most critical steps companies can take to progress on their ESG journey is to make it clear to suppliers that environmentalism is a priority for their organisation. They will attract suppliers with higher levels of ESG maturity and provide suppliers who are earlier on in their ESG journey with sustainability toolkits and training to help educate them on eco-friendly best practices and sustainability innovations.

This step avoids having to overhaul their supply chain to account for ESG. Strategically managing suppliers by leveraging third-party data, scorecards, and supplier audits are crucial for understanding the ESG risks that suppliers pose and minimizing disruptions by working with them to correct these issues. 

Successful supplier diversity programs start with a top-down culture shift. If a company’s culture isn’t diverse, inclusive, and supportive for all its stakeholders, they won’t be able to drive supplier diversity in a meaningful way. Supplier diversity strategy should map back to company goals and include an executive-level champion to sponsor the program internally and help bring in the resources they need.

Outside of leveraging technology to identify diverse suppliers and build a program, businesses can talk with people who have been in their shoes. They can collaborate with like-minded companies at industry events, engage in relevant LinkedIn groups, and connect with organisations such as the National Minority Supplier Development Council.

Once diverse suppliers are on board, organisations can create a supplier diversity policy that clearly outlines how many diverse suppliers need to be invited to bid for each event to ensure teams are executing on the strategy. Leading supplier diversity programs go beyond simply spending with diverse suppliers to providing mentorship and training them on how to respond to RFPs correctly, as well as creating environments where it’s easier for them to engage. 

Jim, what role does technology play in helping organisations achieve ESG and supplier diversity goals?

Technology is a key enabler of ESG and supplier diversity initiatives. One of the biggest obstacles to supplier diversity and ESG is a lack of reliable supplier data. Suppliers don’t always keep their information up to date in self-service portals. The data procurement teams have isn’t always enriched to the level they need, with insights on diversity status, certifications, and proof of ESG compliance.

Researching and assessing suppliers is tedious and time-consuming, which leads many organisations to skip the verification step. Without this information, organisations don’t have a true picture of the inclusivity and sustainability of their supplier network, which makes it impossible to identify the right partners to source from to meet their ESG and supplier diversity goals and make an impact.

Technology addresses this challenge by automatically collecting, enriching, validating, and integrating the supplier data needed to obtain this level of supply base visibility and make decisions that drive ESG and diversity. AI-powered tools are available to match buyers with specific diverse suppliers who also have the capabilities to help drive ESG objectives and meet broader procurement criteria.

Software that segments the supply base and helps visualise spending with small and diverse suppliers across a variety of classifications is critical for setting benchmarks and measuring progress and ROI. 

Jim and Sara, how do you expect the ESG and diversity conversation to shift and where should procurement leaders focus for the future?

Sara: I expect we’ll see the conversation shift to emphasise measurement. It’s not enough anymore to say you’re committed to ESG – you need to prove it and show demonstrable progress and ROI. Maintaining the momentum on ESG initiatives is hard. Technology is key for setting benchmarks and goals, ensuring accountability for hitting key milestones, and measuring progress and return in a credible way. 

Jim: In a declining economic environment, choices inevitably need to be made. I expect the conversation around ESG will center around where companies can focus to maintain progress on ESG initiatives as financial and economic pressures come to the forefront. While some companies may need to scale back in some areas to preserve cash and resources to navigate a downturn, I’d advise them to be careful about slowing ESG down too much as it will be much harder to catch up to current levels after the economy bounces back.

I’d argue that when ESG is done right it can be a strategic lever for navigating a down economy, saving organizations money and resources, driving innovation, and helping them achieve broader business objectives and resilience. 

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

25 January 2023

Estimated Read time

2Mins

Our exclusive cover story this month features Sangram Bhosale, CPO at Xcel Energy.

Our exclusive cover story this month features Sangram Bhosale, Vice President and Chief Supply Chain Officer at Xcel Energy. Sangram Bhosale is a highly experienced CPO with an impressive track record of delivering procurement excellence within the energy sector for some of its biggest names.

When the former TransAlta and Husky Energy CPO joined Xcel Energy as Vice President and Chief Supply Chain Officer (CSCO) in 2020, he wasted no time devising a procurement transformation plan to advance the function to the top quartile. One that would capacitate the rest of the organization to meet and overcome the many technical and tactical challenges to meet current and future needs.

Read the latest issue now!

What attracted Bhosale to Xcel Energy was its visionary leadership team and an opportunity to catalyze the profound shift in how energy is generated and consumed.

“One of the things that I love, and a big part of why I joined Xcel Energy, is that we are a purpose-driven organization with a bold vision of being an industry leader in clean energy. The fast-evolving and innovation-driven utility industry also attracted me,” he tells us from his Denver office.

“Today, utilities are no longer the stodgy beast of yesteryears where not much had changed for decades. New technology is being explored and adopted, with billions invested in grid expansion and strengthening to meet reliable, cleaner, and increased energy demand. To be at the forefront of and lead that clean energy transition aligns closely with my values and beliefs and makes my role at Xcel Energy very exciting.”

Elsewhere, we also feature exclusive interviews with Vice President of Procurement, Anna Barej, and Director, Procurement Center of Excellence, Shawn Calabrase from Best Buy, Alessandro Gaiati, CPO at Fedrigoni, Norian Wasch, Director Procurement at EuroFiber, David Latten, Head of Global Indirect Procurement at Logitech, as well as Heath Nunnemacher, VP Global Electronics Sourcing, TTI and Mark Brady, Global Supply Chain Director at McPherson’s. It’s a bumper issue!

Enjoy!

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

20 January 2023

Estimated Read time

2Mins

The second issue of SupplyChain Strategy is live! Features exclusive articles on TTI and McPherson’s

SupplyChain Strategy Issue 2 cover

Our exclusive cover story this month sees us speaking to Heath Nunnemacher, VP of Global Electronics Sourcing at TTI, who details the streamlining of its procurement function into a more efficient and effective value-unlocking enabler of business.

Read the issue here!

Techtronic Industries (TTI) is among the world’s largest manufacturers of mostly cordless power tools, outdoor power equipment, and floorcare products for both professional users and do-it-yourself (DIY) consumers.

TTI’s growth has been extraordinary – 13 years of consecutive double-digit gross margin improvement, in fact. In 2021 the company set a new revenue growth record just shy of 35%, more than twice that of its closest global competitor.

A significant driver of that growth is a strategic focus on disrupting industries through leadership in cordless technology. To do so, it requires advanced electronics and collaboration with the most innovative and biggest players in the industry. But with the chip shortage crisis looming on the horizon in late 2020, the organisation found itself challenged by a severe lack of visibility in the electronics procurement function. Enter Heath Nunnemacher, the man charged with transforming electronics procurement for the overall betterment of the business. 

Not only that, but we also have a fascinating discussion with McPherson’s Supply Chain Director Mark Brady. The health, wellness, and beauty giant McPherson’s has a rich history of agile procurement through resilience and collaboration and Brady reveals its secret sauce. 

Plus, we detail the important supply chain trends to look out for in 2023 as well as five top supply chain events coming up!

Enjoy!

Andrew Woods

Editorial Director

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

16 December 2022

Estimated Read time

2Mins

The latest issue of CPOstrategy is LIVE!

This month’s cover story is an exclusive and compelling insight into the procurement strategy at Vodafone New Zealand.

This month’s cover story is an exclusive and compelling insight into the procurement strategy at Vodafone New Zealand.

“For me, the future of procurement is two things: digital and sustainability,” says Rajat Sarna, Chief Procurement Officer and these two themes are the thread that runs through everything he’s put into place since he took over the reins of the procurement function at Vodafone New Zealand in October 2020.

The role was a huge one to take on, too – the telco employs 2,000 people, serves 2.4m customers and is a $2bn revenue company. The scale of its operations is huge with customers consuming over 3 billion minutes, 4,500 terabytes of mobile data and 55,000 terabytes of fixed line data every month.  A key part of his mandate was to transform procurement into a market-leading operating partner to the business that would “ultimately improve the value that we deliver to our customers”.

Read the latest issue here!

Sarna went back to basics initially, thinking about what the future capability of Vodafone New Zealand would look like, and what its procurement operation needed to be to support this. He says: “It was very critical for me to have a purpose and it cannot just be better savings or improved cost position. That’s not purpose; purpose is: what are we doing in terms of how we align with the future of procurement?”

Elsewhere, we have exclusive interviews with procurement strategists Lawrence Kane, a SIG Sourcing Supernova Hall of Fame member and Nirav Patel, CEO of Bristlecone. Plus, a ProcureTech exclusive and a guide to the best procurement events over the next 12 months and much, much more.

Enjoy!

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

11 November 2022

Estimated Read time

2Mins

CPOstrategy speaks exclusively to Kathy Golding, Procurement & Supplier Ecosystem Services Leader at EY Global Services Limited, to see how a range of transformative initiatives have evolved the functions at the Big Four organization.

CPOstrategy speaks exclusively to Kathy Golding, Procurement & Supplier Ecosystem Services Leader at EY Global Services Limited.

This month’s cover story sees us speaking exclusively to Kathy Golding, Procurement & Supplier Ecosystem Services Leader at EY Global Services Limited, to see how a range of transformative initiatives have evolved the functions at the Big Four organisation, in a bid to benefit its operational excellence, its people experience, and the wider global community.

Read the latest issue here!

The global EY organization has over 350,000 employees across many countries, providing consultancy, assurance, tax and transactional services that “help solve EY clients’ toughest challenges and build a better working world for all.”

Kathy Golding is the Procurement & Supplier Ecosystem Services Leader at EY Global Services Limited and has been with the company for over 10 years, having spent her entire EY career in Supply Chain Services. Working under the guidance and leadership of Larry Phelan, Chief Supply Chain Officer at EY Global Services Limited and recognized by Procurement Magazine at no. 7 in the Top 100 Leaders in Procurement 2022, Golding helps manage the procurement and supplier relationship management of the Talent, Technology, and Brand, Marketing & Communications (BMC) categories across EY Global, with approximately US$5 billion annual spend. Golding is a highly experienced force at EY, and we were delighted to meet her at the company’s Canary Wharf office to discuss how procurement is evolving at one of the biggest enterprises on earth.

Kathy Golding, Procurement & Supplier Ecosystem Services Leader at EY Global Services Limited
Kathy Golding, Procurement & Supplier Ecosystem Services Leader at EY Global Services Limited

Not only that, but we also catch up with Vodafone NZ’s Rajat Sarna to see how procurement is being transformed at the telco through a start-up mentality.

And… there’s lots, lots more…

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

21 October 2022

Estimated Read time

1Min

How can businesses cope with persistent, global supply chain issues and what are the concerns looming on the horizon?

The Digital Insight speaks to Nirav Patel, CEO of Bristlecone (a supply chain company of the $19bn Mahindra group), who discusses how businesses can cope with persistent, global supply chain issues – and outlines the concerns looming on the horizon.

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

14 October 2022

Estimated Read time

2Mins

The latest edition of CPOstrategy is live, featuring exclusive articles on Coupa, Just Eat Takeaways, Friesland Campina, DPW and ProcureTech

This month’s exclusive cover story centres around the Coupa App Marketplace, the digital ecosystem transforming procurement functions the world over.

We speak to Nigel Pegg, Vice President and General Manager of the Coupa App Marketplace and CoupaLink to find out more about the roll-out one year on.

Read the latest issue now!

The evolution of procurement into a true strategic business enabler is fuelled by technological advances. The ability to dig deep into data with true visibility into an enterprise’s entire spend and supplier network has been provided through ever-evolving platforms, such as Coupa’s highly successful Business Spend Management (BSM) platform. In BSM, Coupa has created a digital ecosystem that brings suppliers, vendors, and partners together in the same room with a single ‘source of truth’. 

 
Elsewhere, we discuss how strategic procurement is the way forward at a rapidly growing enterprise, with John Butcher, Group Procurement Director Just Eat Takeaway.com. Plus, we grill Maximillian Tan, Director Business Procurement Asia at FrieslandCampina, one of the largest dairy companies in the world with a cooperative tradition going back 150 years, on how he is unlocking value at the enterprise.

We also have features on DPW and its NEXT100, the CIPS Awards 2022 and revisit the winners of ProcureTech100 2021.

Enjoy the issue!

Andrew Woods

Editorial Director

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

12 September 2022

Estimated Read time

2Mins

Read in brochure format

CPOstrategy’s cover star this month is procurement transformation expert, and CEO and Co-Founder of Tropic, David Campbell…

Right now, procurement excellence is blooming. Experts determined to create change are coming to the fore and aligning procurement with SaaS to bring an end to the do-it-yourself way of working that decimates technology budgets. Tropic is one such game-changer, providing the tools to navigate software procurement’s complexities for competitive advantage.

Read the latest issue here!

The CEO and Co-Founder of Tropic is David Campbell, a born entrepreneur. He grew up on a cattle ranch in California and has always had at least one side-hustle on the go. Even as a child, he was running some form of money-making venture at any one time – but he didn’t necessarily consider that entrepreneurial pursuits were his calling until later.

CEO and Co-Founder of Tropic, David Campbell
CEO and Co-Founder of Tropic, David Campbell

Campbell studied English at UC Berkeley, and on graduating assumed he’d go into the arts. He’s a lifelong musician and writer, and he moved to a cabin in the woods to write the ‘next great American novel’. This venture, while it didn’t have the exact results he had hoped for, planted the seed in his mind that perhaps entrepreneurialism was for him because he loved setting his own hours and vision, creating a strategy, and executing that…

Elsewhere, we have exclusive interviews with supply chain and procurement leaders at the City of Edmonton and QSC, as well as the results of our first Sustainable Procurement Champions Index. We also have some exciting news from DPW too, ahead of its conference later this month.

Enjoy the issue!

Author

Dan Brightmore

Published

16 August 2022

Estimated Read time

3Mins

Read in brochure format

Our cover story this month reveals how Sarita Singh, Regional Head & Managing Director for Stripe in Southeast Asia, and her team are driving financial inclusion across the region and supporting SMEs with end-to-end services putting users first

This month’s cover story reveals how Stripe’s payments platform is driving financial inclusion across Asia.

Welcome to the latest issue of Interface magazine!

Opportunities for innovation and growth via the adoption of new technologies are everywhere. However, organisations are faced with a bewildering array of choices to help them transform and choosing the best option to drive positive disruption is a tough call. We take a look at some of these fascinating journeys…

Read the latest issue here!

Stripe: increasing the GDP of the internet

Sarita Singh, Regional Head & Managing Director for Southeast Asia, Stripe
Sarita Singh, Regional Head & Managing Director for Southeast Asia, Stripe

This month’s cover story explores the genesis of fast-growing payments platform Stripe. Sarita Singh, Regional Head & Managing Director for Southeast Asia, leads a team driving financial inclusion across the region, supporting SMEs with end-to-end services putting users first.

“We’re building products and the financial infrastructure to help our users go cross-border, beyond their domestic boundaries, to widen their markets and drive efficiencies within their financial services infrastructure. With Stripe under the hood, businesses  are able to focus on what they do best without wasting time researching, purchasing, integrating, and maintaining dozens of payment technology point solutions because Stripe is a platform that offers all of them, and is already integrated.”

IAG: tech procurement linked to purpose

We speak with IAG’s CPO & VMO Claire Ledder, who reveals the transformative approach to technology procurement being deployed by an Australian market leader home to several leading insurance brands. “We’re now able to tackle sourcing and contracting with an end-to-end approach capable of measuring the value delivered.”

IAG’s CPO & VMO Claire Ledder
Portrait Photography

U.S. Department of State: facilitating diplomacy with tech

Todd Cheng Director of IT Customer Service at the U.S. Department of State, talks about the ever-evolving relationship between technology and diplomacy. “We’ve been through the process of updating the IT model at State to a new, more customer centric version of the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL).” By his calculations, these changes have benefited the organisation by reducing network disruption by some 400,000 hours of diplomacy every month.

Afni

Afni’s CISO Brent Deterding explains how breaking down the traditional and perceived barriers between security and the boardroom can transparently position cyber effectiveness as a critical enabler of improved business outcomes.

Afni’s CISO Brent Deterding
Afni’s CISO Brent Deterding

Also in this issue, we hear from Zoom on the future of work and report again from London Tech Week where an expert panel gave advice for businesses on anticipating and preparing for cyber risk against a backdrop of geopolitical uncertainty.

Enjoy the issue!

Dan Brightmore, Editor

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

29 June 2022

Estimated Read time

2Mins

There is an urgent need for the digitalisation of the procurement function, according to a new report from leading smart sourcing solutions organisation Globality

There is an urgent need for the digitalisation of the procurement function, according to a new report from ProcureTech and leading smart sourcing solutions organisation Globality.

The report, which can be read in full here, states that 9/10 of global procurement leaders are committed to the urgent transformation of their operations and processes to become more resilient, agile and future-proofed in these uncertain and volatile times.

The report, which surveyed 170 global procurement leaders, claims that innovative and emerging technologies are being harnessed in order to better arm CPOs as they face global inflation, COVID-19 and geo-political crises such as the war in Ukraine.

Those surveyed also cited the growing need to fully digitalise operating processes in order to improve efficiency and boost cost reduction, while enhancing agility, resilience and value. 90% expected operational transformations within the next three years.

The report covers:

  • Digitalisation drivers
  • Future procurement operating models
  • Digital work in the future
  • Procurement process digitalisation
  • Digital supplier management
  • Challenges to progress
  • Value of digital adoption
  • Change manifesto

“Everyone recognises this shift, 99% of companies plan to make changes to their operating model over the next three years,” says the Globality report. “In 2020 and 2021, change has been thrust upon us all. In 2022 and beyond companies are owning the shift. In our research, we have seen the procurement leaders outperform their peers through a focus on resilience and cost in the short term. However, to maintain this competitive advantage in the long term, they need to adopt a new digital-led operating model.”

That said, 81% cited a lack of organisational support with regards to digitalisation, indicating a need for further engagement at some enterprises. 68% say that digitalisation will continue to increase business self-service, while 50% of organisations aim to move to a business procurement-centric organisation, acting as advisors and business partners versus executing transactional processes.

Content Credits: Globality & ProcureTech

Designed By: CPOstrategy

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

23 June 2022

Estimated Read time

1Min

EyeCare Partners works in partnership with clinicians and healthcare leaders to achieve the best patient and business outcomes and this…

EyeCare Partners works in partnership with clinicians and healthcare leaders to achieve the best patient and business outcomes and this has had dramatic results, such as a 1,500% revenue growth since 2015.

EyeCare Partners is growing through acquisitions, by providing strategic capital and operational support to its network of partner practices in 680 locations across 18 states. In February 2020, this growth was boosted when Swiss private equity firm Partners Group acquired a controlling stake in EyeCare Partners. “They’re a very interesting group,” he says. “They’re very heavy on investment, plus they have a very, very impenetrable and robust sustainability platform too, which is very near and dear to my heart through my time at Unilever,” This level of growth is fuelled significantly by increasing demand for eye care over the longer term, driven by an ageing US population and an increased incidence rate of eye diseases. But this level of growth requires an agile and resilient operational enterprise.

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

11 April 2022

Estimated Read time

2Mins

Read in brochure format

Our cover story reveals a massive procurement transformation programme at Zendesk

Procurement transformation is the hot topic this month as we speak to Rendi Miller, VP of Strategic Sourcing and Procurement at Zendesk. Miller is a procurement evangelist and transformational leader who is clearly energised as she delivers meaningful change to the function at Zendesk.

“What I’ve always enjoyed about procurement is the visibility into what the entire company is buying, from Marketing creative services to IT and Engineering technology to office furniture and everything in between.”

“Procurement has insight to trends before they become mainstream that gives us the ability to research new partners, technologies and solutions to start addressing the needs of the business early on. Being in procurement offers an awareness to nearly every aspect of the company.”

Read the latest issue here!

According to Miller, trust is absolutely critical to success because without that, “there is no reliability, there’s no confidence and there’s no relationship”, says Miller. “That’s something I emphasise with my team. Trust must be earned, but trust is also given. I empower them to be the leaders that I’ve hired them to be…”

Elsewhere, we sit down with Procurement Excellence Lead at Antofagasta Minerals, Christophe Le Flech, to discuss the state of procurement in the South America mining industry, and the work he’s doing to make a difference. We also talk to Convex Insurance’s Head of Procurement & Tactical Change, Vivek Pai… and discuss diversity in the workplace with Silvia Simon, LATAM Procurement Senior Manager at Mercedes-Benz Brazil. Plus, we look at 10 ways to optimise your digital procurement scouting approach with ProcureTech.

Enjoy the issue!

Andrew Woods

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

21 February 2022

Estimated Read time

1Min

Bringing a wealth of experience to the table, Kuvesh Ayer, CPO for the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority discusses procurement transformation and being prepared for anything…

Bringing a wealth of experience to the table, Kuvesh Ayer, CPO for the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority discusses procurement transformation and being prepared for anything…

Tell us about yourself and your current role…
I’m currently the chief procurement officer for the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). The MTA embarked on a huge transformation effort across all its operating divisions to transform the organization into a more efficient, effective one.

I got a call one day asking if I’d be interested in this position and I decided, “Okay, it sounds interesting and very challenging,” and decided to throw my hat in a ring. Lo and behold, it’s two years down the line – it’s gone like a flash. Overall, my responsibilities include managing the MTAs procurement and sourcing operations, which also include the logistics, warehousing, and distribution aspects...”

Author

Nell Walker

Published

8 February 2022

Estimated Read time

6Mins

What is excellence in procurement – and how we can encourage it? We chat to Olivia Brown, a Managing Consultant…

Olivia Brown, a Managing Consultant with Rowe Advisory UK.

What is excellence in procurement – and how we can encourage it? We chat to Olivia Brown, a Managing Consultant with Rowe Advisory UK…

Tell us a bit about yourself.

I spent the first 16 years of my career as an employee with oil and gas operators, both here in the UK and internationally, so I have a solid foundation in working in contracts and procurements. Later in my career, I became focused more on general management roles. Those roles combined led me to understand what good business looks like, and the things to avoid – not just within the function, but more broadly within the wider business context. I started working as a consultant with Rowe Advisory in 2017, initially working in support of clients in overseas, in Australia.

Give us some background on Rowe Advisory.

Rowe Advisory was established in 2013 by a very inspirational lady called Jody Rowe. I started to get involved with some of the Australian clients in 2017, working remotely from here in the UK to support them in redefining, updating, reviewing their procedures and their processes.

Typically, what we find is that a client will have a particular requirement for an area of concern, so we will go in and start to address that and help support them. From there, we often get involved in other areas for improvement as a consequence. 

In 2020, Rowe Advisory set up a branch here in the UK. It was difficult timing because we were launching it during lockdown. We had the challenge of the pandemic which was also compounded by the oil price crash. However, it was a real opportunity for us to reestablish some individuals within our network and reconnect with previous colleagues to tell them who we are and what we do, and make them aware of how we can help as in when the need arises.

What does ‘procurement excellence’ mean to you?

For us, it’s about aligning the strategy and the delivery of third-party spend with the needs of the business. It’s really connecting the department’s activity with the business priorities. To best achieve that, we see a focus on the overall procurement operating model. As previously mentioned, often there are areas of concern already which CPOs recognise can improve.

Generally, when we get involved with a new client, we will review the whole operating model to be more holistic in the review and understand how joined-up the department can be in providing that functional excellence back to the business. It’s really about the department adding value back to the business and establishing credibility through delivery of value to the business. 

We’ll look at the people, the process, the systems, and the tools to really focus on how the department can manage risk, provide clear strategic planning, align with the business objectives, be innovative, be creative, and also collaborative internally and externally. 

We’re working to elevate the role of the procurement department. It has the potential to provide significant benefits to the business, and they extend far beyond the P&L impact. The events of the last 18 months have really proven the importance of procurement departments and non-financial performance incentives; those non-financial performance metrics have become more integral to the priorities for procurement. That being said, we recognise the need to get the basics right first so it’s about having clarity on rules and responsibilities, both within the department and the business. 

What have you seen by way of sector differences or trends?

The most interesting thing for me, having come from a strong background in oil and gas, is that a lot of the areas of focus that I’ve talked about – specifically identifying areas of improvement and what functional excellence can look like – are very much sector agnostic. The tactical interventions do vary depending on each client, so the areas of focus will always vary – but that’s true within any sector. We’ve seen that transcend into others. The fundamentals of what good looks like in procurement are, we’ve observed, sector agnostic. 

That’s been very interesting. It’s allowed us to provide diversity of thought into new sectors. If you think about demand planning and category management, we’ve seen with some clients where it works very well, and we’ve been able to translate that knowledge and experience in working with them in embedding that, sustaining it, and building on it. We’ve been able to translate that into other sectors that are less familiar with the concepts of category management and category planning, and the importance of that in the upfront strategic planning where real value can be set for procurement.

One thing we do find in some sectors more than others is that the procurement department is seen as a transactional function, and there is absolutely a strong requirement for there to be good transacting within any procurement team. But in the context of functional excellence, what we try to do is to explain the value that can be delivered through moving beyond that phase of the department into the strategic, and doing that in an appropriately segmented way so that it is differentiated based on value and risk – and other relevant factors – but ensures that both the department and the business are focused on those contracts that are key to the delivery of the business.

How do you support your clients by driving change within their procurement departments?

We work on ensuring that the focus is in the right place to deliver value, getting the transacting right and then also, of course, post-award. The contract is then executed, and it’s not about necessarily just putting it on the shelf and leaving the business to manage it. Certainly, for a number of contracts, it’s about managing those contracts for delivery and being clear on the role that the procurement department plays in that process. A further development on that is, again, how many of those need to be strategically managed? How do you strategically manage the relationship with key suppliers to, again, further leverage the value through innovation, being creative, and working together to further enhance the value that can be achieved?

The case for change is important because people’s response will be, “What’s in it for me? We’ve done it like this for years and it’s been fine, so help me understand.” And you need to kind of take people on that journey of change. Clarity on single-point decision making, understanding that when a decision is taken, that’s not the start of a conversation on the matter – it clarifies the need to move on. 

Tell us about your sister company, Promitheia Procurement.

Promitheia Procurement was established 2020. It is an online platform for procurement templates and also advisory services. It’s a web-based system so anyone can go on and buy, and download the whole series of procurement templates across the whole life cycle. It ranges from demand planning, strategy setting to people and competencies, and skills matrices, development planning, and performance management, through the procurement life cycle itself, through the transacting, into post-award, and supplier relationship management. So, they’re documents which can become available to companies at the click of a button, which is fantastic. It allows us to diversify further into new sectors who may otherwise not be able to come to us for the full suite of consultancy services. 

What do you enjoy most about your work? 

We have that real passion for procurement and want to really be ambassadors for what good can look like – and we want the clients to feel that as well. It can never really be implemented and sustained based on a consultant coming in and telling you how to do it. It’s very much about working alongside the client in their particular environment to understand how best to do that.

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

7 February 2022

Estimated Read time

2Mins

Read in brochure format

Procurement transformation is at the heart of our chat with Tod Cooper, Director Procurement at the Department of Corrections in New Zealand

This month’s exclusive cover story features Tod Cooper, Director Procurement at the Department of Corrections in New Zealand, who reveals all regarding the strategic restructure of the procurement function.

Read the latest issue here!

Procurement transformation is at the heart of our chat with Tod Cooper, Director Procurement at the Department of Corrections in New Zealand
Procurement transformation is at the heart of our chat with Tod Cooper, Director Procurement at the Department of Corrections in New Zealand

Most of us like to think that if we were presented with the chance to do something positive and societally significant for our country and its indigenous people, in particular, we would.

And that’s exactly the opportunity Tod Cooper, Director Procurement at the Department of Corrections in New Zealand, has grasped with both hands, with the department’s dedication to supporting Māori. 

Business transformation through leadership has been a major part of Cooper’s working life, preparing him for the challenges he’s faced at the Department of Corrections.

“It’s a big personal passion for me,” he says. “I’m not a guy who likes to sit still. Continuous improvement is a big thing. I’m always asking myself how we can make things better, looking at new ways of re-engineering, and getting good people around me who can enact my vision of things.

I’m a typical extrovert who’s easily distracted by the next thing, so it’s really important to have a good leadership team around me that understands the vision and can pull me back in.”

Elsewhere, we also speak with Dean Bennett, VP of Procurement, and Mike Cowling, VP of Global IT at BeiGene, about the benefits of a strong collaboration between procurement and technology, and what makes the company so special. Plus, we have an exclusive ‘provenance in the supply chain piece’ from IBM’s Blockchain Leader, Winston Yong.

Enjoy the issue!

Andrew Woods, Editorial Director

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

11 January 2022

Estimated Read time

2Mins

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Welcome to the first CPOstrategy of 2022! We decided to kick off the new year in style with our best…

Welcome to the first CPOstrategy of 2022!

We decided to kick off the new year in style with our best issue yet!

Our exclusive cover story features a fascinating discussion with Sean Park, CPO of software organisation Splunk, talks us through transforming the procurement function from one that was deliberately immature, to the powerhouse of efficiency it’s now becoming.

Read the latest issue here!

When Splunk brought Park in to join the team, he knew it was time to make a change and get serious about the bottom line. The decision was made to put in place a more centralised procurement and sourcing function; Splunk was rapidly growing, and it didn’t want friction, but rather controls and guardrails in place to scale the company. It was very much a natural evolution for the business – a pattern Park has watched occur before. This put him in an ideal position to push the new vision forward.

“The first step was to undertake an assessment of the function,” he says. “What are our strategic objectives? How does that fit in with the corporate objectives, or those of the finance team? What are our processes and policies? How are we resourcing the organisational structure? How do we source? Do we want a category management structure or a business unit focus?”

Elsewhere, we have an incredible rollcall of equally fascinating articles on Atotech, Beeline, Delivery Hero, plus an engrossing selection of Procurement Leaders’ procurement transformation success stories. Plus, much, much more.

Enjoy the issue!

Andrew Woods, Editorial Director

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

30 September 2021

Estimated Read time

2Mins

A major recent step for Philips has been casting aside traditional indirect procurement and implementing a new-and-exciting approach under the umbrella of Spend Management. We take an exclusive look behind the scenes…

Our exclusive cover story this month takes an in-depth look inside the procurement function at Philips; the leading Netherlands-based health technology company, which is improving people’s health and well-being through meaningful innovation.

Read the latest issue here!

To achieve the company’s aim to improve 2.5 billion lives per year by 2030, Philips has been through a major transformation in the past decade. Besides overhauling the business, the functions – including indirect procurement – also needed to adapt.

A major recent step for Philips has been casting aside traditional indirect procurement and implementing a new-and-exciting approach under the umbrella of Spend Management. Alexander Visser is the Leader of Spend Management, and the architect of this change and he takes us through this incredible transformation…

Plus, we speak exclusively to CPO of Ooredoo Algeria, Saber Chrigui, who describes how he took the branch from struggling to a shining example for the entire group, through managing waste and costs, and dramatically repositioning procurement. We also catch up with Gudrun Gunnarsdottir, Procurement Manager at Vodafone Iceland, about how being based on a tiny island is no barrier to procurement excellence and keeping a finger on the pulse of technological advancement…

And another great exclusive this month, focuses on RHI Magnesita (RHIM); the global leader in refractories – its refractory products are used in all the world’s high-temperature industrial processes. The creation of RHI Magnesita (following the merger of RHI and Magnesita in 2017) saw the continuing transformation of procurement from a cost-saving function into a strategic business partner gather pace. We speak to RHI’s Michael Leitner, VP Procurement Europe & CIS & Turkey…

Enjoy the issue!

Andrew Woods

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

28 July 2021

Estimated Read time

5Mins

The Digital Insight team decided to find out more about procurement’s relationship with data, intelligence and its maturity…

Modern procurement has undergone so much change in recent years, it is finally achieving recognition as a true strategic business enabler. Empowered by data-driven insights and digitised systems and tools, procurement occupies a unique position at the heart of an enterprise’s operations, supply chains and growth.  How are leading companies creating sustainable digital capabilities and how do companies do this at scale?

The Digital Insight team decided to take a deeper dive into this fascinating area and assembled an incredible panel of digital procurement CEOs to find out more and share procurement’s relationship with data, intelligence (and its maturity), as well as the opportunities emerging from these insights and the technology that captures them too. You can watch the full video discussion here…

The panel covered…

Data in procurement

  • With more access to data in procurement than ever before, how does this differ from 5-10 years ago?
  • Where is this data coming from?
  • What does this mean for the role of procurement?

Evaluating and dealing with risk

  • Is there more risk in the supply chain now than ever before?
  • How has evaluating risk changed for better or for worse?
  • Are the risks becoming increasingly dynamic and changing?

Opportunities in procurement

  • With the capturing and understanding of data, is this now a unique opportunity for procurement, to act as an “intelligence hub” across multiple domains from risk to sustainability and cost to innovation?
  • How do we capitalise on this opportunity?
  • What role will ProcureTech vendors/players have in this?
  • How important is it for business to adopt a continuous approach with respect to the data that they gather on their vendors and how do they feed this data into their digital procurement platforms?

Joining The Digital Insight were…

Ilya Levtov (CEO Craft)

Craft serves large companies (Fortune 100, FTSE 100) and government entities with comprehensive insight and intelligence on their supply chains.

Success doesn’t happen overnight

“…the challenge and struggle that a lot of enterprises are finding themselves in is how to filter down and get to the right answers. The only thing we’ve seen reliably successful is to take a spirit of experimentation and curiosity and not to be hell bent on getting the answer or a positive ROI for the CPO next month, but to say, it’s going to take some back and forth. That’s the way we personally love to work with clients. We say: there’s a ton of stuff you know, there’s a ton of stuff we know, but we’ve got to work together and iterate with different data sets, different models, different risk models, in order to come to the right answers. It’s going to take some time, but we will make progress if you take a medium to long-term view. That’s when you’re going to get those answers and those models working… not overnight.” Ilya Levtov (CEO Craft)

Aleksandr Yampolskiy (CEO Security Scorecard)

Security Scorecard pioneered the way in which it collects all kinds of data points from all over the world and how it uses those data points to reduce them to a score representing the likelihood of a company to suffer a data breach. Security Scorecard is utilised by over 1,500 plus top enterprises all over the world to hold their suppliers and third-party vendors accountable, and to make insurance underwriting decisions.

Now is the time for procurement!

“Now is actually a great time to be in procurement. Procurement is being disrupted through the proliferation of new types of information and data that enable us to make better decisions. For the first time, it makes it possible for procurement to move from being a support function, to being a business enabler and a value creator at the forefront of the innovation. It’s a very exciting time to be in the procurement space today.” Aleksandr Yampolskiy (CEO Security Scorecard)

Cynthia Figge (CEO CSRHub)

CSRHub is a big data platform and one of the largest aggregators of structured ESG data, covering companies worldwide.

Risk in the supply chain

“…risk has gone up dramatically in the supply chain, at least from an ESG or sustainability perspective. Some of the data has been backward looking, in other words, if there is some great disruption or something bad happens, then there are news ripples and that is important. But now where I’m seeing companies shifting is they really want to know about a company’s performance across all these dimensions of environment, social and governance, so that there can be some sense of predictability and an ability to screen across actual performance issues in advance of some kind of a bad event. We’re seeing a demand for that data and that understanding of the suppliers in the value stream: are they really measuring up? Are there some risks there in terms of what we can see around performance and benchmarking?” Cynthia Figge (CEO CSRHub)

Lance Younger CEO of ProcureTech

ProcureTech are building the digital future of procurement. Solving the most pressing social, environmental and economic challenges requires new thinking and a new platform for procurement leaders, entrepreneurs and the digital procurement ecosystem.

ProcureTech is home to the ProcureTech100 – the definitive global 100 pioneering digital procurement solutions.

Together with ProcureTechSOURCE and ProcureTechEXPERTS, they will accelerate, smarter solution selection and digital procurement ecosystems that will empower procurement transformation.

The tipping point of procurement

“…We’re at a tipping point for procurement in terms of a transformation, which began at the start of this decade. Most procurement functions, if you were to assess them from a digitalisation or data perspective, will score three to four, maybe five (out of ten). You have one or two that are leading lights, but I think that procurement overall is struggling to keep up with the changes in data access and data proliferation and not because of the technology, but because of the people. We don’t have enough people with the right skills to be able to help procurement transform at the pace at which we need it to change.”

Author

Nell Walker

Published

16 July 2021

Estimated Read time

1Min

According to The News, Pakistan’s largest oil refinery – Byco – has signed an agreement to implement SAP Ariba DSN…

According to The News, Pakistan’s largest oil refinery – Byco – has signed an agreement to implement SAP Ariba DSN (Digital Supplier Network) and Sourcing Suite – the first in its nation.

Byco stated: “The initiative will automate the procurement process enabling a paperless process, significantly eliminating errors and unnecessary delays, as encountered in traditional procurement to the payment process.”

Fayaz Ahmad Khan, Vice President Commercial Byco Petroleum, added: “Byco has always been at the forefront of innovation and implementation of processes that are in line with global best practices.

“The deployment of SAP ARIBA DSN and Sourcing Suite will be another first by Byco as an industry leader in Pakistan.”

Fayaz Ahmad Khan, Vice President Commercial Byco Petroleum

He stated that, not only will this move improve efficiency in procurement, but also create better transparency and visibility across the business for all stakeholders.

Author

Dale Benton

Published

5 July 2021

Estimated Read time

2Mins

Welcome to another bumper issue of CPOstrategy magazine…

Our cover star this issue, Willem Mutsaerts, is both the CPO and CSO of Givaudan, a global industry leader creating game-changing innovation in food and beverages, and inspiring creations in the world of scent and beauty. The duality of his role is quite unique and makes for a fascinating discussion as to how procurement makes all the difference for Givaudan’s sustainable ambition. It’s a revealing insight…

Read the latest issue here!

Will also dive deep into Procurement Leaders’ latest report Procurement as a Growth Engine (partnered by Ivalua), which explores how procurement can bring new opportunities for growth, as forward-thinking business leaders become increasingly aware of the huge potential that exists in the upstream supply base.

Elsewhere, we move away from what procurement can do in the private sector to what it can do for the local communities of the world, specifically, procurement in West Mercia Police. We peek behind the curtain of a major procurement transformation that will see the local UK police force empower its officers to protect and serve their local communities.

There are also fascinating insights from Lance Younger, Dr Elouise Epstein and many many more..

Enjoy the issue!

Dale Benton

Author

Mark Perera

Published

5 March 2021

Estimated Read time

4Mins

With 2025 deadlines looming for ambitious corporate public pledges around sustainability, this should be top of the business agenda for enterprises in 2021. However, are organisations acting fast enough?

Worryingly, every five weeks that passes represents 1% of our decade. Aspirations of operating more sustainably at some point in the future are now becoming a much closer reality, which means organisations have targets that they need to meet over a relatively short time frame. This is especially true when it comes to ‘net zero’ emissions pledges – perhaps the most pressing climate concern the planet is facing. For example, by 2030, Unilever has committed to halving the greenhouse gas emissions of their products across the lifecycle, while Heineken has set an 80% target reduction. BP is facing an even bigger challenge as an energy company, leaning away from fossil fuels and committing to net zero carbon from their operations by 2050. Written by Mark Perera, CEO, Vizibl 

Therefore, with only a few years remaining until some of those deadlines, clearly now is the time for enterprises to take decisive action. 

Many organisations still don’t know how they’re going to achieve these targets. However, given the urgency of the issues, they’ve launched their efforts regardless, anticipating the discovery of further solutions along the way. 

Sustainability delivers more than just the environmental benefits 

Alongside the need to protect our planet, hitting these targets is actually key for the survival of some of these businesses. Strong sustainability performance pays dividends in opportunities for growth, increased returns on capital, and in managing threats to the business, with McKinsey finding that the value at stake from sustainability risks can be as high as 70% of EBITDA. 

Given that 50% of the Standard & Poor’s 500 will likely be replaced within the decade, companies must look beyond business as usual towards the strategies that will shore up their own survival – especially in our post-COVID environment where many will face stiff competition. With record private equity, a robust M&A market and the growth of many startups with billion-dollar valuations, not to mention the impact of the pandemic and an economic decline, there will be plenty of turbulence in the road ahead. 

We recently hosted a webinar around sustainability, which featured speakers from Unilever, Heineken and BP, where we discussed all of these issues and more. Interestingly, all three organisations were in agreement that consumer relevance will be key to organisational longevity and the ability to attract talent will also be central to business success. Consumers are very much driving the sustainability agenda, therefore setting and meeting sustainability targets will be key driver for business continuity. 

Enterprises are driving towards stakeholder capitalism 

This focus on doing right by consumer and employee values corresponds to a wider movement towards stakeholder capitalism. This drive advocates shifting away from a sole focus on maximising shareholder value towards a company strategy which creates value for all its stakeholders – from customers and employees, to suppliers, communities, and the environment. 

Along with making themselves accountable to a broader set of stakeholders, organisations should also be drawing from these stakeholders to meet sustainability targets. Likewise, leveraging from a wider ecosystem will also help to meet these goals; partnering for value to increase the bottom line will be a key procurement trend in 2021. 

Seeing as 80% of company emissions and up to 90% of their impact on biodiversity and natural resources originates in the supply chain, it is not surprising that companies are looking past internal operations when pursuing ambitious sustainability targets. Given also that 50-70% of company innovations originate externally, it makes sense to look beyond the boundaries of the organisation and to the broader ecosystems of suppliers to source new solutions. 

Working with a broader ecosystem of suppliers to foster innovation 

One great example of this kind of partnership is an initiative that BP is spearheading. As the company works towards net zero for its tech and IT estate, BP is moving away from high-power data infrastructure in favour of forging deep partnerships with cloud providers. The cloud providers also have net zero commitments of their own, which they can support using renewable energy sourced from BP. This partnership presents a win-win situation where both companies can hit their targets in tandem. 

What we are also seeing is that this is changing the role of procurement. Instead of being viewed as a function that ‘protects’ the company from its suppliers by continuously driving down costs, procurement is now looking to  collaboration and partnerships to find the innovation that will help the organisation continue to grow. 

And as procurement moves away from a single-minded focus on cost-cutting, it will facilitate relationships which in turn deliver on key business strategies like sustainability and growth. 

How procurement can drive initiatives to meet sustainability goals 

To this point, procurement has a great role to play in helping an organisation meet its sustainability targets, given that the function has historically been curious and hyper-diligent when it comes to costs. Moving forward, enterprises need to apply that same rigour when it comes to sustainability by asking searching questions about energy and water usage, emissions impact, and how we are affecting our communities both locally and on a global scale if we bring that level of curiosity and collaborative problem-solving into supply chains, we’ll have a big impact on business longevity and help to meet those lofty sustainability goals that are closer than we all feel comfortable with right now. 

Author

Tracey Harris

Published

23 February 2021

Estimated Read time

4Mins

New research found that 43% of UK businesses say that the rate of digitalisation within procurement is low, which is impacting agility and preventing businesses from minimising risk…

If we’ve learned anything from 2020, it is that we cannot predict the future. The COVID-19 pandemic significantly disrupted many supply chains, as businesses became dependent on procurement teams to help mitigate the impact by identifying and onboarding new suppliers in different regions. 

However, a significant number of organisations have been hindered by a lack of procurement process digitalisation. New research found that 43% of UK businesses say that the rate of digitalisation within procurement is low, which is impacting agility and preventing businesses from minimising risk. 

The importance of process digitalisation goes beyond navigating the immediate effects of COVID-19. Businesses that are reliant on manual processes are not only wasting an average of £1.94m per year in staffing costs, they are also preventing procurement teams from focusing on high value tasks. Savvy businesses have digitised procurement processes as a springboard to create a competitive advantage for themselves, as they can better identify new revenue opportunities, unlock innovation and improve profitability. Over the coming years, UK businesses need to move quickly to digitally transform procurement and ensure they are not left behind.

Procurement process digitalisation remains in the slow lane

As things stand, organisations still have a long way to go, with many failing to digitalise procurement processes. Just over half (55%) of UK businesses have digitalised invoice processing, while less than half have digitalised purchasing (42%) and budget management (33%). Businesses are even further behind in digitalising strategic processes such as spend analysis (32%) and risk management (26%). Clearly, there is significant room for improvement for organisations looking to make informed decisions, identify opportunities to create revenue, or collaborate with suppliers.

Worryingly, most businesses have not digitalised supplier onboarding or sourcing processes. Identifying and bringing on new suppliers is critical for businesses searching for new opportunities to collaborate and innovate or react to a potential disruption, so digitalising the process should be a top priority. This is particularly true in times of crisis, as one of the biggest challenges UK businesses faced in reducing the impact of COVID-19 was identifying alternate suppliers.

Procurement teams are prevented from adding value

This lack of procurement process digitalisation is creating frustration for UK businesses, and holding them back from adding value. Eight-in-ten (81%) UK businesses say a lack of digitalisation is preventing them from collaborating with suppliers and internal stakeholders, while a further 83% believe it is preventing them from innovating and executing on new revenue streams and opportunities. Without the ability to collaborate or execute on opportunities to drive new revenue streams, businesses stand little chance of getting ahead of the pack.

However, when it comes to digitalisation, UK businesses face a number of challenges. The most common obstacles to digital transformation for UK businesses were their suppliers, technology, and processes. Clearly, collaborating with suppliers is still tough. But, as supplier visibility continues to be vital to innovation and identifying revenue opportunities, it is not a problem that businesses can leave unsolved.

A smarter approach to eliminate manual processes

Most businesses understand and recognise that digitalising procurement will help them gain a competitive advantage. Furthermore, UK businesses recognise the importance of digitalisation beyond this, with one of the biggest benefits being reducing their environmental impact. Sustainability continues to become a key differentiator, allowing for greater efficiency and waste reduction, while turning being ‘green’ into a competitive advantage for eco-friendly businesses. 

But to reap these benefits, it is clear a new approach is needed. Organisations need to adopt a smarter approach to procurement that can enable effective digital transformation, helping them to move away from managing processes over email, phone, or paper, to instead capturing everything digitally. This can free capacity for more strategic projects, improve access to insights for better decision-making and foster better collaboration by connecting internal stakeholders and suppliers. As a result, businesses are better able to identify opportunities to innovate, collaborate and grow revenues, giving them the chance to build better products and service offerings that will differentiate them from the competition. 

Digitalising procurement to combat uncertain times

n today’s uncertain and evolving landscape, procurement has become a much more strategic part of every business, but a lack of digitalisation is holding teams back. To create a competitive advantage, businesses need to digitalise manual and strategic procurement processes to provide teams with the tools they need, and give them back time to focus on creating value for the business.

Making procurement smarter can create an all-encompassing digital view of procurement and supplier management. This is increasingly important for businesses looking to restore growth post-COVID and ensure resilience for the next crisis.

Author

Robin Agarwal

Published

18 January 2021

Estimated Read time

3Mins

Three key areas where procurement and supply chain should look to invest in 2021 and has a good business case to do so…

The Brexit debate is over with the UK and EU finally agreeing on the trade and cooperation terms after Brexit. A lot has been mentioned about the negative impact of Brexit on the UK and EU business supply chains. However, I think it is an opportunity for businesses to review their supply chains and turn this change into a competitive advantage. In my opinion, the following are 3 key areas where procurement and supply chain should look to invest in 2021 and has a good business case to do so.

1. Sourcing capabilities

Most of the organisations I have worked with over the last several years go back to the same set of shortlisted suppliers and look to conduct negotiations and auctions to achieve short term goals. This could be working with the same pool of suppliers either in the UK or EU suppliers or in a particular global location, i.e. China. However, there have been significant changes over the last few years whether it’s in currency, new emerging supply markets, existing supply sources losing advantage, or even the overall cost of managing offshore supply chains vs. local changing dramatically. Brexit and Covid have further accelerated or exacerbated some of these changes. Having some dedicated resources now to understand market options and a full evaluation will really help understand organisations options they have and plan their future supply chains accordingly.

2. Strategic partnerships

With the unprecedented disruption in demand and supply over the last year, organisations have never more realised the need to have a different relationship with their suppliers. As the long-term changes from Brexit and Covid come into effect, organisations having close strategic partnerships with their suppliers will be the ones who will mitigate issues better or benefit from the opportunities. Strategic partnerships don’t have to be just long-term commitments but communication, transparency, and both parties working towards shared goals. Also, the key is to look at the criteria for selecting partners. While on a short-term basis, working with a supplier who can fulfil your immediate needs at the best price makes sense, unless you look at long term fit, you will never have true partnerships in place.

3. Supplier assurance and development

With Brexit, there will be significant regulatory and standard changes over the years and suppliers will need support to transition to new standards and procedures. Also, to allow the sourcing team to find new sources and locations, they need appropriate support to be able to assure and develop new suppliers. Too many businesses, see the role of supplier assurance team as limited to assurance only and have an auditor mindset, however, the key is that they are working more as a development team and helping develop suppliers to contribute to the business.

The deal agreed is described as a narrow deal as it allows the UK to gradually move away from the EU sphere of influence if that’s really what the UK wants to pursue. While the current relationship with the EU is the starting position, full changes from this deal will only be visible over the next couple of years. Businesses who will be making the right investments in their supply chain and procurement capabilities will not only mitigate issues as the changes come into immediate effect but also find themselves in a better place vs their competitors.

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

21 November 2020

Estimated Read time

3Mins

Lack of digitalisation preventing UK businesses from identifying new sources of revenue and opportunities to collaborate and innovate

Research from Ivalua, a leading provider of global spend management cloud solutions, has found that almost half (46%) of UK businesses are frustrated by a lack of procurement process digitalisation. According to the study, 43% of respondents believe that the rate of digitalisation within procurement is low, while a third (33%) claim that procurement digitalisation is stagnant and hasn’t progressed in the last 12 months.

The research, conducted by Vanson Bourne on behalf of Ivalua, surveyed 200 UK-based procurement, supply chain and finance professionals to examine digitalisation in procurement. Eight-in-ten (81%) UK businesses say a lack of digitalisation is preventing them from collaborating with suppliers and internal stakeholders, while 83% believe it is preventing them from innovating and executing on new revenue streams and opportunities. Additionally, two-thirds (67%) of UK businesses say a lack of digitalisation reduces their ability to gain insights into spend and suppliers.

“As organizations look to restore growth post Covid-19 and ensure resilience for the next crisis, procurement can play a major role, helping identify opportunities to innovate and new sources of revenue. Procurement digitalisation is essential to enable unique business processes and improve collaboration with suppliers and internal stakeholder,” commented Alex Saric, smart procurement expert at Ivalua. “However, the current state of transformation in procurement is underwhelming. The risk in the future is that many businesses will be outstripped by more digitally-savvy rivals and find themselves at a significant competitive disadvantage. Over the coming years, UK businesses need to move quickly to digitally transform procurement and ensure they are not left behind.”

Digitalising processes still has a long way to go

While businesses recognise the need to digitally transform, the report found that on average, UK businesses have digitalised less than half (43%) of their procurement processes. The most digitalised tasks were transactional processes such as invoicing (55%), purchasing (42%) and budget management (33%). 

UK businesses have also failed to digitalise strategic processes such as spend analysis (32%) and risk management (26%). Identifying and bringing on new suppliers is also critical for businesses looking to identify new opportunities to collaborate and innovate, but worryingly, most businesses have not digitalised supplier onboarding (89%) or sourcing (84%) processes. When it comes to digitalising procurement and these processes, UK businesses face a number of challenges, with the most common obstacles to digital transformation being their suppliers (29%), their technology (20%) and their processes (18%). 

“Procurement has become a much more strategic part of every business, but a lack of digitalisation is preventing many teams from realising the potential value of their spend and suppliers. UK businesses need to take a smarter approach to procurement and move away from managing processes over email, phone, or paper, to instead capture everything digitally. This will help businesses identify opportunities to innovate, collaborate and grow revenues, giving them the chance to build better products and services that will differentiate them from the competition. Digitalising procurement creates an all-encompassing view for businesses, helping to create a competitive advantage that will see them soar past digital laggard competitors,” concludes Saric.

To download the full report, “Gaining the advantage in challenging times – why businesses need to digitally transform procurement now more than ever”, please visit: https://info.ivalua.com/uk/report-competitive-advantage

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

5 November 2020

Estimated Read time

1Min

“…when you think about supplier diversity initiatives, small business procurement initiatives, it’s really about driving economic impact. And it’s really the small businesses that drive economic growth in any economy”.

Rod Robinson is Vice President of Supplier Inclusion and Sustainability at Coupa, and the focus of that role, is to really drive inclusive procurement across the Coupa ecosystem, helping Coupa customers achieve, and even exceed, their supplier inclusion goals…
“…when you think about supplier diversity initiatives, small business procurement initiatives, it’s really about driving economic impact. And it’s really the small businesses that drive economic growth in any economy”.

Author

Kevin Davies

Published

20 October 2020

Estimated Read time

4Mins

A survey by researchers at WMG, University of Warwick saw 249 mid to large manufacturers from food and beverage to automotive, and pharmaceuticals to electronic equipment and more industries respond to the survey about their supply chain resilience in the current state and future potential…

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected many people across the world, one particular way includes supply chains, some people found they couldn’t buy pasta or loo roll, and it was the same for manufacturers, who suddenly had to change their strategies to ensure their supply chain during the pandemic.

There have been many challenges in the past for the manufacturing supply chain, such as the 2001 recession, SARS, 2011 Tohoku earthquake, 2016 oil crisis, and Brexit. Although there have been other pandemics such as swine flu and Ebola, the COVID-19 pandemic was nothing the modern world had ever seen before.

A survey by researchers at WMG, University of Warwick saw 249 mid to large manufacturers from food and beverage to automotive, and pharmaceuticals to electronical equipment and more industries respond to the survey about their supply chain resilience in the current state and future potential.

They found several impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic, including:

· 58% of firms ae still experiences a decrease in demand 3 months post lockdown

· 66-73% of firms have been effective to responding to increases and decreases in demand

· Buffer management, multi-sourcing and visibility were favoured over agile production networks

· Cash management and securing supply were critical initial responses to the covid-19 crisis

· 84% of firms found their planning systems were effective, but still required human intervention

· The most apparent bottlenecks to their supply chain was people issues, such as warehouse staff being in quarantine at home

The researchers then assessed manufacturers supply chain resilience in three different times, business as normal, during COVID-19 and preparation for Brexit. For each time period they identified how 6 supply chain resilience practices that could be used proactively (pre-disruption), reactively (during and post disruption) or both. These included:

1. Supply chain planning – demand forecasting and contingency planning (Proactive)

2. Visibility – Having access to real time data (Proactive)

3. Collaboration – Working with SC partners to deliver customer value (Proactive & reactive)

4. Buffer management – Utilising inventory and production capacity to enable material flow (Proactive and reactive)

5. Flexibility – Establishing multiple sourcing options (Proactive and reactive)

6. Adaptability – Transforming the SC in responding to dynamic business environment (Reactive

In normal operation firms found their practices to generally be effective. However, there was opportunity for improvements in visibility and collaboration to support improved supply chain planning. Firms also said they have been effective in managing buffers in normal operation.

During the Covid-19 pandemic firms utilised supply chain planning as a response to the pandemic with effective planning systems reported by 84% of manufacturers. However, this still required a high degree of human intervention. Buffer management and flexibility were found to be less effective than in normal operations. The survey found that 55% of manufacturers used inventory as their primary buffer against disruption, with only 32% utilising flexibility within the agile production systems of suppliers. Inventory buffers whilst effective if the disruption creates an upturn in demand, can be catastrophic to cash flow if demand drops.

Similarly to COVID-19 when it comes to Brexit they’ve found that an increase in collaboration has led to improved supply chain visibility and planning. However, the uncertainty of Brexit is a cause for concern in terms of supply base flexibility with firms unsure of what type of response will be required.

Professor Jan Godsell from WMG, University of Warwick comments:
“It’s interesting to see that the lessons manufactures’ have learnt in developing supply chain resilience practices in response to COVID-19 pandemic are helping manufacturers to prepare for Brexit. However, the uncertainty of Brexit, particularly in terms of the impact of flow of material is challenging for developing supply base flexibility. Whilst manufacturers can proactively prepare for Brexit, a high degree of adaptability will be required to buffer against the unknown.

“All manufacturers should consider assessing their current level of supply chain resilience to identify the areas in which their current supply chain resilience practices could be developed. Working collaboratively with supply chain partners to improve supply chain visibility and planning are the key building blocks. More effective use of inventory and capacity buffers, and flexibility within the supply base can further improve resilience. Some disruptions cannot be predicted, and supply chains need to the capability to adapt.”

Author

Kevin Davies

Published

24 September 2020

Estimated Read time

3Mins

A shortage of digitally savvy talent, and a lack of training for technical and soft skills, hinder digital procurement initiatives

Research from Ivalua, a leading provider of global spend management cloud solutions, has shown that a majority of UK businesses (86%) face significant barriers developing digital skills in procurement. The findings reveal that a shortage of digitally savvy talent (31%), a lack of training for technical and soft skills (28%) and a lack of understanding of the skills required (13%), are some of the main barriers preventing UK business from developing the digital skills they need. Additionally, over half (55%) of UK businesses say that digital skills in procurement are less advanced compared to other departments

The research, conducted by Vanson Bourne on behalf of Ivalua, surveyed 200 UK-based procurement, supply chain and finance professionals about the true nature of digital skills within procurement, and the challenges businesses looking to digitally transform will face. More than eight-in-ten (84%) UK businesses believe that the skill set required of procurement professionals has shifted from procurement-first to digital-first. The study also highlighted that most respondents believe that greater digitalisation (84%) and better digital skills (83%) in procurement would have enabled UK businesses to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak more effectively.

“Over the last decade, the role of procurement has transformed from one of cost-cutter to a vital ally that can help inform and enable a business’s strategy. The global COVID-19 pandemic accelerated this trend even further, reinforcing the importance of procurement as businesses adapt to the new normal,” commented Alex Saric, smart procurement expert at Ivalua. “However, for too long, procurement has been seen as a digital laggard, with technology adoption trailing behind other departments. In order to keep its seat at the table in strategic discussions, procurement must ensure it has people with the right skills in-house, as well as easy to use technologies, or risk being unable to offer significant strategic value.” 

Challenges in hiring digital skills in procurement

As part of ongoing digital transformation efforts in procurement, the report found that UK businesses have started to introduce new technologies such as data analytics (55%), cloud-based platforms (53%), automation (35%) and AI/machine learning (30%) in the last 12 months. 

But when it comes to deploying these technologies, UK businesses are finding it difficult to complement them with the digital skills required. The study found that 88% find it challenging to hire the right digital skills to work with technologies such as AI, cloud-based platforms or data analytics, while 76% say they are concerned that existing procurement teams will struggle to work with new technologies. Developing digital skills is vital for businesses, as 91% of respondents say that improving digital skills can make procurement more strategic, while 94% say it will help them gain a competitive advantage.

“In a rapidly evolving business environment, digital skills are essential for procurement teams to analyse and mitigate risk, identify new opportunities and collaborate with suppliers. However, procurement teams are struggling to both attract digital talent and upskill existing teams, which puts them at risk of falling behind competitors, losing market share, and struggling to identify risk and opportunities ahead of time,” comments Saric.

“To address the digital skills gap in procurement, UK businesses need to ensure they are focusing on adopting tools that are easy to use and improve access to actionable insights. By making procurement smarter, businesses are giving teams the tools and skills needed to thrive in the new normal, allowing the business to react and proactively address the shifting sands of a post-COVID world.”

To download the full report, “Bridging the gap – how smart procurement technology can help companies overcome the digital skills shortage”, please visit: https://info.ivalua.com/uk/report-digital-skills

Author

Mark Ellis

Published

23 June 2020

Estimated Read time

5Mins

Mark Ellis, Managing Partner at 4C Associates, award-winning European procurement consultancy, on procurement’s role in transforming the way to post-Covid recovery.

Over the past few months, how many times have you heard “we are living in unprecedented times” or “living in a different normality”? We are experiencing global factory labour shortages, supply chain disruptions due to travel and transport lockdowns, Force Majeure disagreements, suppliers running out of cash, realisation of our dependencies on global supply chains that we cannot control, disruption to ways of working due to lockdowns and the uncertainty over the length of current restrictions making effective forward planning extremely difficult.

Fortunately, for many, technology has enabled people to work from home and continue working and provide some normality to their day to day lives through the Covid-19 epidemic. However, even though many organisations have digitalised their customer front end services, sadly back office services have been woefully underinvested in (hardware, software and technology products) and many organisations have primarily spent time, effort and money to ensure that staff can continue to work during these difficult Covid-19 times by providing the tools and infrastructure to support home working.  

Supporting the global challenge

Over the last few months, procurement as a function has stepped up to support this global challenge. Not quite like the NHS, social care staff and the millions of health workers across the world, however they have listened to the ‘call to arms’ and mobilised their teams and their supply chains. On the other hand, unfortunately, many supply chains have failed, and business continuity plans have not delivered, as the procurement function has simply not been able to cope. This is after those organisations’ procurement functions invested heavily in sophisticated systems for tracking and managing their supply chain.

When Covid-19 hit, many UK based Utility organisations found out that their business continuity plans were not resilient against the unprecedented challenges it faced e.g. accommodation changes, systems switch over and consumer interface. Furthermore, many offshore BPO organisations struggled with home working due to bandwidth challenges of everyone on the internet and fitting for connection.  Whereas some ‘Challenger’ banks had invested in understanding and mapping their supply chains, and were able to instigate a quick and comprehensive review with their suppliers concerning financial viability, delivery capabilities and capacity during these challenging times.    

Did the technology fail or was it the ability of individuals and teams to take the data and make valuable insights to ensure they could deliver for their organisations? As a procurement professional, I am constantly reminded that data for data sake is not enough, you need to be able to use that valuable information to move the conversation forward, to support your organisation to innovate and, in the current crisis, to save lives.

As a function, we know that technology and understanding of the organisation’s needs is powerful and that we should utilise it to drive strong bonds with the individuals that work within our organisations and how this can deliver through our supply chains. Procurement technology combined with human knowledge is the mandatory combination to an effective classification and segmentation process and ensures businesses can quickly collate, visualise and action insights from existing data sources.

Connecting procurement technology and people

Connecting people and information guided by intelligent procurement systems can fundamentally change how companies buy and sell and can open broad visibility into the interconnected operations of buyers and suppliers. This also means reduced operational uncertainty as businesses can prevent bottlenecks in the supply chain before they arise. In the long term, it also enables procurement professionals to increasingly focus on strategic priorities as automated procurement solutions can take over their day-to-day tactical activities.

What these times are showing us is that we must do more to work on building better understanding of our own organisations’ demands, build sustainable relationships and appreciate new and innovative product and service development. It will make organisations stronger and ensure continuous service and reliability within the supply chain.

Now is the launch pad for great things for the procurement and supply chain function. We need to take the technology, data and insights to build strong and long-lasting relationships that can survive through the good and bad times.  We need to stress test our internal and external relationships and drive value and not cost, deliver new products and be the vanguard for change.

Ultimately, what Covid-19 is highlighting is the good that can be done, and we shine a light on the poor performances, poor process and inability to work collaboratively with people.  I sincerely hope that Covid-19 can make us stronger and build on some of the great and good that has been done over the past few months – as this proves we are all human.

Author

Pete Kinder

Published

23 February 2020

Estimated Read time

3Mins

Trying to keep pace with new technologies is one of the biggest challenges that most businesses are currently facing. Trends…

Trying to keep pace with new technologies is one of the biggest challenges that most businesses are currently facing. Trends in digital transformation such as AI, the Internet of Things (IoT), 5G networks and the proliferation of chatbots are impacting businesses of all shapes and sizes. Even procurement, a department traditionally found knee deep in paper-based spread sheets and contracts is embracing these innovations and are using them to automate manual, laborious processes improve supplier relationships and improve transparency over organisational wide spend.  

So, as procurement takes advantage of the digital era, what’s likely to come next for the business function focused on delivering value and saving their organisations money? Will procurement finally get the business recognition it deserves? Here are my predictions on what’s to come for procurement:

  1. Quality data

Businesses are already making key decisions based on data analytics; however, data quality remains an ongoing challenge. In the future expect to see machine learning automatically cleanse data, ensuring that any errors or anomalies are corrected. For example, it will monitor and maintain supplier master data from contracts and the data used in pay runs.

  • Procurement to drive competitive business advantage

Thanks to new technologies providing greater business insights, procurement will have more influence than ever before on overall business strategy, growth and competitive advantage. Procurement teams will be required to move their focus from spend and cost control and focus more heavily on facilitating innovation, business agility and continuity of supply.

  • A move towards more agile procurement

Are we likely to see more departmental purchasing and procurement become a more centralised business function? I think so, and as a result we are likely to see better collaboration take place across the entire business. We could even see category managers become procurement specialists in their business units and build a network of gig workers to help satisfy their operational needs.

  • IoT, data and stock tracking

More and more businesses are likely to take advantage of IoT to enable ‘touchless’ procurement where stock levels can be monitored automatically. It can help businesses track items in their supply chain in real time and enable asset-intensive industries to link data across the business to their suppliers. Businesses will benefit from an enhanced data platform as it informs decision-making around spend and purchasing patterns, catalogue content, supplier portfolios and contract fulfilment.

  • RPA to go mainstream

Taking full advantage of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) procurement will be able to completely eradicate many of its day-to-day manual, high volume repetitive tasks. The procurement team can also say goodbye to hours spent compiling manual reports and instead use their valuable time more effectively and deliver real value to the business.

  • Improved insights into the potential for supplier risk

Procurement teams will have better insights than ever before into their suppliers thanks to a clearer understanding of data. Internal data compiled by procurement, supplier information, market and analyst data on supplier performance will be aggregated and analysed to deliver a true 360° view of supplier performance.

  • Procurement best practice to include Blockchain

We’ve seen Blockchain, the technology behind digital currencies starting to find its way into the procurement space over the past few years. I think in the future we’ll see it used selectively by procurement teams as it is expensive to develop and deploy. However, I think increasingly we’ll see it used in scenarios where there’s a need to track and trace to stop counterfeiting or a need for operational integrity.

Author

Kevin Davies

Published

7 February 2020

Estimated Read time

5Mins

Standard Chartered, a leading international banking group, and Infor, a global leader in business cloud software specialised by industry, today…

Standard Chartered, a leading international banking group, and Infor, a global leader in business cloud software specialised by industry, today announced a strategic agreement to introduce the Infor Nexus network to the Bank’s clients. By digitizing the financial supply chain, businesses can minimize supply chain delays and friction, while suppliers can benefit from improved access to capital.

The Infor Nexus network transforms the traditionally manual process of data matching across multiple commercial documents including purchase orders, invoices and transport documents. This helps to speed up trade financing cycles, allowing suppliers to access capital faster and at more critical points in the transaction cycle, and as a result ensure on-time delivery of goods.

“Invoice approvals in a traditional non-automated environment often take weeks to complete, putting a squeeze on suppliers and bringing contention to the buyer-supplier relationship,” said Rod Johnson, General Manager and Head of Americas at Infor. “Slow invoice matching delays the trade financing cycle, preventing suppliers from obtaining capital they need to deliver quality and compliant goods on time.”

“While large corporates have achieved some level of automation through sophisticated enterprise resource planning systems, around 80 percent of data used in matching are sourced from documents residing with external parties,” said Michael Sugirin, Global Head of Open Account Trade Product Management, Standard Chartered. “This manual matching process is time-consuming, often resulting in a delay of the trade financing cycle which impacts the supplier’s ability to meet their working capital needs, most of whom tend to be small and medium-sized businesses. This strategic partnership addresses this gap and reduces capital related costs and risk from the supply chain.”

Through the strategic agreement, Standard Chartered will refer clients to Infor and its Infor Nexus network, based on specific needs, enabling them to benefit from automated matching and digitized documentation and processes delivered on Infor’s network of 65,000 businesses around the world. In addition to delivering broader financial services to clients, the Infor Nexus network provides global on-boarding and ongoing service and support to suppliers without requiring the involvement of the anchor buyer. The agreement also enables Standard Chartered to expand client relationships through digital transformation solutions that address sourcing and payables inefficiencies while enabling innovation and growth. 

Michael Sugirin added: “As our client’s trusted banking partner, our goal is to support them in their digitalisation journey through expediting their payables acceptance and facilitating export proceeds, and as a result improve their working capital cycles. We are excited to have this introduction agreement in place with Infor, whose platform offering not only fits well with our emerging markets footprint which generates significant trade documents flows, but also shares a similar commitment in supporting the development of sustainable, intelligent supply chains.”

Author

Daniel Ball

Published

20 January 2020

Estimated Read time

5Mins

By Daniel Ball, business development director, Wax Digital As a new year gets in full swing, there’s no better time…

By Daniel Ball, business development director, Wax Digital

As a new year gets in full swing, there’s no better time for businesses to refine processes in need of improvement, and procurement shouldn’t underestimate the power of bolstering its own processes. Any attempts to make buying operations smoother, more efficient, and cost-effective are likely to play a part in wider business success.

When it comes to achieving personal goals, the key is to break it down into more manageable steps, and the same is true in business. Here are some targets procurement should set itself to get 2020 off to a blinder:

  • Get your contracts in order: The average organisation has 20,000-40,000 contracts, but what happens when the agreement needs to be reviewed or renewed quickly? How easy is it to obtain files regarding these arrangements as and when you need them? What’s more, businesses that are unaware of renewal dates or don’t have full visibility of supplier T&Cs risk putting themselves at serious financial and legal risk. Procurement teams should make a business case to introduce contract management software so that they have a single, secure portal that they can use to quickly access information such as expiry dates and service level agreements (SLAs). Not only that, the software will alert the procurement team when contracts are due for renewal, enabling the business to check if prices will go up and whether alternative suppliers should be found. The software is also crucial for verifying that contractors have the necessary certifications in place to ensure the business remains compliant.
  • Stop late payments: UK SMEs with late paying customers now have to wait on average 23 days to receive funds, doubling from early last year, according to finance company MarketFinance. The government is cracking down on late payments to SMEs, for example by empowering trade bodies to highlight organisations that are good or bad at paying promptly. To ensure invoices are paid on time, businesses should introduce a system, for example purchase-to-pay software; which automates the procurement process from ordering products or services through to making the payment.
  • Build better relationships with suppliers: Every procurement professional knows that supply chains can be complex and risky due to the uncertain economic landscape we currently operate in, particularly due to Brexit. That’s why it’s crucial to form close relationships with suppliers to mitigate the impact of unpredictable scenarios such as financial crises, weather disasters or political unrest. Using supplier relationship management software, the business will have a clearer view of the supply chain and is more likely to spot potential issues before they escalate into something catastrophic.
  • Bolster digital transformation programmes: Businesses will only reap the benefits of new procurement software if it’s underpinned by a clear digital transformation strategy. We surveyed 200 senior figures across many businesses and found that 72% of procurement professionals feel that the training they received after new technologies have been implemented was insufficient. Procurement should consult with senior managers and the IT department when new technology is introduced. They should work together to embrace the technology and ensure all users receive the training and guidance they need to use it effectively.

There is a lot of scope in procurement to take advantage of technologies that digitise laborious processes and increase visibility on costs and operations. With some clear goals that aim to improve different aspects of buying activities, businesses can make 2020 the year they free themselves from the shackles of paper-based spreadsheets and supplier contracts and use their time to add greater value to the business.

Author

Kevin Davies

Published

18 January 2020

Estimated Read time

2Mins

Eight out of ten procurement professionals claim that in the past decade, their role has changed because of new digital…

Eight out of ten procurement professionals claim that in the past decade, their role has changed because of new digital transformation technologies implemented within their businesses.

Research from eProcurement specialists, Wax Digital, shows that 60% of respondents claim that technologies to automate slow and labour intensive processes has enabled them to be more productive in their job role. While less than a quarter (22%) said that it had made little difference to their overall efficiency.

Over half of procurement professionals (54%) claim that digital transformation has made improvements to their businesses by eradicating or streamlining traditionally manual processes. Just under a third (30%) of those surveyed are yet to experience any benefits or consequences from the implementation of digital technologies.

Nine out of ten respondents believe that there’s room for improvement when it comes to digital transformation projects within their industries. 40% suggested a need for digital experts to help their organisations deliver training, 26% would have preferred a longer roll out time for the technology and 18% thought better communication should have taken place while the technology was being introduced.

Daniel Ball, business development director at Wax Digital said: “Procurement professionals have seen significant changes in their job role over the past ten years due to the impact of digital transformative technologies. For example, many organisations, paper-based contracts, supplier records or even invoices have been digitised, saving businesses time and man-power resource and enabling all this information to be available at their fingertips.”

“In addition, supplier auctions and tenders are now also more automated than ever before – RFPs are sent out automatically while eAuctions allow procurement professionals to extract more savings within an automated auction setting to drive savings.

“With eProcurement tools generating more data than ever before, those working in the procurement industry have seen their roles become more strategic rather than just solely operational. These professionals are now required to have strong analytical skills, negotiation abilities and excellent stakeholder management”.

The full findings of the research can be found at: https://www.waxdigital.com/resources/digital-transformation-report

Author

Kevin Davies

Published

26 December 2019

Estimated Read time

2Mins

Heineken, the world’s most global brewer, has been working with JDA Software, Inc., for more than five years on its…

Heineken, the world’s most global brewer, has been working with JDA Software, Inc., for more than five years on its large-scale cloud-based digital planning transformation. HEINEKEN has recently committed to extending its JDA footprint in specific geographies, which is already live in five operating countries (Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Poland and France). With a strategy to shift from a sales & operations planning (S&OP) model to an Integrated Business Planning (IBP) model, HEINEKEN is fundamentally upgrading the way it plans its business with JDA.

HEINEKEN is the world’s most international brewer, and the number one brewer in Europe, with operations in more than 70 markets globally. It is the leading developer and marketer of premium beer and cider brands. Led by the HEINEKEN® brand, the Group has a portfolio of more than 300 international, regional, local and specialty beers and ciders. They are committed to innovation, long-term brand investment, disciplined sales execution and focused cost management. Through “Brewing a Better World”, sustainability is embedded in the business and delivers value for all stakeholders.

“We have some of the most complex and volatile markets in the world and have been working with JDA to make faster, more well-informed decisions, which directly impact everyone in the value chain” said Joost Luijbregts, senior Director Global Customer Service / Logistics / Planning, HEINEKEN. “With JDA, we have taken big steps forward – fundamentally changing the way we plan our business in terms of S&OP and scenario planning. As our partnership with JDA continues to strengthen, I am looking forward to work with JDA on our journey towards IBP.”

HEINEKEN embarked on its strategy to shift from an S&OP approach to an IBP approach, uniting sales, marketing, finance, supply chain and procurement together to make well-informed decisions, and plan and forecast for the future. New scenario planning capabilities have allowed the business to make trade-offs on costs, margins and capacity. Since deploying this strategy across Europe, HEINEKEN has seen an increase in forecast accuracy, reduction in stock-outs and improved inventory turns and productivity.

Moving forward, HEINEKEN will bring the integrated JDA solution to most of its larger global locations, signifying the largest cloud-based solution at HEINEKEN. Going forward, HEINEKEN has its sights set up harnessing the power of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) with JDA, as it begins a pilot project using JDA Luminate Demand Edge.

“We’ve formed a strategic relationship with HEINEKEN with a foundation built on trust and openness, which is highly critical as we develop the next phase in their IBP roadmap,” said Johan Reventberg, president, EMEA, JDA. “With a clear roadmap for the future, HEINEKEN is well-positioned to continue driving a leadership position in the market, while delivering superior customer levels across all its 70+ markets.”

Author

Kevin Davies

Published

10 December 2019

Estimated Read time

5Mins

Almost three quarters (74%) of procurement professionals admit that their transition to eProcurement technologies could have been smoother if they’d…

Almost three quarters (74%) of procurement professionals admit that their transition to eProcurement technologies could have been smoother if they’d had more support from a dedicated expert according to exclusive research from Wax Digital. 

The eProcurement specialists, surveyed over 200 senior professionals in IT, HR, Finance and Procurement and nearly half of the buying professionals quizzed believe that more training would have boosted their business’ digital transformation experience. And just over a quarter think it would have been better to introduce these new technologies over a longer period of time.

72% of procurement professionals have received either partial training or no training in new technologies after the digitisation of manual processes within their businesses. Yet, 28% said they have received enough training, with one in ten claiming that the process could not have been improved.

The study results also suggest that procurement’s roles and responsibilities have changed now they’re increasingly taking advantage of digital technologies. Eight out of ten procurement professionals claimed that new technology has changed their job role over the past decade. However, 60% believe that the adoption of digital technologies has increased their overall productivity.

88% of procurement professionals said that their company benchmarks either as average or below the industry standard for digital implementation. This viewpoint differs considerably from the responses from IT and finance as the research shows that they believe their businesses are meeting or exceeding standards.

Daniel Ball, business development director at Wax Digital, said: “It’s great to the see productivity gains being achieved by procurement through the adoption of digital technologies. Streamlining slow, laborious manual processes will simplify tasks such as invoicing, supplier sourcing and contract management; freeing up time for the team to work on other projects across the business.

“Any organisation going through the digital transformation process needs a dedicated expert on board to help champion all things digital in the business. Their role would be to support other employees as they get to grips with new technologies and help them to embrace the digital transformation process by offering first-hand experience and expertise, as well as coaching them on best practice. This approach can help organisations make the most of their new digital technologies and help ensure the transition is a success, improving productivity and efficiency across the organisation”.

Author

Kevin Davies

Published

15 November 2019

Estimated Read time

5Mins

Ivalua, a global leader in spend management, today announced the release of an enhanced third-party risk module, called Risk Center,…

Ivalua, a global leader in spend management, today announced the release of an enhanced third-party risk module, called Risk Center, available as part of its latest product release. The latest innovations extend the existing strength of Ivalua’s Supplier Management solution, which had already been recognised as a Leader by Forrester Research Inc. in the most recent The Forrester Wave™: Supplier Risk And Performance Management (SRPM) Platforms, Q1 2018.

Ivalua’s Risk Center offers customers a holistic solution to actively monitor and mitigate third-party risk and compliance. Customers are able to consolidate real-time information spanning supplier performance evaluations, transactional data, spend data, contractual information and external risk information from major third-party data providers.  This combined picture is visible in actionable dashboards to provide a comprehensive and timely picture of risk and the potential impact on the business.

“Organisations are increasingly dependent on their suppliers, who can be sources of tremendous value but also increased risk,” said Pascal Bensoussan, Ivalua Chief Product Officer at Ivalua. “Ivalua’s Risk Center brings actionable data and insights from across the supplier lifecycle together with complimentary external data so our customers can effectively manage supplier risk. When combined with the extensive supplier collaboration capabilities embedded in Ivalua’s platform, our customers can unlock the full potential of their supply chains.”

Risk Center’s ability to integrate with third party data providers in real time allows it to meet the unique needs associated with various regulatory environments, industries, and customer compliance models, in an automated fashion. For example, Risk Center can aggregate data on supplier financial health, sustainability, adverse media, sanctions lists, supply chain disruptions and more. Ivalua maintains an open and rapidly expanding ecosystem, including new and updated out of the box integrations with leading providers such as:  EcoVadis – A long-time partner of Ivalua and leading provider of sustainability risk and performance ratings for global supply chains. Backed by a powerful technology platform, the industry’s most-trusted methodology and a global team of domain experts, EcoVadis sustainability scorecards provide insight and engagement tools to mitigate risk, drive improvements and create value across 198 purchasing categories globally.

EcoVadis – A long-time partner of Ivalua and leading provider of sustainability risk and performance ratings for global supply chains. Backed by a powerful technology platform, the industry’s most-trusted methodology and a global team of domain experts, EcoVadis sustainability scorecards provide insight and engagement tools to mitigate risk, drive improvements and create value across 198 purchasing categories globally.

“The global supply chain is a breeding ground for hidden sustainability and CSR risks. Our  partnership with Ivalua enables procurement to see where they are exposed and the steps they need to take to reduce their risk,” said Pierre-Francois Thaler, Co-CEO of EcoVadis. “The integration of EcoVadis Sustainability Ratings with Ivalua Risk Center brings our mutual customers a powerful combination of insights to optimise procurement decisions, improve supply chain performance and create value.”

  • riskmethods – A leader in supply chain risk management, riskmethods empowers businesses to identify, assess and mitigate supply chain risk. By using artificial intelligence, riskmethods helps customers automate and accelerate threat detection, enabling them to gain competitive advantage with a well-managed approach to meeting customer demands, protecting reputation and reducing total cost of risk.

“The integration of holistic supplier risk information within the Ivalua platform is a great opportunity for Ivalua customers,” says Heiko Schwarz, founder and managing director of riskmethods. “With riskmethods available via the Ivalua Risk Center, customers will be able to get a complete view of all types of risk, giving them the tools, they need to avoid the cost of disruptions and respond faster to risk events than their competition.”

  • Global Risk Management Solutions (GRMS) – In an upcoming release, GRMS, a recognised leader providing innovative supplier risk management solutions, will also be available. GRMS combines highly configurable software, premium data streams, and continuous human interventions to reduce exposure to global risk and liability.  GRMS delivers risk-management-as-an-integrated-service on fully private networks and serves clientele covering suppliers across more than 120 countries. 

Author

Joonus Jantunen

Published

29 October 2019

Estimated Read time

5Mins

By Joonas Jantunen, CEO Cloudia Middle East & Africa, Cloudia. Former Hewlett-Packard CEO, Lew Platt, once famously said: “If HP knew…

By Joonas Jantunen, CEO Cloudia Middle East & Africa, Cloudia.

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO, Lew Platt, once famously said: “If HP knew what HP knows, we’d be three times more productive.”

Managing knowledge, or knowing what you know, and being able to apply it to core decision-making is key to business success now and in the future. In procurement, knowledge management already has the potential to drive productivity gains across the business. And emerging technologies like AI and RPA look set to play an outsized role.

What do we mean by knowledge management?

Every day, every moment, organisations and their operating environments are creating, using and sharing, huge amounts of information, or knowledge. Knowledge management, most simply put, refers to the process of collecting, maintaining and managing everything that a company ‘knows,’ in all its forms. But knowledge management is also about using that knowledge to help leaders make more informed decisions. In this article, we are considering knowledge management in this wider sense.

In any organisation, knowledge is power but only when it is well managed and usefully applied. In procurement, knowledge becomes power when it’s effectively managed for the purpose of driving decision-making. That means, identifying what information is critical to operations, analysing it, then sharing the findings with key decision-makers across the company.

What does this mean in practice for procurement?

In procurement today, knowledge management typically begins with process automation, aimed at reducing routine administrative work and freeing up procurement people to focus on innovation and productivity. Automation also equips organisations with the capacity to adapt and take advantage of new technologies as they develop. 

The vast majority of data management applications currently available focus on storing and presenting historical data – telling us ‘what happened’. Naturally, it’s important to know about past events to aid future management strategy, but all too often the data analysis and interpretation itself is left entirely to humans, with our limited capacity for processing large amounts of information. Also, it’s not possible to effectively exploit even the most basic historical data in practice unless the organisation’s procurement systems and processes have been digitised, and an adequate amount of historical data accumulated.

Emerging technologies assist knowledge management in multiple ways

When artificial intelligence (AI) is mentioned, often the first thing that comes to mind is robots making decisions on our behalf or undertaking roles previously performed by humans. Indeed, it has been predicted that robots are likely to replace many service-sector jobs, among other things. However, it’s worth remembering that predictions are based on assumptions of what might happen in terms of advances in AI and it’s challenging to predict the pace at which these advances would take place.  

In the short term, the situation looks less exciting. At the moment, the most significant strength of AI is its ability to handle huge amounts of data from various sources and to establish links among different factors. Another remarkable aspect of AI is the speed at which it is able to identify and produce text, sound and image. As it stands, AI is best suited for optimising existing processes and behavioural models on which an organisation already has plenty of high-quality data.  

AI helps manage, cultivate and discover procurement knowledge

AI and its various applications, especially robotic process automation (RPA), can significantly speed up data collection and assembly. In addition to the information that’s entered into the system and generated during the daily procurement activities, RPA is also able to cultivate new information. Useful information can be gathered about various relevant factors, such as the market, operating environments, pricing, currency fluctuations, any changes to contracts or suppliers, as well as other operators or events within the same business sector.

With the help of automation, the data can be assembled, categorised according to context, and merged and stored without human interference.  As a result, the process of data discovery will be significantly quicker and more straightforward. Technology can also be harnessed to keep different levels of management up-to-date with the latest information regarding, for example, various organisational units, or changes to contracts or consignments. As a result, management will always have access to real-time knowledge of any breaches of contract or disruptions in the supply chain. 

Diagnostic analytics explains why something happened

The next level of knowledge management is reached when technology is exploited to help understand the causes of events and certain behaviours. Diagnostic analytics examines data or content to answer the question ‘Why did this happen?’. When there is a better understanding of what happened, information can be used to find and detect a variety of recurring formulas and patterns, which help control and redirect operations more accurately.

For example, if the same suppliers always succeed or fail to fulfil the terms and conditions of specific product categories, the valuable information provided by diagnostic analytics can help target investment toward the most reliable suppliers. Similarly, understanding the changes in supply and demand, under certain conditions in different product categories, will help schedule the procurement process more efficiently. Diverse procurement procedures and market fluctuations have an impact on the price level of bids, but by analysing trends and past events, it is possible to get both the procedure and the timing right.

Predictive analytics explains what’s going to happen

Any organisation wishing to succeed needs to have foresight. Predictive analytics is a level up from analysing the past, as the focus is on developing and automating forecasts and probabilities based on current events. Those in charge of procurement can use the knowledge to predict and prepare for various outcomes and direct their actions accordingly. 

Once the analytics has discovered why something happened, it will be able to draw conclusions and predictions about what is going to happen next. As an example, it’s possible to predict that when certain changes occur on the market, certain suppliers will perform better (or worse) in relation to certain contractual terms, or if the price or availability of a certain product category is projected to reduce.

Prescriptive analytics explains what should be happening

A high level of procurement knowledge management is achieved when technology can be employed to tell what should be done next. AI and its various applications can efficiently simulate human behaviour and learn to make draft measures and proposals based on predictions. Even the decision-making process can be fully automated with the help of various approval stages.

Based on facts and probability-weighted projections, the system can give recommendations to management about different areas of procurement. For example, it might be advised to avoid certain suppliers at certain times of the year due to projected shortages in supply, or to order extra goods in advance to prevent stock from being exhausted.

Choose an experienced and competent partner

AI is a very useful tool for optimising performance and streamlining processes where the cost of human error can be high. In order to make the best use of technology in procurement knowledge management, it’s essential to be able to identify and collect the type of data that matters most to your organisation. Since the projections and recommendations are based on existing data, the sooner the process of data collection and storage in your organisation commences, the better.

Author

Dale Benton

Published

18 October 2019

Estimated Read time

3Mins

With constant innovation and marketplaces changing faster than ever before, procurement is undergoing its own transformation. Increasingly, companies are looking…

With constant innovation and marketplaces changing faster than ever before, procurement is undergoing its own transformation. Increasingly, companies are looking to support faster, decentralised procurement functions that will in turn allow for decentralised decision making. Here we look at 5 key shifts in procurement for 2020, as detailed by Gartner.

Value Drivers: From risk mitigation to leveraging knowledge

Businesses have been investing in new technologies in order to better understand their operations. Data capture and analytics have allowed companies to make informed business decisions, based on insights from data analysis. In recent years, the focus of this analysis has been on risk mitigation and cost reduction. Over the next year, business will begin to leverage the knowledge it has gained on spend, suppliers and markets in order to better identify new sources of value and eliminate inefficiencies.

 The role of procurement: transactional to strategic

The very perspective of procurement has changed radically over the last decade. Companies have almost begun ‘waking up’ to the notion that procurement is no longer a simple cost centre and in recent years, more and more of them have placed procurement at the heart of their operations. Over the next year, procurement will continue this evolutionary journey as businesses will shift it further, taking on more high-value work and focusing more and more on ‘top-tier’ buys. This will see experienced category managers spending more time developing category managers throughout the business, with the skillsets changing to include process expertise and coaching others.

 Business role: business partners enter the game

With the role of procurement becoming increasingly strategic, the lines between traditional procurement professionals and separate business units are blurring. More and more business units are aligning to the procurement function, taking on more responsibility and combining their specific expertise with that of the procurement role. As a result of this, procurement will enhance its training and coaching capabilities to help ease business partners into a position where they can source on their own. New tools and processes will be defined in order for business partners to execute sourcing events independently and mechanisms will be put in place for evaluating sourcing discipline executed by the business.

Delivery model: a centre of excellence

The very model of procurement will change, shifting towards a model defined by a CPO, Category Manager and Procurement process experts. What this ultimately means is that experienced procurement managers will conduct the most important purchases/buys and the procurement process experts will provide guidance to the business units. Overall, procurement will develop a better understanding of the varying levels of business partner sourcing discipline, meaning that the overall team will focus on process excellence and less on specific category knowledge.

Resources:  investing in people and technology

Investing in people, skillsets and talent is nothing new, but the way in which procurement will invest in its people and its technology will change. Reallocating budgets from outsourcing and corporate overhead will see procurement look towards professional and analytics skillsets. Technology investment on the other hand will shift to include robotic process automation software and customer experience technology. This will see greater use of customer experience experts and an increase in professional advisory skill sets.

Author

Dale Benton

Published

15 October 2019

Estimated Read time

1Min

Listen to the podcast here! In the latest episode of The Digital Insight, George Booth, Chief Procurement Officer at Lloyds…

Listen to the podcast here!

In the latest episode of The Digital Insight, George Booth, Chief Procurement Officer at Lloyds Banking Group explores risk assurance and whether it’s become a top priority for the CPO of today. 

George also talks about how big data, AI, and blockchain are redefining the sourcing function and in turn, redefining the role of the procurement professional. We also discuss how, in the digital age, balancing the need to identify and onboard new fintechs with a need to protect the business from inherent risks cause significant challenges, but also opportunity.

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

11 October 2019

Estimated Read time

5Mins

Read the latest issue here! This month’s exclusive cover story features an interview with Joseph Lee, Vice President of Procurement…

Read the latest issue here!

This month’s exclusive cover story features an interview with Joseph Lee, Vice President of Procurement and Subcontracts at AECOM Management Services, who tells us how the company optimises its procurement to become a strategic sourcing organisation.

Lee leads all procurement and subcontracting for AECOM’s Management Services Group — an organisation with more than US$4 billion in annual revenue and operations in more than 25 countries. Joining the business in early 2017, Lee was tasked with creating a plan to transform the procurement organisation and to assess it in its existing format. Here, he found that procurement was still viewed as something of a cost centre.

“They received requirements and executed them. That was it,” he explains. “There was little value-add; no metric, performance or accountability to the team. After assessing, I recommended we stand up a strategic organisation; one more forward-leaning that could negotiate long-term agreements in order to create efficiencies in our transactions…”

We also feature an incredible article with Maytham Al-Khairulla, VP of Business Support at OSN, while negotiation techniques in procurement are discussed by Eman Abouzeid, Global Procurement and Supply Chain Professional.

Enjoy the issue!

Author

Dale Benton

Published

1 October 2019

Estimated Read time

5Mins

With constant innovation and marketplaces changing faster than ever before, procurement is undergoing its own transformation. Increasingly, companies are looking…

With constant innovation and marketplaces changing faster than ever before, procurement is undergoing its own transformation. Increasingly, companies are looking to support faster, decentralised procurement functions that will in turn allow for decentralised decision making. Here we look at 5 key shifts in procurement for 2020, as detailed by Gartner

Value Drivers: From risk mitigation to leveraging knowledge

Businesses have been investing in new technologies in order to better understand their operations. Data capture and analytics have allowed companies to make informed business decisions, based on insights from data analysis. In recent years, the focus of this analysis has been on risk mitigation and cost reduction. Over the next year, business will begin to leverage the knowledge it has gained on spend, suppliers and markets in order to better identify new sources of value and eliminate inefficiencies.

 The role of procurement: transactional to strategic

The very perspective of procurement has changed radically over the last decade. Companies have almost begun ‘waking up’ to the notion that procurement is no longer a simple cost centre and in recent years, more and more of them have placed procurement at the heart of their operations. Over the next year, procurement will continue this evolutionary journey as businesses will shift it further, taking on more high-value work and focusing more and more on ‘top-tier’ buys. This will see experienced category managers spending more time developing category managers throughout the business, with the skillsets changing to include process expertise and coaching others.

 Business role: business partners enter the game

With the role of procurement becoming increasingly strategic, the lines between traditional procurement professionals and separate business units are blurring. More and more business units are aligning to the procurement function, taking on more responsibility and combining their specific expertise with that of the procurement role. As a result of this, procurement will enhance its training and coaching capabilities to help ease business partners into a position where they can source on their own. New tools and processes will be defined in order for business partners to execute sourcing events independently and mechanisms will be put in place for evaluating sourcing discipline executed by the business.

Delivery model: a centre of excellence

The very model of procurement will change, shifting towards a model defined by a CPO, Category Manager and Procurement process experts. What this ultimately means is that experienced procurement managers will conduct the most important purchases/buys and the procurement process experts will provide guidance to the business units. Overall, procurement will develop a better understanding of the varying levels of business partner sourcing discipline, meaning that the overall team will focus on process excellence and less on specific category knowledge.

Resources:  investing in people and technology

Investing in people, skillsets and talent is nothing new, but the way in which procurement will invest in its people and its technology will change. Reallocating budgets from outsourcing and corporate overhead will see procurement look towards professional and analytics skillsets. Technology investment on the other hand will shift to include robotic process automation software and customer experience technology. This will see greater use of customer experience experts and an increase in professional advisory skill sets.

Author

Dale Benton

Published

20 September 2019

Estimated Read time

5Mins

By Dale Benton In a world awash with digital transformation stories that see companies restructuring or even dispensing with old…

By Dale Benton

In a world awash with digital transformation stories that see companies restructuring or even dispensing with old business models to usher in the new era of digitalisation, the notion of understanding and sifting through noise in the marketplace, in order to head down the right path, requires a level of expertise that even some of the world’s leading organisations do not possess. This is why they turn to consultancies such as Roland Berger. With more than 2,400 employees working across 35 countries around the world, Roland Berger is a consulting partner of choice because it boasts a deep understanding of diverse cultures and markets.

One such industry space known for its ever-changing complexity amid a radical transformation the world over, is procurement. Michael Pleuger, Senior Partner at Roland Berger is an experienced procurement professional, focusing on large scale procurement and supply chain transformation programs. Having spent his entire professional life working in the business transformation space, he has seen first-hand the shifting nature of procurement and more importantly, the shifting perspective of organisations. Getting his start in the industry as Head of Procurement in a German M-DAX listed rail technology company, Pleuger soon found himself working on a major supply chain transformation program. Here, he worked closely with a number of different consultants, looking at technology implementation and change management. His consultants convinced him to move to the other side and to advise other clients as a management consultant himself. In this new consulting role, Pleuger delivered global procurement transformation programs for large European Blue Chips.

Later Pleuger joined Vodafone to bring in his experience to help integrate their global procurement activities and to establish a corporate procurement in the telco’s HQ in Newbury, UK and subsequently in the Vodafone Procurement Company in Luxemburg. After an almost four year stint in Vodafone, Pleuger returned to Berlin and to the consulting industry. He continued to serve globally-leading companies to transform their procurement and supply chain functions into a competitive differentiator. In this role he returned to Vodafone as a consultant and it was this time with the company that opened his eyes to a new wave of digital transformation in procurement.

“I was asked to look at digitalisation within the procurement company and it was, in my humble opinion, that the company was already fully digital because they were already working with new technologies in sourcing, P2P, invoicing,  contract management, supplier collaboration and supplier performance management,” he says. “With this large existing digital footprint in place, we looked at it differently together with our client and saw that through RPA for example, a lot of P2P suites and e-sourcing suites would be potentially fully automated and therefore eliminated.” Pleuger identified that procurement needed to take on a new role in the future; a move determined by the unique positioning of procurement. As the function with the most interfaces, both internally and externally with the supply base, procurement is the ‘spider in the web’. All the data coming from all the nodes within the network, pass through procurement, presenting a unique opportunity for procurement to become the primary provider for business insight and foresight. It requires procurement to being able to make meaningful information out of this avalanche of data.

“This is a completely new currency of procurement, from savings to business to business intelligence,” explains Pleuger. “Today, as a senior partner with Roland Berger, my role is working with leading procurement organisations to help them prepare for the future of procurement.” To achieve this, Roland Berger uses a framework,  they have branded “the procurement endgame”. The procurement endgame describes how certain mega trends, one of the biggest being digital innovation and  industry specific disruptors, are turning companies and procurement upside down. Pleuger cites the emergence of 5G technology and how it’s enabling industry 4.0 and the Internet of Things a disruptor in the telco industry. In the automotive space, the emergence of autonomous driving is clearly a disruptor.

“What we see is that our clients respond to these external challenges by defining a new corporate strategy and business model,” he says. “Procurement aligns with these new business models and is key to operationalising these by providing business insight and foresight. Procurement is buying different content, such as digital content but also needs to buy differently, e.g. in collaboration with start-ups or emerging eco-systems.”

As the spider in the web, procurement has a responsibility like no other business unit. It has to be able to break down the complexity of its function and communicate it to the wider organisation in a language that makes sense. For some, the perspective remains that procurement is simply writing purchase orders and signing off invoices, but this is shifting and new business models are now opening the doorway to new capabilities. “In order to fulfill its role, procurement has to have connectivity to all the nodes in the network. Behind the digital glue, however, is collaboration,” he says. “That digital glue is an intuitive collaborative workflow, one that brings everybody into this flow of analysing the internal demands, the external market and then developing a strategic response in the shape of a better procurement strategy or category strategy.”

As an example, Pleuger looks at artificial intelligence and its role within procurement. “If all the IOT devices and the industry 4.0 devices and the consumers online around the world are connected and capturing data and feeding it into the procurement sweet spot, that’s going to overwhelm the category managers,” he explains. “So, we look to feed AI into managing that data as it comes their way. Then, they can use this AI to prioritise, digest and summarise all of the sources available and provide an executive summary and predictions that can be used to stay ahead of the game. This is but one example of the capabilities that the category managers require in order to succeed in procurement today.”

The key component in the middle of transformation is the procurement professional and the category managers that are shifting their way of working in this new era of procurement. In order for organisations to embrace innovation, implement new digital tools and unlock greater value, the people controlling and accessing this digital glue need training to join these journeys. Roland Berger has recently released a white paper on 21st century skills in procurement, which breaks this down into two dimensions; the need for collaboration and the complexity of the task at hand.

“If the complexity and collaboration is low, then this is a task that can be automated and it requires a basic understanding of what the digital tools can do,” explains Pleuger. “If the complexity is high, but the collaboration is low, something like AI can be used to analyse that complexity and solve the problem. However, if the complexity is high and the collaboration is high, this is where we look at human intelligence and our best people. Very often I hear up-skilling is a shift from lower value tasks to higher value ones and this is correct. But I think that, unfortunately, due to it being a hard discussion, we will lose people along the way. Automation for example could reduce the overall demand for procurement professionals. It’s too hard a discussion to simply say up-skilling organisations need to break down exactly what these digital tools will bring and takeaway.”

The challenge Pleuger sees here is one that stems from something he experienced himself; what does digitalisation mean to people? This is a question that Pleuger loves to work with organisations to try and answer. Pleuger, through his career, has learned that digitalisation is different from implementing standard IT software packages, for it opens the door to innovation. “If digitalisation means what we always associate it with, being agile and disruptive, then this in itself determines that it cannot be a standard software bought from the shelf,” he says. “If you want to be super disruptive, you have to invent something completely new. You have to be bold and adopt a failing forward attitude.” He points to a quote that states that all experts are experts in what was, no one is an expert in what will be. “If you want to be an expert in these innovative technologies and digitalisation then there are three things that must replace experience: vision, leadership and collaboration,” he says. In order to achieve this, an entrepreneurial, agile and creative environment is key.

Roland Berger’s Spielfeld, located in Berlin, is such an environment. over recent years, the former mail sorting office in the central Berlin neighbourhood of Kreuzberg has been transformed into ‘Spielfeld Digital Hub’. The three-storey hub comprises 2,500 square metres of workspaces, meeting rooms, technology areas and kitchens. It is a breeding ground for collaboration, brainstorming and innovation between people from companies of all shapes and sizes, from start-ups to corporates. Spielfeld Digital Hub was founded by consultancy firm Roland Berger in conjunction with Visa. “It’s a place where tech firms, start-ups and venture capitalists come together,” explains Pleuger. “They form an ecosystem in which teams of people from different disciplines and different organisations can innovate together and where their innovations have the chance to mature. “This is the new way of working,” says Pleuger. “In an environment like our Spielfeld we can find out together with our eco-system partners what it means to collaborate in the very spirit of vision, leadership and collaboration. It will ultimately lead to innovation, as it did when Pleuger and his team have spearheaded the digitalisation of category management and thus addressed a white space in the landscape of digital procurement systems and tools. A ground-breaking innovation.

Trying to determine what digitalisation means to each and every one of us links back to Roland Berger’s concept of procurement endgame, a series of frameworks that prepare organisations for the future, whatever it might look like. The Endgame is built around an organisation’s strategic response to industry trends and industry specific disruptors and how that in turn defines new requirements for procurement. The challenge is, and ultimately always will be, navigating this future in a way that will achieve success. Pleuger points back to the idea of failing forward, being bold and collaborating. “I look at the quote again around no experts in what will be. This means that we don’t need to look at people who have done this for 10 or 20 years. We can look at young, fresh and driven individuals,” he says. “Develop these young and hungry individuals and they can bring a massive impact and change into the way procurement works. This can help create a culture that will truly enable digital transformation for any organisation.”

Author

Daniel Ball

Published

18 September 2019

Estimated Read time

5Mins

By Daniel Ball, business development director at waxdigital.com Ever heard the joke that the only way to be popular in…

By Daniel Ball, business development director at waxdigital.com

Ever heard the joke that the only way to be popular in procurement is to buy a dog and take it in to work? Well, times are changing, and procurement’s popularity is on the ascent as it is recognised for its positive contribution to both the environment and society. Many of today’s savvy procurement professionals realise the advantages of adopting new approaches to how they buy goods and services.

Once perceived as the team that simply saves the business’ money, procurement’s role is changing, as both sustainable and ethical purchasing practices increasingly become business priorities.

Legislation such at the UK Climate Change Bill is forcing procurement to address environmental issues such as plastic reduction and biodiversity. And, more and more customers are now making their buying decisions based on their suppliers’ sustainability credentials.

While sustainable procurement can make a big contribution to an organisation’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) efforts, some businesses are making change of a different kind through their purchasing.

Ethical sourcing is a way for organisations to make positive societal change by choosing to buy from social enterprises which support those most marginalised from the workforce. According to Social Enterprise UK there are over 100,000 social enterprises in the UK. They employ two million people, contribute £60 billion to our economy and offer their services across most sectors. Just like traditional businesses, social enterprises work to make a profit but use it to help create positive social change for those most in need of support.

As well as contributing to good causes, engaging with social enterprises can also have a positive impact on the external and internal perception of a company. According to an Ipsos Mori poll, 84% of consumers believe that companies should do more for society. And, working with social enterprises can have a positive impact on staff morale too with 75% of millennials claiming they would agree to a pay cut to work for a more socially responsible company.

From bathroom soap to recruitment services, the UK’s social enterprises are well-equipped to support numerous business needs. Here are a few examples of social enterprises supplying to businesses throughout the UK:

Soap Co. is an ethical brand that creates cruelty-free body care products, including soap for office washrooms. It provides training and work opportunities for people who are visually impaired, or with other disabilities.

Graduate Planet, is a recruitment business which reinvests it profits into local environmental initiatives. 

Auticon is a national IT consultancy exclusively employing autistic adults as IT consultants.

Recycling Lives is recycling and waste management company that supports charity programmes for ex-offenders.

Working with social enterprises can sometimes be as easy as changing office supplies provider. Another business dedicated to changing lives, is WildHearts Group, a leading UK B2B social enterprise. It encourages businesses to make a positive social impact simply by coming to them for office supplies. Providing 35,000 everyday products that businesses need to buy anyway at competitive prices, its profits help funds the work of the WildHearts Foundation who support struggling female entrepreneurs in Africa and young people affected by social immobility in the UK. 

One CPO who works with the WildHearts Group, told us about the impact this approach to procurement is having on the organisation: “Social enterprises have revolutionised the scale of conversations procurement now has with key stakeholders in the business.

“We’ve found an effective way of making people feel good about procurement. We now have case studies demonstrating how we are contributing – for example, we’ve helped a Ugandan mother set up her own business. Borrowing just £40 enabled her to set up her own fruit and vegetable stall.  It’s no longer a conversation about a ream of paper but one about helping someone educate their kids. What’s not to like about that?”

As well as helping facilitate social mobility, there are many more benefits this ethical approach to procurement can bring to the business. Working with social enterprises doesn’t have to mean compromising on cost or quality, with many suppliers credited for their excellent customer service, competitive pricing, and innovative products and services. 

Crucially, it’s also becoming increasingly common for customers to only want to work with businesses who support social enterprises. WildHearts Group say  they often see organisations highlight their association with them in tenders to help them win the business.

Both sustainable and ethical procurement practices not only deliver both environmental and societal benefits but contribute to the success and motivation of the wider business too. But don’t underestimate the impact these approaches to purchasing can have on the procurement team too.

Another CPO told us that he’d met more senior managers at his business through working with social enterprises than he ever would have done so previously. Perhaps now CPOs can raise their profiles without having to buy a dog after all.

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

12 August 2019

Estimated Read time

5Mins

Our exclusive cover story this month features a procurement transformation at Aldar Properties, one of Abu Dhabi’s leading property developers….

Our exclusive cover story this month features a procurement transformation at Aldar Properties, one of Abu Dhabi’s leading property developers. We caught up with Musbah Abu Jarad, Senior Vice President of Corporate and Assets Management Procurement to explore how Aldar Properties utilises procurement excellence.

Read the issue here!

Abu Jarad joined the business in late 2018 and did so at a time of procurement transformation for Aldar. “The procurement function within the company has evolved at Aldar from a cost function into a partnership function,” he says. “What this means is that we no longer look at suppliers as just suppliers to come in and provide services or goods and then leave. We look at them as partners, and ones who share our same environmental responsibility.” Over the last year, Aldar has invested significantly into its procurement function to define a clear strategic function.

Elsewhere, we have a revealing interview with Sammeli Sammalkorpi, the co-founder of Sievo, the world’s leading company focused on procurement analytics, exploring how it achieves this through AI and a client-focused approach.

Plus, features on ethical procurement, AI as utilised by CPOs and a supply chain masterclass with Gartner’s Frank Vorrath. And… our essential guide to all the best conferences and events from around the globe.

I hope you enjoy the issue!

Andrew Woods

Author

Alex Saric

Published

2 August 2019

Estimated Read time

4Mins

By Alex Saric, smart procurement expert at Ivalua Organisations are under more pressure than ever before to innovate at speed,…

By Alex Saric, smart procurement expert at Ivalua

Organisations are under more pressure than ever before to innovate at speed, ensuring they remain relevant in an increasingly competitive business environment. However, one of the barriers to achieving this is the constant drive to cut costs.

In today’s procurement landscape, cost reduction and innovation can no longer be viewed as mutually exclusive. Instead of focusing solely on remaining profitable, organisations need to view cost reduction as a sustainable practice that doesn’t block innovation. This misalignment between objectives means organisations must take more consideration when it comes to supplier management and adopt a more collaborative approach, investing in the right tools to help ensure innovation isn’t stifled by an overarching focus on cost reduction.

Innovation has become a top priority for organisations, but in order to deliver ground-breaking new developments, they must take steps to ensure they have effective supplier management that encourages and enables innovation.

Tapping into supply chain innovation

Suppliers should be a key resource for organisations looking to develop innovative ideas. According to the Institute for Supply Management (ISM), up to 65% of organisational innovation is sourced externally through various partners and suppliers. This means, in order to increase innovation, organisations need to better understand their supplier capabilities by tapping into the skills and knowledge base which will help to drive the business forward.

Despite organisations having access to this supplier information, many don’t use it. In fact, most organisations typically don’t get out enough to explore new ideas from their suppliers. They would much rather keep the innovation and creative thinking in-house with the marketing or planning department. Capgemini’s research on Supply Relationship Management reveals 60% of procurement departments do not interact with their suppliers through any source of social medium. This signifies a considerable amount of potential for growth and shows that resource is going to waste.

The report also found a severe lack of supplier relationships within organisations, with only 16% of Capgemini’s respondents having a corporate strategy and process in place to manage supplier relations. These organisations are failing to utilise the knowledge of their suppliers, resulting in missed opportunities to discuss new strategies or possible product ideas.

Lack of scalability limiting collaboration

The barrier to working alongside suppliers and putting processes in place is often due to a lack of scalability, with too many organisations collaborating via email or verbally with a handful of existing, strategic suppliers. By digitising supplier engagement, collaboration can scale across more suppliers and products for greater overall benefit. Poor technology adoption is a common barrier. Forrester research previously found that over three-quarters (82%) of organisations switched or are considering switching technology providers due to poor level of supplier onboarding (30%) and poor user adoption (27%). This has prevented suppliers from easily communicating with procurement teams or even bidding for contracts.

It is impossible to unlock innovation if the means are not provided to help suppliers get involved with innovation initiatives or suggest ways to sustainably cut costs or improve designs.

Currently, there are organisations that use recognition and collaboration to develop highly effective supplier relation programmes. General Motors (GM) are known forfrequently praising suppliers who have excelled or have a successful collaboration with GM to produce innovative technologies through their supplier programme. This system has helped GM to promote innovation and incentivise suppliers so they can feel rewarded and motivated to share their latest ideas and breakthrough technologies. Organisations that have a supplier relationship management programme in place are able to efficiently measure target outcomes, which promotes continuous improvement in collaboration with their suppliers.

Building a supplier ecosystem to foster innovation

In order to strike a fair balance between cost savings and other objectives such as sustainability and new product development, organisations need to move away from their cost-focused approaches and must instead adopt an entirely new way of managing their suppliers. It’s time for a more measured approach to supplier management, one that will help enterprises focus on diversity and innovation, and which will ultimately encourage sustainable cost savings driven by the supplier rather than the buyer.

However, this will be impossible to achieve without a reliable data foundation, to help organisations make accurate and informed decisions and weigh up their options effectively and accurately. By implementing smart procurement technology to clean up supplier data from multiple sources, organisations can gain 360-degree visibility across the entire supplier base. This will help to unlock a wealth of insights into contracts, orders, and invoices, as well as detailed information on suppliers such as risk factors, relationships and performance evaluation.

Organisations under pressure to innovate at speed can utilise this visibility to build deeper, more meaningful relationships with suppliers, allowing them to collaborate to create sustainable cost savings while also creating new products and services to satiate demand. As the speed of innovation increases in the future, savvy organisations must ensure that conversations about cost don’t become a barrier; otherwise, they risk more savvy rivals utilising their supply chain to rapidly deliver new products to market, leaving those that don’t in their wake.

Author

Elliott Francis

Published

26 July 2019

Estimated Read time

5Mins

Tradeshift co-founder Gert Sylvest, and CPO Roy Anderson, reveal how their global open business platform is transforming the future for…

Tradeshift co-founder Gert Sylvest, and CPO Roy Anderson, reveal how their global open business platform is transforming the future for buyers and sellers. By Elliot Francis

Tradeshift was founded in Denmark in 2010 by Gert Sylvest, Mikkel Hippe Brun and Christian Lanng. The trio’s ambition was to connect organisations across the world with an open business platform capable of transforming the way buyers and sellers interact by digitising and connecting every process. With over 800 staff based in 13 countries worldwide, Tradeshift helps businesses connect with all their suppliers digitally; remove paper and manual processes across procure-to-pay; seize early payment discounts to save money and buy what they need while managing supplier risk.

Sylvest’s vision is clear: “Marrying social technology with hard transactions will change the way the world thinks about business and finance, and allow us to bridge major digital divides.”

The Tradeshift Platform

Our platform allows you to run applications to meet the needs of what you’re doing when you’re doing it,” explains Tradeshift’s CPO Roy Anderson. “Different roles, such as advertising, legal services, facilities or engineering, have different requirements, requisitioning means and connections to their suppliers. They want a system that works for them. Tradeshift creates a user centric model – versus a procurement centric or IT centric model – providing different tools for different skillsets.” Tradeshift’s platform can connect the dots digitally offering a breakthrough in use-ability. “The key element of procurement is penetration,” he adds. “Getting all of your customers on board is a lot easier with this user centric tool.”

Anderson’s career path included the role of CPO at MetLife where he managed close to 20,000 suppliers. With just a few hundred of those automated, his resources were tied to managing the risks and costs of unconnected services tied to an IT-centric model. Today, he identifies three areas where Tradeshift can drive transformation in procurement… The aforementioned deep penetration of connectivity with suppliers digitises the supplier base. Secondly, the platform allows for user centric applications. With the penetration and platform established the third key benefit for users is access to a growing marketplace of products and services. “It becomes something that can work for a CPO very effectively,” he maintains. “You can tie into the Tradeshift marketplace and be able to buy your product at your price, and use the services without having to do the enormous work of setting up and running through the business case and the IT resource plan and the implementation efforts.”

Innovation

Since 2010 Tradeshift has been targeting the Fortune 5000 companies and branching out to cover the whole Source-to-Pay cycle, moving inside organisations and onboarding employees for accounts payable automation, and increasingly for procurement alongside services offered via the marketplace. This innovation has helped define the company’s strategy on AI, blockchain and IoT. “We started to implement Machine Learning and AI back in 2012 and created CloudScan, an industry first scan and capture for the accounts payable process. What differentiates those who profit from Machine Learning is the ability to solve the network layers. Being a cloud-based network platform, we have the ability to learn from both the individual company’s best practice – procurement, invoice approvals, product classification – and how it works across the network. This has helped us develop automatic invoice coding and approvals based on existing patterns.”

Challenges

“It’s always an educative journey,” believes Sylvest. “We’ve been approaching things from a new angle since we went 100% network first in the cloud. Customers that are successful on our platform buy into the bigger vision… When we use apps on a phone, everything is connected by default. Companies get that. After 40 years there is only one way to go, greater digitisation of the supply chain and the collaboration between companies. The challenge for them is to embrace ways of breaking down data silos to leverage the benefits of AI. Big players like Google and Facebook are driving this and putting out their technology as open source and using engineering communities to develop this at breakneck speed. The issue lies in how you adapt and use the technology, so most enterprises today are embarking on that learning process to make sure they reap the benefits.”

Automatic success

The automation of e-invoicing has been a resounding success for the company. Tradeshift Pay is now utilised globally by hundreds of businesses and was recognised in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Procure-to-Pay Suites in 2018. “Tradeshift’s model is to do digital by default,” confirms Anderson. “We work with suppliers to be able to get their documents digitally ripped to start, moving away from paper that needs to be scanned. It’s always going to be a tailored activity, but ultimately suppliers can see that by embracing a digital network, accurate invoices make for accurate payments. Finance teams can manage their working capital more efficiently, suppliers can be paid faster while cash be used more effectively…” Anderson reckons what’s good for the supplier is good for the client. “This is an enormous value proposition to many of our customers,” he adds. “The next step is to digitise the front end – the sourcing of the data analysis and spend analytics; the contract requisitioning, catalogue, and all of the services linked with that.”

Partners delivering applications

The Tradeshift platform is home to more than 300 visionary applications, like FRDM, which allow users to make purchases that elevate both profits and people by offering supply chain transparency from supplier down to raw materials level. “With the FRDM application, you can target the areas where slave labour is prevalent. If the product or service you buy has the potential to be at risk, you can mitigate that risk and aim to eliminate it.” Allied to this are sustainability apps such as Eco and tools for a multitude of tasks from background checks and spend analytics to requisitioning and forecasting.

Tradeshift on trend

Anderson notes that as supply chains digitise, clients are demanding speed, ease of use and a lower cost of implementation. He recalls that in previous roles, as CPO at MetLife and Fidelity, he would create a marketplace inside the company of trusted suppliers with the right risk portfolio that was sustainable, to allow internal customers to get the job done. This could take months – even years in some cases – to set up the suppliers and relevant content, contracts and technology. “My goal now is to be the CPO of an entire network of companies,” says Anderson of the Tradeshift marketplace. “There are organisations out there that separate you from your supplier. I consider that bad business. Our platform will give companies the flexibility to have products and services readily available to capture and curate their own solutions in a matter of days. Now they’re going to get aggregated buying opportunities, but still be able to have their relationship with their manufacturer or supplier.”

Predictions on Procure-to-Pay

Sylvest believes the marketplace embodies the idea of the network, rather than the traditional one-to-one procurement model which misses out on the economics of scale. It’s a place where Tradeshift’s app strategy (300 and counting) will flourish. “When we founded Tradeshift, we chose to make all of our interfaces open source for third parties to develop services,” he explains. “B2B spending is very complex and for every category, especially materials, third parties will bring specialism that can enhance services across different geographies. What will set us apart in the market will be the ability to combine the procurement process with product formation, fulfilment, payment and the financing of the physical goods or based on the invoice.”

Sylvest is most excited about the work Tradeshift is doing with ten of the largest banks (HSBC, CitiBank etc) to provide supply chain financing and discounting in the App Store. “They’ve chosen to have a presence in a competitive marketplace where it’s up to users to decide which financial services suit them best. For me this is proof that our network strategy is working.”

New frontiers for Tradeshift

Tradeshift Frontiers is the company’s digital innovation arm working on two major themes: the future for FinTech and how to connect the physical supply chain with the financial supply chain. Both of these are looking at ways to integrate Blockchain. “Tradeshift Cash was launched in 2018. With half a trillion dollars flowing through the network in receivables, what if you could take those receivables and tokenise them? By turning them into a digital asset you use the Blockchain as a marketplace where invoice tokens are for sale amongst financers. Instead of a traditional sale of invoice volumes over six months, we envisage a much more fluid process where invoices are tokenised in real time and out up for sale. In this competitive model financers compete based on their appetite for risk and knowledge of an industry.” Tradeshift is also working on Ecosystem Finance – extending credit for outstanding receivables between two parties down the supply chain with further tokenisation.

Goals

Faster and friction free financing is the ultimate goal for Tradeshift as it bids to make B2B buying as simple as using a consumer credit card. A key part of its development over the next 12 months will be onboarding partners to deliver critical mass with SKU development for products on the shelf.

“Once you’re digitally connected, then you start to build the value from there,” adds Anderson. “But suppliers don’t necessarily see that value on day one, it takes them time to be able to turn that into an ROI… But, if we look into the future, the only suppliers you’ll want to deal with are those that are digitally connected; more accurate, complete, compliant and transparent in their process. The alternative will be risks in the cost structures.”

Over the next 12 months, the goal for Tradeshift is to add more suppliers to its marketplace, and grow the digital ecosystem. “We’ll build the tools and the connectivity to be able to add a massive amount of value,” pledges Anderson. “It will open people’s minds, just like they did with Y2K when they had to invest in new ERP systems, and they’re investing in this digital environment. This is not an evolution, this is a revolution in how supply chain thinking will be done.”

Author

Kevin Davies

Published

1 July 2019

Estimated Read time

5Mins

DCT Abu Dhabi, has achieved the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply, CIPS, – Corporate Platinum Award, according to state…

DCT Abu Dhabi, has achieved the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply, CIPS, – Corporate Platinum Award, according to state news agency WAM.

The award is the highest certification in the procurement profession globally that can be reached by an organisation. DCT Abu Dhabi is the only organisation to have jumped from CIPS’ Standard Level, directly to CIPS’ Platinum level in a record time of only two years. Traditionally, this process takes four to six years with both Silver and Gold levels in between.

Speaking on the occasion, Saif Saeed Ghobash, Undersecretary of DCT Abu Dhabi, said: “Undertaking the CIPS Procurement Excellence Programme has been incredibly beneficial for DCT Abu Dhabi’s procurement function, and by achieving its highest Platinum Award, we have proven that through commitment, hard work and skill, great things can be achieved. The process has been an invaluable way to assess performance, enabling us to measure our work against the internationally recognised benchmarks set by CIPS. This award puts DCT Abu Dhabi among rarefied company, and will boost DCT Abu Dhabi’s reputation globally.”

The CIPS Procurement Excellence Programme is the only independent, comprehensive, procurement-specific assessment of its kind, which measures the procurement function against world-class standards. It is a globally recognised award that demonstrates how well an organisation is performing whilst building a competitive edge and driving world-class service delivery.

The CIPS Platinum Programme covers five areas of the procurement function and organisation, i.e, Leadership and Organisation, Strategy and Policy, People, Process and Systems and Performance Management.

CIPS is the leading professional organisation in procurement and supply chain management and aims to promote and develop high standards of professional skill, ability and integrity among all those engaged in purchasing and supply chain management globally.

Author

Jon Hansen

Published

20 June 2019

Estimated Read time

6Mins

In this article, Jon Hansen examines two opposing elements of the digital procurement paradox, including what organisations can do to…

In this article, Jon Hansen examines two opposing elements of the digital procurement paradox, including what organisations can do to begin to address the stalemate… 

You are likely familiar with the phrase about irresistible force meeting an immovable object.

When it comes to procurement in the digital age, the same paradox applies to technological advancement and the need for greater security. In other words, technological advancement is the irresistible force that promises to transform procurement and business in general.

While there are several obstacles to the adoption of technologies such as the absence of “clean data” within an enterprise, security is the immovable object that executives cite as being their greatest concern.

The current lay of the land

In my paper Digital Transformation in Procurement, I referred to a McKinsey survey of 1,600 incumbent global companies. In the survey, 23% of the responding executives report having a digital strategy in place. Of those, just 2% have a strategy that includes their supply chain.

While the above numbers are in and of themselves noteworthy, in the context of the 2%, the results of a second survey are even more surprising. In that one, 70% of the respondents say that the supply chain is essential to delivering on the digital promise.

Think about this revelation for a moment. Respondents to a second survey state that the supply chain is essential to realising their company’s digital aspirations. With the first survey, only a small number of organisations have a strategy for digitising their supply chain.

The obvious question is, why?

The risk side of reward

Earlier this year, I had a chance to sit down and talk with the Director, Cyber Security for Cisco Michael Tryon. The focus of our conversation was on how organisations must have a “sure and safe pathway” towards achieving their digital objectives. 

It was an interesting discussion on many levels. What stood out to me the most was Tryon’s reference to an article he had written in which he discusses a report from North Carolina State University.

According to Tryon, the findings from the University’s report show that the top concern of executives in the study was an inability to manage a new risk. The risk to which they are referring to is those associated with rapidly evolving technological advancement.

What is it about evolving technologies that have executives stuck in a holding pattern between the recognition of digital’s importance and the realisation of its promise?

The Amazonisation effect

From the standpoint of procurement, concerns with risk start and end with the Amazonisation of the supply chain, including increasing decentralisation.

One of the great things about Amazon is the ease at which someone can buy a product online with little to no difficulty. Purchasing is a simple exercise that is becoming progressively easier as the platform leverages RPA and AI to provide a seamless and intuitive experience for the buyer at home.

The Amazon experience at home raises the question; why can’t the same buying process exist in the work environment? The answer; decentralisation and independence and the potential risks associated with each.

Independence on the Edge

In another interview I did with the President of Hewlett-Packard Enterprises, there was the suggestion that the success of a digital strategy was dependent on going beyond the cloud to work at the edge.

HPE President Paula Hodgins referred to a study indicating that by 2020, each person globally will have up to 10 IoT devices at their disposal. We are no longer talking about a BYOD to work scenario. We are talking about individuals having incredible computing power at their fingertips all the time – buyers included.

According to Hodgins, this personal digital capability provides tremendous opportunities to maximise efficiency. By dealing with data (or requests) at the point of capture as opposed to pushing everything back to the cloud for processing saves time and money.

Like the Amazon experience, the consumerisation of the procurement process in business is a reality that all organisations need to recognise and embrace. Otherwise, they may not remain competitive in a demanding global economy.

But through the above decentralisation, the vulnerability of working on the edge, i.e., having many access or entry points to a company’s internal information through a myriad of personal IoT devices poses some risk. How do you control access? How do you protect against unauthorised breaches?

Based on the findings of the North Carolina State University report, the best way to address these as well as other concerns regarding securing the supply chain is to wait.

But is this the best option?

Getting to the reward of risk

Overcoming the above challenges comes down to two things.

The first is a willingness on the part of executive leadership to change their way of thinking about how procurement “works.” The second is the development of a viable security strategy.

A January 18th, 2019 Clint Boulton article in CIO magazine sums up the need for executives to align their thinking with the realities of an emerging digital world. In the article, Boulton writes; “your digital transformation is doomed unless you empower employees to succeed in the digital era.” He then goes on to say you must “craft a workplace that boosts engagement and agility.”

Engagement and agility come with decentralisation. It is providing all buyers (not just procurement people) with the ability to conduct transactional business at “the edge” leveraging new technologies. The new technologies to which I am referring include mobile devices, computers and personal analytics.

Once executive leadership not only recognises the tremendous competitive advantages of a digital procurement strategy but that they have to take action to make it a reality, they can then turn their focus to securing their supply chain.

A sound strategy

Securing the supply chain is critical. Especially in an age where with increasing frequency organisations are already sharing more and more information with third parties such as suppliers, business partners, and even customers.

Referring, once again to my talk with Michael Tryon, you need to respond to the “pervasive threats that are inherent in this exciting new world.” The best way to do that is through “a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy. One that focuses on prevention, detection, response and recovery.”

It is in this area that the CIO can take the lead. Within the framework of a collaborative environment that includes the key stakeholders, the CIO can create a strategy that adapts to the new technologies and the way they work.

For example, one organisation suggests using a distributed Security model in which they deploy and interconnect security controls at “points of digital engagement,” i.e., on “the edge.”

A final thought

When it comes to procurement working on the digital edge, it is important to recognise that all buyers do not have to be procurement professionals. Nor should they be.

In other words, people at a department level can leverage RPA and AI technology capabilities to do direct purchasing. Procurement professionals can then focus on the more strategic and complex supply chain acquisitions.

From a procurement standpoint, the effective utilisation of resources both within and external to the procurement department is how organisations will realise the greatest return on their digital strategy.

Author

Elliott Francis

Published

18 June 2019

Estimated Read time

3Mins

CPOstrategy met with procurement leaders from banking, utilities, consulting, solutions providers and financial services. Taking the temperature on the latest…

CPOstrategy met with procurement leaders from banking, utilities, consulting, solutions providers and financial services. Taking the temperature on the latest trends and predictions for the future we spoke with Barclaycard, Enel, Bain, Coupa and Legal & General.

Barclaycard

Rob Tuckwell, Director of Partnerships & B2B

Barclaycard is building an ecosystem of P2P software providers (including Coupa and Amadeus) with the aim of bringing payments and procurement closer together for B2B. “We’ve got to make sure that our payment products are embedded within those ecosystems,” says Tuckwell who is keen for Barclaycard to tackle “horrendous inefficiencies” for its customers… “Digital payment products work in the consumer space. Why is that not filtering through to business? Our strategy is to go from Procure-to-Pay to ‘Procure-and-Pay’. It’s a really key difference that they’re not separate processes anymore and the future for payments and procurement is going to be the convergence of these areas.”

Enel

Salvatore Bernabei, Head of Global Procurement

Enel is among the world’s leading integrated private utilities with a presence in over 40 countries and more than 70 million retail customers. Bernabei is focused on developing relationships to enhance flexibility, minimise time to market and add value. “We welcome innovation by vendors,” he says. “We say: I have a challenge here, I am not capable, with my knowledge, to solve it. It’s a very precise case study. I invite suppliers, offer a case with one month to provide a solution before I select the best idea. We offer the possibility to experiment, on our plans and assets before a contract is awarded.” To support this approach Enel has an agreement with crowdsourcing platform Innocentive.

Bain & Company

Borja Tramazaygues, Procurement Leader EMEA & Gerry Mattios, EVP, APAC

Consulting firm Bain & Company’s Performance Improvement Practice advocates targeted solutions for immediate impact combined with broad transformation programmes to redefine how work gets done. “Once we have helped implement technology to optimise tactical processes in procurement, such as invoicing and purchase orders, we have to address the broader digital struggles of an organisation,” explains Mattios. “Procurement tends to be a back-office activity linked to savings,” agrees Tramazaygues. “There’s a big opportunity for procurement to be a real part of the business; it can play a big role in rebuilding the supply chain to make it more agile, opening the best markets and bringing innovation through from suppliers.” Tramazaygues and Mattios believe new approaches are vital in the current inflationary environment.

Coupa

Rajiv Ramachandran, Product Strategy Management

Coupa offers an all-in-one, end to end, business spend management platform. “Coupa provides users the richness of insights, based not just on their own data but truly normalised, and anonymised data across all the buyer, supplier relationship that exist on our cloud-based platform,” says Ramachandran who cites the need to be able to use consolidated data to chart the efficiencies and risks of suppliers. It’s a “game changer” he sees customers greatly benefiting from when analysing B2B data on a platform holding approximately one trillion dollars of spend. Coupa believe the ability to match your progress against the community of the platform, and take efficiencies from it, points to the future for agile procurement as part of an ecosystem.

Legal & General

Maarten Ectors, Chief Innovation Officer

Legal & General is focused on disrupting procurement from the inside out. Ectors stresses the importance of allowing ecosystems to generate innovative solutions for its customers. “You need to get everybody at your organisation excited about innovation,” he advises. “You can’t innovate on your own and if you don’t collaborate with the challengers in the market they can only disrupt you, but not in a positive way.” Ectors highlights an important trend, the need to optimise the cost of failure: “Our Beta programme runs four-week trials with new companies to assess potential new partners,” he explains of a process which allows L&G to remain agile in its approach to innovations that can speed up claims handling from days to minutes.

Author

Kevin Davies

Published

15 June 2019

Estimated Read time

10Mins

By Kevin Davies Listen to the podcast here! In your career you’ve identified some serious unlocked strategic potential in the…

By Kevin Davies

Listen to the podcast here!

In your career you’ve identified some serious unlocked strategic potential in the supply chain, what first alerted you to this?

I have been working for some time with Dr Bram Desmet and he wrote for me, one of the most profound and excellent business and supply chain strategy books called “Supply Chain Strategy and Financial Metrics”. Now, while I was actually in contact with him, I had the privilege to contribute to the book with the forward, and also with a business case study on my previous work with a company called Johnson Controls.

That encouraged me to look into the concept of everything involved in business transformation and supply chain and the idea of taking a more strategic approach to it. Leading up to Bram and myself, working on a concept called “Strategy Driven Supply Chain” and also the “Strategy Driven Value Planning and Execution” model.

In your white paper, The Concept of the Strategy Driven Supply Chain,  you explore the current trend of businesses putting their supply chain front and forward It highlights some of the issues that companies are going through…

There’s an enormous amount of change. We know that probably 63% conform, but their CEOs are going through a business model change over the next couple of years. Now, what we are also highlighting is that lots of companies are overly focusing on gross and margin improvement, and have a somewhat  lack in focus on shareholder value. That’s measured in a metrics called Return on Capital Employed (ROCE). Another problem is that companies don’t have enough understanding of the true complexity of their supply chain and how to balance service costs, and capital employed within what Bram calls the ‘supply chain triangle’.

Having a better understanding would lead to sharper strategies and stronger execution. This would lead to more sustainable performance and results. So it’s really that sustainable performance and results aspect which comes through, and we believe that it looks like a perfect storm. Supply chain is at the front of it. A supply chain that is seen from an entity point of view, and not just a functional point of view, is really important to companies. Companies have different supply chains and each of the supply chains needs to be strategy driven. Then, different strategies lead to different supply chains with different targets and different trade-off, for service cost and capital employed. There’s also a belief that supply chain strategy is simply following a business strategy or from the business strategy. We do believe that, but it is not a sequential process and the value proposition, and the supply chain are the ying and the yang of the business strategy. Only together can they define how business generates shareholder value and is measured by ROCE.

So, it’s about looking into supply chain from the perspective of driving value for customers, and for the business. Supply chain delivers on the promise that businesses are making through their value proposition.

Does this represent an evolution from the traditional operational back-end supply chain function?

Absolutely! It’s an evolution defined by asking the question as to what supply chain management actually is. We believe that supply chain management is more about balancing the supply chain triangle of service cost and cash. It is also about facilitating the internal debate between sales operations and finance. It somehow takes on the role of balancing these kind of trade off decisions.

Now that also proves that the supply chain is coming from the back room into the front room. It is becoming an equal partner around the C-suite, hence we are also talking about putting the supply chain or Chief Supply Chain Officers (CSCOs) into a more strategic role. That would require people operating on that level with more financial and strategic skills instead of in the past, having just operational skills. They will be measured on their operational skills and their execution.


Are you seeing examples of that in action now?

Companies are now taking a more strategic approach. We also see companies promoting people who have lead the supply chain become the Chief Executive Officer. You’ve seen other companies in the US like Apple. Tim Cook, who had been leading the supply chain for Apple for many years under Steve Jobs, is now the one leading the organisation. Now that’s a very good example when you look into how supply chain becomes a more competitive advantage for an organisation that has and understands the importance of having a great supply chain. It also shows how important it is to have somebody leading the organisation that he has an operational, financial and strategic skillset. The future skills requirements of the CSCOs in many companies will follow this path.


Would this require quite a substantial cultural shift? How important is change management to an evolution of this kind?

Yeah, absolutely. We say that it takes a bit of a leap in terms of maturity of organisations, and also changing and shifting the paradigms from where they are today to where they need to be in the future. Now that requires a value creation and that is why we actually started to work on the concept of the strategy driven supply chain. Even knowing that this is maybe five to ten years out. But starting the debate and starting the value creation really helps to facilitate and move the needle up. It’s enabling organisations to have  a more serious look into their strategic supply chain and what it means to them as well as what it means to the overall strategy employment process in the organisation.

Some organisations took the approach of being driven by gross initiatives, without truly understanding the strategy behind them or the value proposition and even the complexity of the business. How do they want to differentiate themselves in the marketplace and what does it mean in terms of the service they have to deliver, the corresponding cost as well as the capital employed in their environment? We are looking at how we can help organisations by highlighting the problem or the potential issue. More importantly, it’s about finding a solution and an approach, and taking a different more strategic approach in future. We’re highlighting how the supply chain triangle can be balanced differently by promoting the CSCO into a more strategic role.

Would that result in the CSCO reporting on a peer-to-peer basis to a CEO?

It’s an equal partner in the business, and with the same level of importance  as the C-suite, (CFOs, CEOs etc.) The CSCO becomes the ring man. They will help the CEO, and the entire leadership of the company, including board of directors, make more informed decisions, or as I would call it ‘deliberate choices’.


So the key to this is that the supply chain function has a wealth of data and knowledge and insight readily available to use?

It’s also about the reality of balancing the triangle. When you think about a supply chain, and the mission of a supply chain, it’s often about delivering the right product at the right time, at the lowest cost, at the lowest inventory. There is conflict in the triangle all the time. It’s about a service you want to give to your customers. When you talk about service, it’s not only how you move your products and deliver them but it’s also the complexity of the product. It’s about the order flexibility you want in order to give you the product portfolio as such, but also having an understanding of what it means in terms of cost you’re going to have in the organisation and the capital employed.

When we talk about the capital employed, it’s really about two elements: a working capital (the decision you have to make to strategically keep a certain inventory level in your organisation) or it’s how you deploy your assets in a fixed asset structure. How this applies to the conflicts and the triangle and the critical stakeholders in your business. The VPO of sales, as an example,  what does he really care about? It’s probably the sales top line and market share. The COO or Head of Production? The primary concern is probably efficiency, as efficiency drives cost. But if you think about the VPO sourcing of purchasing, it’s the spend and how the company can buy more volume at a lower cost. That’s conflict. 

So the question then becomes;  who is best positioned in a company to balance that? Decisions and people being driven differently in terms of service cost and cash and the best positioned person to do that would be the CSCO. Now that’s the best thing for organisations to understand and if they do so, it can really set them up for a very successful future or operating on a new competitive level.

Do you envision a situation where a CSCO could evolve and transition
into a successful CEO?

Yeah, absolutely. That’s a prediction Dr Bram Desmet and myself are making and we believe you will see it happening more and more in the future, and in organisations where successful CSCOs who have those operational skills, financial skills and strategic skills are the best people for taking the job at the top of the house.

If a supply chain function is evolving in this way it would have to shed some of its traditional operations, is it true to say that some of this could be liberated through technology?

Yes you are right. You see the merge between the physical worlds and the digitalisation of the digital world, and enabling technologies. Companies are not only selling products and services, they sell solutions and outcomes. That is a new complexity that organisations are dealing with that requires certain changes and like I said before, be crystal clear about the value proposition you’re going to have or want to have as a business, and what it means in terms of the corresponding supply chain, and now your supply chain or different supply chains are delivering on the promise you made. The question is now about how you deploy your resources in your organisation more efficiently and effectively. That’s what we are talking about.

Do you think this would affect, going forward, the training of supply chain officers?

I believe it goes deeper than that. I believe if affects structures, it affects roles and it affects your whole recruiting process in terms of the discourse you would need as an organisation. It would also impact talent development.  Going back to the example of the CSCO, in the past he has probably been promoted based on his ability to bring in results based on how the organisation performs. Now in the future I think it would be more about the balance between how he is actually contributing to the overall results of that organisation based on a strong operational performance. It’s also about financial results of an organisation being top line, bottom line and results or returns and what kind of strategic skills he has in terms of taking the organisation forward.

So that’s what we are talking about and that requires a new skillset and new talents in the organisation. There will need to be new training which needs to be provided and opportunities for people to move into these kind of roles.


What would you say are some of the obstacles to the evolution of this role?

Probably mindset and the culture of an organisations where they have traditionally rewarded their people differently in the past. They need to overcome that and look at what that change means for them. They need to be ready with their maturity and company culture to move and shift the paradigm to a more strategy-driven supply chain and value planning and execution model. So culture probably is the key obstacle in the evolution of the role.

In your vast knowledge, do you see any industry sectors where it’s accelerating more than it is in others?

Well that’s a very good question. I would say, from my own perspective it is that you see some of industries a little bit ahead.  Technology companies for example would be ahead in terms of looking at that from more of a strategic point of view. Overall I would say that more and more companies are at the starting point of truly understanding that change needs to happen.

Author

Kevin Davies

Published

12 June 2019

Estimated Read time

5Mins

Click here to read it! The latest issue of CPOstrategy is live and this month’s cover story features Natalia Graves,…

Click here to read it!

The latest issue of CPOstrategy is live and this month’s cover story features Natalia Graves, VP Head of Procurement at cloud management giant Veeam Software who discusses its recent procurement transformation. “We looked at simplifying our processes and putting systems into place that allow Veeam teams across the globe to move even faster,” she explains.

Elsewhere, we speak to Dr. Preston Butler JR, on achieving procurement excellence at Vinnell Arabia, which provides logistics and training to the National Guard of Saudi Arabia. We also spend time with Mahmoud Al Alawi, Director of Procurement and Contracts at Higher Colleges Technology (HCT), who discusses the organisation’s digital journey in procurement. While Frank Vorrath, Executive Partner Supply Chain at Gartner details the hidden potential of a strategy-driven supply chain. We also provide five big takeaways from World Procurement Week and list the best procurement events and conferences from around the globe.

Enjoy the issue!

Kevin Davies

Author

Kevin Davies

Published

Estimated Read time

5Mins

Digital transformation is making it easier for procurement organisations to “do more with less,” according to newly-released Procurement Key Issues research from  The Hackett…

Digital transformation is making it easier for procurement organisations to “do more with less,” according to newly-released Procurement Key Issues research from  The Hackett Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: HCKT). But there is still significant need for procurement to address its critical development priorities for 2019, including: improving analytical capabilities, aligning skills and talent with business needs, leveraging supplier relationships, enhancing agility, and achieving true customer-centricity.

Digital transformation is beginning to have a significant impact on procurement organisations, The Hackett Group’s research found, with 30-40 percent saying it has had a high impact in achieving enterprise objectives, enhancing performance, optimising the service delivery model, and addressing roles, skills profiles, and needs. Over the next two to three years, procurement organisations expect the impact of digital transformation to dramatically increase, with key areas like robotic process automation and advanced analytics seeing particularly high adoption growth rates (2.3x and 60 percent, respectively). Broad adoption of e-procurement technologies is also expected to grow by nearly 2x.

Procurement expects its budget to grow at a much slower pace this year than in 2018 (1.3 percent, versus 2.7 percent last year). Procurement staffing shows a similar trend, with 0.9 percent growth expected, versus 2.8 percent in 2018. With revenue growth expected to increase from 5 percent in 2018 to 5.7 percent for 2019, this creates significant productivity and efficiency gaps that procurement organizations must overcome.

A complimentary version of the research is available for download, following registration, at this link:http://go.poweredbyhackett.com/keyissuespro1902sm. Note – The full research piece includes 7 charts containing more than 60 complete metrics.

Procurement has aggressive plans to increase its use of digital tools and procurement-specific technologies over the next two years, the research found. Procurement will invest heavily in cloud-based business applications along with several data management technologies: data visualization (where adoption rates will rise by 24 percent), master data management (57 percent adoption growth), and advanced analytics (60 percent adoption growth). Spend optimization analytics and dashboarding adoption rates are expected to grow by 61 percent. Broad-based adoption of e-procurement technology is expected to grow by nearly 2x.

Use of mobile computing and robotic process automation (RPA) are also expected to rise dramatically, indicating a focus on more efficient, agile processes across the procurement lifecycle. RPA sees the highest adoption growth rate among digital technologies, at 2.3x. While RPA is primarily being used for procure-to-pay processes at present, there are a range of other procurement areas that can benefit from automation of repetitive work, including updating of vendor master files and electronic auction setup.

Procurement-specific technologies are expected to become far more broadly adopted over the next two years, with nearly universal adoption of e-procurement, spend optimization analytics, and supplier relationship management systems, and just slightly lower adoption rates for e-invoicing and contract lifecycle management. This represents a major shift toward customer-centricity, designed to enable organizations to simplify and streamline processes, and improve agility.

The research found that procurement’s 2019 actual transformation focus is poorly aligned with what should be its critical development priorities; i.e. areas identified as of critical importance, but with very limited ability to address. Among those, development of analytical capabilities is a transformation focus for about half of procurement organisations. Modernising application platforms is another top transformation focus, and is a key way to achieve simplification due to the complexity of many legacy environments. Consolidating multiple legacy systems is also a critical step towards to improving data management and analytics.

But of the other critical development areas, less than a third of all procurement organizations have a major initiative in place to improve skills and talent with business needs, and even fewer said they intend to work on agility or focus on improving customer-centricity and supplier relationship management capabilities.

Procurement is also focused on its role enabling the enterprise in 2019, with an array of priorities that include elevating their role as a trusted advisor, continuing to reduce purchase costs, improving stakeholder satisfaction, and enhancing agility.

“Procurement organizations are clearly making investments in digital transformation and are seeing real benefits. The focus on improving analytics for 2019 is particularly encouraging. But the laundry list of critical areas where they have very limited ability to make improvements is very disconcerting,” said The Hackett Group Principal & Global Procurement Advisory Practice Leader Chris Sawchuk. “Despite the fact that procurement knows what it needs to do, it’s simply not fully translating into an effective plan of action. Procurement must become fully dedicated to advancing its capabilities in analytics, customer-centricity, agility and more, while also investing in the right talent to help lead those changes.”

According to The Hackett Group Research Director Laura Gibbons, “Failing to address the five critical development areas poses a significant risk. For example, we see skills & talent as a particularly critical risk factor. Procurement has begun to truly invest in digital transformation, but if it doesn’t have the right people in place, digital tools could end up being misused or wasted. You need the right people, with the right skills in place, to take full advantage of what digital transformation can offer.”

This same issue holds true in several other of these critical development areas,” explained Gibbons. “Agility is critical if procurement is to be able to respond to market changes. Without a focus on customer-centricity, procurement can miss significant opportunities for improving efficiency, simply because they don’t effectively know what the business needs. And without supplier relationship management, opportunities for innovation can be missed.”

Sawchuk explained that the potential impact of digital transformation in procurement is powerful. “Advanced analytics can enable companies to become less reactive and more predictive, more quickly and accurately identifying and avoiding risks. It can drive dashboards where anyone can log in and get real-time data.  Dynamic discounting is another area that can be very challenging for many companies, but can be easily enabled by digital transformation.”

“Smart automation can reduce operating costs, and eliminate transactional work, freeing up staff time for more value-added efforts,” said Sawchuk. “Even if procurement can simply focus on a larger percentage of the spend base, the value is very significant.  And digital tools can streamline and improve the experience of internal customers and suppliers.”

The Hackett Group’s 2019 Procurement Key Issues research, “2019 CPO Agenda: Building Next-Generation Capabilities,” is based on results gathered from about 150 executives in the US and abroad, most at large companies with annual revenue of $1 billion or greater.

Author

Kevin Davies

Published

10 June 2019

Estimated Read time

3Mins

The Chartered Institute for Procurement and Supply (CIPS) has released its Procurement Power List, which recognises those leaders in the…

The Chartered Institute for Procurement and Supply (CIPS) has released its Procurement Power List, which recognises those leaders in the profession pushing the field of procurement forwards. 

CIPS and Supply Management asked for nominations from a panel of experts and created a long list of candidates, including the CPOs of FTSE 100 organisations and significant public sector organisations.  These names were debated during a panel with leading executive search agencies and industry experts, to create a list of 30 names, plus 10 ones to watch.

The following criteria were used for nominations: 

  • Employment status. Candidates must be employed practitioners and not working as interims or consultants. They must be of a significantly senior level (CPO and above) and have a successful track record from previous roles, as well as being their current role long enough to have achieved significant outcomes.
  • Geography. CPOs based in Europe, or those who work for global organisations but have responsibility for European procurement teams.
  • Internal influence. They sit in a prominent place in the company hierarchy and are actively involved in board and ExCo level discussions in their organisation.
  • External influence. They have non-executive board positions in listed, private or public bodies.
  • Influencing the wider profession. They share their knowledge with the profession via trade magazines, blogs, social media and speaking at events.
  • Developing others in the function. They give back to more junior procurement and supply professionals, for example mentoring or speaking in schools.
  • Depth and breadth of experience. They have responsibility for other areas of the business beyond procurement and supply.
  • Their relationship with CIPS makes no difference to their inclusion, or not, in the list and they do not have to be CIPS members.
  • No professional with an official connection to CIPS can be on the list, for example, board members or committees. 

The Procurement Power List will change and evolve annually. 

THE LIST 2019

The Procurement Power List for 2019 (in alphabetical order):

Ones to Watch 2019:

Author

Kevin Davies

Published

3 June 2019

Estimated Read time

5Mins

“Great companies need to do three things: out-think, out-compete and outperform their competitors…” Frank Vorrath, Executive Partner of Supply Chain…

“Great companies need to do three things: out-think, out-compete and outperform their competitors…” Frank Vorrath, Executive Partner of Supply Chain at Gartner.

This week, in the third episode of an exclusive six-part supply-chain masterclass, Frank Vorrath, Executive Partner of Supply Chain at Gartner, reveals how supply chain excellence operating systems can really help build the muscle of an organisation, as enterprises evolve and react to volatile markets, increased competition and rising customer expectations.

Click here to hear the whole interview!

“There are still many companies struggling to make long term commitments, and not really addressing the balance between the uncertainty of short-term financial performance and long-term investments, to build better capabilities. Now for many, many years, there has been continuous improvement initiatives being around standardisation of processes and all these good things, but we need to take that to the next level of building truly end-to-end capabilities.

We’re talking about building something which creates more sustainable business performance and results… When I talk about a supply chain excellence operating system, it’s really to build the muscle in an organisation, to be able to cope with future requirements, from the customer side in responding to customer expectations, but also being able to compete differently in the marketplace and building capabilities related to people, processes, technology as an enabling element…”

Author

Mike Dickinson

Published

Estimated Read time

5Mins

by Mike Dickinson – SMMT Industry Forum General Manager, automotive and supply chain   Up until recently, supply chain managers…

by Mike Dickinson – SMMT Industry Forum General Manager, automotive and supply chain  

Up until recently, supply chain managers have called the shots when it came to supplier relationships. Suppliers were dictated to when it came to products and the quantity required, with contracts won or lost on price alone.

It was also standard practice for problems with supply to result in suppliers being reprimanded – either fined or presented with less favourable terms or treatment. In turn, customers had prices dictated with little negotiation on other key areas such as service, MOQs and delivery time frames.

Nowadays, suppliers are part of the business, and that previous management style, especially in emerging sectors or new, innovative businesses, just isn’t conducive to a healthy supply chain. 

In order to improve and maintain a good relationship with suppliers, supply chain managers need to move away from an outdated business culture of finding someone to blame, and towards a more modern, collaborative approach. 

Top five tips for maintaining good relationships with suppliers

  1. Communication: Talk to suppliers regularly
  2. Teamwork: Plan for contingencies and accept accountability
  3. Understanding: Have a working knowledge of a supplier’s business and/ or operating procedures
  4. Stay flexible: Adapt to everyday issues as they arise and resolve them quickly
  5. Feedback: Encourage open discussions around how to work together more efficiently in the future

How millennials will manage suppliers

This ‘resolve and improve’ mentality looks likely to become standard practice, as according to Relate* by 2025 75% of the workforce will be millennials (those born between 1981- 1996). Due a shift in working behaviours, this generation looks likely to have a greater impact on supply chain relationships than their predecessors

A recent article in Forbes** stated that, “millennials will only interact with brands that are open and transparent, stand for more than their bottom line, and address environmental and socioeconomic issues in the community.” The desire to see suppliers as part of the team, rather than a customer and provider relationship, will better suit a changing supply chain culture.

The management styles of previous generations – such as Baby Boomers (1946 – 1964) and Gen- X (1965 – 1980) – tended to be more aloof, with a focus on the bottom line and an ability to confront problems head on. While there are benefits to that approach, it just won’t work for millennials who have a need for social responsibility, constant communication and teamwork.

Prices, scaled discounts, collaboration through planning, rebates, commitment to buy, returns acceptance for new range releases, VMI, consignment stock agreements – are already common for those who actively manage their relationships with suppliers.

Different sectors also differ in their changing approach to supply chain relationship management. Heavy industrial areas such as Automotive, Industrial Machining and Aerospace, are lagging with the new approach to supplier management, while the more public-facing industries – particularly sectors with a strong consumer reach where their customer base demands high quality, responsible, efficient supply – such as Technology, Fashion and Fast-Moving Consumer Goods, are pushing the boundaries of what was once standard practice.

Technology is lifting limitations

These forward-facing industries are also more likely to embrace new technology and be willing to apply it to their management strategies. Technology which can help to lift the previous limitations of supplier relationship management is already available. For example: Blockchain promises to allow visibility throughout the supply chain, making it easy to view key factors such as: current stock, production, shipping information, quality issues and pricing of raw material data.

Transitioning from a one-sided supplier management approach, to a joined-up partnership means that measuring a full range of services (price, lead time, quality, customer service, environmental sustainability, CSR) is essential if technological advancements are to be adopted. 

In process crucial areas of business, such as supply chain, good relationships are key to delivering to targets, and no supplier will sign up to sharing data (honestly) if there is the fear of punishment as a result.

Relationships don’t break down overnight

Healthy working relationships are built on trust, mutual respect, mindfulness and communication, however, when we neglect one or more of these areas, the relationship suffers.

Usually there are a number of errors which result in the erosion of trust and respect over time. These errors usually fall into one of the following categories: Pre-contract mistakes, contract errors, termination issues and the breakdown of relationships.

Businesses who rely on an efficient supply chain to remain profitable know that the relationships with those within the chain are paramount.  It is essential for these businesses to build and maintain high performing relationships with customers and suppliers. The inability to maintain an effective working relationship can have a huge impact on the entire supply chain, causing issues such as:

  • Stock availability problems due to poor performance
  • Obsolescence issues due to variability in supply
  • Being stuck holding excess levels of stock to buffer the impact from suppliers
  • Little to no support to manage changing demand patterns
  • Increasing supplier costs with no negotiation

Training is available

Companies who feel they need support can turn to analysts such as SMMT Industry Forum, who helps global manufacturers understand, optimise and improve both manufacturing capability and business performance. SMMT Industry Forum was created by the UK government, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, and vehicle manufacturers in order to improve the competitiveness of the UK’s automotive supply chain.

Mike Dickinson has over 25 years’ experience in supply chain and manufacturing leadership roles, having worked for Nissan, General Motors and Qoros Automotive. He has managed global operations including greenfield build-ups and brownfield transitions, in Asia Pacific, Germany and Shanghai. He was trained in lean manufacturing techniques by Japanese Master engineers in the 1980s.

* https://relate.zendesk.com/articles/millennials-as-managers/

**https://www.forbes.com/sites/jefffromm/2017/12/13/why-label-transparency-matters-when-it-comes-to-millennial-brand-loyalty/#782843563dac

Author

Tracey Harris

Published

24 May 2019

Estimated Read time

3Mins

The latest International Data Corporation (IDC) Innovators report highlights five companies who are disrupting the procurement world with their use…

The latest International Data Corporation (IDC) Innovators report highlights five companies who are disrupting the procurement world with their use of technology, with a particular focus on improving and streamlining supplier relationships. Here is our round-up of who they are and why you should be checking out their offerings.

Written by: Lucy Dixon

FairMarkIT
Boston-based FairMarkIT offers a tail spend management platform that uses machine learning to take charge of procurement. In other words, it will save time and money on the significant amount of expenditure that is not already actively managed by procurement processes – the sourcing and buying of low-value items that can make up the majority of an organisation’s purchases. It is a web-based SaaS platform that offers an alternative to outsourcing and integrates with ERP and P2P. FairMarkIT’s customers typically see between six and 12 percent in cost savings.
fairmarkit.com

LVRG
LVRG promises easier and stronger supplier relationships, and it delivers on this by freeing up more of your time to work on those relationships rather than supplier research or data entry. The system builds up summary snapshots of all your suppliers using available data and integrates with existing software, from Asana and Slack to Dropbox and Salesforce, which will help give the full picture of your suppliers. Security is a top priority for LVRG, and it is committed to getting the right balance between transparent communications and privacy concerns.
lvrg.ai

SirionLabs
SirionLabs is shaking up the procurement world by using technology to disrupt how businesses think about contracts. Its contract management software offers supplier governance, revenue assurance and enhanced visibility. It automates traditional governance processes end-to-end and delivers real-time data-driven analytics, which will streamline contract management and automatically generate new contracts, while tracking the real-time performance of existing contracts. Its latest innovation is SirionBI, which enables real-time access to big data generated during large services engagements between organisations, including data for obligations, service levels, invoicing, issues, actions and spend.
sirionlabs.com

Tealbook
This Ontario-based company is a global network of buyers and suppliers, created using software developers, machine learning engineers and procurement experts. Machine learning and analytics give the user a transparent view of every supplier, with more valuable insights produced as usage increases. Tealbook’s in-house data scientists support procurement teams with constantly evolving technology to drive change. It invests heavily in research through a partnership with the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence and has a growing partner community of innovative companies working together to transform procurement.
tealbook.com

Vizibl
Vizibl is all about growth through supplier innovation and collaboration – harnessing the expertise of all the organisations in your network. It is a cloud-based system with the ability to help you manage all supplier relationships, and at the same time bringing the benefits of enhanced collaboration, improved speed, transparency and efficiency. Vizibl is built with input from specialists in procurement, innovation, strategy, marketing, manufacturing and finance, with a focus on building software that enables companies to create more valuable relationships with their partners.
vizibl.co

Author

Eman Abouzeid

Published

22 May 2019

Estimated Read time

5Mins

Written by: Eman Abouzeid, Global Procurement and Supply Chain Professional The theory of stakeholder relationships is an increasingly significant area…

Written by: Eman Abouzeid, Global Procurement and Supply Chain Professional

The theory of stakeholder relationships is an increasingly significant area in the procurement and supply field. Identifying and defining who the stakeholders are is vitally important in any business scenario and equally so in procurement and supply, in order to perfectly understand how they are involved and what influence they can bring as a direct impact on the work and success of procurement and supply. 

The theory of stakeholder relationships is an increasingly significant area in the procurement and supply field. Identifying and defining who the stakeholders are is vitally important in any business scenario and equally so in procurement and supply, in order to perfectly understand how they are involved and what influence they can bring as a direct impact on the work and success of procurement and supply. 

A stakeholder is an individual or groups of people who have an interest in an organisation; these may be colleagues in other parts of the organisation, as well as people and groups outside the organisation. Stakeholder groups can be profiled into three different categories:

1. Internal stakeholders group; such as directors and senior managers, the technical/design function, manufacture/production/operations function, sales and marketing function, finance/admin function, storage and distribution/logistics function.

2. Connected stakeholders group; such as shareholders, end customers, intermediary customers (e.g. agents/distributors/retail outlets), suppliers, financial institutions/lenders.

3. External stakeholders group; such as government and regulatory bodies, pressure groups (e.g. Greenpeace), interest groups (e.g. consumer associations and trade unions), community and society at large.

Why is stakeholder profiling important?

It is worth taking the time to profile your stakeholder groups for these reasons:

1. Decision Making: profiling provides an insight into how much influence stakeholders have over decisions. Moreover, it helps you to allow time for responses while working with stakeholders who tend to be slow to act.

2. Communication: profiling helps you to identify the best way to share the features and benefits of your products and services. In addition, it enables you to include stakeholders’ needs in a communication strategy.

3. Understanding: profiling enables you to be aware of what stakeholders’ needs, wishes and priorities are, also it makes it easier to keep track of changing needs and requirements, and it helps you to see the market from stakeholders’ points of view. Likewise, a clear understanding of your stakeholders can help you to deliver more acceptable solutions that more closely fit their needs.

Approaches followed to build rapport with internal and external stakeholders:

Effective communication with stakeholders in any project or business relationship is important as there needs to be an exchange of information between the parties. People will be engaged at various stages in the process and any communication blockages may result in incorrect assumptions and decisions.

Considerably, it is important for the organisation and stakeholders to get to know each other and understand each others’ motivations. This helps to build a relationship where each party is happy to deal with the other, and then, eventually, learn to trust one another. Trust is established when each side has shown themselves to be reliable, consistent, and able to keep promises.

Building rapport with internal stakeholders:

In a business, everyone needs to feel part of the same team and that they are all working towards achieving a common goal. If management do not communicate their expectations to everyone then staff or whole department may go in different directions and lose track of the organisation’s overall goals.

Internal stakeholders feel more engaged with the business if they are kept informed of where the business is heading and what its significant aims and achievements are.

Building rapport with external stakeholders:

Building rapport with external stakeholders takes a little more effort as they are not involved directly with what is going on in the business.

It is vitally important to keep external stakeholders updated with the business’ products and services, goals and achievements. They do not need to know the details of how the business runs, but they do need to understand the aims of the business.

Key techniques and strategies to develop, maintain, and improve relationships with your internal and external stakeholders to promote an effective procurement and supply function:

Having established a connection with stakeholders, to ensure future success you must build a trusting and lasting relationship with them. Whoever they are, whether senior to you or outside your organisation, you can use similar key techniques to help you strengthen these relationships:

1. Be honest and open: being honest and open with stakeholders makes them more likely to be the same with you. If you need help, ask for it. Stakeholders will appreciate your honesty and value the opportunity to assist before a situation escalates.

2. Be proactive: dealing with risks and issues straight away helps you to spot challenges before they become a problem. You cannot control what crops up but you can control how to respond.

3. Be positive: no matter the challenges in your relationship with stakeholders, remaining confident that you will find a solution helps solutions to be found.

4. Listen to others: make an effort to engage with your stakeholders and listen to what they have to say. Understand others’ points of view before you try to get them to understand yours.

5. Have empathy: gain a clear understanding of the stakeholders’ needs and wants. How would you react if you were in their position? – look for a solution that will benefit all parties (win-win).

6. Set a good example: build trust and respect and aim to be professional. It takes a lot to build a reputation, but it can be lost very quickly.

Maintaining relationships with stakeholders:

The better your relationships with your stakeholders are, the more likely it is that your will be able to overcome challenges as they arise.

– Involve stakeholders: Do not lose sight of your stakeholders over time. You built good relationships at the outset and it is easy, under the pressure of work, to forget to maintain those relationships. Maintain regular contact and keep the communication channel open so the stakeholders can also contact you.

– Keep your word: Maintain truth and honesty throughout the relationship. You are accountable for what you are responsible for. If you say you are going to do something, then do it. If the stakeholder feels you are not keeping your word they will begin to lose respect for you and feel that you do not respect them.

– Keep an open mind: Challenges will happen so you need to consider all options when trying to resolve an issue. Be open to the other person’s input – it may be the solution you seek.

– Address issues as they arise: Often issues are side-lined in the hope that they may resolve themselves miraculously, but they usually do not! Deal with them straight away, discuss them, agree on a course of action, learn any lessons and move on. The relationship will be stronger as a result.

Improving relationships with stakeholders:

Occasionally, you will encounter stakeholders with whom you find it difficult to develop a good relationship. There may also be times when a previously good relationship becomes less successful. In these situations, it is important to maintain a professional attitude toward the relationship.

Additionally, you can make a renewed effort to get to know and understand the person. Try to uncover what resistance there is, and why they are behaving as they are. There may well be a simple issue that can be easily resolved.

In conclusion:

Within an organisation, and between the organisation and its suppliers and customers, there needs to be effective and transparent engagement and communication. Therefore, building rapport and developing relationships with all groups of stakeholders are considered the core of building valuable long-term business partnerships.

Author

Kevin Davies

Published

17 May 2019

Estimated Read time

5Mins

This week’s exclusive podcast features SAP Ariba’s Chief Digital Officer Dr. Marcell Vollmer who examines the integral elements to a…

This week’s exclusive podcast features SAP Ariba’s Chief Digital Officer Dr. Marcell Vollmer who examines the integral elements to a successful procurement transformation and how it aligns with, and helps steer, a company’s strategic aims

Procurement is undergoing a revolution. No longer a reactive back-office function, designed to keep costs down, procurement is evolving into a vital, strategic aid that provides the c-suite with extensive insights and forecasts that affect the entire business. The chief procurement officer is now a vital cog in the corporate hierarchy who helps to drive value and to steer the business forward.

With any revolution, there are revolutionaries, and SAP’s Chief Digital Officer, Marcell Vollmer is one such figure. Vollmer has helped to forge a new identity for the CPO during his time at SAP. Vollmer’s current role at SAP, the global advisory and strategy, is helping its clients define and execute digital transformation strategies, including the procurement and supply chain functions. “Digital transformation is about focusing on a vision for the future,” he explains.

So, where does a procurement transformation begin? “I think the most important thing for digital transformation is to focus on the structure, the organisation, the process side, and then finally on the systems,” Vollmer tells us, from his Munich office. “Oh, and don’t forget the people and the change management on the journey, who are key to the overall success.” It’s no surprise that many businesses are preparing for the future as everyone wants to understand, learn and adapt to a constantly shifting landscape. And although procurement is emerging into a progressive role, Vollmer is quick to point out the volatility of technological change. Our CEO Bill McDermott says: ‘Change has never moved as fast as now, and it will never move as slow as today.’”

“Part of my role is helping them to cluster a little bit and structure the agenda because the change is so fast. 50% of all the companies on the Fortune 500 list for the year 2000 are no longer on that list. The speed (of change) is tremendous. Change has never moved this fast, and it will never move this slowly again, and so everyone is currently concerned a little bit and wants to prepare for the future.”

Vollmer is passionate regarding the massive potential of strategy-driven procurement as part of an overall transformation and is very much engaged in client-facing work within the procurement space. “Purchasing was not necessarily seen as a value contributing function and was viewed as the operational side, transacting, getting what the business needs,” he tells us. “And this has fundamentally changed. Procurement today has a more important role in the business, to make procurement awesome.”

The user experience

The user experience is absolutely key amid a digital transformation. Modern procurement systems have provided CPOs and their teams with the tools to transform the operations and function of their department, but there’s more to making procurement than just the tools. “Everyone expects an ‘Apple easy’ or a ‘Google fast’ experience when you interact with a system,” Vollmer explains. “(Procurement) needs to be an awesome experience and it needs to have a great user experience, but it also needs to provide all the insights needed, that you can get from the spend data,” he explains. “You have to do the demand planning and aggregation to really get everything for the best possible price depending on the quality and timings you need. The golden time in procurement can be optimised and is a great experience for everyone engaging and interacting with the procurement function.”

Many procurement and supply chain strategists and consultants are seeing a massive sea-change in the CPO’s role, which is seen by many as a stepping stone into the role of CEO. This is something Vollmer also endorses. “Look at Tim Cook (CEO Apple); he was a chief supply chain officer,” says Marcell. “Procurement was reporting into his function, and what has he done? Not only is he now the CEO, but he has also contributed by inventing the Gorilla Glass for the iPhone to a great product experience. In the meantime, we have more than 2.2 billion iPhones sold. So, wow, there really is something that comes after procurement.”

Indeed, Vollmer was a CPO. And a chief operating officer. Currently, Vollmer is a chief digital officer. As Vollmer has demonstrated, procurement is evolving into a talent pool. “It’s a place where people want to work, because that’s my experience. When I talk to other CPOs, it is the most beautiful place you can be. You understand the business model and really know what the business is doing. You can see areas of the business that represent opportunities. ‘Oh, that’s an area where I want to be next in my career.’”

For procurement to fully transform the increasingly redundant perceptions it creates, it needs to work a little bit better on the marketing side, according to Vollmer. “Starting as a trainee buyer, to potentially make it to a CPO, is a model which will no longer exist in the future,” he explains. “The number one reason is that we are tending more towards project-based work, a gig economy, to use this term. Millennials and Generation Z want to get more experience. They are not necessarily saying, ‘I want to work for a great company and procurement is a good spot for me to start, and most likely end, my career.’”

Vollmer is clearly excited about the future and sees procurement sat at the forefront of business transformation. “We are at the very beginning of the fourth industrial revolution. We are also at the beginning of a lot of technologies and machine intelligence is the most disruptive technology. I believe that this is a time of change and we need to prepare ourselves. And I believe procurement will have a seat at the table of modern businesses. Artificial intelligence is changing the world in the same way the steam engine or electricity did. And machine learning is basically a part of artificial intelligence. What’s currently becoming part of the business is internet off syncs and connected devices, which are being implemented more and more on the business side. Everything is related to automation in a broader sense and to analytics, including big data and predictive analytics. But then also bridging it back to the machine intelligence; the prescriptive guidance, using not only descriptive information, not only predicting something based on historical data, but also using other sources like weather forecasts. We have seen, for example, that Ferrero was heavily impacted one year back, a little bit more than one year back, when the hazelnut was impacted by the dry weather. And this is really where you see the connection between the different technologies, being absolutely key.”

When it comes to procurement transformation it’s vital to have a vision. What is the future for your function? Vollmer has a very distinct notion of what that vision should be “And this is not limited to procurement,” Vollmer explains. “I would say that this is part of all discussions regarding the future of the back office. Therefore, the digital transformation starts with a vision. What do you really want to do with your function? How do you want to create value? On the procurement side, as in finance, HR, or IT, you can see what’s coming with cloud, with the hyperscalers, and the change in IT and how we consume software using cloud solutions. It’s a new business model. And therefore, I believe that you need to think about how you want to define the future for your function.”

A transformation is all well and good, but how do you create value? According to Vollmer, this follows on from the vision. “You start with the structure,” he explains. “Start with the organisational side. What do you want to do? Which functions might you need? Which functions do you have already and might get impacted by automation or by machine intelligence and other disruptive technologies? And therefore, derive from that; think about the process side. How can you really help the business to be faster, to have fewer hours in the different processes, to be predictive in what is needed and also manage risk and secure a sustainable supply chain. This will really drive value for your organisation.”

Connecting with internet offsyncs and certain parts of the production of the supply chain is definitely adding value. “When you see automation with robotic processes helping your transactional processes become more automated, you can see the next level of machine learning. So, it’s not only the robotics process automation, which is just comparing a with b, and then if b is correct, going to c, and then to d and so on. It is also learning, ‘Oh wow, there is a lot that is happening when I see this in d happening. Basically, here are the root causes and this is something that can be done, that is most likely happening, and can be already integrated.’”

Vollmer is a big fan of concrete use cases to get quick wins during transformative processes. “You are not joining a journey for the next two, three, five years. In the past, big IT implementations were lasting. I think that time is over. You need to be much faster today as the change is very rapid and you need to prepare yourself for it. A lot of people fear the change, the speed, and the disruption and what might come and how their jobs might get impacted. I always say: ‘Yes, there is a high risk that your job will be changing. But look back at the past 10 years. How many times has your job already changed?’ At the World Economic Forum in Davos, this January, it was reconfirmed that until 2022, artificial intelligence will create 58 million additional jobs. Disruptive technology will change your job, but on the other side it will also provide great new opportunities. So many new jobs are getting created and there will also be a big shift from task. So technical operational tasks might disappear, but strategic value-adding tasks might show up, including everything related to analytics.”

Change management

The biggest challenge of any transformation involves the people. Change management represents a massive cultural shift in the workplace and it’s vital you get it right. “I always say, don’t forget the people. Because we all know we have limitations in the team science we have today. Even as procurement creates hard savings for example, more people could potentially save more money. But is procurement in the situation where it can get new resources or new talent? Most likely not. Whatever you do, people are the most valuable assets in your organisation. So be careful in how you define and drive your transformation, because you need the people to be successful. No one is smart enough to run everything on her or his own. It’s a team approach and so think about the people.”

So, what makes for a good CPO? “A really good CPO, understands the business model and can collaborate with the right groups as a business partner to really create value and gets a seat at the table of the business by providing everything that is needed, including all the new innovative solutions or products the company can use to be successful in the future. It is also about creating and developing a great team, which can contribute and drive the value-generating activities. So, good leadership skills are absolutely mandatory. That’s what a CPO needs, to be successful in the future.”

Listen to the podcast now!

Author

Kevin Davies

Published

15 May 2019

Estimated Read time

2Mins

Read the latest issue here! Our cover star this month is SAP’s Dr. Marcell Vollmer, the global thought leader, who…

Read the latest issue here!

Our cover star this month is SAP’s Dr. Marcell Vollmer, the global thought leader, who reveals how the ongoing transformation of procurement into a strategic value-adding role will see the function perform a pivotal role in the fourth industrial revolution…

So, where does a procurement transformation begin? “I think the most important thing for digital transformation, is to focus on the structure, the organisation, the process side, and then finally on the systems,” Vollmer tells us, from his Munich office. “Oh, and don’t forget the people at the end.” It’s no surprise that many businesses are preparing for the future as everyone wants to understand, learn and adapt to a constantly shifting landscape. And although procurement is emerging into a progressive role, Vollmer is quick to point out the volatility of technological change. “Our CEO Bill McDermott says: ‘Change has never moved as fast as now, and it will never move as slow as today.’”

Elsewhere, we talk to CIPS Mena’s Sam Achampong on procurement in the Middle East and North Africa and catch up with the organisers behind World Procurement Week about how this fast-growing series of events is establishing itself as a must-attend date in the diary. We also have an expert insight on keeping your stakeholders happy and list 5 top ‘procurement disruptors’ and events.

We hope you enjoy the issue!

Author

Kevin Davies

Published

26 April 2019

Estimated Read time

1Min

This week is part two of a six-part supply chain master class with Frank Vorrath, Executive Partner Supply Chain at…

This week is part two of a six-part supply chain master class with Frank Vorrath, Executive Partner Supply Chain at Gartner. Frank has years of experience working on the frontline of supply chain management, and this week he’s detailing the hidden potential of a strategy-driven supply chain… Listen now!

Author

Kevin Davies

Published

8 April 2019

Estimated Read time

5Mins

With procurement undergoing nothing short of a revolution right now, the brand-new CPOstrategy will keep you up to speed with…

With procurement undergoing nothing short of a revolution right now, the brand-new CPOstrategy will keep you up to speed with all the latest insights and stories from the biggest names in this space. Each month, we will cover all aspects of procurement strategy and transformation as well as supply chain digitisation and management. CPOstrategy is from executive, for executive. Read the launch issue now!

Procurement is being transformed by new technologies, but people are the secret to success according to LEO Pharma’s Head of Operational Procurement, Martin Starcke in our cover story this month. Drug developer LEO Pharma is seeking to revolutionise its procurement right now through the deployment of a decentralised system. However, Starcke, believes that the digital transformation of procurement is about a lot more than software or computer services. “It’s fundamentally about people. I think implementing software, implementing the technology is around 10% of your effort,” he says.

We also have an exclusive interview with Frank Vorrath, Executive Partner for the Gartner CSCO and COO Service who talks about the importance of delivering real value to its clients.

Elsewhere, we speak to procurement consultancy Efficio who prompts the question: “Are procurement leaders feeling let down by technology?” We also detail the barriers to smart procurement technology and list the five top reasons why supply chain strategies fail and what to do about it. Plus, lots, lots more.

We hope you enjoy the issue!