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.”

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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

Nell Walker

Published

25 March 2026

Estimated Read time

6Mins

SupplyChain Strategy attended Ivalua NOW 2026 to gather insights on the future of procurement

Supply chain and procurement are in a state of flux. While leaders across all industries are focusing on many of the same exciting topics – AI, ESG, automation, etc. – the world around us is experiencing uncertainty. But that type of chaos often births innovation. Ivalua NOW is shaped around embracing that innovation. 

Ivalua’s global event, which took place in Paris on the 11th and 12th of March, brought together over 1,500 procurement and supply chain professionals at the Carrousel du Louvre. The stunning venue attracted leaders and experts, all of whom were determined to face geopolitical chaos and the race to adopt new technologies. Importantly, that includes ensuring the human side of business remains in focus.

It’s always been the case that supply chain leaders need to adapt in order to thrive, but the key now is also being armed with the right knowledge and tools, which are only becoming more complex. Generative AI is transforming the way we work, but the focus at Ivalua NOW 2026 was on how to apply AI effectively. GenAI is no longer a buzz word: it has real-world practical applications across the supply chain. And that’s what this event – and the whole concept of shaping new horizons – is about.

The technology is real

After the first day of customer and partner meetings, talks, and workshops, the main event kicked off on the following day with an AI video of Alex Saric, Ivalua’s CMO, flying from New York to Paris in his car. Why? “Obviously we had a little fun with technology for our opening video today, but there is a point,” Saric said in his opening speech.

“Our world is rapidly changing how we live, how we work. Technology is having a huge shift. Now the video may seem futuristic – even a little bit outlandish – but actually, all the technology in it is real and available today.”

However, Saric said, while huge change is happening around us, “what is important is maintaining the right balance in our personal and professional lives. We need to embrace the new because it’s exciting; it lets us do much more. And let’s be honest – not embracing it doesn’t mean you’re standing still. It means you’re falling behind as everyone else does embrace it.”

What humans do best

That’s not to say that everything is changing. “We need to preserve the old ways of working as well, especially when it comes to people and relationships,” Saric added. “That’s really critical. Agentic AI is already starting to fundamentally transform how we work, allowing us to make faster, more informed decisions, and freeing us from a lot of the dull and mundane tasks that still consume a huge amount of our day. By doing so, it’s going to allow us to focus on what humans do best: relationships, people, strategy. Now that’s the real promise of the human-agent operating model, which is coming.”

Saric doubled down on the fact that businesses have a choice: they can resist, and watch the future be shaped for them without their input. Or they can be proactive, and start using modern tools the way they want that fits best for their organisation. He added that the aim of Ivalua NOW 2026 was to inspire attendees by showing new innovations, showcasing customers who are succeeding on their journeys, and enabling networking opportunities.

Reshaping the supply chain world

“Your job has never been harder,” said Franck Lheureux, Ivalua’s CEO, said during his keynote address. “But there is hope. You wouldn’t be here otherwise.”

Lheureux posed the questions every supply chain professional in the room is asking themselves: what talent do I need to thrive in today’s agentic world? How do I deal with cyber threats? When and how do I adopt AI for the best? How do I continue to prioritise climate change? How do I fight inflation, costs, and other impediments?

“Your impact has never been greater. You’re a force for good” – Franck Lheureux, CEO

“This is your world,” Lheureux added. “You’re reshaping your job, inventing a better future. Preparing this, a quote by Mahatma Ghandi came to my mind: ‘be the change you wish to see in the world’. You have the power to be the change, as long as you start, as long as you set yourself in motion, and set yourself in a positive direction. 

“Your impact has never been greater. You’re a force for good. Every dollar you spend, you have a decisive opportunity to make it a relevant spend. Doing good for people, doing good for suppliers, doing good for your employees, society, and the planet. That’s your superpower. You have the opportunity, you have the technology, you have the appetite. More importantly, you have a mandate to make it happen.”

Acting and reacting

Lheureux inspiring words set the tone for the rest of the day. David Khuat-Duy, Founder and Chief AI Officer at Ivalua, followed with an overview of the agentic AI revolution, and what it means to both Ivalua and supply chain at large. Then, there was an educational talk through Ivalua’s innovations and trends from Pascal Bensoussan, Chief Product Officer.

Deep discussions of cutting-edge ideas and innovations continued through the day. Supply chain leaders from all walks of life presented on digital transformation, how women are driving change within procurement, why the CPO-CIO alliance is so vital, supplier dynamics, sustainability, and of course, many discussions about AI – the benefits, the risks, and beyond.

The type of guidance this event offers is invaluable. Despite the rapid pace of change, and the endless discussions about how best to move forward, forging a clear path is still a challenge. At 2025’s Ivalua NOW event, Lheureux stated that it’s hard to think about and project the future if you’re constantly forced to react on a day-to-day basis. Later in the day at this year’s event, I asked Lheureux what has changed – if anything.

“I sense that our customers have a paradoxical situation to fight the day-to-day constraints they face,” he explained. “What are the levels of a given company to cope with external shock, and still build a strategy for a long-term future? It’s supply chain resilience, and diversifying your supplier portfolio to reduce the dependency on one region.”

Ultimately, the key to moving forward proactively instead of reactively is being unlocked with technology. Lheureux added: “You need the technology to deploy best practice and policies, to shape the world, to shape the future with different results. And AI will still have something to do about it.”

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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.”

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Author

Andrew Woods

Published

Estimated Read time

3Mins

SupplyChain Strategy was an official partner of Manifest 2026, and here are our insights into the event that had Vegas…

SupplyChain Strategy was an official partner of Manifest 2026, and here are our insights into the event that had Vegas rockin’.

The first thing you notice walking into the Expo Hall at Manifest 2026 is the movement. Robotics arms stack pallets a few metres from a booth showcasing AI-powered planning platforms. Autonomous trucks sit alongside warehouse automation systems. Drones buzz overhead as software startups demonstrate dashboards that track shipments in real time.

But it is not just the technology drawing crowds. Everywhere you turn, supply chain professionals are deep in conversation. Old colleagues reconnect, startup founders pitch ideas and procurement leaders debate strategy over coffee. 

Pam Simon, Conference Chair, Manifest, delivers the opening keynote speech and there’s a palpable buzz around this vast hall as she whets our appetite for what’s to come…

We first got an inkling of what was to come when we spoke to Tanzil Uddin, SVP of Content and Partnerships at Manifest, back in October: “2026 will be pushing things up a notch!” And he wasn’t wrong.

Beyond the supply chain

For three days in Las Vegas, Manifest becomes something more than a conference. It becomes a real-time snapshot of the global supply chain ecosystem.

Held once again at The Venetian, Las Vegas, the 2026 edition of Manifest 2026 welcomed more than 7,000 attendees representing manufacturers, retailers, logistics providers, startups, investors and senior executives from across the industry.

And as the event continues to grow, its purpose has remained surprisingly consistent: bringing the entire supply chain ecosystem together under one roof.

From startup summit to global supply chain hub

The event’s origins date back to a much smaller gathering, the Future of Logistics Tech Summit. That boutique event focused largely on venture investors and early-stage technology companies. The modern incarnation of Manifest emerged in 2022, when the event was relaunched with a broader vision: a forum representing the entire supply chain landscape.

Today, the conference operates under Hyve Group and has rapidly grown into one of the sector’s most influential gatherings. As Uddin explains, the goal has always been to represent the entire ecosystem. “Manifest is really a full ecosystem event dedicated to the end-to-end supply chain. We bring together startups and investors, but also supply chain leadership like chief supply chain officers and chief procurement officers from retail, manufacturing, automotive, life sciences and more.” 

That diversity is visible throughout the show floor, where emerging technology companies sit alongside established logistics operators and major enterprise software vendors…

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Author

Andrew Woods

Published

Estimated Read time

2Mins

Surgere CEO William Wappler explains how precise, verified data is becoming the foundation of automation, resilience, and enterprise-wide decision-making

At this year’s Manifest conference in Las Vegas, the conversation around supply chain technology repeatedly returns to one foundational theme: data accuracy. For William Wappler, CEO of Surgere, that foundation is not simply an operational advantage. It is the essential prerequisite for modern supply chain performance.

Surgere specialises in capturing, verifying and operationalising highly accurate supply chain data, using a combination of IoT, engineering-led deployment, and AI-driven analytics. The company focuses on knowing precisely what assets exist, where they are located, and how they move across complex industrial environments. That data is then fed into enterprise systems to drive automation, planning and decision making.

Accurate data

The company’s central mission is straightforward. “We only do one thing: to make sure that within that transformation, everybody has highly accurate data that they’re working on to ensure that all of the tactics and strategies they’re working on actually work.”

For decades, Wappler argues, supply chains have operated on what he calls an “assumptive model”. Organisations believed they knew what was in a shipment, where inventory sat, or whether materials had arrived, but verification was often manual and reactive. “Supply chain practitioners have existed on heroics for a long time,” he explains from Surgere’s spot in the Expo Hall of the Venetian Hotel. “We think we know what’s on that truck. We think we know where it is in the warehouse.”

Surgere’s technology is designed to remove that uncertainty. By validating shipments, tracking assets in real time and providing precise location data, the company allows organisations to operate on verified information rather than guesswork.

The scale is significant. “Today we’re doing about 15 billion transactions a month,” Wappler says, noting that the primary audience for this data is no longer people but enterprise systems themselves.

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Author

Andrew Woods

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Estimated Read time

3Mins

As Manifest 2026 draws to a close, Senior Vice President of Industry Relations and Strategic Initiatives, Manifest, Katie Date reflects…

As Manifest 2026 draws to a close, Senior Vice President of Industry Relations and Strategic Initiatives, Manifest, Katie Date reflects on record-breaking engagement, the accelerating impact of AI, and how the fast-growing event continues to unite the global supply chain community. Plus, an exciting announcement that will see Manifest’s influence spread even wider… 

As the exhibition halls begin to quiet and the final meetings wrap up, the sense of momentum surrounding Manifest 2026 remains unmistakable. The event has once again positioned itself as a focal point for the global logistics and supply chain community, bringing together shippers, carriers, technology providers, investors and startups under one roof for several days of intensive networking and knowledge exchange. 

For Katie Date, Senior Vice President of Industry Relations and Strategic Initiatives, the energy is the clearest measure of success. “It feels great,” she says as the event draws to a close. “This year has been so successful on so many different fronts. The energy in Manifest has truly been palpable. You just walk around and you can feel the buzz.” 

That buzz is measurable as well as visible. Manifest’s proprietary badge technology tracks interactions across the venue, revealing the scale of engagement. “As of this morning,” Date explains, “our click to connect Qlik technology had recorded over 75,000 connections. By the end of today, I’m sure we’ll have surpassed 100,000 connections. We had almost 7,500 people check in to be a part of Manifest, which is just huge growth.” 

For the organisers, those interactions are the event’s defining metric. “Really how we measure success here at Manifest is on those connections,” she says. “To see so many people making valuable connections really is a great measure of success.” 

A platform for the entire ecosystem 

From its earliest iteration, Manifest has been designed to serve the full supply chain ecosystem rather than any single segment. That founding principle continues to guide the event’s expansion. “I think we’ve done a very good job of staying close to the original vision, which was to serve the entire supply chain ecosystem,” says Date. “We’re not an event that’s just focusing on shippers or carriers or third-party logistics providers. We’re bringing them all together. We’re bringing in investors and startups. We’re creating almost three days of content and exhibition that really give them an opportunity to interact and create value.” 

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  • Digital Supply Chain
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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.”

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Andrew Woods

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2Mins

Speaking at Manifest 2026 in Las Vegas, Ray DeMelfi, Senior Vice President of Strategic Services, and Derek Miller, Senior Account…

Speaking at Manifest 2026 in Las Vegas, Ray DeMelfi, Senior Vice President of Strategic Services, and Derek Miller, Senior Account Executive at Hy-Tek Intralogistics, present a clear view of how supply chains must evolve in a world defined by volatility, labour pressure and accelerating automation.

At Hy-Tek Intralogistics, strategy begins long before a system is installed, a robot deployed, or a facility redesigned. It begins with stepping back. The message is consistent. The companies that succeed are those that think beyond the immediate constraint and design for what comes next.

Strategy first

Hy-Tek operates as an end-to-end intralogistics partner, supporting organisations from early-stage supply chain strategy and network design through to technology integration, deployment and ongoing optimisation. The company combines consulting, software, automation partnerships and implementation expertise to deliver distribution and fulfilment systems tailored to specific operational requirements.

For Ray DeMelfi, Senior Vice President of Strategic Services, the most common mistake organisations make is focusing too narrowly on today’s operational pain points. His team works with customers to define how facilities and networks must operate, not just now, but for years to come. That means building data-driven concepts that reflect growth ambitions, service expectations and structural change across the business. “Understanding your growth is the starting point. What are you trying to achieve?” he says. “A lot of times, customers look at the constraints of today and become narrow in focus… but you have to step back and understand what your growth strategy is and what the requirements are to support that…”

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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.

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Andrew Woods

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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.  

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Andrew Woods

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Estimated Read time

2Mins

James Wee, General Manager and Senior Vice President of Fleet Solutions at Descartes, tells us how structural supply chain transformation…


James Wee, General Manager and Senior Vice President of Fleet Solutions at Descartes, tells us how structural supply chain transformation is needed to counter almost constant temporary disruption…

At Manifest 2026, conversations about artificial intelligence (AI), automation and the realities of last-mile delivery are everywhere. Few executives are closer to the operational front line than James Wee, General Manager, Fleet Management at Descartes. Speaking amid the energy of the Las Vegas event, he presents a clear picture of an industry navigating structural change rather than temporary disruption.

“It’s a really exhilarating event,” he says of the gathering. “Lots of people. It’s a great turnout.” The show also offers valuable opportunities to connect with partners and customers. “We’ve had a great opportunity to connect and engage with clients and partners. It’s been well worthwhile to be here.”

Technology for fleets operating in a new reality

Wee leads the business unit responsible for last-mile delivery technologies at Descartes, designed for organisations running dedicated and private fleets. Descartes powers more responsive, efficient, secure and sustainable international and domestic supply chains by uniting logistics-intensive businesses on its Global Logistics Network (GLN). Shippers, carriers, and logistics service providers connect and collaborate on the GLN leveraging technology, data and AI to manage last mile deliveries, domestic and international shipments, transportation rating and payment, global trade research, customs compliance and a variety of regulatory processes…

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Author

Andrew Woods

Published

Estimated Read time

2Mins

We met with Drew Taranto, Vice President of Product Management for eCommerce and Returns at DHL, to see how supply…


We met with Drew Taranto, Vice President of Product Management for eCommerce and Returns at DHL, to see how supply chains are still adapting to these times of constant disruption…

Drew Taranto, Vice President of Product Management for eCommerce and Returns, is focused on growth strategy across omnichannel fulfilment and reverse logistics. His role spans working with brands across multiple industries to help them expand their eCommerce capabilities while adapting to changing consumer expectations. Taranto explains that his remit is firmly product and future-focused.

“What are we doing to provide additional services for our customers? What are we doing to change the industry in light of what’s coming from end-consumers? And really helping drive that within our company through the product development lens is really what my responsibilities are.”

Distribution at the core

As a global contract logistics provider, DHL Supply Chain designs and operates distribution centres, manages warehousing and fulfilment, and supports complex supply chain operations for manufacturers, retailers and brands worldwide. Within that landscape, distribution remains the operational backbone. Taranto is clear that the biggest structural shift for DHL lies in how its customers now think about their networks. “Warehousing is one of our core offerings,” he says. “But what I would say is that there are lots of shifts in how our customer base is thinking about and building their distribution networks. What’s important to them is constantly changing…”

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  • AI in Supply Chain
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Author

Nell Walker

Published

2 December 2025

Estimated Read time

10Mins

At the most recent Exiger Executive Forum, we had the opportunity to listen to the experts discuss how supply chains can shore up in chaotic times

Most often than not, the control you have over your value chain is an illusion.

That’s the bold statement November’s Exiger Executive Forum picked to examine and dissect. The event, entitled False Security: The Illusion of Control in Modern Day Value Chains, was chosen carefully to reflect what procurement and supply and value chain leaders are concerned about today.

On the 18th of November, we joined Exiger and its distinguished guests at the beautiful Great Scotland Yard Hotel in London to dig into this topic and hear directly from the best of the best in an expert panel. The guest list reached from defence leadership, supply chain experts, world-leading analysts and senior politicians. 

The aim? To challenge that illusion of control, and frame the conversation as a tough love wake-up call. Without open dialogue like this, risks can quietly accumulate in the background, leading to systemic failures.

That’s why the Exiger Executive Forum is so important. By giving the most pressing matters – especially the uncomfortable ones – a platform, issues are demystified and disempowered and real solutions to be put into place – both with deep values and credible pragmatism. This allows leaders in procurement and supply chain to  resolve modern day challenges with confidence, regain lost control and determine their future and not merely react.

Tim Fowler, Client Engagement  Director at Exiger, acted as moderator for the evening’s discussions. He opened the discussion with a sobering reality: that organisations all over the world are facing systemic risks. “Global supply chains are more data-driven, more regulated, more digitised than ever,” he explained. “But, paradoxically, they’ve never been more fragile with the convergence of geopolitical fragmentation, resource scarcity, technology threats, and regulatory volatility.”

The risk caused, Fowler said, is one that “hides in plain sight”. Many enterprises operate under the assumption that they have full visibility of their suppliers, and that as a result, they’re in control. However, dig a little deeper and there are many unseen dependencies, regional concentrations, and of course, human risk. With a more hopeful lilt, Fowler then reminded attendees that the goal of the Executive Forum is to explore what real control and resilience means in a chaotic and ever-changing world, with the help of the expert panel:

• Koray Köse, CEO & Chief Analyst, Köse Advisory; Senior Fellow, GlobSEC GeoTech Centre; and Board Member, Slave-Free Alliance

• Scott LaFoy, Vice President, Nuclear and Technology Security Programs, Exiger
• 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

The illusion of control

In the first segment of the evening’s strategic expert exchange, Fowler dug into the concept of this illusion of control with the panel. For Köse, the illusion of control is one of the greatest blind spots in modern business. But why? “It’s all based on our systemic understanding or how we actually created value in the past,” he explained. “Not 50 years ago, but even just 10 or 15 years ago, the world looked very different from what we are facing today. Changing the rules of the game is something many companies still do not examine seriously. It requires a deep review of how their value chains are designed, the governance and compliance structures that guide them, and the intelligence embedded into their processes. Ultimately, it is about building resolve and the capability and capacity to not only survive the challenges of today, but to shape and compete in the markets of tomorrow.”

Following this, Qu was asked whether she has also witnessed a false sense of security within governance models in organisations she’s worked with. She pointed out that many companies now have risk mapping, risk monitoring, and risk mitigation as a top agenda since COVID-19, but shortages and disruptions continue. What’s key, for Qu, is “awareness, visibility, and overview. I think we’ve made big steps in the last 2-3 years,” she explained. “There are a lot of conflicts in the classical KPIs, which are still siloed even after the COVID crisis. That’s why you need good visibility of the whole value chain setup – not only tier one.”

For Markert, maintaining agility when managing various political, technological, and economic challenges has been a major undertaking. “The truth is, I don’t know if we really maintain the agility or just manage the chaos,” he admitted. “We’re focusing on adaptability over perfection, so we accept that full control is impossible. Then, we’re coming back to basics. This starts with processes, then technology. Lastly, people are the most important and most valuable assets you have. You have to build up cross-functional teams. We don’t want to predict the future; we want to be prepared for the future.”

From a financial standpoint, Rahman stated he believes it’s important to take a step back and contextualise the challenge we’re living in. The last few years have seen a pandemic, wars, and geopolitical tensions the likes of which have never been seen, impacting supply chains. With this in mind, Rahman believes that there “couldn’t be more of an emphasis” on supply chain resilience. “How do you make sure your operational resilience is robust so you can withstand black swan events that are becoming more and more common?” he asks. “Diversification of risk is really important.”

Sometimes, failure is simply not an option. For LaFoy, who works with national security-grade supply chains, having all of the information in front of you is great, but it means nothing if you don’t use it to take action. “Often people think they can see everything, and that’s only step one of the problem – it doesn’t fully address it,” he said. “You have to be willing to take action within the organisation, to mitigate the problem, fix it, and try to rebuild. People like to say that they’re going to fix their supply chain, but the supply chain is likely supporting a programme that has existed for so long it’s entrenched within the organisation. So it’s almost always too late.”

Vulnerabilities and systemic risk

Fowler: “Where do you see the biggest unseen vulnerabilities accumulating today?”

Köse: “It’s in the KPIs. Companies are measuring themselves against metrics that no longer drive sustainable or resilient value creation in today’s world. They still prioritise short term shareholder returns that evaporate with every risk event. KPIs shift from quarter to quarter, yet value chains take decades to build and mature, just as supplier partnerships and political relationships take decades to cultivate. Both can erode rapidly when interdependent opportunistic and negative actions and disruptions occur.”

Fowler: “How do you encourage best practice and good behaviour with your clients?”

Rahman: “The number one ingredient is confidence. Having transparency across the value chain, the supply chain, the governance procedures, is super important too. It can take 50 years to build trust and one second to lose it, so it’s important to take a very risk-averse approach while being very commercial and pragmatic.”

Fowler: “What have you seen work in terms of breaking down siloes to drive agility?”

Qu: “I usually go with strategy, organisation, technology. Technology encompasses risk mitigation, as well as ESG and compliance. We need dedicated projects, working with suppliers and engineers to reduce waste and create internal excellence. Personal resilience is also very important.”

Fowler: “How do you balance all the elements of regional concentration and supplier dependency?”

Markert: “Efficiency is still key if you want to stay competitive. We cannot optimise purely on costs anymore – that’s gone. We have to take into consideration, as Angela said, the transparency insights beyond tier one. For me, it’s all about continuity and compliance.”

Fowler: “What lessons can the private sector draw from defense-grade risk management?”

LaFoy: “The defence-grade supply chain has this draconian adherence to certain processes, and that inflexibility doesn’t always translate in a positive way. But in this case, it’s necessary to examine what key things you’re prioritising as a company. 

Technology, intelligence, and the myth of visibility 

It’s clear, in spite of the warnings about vulnerabilities and control, that the overall feelings for supply chain professionals are hope and determination. Fowler introduced the next segment of the conversation by mentioning that investors and PE companies are now focusing on supply chain risk and resilience as key measures. This bodes well for those in supply chain when they inevitably come to justifying proposed improvements. The fact that supply chain risk ties directly into financial risk proves once again that supply chain is a business-wide concern, if there was any remaining doubt.

For Rahman, from a financial perspective, there are a couple of areas clients are focusing on when it comes to their investments. “One is financial risk,” he told Fowler. “What we mean by that is leverage – how much debt and cash they’ve got on the balance sheet. The other is business risk, which is quite broad. It’s about how much the product is needed in the market, whether it’s a diversified product, and so on.”

When it comes to questions of compliance and ESG in supply chain, balancing those areas of focus with what investors want can be a challenge. Those investors may have a clear idea of their areas of interest when thinking about risk and resilience, and Qu’s solution for making sure those vital areas don’t get overlooked is to always see things from the customers’ perspective.

“That customer, if you want them to choose your product versus a product from competitors, they want to know you’re compliant to all regulations,” she explained. “That results in collaboration among different departments to focus on a common goal and how we achieve it. Also, you need an overview of potential risks and have solutions in place for those focus areas, supported by technology. Things can go wrong, but if that happens when you’re prepared, it’s not the end of the world. There are still activities where humans can take over.”

The conversation again turned to leadership, and how that affects organisations in a way that incentivises them to focus on protection and resilience, while not stifling innovation and agility. The key, for Köse, lies in communication and constant messaging, so vital areas don’t get forgotten. “The important factor is drawing the journey very clearly to everyone who is a stakeholder in this process, and make sure that every part of their contribution will become part of the overall value creation process. When we talk about resilience, you always need to think about the next step. We’re not necessarily predicting anything, but we’re preparing for everything.”

The conversation shifted to summarising comments, where the panellists highlighted resilience across all functions, with a heavy emphasis on supply chain, utilising AI to help navigate decisions, and simply showing up as being some of the most important aspects to getting the modern supply chain right. “We need to be able to understand, from A to Z, geopolitical interdependencies, financial impact, innovation impact, industrial history, and the most valuable assets – your people and your culture,” Köse concluded. “Showing up in that context, and driving that as leaders, is ultimately really critical.”

During the course of the evening, the expert panelists exposed the glaring issues and shattered illusions across the modern value chain, while leaving attendees hopeful that they can achieve operational resilience through a proactive commitment to preparedness. Thank you to Exiger for inviting us to join in this vital conversation; we look forward to the next one.

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Author

Andrew Woods

Published

25 November 2025

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.

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Author

Andrew Woods

Published

Estimated Read time

2Mins

At the forefront of procurement transformation, Zip is pioneering a new era of orchestration and AI-driven efficiency. Co-founder and CEO…

At the forefront of procurement transformation, Zip is pioneering a new era of orchestration and AI-driven efficiency. Co-founder and CEO Rujul Zaparde speaks to CPOstrategy about redefining intake-to-pay workflows, empowering procurement to focus on strategic value, and the company’s bold ambition to process one billion AI-assisted reviews by 2030…

When Rujul Zaparde, Co-Founder and CEO of Zip, reflects on his time at Airbnb, he remembers the frustrations that sparked a new category in procurement technology. “Lu (Cheng) and I were both in engineering and product,” he recalls, “and every time we needed to make a request, we had to go through a fragmented procurement process – legal, IT, risk, privacy, and so on. It was a black box.” 

That “black box” became the inspiration for Zip, a platform designed to orchestrate procurement intake and automate the complex workflows that sit between departments and systems.

Founded just five years ago, Zip has grown at lightning speed, now serving over 600 enterprise customers across industries from tech and financial services to oil and gas and manufacturing. For Zaparde, that diversity is proof of how universal the problem really is: “Every enterprise in the world has this challenge.”

The depth beneath the surface

While the concept of orchestration might seem simple, Zaparde stresses that the success of Zip lies in its depth. “The challenge is everything under the iceberg,” he says. “It’s all the details – auditability, user management, permissioning – that have to work perfectly to make orchestration successful.”

He points out that many procurement leaders underestimate the technical and organisational complexity involved. “To get value from orchestration, you need to deploy it across a broad base of employees. It’s a high-impact, high-risk change. So when you do it, it has to really work.”

Zip’s uniqueness, he explains, lies in its enterprise scalability and end-to-end capability. “We’re the only company in the world that does intake to procure to pay – and can actually handle the downstream for you over time.” 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

2Mins

We take a coffee with Sagi Eliyahu, CEO and co-founder of Tonkean, to see how they’re helping enterprises redefine back-office…

We take a coffee with Sagi Eliyahu, CEO and co-founder of Tonkean, to see how they’re helping enterprises redefine back-office operations through agentic orchestration…

When Tonkean was founded a decade ago, the term orchestration was hardly part of the enterprise lexicon. Automation was the word of the day, and the focus was on data. But for Sagi Eliyahu, CEO and Co-Founder of Tonkean, something fundamental was missing from the enterprise software landscape.

“I had this aha moment that business processes are about people, not about data,” he reveals. “But 100% of enterprise software is about data. And while processes almost always span teams and functions, enterprise software remains siloed. Something was missing – not another tool or feature, but an entire layer. A layer that connects people, systems and workflows seamlessly. That’s what orchestration is.”

From that insight came Tonkean: an orchestration platform designed to help large enterprises bridge the gap between systems, functions and the humans who  drive every process. Ten years on, orchestration is no longer a mysterious concept. It’s fast becoming the connective tissue that allows organisations to unify their operations, improve compliance, and leverage AI more effectively. At DPW Amsterdam, you couldn’t escape conversations about orchestration, which were taking place all around us.

Procurement’s orchestration moment

Founded in 2015 by Sagi Eliyahu and Offir Talmor, Tonkean is an enterprise-grade orchestration platform that enables large organisations to streamline complex business processes across teams and systems. Its no-code builder allows back office enterprise teams like procurement, legal and finance to build their own automated workflows and intelligent, personalised user experiences. 

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Fotograaf: MichielTon.com

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.”

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Fotograaf: Daan Jeurens