Technology

By Matthias Gutzmann, Founder, Digital Procurement World

Digital procurement transformation is no longer an option, it is a must. Ignoring it today will ultimately lead to a loss of procurement's influence in the organization. On a more positive note, early adopters in digital procurement are already benefiting from incremental cost savings, increased productivity, and substantial improvements in innovation, quality, speed, and risk management.

As a CPO, it is absolutely necessary to understand how digitally mature your procurement organization really is, how you compare to others, and the key steps to digital maturity.

A little innovation never hurt anyone. But whilst Maverick Spend may cause us to re-evaluate our processes, it can wreak havoc and cause long-lasting damage. Georg Roesch, Senior Manager at JAGGAER, outlines five ways you can prevent it from happening and keep it under control.

By Sammeli Sammalkorpi, VP: Customers and Co-founder of procurement analytics solutions provider Sievo

Let's face it - procurement teams are not the first to hop on the latest technology trends and the industry has been historically slow to digitize daily workflows. But now, with more data being generated in the last two years than in the history of mankind, procurement teams are starting to realize not only the benefits and competitive advantage that new technology can bring, but also that it is nearly impossible to manage the abundance of new data sets without it. For example, leveraging AI and machine learning to integrate this new data into procurement analytics strategies can equip organizations to dynamically understand spending, predict future outcomes and measure the trade-offs of various sourcing decisions.

By Gordon Reid, Lead - Transparent Procurement Advisory Programme

One of the first things that I learned when I started my unplanned career in Procurement is that you cannot do it alone. Besides the team that you work with, you also need support and buy-in from people across all departments of the organisation for Procurement to make a real impact on the business.

Each organisation will be different but, based on my experience, here are seven departments in an organisation where I believe it is essential for Procurement to have a strong working relationship with key individuals.

When companies think about security, it is usually about securing their networks, software and digital assets against cyber-attacks and/or data breaches. But, in supply chain - whether it is a vendor used for facilities management or for cloud hosting - almost every organisation depends on a growing supply chain of services, creating an eco-system of dependency. As this eco-system grows to include fourth- and fifth-parties, it becomes more vulnerable to security risks. Recent major cyber-attacks were as a result of third-parties being compromised.

In this month's SmartProcurement, Venisha Nayagar, Director at Crypt IT Information Risk Management, takes a look at supply chain data risks.

While it is true that you often have to spend money to make money, optimising every cent by tapping into the power of spend analysis creates significant savings opportunities compared with flying blind and having no visibility on your spend.

To get an optimal return on your investment, it pays to understand and implement effective procurement spend analysis as part of your overall business process management.

By Dr Marcell Vollmer, Chief Innovation Officer, Celonis

Across all industries, procurement leaders are seeking significant and measurable productivity gains. New technology, based on machine learning and artificial intelligence, is driving the digital transformation of the procurement function to deliver value, driving supplier innovations, performing risk management, securing a sustainable supply chain and, of course, managing budgets.

With cost pressures likely to mount up as we recover from COVID-19, mining and manufacturing companies must find alternative methods to reduce total cost of ownership relating to product procurement and product consumption.

"A product information management (PIM) system can help", says Isak Marais, CEO, DigiTeams, which specialises in bespoke digital transformation within the mining, manufacturing, wholesale and retail sectors.

Cloud procurement means different things to different people. In this article, Leigh Weimer and Anthony Vieira dispel some of the dominant myths around implementing cloud‑based products to equip you with information for the decision‑making process.

By Lari Numminen, Chief Marketing Officer, Sievo

Having a robust spend analysis solution in place has become a prerequisite for running a professional sourcing organisation. But do you get all the possible benefits from your current spend cube?

At Sievo, we have worked with hundreds of clients across most industries. Here are 12 of the most important benefits that sourcing organisations can get from advanced spend analysis. The question is: are you already leveraging all of these?

By Michael Healy, Supply Chain Partner

The outbreak of COVID-19 has forced companies to get creative about how they connect and meet with customers and teams.

Working with cloud applications allows us to workshop, design and configure systems remotely. With apps like Zoom and Microsoft Teams, working remotely can be easy and cost effective. But making it a positive and productive experience for everyone joining in does take some planning.

Here is a checklist from Supply Chain Partner to help you get the most out of your remote sessions:

By Vijay Pandiarajan, Director: Product Management, IBM Sterling

What is next in supply chain systems? There is plenty to be excited about...
First-generation supply chains were good at automating and optimising processes. But they were restricted to functional silos - and that is not enough for what we need in supply chains today.

Advances in supply chain technology are needed if procurement teams are to manage supply chains that are dynamic, responsive and interconnected with ecosystems and external processes. New tech needs the capacity to manage much, much more data (by several orders of magnitude). This, in turn, will make it possible for an individual procurement manager to make sense of entire supply chain ecosystems in real-time.

These demands are driving progress - which is why I am excited about the future of supply chain technology.

By Michael Healy

Interview with Chimae Gonçalves
SupplyChainPartner.com sat down with its director and procurement guru Chimae Gonçalves to ask a few pertinent questions around procurement technology implementation:

By Anant Kadiyala, Director: Blockchain and IoT Industry Solutions, Oracle

Shrinkage, wastage, counterfeiting, contamination, mishandling, logistical delays and other challenges continue to plague today's supply chains − despite decades of investments and improvements along the way.

Companies have limited visibility into who their end-users are and how end-users actually use/handle their products on a day-to-day basis. Recent recalls with romaine lettuce, Takata airbags, and a myriad of others, have shown that supply chains have room to tighten further and improve visibility across the board.

In addition, new technology developments have been triggering rapid transformations across all industry verticals. Cloud computing, mobile, the Internet of Things (IoT), augmented reality (AR), machine learning and, recently, blockchain, have all brought a wave of new possibilities to customer experiences and expectations. Consumers prefer high-quality options, safer products, ethical sourcing, accountability, transparency and quicker delivery − along with flexible ways to buy and use products. The click-and-collect paradigm in retail is a result of such technology-enabled possibilities.

To accommodate customer and industry demands, supply chains are doing the heavy lifting of managing a transformation that is nothing short of epic.

By Dr Marcell Vollmer, Chief Digital Officer, SAP Ariba

How does a Chief Procurement Officer measure success?
In the past, executives responsible for sourcing, contracting, purchasing and payment gauged success chiefly on their ability to wring savings out of the value chain. Without question, reducing costs remains as crucial today as ever. But, with the advent of digital networks, Chief Procurement Officers find that they now have an exponentially greater opportunity to create value. By linking together buyers and suppliers in real time, digital networks allow procurement leaders to foster collaboration, spur innovation and drive much of the strategic value that fuels growth.

These activities, of course, can benefit the balance sheet. But there are others, equally important, that a spreadsheet cannot easily capture.

By Rod Robinson, Founder and CEO, ConnXus

When I graduated from Wharton in 1995 and decided to pursue a career in management consulting at AT Kearney, I had grand visions of being assigned to an engagement helping one of our multinational clients grow revenue through a high-profile M&A transaction or other topline growth strategy. Instead, I was assigned to a global strategic sourcing engagement for one of the most recognisable corporate brands in the world. I didn't know what strategic sourcing was, but quickly learnt that it was an approach to supply chain management that enabled an organisation to leverage its consolidated purchasing power to optimise the value it received from suppliers. This is when I realised that procurement was an often overlooked area of hidden corporate value.

By Angela Wilson, Senior Solutions Architect, CSS

While large companies with procurement departments often have the personnel and resources to negotiate significant savings and better terms, small and medium businesses (SMBs) typically do not. The good news is that the digital era has created new opportunities for SMBs to improve their procurement practices and outcomes, especially with cloud-based processes.

There are very different business requirements when it comes to how SMBs source goods and services: "Using modern cloud procurement solutions is the best way today to meet these requirements", says Angela Wilson, Senior Solutions Architect at CSS, a systems integrator that helps companies create supplier management and logistics programmes. With the right tools, companies can realise a number of advantages.

By Angela Mazza Teufer, Senior Vice President, Oracle ERPM WE, ERPM North Install Base

When it comes to crucial procurement data, there is no way to 'fake it 'til you make it'. Accurate information is the bread and butter of a successful organisation but our research reveals that companies are still not investing in the tools or skills to manage their data effectively. This lack of confidence in the accuracy, safety and management of information has a ripple effect across every department, influencing their ability to deliver on strategic objectives.

According to Oracle research, only 34% of finance professionals believe that their data is completely manageable. This should be a sobering statistic for any business leader, particularly as data plays an ever-growing role in how companies operate. According to Accenture, 77% of Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) say that it is their responsibility to drive company-wide transformation, and a similar percentage expect that they will play a growing role in driving their organisation's digital initiatives. But how can they deliver on this expectation when less than half feel confident in their ability to manage data?