As promised we have more coverage fromIvalua现在在巴黎上周发生了。彼得史密斯回到了分享他的想法......
上周的瓦欧韦大会，主题是“采购艺术”，并在巴黎的Carrousel du Louvre举行，反映了采购技术公司的快速增长（近年来每年约50％）。超过500人出现，去年的数字是一个巨大的飞跃。地点可能是吸引力的一部分：在卢浮宫使用会议设施，并且在没有人的游客的情况下，在几小时之后，您可以参观画廊，这很特别。
But the sessions in general lived up to the location – so here (in two parts) is a brief summary of some key areas of interest from the two days.
Ivalua Highlights
IVALUA的优势仍然是平台的广泛和深刻的能力（见花费很重要SolutionMap分析了更多的内容，其中少数市场中的少数人之一，这是完全由普通的代码库的开头建造的。
That gives customers and users benefits in terms of common user interfaces and makes the whole platform more easily configurable than most. Ivalua’s revenues will be some $115 million this year, the firm now has approaching 500 employees (with low staff turnover) in more than 15 countries and claims a customer retention rate of over 98% - perhaps the most impressive metric of all. The partner ecosystem is particularly strong, from the giants like Capgemini and KPMG to regional players such as Optibuy in Poland. (I spoke to a couple of those partners off the record, and they were very positive about the relationship and working with Ivalua generally – pretty much every major implementation is primed by a partner.)
该公司倾向于低调而不是高调，除了这两天的这两天，它仍然感觉像一个拥有自己独特的文化的私有公司（它是）。“我们认为我们可以成为市场领导者 - 这将需要时间，但超过5 - 10年，如果我们每年的50％成长......”首席执行官大卫·克汉特 - 杜大道说。乐观主义，但随着分析谨慎的伴随说明，似乎典型的公司！
当然,因为c蛞蝓的外部投资ouple of years ago, spending on both marketing and product development has grown dramatically, and that was reflected in a range of new capabilities and features announced recently and at the event, and a strong forward roadmap. As well as AI, (see below), there is an all-new, across-the-platform UI, a category management module, new direct materials features around bills of material and collaborative PO management … and to come soon, we’re promised advanced sourcing (optimisation), predictive analytics, more integration of third-party risk monitoring and more.
ai和所有的
Talking of AI, there were a number of interesting sessions that featured that topic. Ivalua is perhaps a little less gung-ho and more cautious about AI than some, but that hasn’t stopped the team developingIVA,一个AI-powered数字助理可以帮助我们ers with a whole range of tasks, from displaying relevant data from voice commands to providing guidance to order-placers. There is more to come in AI terms too around guided buying and in other areas.
But a recent report carried out by Ivalua and Forester suggested most procurement leaders still aren’t using AI, and Alex Saric and Vishal Patel from Ivalua talked about the importance of the “unified data foundation” if you want to really get something out of AI. Basically, if your core data – on spend, suppliers etc. is rubbish, the best AI algorithms in the world won’t bring you much useful output. There was also a good panel discussion with a couple of senior practitioners on that topic. AI is coming, was the view, but we shouldn’t get too caught up in the hype.
但是，虽然我们可能担心AI采购就业机会，但它可能会为我们开辟新的附加价值机会的新领域，就像它减少了较差的目标。So, for instance, if we use AI to search hundreds or thousands of our contracts to look for risks, in a way we can’t do manually, that is likely to throw up lots of risks where real live humans then need to negotiate with suppliers to resolve those issues. So maybe AI doesn’t spell the end of procurement jobs after all!
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