Last Thursday, I was fortunate to attend procurement consultancyefficioevening gathering to discuss the results of a study it conducted in partnership with Cranfield University. The study explores the extent to which procurement leaders internationally are reconsidering their approach to procurement, owing to the emergence of digital technologies, the impact this is having on their organisations and the key barriers to successful digital transformation. A panel discussion followed, mediated by Simon Lipscomb (left in the above picture) and Pepper the robot. Included in the line-up of well opinionated heads of procurement and tech vendors was Jason Busch, founder of Spend Matters and procurement tech expert.
调查结果表明，企业正在利用技术的程度以及哪些数字流程在其旁边被采用（或不）。受访者是所有部门的CPOS，CFO和采购经理，非常均匀分布于英国，德国和美国。Simon Whatson是efficio的校长，告诉我们调查背后的想法在房子里开始，越来越多的技术，它与客户的经历，以及他们自己的流程的意思。因此，与克兰菲尔德大学迈克尔伯伦的进一步关系，将这项研究带到了更广泛的受众。
晚上概述了结果：
- 78% believe digital procurement should be a boardroom responsibility
- 48％由FOMO（害怕失踪）驱动而不是真正了解数字要求
- 74％的人认为公司应该期待战略供应商的透明商业安排，以回报：
- giving suppliers longer-term commitment - 69%
- getting early engagement - 65%
- 采购促进即将到来的需求 - 57％
Barriers to delivering expected benefits include:
- 66％的人表示不良供应商支持实施新技术
- 64% say new technology is not supported by the right processes and skills
- 72% say a lack of talent to harness the power of machines
许多问题和结果并不是一个令人惊讶的是，就像数字采购是董事会责任或不受正确的流程和技能支持的新技术。我特别思考的一个统计数据是fomo stat;几乎一半的人被要求被恐惧失踪，而不是理解他们需要它。这是花费恐惧的很多钱。
另一个担心的是，72％的人觉得他们缺乏利用机器力量的人才。这突出了根据缺乏的才能训练团队的需要，并根据不同的标准招募，或者至少在寻找候选人时添加缺少的标准进入角色要求的加权平衡。数据科学被认为是缺乏技能。维基百科告诉我，这是“一个使用科学方法，流程，算法和系统来提取各种形式的数据的知识和洞察的”跨学科领域，这两种形式都是结构化和非结构化的，类似于数据挖掘。“我同意采购中需要更多的技能。技术通常提供我们提出的报告，但我们是否获得了我们需要的所有报告？我们是否以我们需要的方式解释报告？我们需要不同的指标，那些有助于未来预测我们的要求，我们的成本吗？
该调查结果肯定引发了小组之间的辩论，这是最重要的。沿着花费事项首席执行官是KPN的CPO（荷兰版本的BT版本）和汇丰银行，ISG采购和供应链负责人，商业领袖垒软和Tradeshift和CRH的采购技术总监。
That technology hasn’t delivered what it promised for procurement was a view shared quite strongly by some of the panel. But the majority believed that tech will make the grade and there was positivity around how tech vendors are working to provide the right experience for the users, it’s just taking longer than it promised. Michelle Baker (KPN) received many murmurs and nods of acknowledgement when she described procurement as ‘an impediment’ to the business, a function which slows the business down. Finding the tech solution with the skilled team to support it, in order to help get procurement out of the way, was seen as being a sign of success.
Key takeaways included:
- The biggest barriers to getting what we need from tech is not the tech itself but the talent and the skillsets needed
- Don’t implement tech until you know it is needs-driven, not because of FOMO - understand ‘why’ you are making a tech investment
- Don’t spend money on automating first - rethink how procurement should be done in your organisation and build the functionality around it
All in all, though it’s hard to share new ideas in business, in procurement, the Efficio event made for interesting information sharing and perspectives.
The study can be downloaded这里
讨论这一点：