Accelerated Digitalization of Procurement: why are CPOs shifting their priorities?

The panel provided some invaluable insights based on their own experiences and challenges faced in Procurement, particularly over the course of the pandemic and impact throughout supply chains.

They agreed digitalization is a key enabler in helping organizations progress, encouraging them to shift the focus of procurement towards sustainability, risk management and resilience. CPOs now face the pressure of meeting customers’ demands, but also priorities of focusing on sustainability and the impact on the planet, guiding them towards local suppliers, whilst also considering cost.

Marcus Kutzner highlighted that along with cost, innovation and digitalization act as key priorities for Procurement in order to remain ahead in competitive environments, particularly where cyber incidents have occurred with more people working from home. Investing in the right innovations and digital tools can help save organizations time and money so they can focus on more strategic decisions. CPOs need the right data and insights, by using digital tools as an enabler. Moreover, don’t hire smart people and give them monkey work: it’s a waste of talent!

Karin Hagen-Gierer noted that in line with cyber incidents, the value of strong relationships is very important: they are good for when times are going well, but even more important when times are tough so teams can navigate through challenges together.

CPOs and Procurement teams need to be agile: Marielle Beyer revealed these teams are tired of having the same conversations of finding the right solutions, so they need to be willing to try new things – don’t be afraid! As long as teams are ready to face the possibility they might fail, they need to react quick and create an agile mindset and environment for experimentation: it’s a journey.

The importance of sustainability popped up again throughout their conversation: emission measuring is a hot topic and organizations need to adapt to a country’s requirements, as well as their customer’s needs. It’s important for CPOs to understand what their stakeholder is looking for, along with their pain points and how these can be solved.

Whilst it seems a shift is happening in Procurement, we still seem to be at the very beginning: as the function becomes more in demand as a result of our interconnected world, disciplined processes need to be put in place as supply chains face pressure to deliver quick results.

Where is the state of art technology to focus on value to businesses?

This is just one of the questions Procurement teams ask to make their function more efficient. Attractive solutions and partners exist out there, it is just the questionability of how these can be applied creatively to help make solving problems easier.

Implementing a digital transformation will help organizations in future, as long as it is embraced by all users. This will face some tough calls, along with deciding the right investments in the right areas.

Invest in the right tools that will help your people, processes and the organization.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

1. Create an environment suitable for experimentation and agile mindsets

2. Relationships are key – especially when times get tough

3. Don’t be afraid to try new things – fail fast, react and learn quickly

4. Focus on sustainability

5. Embrace innovation, data and insights