{"id":52076,"date":"2019-12-08T12:08:30","date_gmt":"2019-12-08T11:08:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.KGM Strategy.com\/insights\/procurement-purpose-start-with-the-basics-analytics\/"},"modified":"2024-09-16T10:07:45","modified_gmt":"2024-09-16T08:07:45","slug":"procurement-purpose-start-with-the-basics-analytics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.KGM Strategy.com\/en\/insights\/procurement-purpose-start-with-the-basics-analytics\/","title":{"rendered":"Procurement purpose: Start with the basics"},"content":{"rendered":"

‘The pace of change has never been faster, but it\u2019s never going to be this slow again’ – This is a great line, maybe construable as a platitude, but it has proven true in digitalization in the last two decades.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Nonetheless, in procurement this mystical digitalization has rarely been paradigm changing, or truly disruptive, but rather incremental. Suddenly, five-step tasks are compressed to two steps, rather than fully automated. End-to-end procurement suites have only recently become truly cross-process integrated, and that\u2019s mainly the market leaders. Spend and validation AI is still in relative infancy.<\/p>\n

As \u2018change\u2019 is happening at an ever-accelerating pace, and change builds on previous advancements, early-movers have built up significant momentum and opened a running gap on the digitalization- and data-track. The modern innovation game is not serendipitous, but deliberate and block-by-block.<\/p>\n

The early-movers scope for and understand upcoming innovations and developments. They are aware of their own deficits and data and are eager to identify appropriate opportunities. Their processes and ecosystems allow for unbureaucratic testing and integration. Their risk and legal departments understand sandbox environments and minimum-viable-product targets, as well as the cost and value of time.<\/p>\n

Most importantly, their teams are willing and able to learn and teach each other how to use new tools and methods and are intrinsically motivated to exploit them to maximum efficiency.<\/p>\n

How is this relevant to procurement?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Organizations with a concrete and instilled sense of purpose perform better and are happier.\u00a0<\/a>Even Mark Carney recently said as much with a very particular focus.<\/a>\u00a0Procurement\u2019s mission and tactics should follow suit and have standing in their own right.<\/p>\n

As we transition into an economic downturn, I propose that procurement focus on analytics and data transparency rather than radical step change to catch up. Procurement should be uniquely placed to tie up spend data and understand operational requirements.<\/p>\n

While many procurement organizations have an understanding of spend and needs, they may still be under-equipped to position their insights meaningfully and impactfully.<\/p>\n

This is typically due to one of the following:<\/strong><\/p>\n