VODAFONE PROCUREMENT COMPANY
NINIAN WILSON CV
“ My name is Ninian Wilson , and
I ' m the CEO of the Vodafone Procurement Company here in Luxembourg . I also run all supply chain operations for Vodafone . I started my career in a company called British Gas in 1990 in the department called supplies and transport . I worked in various roles in British Gas through the 1990s until 2000 and then I joined a telecommunications company called Cable & Wireless , becoming chief procurement officer , and chief property officer . In 2006 , I joined Royal Mail as CPO then became Operation Director . And then , in 2009 , I joined Vodafone .”
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Before any procurement professionals drop their mugs of coffee and reach for something a tad stronger , Wilson is not suggesting for one minute that the human role and input will become obsolete – far from it . However , what we will see is a streamlining of processes , leaning on data , artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate certain tasks to provide the best outcomes .
“ Our jobs all change over time when we get new tools and it wouldn ' t apply to everything we do ,” says Wilson . “ But if we think of the vendor selection piece , a tool or a capability that looks at the internet can bring in some suppliers , probably picks a few common ones , create the tender document , send it out , do the balanced scorecard evaluation at the end .
“ This ' ll be a cool bit if we get it to do the negotiation , then put it into a contract , and uploads pricing information into our ERP system . That ' s what we ' re calling autonomous sourcing . We ' re currently building that to go live with our POC at the end of April .”
It ’ s certainly an exciting time to be working in supply chain and procurement right now . Can anyone remember a time when supply chain in particular may be leading the news agenda ? And while nobody would have wished for the causes of this particular focus ( the global shutdown and inevitable pivot caused by the pandemic ), it ’ s good to see that the people responsible for ensuring that everything ran so magnificently for years are now being recognized . Just as scientists are once again trusted experts and key workers applauded from our doorsteps , supply chain specialists are here to solve our fundamental needs – from food to Pfizer-BioNTech . Is 2021 procurement ’ s time to shine ? “ It ' s probably the second S curve that we ' ve been on as a function , with the first around e-procurement in the 2000s ,” says Wilson . “ I think we ' re genuinely on the second S curve
46 April 2021