SupplyChain Magazine February 2022 | Page 129

TECH & AI
“ I think that this ever-increasing workload is quite stressful for procurement functions as a whole . They are experiencing a difficult period and they need help within their organisations , but they need help from technology vendors as well to help reduce that workload .”
Adding to Holland ’ s comments , Fabian Lampe , Head of Procurement and Marketing at Archlet , says : “ Speaking from a vendor perspective , we ’ ve definitely seen that potential customers are a lot more focused on ensuring the security of supply rather than investing in innovation or new solutions . Everyone is talking about procurement digitalisation , but when it comes down to it , businesses are screaming to ensure that factories continue to run and to improve process efficiency .
“ There has never been more awareness of the opportunities offered to procurement and supply chain , by optimising or digitalising source-to-pay ( S2P ). The market has been shifting tremendously over the last two to three years leaving procurement and supply chain in a state of flux where customers are not 100 % sure how to deal with this .”
What is driving CPOs to push for modernisation and digitalisation ? “ Market forces are driving this change to a large extent because suppliers perceive risks in the volatility of the input prices for materials to produce goods so they ' re reluctant to commit to long-term contracts ,” says Holland .
“ And so , due to the reluctance of suppliers to commit to long-term contracts ,
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