Planning a Successful Procurement Transformation Journey
Wayne Gretzky once said that “ a good hockey player plays where the puck is . A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be .” The same can be said for procurement leaders planning their organizations ’ digital transformation .
At Ivalua , we ’ ve had the opportunity to work with hundreds of the world ’ s leading companies on their journeys . The most successful have consistently been those that keep their eye on where they want their organizations to be many years down the road and plot their course accordingly .
While people ultimately are the ones that deliver value and bring successful transformations to fruition , technology is a critical enabler . It frees capacity , provides necessary insights , enables collaboration at scale and much more . Successful procurement transformation journeys involve several core phases , and technology must be able to support each one when you are ready to progress .
Typical Objectives |
Get up and running quickly
Generate ROI
Adopt industry best practices
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Digitize the full Source-to- Pay process
Manage 100 % of spend
Improve data / strategic insights
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Bing your best ideas to life
Establish agility for evolving requirements
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Technology Requirements |
Rapid deployment , adoption & onboarding
Industry configurations
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Complete suite
Unified data model
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Powerful configurability |
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Industry-leading capabilities |
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Getting Started Best-in-Class Competitive Advantage Procurement Digital Transformation Journey
If getting started , ensure technology can deliver rapid ROI and deliver best practices . But remember that even if you are only digitizing part of your process now , when you are ready to build a truly best-in-class procurement organization you ’ ll want to digitize the full Source-to-Pay process , in which case an integrated suite to automate all activity will be needed , and a unified data model will be critical to ensuring 360 degree supplier visibility or generating process-wide insights from the latest artificial intelligence applications . Fannie Mae was able to onboard nearly 100 % of their suppliers and achieved visibility into 100 % of spend . Their team made it happen , empowered by technology .
You should insist on best practice capabilities and configurations , but realize that as you mature you will inevitably find that some requirements are truly unique or have evolved . Be sure your technology has the flexibility to accommodate them through configuration . And remember that best-in-class does not create a competitive advantage . Top talent will want to innovate and do a few strategic activities differently , better than the competition . Technology should empower them to do so and bring their best ideas to life . Fannie Mae maintains better insight into cyber security threats than its suppliers , so implemented a unique process to automatically notify at-risk suppliers of threats , thereby reducing risk better than others .
Every company ’ s journey is unique , but by keeping their eye on where they are headed , procurement leaders can achieve their goals .
To learn how Ivalua can accelerate your procurement digital transformation , visit ivalua . com