New Technology Shaping the Future of Procurement

How will AI and new technology shape the future of strategic sourcing and procurement?

Internal customers will continue to expect procurement to deliver a service which is equivalent to their external retail experience. The challenge of developing back end systems for organisations to match customer experience of externally facing platforms will continue and I think you can see the roadmap for procurement technology within the developing customer journey in this area. Predictive analytics from customer profiles, particularly in the goods space is well established in the retail market and I expect this to bleed into the procurement system space in the same manner that marketplace systems with a greater degree of supplier engagement have developed in the last years. The internal stakeholder expects a frictionless use of procurement, and to deliver this, there will need to be further integration with supplier environments to make information readily available to all.

What can be done in order to develop effective SRM?

The discipline of service management needs to be reinforced with business analytics capabilities, ensuring service managers understand the partners they operate with and drivers of their performance. Alongside this, the procuring organisation needs to develop and enhance its understanding which suppliers are mapped to changes in business strategy, to make sure these are signposted and informed of change.

Futuristic vision of workforce required in procurement. What skills will be needed?

Procurement needs to develop its skillset in line with digitalisation of the industry. The analytics and business intelligence will become more important as well as utilising these as base skills, to ensure procurement interventions in the supply chain are as effective and targeted as possible.

Jarrod GLOVER, Head of Procurement from Santander is an experienced business leader with cross industry experience in a broad spectrum of management and commercial activities. I have progressed within industry due to my drive and commitment to delivering a right first time approach, leading my team by example; being aware of and supporting others goals through teamwork and partnership. I am always looking to develop my expertise through experiencing new challenges both inside and outside of the work environment.