Editor’s Note: Ardent Partners is pleased to present the thirteenth installment of our annual benchmark procurement research study, CPO Rising 2018: The Age of Intelligence, and make it available for download (click the link), courtesy of our industry partners. This year’s theme, The Age of Intelligence, explores the many dimensions of intelligence — its concept, its distinctions, and its applications to the modern procurement function. We hope that procurement leaders will find it enlightening. Click to download your complimentary copy.

For business leaders, like the Chief Procurement Officer (CPO), building organizational intelligence is an effort that must be pursued across multiple areas. To that end, leveraging process automation and knowledge capture tools is one clear way to ensure that that intelligence is accessible and scalable across the enterprise. In 2018, in a move that is aligned with the general embrace of technology by businesses over the past few years, more CPOs (47%) are focused on improving their department’s use of technology by investing in new systems and improving the use of their current systems than any other specific strategy.

The classic paradox of supply management technology (that it has, more than any other factor, contributed to the rise in prominence and impact of the CPO over the last two decades, while also remaining a nominally important consideration for a large number of CPOs) is fading. Harder to use (and implement) first- and second-generation solutions have been replaced by cloud-based solutions that stress usability; large, upfront licensing costs have been replaced by lower, pay-as-you-go subscription fees; and older technology-resistant staffers have been replaced by a new generation of rabid technologists.

The net effect is that more CPOs have a tech-friendly environment and mindset, and are investing in solutions to support an expansion of duties, while maintaining a flat-to-down headcount, to scale talent, expertise, and best practices, and to improve visibility and compliance. Chief Procurement Officers also understand that their processes need to be regularly modified and optimized to the evolving needs of the organization and that technology can serve as an enabler of more agile processes.

If intelligent leadership is critical to a procurement team’s success, intelligence is equally important at the organizational level, and CPOs know that they must develop and expand the organization’s intellectual capacity and invest in ways to fully leverage it across the entire scope of operations. But while intelligence can be a great asset, if it is not applied or applied correctly, its value is considerably lessened. The same thing can be said of an organization’s resources, efforts, and focus. To this point, we come back to the importance of technology (either enhancement or new investment), as a critical strategy for transforming the modern procurement team into an intelligent procurement team. Are you and your team aligned with this strategy, or are you elsewhere in your transformation journey?

Download the report and discover for yourself.

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