As we close in on the end of the year and I settle in at Ardent Partners, I wanted to take a moment to look toward 2024. Rather than an article on predictions, I want to share what I’m most excited about covering in the year ahead.
As mentioned in my first Magnus Mondays article, much has happened during the last few years and recently. New functional areas are being addressed while new technologies are being applied at a higher pace than ever before. It is harder than ever for end users (who don’t spend all their waking hours thinking about procurement technology) to keep up and understand what different solutions do.
Unfortunately, many of the new product “names” don’t make life easier either. Lots of different solutions use the same terms but in quite different ways. So, to provide clarity we’ll research some of these areas, with a focus on real-world use cases, what problems they address, and how customers have actually used the solutions. The areas/topics I will cover, among other things, are intake and orchestration, autonomous sourcing, category management solutions, and — the topic that seems to be everywhere right now —generative AI.
Intake and Orchestration
Intake management is a new category of solutions that has exploded on the market. Sometimes the term “process orchestration” is used as well, but it is not the same. My definition of intake is about providing a simple interface for the end users to interact with. Ideally, this should cover any procurement request the end user might have. Orchestration is then about managing the underlying business process to execute the end user request. But the terms are used liberally, so don’t assume two different intake/orchestration solutions do the same thing.
Again, this is currently a very hyped area, especially for investors, with a large number of (relatively) new solution providers in this space. However, some existing solution providers, including major suite providers, also have capabilities here.
In our research, we will clarify the different terms and feature sample vendors and how they approach this exciting space.
Autonomous Sourcing
To begin, I’m not a fan of the term autonomous sourcing. According to Merriam-Webster, “autonomous” implies independence, self-containment, and the power of self-government. And if we are honest, no sourcing solution lives up to that (and do we really want that?). To make things worse, the autonomous sourcing space contains very different types of vendors ranging from automated three bids and a buy-processes (similar to RPA) to more advanced automated negotiations. I prefer the term “sourcing automation” since this more accurately describes what we are talking about.
Again, there is a mix of established and new players in this space. In the new year, we’ll bring clarity to these solutions by examining a couple of sample vendors and describing what part of the sourcing process they focus on.
Category Management
Category management is by no means a new topic, but there’s long been a lack of solutions to support it. A couple of the bigger suite providers now offer category management solutions that go beyond just dashboards. There are also specialists emerging (and at least one pioneer in the market) that provide end users with options to support a critical aspect of strategic sourcing.
We are planning to look at the available options in the market and what they offer to support the category management process.
Generative AI
No one has missed the emergence of generative AI. Beyond the headlines of the OpenAI soap opera, several solution providers are claiming to offer generative AI-powered solutions of various kinds. A quick googling of generative AI for procurement reveals a couple of million hits. But what is actually available today? What are the benefits and risks of deploying this technology? We plan to talk to a selection of procurement technology providers across the S2P spectrum and understand how and where they are leveraging this latest flavor of AI.
These are a few of the broader themes I’m planning to cover in 2024. There will be much more, including Tech Advisor reports, Metrics that Matter reports, and other musings about the procurement space.
So, if you are a solution provider in any of the spaces mentioned above, please reach out so we can get a briefing on the calendar. If you are not in these spaces, no worries, reach out anyway so we can chat!
Let me end by wishing a happy holiday to all who celebrate and a happy new year. I will be back in January with fresh Magnus Mondays articles.
