It is a quiet week this week with it being Easter, but I did find three different articles to share:
- At the Global Procurement Tech Summit that I attended a couple of weeks ago, IBM presented the potential that cognitive learning has to change the way we buy. This week, the Washington Post reported that IBM’s Watson is being used to support the Pentagon’s efforts to streamline the procurement process at the Air Force: The Pentagon’s procurement system is so broken they are calling on Watson.
- Peter Smith of Spend Matters UK writes that technology continues to impact the way that we buy across service related categories: The Age of Dis-Aggregation: Technology Will Drive New Procurement Strategies.
- Is isn’t all about technology though. Gabe Perez of Coupa writes on the Procurious blog that, while the technology already exists for companies to unite their P2P process, it is the people who are key to breaking down the silo’s which are causing the process to still be disjointed for all participants: Unifying Procure to Pay: A Leadership Challenge for the CPO.
On the Art of Procurement, we had two different interviews this week. First, I interviewed Jason Busch, the co-organizer of the Global Procurement Tech Summit and Founder of Azul Partners / Spend Matters. Jason shared his takeaways from the conference as we discussed if technology will disrupt the procurement delivery model.
My second interview was with Dave Hulsen, co-founder of RFP365. Dave and I discussed a number of RFP horror stories, and what we can do to maximize the insights that can be gathered from an RFP vs. using them to ask potential suppliers to answer a series of yes/no questions.
Have a great weekend,
Phil
