“Nice experience! Thanks Zycus”, “Great event, really took in a lot!”… Some feedback we got from the event attendees. The praise makes all the efforts and hard work put in for months worth it. With 200+ happy attendees we can safely say the event was a big success.

In this blog I would like to share some of the major procurement insights that were evident from the various sessions and conversations held at the event.

Insight 1: Shifting trends towards Source-to-Pay adoption

There is a growing trend towards adoption of multiple solution suites as opposed to point solutions. As per 2014 Gartner end user inquiry: a staggering 75% want suites, not point solutions.

A dominant telephone company, headquartered in Ohio, U.S. vouches for integrated procurement suite to improve workflow & compliance, maximize addressable spend, minimize maverick spend and increase procurement’s net contribution to bottom line.

A Swiss based pharmaceutical company facing multiple challenges with its procurement team, identified and realized that implementing end-to-end procurement suite would not only help support both – its procurement team and the internal clients but also open ways for a professional collaboration with their suppliers.

Insight 2: The changing role of a CPO

The average life span of a CPO is 4.6 years as per a CAPS Study.

Bill Michels, Sr. VP ISM said that as a CPO if your primary metric is cost savings, then your days are numbered. The role of procurement has evolved from being transaction driven to being business strategy driven. Thus a CPO needs to look beyond cost savings.

The CPOs today needs to deliver ‘value’ by focusing on innovation – be it supplier related or internal, building a strong pool of procurement talent, enhancing collaboration with internal and external stakeholders, getting a seat at the executive management table and understanding the value in alignment in the organizational strategy with the supply chain.

Insight 3: Key procurement trends

Some of the key procurement trends as highlighted and discussed by The Hackett Group study were;

“Reducing cost of procurement” is a top priority for organizations in 2015, as voted by 52% of the survey respondents.

Supplier innovation is another focus point. 31% of the organizations measure supplier innovation by “the number of new ideas implemented”

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