ARTICLE 02/04
Can technology be a catalyst for change? Once the path to business change was clear: get the leadership, build new processes, do the training, win people’s commitment and, last of all, roll out the technology. Leading business change with technology was tantamount to project management suicide. But business leaders are beginning to rethink this assumption. They see technology inspiring business change.
68% 20% of companies would choose to implement technology in parallel with their process development. Using SRM tools saved 20 percent of procurement staff’s time compared with the previous methods of collecting data.
The world of business applications has been transformed. They are far easier to build and deploy than ever before, largely because of cloud computing. Meanwhile, modern user-friendly interfaces developed for consumer facing social media and ecommerce are finding their way into workplace technology. Younger entrants to procurement, as well as seasoned tech-savvy professionals, will be used to exploiting consumer technology to save time and effort in their lives outside work. Given the right tools, they can be inspired to do the same to achieve their professional goals. Where they lead, others will follow. Because new SRM applications can be deployed easily and rapidly in the cloud, but draw data from a range of enterprise applications and external sources, they can be made easier to use and accessible from anywhere. Suppliers can add their data to the system with a simple web-based log-in, avoiding collecting data on email or over the phone. Cloud-based software can even integrate directly with supplier systems. Those who choose not tomake themost of these new systems will fall behind in their performance. One large corporation using State of Flux’s Statess SRM application tracked the performance of 800 suppliers and estimated it saved 20% of procurement staff’s time compared with the previous methods of collecting data.
Understanding supplier performance is a vital element within SRM. But keeping track of the data, in the form of supplier KPIs, is difficult. Most often the data is kept in spreadsheets that continually need updating. It is difficult to cross-reference, normalise and merge between categories and corporate departments. It is not only supplier performance that can be recorded, analysed and rolled out on cloud-base systems. Once the tool has the data, it can create dashboards for specific stakeholders, account managers or suppliers. Free text, video and audio can be uploaded, but the process is structured to guide suppliers or internal users through the process. This way, a number of SRM processes, such as the capture of innovation, can be managed by the system, as the following sections describe. Of course, leadership from the top of an organisation will be necessary to set the tone and direction of travel. But with the right tool in place, technology can be the catalyst for change, not the last to arrive at the party. Keeping track of the data, in the formof supplier KPIs, is difficult. Most often it is kept in spreadsheets that continually need updating.
07 STATEOFFLUX
2016GLOBAL SRMRESEARCHREPORT
State-of-flux_Master_Document_Final_Print.indd 7
12/10/2016 19:29
Powered by FlippingBook