Year in review... 2020 to 2021
Twelve months ago, our team set out on a mission to share our thoughts and experiences around the Digital Procurement landscape each month. I am honored to close out this year's campaign with post #12! There is no better way than to take a retrospective look on the highlights of 2020 (what a year!) and how they will evolve in the year to come - here is to 2021!
1- The shift to digitalization is now!
This meme is my favorite and sets us up for this topic perfectly. Let’s start with the most obvious shift - remote working. The pandemic launched the workforce into a new era of remote work and with 64% of the canadian workforce saying they are uncomfortable with returning to the office, it looks like remote working is here to stay. This means having digital processes and business applications that employees and suppliers can access from anywhere and at any time. Filing cabinets of physical contracts, invoices, and cheques come to mind (still remember the impression of ‘wet signature’!?). Digital procurement platforms, like Ariba, Ivalua, or Coupa, digitizalize and automate the Source to Pay process.
2 - Illuminate your supply chain
As I posted back in March, I’ve not heard the word supply chain more times than in the recent months. Disruptions caused by the global movement restrictions have shone a light on how little some organizations understand its supply chain beyond their immediate suppliers - oftentimes distributors as organizations set out over the years to consolidate their supply base. Better articulation of an organization’s supply chain and inherent risks within it will continue to be a priority for many. This will likely drive more focus in data exchange and transparency in our connected world to inform decision making.
3 - Business looking for immediate cost relief continue to look to Procurement first
As markets and businesses around the world look to recover, Procurement continues to be one of the first places organizations look at to transform themselves into a “financially-fit” model. Procurement helps organizations deliver benefits straight to the bottom line and offers the ever-important spend visibility. Knowing how much you are spending and where, is the first step to unlocking cost reduction and better financial management.
4 - Bite size automation
Urgent needs for digital transformations in a highly uncertain economic environment… Enter “bite-size automaton.” We have seen many organizations take on their digital transformations in manageable chunks this past year instead of large-scale platform change. Together, we have worked to develop and deploy bots to our clients to automate tasks and visualize data insights to support decision making. Some of these bots have even helped with larger implementations, such as a bot Ajay’s team created a few months back that automated data cleansing across over 4,000 separate master data excel files for migration (remember Anthony’s post on this important, riveting subject!). If a full-scale implementation seems daunting to you, try breaking it up into pieces.
5 - ESG rising to the top of mind!
My partner, Janice in our Sustainability and Climate Change practice, jokes with me often on this, “the world has woken up!” For many, the term “ESG” brings to mind environmental issues like climate change. Although that is one dimension of ESG, the term means much more. It covers social issues like a company’s labor practices, talent management, product safety and data security; as well as governance matters like board diversity, executive pay and business ethics. The year 2020 has seen these ESG considerations quickly rise to the top of business leaders agendas. The global pandemic has disproportionately impacted vulnerable segments of the economy and made us all rethink our social and economic contributions. Businesses are working hard to embed ESG considerations into their operations - including how they buy, from whom they buy, and how they manage their supply chains. We expect these ESG considerations to continue to receive the spotlight we believe they deserve. Look forward to sharing more perspectives on this subject next year!
What trends in procurement do you predict for 2021? Share your thoughts in the comments below!