Innovation Vision as a Roadmap for Procurement – Procurement Leaders

As procurement professionals we find ourselves in a really unique situation, there hasn’t been a shift like this in our industry ever that I can recall, so it’s tough to compare.

The priorities for the foreseeable future are much different now than they were before. I think over the next three years procurement will go through massive changes, not just with technology, but truly changing how procurement is done, the skills that are required, and what future leaders will look like.

A Three-Year Roadmap

When I look at what the future looks like for procurement, I see a focus on three key areas:

This is an idea that my colleague, Amenallah Reghimi, calls “The Golden Triangle.”

1. People and Skills

People are core to digital transformation.

Build the roof before the foundation so to speak, and this always backfires and causes problems.

For one it can cause a distrust of data and technology but also leads to an overall waste of an investment of both time and money.

What I mean by this is two-fold, upskilling your current team, and attracting new, young top talent.

Skills of the Future

As procurement changes, we all need to be agile enough to change with it, learn new skills and adapt.

I think the core skill set that professionals and leaders alike need will be:

These five skills represent the future of work. We all need to dedicate ourselves to embracing them because if we do, digital transformation will become so much easier, and you can attract the bright young talent that procurement needs right now.

2. Processes

Next up are the process changes that procurement will need to address.

I don’t necessarily mean your specific “How will I get this done?” processes – these are important and also need to be evaluated – but I’ll touch more on general tactics and areas I see coming top of mind that those processes will need to be built around.

3. Technology

Over the next three years, technology will progress faster than most of us probably realize.

Advancements in true cognitive machine learning applications, AI, advanced RPA, augmented analytics, and so much more are going to change the way we all do business.

The role of the day-to-day procurement professional will look drastically different in 2024 or 2025 than right now. Data needs to be the top focus here. Without relevant and clean data the best AI application in the world won’t be very useful.

It might be cumbersome at first, but data hygiene is an incredibly important step.

There’s an important distinction that needs to be made between a technology vendor and a technology partner.

A vendor will sell you software and never speak to you again. You need to look for a true partner who matches up with your three-year roadmap and beyond who will help guide you along the way.

A big reason I’ve joined JAGGAER is because I feel that they embrace that role.

Digital Adoption

Once you have those two steps taken care of and have created a roadmap of where you are and want to be, the next step is taking action with technology.

Unfortunately, technology adoption hasn’t been nearly good enough.

The Harvard Business Review did a study and found that only 20% of digital initiatives actually succeed.

The reason? An alarming lack of digital adoption.

Therefore, finding ways to reduce any friction in your user journey is key. It helps build and provide intuitive training at the right moment, and gives full visibility into your team’s adoption, allowing you to measure your success.

What’s Next?

The only thing that I know for certain is the procurement profession will look much different in just three years’ time.

But if you focus on the skills, processes and technology foundation today, you’ll create a competitive advantage that will be tough to overtake.

The question shouldn’t be “What will happen if we move too quickly and make mistakes?” it should really be “What’s going to happen if we don’t?”

Be bold, take risks, let’s shape the future of procurement together.

Justin Sadler-Smith is SVP Sales for Northern Europe for JAGGAER.

Find great content from our partners through their Marketplace listing.