Become a “Partner of Choice” to Unleash the Full Power of Procurement

Most procurement teams are familiar with the concept of customer centricity, and some years back this concept was translated into supplier-centric sourcing. Becoming a “customer of choice” became the new top goal in order to secure the best deals and guarantee great relationships through close collaboration with core suppliers. In many organizations, this meant identifying the top 50 contracts pertaining to direct spend and keeping relevant suppliers happy. Both concepts have remained valid and game changing until today.

In a post-COVID supply environment, now is the time to revolutionize by taking the best of both worlds and consolidating them into a new approach moving forward: partner-centric procurement. It’s a well known fact that procurement connects two of the most important pillars of every business: supply bases and customers. Procurement’s choice of supplier, the results of the scouting process, and awareness of the latest innovations have a direct impact on customer satisfaction and therefore company success.

The available current and fast-emerging new technological capabilities make partner-centric sourcing no longer a thing of the future, but of the present. Procurement does not need to stop at becoming a customer of choice or be limited to a one-sided customer-centric approach. It is time to take advantage of the current accelerated digital transformation and become a brand of choice at the same time—a partner of choice to both suppliers and customers.

The capabilities to make an impact do not stop there. Supplier scouting as a procurement process includes setting global sustainability and diversity standards by choosing and supporting the right type of business partners that share crucial core values. Competencies and accountability as well as quality and stable supply have long become a priority over cost control and savings.

Procurement partnering with suppliers and customers alike has many game changing benefits for every business: great products people love, of highest quality, at best prices. Reaching this goal directly translates into a win-win-win situation for your supplier, your business, and your customers. The benefits include:

• Increased revenue
• Market share gains
• Long-term collaboration
• Loyal customers

Best of all, it is down to procurement organizations to step forward and make things happen, keeping both partners, suppliers, and customers happy and satisfied. Rise and shine—procurement teams are now equipped to deliver as a trusted advisor to business stakeholders, gaining visibility at the same time!

With new AI-driven procurement platforms, a mission toward greater market share and becoming a partner or brand of choice can rapidly become viable and easy to achieve. The availability of state-of-the-art solutions dedicated to specific procurement process segments, such as supplier scouting, has never been greater.

This has led to a shift in best-of-breed ecosystems over ‘all-in-one’ legacy solutions that often cannot be configured to fully meet all important requirements of businesses. Best-in-breed solutions now deliver scouting for the right suppliers, efficient collaboration with all stakeholders, relationship management, and securing supply to serve customers—one interface with the right technology stack seamlessly performing in the background.

All processes connected to the delivery of partner-centric procurement can now be combined in agile, fully connected AI based solutions with a high degree of automation to free capacity for procurement teams to focus on value adding tasks like driving innovation.

Importantly, applied AI in procurement means empowerment to continuously scan the market for suppliers, build supply chain resilience, proactively scout for innovations, and democratize opportunities to all suppliers. In a nutshell, AI will help you build better sourcing ecosystems that are future proof.

The complex flow of materials and money in a supply chain generates a huge amount of data. AI harnesses its power, so procurement can focus on their goal of fair market value for all core business partners alike—supplier and customer.