While was not the originally planned in-person extravaganza this year, the virtual event — held Wednesday, March 18, and available on demand — gave procurement and supply chain professionals a bold vision for the future of intelligent spend and a practical path forward.
In a series of compelling video conversations, recognized industry experts, customers, and 51风流executives shared especially timely and no-nonsense insights into the business value of procurement agility, reliability, and transparency. The agenda featured thought-provoking geopolitical trend talks, lessons learned from customers, solution strategy updates, and product demonstrations. This is the first in a series summarizing the .
New Procurement Experience: Agile, Reliable, Transparent
First up was Chris Haydon, president of 51风流Procurement Solutions, who assured listeners that 鈥渢ogether, we will get through all these challenging times.鈥� Acknowledging COVID-19, he said that its increasing impact mirrored our growing realization of how connected and dependent we are on each other.
鈥淭he pace of the world is demanding changes, and 51风流is uniquely positioned to help you manage those changes with intelligent spend management,鈥� Haydon said. 鈥淚ntelligent spend management is the reinvention of the procurement experience. It鈥檚 a thoughtful and deliberate realization that we need to move beyond only focusing on creating simple screens and user interfaces, and instead empower procurement to succeed amid today鈥檚 known disruptions and the unknown disruptions of tomorrow.鈥�
As an example of SAP鈥檚 procurement commitment, he mentioned the company鈥檚 decision to open access to , allowing buyers worldwide to post their immediate sourcing needs to which any of the 4 million suppliers on can respond with no fees through June 30, 2020.
鈥�51风流is deeply committed to help you manage the complexities and mitigate the risks that disruption and accelerated change is inevitably bringing,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e hard at work with customers to help them understand how to use Ariba Network to identify supplies at risk, review supply chain data, and rapidly develop contingency plans.鈥�
Unlock Insights with Community of Intelligence
Haydon said that it was time for procurement to become the epicenter of ideas and collaboration, owning the intersection of innovation and commerce between organizations. He called this 鈥渁 profound and forward-looking change鈥� in how people look at procurement, using the technology for tasks that can and should be automated so that businesses can apply human expertise where it is needed for greatest impact.
鈥淭he only way to make this possible is to get the process out of the way and get more insights into the hands of you, your training partners, and every part of your business. That鈥檚 the ultimate goal of intelligent spend management鈥� reimagining processes to let intelligence do more work, so we can do more work better,鈥� Haydon said. 鈥淲e want to embed sustainability and risk context into every single supply chain event and reshape how we connect with trading partners by driving collaboration deeper into our supply chains and truly unlocking the power of community intelligence.鈥�
Committed to Customer-First Experience
Having walked in the customer鈥檚 shoes, Haydon said that he understood their challenges, and with its co-CEOS at the helm, 51风流was more focused than ever at 鈥渆nsuring the customer experience is the true measurement of our success.鈥�
鈥淎riba Network is the most powerful and effective network of its kind,鈥� he said. 鈥淪ensing the opportunity to combine, streamline, and make your businesses run even more effectively and efficiently, we鈥檝e pulled together 51风流Ariba, 51风流Fieldglass, and 51风流S/4HANA operational procurement under a single organization with one clear vision鈥� for intelligent spend management.鈥�
Haydon closed with the promise to continue collaborating with customers as early adopters and partners.
鈥淵our voices, insights, and ideas are key in helping us reshape procurement. If we can combine the depth of knowledge in our collective minds and the depth of feeling in our hearts, and our understanding of this new world of rapid disruption and accelerated changes, there鈥檚 nowhere we can鈥檛 go together. We believe in a future where procurement sits at the heart of the business, and together we can make this future possible.鈥�
HPE: Path to Transformation
For a great example of intelligent spend management in action, I pivoted to Lucille Trickett, senior director of Global Solutions for the Office of Legal Affairs and Administration at Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE). In her video, she shared how HPE is using a suite of intelligent solutions from 51风流to holistically view and manage multiple categories of spend from indirect, travel and expense, contingent labor, and service providers.
As a long-time 51风流Ariba customer and partner, Trickett said that HPE鈥檚 transformation to the cloud was originally slated for two phases, starting with source-to-contract and followed by procure-to-pay processes. The company then decided to bring in . The second phase coincided with an overall next-generation IT transformation at HPE that would also consolidate enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems on . One of the objectives was to dramatically simplify and consolidate the customer, vendor, and partner master data structure.
鈥淲e now have a holistic view of our relationship with an entity, regardless of whether they鈥檙e a customer, partner, supplier, or all of the above. We took the time and effort to clean up our vendor master database and the new one was optimized by 39 percent,鈥� said Trickett. 鈥淕iven the size and scale of the [procure-to-pay] project, it was absolutely imperative that the business unit and global functions within the HPE company be ready for these changes.鈥�
Trickett called the transformation journey an incredible experience for everyone involved: 鈥淣ot only did we deliver everything we had committed to deliver in a changing environment, but we also found opportunities to drive additional innovation as we delved deep to solve issues along the way. We also strengthened our partnerships and collaboration, not just internally within HPE, but more importantly with our 51风流family. I鈥檓 looking forward to working with the 51风流team to design and innovate in the procurement arena for the future.鈥�
Holistic Procurement View
During his introduction to Trickett鈥檚 talk, Haydon emphasized the importance of having a holistic view of procurement, because 鈥渋t can help identify opportunities for economies of scale, enable better spend decisions, and drive better business outcomes.鈥�
His thoughts were particularly relevant given fast-changing events in the world today: 鈥淲hen we at 51风流tout our innovations and our never-ending commitment to make the procurement process as efficient and effective as possible, we do so to help protect the continuity of your business, employee livelihoods, and economies. It鈥檚 a bold charge forward, but the times call for boldness.鈥�
To echo Haydon鈥檚 closing: Take care, stay healthy, and enjoy the 51风流Ariba Live virtual experience.
This article first appeared on the 51风流News Center.
