What sort of cool stuff do you expect to see in the future? Do you immediately think of things out of a science fiction film like flying cars and hoverboards? Or maybe you think of the not-so-distant advancements in robotics and machine learning?
For procurement professionals, the future isn’t so much about nifty gadgets as it is about observable trends and new ways of working.
Here are what we believe to be five emerging trends in procurement and why they're arguably some of the coolest things that will happen to the profession in 2021.
It would take an extremely stubborn procurement team to plow ahead with business-as-usual after the disaster that was 2020. Thankfully, most teams have adjusted their ways of working, with some changes intended to last for the duration of the crisis, while others will be permanent.
These include:
The artificial intelligence revolution in procurement is well underway, but machine learning takes time. This means that AI that was as clever as a four-year-old in 2019 could be as smart as a 10-year-old by 2021 as it gets better and better at tasks such as categorizing company spend.
Procurement AI solutions to explore in 2021 include:
Last year, Gartner’s influential Magic Quadrant report declared that the days of end-to-end P2P suites are over. Organizations are shifting away from Enterprise Resource Platforms towards what is known as a procurement tech stack.
This best-in-breed approach involves building your own integrated ecosystem of procurement software solutions. You might opt to partner with one vendor for procurement analytics, for example, and a different vendor for supplier discovery, and so on.
The key to success lies in integration. Data should flow seamlessly between the solutions, whether it’s a tech stack of five or fifty elements.
Social and environmental factors may have taken a back seat in procurement decision-making for now, but there’s absolutely no doubt this will become an emerging trend in procurement this year.
In some organizations, the cultural change had already been locked in before COVID-19 hit, with every procurement decision taking sustainability into account, no matter what the circumstances are. There is also the influence of the Biden/Harris administration, which will certainly have a stronger focus on sustainability.
Procurement, with its control over company spend, has the power to drive positive change in areas such as:
We talked earlier about stubborn procurement teams. These are the ones that fail to recognize that some challenges – such as COVID-19 – are just too big to tackle alone. Therefore, collaborating and partnering with others to pool resources, share ideas, and find solutions to common goals is a smart move. It is often the best choice financially, as well.
Together, we can do more. This is a core belief here at Una, where our members come together to leverage the power of group purchasing to save time, money, and effort. It may not seem as cool as a hoverboard or flying car, but we can guarantee that partnering with a group purchasing organization (GPO) will take you further in 2021.
The smartest move you make this year starts with a phone call. Click here to learn more.
