The following excerpt from an article written by an end-user client presents one of the best eProcurement strategies I have seen in my close to 25 years in the procurement world. It is right up there with Virginia’s enduring eVA strategy, which is still the standard for public sector procurement efficiency.
Put The Horse Back In Front Of The Cart (Excerpt):
A short time after I joined the Procurement team in my company, my new boss made a request; take us from procurement 1.0 to 2.0.
Considering that we were, as a company, a year removed from a merger that brought together multiple legacy systems, the prospects of such a request did not promise an easy undertaking. I remember my boss commenting at the time that our real starting point wasn’t procurement 1.0 but 0.5.
At this point one might immediately turn to technology as the driving force of procurement transformation, and why not. Digital advancements have put incredible computing power at our fingertips promising results within weeks if not days as opposed to months and years. But there is often a big gap between technology promise and said realisation, that has little to do with the technology itself.
The Cart Before The Horse
There are no shortages of empirical references to eProcurement initiatives that have failed to deliver the expected results. Of course, such disappointments do not solely apply to the automation of the procurement function. The fact that a recent IDC report referred to a large number of companies who after making a move to the cloud repatriate their data back to their traditional IT infrastructure gives testimony to this fact.
So is there something wrong with the technology?
The simple answer is no! The issue is leading with technology, or more specifically introducing technology to a procurement environment that is not mature.
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Procurement Insights 
YOU WANT PROCUREMENT SUCCESS? PUT THE HORSE BACK IN FRONT OF THE CART (EXCERPT)
Posted on May 14, 2019
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The following excerpt from an article written by an end-user client presents one of the best eProcurement strategies I have seen in my close to 25 years in the procurement world. It is right up there with Virginia’s enduring eVA strategy, which is still the standard for public sector procurement efficiency.
Put The Horse Back In Front Of The Cart (Excerpt):
A short time after I joined the Procurement team in my company, my new boss made a request; take us from procurement 1.0 to 2.0.
Considering that we were, as a company, a year removed from a merger that brought together multiple legacy systems, the prospects of such a request did not promise an easy undertaking. I remember my boss commenting at the time that our real starting point wasn’t procurement 1.0 but 0.5.
At this point one might immediately turn to technology as the driving force of procurement transformation, and why not. Digital advancements have put incredible computing power at our fingertips promising results within weeks if not days as opposed to months and years. But there is often a big gap between technology promise and said realisation, that has little to do with the technology itself.
The Cart Before The Horse
There are no shortages of empirical references to eProcurement initiatives that have failed to deliver the expected results. Of course, such disappointments do not solely apply to the automation of the procurement function. The fact that a recent IDC report referred to a large number of companies who after making a move to the cloud repatriate their data back to their traditional IT infrastructure gives testimony to this fact.
So is there something wrong with the technology?
The simple answer is no! The issue is leading with technology, or more specifically introducing technology to a procurement environment that is not mature.
30
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