Those who have been following me on this blog for some time know that I am not overly impressed with “come on in the waters great” press releases announcing new customer wins. Nor does a panoply of awards and endorsements, on their own, sway me one way or another.
Besides reports of greenwashing and now the Wall Street Journal’s recent article on the emergence of “AI washing,” the reality is that I want to know the details – the nuts and bolts details of who, what, when, where, why, and HOW. In short, more than a big headline supported by a 2-minute video interview alone is needed – most of the time.
There are exceptions, and one exception that led to my taking notice is the following words of Ryan Meonske, Head of Strategic Procurement at
Databricks:
“No company has helped to solve these kinds of issues until Zip. Zip has basically taken it to the next level.”
More Than Words
To be clear, it is not so much the words themselves as who is speaking them—Databricks!
I have been tracking Databricks for a while now – I have even written/ghostwritten several articles about the company and what it does. Here is a brief snapshot:
Databricks – a fully managed Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) solution, is a “unified platform for data engineering, data science, machine learning, and analytics.”
The technology behind it is impressive. What is most noteworthy about Databricks is that it is a platform that facilitates a “collaborative environment” that enables a data team of business analysts, scientists, and engineers to do things such as create data models and develop more efficient methods of extracting data. We say noteworthy because it is the most efficient way to gain “intelligent” access to your organization’s massive cache of information.
How important is data to procurement – it’s a rhetorical question.
So, let’s agree that data is the lifeblood of procurement. Let’s also recognize Databricks has “a platform that facilitates a collaborative environment” that will remove the functional silos that confine enterprise-wide information to individual empire pockets of stakeholder intelligence.
Of All The Gin Joints (or Solutions)!
Over the past few months, I have written many articles on what CPOs call solution map migraines. Here is one from this past January titled “What’s The Cure For Solution Map Migraine?“
I will leave it to you to read the article at your convenience. However, as the title suggests, there are so many solution providers out there that choosing one from the crowded (or overcrowded) landscape can be a challenge. This choice dilemma is especially true given that one provider’s technology is as stable and reliable as the next, meaning we are long past the days of no one ever being fired for not buying IBM.
So, once again, I have to ask the question: Why did the Head of Strategic Procurement at Databricks say, during a 2:22 video, that “No company has helped to solve these kinds of issues until Zip. Zip has basically taken it to the next level?”
30
An Afterthought – here is an excerpt from a 2008 article. The reason I am sharing it is that the processes the Databricks CPO is talking about are not dependent on technology but the experience and expertise of the CPO himself – which is the true definition of orchestration:
“It is my position that a true centralization of procurement objectives requires a decentralized architecture based on the real-world operating attributes of all transactional stakeholders, starting at the local or regional level. In other words, your organization gains control of its spend environment by relinquishing centralized functional control in favor of operational efficiencies originating on the front lines. This framework is the cornerstone of agent-based modeling.”
Here is the link to a 2007 Case Study of the Commonwealth of Virginia’s enduringly successful eVA initiative, which will provide added context.
Procurement Insights
Why did Databricks choose ZIP – no, really, why?
Posted on April 3, 2024
0
Those who have been following me on this blog for some time know that I am not overly impressed with “come on in the waters great” press releases announcing new customer wins. Nor does a panoply of awards and endorsements, on their own, sway me one way or another.
Besides reports of greenwashing and now the Wall Street Journal’s recent article on the emergence of “AI washing,” the reality is that I want to know the details – the nuts and bolts details of who, what, when, where, why, and HOW. In short, more than a big headline supported by a 2-minute video interview alone is needed – most of the time.
There are exceptions, and one exception that led to my taking notice is the following words of Ryan Meonske, Head of Strategic Procurement at Databricks:
“No company has helped to solve these kinds of issues until Zip. Zip has basically taken it to the next level.”
More Than Words
To be clear, it is not so much the words themselves as who is speaking them—Databricks!
I have been tracking Databricks for a while now – I have even written/ghostwritten several articles about the company and what it does. Here is a brief snapshot:
Databricks – a fully managed Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) solution, is a “unified platform for data engineering, data science, machine learning, and analytics.”
The technology behind it is impressive. What is most noteworthy about Databricks is that it is a platform that facilitates a “collaborative environment” that enables a data team of business analysts, scientists, and engineers to do things such as create data models and develop more efficient methods of extracting data. We say noteworthy because it is the most efficient way to gain “intelligent” access to your organization’s massive cache of information.
How important is data to procurement – it’s a rhetorical question.
So, let’s agree that data is the lifeblood of procurement. Let’s also recognize Databricks has “a platform that facilitates a collaborative environment” that will remove the functional silos that confine enterprise-wide information to individual empire pockets of stakeholder intelligence.
Of All The Gin Joints (or Solutions)!
Over the past few months, I have written many articles on what CPOs call solution map migraines. Here is one from this past January titled “What’s The Cure For Solution Map Migraine?“
I will leave it to you to read the article at your convenience. However, as the title suggests, there are so many solution providers out there that choosing one from the crowded (or overcrowded) landscape can be a challenge. This choice dilemma is especially true given that one provider’s technology is as stable and reliable as the next, meaning we are long past the days of no one ever being fired for not buying IBM.
So, once again, I have to ask the question: Why did the Head of Strategic Procurement at Databricks say, during a 2:22 video, that “No company has helped to solve these kinds of issues until Zip. Zip has basically taken it to the next level?”
30
An Afterthought – here is an excerpt from a 2008 article. The reason I am sharing it is that the processes the Databricks CPO is talking about are not dependent on technology but the experience and expertise of the CPO himself – which is the true definition of orchestration:
“It is my position that a true centralization of procurement objectives requires a decentralized architecture based on the real-world operating attributes of all transactional stakeholders, starting at the local or regional level. In other words, your organization gains control of its spend environment by relinquishing centralized functional control in favor of operational efficiencies originating on the front lines. This framework is the cornerstone of agent-based modeling.”
Here is the link to a 2007 Case Study of the Commonwealth of Virginia’s enduringly successful eVA initiative, which will provide added context.
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