Earlier this month, Costas Xyloyiannis, our CEO, attended the second Beyond Group Think Tank event in Sweden. For anyone that doesn’t know, the Beyond Group are well known for their expertise in the future of Procurement and business productivity. Ultimately their aim (within small groups) is to have the attendees walk away with a much clearer idea of their strategy and how to deliver value for their organisation.

From our side as a vendor, it’s been fascinating to see just where the pain points are and how companies are looking to tackle them. For years investing in P2P has been where the most spend has gone in procurement. Yet, after the last think tank it does seem as if there are other areas that will be looking at far more closely going forward.

These were the key takeaways from the first event:

• Strategy will define the path (random investments as ‘experiments’ do not reveal enough, waste time and take away focus from what is important)
• Not all tools are needed immediately (focus on those that will return value quickly and use those leanings for the next round of investment)
• Acquire tools that fit your strategy (e.g. don’t invest in complex supplier innovation portals if your business operates at a commodity level)
• Invest first where your biggest needs are (A real eye-opener for us was how many companies are still struggling with getting good data and correct vendor master data. Without the basics, no investment in technology will ever pay off)

With that in mind, the second event has moved onto the next step. Which technology should be chosen and how can you get the most out of it?

Understanding the first steps towards digitalisation, assessing the overall technology landscape and most importantly, building out a step by step process to ensure that you decide on technology that is fit for purpose.

If you click on this link you’ll find a more detailed summary from Giles Breault, Co-Founder of the Beyond Group.