Digital Transformation in Procurement
Today, the question is no longer whether a company digitises processes, but how. Digitisation makes companies more efficient and helps them to achieve the goals they have set themselves.
Successful digitization in procurement
Today, the question is no longer whether a company digitizes processes, but how. Digitization makes companies more efficient and helps them to effectively achieve the goals they have set themselves. Digitization is always an individual development process, adapted to the respective needs and capabilities of the company.
To achieve optimum results, the digitization strategy is derived from the general corporate strategy and then scaled down to the particular functions.
Companies have to decide individually which steps will be placed on the digital agenda and in what order they will be tackled.
The first step is to clarify what services a department contributes to the company’s overall result and what resources it needs to fulfill its tasks as effectively as possible. In this way, the first steps of the digital transformation can be taken successfully.
PROCUREMENT: LET’S GET REAL!
Our Expert Philipp on Digital Procurement
Our success factors in digital procurement
- High degree of IT complexity and tool landscape
- Lack of transparency of ongoing projects
- Uncertainty about the highest impact priorities
- Skepticism within the organization vs. digitalization and change
We help our clients to systematically assess the current maturity and identify the high priority areas and opportunities with the highest ROI. We support in embedding solutions into business priorities and prioritize and align the execution roadmap.
Procurement, in particular is predestined for digitization, as many routine tasks are performed here on the one hand, while on the other there is a high demand for transparency of expenditure and responsiveness. In addition, digitization projects in procurement quickly have an impact on results, so that success can be quantified in tangible terms. For this reason, it makes sense to start with pilot digitization projects in procurement.
However, the big challenge is to find the right starting point for successful digitization: There is now a wide range of software available for all areas of activity in procurement. It therefore applies
- to define your own needs precisely
- analyze the existing digital infrastructure in order to select tools that can be integrated via interfaces
- to find starting points where investment costs and expected return are in a positive relationship to each other
The basis of this procedure is the awareness of the so-called “digital readiness” of the own company:
- How does top-level management rate the benefits of digital solutions?
- Which competencies in the use of tools do employees have?
- Is the company‘s general mindset more oriented towards preserving what is tried and tested or is there a positive attitude towards change?
Our experts in digital procurement
Our digital procurement insights
