While the past two years showed procurement and supply chain professionals that disruption can appear fast and without warning, 2022 has so far been one heavy on planning and preparedness as companies begin to build back.
As the global economy begins to recover, the pace of change has never been so fast, but some trends in strategy and investment are becoming clear.
1. Risk Management
To safeguard the supply chain, the need for extensive risk management became a key factor. Procurement is one of the main guardians of risk defence and having robust processes and procedures to monitor third party risks 24/7 – especially around people and cyber – the risks can be identified and mitigated right from the beginning.
This is now even more important in the area of tail spend, where 80% of an organisation's supply base exists, and is traditionally the most difficult to risk manage and control.
We are seeing procurement leveraging technology and automation to monitor suppliers and all involved parties in the supply chain to find indicators of issues before they reach and impact other areas.
2. IT and Digital Transformation Investments
IT and digital tools must be up to the challenges that procurement face. Investments in these areas, especially for managing suppliers are needed to positively impact other categories and close existing gaps to manage future risks.
Connected and resilient systems that harness automation, machine learning or AI techniques and user-based products are the ultimate bet to accelerate digital transformation in procurement.
Automated sourcing, vetting and SRM software should deliver clear and tangible solutions when integrated with the information the company already owns. While machine learning can digest and deliver massive amounts of data between procurement, the rest of the business and the market; having the user-based experience will maximise the productivity and functionality of technologies with a user-friendly approach.
3. Talent and Workforce Globalisation
In some companies, adopting remote working during the pandemic saw the end of traditional working practices – and this can also be expected in the labour component of most supply chains.
The remote option showed that it's possible to globalise the workforce or make changes in the way current employees work to maximise talent utilisation and gain productivity, agility, flexibility and cost reduction.
In the logistics division and some supply chain areas, one of the main issues during 2021 was the shortages of employees – and the root cause can be linked with the lack of interest of employees to take these positions. So what 2022 is showing us so far is that companies are starting to offer more when it comes to benefits and better supply chain programs, mentoring and training.
Maistro offers a fully flexible digital solution to sourcing, contracting and managing suppliers, especially those situated in the tail. Our new Supplier Relationship Management portal gives your users an immediate snapshot of how your suppliers are looking and who to contract with, in any given category. Get in touch to see how.
