To be competitive and efficient in today's market it goes without saying that adopting automation in some guise is almost now a prerequisite. 

In early 2021, IHS Markit conducted a survey with procurement professionals under the title 2021 Supply Chain Insights Global Survey , revealing that "supply chain professionals often lack the tools, data, and platforms needed to diversify their supply chains and optimise their processes."

One of the most important tools for procurement professionals when planning for strategic purchasing decisions is having the ability to access solid and reliable data. But when it comes to making the same decisions with non-strategic and lower-value spend in the tail, oftentimes, swathes of transactional data flows through the process going uncaptured and under-utilised.

For many companies, managing tail spend is a big challenge - throw small teams who are seperated geographically into the mix and the challenge may seem too big to tackle.

‘You need it? You buy it’ - if only procurement was so simple. The reality is, procuring goods - or services - sparks a chain reaction between different departments. The biggest challenge for businesses is to ensure that the process journey runs smoothly and compliantly. So where to start?

Digitisation is the talk of the town. For more than 6 months now businesses have had to adapt to a scattered, remote workforce with company crisis contingencies being tested almost across the board. Yet in our world, we’re seeing analogue working practices still commonplace in many procurement teams. So why the delay in adopting digital transformation?

For more than 6 months now, half of the UK's workforce has been working from home. So, is this likely to become the new "normal” as we move forward and start to put 2020 behind us, and if so, what needs to be taken into account to ensure minimal operational disruption?

If there’s one thing that could be usefully taken away from 2020 and all its troubles, it’s the idea that when worst-case scenarios occur, businesses who adopt a more proactive approach to shoring up their defences have a better chance of weathering the storm. But what role does automation play in strategy and are we just talking about AI?

AI is a well-established buzzword in the corporate world, yet in practice, is the adoption of AI really taking off? It seems like early days for most.