“Patience and Persistence”

Today’s guest blogger is my colleague James Baehr, a Senior Advisor at Greybeard Advisors LLC, and a contributing author of the new book “Next Level Supply Management Excellence: Your Straight to the Bottom Line® Roadmap.” Jim can be reached at [email protected].

Recently, I had the opportunity to attend a presentation made by the Manager, of General Purchasing, at a Fortune 500 company to a group of Procurement professionals. The topic was automating the Supply Chain which has been an ongoing process in this supply organization for several years. The operative word here is “ongoing”. The Manager was remarkably candid when pressed on the progress of the initiative. While the company has been somewhat successful in its pursuit of self service Purchasing and automation of Sourcing, it hasn’t been easy.

The company has a global footprint making implementation and integration, principally of acquisitions, very challenging. To their credit they have a plan and they are working the plan. Patience and persistence are essential. Education and adoption are keys to realizing transparent workflows that lead to drawing on agreements with preferred suppliers. This leads to increased management of spend which positions their sourcing teams to effectively pursue strategies that improve processes and reduce costs.

Hopefully, as a reader, you aren’t saying “I know all this”. In fairness, it’s probable that you do. But, have you accepted that automating sourcing is a journey that takes time and perseverance? Too many companies make the decision to automate purchasing and expect to jump from nothing to a full functionality. If, as a Procurement Leader, you are selling the value of self service, or spend under management, or eSourcing, you need to be realistic and set realistic expectations; otherwise, you will over promise and under deliver.

Technology isn’t the be-all, end-all when it comes to Procurement; in fact, it is just an ENABLER of the overall strategy and role of the function in your company. Technology needs to be one part of a multidimensional transformation plan, and that plan should recognize that redefining skills and processes takes time and requires fortitude.

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