In our last post we talked about how important insight is in a modern platform now that we’re in the third decade of the century and how any platform that delivers anything less should NOT be on your radar!

But you want more than insight. First of all, you want actionable insight. As per our last post, just knowing that an invoice doesn’t match a PO isn’t enough. You need to know why, and more importantly, what the typical action should be. Extra units? Over-billing? Unexpected Taxes? Higher-than-anticipated surcharges? Approve? Send it back for clarification? Send back a revised version for acceptance (that will result in instant payment)?

However, the ability to take instant action would even be better! If the platform gave you the ability to flip back with request for information, flip back with suggested alterations, or approve with one click, that’s good.

But this ability should be across the platform. When an event is selected, the platform should not only recommend the best set of suppliers, but allow them to be added to the event, and invited, with a single click. This recommendation should take all factors into account — incumbency, performance history, risk scores, environmental data, etc.

When the award is selected, the system should not only identify a template but automatically fill in all the relevant award data and meta-data, alter the clauses as necessary, and bring up an editable contract for buyer review with a single click.

Every insight should lead to one or more courses of action and the platform should provide a mechanism to immediately take the courses of action identified — with a single click if at all possible.

A modern platform doesn’t just provide insights in canned, or customizable, reports — it provides insights embedded in the platform that allow the right actions to be easily taken at the right time … without having to search for the way to make it happen deep inside the depths of the platform where few will ever have the patience to drill into.

Considering that this decade should see the emergence of Augmented Procurement Platforms based on Augmented Intelligence that not only provide insight into the right action to take, but learn to make better recommendations over time in more scenarios, the last thing a buyer should settle for is a platform that still provides “insights” in the form of one-off canned reports in a dark corner of the platform.