Category Archives: Technology

How Do We Drive REAL Technological Advances? Part III

SI first tackled this subject back in 2014 in a 3-part series (Part I, Part II, and Part III) and then returned to the subject last year (Part I and Part II) since it seems that the core technology we are using hasn’t changed much in the last decade (as er the public defender’s lament over on Spend Matters UK) and many organizations are stuck on the Supply Chain Plateau.

That’s because driving technological advances is hard. Many among the older generation are still inherently distrustful of technology (and the doctor doesn’t blame them … self-driving Carl will drive them off the cliff someday) and 45% of the world’s population still hasn’t used the internet. But that’s not the biggest problem. The biggest problem is lack of …

Adoption. Why? If people don’t adopt platforms, they don’t use technology on a daily basis. If they don’t use the platforms regularly, they don’t push the platforms. If they don’t push the platforms, they don’t figure out what they need from the platforms. And then they don’t itch for an advance from the platforms, they won’t drive for an advance.

And, as we noted, when it comes to adoption, the key is to provide users with a platform that does everything they want, including things they never thought the platform to do, but makes it so easy to do that if you tried to take the platform away from them, they’d get mad and scream.

But, as we noted before, even if you have a great platform, this doesn’t mean it will be adopted … because the users who you need to adopt it might not even try it. Not only might they be from the older generation, but they might be from the older generation that has heard the same old story about how this new tool will make their lives easier a hundred times before, only to be let down. As a result, why would they want to be let down for the 101st time?

How do you get past that? We suggested a great UX, which is key because it has to be usable, but that only helps if you can get them to try the platform … in earnest … at least once. How do you get them to do that? Our answer last time was to convince them through messaging that hit home.

But what if the messaging only works for early adopters? What if the grizzled just get fizzled? Then what do you do?

It’s a tough question without an absolute answer. But the doctor now believes that the answer is to select a platform where you can do it for them!

As an easy example, let’s say they always complain about how long T&E expense claims take and lack of visibility. If you just acquired a new T&E management platform, chances are supervisors or processors have the ability to create claims for someone else, assign it to them, route it for approvals, and then simply sell the submitter (who still uses the old Excel form) a link to “track progress and status”. When they see how much easier the system makes their life, and see that they can create the claim in the system in an Excel like interface (if they choose, or the new wizard-driven way with OCR, but totally up to them) and get this progress and status insight even faster, they are more likely to adopt.

Similarly, if you want them to use a new sourcing platform even for simple bids, show them how much easier it is to keep track on supplier status and ability, use a template for th bid, and centralize communication. Send them links to pre-created supplier management portals and reports, event templates, and so on. Offer to be their “administrator” where you do the work but they have full visibility. If the platform really is easier to use and better, they’ll see how easy it is to just take control sometime and start using it. Don’t tell them how great it is, show them.

As long as you select a platform that allows multiple roles and delegation, this is easily doable and just might make the difference.

At least it’s worth a try!

Procurement Requires MORE Than a Platform

As a result of the M&A frenzy that continued throughout 2018 and recent investments by P&E firms taking majority stakes in a few suite players, every vendor is now all about the “platform” because apparently the “platform” is the ultimate software solution for every Procurement organization.

While it’s true that some vendors are bringing platforms to market with immense value, a platform, in and of itself, has no value. To put it into simple terms, a platform is what you build on … and the best way to think about it is like a construction platform. Without it, you can’t build anything significant … but it doesn’t do you any good, and that’s why the construction company generally takes it away when they are done. The only difference is that a software platform is, in reality, a mix of a foundation (that you build your office building on) and a platform (that is used to finish the walls, etc. on the higher floors).

The reason a platform is important is that, without it, there is no foundation for integrating new modules, integrating third party best-of-breed solutions, or integrating third party data feeds that bring facts and intelligence needed by the organization to make good Sourcing and Procurement decisions.

There’s a reason we asked why is it all about the platform when it should be all about the power last year in the midst of the M&A frenzy. A platform, on its own, does nothing, saves you nothing, but still costs big licensing fees.

Before you jump on the “platform”, make sure it has the “power” that is worth the price-tag. If it’s 100K, there better be 100K of functionality out of the box.

Plus, if it’s a real platform, it should have sufficient do-it-yourself connectivity because, as we have noted many times, no platform excels in everything that is needed to support the S2P cycle and you will have to bolt-on some best of breed solutions and integrate third party data feeds.

Always remember, despite the table pounding and cost-cutting demands, your job is to generate value. There’s only so much cost that can be cut in any category, and once it’s cut, that’s it. So you need something that can identify more value (in value-add services, differentiated/sustainable components the organization can charge a premium for, better reliability, etc.). That takes more than just a “platform”.

AI — Almost Smart Enough to Replace Common Sense!

Almost!

If you’ve been following the doctor‘s deep dices in AI in Procurement () and AI in Sourcing () Today, Tomorrow, and the Day After over on Spend Matters Pro [membership required], you should be firmly aware that, in the true definition of the term, there is no AI in any enterprise software platform today. Period. In fact, what’s there isn’t even close.

You’ll also know we define AI today as assisted intelligence where AI helps you identify relevant information, trends, etc. much faster than you could on your own and augmented intelligence where AI supplements your intelligence with advanced algorithms and capabilities that allow you to make informed decisions many time faster than you could without the technology — and that even the most advanced platforms out there struggle to even deliver assisted intelligence. All the majority of platforms do is deliver RPA – robotic process automation, which is just a fancy way of saying they can automate complex workflows under a wide variety of conditions, provided somewhere along the line an expert has created enough rules and models for it to follow.

And if you’re willing to spend enough money, you too can buy a state of the art system that will tell you that people like to drink coffee in the morning and that if you have a lot of employees they will form a line to get it and they will waste a lot of time waiting for it if you don’t have a big enough coffee area and coffee pre-brewed and pre-poured. You know, the same thing any current or former Starbucks barrista would tell you for the price of a coffee.

And the doctor wishes he was joking. This was what he found in his twitter feed just before he had to stop everything and write this post!


Wow! How much did they spend on this software that documents basic process times and runs simple models to determine that some things take time and any action that reduces that time for multiple workers can save time and money? Hire any lean specialist to just walk around your operation for a day and you’ll get a hundred common sense recommendations like this.

the doctor thinks WeWork should say WeWereRippedOff!

Especially since the other “observation” was equally obvious and if they simply required people to book a room, log a count, and asked a secretary to review the logs for two weeks they’d learn in ten minutes that people prefer to work in smaller groups because smaller groups get things done!

I wonder if they are training these systems on Pigeon English? (At least we know the dangers that common from Pigeon droppings … )

Supply Market Intelligence … Harder than it Looks … But Possible with Modern Systems, Part II

See Part I for the story to date. Suffice to say that when the following are objectively analyzed, one can expect good market insights:

  • financial statements, particularly those from public companies (as false statements are a criminal offence for the CFO and CEO in some countries)
  • customer interviews, good or bad, as it’s a third party product/service view
  • performance reporting, as any hard metric is objective
  • internal stakeholder interviews, where the bias is minimized through targeted questions
  • price index data, that can be used to roll-your-own forecasts
  • public consumption data from government contracts, as they are great benchmarks

… provided one has the right platforms!

What are those platforms? Well, consider that the following sources are (primarily) numeric:

  • price index data
  • performance metrics
  • public price contracts

And the following sources are primarily (subjective) textual:

  • customer interviews
  • stakeholder interviews

And the following, final source is mixed:

  • financial statements

And that makes it pretty clear you need a platform that has the following if you want to process the price data:

  • A Great Open API
    as the price index data will be on multiple exchanges — which use different APIs, security protocols, currencies, and even data encoding formats and you will need to be able to easily retrieve and integrate all of it
  • Multi-Level Formula Based Cost Models
    to accurately capture and represent all of the commodity, component, product, and service costs that you need to track for cost estimation and analysis, bill of materials, sourcing, etc.
  • Powerful Analytics (Integration)
    you need to be able to store, analyze over time, and use multiple, multi-variate, statistical algorithms to detect trends and project them over time, as well as alter the assumptions, parameters, and model inflection points (due to predicted inflection events)

… and a platform that supports the following if you want to process the textual data:

  • advanced semantic processing
    that can extract key topics and opinions and classify them to process or technology, functional area, etc. (as well as identify incongruities)
  • advanced textual analytics
    the platform needs to be able to assign general descriptions numeric weights against important factors (perceived risk, customer service level, etc.) to determine if the general view is improving, weakening, or staying static
  • advanced sentiment analysis
    that can extract not only general opinions about a supplier, process, etc. but specific opinions about process, technology, etc. components — for example, the stakeholder might be soured on the relationship with a supplier because they have p!ss-p00r customer service but agree they make the highest quality parts (and would be usable if they ever bothered to answer the d@mn phone); just an overall negative sentiment of 0.6 is not that meaningful

… and to process financial statements, the platform needs to merge the advanced textual analytics to populate a standard financial model template, adding in any additional revenue or expense, asset or liability, etc. lines that are missing from the standard model so the books balance and can be analyzed.

So where do you find these capabilities today?

Well, as previously indicated, you will find:

  • advanced cost models in direct sourcing platforms that support full multi-level bill of materials
  • advanced forecasting in modern analytics platforms that support machine learning
  • advanced sourcing support given predictive costs in platforms that support strategic sourcing decision optimization
  • advanced document analysis in industry leading contract management solutions (which can be adapted to parse and analyze and break apart and score any document type given a template and samples)

In other words, modern Analytics, Optimization, and Contract Analytics solutions. And this is just another reason SI has been preaching advanced optimization and analytics since day 1.

Supply Market Intelligence … Harder than it Looks … But Possible with Modern Systems, Part I

Last year, about this time, we wrote a piece on Supply Market Intelligence and how it was Harder Than it Looks because there are a number of sources that might yield intelligence, including:

  • Suppliers,
  • Internal Sources, such as
    • internal stakeholders
    • performance reports
    • SRM programs
  • External Sources, such as
    • news feeds and alerts
    • price index forecasts
    • blogs and social media
    • peer companies
    • research services
    • advisory programs

… but not all are equal. And not all are fully accurate. For example:

  • Supplier company websites only show you what the supplier wants you to see, which is typically not the full picture, and maybe not even a true part of it
  • Internal Sources, such as
    • internal stakeholder interviews capture bias as well as expertise
    • performance reporting can only report on hard metrics the organization had the foresight to capture
    • SRM programs — and the insights yielded — vary by company and supplier
  • External Sources, such as
    • news feeds only cover the stories that interest the journalists
    • price index forecasts use in-house algorithms that are not disclosed that may not be accurate
    • blogs and social media cover the stories that can be sussed out by the bloggers and analysts

But some of them contain valuable data that when appropriately, and objectively analyzed, can yield good insights, as per our follow up post:

  • financial statements, particularly those from public companies (as false statements are a criminal offence for the CFO and CEO in some countries)
  • customer interviews, good or bad, as it’s a third party product/service view
  • performance reporting, as any hard metric is objective
  • internal stakeholder interviews, where the bias is minimized through targeted questions
  • price index data, that can be used to roll-your-own forecasts
  • public consumption data from government contracts, as they are great benchmarks

… and so on. But it can be pretty hard to make sense of all this … unless you have the right platform with the right capabilities. Now, it might not be a single platform from a single vendor and instead be a base Sourcing / Procurement platform augmented with multiple best of breed modules and API services from multiple vendors, and that’s fine. The point is that it’s possible to make sense of this with modern technology. What technology? How? That’s the subject of our next post.