Business travel is changing just as rapidly as the travel industry itself. New trends like process automation, artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality, intelligent assistants, and blockchain technologies are not only helping travel companies stay competitive but also enabling procurement teams to ensure the safety and satisfaction of their business travelers. Credit card company VISA has some exciting ideas about how technology could help change business travel for good. Here, we will explore how technology and the pandemic made businesses rethink their travel programs.
When everything works together harmoniously, your procurement function can drive growth for your company. But if there are any weak links in the chain, it can hold your procurement team back. Here, we'll explore why it may be the right time to transform your procurement ecosystem. We'll also discuss how you can make positive changes and investments to turn your procurement function into a revenue driver.
Senior leadership is directly involved in the decision-making progress. Essential travel and non-essential travel are more difficult to designate. Duty of care, health and wellness, sustainability, and safety have become top priorities. Here, we'll explore what you need to consider when evaluating and reshaping your future business travel programs based on safety, sustainability, and the traveler experience.
Most procurement functions are already using a host of digital enablers to varying degrees. For example, most businesses are already using cloud-based technology. However, not every company is using digital enablers to enhance their business travel programs. Despite the availability of cloud-based business travel software, tracking applications, and even IoT sensors, some organizations still rely on manual methods to manage their travel programs. Here, we'll explore how procurement teams can use digital enablers like the cloud to enhance their travel programs.
Most procurement leaders are now familiar with the concept of Sustainable Procurement. This business prerogative will be key to building trust and sustainability moving forward, and it must extend from the procurement department to its suppliers and vendors. Here's how procurement leaders are working to establish ESG in the function and where there is room for improvement.
CPOs now occupy a strategic position within the organization, weighing in on everything from financial decisions to new technology upgrades. Many of today’s CPOs have also transformed their procurement functions into operations that generate substantial revenue for the company. These are significant gains for the position, but they don’t come without challenges. Many CPOs still struggle to achieve buy-in from other decision-makers when it comes to major transformation initiatives. Companies are racing to implement the latest procurement technologies, but they require investment.
As procurement departments strive to become more agile, outsourcing is becoming an important strategy as well. Business process outsourcing (BPO) has proven to be essential for procurement teams that are making major changes to their processes but can’t risk any interruptions. Some procurement-based BPO revolves around day-to-day procurement or back-office tasks. However, many procurement teams outsource tasks like securing and managing vendors to external firms. Here, we’ll explore which processes procurement leaders are outsourcing and why BPO is becoming such an important tool for the function.
Procurement leaders are always on the lookout for new opportunities, especially when it comes to saving on spending and making the business operate more efficiently. As such, they have many insights about effective management that could be valuable to the rest of the organization. There are also opportunities for procurement to collaborate with other areas of the business to help all parties achieve their goals. After all, many of procurement’s categories impact the entire organization.
Chief financial officers (CFOs) are ultimately responsible for overseeing the organization’s working capital. They may be skeptical about procurement’s ability to align with the overall company mission, especially if it isn’t clear how procurement is taking advantage of savings and helping with the bottom line. Here are a few ways procurement leaders can change the conversation and show the CFO how it delivers financial value.
Implementing a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is a large undertaking that will have a significant impact on the entire organization. For this reason alone, it’s important to take a careful, measured approach to this process. Here are a few pointers for how to get started.
Procurement leaders have long had to focus almost entirely on savings. But in recent years, procurement executives have become strategic leaders themselves, coordinating efforts with other departments within the organization to unlock value.
According to Harvard Business Review, "As companies focus less on efficiency and more on resilience, procurement becomes central to strategy. That’s because it is uniquely positioned to orchestrate long-term value-creating systems that can accommodate incompatible value holders, withstand exogenous shocks, share loads, and grow dynamically."
Many aspects of global business have been impacted by the pandemic over the past two years. But perhaps none have been more acutely impacted than business travel.
Procurement leaders need to be aware of what new risks are in-store for business travelers in 2022. They also need to stay vigilant about changes to travel restrictions considering emerging variants of the COVID-19 virus. Risk and travel restrictions are the factors most likely to impact spending.
Here’s what’s in-store for travel spend in 2022.
There are many aspects of the procurement function that are purely transactional. Suppliers provide goods and services and the organization pays for them based on a contract agreement.
But procurement leaders have long understood that their supplier relationships can be beneficial to long-term prosperity. Strategic partnerships with suppliers can yield substantial benefits to the business and even protect both parties’ interests during times of disruption.
Here are some of the benefits of treating suppliers as partners.
Businesses can no longer focus solely on their own interests and the interests of their shareholders. Although profitability will always be a top priority, companies must also recognize their place in the community and the environment.
Every decision the procurement department makes has an impact on the world around it. Decisions around spending, supplier partnerships, technology deployments, and more must all be weighed against the potential harms or benefits they’ll have for society.
Supply chain risks have been rising in recent years, and although the COVID-19 pandemic is to blame for many of them, some of the disruptions to the supply chain are systemic issues that have been present for some time. Organizations that don't have the tools to obtain visibility into their supply chains and manage their data are at higher risk than others, if only because they have little to no control or accountability over what occurs upstream.
CPOs and other executives have historically had separate roles in the organization. For example, procurement leaders have typically focused on risk management, cost savings, and value production within the organization's spending, whereas IT executives have focused on managing the organization's technology solutions and securing its data.
Procurement teams from almost every type of business struggled to reconcile with disruptions caused by COVID-19. Beginning in China, regions around the world were hit by the pandemic in succession, leading to a cascade of disruptions in manufacturing and the provision of business services.
As the COVID-19 pandemic escalated, demand for personal electronics skyrocketed as well. People were stuck working from home, and in many cases, their only connection to friends and family was through devices like smartphones and laptops. This led to an acute shortage of semiconductors and computer chips, the immediate impact was felt in the technology industry.