The digitalisation of procurement

The focus of the procurement sector is changing as there are major digital innovations afoot for the industry’s future, as digital transformation forces a shift from the traditional approach. In this podcast, Jan Fokke Van Den Bosch, Group Chief Procurement Officer at HSBC, talks about digital procurement’s next steps.

Big data collection from the customer, both internally and externally, is set to play a key role, and will go hand-in-hand with the ability to analyse the data. Scrutinising and truly understanding your data is key to ensuring that you get the most out of it. 
Jan has worked for HSBC for just over two years, and when he first started, HSBC ran a  traditional procurement operation.  They were not using automated systems and the invoice process in the UK was completely paper-based. However, the processes are changing.
At a recent senior procurement networking event entitled ‘Digitisation in Banking’ hosted by Michael Page and HSBC, Jan said: “Everyone wants to have the same experience in the office as they have at home. You click, you search, you find. You order, you pay - you get tomorrow. That is what people expect.”
It’s been the case thus far that  organisations are automating the same processes. HSBC has decided to adapt the rules, and moved to a business-to-consumer experience within a business-to-business environment. A self-serve procurement process is one that introduces smaller suppliers to larger corporates as they are both not usually in the same space. However, these smaller suppliers can add a lot of value to large corporate organisations. 
Imagine a platform that can facilitate and automate key processes through artificial intelligence, to specify what you need. Then, imagine if that same platform could match your needs with appropriate suppliers and send RFPs to those suppliers, analyse the answers to then make decisions based on that analysis.
Jan said: “The benefits of having a fully digital process is getting your colleagues to buy the right products and the right services, at the right quantity, at the right time. And eventually, at the right price. You have to buy the right quantity and make sure you don’t buy too early or too late otherwise it can affect your company.” 
Getting the right team with the key specialist skills to push the rollout and implementation of these new platforms will be required to not only create an intuitive structure, but make them sustainable, which is imperative for getting stakeholders onboard.
This podcast offers a fascinating insight from HSBC’s, Jan Fokke Van Den Bosch, on the next steps of procurement and supply chain’s digital evolution.

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