On the occasion of the evening organised at the end of May by the CDAF (Company of Directors and Buyers of France) on the theme of efficiency and'innovation of the purchasing function through its tools, a handful of publishers and user companies have made a point about the market. Between advice and grievances, everyone was able to share their experience and exchange with others, in front of an impressive audience.
More than 500 purchasing decision-makers, DAF and DSI had ticked the date in their agenda. On the evening of Thursday, May 21, six publishers and e-purchase providers (BravoSolution, Coupa, Ivalua, MyProcurement, SAP-Ariba, SynerTrade) were able to present their vision of the offer and the projects in front of a packed house, in the preamble to the presentation of a White Paper on the function's information systems. Before them, purchasing decision-makers from four user companies, some of which were deemed too large and exemplary to represent the market, had set the scene by presenting their computerization work and the virtues of the tools.
"We have gone from amateur management to professional management," said Arnaud Minvielle, GIE's general manager in charge of purchasing within the BPCE group, supported in his analysis by Claude Bordier, HEAD of SI purchasing at RATP: "The tools make the buyer's life simpler, notably by facilitating upstream and downstream cross-cutting."
They allow "standardization and simplification of processes," said Michel Jullien, vice president, procurement financial control - administration at Sanofi, also citing the issue of compliance and risk management. For Jean-Pierre Vignes, director of non-market purchasing at Carrefour, the implementation of tools first responds to an issue of efficiency, if not productivity, with the aim of "increasing the volume negotiated per employee".
Asked afterwards about the conditions for the project's success, Claude Bordier stressed "the importance of creating a master plan, to promote dialogue between procurement, the DAF, the CIO and the Directorate General, and impose regular points during the project." But also to heal The draft to raise expectations and justify the project, to assess costs and to begin to guide choices. A view shared by Michel Jullien, for whom this preliminary step is crucial, as it promotes the future membership of the teams. To listen to the field and better meet expectations, BPCE has extended its approach by creating an internal user club as well as a barometer of business satisfaction, of which ten of the fifty questions relate to the information system.
With regard to the tool itself, there was unanimity on the importance of limiting developments and adaptations to the specifics of the company as much as possible. "You have to dare to twist the organization to get as much as you can," advised Jean-Pierre Vignes.
The four purchasing managers concluded their intervention by setting out the main criteria for choosing an e-purchase solution, starting unsurprisingly with the quality of the functional response and theErgonomics. "The ability of the publisher to listen and understand the need, the durability of the solution, the support in project mode and production are also important," added Michel Jullien. Not to mention the question of financing, pointed out by the purchasing decision-maker at Carrefour, or "the possibility of testing the tool on an extended perimeter".
The development of a POC (Proof of concept), i.e. a model or prototype ahead of the choice of solution, was the subject of a lively debate during the round table that followed, between the six publishers and e-purchase providers. "The POC is becoming a flaw," said Franck Le Tendre, SynerTrade's Western Europe director. To clarify his thinking:
"Some companies are looking to do the project before the project. However, the POC should not be used to build the business case but to validate it! ».
Because all the publishers have agreed: this work at a cost, which is increasingly difficult for them to bear. Hence the question asked as to whether the POC should be integrated into the selection phase or once the solution has been chosen. Depending on whether you are a publisher or user, whether the tool is offered in hosted or licensed mode, whether the project is for a specific feature or covers a wide part of the purchasing process, the responses differ. Publishers' strategies too. In the end, the debate does not seem to be about to be decided.