The morning event organized at the end of March by the National Purchasing Council (CDAF) allowed stakeholders to explain the impact of technological solutions in the transformation of organizations. Driven to further computerize their processes, particularly to collaborate more effectively with the outside world, purchasing departments have a role to play in the cross-cutting digitalization movement.
Two years after the success of the first edition, CDAF had chosen to renew, on Friday 24 March, its event dedicated to the performance of the purchasing function through its tools. With some 730 registered (two-thirds purchases, one-third financial director), the conference was held this time in the morning, on a theme expanded to transform the function and the role of purchasing teams in the cross-cutting digitalization of organizations. After an introduction recalling the issues and business expectations, the speakers of the first roundtable provided an update on best practices for efficiency andinnovation in purchasing.
"For the past ten years, digitization and dematerialization have been at the heart of the evolution of the function, especially on the billing side," said Joel Aznar, president of the CDAF's study and benchmarking group on IS purchasing, which is also in charge of data governance for the purchasing function at Schneider Electric.
"Today, we are witnessing a complete digitalization, which extends to the whole company, with challenges in terms of processes, technologies, data and skills."
In this context, Shopping must not only rely more on new digital tools but also be able to support the movement in a cross-cutting way. "The acceleration we are applying to our customers, with new tools and online services, we need to extend it to our suppliers," said Maxime Genestrier, General Secretary of Crédit Agricole Group, responsible for tracking expenses, measuring risks and deploying IS procurement and procurement.
This cross-cutting digitalization of organisations, extended to external actors, raises another question: should customer and supplier repositories be brought closer together, or even CRM and SRM systems? "One thing is for sure," insisted Aznar, "data is becoming a major issue, which involves setting up a dedicated team related to the trades, and sees the development of a new specialist: the Business Information Officer." As well as, at the higher level, the generalization of the Chief Data Officer, another CDO after the Chief Digital Officer. Technologically, artificial intelligence solutions will play a key role in this area. To explore and exploit data more effectively, as pointed out by Patrick de Coucy (BravoSolution) and Patrick Chabannes (Determine), who considers that " big data and machine learning are the big issues 2017-18 ». Or "to detect and correct errors in master data," according to Erberhard Aust, CEO of SynerTrade.
Returning to more general considerations, Martial Gérardin, Managing Director Europe of Perfect Commerce, said that "digitalisation is mainly changing the business of buyers, who become strategists with a view to operational excellence." In particular vis-à-vis the outside world, with which "collaboration is changing drastically, facilitated by the rise of business networks ». For Maxime Genestrier, "in any case, we must take advantage of the digital transformation to drive buyers up in value." And deploy the e-purchase tools on the widest possible perimeter, overflowing on related functions. When asked about the criteria for choosing a solution, beyond functional coverage and cost, the publishers unanimously cited the sustainability or ease of deployment. "Beware of the lack of clarity in the specifications," added Patrick Chabannes, before Patrick de Coucy stressed the importance of complementary services (setting, development, implementation, support, etc.) and therefore the quality of the teams.