Three Key Takeaways from Ivalua Now Europe

by Alex Saric

Our flagship virtual event, Ivalua NOW Europe, recently brought together almost 900 of the region’s top procurement leaders and supply chain experts. Over three days, delegates were shown the latest procurement innovations, shared their insights with peers, and learnt how different organizations have adjusted their Procurement strategies over the past year. 

With many organizations having faced significant disruption, a major focus has been on improving procurement agility and supply chain resilience. As the focus now shifts towards restoring growth, Ivalua Now Europe highlighted three major trends: 

1. Procurement has never been more important to organizations

Firstly, speakers shared how Procurement has gained the ear of the board, helping organizations to mitigate supply chain risk. Ivalua’s Chief Revenue Officer, Franck Lheureux, highlighted how COVID-19 has made Procurement more important than ever. With organizations now focusing on strategic objectives like achieving resilience, driving supply chain sustainability, and boosting innovation. 

The rise of Procurement’s importance within the organization was also a key theme at our CPO panel session. Here, leaders from SNCF, Bouygues Construction, and Safran Electrical & Power talked about why the pandemic pushed organizations to improve supply chain visibility and improve supplier collaboration. 

However, as Ivalua CEO David Khuat-Duy outlined in his keynote, improved visibility and effective collaboration can only be achieved if IT systems can fully harness the power of data. By having this complete picture, organizations can identify where to work with suppliers to restore growth. 

2.Procurement is all about people and relationships 

Whether it’s managing suppliers in times of crisis, or implementing new procurement technologies successfully, the pandemic has taught every organization that relationships are key to success. It has also shown how relationships will be a vital part of recovering from the impact of COVID-19.

Dr. Natacha Tréhan, Head of the purchasing Master’s program at the University of Grenoble Alpes, explained why organizations must rethink supplier relationships to maximize value and reduce risk. This means choosing core suppliers carefully and building strong relationships with those who are willing to share innovations and support you in a crisis. 

Shared values can also be central to building relationships between suppliers and customers. IKEA’s Slawomir Peter outlined the company’s supply chain philosophy, highlighting how alignment with Ivalua’s company culture was a major factor for IKEA when selecting the platform.

David Loseby, CPO at Rolls Royce, believes internal relationships are just as important. He explained that getting employee buy-in is key to making the most of procurement technologies. Loseby also talked about how behavioural science enhanced the Ivalua onboarding process at Rolls Royce, even during the pandemic, speeding up results and improving insights across their supplier base. 

Change management was also a recurring theme throughout the event. This point was also a focus in a keynote from Danske Bank CPO, Taid Qazi, as he discussed why success in procurement depends on stakeholder adoption. Jose Bustillo, Sourcing Excellence lead at Bulgari, also covered the psychology of change, outlining how Bulgari drove its users to succeed with the Ivalua platform. 

3. In challenging times, organizations must use technology to boost efficiency

As organizations have adapted to COVID-19, many are focusing on how to retain their seat at the top table and demonstrate procurement’s importance in the long term. 

As part of our innovation showcase, we demonstrated the latest Ivalua tools on offer to maximize value: 

• Enabling supplier collaboration – Supporting collaboration helps organizations identify new revenue opportunities, tap into supplier innovation, improve resilience, and drive sustainability. Ivalua’s unified platform enables organizations to share plans across every aspect of the procurement process, reducing costs and improving performance.
• Contract-collaborative authoring – Ivalua uses AI, analytics, and automation to improve Contract Lifecycle Management. This will help boost customer visibility into their supply chain, helping organizations to improve efficiency and identify new areas of risk, as well as new areas to innovate. 
• Integrated payments – Ivalua is also driving innovation in payments, expanding the platform’s capabilities to improve efficiency and reduce friction in the source to pay process. This will enable organizations to improve cash flow and supplier satisfaction, helping organizations build relationships and become a customer of choice for innovative suppliers. 

Learn more about the latest in procurement innovation, and how organizations are restoring growth and achieving their strategic objectives at Ivalua NOW Americas. You can register for the virtual event on the 27-29th April here.