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Sourcing Tech (of Jurassic Proportions) That Unlocks Your Potential

Adam Callaby

September 30, 2022

If deploying multiple RFQs for the effort of a single annual bid request or saving millions of dollars on cost aren’t reason enough to invest in dynamic market sourcing technology, then here are three more for you to consider.

Spoiler alert: they’re all about your people. 

Dynamic sourcing ensures your team is prepared for the next black swan event.

Remember that iconic moment in Jurassic Park when the snooty lawyer – Donald Gerraro, for the film aficionados – is using the outhouse by the carnivore pen? The electric fence between him and his toothy neighbor loses power, and a sequence of events follows that fatally exposes him mid-relief to a hungry T-Rex.

In Procurement World (release date TBD), the dinosaur is replaced by a fire-winged black swan, against which – once upon a time – modern-day technological protection wasn’t needed. These black swans were scarcely seen, annual at best, and their formidable challenge shielded off by an able team armed with a trusty Excel file and ready to pivot. 

In reality, recent times have seen a whole flock of black swans flying toward procurement at will; viral pandemics and soaring inflation, to name but two.

Teams without the right sourcing technology to respond can be as powerless as that park fence, spending a multitude of hours manipulating legacy software to find a solution to their growing list of supply chain problems. Only it’s their teams who burn out, not the swans. Opportunities get missed. Cost and risk spiral. 

But that’s not true for those who do have the right sourcing technology. They find themselves in a dynamic position to provide more solutions in just a fraction of the time. They protect cost and mitigate supply chain risk by having the opportunity to model new scenarios, deploy multiple new bids, and leverage available capacity across suppliers. 

Most importantly, they protect their people. They empower them with the strategic, data-driven insight to move forward; not exhaust them with endless tasks aimed at putting out the latest fire.

It’s procurement’s digital transformation now, unlocking your people’s potential.

There are many great things about digitally transforming your procurement function, and using a dynamic sourcing strategy to do so. We could wax lyrical about the cost savings in process reduction, or the greater compliance and transparency it provides. Or that treasure chest of up-to-date market data, ready to glean insight from. 

But it’s the impact on your people, the enabler for growth and the unlocking of their potential, that excites us the most. 

Imagine a team that spends its time visualising and interpreting market movements instead of configuring bid sheets. An agile team that is ready to deploy when their individual stakeholders need them to, not just at that single point in time when they have the capacity to do so.

By switching to a dynamic sourcing strategy, your people become dynamic, too: more engaged and more value-adding.

The same is true of your suppliers. They no longer need to fill out scores of line items every time you go to market, which, if you’re dynamically sourcing, will be more frequent. 

Instead, data like carrier details and transit times is already in situ, and suppliers need only amend the variables that change. Maybe it’s a movement in price, or an improved discount across packaged bids. They know what’s expected of them, and what’s more, they can instantly see where they are in the process and receive notifications for when it kicks on.

This enables more time to add value to your relationships, as opposed to chasing missing line items and unblocking hold-ups in the bidding process.

It’s your employer value proposition, enabled by technology.

It’s hard not to envision a time when platform-based dynamic sourcing isn’t the norm, and when the most coveted sourcing managers—those with their fingers constantly on the market pulse–are enabled by it.

Sourcing optimization makes processes more efficient, and now autonomous sourcing removes much of the manual burden of administration, too. Combined, this enables a culture of sourcing excellence, where the strategic value your employees add is seen as a competitive advantage, not just by your customers but also by the people you hire.

As the next wave of expectant Gen Z procurement professionals enter your recruitment funnel, the tools you use will be held under the utmost scrutiny, for it is without question that the tech-savvy CPOs of tomorrow will want to work with the best technology in sourcing.

Talk to us today about how a dynamic market sourcing strategy can unlock the potential of your sourcing team. Request a demo here.

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