Inside ORO and Liberty Blume's Orchestration Journey

At DPW New York, which took place on 3-4 June, some of procurement's most influential leaders and innovative companies gathered to set the path for procurement's future. 

The event's theme, 'RECODE', focused firmly on what comes next for the function, it's people and technologies. Over two days, attendees discussed the shift from AI adoption to meaningful and strategic executive, looking at how businesses are redesigning their operational models and organisations structures around AI. 

One example of this forward-facing approach is a close collaboration between ORO Labs and Liberty Blume, the global business services arm of multinational telecommunications and media company Liberty Global. 

ORO Labs EVP, EMEA GM and Global Alliances Lance Younger and David Feaveryear, Managing Director Procurement Services at Liberty Blume met Procurement Magazine to discuss how their collaboration is utilising ORO Labs' orchestration layer to radically simplify procurement and improve user experience. 

What were the main goals and objectives of the transformation?

David Feaveryear: We look after about three billion in spend across companies in telecoms, technology, media and more. The idea was to take that heritage, scale and expertise and use it to build a third-party business that re-imagines

Previously, that would have been done with low-cost locations or proprietary tech. We wanted a tech-first approach and a strategy focused on how we put really good technology in place to drive self-service and automation, then overlay real human expertise on top where it adds the most value to the business.

To do that, you need a modern future-facing technology stack and a best-of-breed roadmap that takes the best sourcing solution, the best CLM solution and the best risk management solution, then stitches it together through an orchestration layer. 

The more solutions you introduce, the more complexity there is. But if you put the right orchestration layer in front of it, then the business units get a much more simplified experience. It also drives adoption and means you get more value from the tools.

We were looking for a like-minded technology partner wanting to go on that journey – that's how we ended up collaborating with Oro.

Lance Younger: A lot of organisations are going through a radical change both in their digital and operating structures at the same time. 

The added complexity or opportunity of Liberty Bloom is the growth aspect and the divergent nature of their portfolio of companies and how it’s all brought together.

Typically, we start the journey early, work together on blueprinting and design, running and helping with business cases, and then running a proof of concept or a trial, before beginning implementation. 

Intake and orchestration is a fundamentally different model where you’re building a solution that is meant to grow rapidly. It's very dynamic and you have to work together very, very closely from a cultural perspective.

How does this collaborative partnership work in practice between Liberty Blume and Oro?

David Feaveryear: The orchestration tool is the glue. I want to be able to help our customers see round corners – the world is changing rapidly, so I want to give them something that makes sense today and also in 18 months time. 

We can swap new tools in and out but I want to be consistent across user experience and orchestration.

For me, our collaboration is a co-creation of the future. We need people that are responsive and adaptive, but also bring a like-minded can-do attitude.

Lance Younger: Oro's mission is to humanise procurement and if you’re creating something that's future-proof, then the cultural element is critical – you have to work with the right people. 

With Liberty Blume we're innovating with the best minds and tackling challenges together. 

When David and the team were talking about their future vision, it was right on the cusp of what the art of the possible was – intake and orchestration, AI and the implications of AI and agents. 

You've got to be able to partner with organisations that can take you through that journey both in terms of the team.

What are the measurable outcomes and impact achieved so far?

David Feaveryear: Procurement has to demonstrate value for the business and that typically shows up in terms of savings. Last year we exceeded our savings targets for our customers by 65%. 

You also want to do it in a way that builds your relationships. Net Promotion Score (NPS) is a great proxy for telling you how satisfied your customers are, and we saw 60-70 point swings in NPS last year. 

A big part of that is because we're challenging our customers to think differently and helping them co-create the future. If you're delivering strong, tangible financial outcomes and people are doing it with a smile on their face, you're a long way on the journey to success.

What are your biggest takeaways and what comes next?

Lance Younger: Don't be afraid to have the upfront conversation about ambition and focus on how you're going to get there as a team. 

We've done that continually, which has been great because it's kept the pace moving, kept us focused on what we're doing and pushed us forward. 

When it comes to partnering with the right companies, a combination of intuition, experience and maintaining the human element has made it possible to make the right decisions and move forward.

David Feaveryear: We’re just getting started. A lot of organisations wait for perfect – you hear people talk about the importance of data, but all the time you are procrastinating on what to do, the data's getting worse, not better. 

If you find the right partners and approach problems in the right way, you're better off starting the journey and recognising it’s okay to have to pivot.

Procurement needs to meet the user where the user is in the business and make things easy and intuitive. So we're very used to consumer-grade applications on our phones and need to replicate that into our businesses. 

When it comes to orchestration, fundamentally I just want somebody to be in Teams and never have to leave –the PO just goes off behind the scenes, there might be some autonomous negotiation, but actually the user doesn't see it. When we hit that bar is when procurement has become pretty cool.