Procurement's Year in Stories: April 2024
The Digital Transformation Playbook for Procurement: Lessons from Mitie
Procurement Magazine spoke with Shaun Carroll, CPO at Mitie Group, about Digital Transformation in Procurement. Shaun shared how digitising procurement processes transformed the UK's leading facilities management company.
- Start with a problem-solving mindset: When Carroll joined Mitie, manual processes and limited visibility were causing inefficiencies. The first step? Diagnose pain points and prioritise solutions that provide real-time data and control.
- The power of the right tools: Implementing Coupa as a digital platform helped Mitie streamline 89% of purchase orders and eliminate 270,000 unnecessary emails—saving time, money, and even 54 trees.
- Win hearts and minds: Success isn't just about tech; it's about people. Carroll emphasises securing leadership buy-in and engaging teams with user-friendly solutions that show clear benefits.
- Delivering results that matter: With data centralised in the cloud, Mitie saved £2m in six months, achieved 98% touchless electronic invoicing, and improved supplier relationships.
- Never stop improving: Transformation doesn't end with implementation. Use data insights to drive smarter decisions and continuously refine processes for greater efficiency and sustainability.
Key Takeaway
Digital procurement is more than a cost-saver — it's a strategic advantage. Mitie's journey proves that with the right tools, people, and mindset, transformation can drive real impact for businesses, suppliers, and customers alike.
How SAP's AI is Offering Cutting-Edge Spend Management
“Like at home, identifying every dollar you spend and getting the most out of it is more critical than ever for your business,” wrote Jeff Collier, Chief Revenue Officer for SAP Intelligent Spend and Business Network, in a post on the company’s news page.
Jeff's blog was alongside SAP unveiling five new AI capabilities in various SAP spend management solutions, including:
- SAP Ariba Category Management: "We've incorporated generative AI-enabled features that can assist category managers by generating recommendations in the solution's category segmentation, market dynamics, and cost structure tools," explains Jeff.
- Scoutbee discovery: SAP partnered with Scoutbee, a leading AI-powered supplier intelligence and discovery platform, to launch Scoutbee Discovery. This SAP-endorsed app can rapidly identify qualified suppliers that meet specific criteria and can help advance strategic business imperatives.
- Concur request: Generative AI to help provide intelligent cost estimates for trip planning.
- ExpenseIt: "Users can upload receipt images to the ExpenseIt solution, which taps AI to help automatically create a new expense with several key fields pre-populated," Jeff shares. "Plus, ExpenseIt can now itemise hotel folios using generative AI."
- Generative AI search: A new capability within Concur Support allows SAP Concur customers to type questions in natural language and get quick answers using generative AI, without submitting a support ticket.
Jeff spoke on how SAP's market-leading spend and business network solutions are getting "even smarter", and how they continue to work on unlocking greater value for its customers. He also spoke on the company's motivation to carry on making these improvements, with the company having "many resources devoted to spend management", and it continues to deliver innovation.
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