As we have moved to virtual vendor briefings, I have increasingly been excerpting short segments (with permission from vendors), as part of my Analyst Cam series.
During the pandemic, a lot of attention has gone to the CHRO and the CIO as companies moved to WFH, as they plan on safely opening physical sites and as companies accelerate digital transformations. The Chief Procurement Officer, in some ways, has had to perform even more spectacular cartwheels. Most have helped to conserve cash and minimize supplier risk. Many are being asked to help find suppliers in new global locations and those for diversity and sustainability initiatives.
With that background, I had a chance to catch up with Nikesh Parekh, co-founder and CEO of Suplari. I first met him two years ago when the company had just started. He walked me through a 20 minute presentation and demo below on what is branded as the Spend Intelligence Cloud.
Their service allows for aggregating supplier data to allow you to see spend across subsidiaries/locations/other tags. It aggregates spend from different sources - via PO and AP data from various ERP systems, via services like Ariba and Coupa, via procurement card etc.
I really like their library of 175 machine-driven insights. Some insights are tactical - for t&e compliance or potential fraud alerts. Other insights are more strategic - for supplier base consolidation, as an example. Nikesh mentions a relationship with consulting firms like Kearney for more of the strategic sourcing projects. New insights are being developed with a supplier diversity pov and for budgeting and forecasting processes.
At the start of the pandemic, specific insights identified opportunities to conserve cash, prevent non-essential spend, predict and forecast large cash payments, extend payment terms and enforce new policies. The service also allows for easy "case" set up and assignment to specific individuals and teams. That brings collaboration and project management to the sourcing/procurement function.
I had expected they would mostly be focused on indirect spend. I was pleased to hear him say customers are starting to use services like his for their more complex, and clearly more strategic, direct spend with their Tier 1 and 2 suppliers.
Nice, crisp presentation
