The document summarizes a webinar on the role of technology in procurement that was scheduled for March 15, 2015. It introduces the presenter, Eric Evans, and his background in procurement. It then discusses how technology has changed procurement from a transactional to a more value-adding process focused on areas like sourcing, forecasting, and approvals. Examples of software tools that help with forecasting, catalogues, requests, and invoice processing are provided. The presentation envisions greater integration of procurement systems with ERP, suppliers, and across the extended enterprise. It predicts that within 5 years, procurement will increasingly rely on analytics, virtual supplier visits, automatic decision-making, and paperless processes integrated across the supply chain.

1. 2015: The Role Of Technology In
Procurement
The Webinar Will Start Shortly
Sunday, 15 March 2015 ● 16:30pm – 17:30pm (UAE)
Eric Evans
Eric Evans & Associates Ltd, Management
Consultants

2. Housekeeping
• Slides will be available on our SlideShare page; the link will be emailed
to you
• Recording of the webinar will be available to download; the link will
be emailed to you
• Take the time to complete a post-webinar survey that will pop up at
the end
•
• You can type your questions throughout the session
• Time will be allocated in the end for the speaker to address your
questions

3. Your Presenter
Eric Evans
Eric Evans & Associates Ltd, Management Consultants
Eric Evans has held Director level positions in the automotive, retail, fast moving consumer goods and
healthcare sectors. He is the author of three books on procurement and negotiation, and a speaker on MBA
programmes across Europe and the Gulf region.
As a management consultant, he has delivered improvement programmes in demand management and
inventory management, and has coached organisations as they implement collaborative replenishment and
customer-led approaches to demand management.

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5. The Changes in Recent Years
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6. Transactional
Procurement
Procure to Pay is an expensive
process consuming considerable
time and resources – but adding
little or no value
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7. Where do the benefits come from?
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9. Value Adding Procurement: Sourcing
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13. One of the most powerful features of ForecastPro
Is “Expert Selection” where the software tells you the
most accurate forecasting method and why
The programme can calculate confidence levels based on lower and
upper figures input by the user
The programme also allows you to capture manual
interventions and can then generate FVA data
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14. A Vision of the Possible
Mkt Intel
• Links to D&B
• Supplier Profiles
• Industry scoring / Z scores
Source
Selection
/ RFQ
• Auto bid cycles
• Internet quotes
• Bid history
Contracts /
Negotiation
• File sharing
• Global database
• On line contract tool
Catalogues
• 3rd Party Hosting
• Buyer less options
• Punch out capability
Forecast
Planning
Approvals
• ERP linkages
•Automated flows
•Buyer-less process
•Electronic approvals
Req’s
Orders
•ERP integration
•Workflow mgt
•Skills matching
•Trading network access
Invoice
Accounts P
•E invoices
•Touch less approval & payment
•Workflow re-design
Payment
Banks
•BACS
•SWIFT
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15. On the horizon today
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16. The Next Five Years? • Procurement as a science based on analytics – a
need for new skills
• Due diligence “virtual” visits to international
suppliers – touch and smell also likely
• More programmable computer decision making
– linking forecasting systems with auto-buy
processes
• Greater use of biometrics and RFID to track
people and materials
• Automatic updating of inventory records based
on POS technology
• Hack-proof IT systems
• The end of keyboard data entry
• The death of the desktop computer
• The extended enterprise with greater data
availability along the supply chain and shared
decision making
• Finally, the paperless office
Based on:
•Trends evident today
•Increasingly low cost computing
•Faster processor speeds
•Increasing use of cloud storage
•The “internet of everything”
•White Papers from experts such
as IBM, CSC, Gartner and others
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17. Questions, Discussion
What are the drawbacks?
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