Find out how next-gen, digital, cognitive AI and ML procurement enable enterprises to generate supplier intelligence, enhance buyer decision-making and more. Learn more.

1. 1 Copyright © 2019 Tata Consultancy Services Limited
COGNITIVE
PROCUREMENT
Why CFOs should buy into

2. Next-Gen Procurement Solutions
Cognitive / AI solutions
enable enterprises to generate
supplier intelligence, perform
contract analysis, enhance
buyer decision-making, among
others
Analytics and
automation enhance
the efficiency of
procurement processes
In the Business 4.0TM era,
procurement’s role has
moved beyond cost
influencers to growth
contributors. Business
impact and risk
management are now
important KPIs

3. Key CPO Focus Areas
Handle rising procurement costs to meet consumer and
business requirements
Enhance visibility into spend data across data sources through
digitalization
Minimize internal and external risks to simplify procurement
Decrease lead time to manage supply chains and enhance
decision making
Drive supplier collaboration to meet evolving regulatory
requirements
Optimize working capital to ensure smooth cashflow
processes in business
!

4. Rise of Cognitive Procurement
Next-gen, digital procurement
technologies have become the key focus
for CPOs. Deployment of analytics, robotics
and mobility has revamped procurement
However, cognitive solutions such as AI
and machine learning interventions help
process scenarios, analyze, and understand
collected information, and more – all
without involving the procurement team
Procurement processes enabled by
cognitive solutions
Proactive supplier management
Comprehensive risk management
Conversational sourcing assistant
Ongoing contract optimization
Touchless process
Fraud payments prevention
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5. 3
Components of Cognitive Procurement
Cognitive procurement adopts a smarter, outcome-oriented approach, enabling top-line
impact, employee / vendor satisfaction, and risk mitigation
Generate supplier
intelligence, assist
in vendor selection,
offer real-time
price
benchmarking,
identify ways to
control maverick
spending
Smart sourcing
Guide buyer
decisions, answer
queries, and enable
policy adherence.
The virtual purchase
agents improve
over time based on
buyers’ past
purchases
Intelligent
purchase agents
Monitor vendor
performance in real
time, compare with
market
benchmarks,
automate handling
of vendor
communication
Proactive vendor
management
Automate invoice
capture data,
minimize and
manage
exceptions, predict
and evaluate
overdue invoices
and trigger alerts
Touchless
invoice processing
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6. Challenges to Cognitive Adoption
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Data
Limited data availability requires bigger investment
Referenceability
Although organizations want to learn from existing implementations, there is a
lack of successful reference examples
``
Technology
Legacy systems and limited services or partner support act as bottlenecks for
organizations willing to adopt cognitive
People
Lack of necessary talent, including data scientists, coders, and developers
Process
Lack of procurement process standardization across regions / categories

7. Navigating the Cognitive Procurement Journey
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Shift gradually to digital maturity for an efficient, intelligent procurement process
Data management strategy
Define a strategy for cognitive deployments, build computing power, and capture
data across sources into a common platform
Planned approach
Standardize non-categorized processes before aspiring for cognitive
transformation. Ensure early stakeholders involvement, and plan the
implementation roadmap
Develop future-ready talent
Design recruitment / training strategies that ensure talent pool interfaces easily
with these technologies
Drive technology investments
Identify appropriate cognitive technology and drive its benefits, leverage
third-party solutions, partner with solution providers

8. Lean on Strategic Partners to Maximize Gains
Cognitive procurement is the present and the
future. Transformative, cognitive procurement
solutions provide smarter business insights,
elevate user experience, and improve process
efficiency
Early adopters are working through challenges
such as poor data quality, broken processes,
talent gaps, among others, to realize the
benefits of cognitive procurement
A strategic partner with skilled talent, and
contextual and referenceable experience can
maximize gains, optimize ROI of existing
infrastructure, avoid new capex, chart a clear
roadmap, and provide strategic support with
data management technologies
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9. Copyright © 2019 Tata Consultancy Services Limited
Transformative, Future-ready
Cognitive Procurement
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