Spend Matters analyst Magnus Bergfors has reviewed all of the 2020 predictions offered by several procurement software vendors and published on Spend Matters Europe.
“If you look at them in aggregate, a couple of interesting themes occur across almost all vendor predictions,” he writes about the insights from Basware, Ivalua, Efficio, Vortal, State of Flux, SAP Ariba, SAP Fieldglass, Jaggaer, Capita and Inverto.
Magnus gives his 2020 predictions/comments on the common areas of data and analytics; UX and automation (AI); and risk, sustainability and CSR. But he also cautions that economic headwinds could blunt any gains that procurement is seeking.
“My fear is, as Alex Saric from Ivalua points out, that as a result of the risk of a global recession, procurement is forced back to focus on savings and cost cutting,” he said.
See the vendor recap and Magnus’ full insight here.
LevaData, Zebra team up on direct sourcing
Zebra Technologies has selected LevaData, a provider of AI-based solutions for strategic sourcing and procurement, to manage Zebra’s direct materials sourcing across the world, LevaData said Thursday in a press release.
Supply chains that span the globe use Zebra’s thermal printers, barcode scanners, RFID and real-time location systems.
“We’re super-excited to work with Zebra,” Rajesh Kalidindi, founder and CEO of LevaData, said in the release. “LevaData’s platform thrives on complexity, and Zebra’s global footprint, array of products and diversity of systems are a perfect fit for our capabilities. The reach of Zebra’s supply chain transformation gives LevaData an opportunity to go beyond cost savings and risk mitigation and truly help turn supply management into a competitive advantage for Zebra.”
How to strengthen supply chains against hurricanes
The U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine has released a report that lays out measures to make supply chains stand up to the dangers of hurricanes and other natural disasters, according to ContinuityCentral.com. The study drew upon lessons learned from the 2017 hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria.
The report was requested by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the findings urge FEMA and other organizations to focus on restoring regular supply chains immediately after a hurricane, so they spend less time on the usual approach of using parallel emergency relief supply chains, which have been extended for too long in some cases. Other critical strategies include strengthening emergency managers’ understanding of local supply chain dynamics.
