V-Work is proud to be at the 5th annual Chief Procurement Officer Summit 2022 (CPO2022). It was held on 16-17th Aug 2022 at InterContinental Hotel KL, where some of the biggest procurement movers and shakers gathered to share the latest trends and insights in the industry. We also made sure not to miss out as we exhibited our high-governance WeManage Pocurement solution.
If you didn’t get a chance to attend the conference, here’s a quick TLDR (Too Long; Didn’t Read) to recap some of the key highlights.
Opening Address
The opening speaker, Pn. Norul Ahikin bt Amat Yakub, set the tone for the conference with her opening speech. As the Deputy Director of the National Governance, Integrity & Anti-Corruption Center (GIACC), she highlighted Malayisa’s increasing focus on strong governance in public procurement as part of the National Anti-Corruption Plan (NACP). She also emphasized the role of digitalization to overcome integrity and regulatory compliance, both in the public and private sector.
As international and domestic markets increasingly demand higher governance, organizations would do well to future-proof their systems by putting strong governance structures in place to defend against corruption liabilities.
6 Key Themes and Trends
1. Agility in the face of challenges
The past two years saw countless challenges for the procurement industry – Covid-19 disruptions, geopolitical tensions, rapid inflation and supply shortages to name a few. More than ever, procurement leaders must be agile and flexible to combat these challenges.
2. Digitalization as a means, not an end
eProcurement software is a vital part of an organization’s digitalization strategy. However, it must primarily work to support the company’s procurement strategy. By first defining your company’s procurement DNA, you can then work closely with your software partners to ensure your digital transformation fully delivers your strategic needs.
3. Transition strategic suppliers to become partners
Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) was a key topic at the workshops by Dr. David Gonsalez. He highlighted that for some companies such as Unilever, more than 70% of their innovation comes from their suppliers. To leverage on this, Procurement should strategically segment their suppliers and focus on building partnerships with their strategic suppliers and becoming their Customer of Choice.
4. Value creation instead of just cost avoidance
As the role of procurement becomes increasingly important to a company’s overall business plan, strategies should shift from merely saving money to generating value for the company. This can include optimizing the purchasing cycle to reduce turnaround times, leveraging strong supplier relationships to drive innovation, and driving sustainability compliance.
5. Risk management for supply continuity
On the topic of ‘Procurement of the Future’, one of the speakers highlighted the importance of supplier evaluation and risk management down to Tier 1-3 suppliers. Companies need to identify their high-risk suppliers and build strong partnerships with them or diversify their supplier network to lower their risk exposure. By leveraging on digital solutions, procurement leaders should be continuously measuring not just supplier performance, but also supplier sentiment to ensure a sustainable supplier relationship.
6. Environment-Social-Governance (ESG)
According to one of the panel speakers, ESG is one of the biggest opportunities that has come for the procurement industry, bringing it out of the backroom into the boardroom. Procurement is at the heart of making sure that a company’s supply chain is ESG-compliant, not just by sourcing for more sustainable suppliers, but also by training and equipping existing suppliers to be ESG-ready. ESG is non-negotiable and instead of viewing it as a risk, procurement leaders should take this opportunity to play a bigger role in contributing to their company’s overall sustainability strategy.
Wrap Up
The CPO2022 Summit delivered great insight into the latest procurement trends. For eProcurement solution providers like WeManage Procurement, these market insights help inform our continuous development to help ensure that WeManage delivers the best value to our customers.