James Marland , Global Vice President , SAP Intelligent Spend and Business Network
PROCUREMENT STRATEGY
In fact , buyers and suppliers can further this collaborative effort into a myriad of business factors ; together , they can redesign and optimise their supply chain practices to ensure ESG compliance and reduce waste whilst increasing efficiency , or they can split the cost of new materials and resources , lessening the burden on each party . Both parties can even work together on forecasting for the coming quarters , planning , and longterm capacity management . By working together , companies open up a new style of complete transparency between buyers and suppliers , optimising service levels , mitigating potential risks , and creating a more agile but simultaneously robust supply chain operation .
This seems like common-sense . I know . So it probably begs the question , ‘ Why are you talking about it ?’ Well , while it seems like an easy , incredibly profitable solution , the benefits of supply collaboration mostly remain locked behind a barrier . Companies the world over have excellent case studies on individual cases of successful collaboration with their suppliers , but that ’ s where the success tends to stop .
It turns out that it ’ s much harder to jointly integrate buyer and supplier approaches across the entire procurement and supply
“ In order to collaborate effectively , you need to treat suppliers as part of your organisation ”
JAMES MARLAND GLOBAL VICE PRESIDENT , SAP INTELLIGENT SPEND & BUSINESS NETWORK
James Marland , Global Vice President , SAP Intelligent Spend and Business Network
James is a Global Vice President in the Centre of Excellence for Procurement at SAP . After being first exposed to procurement as a consultant at SAP he moved to the newly formed Ariba in 1998 . With the acquisition of Ariba 2012 he ended up back at SAP as a Vice-President of Network Strategy , uniquely with experience of procurement from both companies . In his current role he meets with procurement professionals to work with them on building the business case for SAP solutions . With the unofficial title of " Chief Storyteller " he tries to make a story-teller out of everyone through Social Media , new hire onboarding and mentoring . You ' ll see him passionately preaching the procurement story of SAP through his preferred medium of a whiteboard . He also contributes to the SAP story on social media , blogs and at events . Just don ' t expect to see him using PowerPoint .
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