FINANCE & SPEND
It seems supply chain disruption is non-stop. We have what feel like oncein-a-generation supply chain shocks every year now. What are the most successful buyers doing differently to handle these disruptions? I think there are a couple of things. They’ re really looking at their supply base – building good relationships with suppliers they know they can count on and work with throughout these disruptions. But also making sure that, if one supplier is unable to deliver, they have other options available. A marketplace situation is very useful for that kind of substitution. Procurement teams now often have a selection of go-to suppliers to ensure that supply chains aren’ t impacted by delays.
AI obviously has a massive buzz around it at the moment. What are some real-world examples of Amazon Business using AI to drive genuine ROI for customers? Amazon Business has been using AI to make things easier for our customers for years. There are a number of areas we’ ve been working on to help customers drive efficiencies. The changes we’ ve made to that over the past 12 months include expanding who it reaches – not just finance and admins, but also ensuring alerts go directly to their inbox, so they don’ t have to go into a report to find spend anomalies. That really helps customers find rogue spend and drive their businesses harder. Procurement is becoming a much more strategic part of any business, and we really want to help customers make that happen.
With this strategic elevation of procurement in mind, you cover both the UK and EU – are there any significant differences in how customers in each region tackle these challenges? What I really find is that customers want the same things – they want to remove friction, drive efficiencies and have a robust supply chain. ESG is also becoming a much more important part of the conversation; it’ s no longer separate, it’ s integrated, and I see that across both UK and EU customers. The differences tend to be where regulations diverge – for example, different invoicing mandates at different times in different countries. In the UK, the regulations are there to drive more transparency.
Decision-makers want AI to address everyday needs – improving data analysis, cutting costs, and reducing risks around data security. Amazon Business builds for both. In practice, that means tools like Spend Visibility, which gives organisations interactive dashboards to visualise trends, track savings and compare purchases against policy. On the whole, what customers are trying to achieve is efficient procurement and making a broader impact across their organisation. procurementmag. com 73