pandemic , as well as with pre-booking flight spaces to secure shipping capacity as part of his role .
He helped execute urgent accountspayable supplier setups , expediting payments for business-critical requirements .
As IBM CPO , a large part of Murphy ’ s role is to actively support IBM ’ s clients in achieving business objectives as well as increasing the marketability of procurement offerings . This includes continual transformation , employing leading edge technologies and empowering a skilled team of professionals to improve their clients ’ experience .
The rate and pace of change in his industry is faster today than at any other time during his long and fruitful career . The seemingly constant advancements in tech are certainly a goldmine of opportunity but , at the same time , create challenges for business across every industry , with all working to stay ahead of this extraordinary technological curve .
For this reason , Murphy finds that his role entails the buying of commodities that are different to what they were five years ago – even to those just one year ago – as new products are continually entering the market . Teams need to be immersed in the businesses of IBM ’ s clients from end-toend to ensure they are providing value at every level .
Murphy feels that it is absolutely critical that procurement and finance operate together as one team , as the CFO function has the responsibility for ensuring the fidelity and operations of the company , as well as in achieving its objectives in terms of things such as free cash flow , profit margin and all of those critical revenue metrics ; in IBM , they moved procurement under the CFO function .
Murphy wants to ensure that IBM has strong employee engagement to keep their procurement professionals happy and moving forward in their careers , despite the challenges of working remotely .
IBM is now far more visible and increasingly focused on achieving Environmental , Social and Corporate Governance ( ESG ) goals .
IBM also took a further step , moving Accounts Payable from finance to procurement ’ s remit .
The changing role of the CPO has led to Murphy saying that he is out there looking for ways to keep improving and adding value . He spends 25 % of his time speaking with other CPOs , in addition to leaders from industry and technology companies , to discover how they ’ re thinking around challenges and motivating their teams .
“ Ultimately , it comes down to revenue and growth , improving speed and productivity and selecting suppliers that provide a competitive advantage , all while protecting the brand . To do those things effectively , procurement processes need to be digitised from source to pay to provide visibility .”
“ Some people refer to AI as ‘ Artificial Intelligence ’, but we at IBM refer to it as ‘ Augmented Intelligence ’. The whole point around AI is to help our human workers to make better decisions , to make them faster , to give them better insights and therefore to deliver better outcomes .”
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