Michael Van Keulen Chief Procurement Officer Coupa
Neeral Shah
2024 PREVIEW
Michael Van Keulen Chief Procurement Officer Coupa
Neeral Shah
CEO Yardlink
Insolvencies have unfortunately characterised the past year in construction . The cheap-money era – with high levels of credit and confidence – is over and contractors are feeling the crunch of lower financing levels . When contractors are under financial pressure , it penetrates every part of the supply chain .
2024 will see large suppliers desperately trying to retain large contractors , but inevitably being forced to increase prices and jeopardise relationships . This will disrupt the entire ecosystem . Large suppliers will start targeting small – and mid-tier contractors , which have long been overlooked , and large contractors will look out for the best deals regardless of a supplier ’ s size or historic relationships . In turn , this will increase the need for greater visibility and assurances – word of mouth won ’ t suffice .
Enter technology . While progress towards digital transformation has traditionally lagged – 2024 will see the acceleration towards an industry wide embrace of technological tools , helping increase transparency and trust .
The last few years have clearly been turbulent but also enabled us to drive more transformation in procurement and supply chain . Companies have finally woken up to the importance of developing greater strategic relationships with suppliers . But in the year ahead , we will need to continue to break down silos and foster greater collaboration across procurement , finance , and supply chain operations . There ’ s still a lot of economic uncertainty and businesses will focus on improving efficiency and agility in their operations as they look to manage costs without sacrificing longterm goals . Part of that journey will be focused on lessening the burden of stitched-together legacy systems and disparate ERP instances .
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