SOURCE-TO-PAY ( S2P )
“ Don ’ t let the perfect become the enemy of the good ”
IVALUA
IAN THOMPSON VP OF NORTHERN EUROPE , composed of customers , innovators , competitors , agents pushing out content and so on , and they ' ve got all of these different characteristics . And of course , it just so happens that when you ' re a procurement professional , you interact with the supply side of things .
“ When it comes to suppliers , I need to squeeze them . I need to get them all to comply with X , Y , Z . What you really need to ask is , ‘ how can they help me to innovate ?’, ‘ what do they know that I don ' t know ?’, ‘ what information can they share with me about the reality of our supply chain ?’.”
Here , Thompson hits upon the fact that the way in which we approach something changes the very thing we find , and it closely ties into his philosophical , yet concretely humanistic approach to supplier relationships .
The role of technology in humanising procurement Thompson says that all of this can ' t be done without technology , because without it , all of your efforts , and all of “ the burn ” on your organisation will just be about managing the fact that suppliers exist .
“ But ,” he says , “ you can let technology take care of that side of things , and then you can begin to see your suppliers as an entity ; and your connection to them as more than just a commodity-type relationship .”
He says that it ’ s important to understand your suppliers and to be able to see what they do , and that this has the power to transform ‘ supplier ’ relationships ,
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