Procurement Magazine November 2021 | Page 75

TECHNOLOGY

“ Emerging technologies can be a powerful tool to help add value to supply chain management and make procurement more strategic . Technologies such as AI , blockchain , and IoT offer the potential to identify possible failure points in supply chains , improve traceability , and much more . AI in particular is being used to enhance procurement platforms by driving greater levels of automation in manual processes such as invoice processing – helping to save time , money , and resources . But AI can also assist decision makers by , for example , identifying untapped optimisation opportunities and recommending courses of action ,” says Saric . Echoing Saric ’ s comments , Patteson adds : “ with the rise of tools like artificial intelligence ( AI ) and machine learning , post-execution contract management has gained more attention as a way to accelerate , protect and optimise businesses . Applying AI to a pool of digitised data , transforms contracts from static documents into live contracts which can interact with staff , systems and even other contracts . Advanced , AI-powered CLM software enables companies to digitise , structure , and connect contracts so organisations can quickly and efficiently analyse them for potential risk and performance – both before and after an agreement is executed .” Saric follows up by explaining that “ organisations can develop their procurement platforms further by taking advantage of innovations in procurement analytics . This can help organisations to stay on top of supply chain disruption , flag ethical or sustainability concerns , and identify instances of fraud . AI-driven analytics can also formulate better insights in real or near real time , giving businesses complete visibility of the supply chain . Bringing actionable insights to users ’ fingertips is more important as we tackle the supply chain crisis that is taking the UK by storm .” procurementmag . com 75