“ I am a passionate evangelist for data science and machine learning to enable predictive , self-healing supply chains ”
JENNIFER CHAPLAIN , SOLUTION ENGINEERING & CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT PRINCIPAL , AERA TECHNOLOGY
customers , suppliers , service providers , and partners .
To give one example , a global consumer packaged goods company is using decision intelligence to identify purchaseprice variance ( PPV ) in direct materials procurement . This allows the team to identify and correct issues with poor master data , misalignment of pricing data between systems , purchase orders and invoices that aren ’ t compliant with contracts , and manual pricing changes .
In contrast to relying on spreadsheets to find gaps and then communicating with suppliers for corrections , the company is now automatically identifying issues , accepting auto-generated recommendations for corrections needed , and automatically deferring to a supplier for closure , eliminating the need for manual action .
Not only has the company dynamically streamlined its PPV management and vendor collaboration , but it has also identified practices that weren ’ t aligned with company-wide procurement processes . Transformations such as these are possible for procurement teams across a range of industries , and the companies that start this journey now will be better able to innovate for the future .
104 October 2023