Dive Brief:
- Procurement professionals are ready to lead company-wide discussions on innovation, according to a June report by Wax Digital, and supply-side technology tops their wish the professionals' wish lists.
- Over half of the surveyed professionals said supplier relationship management systems required innovation, while more than two fifths of respondents said they desired supply chain risk reduction and supplier-led product innovation technology.
- Wax Digital surveyed over 100 senior procurement managers in the U.K. to find the profession is evolving from an administrative role into an innovation-focused role. However, the professionals' risk aversion may be holding them back, according to the report.
Dive Insight:
Procurement is not typically seen as an innovation-focused department, however, and roughly 40% of respondents said this inter-departmental view was holding the professionals back from innovating within the companies.
Meanwhile 80% of the professionals saw their role in the company as either "very" or of "utmost importance" to business innovation. Specifically, the report found many of these professionals were looking to implement savings tracking and purchase to pay technologies over the next 12 months. In general, the top priority for 47% of the respondents was process innovations designed to improve collaboration.
Yet, procurement professionals are unlikely to become the next CIOs and the companies must balance other departments' innovations need. However, what suppliers and logistics companies can glean from the report is that procurement, too, is looking for ways to streamline their processes and are likely to adopt new technologies.
