Senior Editor

Sean Kolenko

Art Directors

Alice Chan, Kitty Chan

// mAStheAd

Contributing Editors

Alis Sindbjerg hemmingsen,

Angus Chak, Artin Vaqari,

Bertrand maltaverne, Brittany Whitmore,

herman Chandi, Jerome Benedict,

Jon hansen, michael Fournier,

Omar Khan, Robert O’Carroll

Read the online magazine at procurementsense.com

4

the myth of ‘win-win’ negotiations in

purchasing

: : Artin Vaqari

20

tell us what works best for your company

: : Omar Khan

37

Financing the future of procurement

: : Jon hansen

50

head in the cloud

: : Sean Kolenko

8

‘Business staying in business’ is a responsibility

of the procurement function

: : Alis Sindbjerg hemmingsen

24

Back to school: Charles dominick

& doug turner

40

Builddirect: Breaking down tradition supply

chains...... and delivering heavy stuff

: : Sean Kolenko

54

the last mile

: : Sean Kolenko

12

Business is not B2B or B2C – but h2h!

: : Bertrand maltaverne

30

A few thoughts on public sector procurement

: : Jerome Benedict

42

Is nuclear power the answer to shipping

sustainability?

: : Angus Chak

56

how one skin care company is using their supply chain to

build their brand

: : Brittany Whitmore

16

the business systems challenge facing Smes

: : Robert O’Carroll

32

The case for future proofing the supply chain with

sustainable procurement

: : michael Fournier

46

Procurify: Re-writing business processes

58

tips on doing business in China

62

how technology changes everything in business

: : herman Chandi

CONTENTSiSSuE ONE : apr 2015

‘Business staying in business’ is a responsibility of the procurement function

aliS SiNdbjErg hEmmiNgSEN

Organizations have complex supply chains with a range of customers

and suppliers that influence the way it operates. While customers set

specifications and standards that suppliers must meet, suppliers constantly

strive to improve the efficiency and profitability of their operations, while

simultaneously seeking to delight their customers. therefore, successful

businesses must always be looking for ways to stay competitive.

At the same time, we have to open our eyes and start acknowledging

and acting on the fact that our resources are threatened. Our economies

motivate people and businesses to consume to such a degree that the

planet cannot regenerate itself.

We have the opportunity to re-think the way we do business.

5dISPAtCheS - StAte OF the InduStRy

OUR RESOURCES ARE THREATENEDmany natural resources are threatened. Some

are more obvious than others and, subsequently,

there are some we are more aware of. But they

all – regardless of how well-known the scarcity of

the particular resource may be – pose a threat to

companies with supply chains.

Responsible Procurement is an approach that

allows you to influence your supply chain. It can

help you make informed purchasing choices by

knowing more about where the products and

services you purchase are made

so their environmental impact

is minimized.

For instance, if you regularly buy

from the same supplier, why

not do a bit of research into

their environmental policies and

practices? If every business did

this there would be demand for

companies to green their practices

and take on responsibility in order

to remain competitive.

TAKE RESPONSIBILITYthe requirement to take responsibility for society is

not indicative of some passing trend, but rather a

cultural shift. It is a backlash to the western world’s

disposable culture and an evolution of milton

Friedman’s phrase “the business of business is

business” to “the business of business is staying

in business”. taking responsibility for the impact

of your own operations is no longer enough. the

world demands more of you. you are now also

held accountable for what goes on in your supply

chain – from working conditions to corruption

to environmental impacts. your procurement of

products and services is under scrutiny.

your challenge is to understand the impact your

procurement decisions have on local communities,

workers and the environment. And, then, you

must take action to make sure that you create a

positive impact. At the end of the day, that is what

Responsible Procurement is all about. If you plan

it well, it can promote sustainability, provide you

with cost savings and protect and

enhance your brand.

VALUE CREATIONensuring that your procurement

strategy is based on a responsible-

decision making approach has

become an important business

parameter. Additionally, it is

essential for you to understand

that Responsible Procurement, in

its optimal format, can be a value creating process.

Responsible Procurement can have a fundamental

strategic and operational impact. It can promote

competitiveness and innovation. Responsible

Procurement is a strategic tool, which can help

minimize your company’s negative impact on

people, society and the environment while

maintaining or enhancing value for customers,

business partners and shareholders.

The business of business is staying in

business

REVOLUTIONIZE THE PROCUREMENT STRATEGY

I typically define Responsible Procurement in

the following way: ”Responsible Procurement

integrates requirements, specifications and

criteria that are compatible and in favour of the

protection of the environment, of social progress

and in support of economic development by

seeking resource efficiency, improving the quality

of products and ultimately optimizing costs”.

however, some companies see their Responsible

Procurement initiatives as pure risk management

and use it for compliance purposes. the strategic

and operational impact is then, typically, medium

to high, though it mitigates operational risks.

Improving efficiency, reducing demand for

materials and cutting waste all reduce your

costs and are good for the business and for

the environment. Maximizing these benefits

requires you to manage your supply chain and

integrate business activities to create value for

your customers.

Responsible Procurement is about increasing a

company’s profit, improving strategic supplier

relationships and strengthening the brand while

remaining vigilant towards competitors and

revolutionizing the procurement strategy to fit

the current business landscape.

And, of course, at the end of the day: ensuring

that “business stays in business”.

7dISPAtCheS - StAte OF the InduStRy

The case for fuTure proofing

The supply chain wiTh

susTainable procuremenT

miChaEl fOurNiEr

Sustainable sourcing is evolving into the most

important function of supply chain management.

And the impetus for this evolution is how

sustainable sourcing grounds itself in the future-

proofing of supply chains.

What does it mean to future-proof supply chains?

Future-proofing supply chains means protecting

your organization’s future performance against

a multitude of potential problems. Whether the

future involves the loss of access to key production

ingredients or logistics providers, future-proofing

attempts to mitigate potential dangers.

Trending in the environment of future-proofing

supply chains is sustainable procurement.

Sustainable procurement has proven that

i t improves e f f i c iency , e f fec t i veness and

transparency for organizations. Furthermore,

sustainable sourcing not only improves employee

and supplier relationships, it also improves an

organization’s reputation among the community

and its customers. Lastly, sustainable sourcing

can dismantle poor waste disposal practices and

reduce energy waste, which improves company

spend management.

Of course , beyond the bus iness case for

sustainable sourcing, ecological ly fr iendly

procurement pract ices are necessary for

maintaining our environment.

This article will first begin with an overview of the

benefits provided through sustainable sourcing

and how e-procurement impacts sustainable

supply chain management. Following that, the

article will offer a brief analysis of how sustainable

sourcing is achieved in Germany. The article

will then conclude with a brief capstone from

an interview with Ben Seaman, Eartheasy CEO,

an e-commerce website that promotes an

environmentally sound way of living.

What benefits can sustainable sourcing provide?Amongst the numerous benefits sustainable

supply chain management (SSCM) can provide,

the most important benefits include aligning

with a green strategy and improving market

competitiveness.

A green strategy involves reducing waste

management costs, trading ethically to attract

ethically-conscious customers and reducing

resource waste.

Improving market competitiveness involves

reducing procurement delays by adequately

projecting future sourcing activities against

potential environmental hazards, government

regulations, a shift in customer attitudes towards

environmental concerns, as well as changes in

supplier relationships.

In fact, sustainable sourcing practices can

enhance buyer-supplier relationships through

increased transparency.

It’s easy to label sustainable procurement as nothing more than a buzzword. But does sustainable procurement

hold the key to mitigating risk for your company?

9the FutuRe

Why is e-procurement often considered the best step toWards sscm?Before we get into why most organizations are

choosing to optimize their supply chain consider

this single piece of info: “One manual purchase

order can cost a company as much as $150 to

process, even if the purchase order was issued to

buy a $25 part.”

The cost of issuing manual purchase orders adds

up when one considers the time spent sending

documents back and forth between approvers,

buyers and receivers. E-procurement systems have

become significantly more popular as a means

of removing the tedious and costly travel time of

documents.

In fact, according to Tony Chien & Daniel Ahrens

there are three significant ways that e-procurement

improves the purchasing process.

Goodbye paperwork: e-procurement systems

eliminate paperwork by generating electronic

purchase orders that can be immediately routed

to the appropriate person. This system results in a

reduction in paper costs, as well as less time spent

by key personnel.

Commitment to vendors: e-procurement systems

can be used as a means of compelling end users

to only purchase from company-approved vendors.

This commitment to approved vendors is one way

of mitigating the possibility of corporate fraud

within the organization.

Spend visibility: although spend visibility may

sound like a generic buzzword, spend visibility is

an important result of e-procurement systems.

Spend visibility gives managers full control of their

company and department spending.

So how are we currently tackling SSCM in Germany?

german sustainable development strategyThe German government has made a formal

commitment towards SSCM through the German

Sustainable Development Strategy (GSDS).

The purpose o f the GSDS was to c lass i f y

procurement activit ies and f ind a means of

attaching measurable aspects to them. The five

procurement activities that are accountable within

the GSDS are:

1. Reducing logistics and freight intensity;

2. Reducing land use;

3. Implications against partners because of

sustainable aspects;

4. Quality of employee working conditions;

5. Enhancing quality of employment.

Within reducing logistics and freight intensity, the

GSDS measures greenhouse gas emissions, use

and disposal of truck tires and measuring driver

behaviour according to environmentally conscious

driving standards.

The purpose of measuring land use falls within the

dimensions of reducing energy waste, increasing

renewable energy for warehouses and factories,

as well as actively considering the environment in

property choices.

Under the GSDS, sustainable partner activities

measurable include whether partners use rail

or choose to ship cargo, whether partners use

environmentally friendly transport services, which

does fall into the first activity above, and whether

partners use combined transport to reduce freight

intensity.

For a long time, supply chains were overrun with

allegations of poor working conditions and low

access to essential services. However, through

the GSDS, German firms are observing whether

employees are given services during the day and

on weekends. German firms are also attempting to

maintain a standard level of pay and minimize the

use of temporary workers.

And the final measurable dimension under the

GSDS involves education and enhancing qualified

employment in all levels of supply chain operations.

The GSDS is indeed a highly ambitious effort in

attempting to measure sustainable practices within

the German procurement industry.

Eartheasy was built on the philosophy that we

need to protect our natural environment if we

want to keep the things we love. Eartheasy is

a go-to website that focuses on providing eco-

friendly products, guides and articles to its

visitors. Eartheasy is a case where sustainable

sourcing and procurement became an

important enough issue, prompting the

f o u n d e r s t o s h a r e t h e i r c u l t u r e w i t h

their customers.

Sustainable procurement is incredibly

important for the future success of an

organization’s supply chain, but also for our

environment and planet. The difficulties are

not unheard of when considering green

procurement strateg ies , however , the

strategic advantage that one could attain can

last well into the future.

And that’s what they mean when someone

talks about future-proofing their supply chain.

the eartheasy story

Read more by Michael at procurementsense.com

Have you ever noticed that when you tune into a

particular topic, it seems to pop up in conversations

everywhere?

Since announcing that I would be teaming up with

Buyers Meeting Point’s Kelly Barner to co-write The

Future of Procurement book – slated for release in

early 2015 – everywhere I turn

someone is talking about the

future of our industry.

Don ’ t ge t me wrong , as a

subject that is garnering a

great deal of attention as of

late, i t bodes very wel l for

potential book sales down the

road. Beyond literary interests, however, it is perhaps

the underlying reasons for everyone’s interest that has

peaked my curiosity the most.

Having covered the procurement world through my

Procurement Insights blog since May 2007, it is very

clear that we are in the midst of a major shift in terms

of where our industry is headed.

This shift, as I will call it, is largely driven by the

recognition that procurement or purchasing, as it’s

poorer cousin is known, is going through a major

transformation from being an

adjunct function to a strategic

imperative.

What this basically means is that

we, as well as others, no longer

view what we do through a “just

get me the best price” edict that

for far too long has defined the

industry mindset. We are now instead challenging the

barbed perceptions of those senior executives from the

2006 CPO Agenda Roundtable discussion – specifically

the assertion that they would take one strategic thinker

over 12 run-of-the-mill everyday buyers.

Financing the future of procurementCan procurement evolve into the role of new enterprise bankers over the next decade?

12the FutuRe

Quite simply,we

have to start “financing”

our own future if we hope

to finally secure a seat at

the executive table.

jON haNSEN

13

Of course, to become truly strategic, we have to start

changing the way in which we view our contribution to

an organization.

For me personally, this means addressing an Aberdeen

CFO survey. In the survey, the majority of CFOs felt that

procurement made very little meaningful contribution

to a company’s bottom line. In fact, CFOs went so far

as to suggest that they discounted more than 80% of

the savings claimed by the procurement department

as being irrelevant. If you were a batter in major league

baseball, that kind of average would get you sent down

to the farm team pretty quick. Not surprisingly, the

“minor leagues” is where most procurement people

feel they have been relegated from a corporate

presence standpoint.

So what does this all mean?Quite simply, we have to start “financing” our own

future if we hope to finally secure a seat at the

executive table. And this, of course, is why of all the

topics involved in the future of procurement I have

chosen to write about financing here.

Now I am sure that everyone who is reading this

article is already familiar with recent announcements

regarding Washington’s launch of the SupplierPays

initiative. I also have no doubt that you have been

following industry news, in which P2P vendors are

beginning to team-up with non-traditional finance

companies. The goal of these pairings is to provide a

mutually beneficial buyer/supplier service centered

around timely payments.

The fac t tha t a 2013 Ins t i tu t ion o f F inanc ia l

Operations survey disclosed that only 5% of the

organizations that participated had offered trade

f inancing to their suppl iers means that i t is a

largely untapped service area with huge upside

benefits. In other words, it is one of the main game

changers in how our industry, and the business

world in general, will view procurement’s importance

going forward.

Within the context of the aforementioned developments,

it would not be unreasonable for procurement to

evolve into the role of new enterprise bankers over the

next decade.

Think about it for a moment. Everything we do as

procurement professionals ultimately touches all

areas of the global enterprise. From keeping the

lights on in the office, to the manufacturing of a

product for end-user consumption, procurement,

a t some po int in the process , has a hand in

everything. It only makes sense that this reach

should now include the abil ity to incorporate a

f inancing model that ensures t imely payments

to suppliers.

Once again, this is the reason why non-traditional

financing within the procurement process is one of

the areas I will be watching over the coming months

and years.

The irony, of course, is that in the previously referenced

CPO Agenda Roundtable d iscuss ion the same

executives also indicated that the best person to

run a purchasing department is not someone with a

purchasing background. Who did they choose as the

ideal candidate? Someone from finance.

I wonder if there is ever a CFO Roundtable that those

executives will conclude that the best person to run

a finance department is not someone with a finance

background? Note to all procurement professionals . . .

time to update your resumes.

is nuclear power the answer to shipping sustainability?the future of marine transportation should include nuclear-powered vessels

aNguS ChaK

15the FutuRe

more than 70% of our planet’s surface is covered

in water and, yet, few people concern themselves

with anything past the first couple miles off the

beaches. even fewer, still, are aware that 90% of all

the world’s products are transported on massive

container ships – the length of multiple football

fields – that travel the oceans.

maersk’s new triple-e vessel is advertised to carry

up to 18,000 teu (twenty Foot equivalent units)

containers, with each container generating only

three grams of CO2 per kilometre en route from

europe to Asia. this is incredibly efficient: the

same products would generate 560 grams of CO2

if it were transported by air.

In the aggregate, however, marine transportation is

one of the world’s heaviest polluters, contributing

4% of the world’s total annual greenhouse gas

emissions. A 2009 study found that the 15 largest

ships in service – of the more than 10,000 total –

produced emissions equal to that of 760 million

cars. In context: that is more than the number

of registered cars in Canada, uSA and China

combined. If marine shipping were ranked among

nations, it would be the sixth heaviest polluter in

the world.

Faced with all these statistics, the question is:

What can be done to change the industry to

be more environmentally sustainable while

maintaining profitability?

the alternative I propose is nuclear powered

container ships. this alternative comes with

immense challenges, granted, but I believe may

lead to a future of sustainable transportation.

Before you start imagining thousands of floating

Chernobyl and Fukushima disasters waiting

to happen, what I am advocating for is not an

unprecedented concept. In fact, there have

been 13 nuclear powered cargo ships and ice

breakers commissioned, half of which are still

active. moreover, it is not uncommon for military

submarines to be nuclear powered. A July 2014

BBC article about the uSA’s decommissioned

nuclear cargo-passenger vessel, the NS Savannah,

even quoted the chief engineer stating: “In due

time it will happen, the prospects are reasonable

for a resurgence of nuclear power, there is a future

for nuclear power ships, it’s just a matter of time.”

the sentiment behind his statement is that more

of the public will eventually start to notice the

environmental problems of ocean shipping and

the industry will be forced to change. With nuclear

powered vessels, the industry can progress

towards ships that contribute zero CO2 and

produce zero greenhouse emissions.

there is a future for nuclear power ships, it’s

just a matter of time

Aside from the environmental benefits, a corporation’s

bottom line will also benefit greatly. A medium-sized

container ship uses 260 tons of heavy fuel oils to

power 51,480 kilowatts from a diesel engine. this

results in a daily cost of $52,000. the same amount of

nuclear powered energy would cost slightly less than

$9,000. While it is undeniable that nuclear-powered

ships would have a substantially greater initial cost, it

is realistic to believe a corporation would eventually

profit over a ship’s average 26-year lifespan.

In addition to the direct benefits, this change would

also inject vast amounts of investment dollars into

the nuclear physics community resulting in further

innovation, cheaper and safer reactors and netting

greater benefits.

As I stated earlier, this change would come with

immense challenges and strong opposition. With the

Fukushima disaster still vivid in much of the public’s

mind, nuclear power has a bad reputation. Germany,

for instance, is vowing to close all of its nuclear

power plants by 2022. And, there have been multiple

events where the reactors on container ships have

forced the dump of mildly radioactive water into the

ocean, none of which have come remotely close to a

catastrophe in the vein of the Fukushima event. Finally,

there would, likely, be substantial lobbying efforts

by oil corporations, as such changes would result

in the loss of collective sales of one billion tons of

fuel annually.

Without a doubt, it is only a matter of time before the

marine transportation industry will be forced to answer

the question of how to become more environmentally

sustainable. Of the alternative modes of energy

available, I believe nuclear to be the only one powerful

enough to transport 90% of the world’s goods across

vast oceans. Only time will tell, of course, whether

the industry agrees and adopts nuclear power as the

solution, but it must warrant considerable discussion.

hEad iN ThE ClOud

Noted investor and businessman Jeff Epstein talks cloud technology, the procurement space and the classroom in our exclusive interview.

SEaN KOlENKO

18 the FutuRe

Menlo Park’s Jeff Epstein, operating partner at Bessemer Venture

Partners, knows his way around a startup. As an investor, he’s tasked

with finding, evaluating and supporting some of the world’s most

promising companies.

And, as the former chief financial officer and executive vice president

at Oracle, epstein knows a thing or two about running a massive

corporation.

An impressive and varied resume, to be sure.

In addition to his day-to-day responsibilities in the venture capital world,

epstein uses experience in the classroom as well.

Along with Steve Blank, noted creator of the Lean Startup movement,

and Steve Weinstein, chief technology officer at Deluxe Services

entertainment Group, epstein teaches an entrepreneurial course, the

Lean Launchpad, at Stanford university. the course is designed for

graduate engineering students to “get their hands dirty” and “test the

business model” of the startups they’re designing.

We caught up with epstein recently to talk startups, the procurement

space and why he invested in Procurify.

let’s start at the beginning, with a bit of an involved question: what trends, in your opinion, defined the business software of the past? and, what will define the future? For the last 20 years, the biggest, most influential part

of enterprise software has been on-premise software

from major companies. In the last five to eight years,

the biggest trend has been cloud software.

There are three very important trends. The first is, if

you were buying a lot of software products in an on-

premise world, you may have 20 different products

from 20 different vendors. The cost of integrating all of

this stuff together is enormous. What that lead to was

suites of products by very large companies such as

Oracle and SAP and IBm. As a result, companies would

end up becoming an all Oracle shop or an all SAP shop.

they had this phrase, “one throat to choke,” because

something always went wrong and people wanted

“one throat to choke” when it did.

In the cloud world, it is very different. If you are buying

cloud software, you have no software and no hardware

in your own building – it’s all online and delivered

through the Internet. the major cloud software

companies have all built easy-to-use integrations with

each other. So, it’s pretty easy to buy 20 cloud software

products from 20 different vendors and have them all

work well together. As a result, the optimal choice has

moved from a suite to best of breed.

now, we’ve all used consumer applications such as

Gmail or shopped on Amazon. these applications are

beautiful, easy-to-use and don’t require any training

classes. enterprise software was always the exact

opposite. the new world of cloud is taking consumer

ease-of-use to the enterprise.

Nimbleness is the final big trend – nimbleness for the

company and the user. So, in the on-premise world

you would have small updates to the software once

a quarter and big updates once every three or four

years. the big updates, too, required an expensive

re-implementation. In the cloud world, those

updates happen everyday and users don’t have to do

anything, the updates are there when they turn on

their computers.

What excites him about the procurement space? the thing that excites me most about it is the

leverage. Let’s say that a white-collar worker buys a

piece of software to make him or her more efficient.

And let’s say a company has 50 of those employees,

each of whom is going to be 20% more efficient. As

a result, it is as if you had 10 more people. there is

some value there.

But in procurement, those 50 employees might buy

$5 billion worth of products. If you could be 20% more

efficient, you could save the salaries of 10 people.

Because each procurement professional is dealing

with, potentially, hundreds of millions of dollars in

spend, if you can make the procurement person more

effective and efficient, the value is not just saving that

person’s salary, the value is being more effective on

the money the company is spending. Procurement is

a unique sector where the leverage is, literally, 10 to 1

or 100 to 1.

20 the FutuRe

as an investor in procurify, what excites you about the company? every category of software in the on-premise world

is migrating to cloud. It is very difficult for the legacy

companies to come up with a new cloud version

because, typically, the cloud version is better, faster

and more expensive. It is a very rare company that

will tell its customers that they will move them to a

new product and charge them half the price.

In every category of enterprise software, new, fast-

moving companies are building products that are

better, faster and cheaper – Procurify is clearly one

of those companies. I think it is very easy to use,

intuitive and the people who use it love it. When you

look at a product like that and you see how effective

it is, that is a company I want to be involved with.

What is your advice for startups/companies in the business space? What lessons, for example, do you teach? the class that we teach is very experiential. What

we teach them is that even though they have an

idea of what their product should be and what

their customers want, they’re probably not going

to be right. So, what we teach is that you have a

hypothesis about what customers want and you

need to collect data to test that hypothesis. We

require, for example, that students speak with 100

people during the three months they are in class –

customers, partners, suppliers or distributors.

then, midway through the course you build and

advertise your product and see if you get any

feedback. And, based on that, you constantly iterate.

technology, rightly or wrongly, is associated with social - but what about enterprise? are more people actively tackling the enterprise space today? the consumer press follows consumer products

because consumers understand it and use it. In

contrast, enterprise software companies are selling

to companies and the consumer doesn’t see it.

In the technology press, on the other hand, it is

pretty well split. A huge part of spend is spent by

enterprise and not consumers, so it gets press. JP

morgan spends $10 billion on technology and you

can bet there are a lot of people who want to know

what JP morgan is thinking.

With students – people coming right out of college

or grad school – they are interested in the things

they know. But as they get older, they start having

problems at work and they begin to think of

products to help that environment.

how technology changes everything

in business

Notifications

your order #3190 has arrived!

A new order has been created.

A new order has been created.

3 Reminders

hErmaN ChaNdi

22 the FutuRe

It’s the year 2020 and you are a manager on a

project site for your company – a small 50- person

organization. you need to buy something to complete

the project, so you hop on your smartphone or tablet

and spend 10 seconds with an application. your goods

arrive the next day. you take a picture of the goods

and packing slip. Voila, your project is done on time

and, most importantly, on budget.

So... what’s going on behind the scenes?

your order was already approved by an executive at

head office, a purchase order was sent electronically

and recorded automatically in your accounting

system, and your supplier has sent an electronic

invoice with a shipping notification.

Sound too good to be true?

If you already own a smartphone and you have an

iPad at home, you surely have an inkling that this kind

of enterprise reality should already exist. And not just

for the large corporations that can afford multi-million

dollar systems – but for companies of all sizes. If you

can go on Amazon and buy goods that are shipped

free in seconds, or book your travel plans within

minutes on your phone, why can’t you get the same

software experience at your office?

the proliferation of handheld devices and the

popular acceptance of cloud services are two

monster trends that have finally reached an inflection

point in our society, and not just for consumers or

households. Combined with the next generation

of workers growing up on these devices around

the world, and the expected massive baby boomer

retirement wave, we are in for a wholesale change

in both workforce composition and expectations

of what the future worker will do. the very idea of

treating software on the cloud as a public utility,

where you just flick on the lights, is revolutionary in

this space.

this will be a both scary and disruptive time for some,

and a great opportunity for others.

Job titles such as administrators and coordinators

will be under threat as simple, affordable and

easy-to-use software products proliferate across

web browsers and mobi le devices, a l lowing

companies to automate many mundane tasks.

Quite simply, if your role today is simply filling out

spreadsheets or photocopying paper and stapling

it to invoices, those manual tasks will be a thing

of the past.

For those that see the change coming and are

opportunistic, this presents an opportunity to spend

time on more value added activities in a company

and improve their skills to be top contributors in the

workforce.

unfortunately, some companies may lock in these

productivity improvements to the bottom line, but

the smarter ones will take those savings and reinvest

them in a smarter, well-trained workforce that can use

those same technologies to increase revenues and

innovate across the organization.

that 2020 scenario is starting to happen today, and

the impact of these changes will be felt for many years

to come. Whether you are a business owner, a working

professional or a new entrant to the workforce, we

are all entering a period of disruption. the one’s that

are prepared for it will be the one’s that will have the

greatest opportunities.

Read more by Herman at procurementsense.com

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