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The SupplyChain Team EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

RHYS THOMAS EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

SCOTT BIRCH CREATIVE TEAM

OSCAR HATHAWAY SOPHIA FORTE SOPHIE-ANN PINNELL HECTOR PENROSE SAM HUBBARD MIMI GUNN JUSTIN SMITH

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EDITORS LETTER

Supply chain is never plain sailing The grounding of the Ever Given was a stark reminder of the necessity of digital transformaiton, visibility and agility in global supply chains.

“The story of the Ever Given will continue for weeks, if not months, to come”

SUPPLYCHAIN DIGITAL MAGAZINE IS PUBLISHED BY

If the Suez Canal blockage was a literary device, critics would brand it heavy handed and hackneyed. One of the world’s largest shipping containers, perilously wedged in the narrowest stretch of arguably the world’s most important trade artery, has uninspired Hollywood summer blockbuster written all over it. But as an illustration of the need for supply chains to develop and embrace digital transformation, it is the perfect symbol. Visibility, agility, elasticity - all the qualities supply chain leaders are calling for and working towards were called on to minimise disruption caused by the near weeklong logjam. The situation was, and continues to be, a true test of the capabilities of digital platforms, prescriptive data analytics and integrated autonomy in global supply chains. When the Ever Given ran aground last month, $9.5bn in goods are estimated to have been delayed everyday. Thankfully the corridor is reopened, but the story of the Ever Given will continue for weeks, if not months, to come. If you’ve been impacted or helped your clients through the disruption, I’d love to hear from you. But for now, back to work - all hands on deck.

RHYS THOMAS

Rhys.Thomas@bizclikmedia.com

supplychaindigital.com

CONTENTS

Our Regular Upfront Section: 6

Big Picture

The Brief

10 Global News 12 People Moves 14 Timeline: Chaos on the Suez Canal 16 Legend: James E. Casey 18 Five Mins With: Tammy Mcneil

Procurement

21st Century Evolution

SX: Intelligent Spend Management with a CX Approach

Ready for an Exciting Future

SAP

Vodafone Procurement Company

Comdata

The Four Pillars to Strategic Procurement and a Better CX

Blockchain

Could Blockchain Technology Revolutionise ESG Compliance?

Automation & Fulfilment Data in Logistics: The Benefits are Clear to See

104

Technology

Intelligent ERP: The Smart, Agile, Solution Driven by People

Clariant International

Sustainability and Transparency in Procurement

114 Top 10

Consultancy Firms

BIG PICTURE

Trapped Egypt

The image of the Ever Given container ship, which become wedged across the Suez Canal in March, towering over a lone yellow digger, captures the scale of the task faced by authorities and international recovery teams to dislodge the vessel and reopen the vital trade route - and the disruption to supply chains left in its wake.

Suez Canal Authority

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THE BRIEF “I think it’s a tremendously exciting time, a lot of risk to manage, but a lot of new things coming as well”

BY THE NUMBERS How much did online retail grow in 2020?

Ninian Wilson

Group Procurement Director of Vodafone and CEO, Vodafone Procurement Company  READ MORE

“After 20 years in procurement, I was convinced that procurement had much more to add than just placing orders” Javier Baranda

2020 2024 Global retail e-commerce hit $4.28tn, up from $3.35tn in 2019

Forecasts predict this figure will hit $6.4tn Source: Statista

Group Chief Procurement Officer, Comdata  READ MORE

“Our focus is where we can have technologies help us to make smarter decisions on when we buy, where we buy and how we buy Markus Mirgeler

Head of Global Procurement, Clariant  READ MORE

April 2021

Did you know 40% of companies reported measurable damage to their brand’s image as a result of COVID-19 supply chain disruption

$4 trillion is the upper estimate of lost revenue due to COVID-19

36%

Say cyber attacks are a growing concern for supply chains

Findings from GEP’s The Cost of Supply Chain Distruption report 

 DEUTSCHE POST DHL GROUP Record earnings and operating profit of €4.8bn (+17.4%) led the German logistics firm to raise its profit forecast for 2021 to €5.6bn+. CEO Frank Appel said the gains are "the result of years of hard work by our entire organisation”.

YOU SHOULD REALLY CARE ABOUT IA Yeah, yeah. We’ve had AI for years. I think you left a typo in. No, we haven’t - not in this article, anyway - but your confusion is understandable. IA stands for Intelligent Automation. It involves AI (artificial intelligence), but also other emerging tech like software bots and data analytics. We already have all that stuff, do we really need yet another initialism to remember? Sure, you already use RPA, ML, AI (we see what you mean). But those are just technologies. IA combines their individual strengths and puts them to work. It can provide more personal automated customer interactions, help supply chain execs make more informed decisions, and plenty of other cool stuff. Sounds clever, but if everything is automated, what do I do? The fun stuff: the creative projects you can only dream of while juggling spreadsheets and handling the dozen or so other tasks you weren’t expecting today. In that case, I do really care about IA!

 OIL PRICES OPEC extended its production cut to at least the end of March, sending oil prices ticking upwards. The blockage of the Suez also helped stabilise price per barrel.  GREENSILL CAPITAL The major supply chain financing firm filed for insolvency protection on 8 March. Founder Lex Greensill has been at the centre of questions over the firm’s links to the British government during David Cameron’s tenure. Cameron became an adviser to Greensill in 2018.  RENESAS ELECTRONICS One of the world’s biggest chip makers has been beset with issues this year. First an earthquake in February and now a factory fire. Output is not expected to hit full capacity until June.

W I N N E R S APR21

L O S E R S

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GLOBAL NEWS 3

UNITED STATES

Gap closes gender gap Fashion and lifestyle group Gap Inc. joins a new collaborative initiative to enhance the role of women and address gender equity throughout its global supply chain. It builds on previous programmes which have reached more than 800,000 women to date.

UNITED STATES

Gen Z driving automation Gartner found Gen Z will be the first leaders to adopt digital transformation. The coming five years will be a turning point in adoption and usage of hyperautomation solutions in supply chain, coinciding with greater numbers of Gen Z entering the workforce and moving towards becoming leaders in the field.

April 2021

UNITED KINGDOM

One year on It is a year since British Prime Minister Boris Johnson places the country under lockdown. Most of Europe shuts its borders and asks citizens to stay indoors. Supply chains prove their value, keeping the world turning, delivering vital PPE, and helping with the early vaccination efforts.

JAPAN

Nippon domestic halal air cargo takes off Nippon Express expanded its position in the growing Sharia law-compliant logistics market with the launch of a new halalcertified domestic air cargo transport service in Japan. The service began on 8 March and will tie into the firm’s Express Hi-Speed domestic air cargo transport service.

EGYPT

Suez Canal blocked The Ever Given container ship runs aground and blocks the Suez Canal for nearly a week. The vessel is finally refloated and officials set to work clearing the backlog of hundreds of waiting ships.

supplychaindigital.com

PEOPLE MOVES ANNIE LIU FROM: TESLA TO: VULCAN ENERGY WAS: HEAD OF BATTERY AND ENERGY SUPPLY CHAIN NOW: NON-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Tesla’s former Head of Battery and Energy Supply Chain, Annie Liu, has joined Vulcan Energy as a NonExecutive Director. She will advise the Australian firm on furthering its goal of becoming the world’s first zero carbon producer of lithium for use in electric vehicle batteries. Liu will also provide consulting services to Vulcan in relation to the Lithium market, battery supply chain and offtake. “I’m excited to help Vulcan with its premium product branding around Zero Carbon Lithium to meet the EU’s requirement for ethically sourced, sustainable battery metal supplies with a low carbon footprint,” Liu said. Prior to joining Tesla, Liu spent 15 years at Microsoft in various senior sourcing roles.

April 2021

"I’m excited to help Vulcan to meet the EU’s requirement for ethically sourced, sustainable battery metal supplies with a low carbon footprint"

CHRIS GEORGIOU FROM: GRILL’D TO: MARS WRIGLEY AUSTRALIA WAS: GENERAL MANAGER SUPPLY NOW: SUPPLY CHAIN DIRECTOR Mars Wrigley Australia has appointed Chris Georgiou as Supply Chain Director. He is charged with expanding the firm’s supply chain transformation, with aims to increase the number of locally produced snacks. He brings more than a decade of supply chain experience in the FMCG and hospitality sectors. Andrew Leakey, GM, Mars Wrigely, said: “Chris’ energy, resilience and strategic capability, coupled with his hands-on operational experience, make him a strong fit to lead our supply chain function.”

KATHRYN WENGEL Kathryn Wengel, Executive Vice President and Chief Global Supply Chain Officer at Johnson & Johnson, has joined Labcorp’s board of directors as an independent member. Labcorp is a global life sciences company. “Kathy brings a wealth of experience managing complex healthcare organisations and developing globally diverse teams,” said Adam Schechter, Labcorp’s chairman and CEO. “We look forward to benefitting from her unique perspective.” Wengel placed first in our inaugural Top 100 Women in Supply Chain.

supplychaindigital.com

TIMELINE CHAOS ON THE SUEZ CANAL The week the Suez Canal was blocked will have ramifications for months to come. We chart the seven days 10% of global trade trickled to a stop MARCH 23rd - 29th

23rd

24th

25th

Suez Canal blocked by the Ever Given

First rescue attempts fail

Navigation of the channel suspended

At day break in Egypt, one of the world’s biggest container ships veers off course and becomes wedged diagonally across the Suez Canal. The Ever Given, a 400 metre, 20,000 TEU vessel, blocks transit and leaves dozens of ships stranded at either end of the canal.

Initial efforts to refloat the Ever Given fail. Tug boats and dredgers try to dig the ship out of the mud and nudge it away from the bank, but make little progress. By this time, more than 100 vessels are piling up, waiting for news.

The Suez Canal Authority (SCA) officially suspends navigation of the manmade strait “until the floatation works of the large Panamanian container vessel are complete.” The backlog grows by a further 50 ships.

April 2021

26th

27 th

28th

29th

Costs rise as new plan forms

Race against the clock

Full moon reveals end in sight

FREE AT LAST

International recovery teams join the efforts with plans to refloat the Ever Given during the high tide on Saturday evening. Mass dredging down to a depth of 16 metres gets underway. The estimated daily cots of the blockage is $9.5bn.

Recovery teams continue their work around the clock as they race to remove enough soil and sand to float the Ever Given on high tide. Suezbound vessels are now traversing the southern tip of Africa rather than join the logjam in the Mediterranean and Red seas.

High tides from a full moon raises hopes that tonight will be the night. Excavation works continue as more tugboats from Europe join the rescue operation. Around 30,000 cubic metres of sand have now been shifted from around the Ever Given’s bow.

Cheers from tugboat and excavation teams ring out between the banks. The Ever Given is confirmed free at 3pm local time, and will soon head to the Bitter Lakes holding area for a full inspection. Officials immediately get to work on the backlog of ships. supplychaindigital.com

LEGEND

James E. Casey Founder United Parcel Service

ames E. Casey - or Jim to those who knew him - was, like all pioneering businessmen of the 20th century, a dreamer above all else. Though he may not be a household name around the world, the company he helped found is, and the brown and gold insignia of UPS is a welcome sight for millions of people and businesses across the globe, every day. In 1909, at the age of 19, Casey established the American Messenger Company in Seattle, Washington, delivering letters and messages to citizens in the city and surrounding areas. Just six years later, after a merger with a local rival and motorisation through investment in a fleet of Ford Model T motorcars, United Parcel Service was born. Casey’s ambition led to tremendous growth for the company in the first half of the century. UPS offered air service as early as 1929 - though it was grounded due to lack of demand throughout the Great Depression, returning in the mid 1950s - and by 1975 the company had expanded to offering its services throughout all 48 contiguous states of the USA.

April 2021

“One measure of your success will be the degree to which you build up others who work with you. While building up others, you will build up yourself”

Casey served as the chief executive until 1962, and remained an active board member for almost his entire life, until he passed at the age of 95 in 1983. In the decades following his death, UPS continued to grow and, at the turn of the century in November 1999, went public with a valuation six times that of its main rival FedEx, at the time making it the biggest IPO in US history. As legacies go, UPS is an impressive business to leave behind - and one that continues to thrive today. But Casey’s impact goes beyond supply chain and logistics, bottom lines and parcels. His belief in supporting the professional growth of the people he worked with is common management practice today, but was a radical approach in the dogeat-dog world of mid-century America, flying at the height of capitalist growth. This was a philosophy he deeply cared about, and his commitment to those family values lives on long after his death through the Annie E. Casey Foundation - named in honour of Casey’s mother - and other charitable initiatives such as the Casey Family Programs, which aims to improve, and ultimately remove the need for, foster care.

$100

The amount Casey borrowed from a friend to establish American Messenger Company. He died worth roughly $100m

supplychaindigital.com

FIVE MINUTES WITH...

TAMMY MCNEIL

Tammy is Vice President of Human Resources, Retail and eCommerce, DHL Supply Chain. She loves engaging and empowering employees - and relaxing with an awe-inspiring lake view

Q. WHO ARE YOU?

» I’m Tammy McNeil and have

been with DHL Supply Chain, North America for more than a decade in a variety of operations and human resources roles. Currently, I am Vice President of Human Resources, Retail and eCommerce, based in Toronto.

Q. WHAT DOES YOUR AVERAGE WORKING DAY LOOK LIKE?

» No single day is ever the same in

HR, and in the midst of a pandemic the daily challenges of attracting and retaining the best talent is evercritical to us. HR is all about people, and that’s truly what I love about what I do: engaging with people.

Q. WHAT CURRENTLY IS THE BIGGEST TREND DRIVING CHANGE IN YOUR AREA OF SUPPLY CHAIN?

» Ecommerce is the biggest driver of change in supply chain and we are changing the DNA of how we get products to customers. The pandemic coupled with consumers’ rising expectations put a lot of focus and pressure on supply chain to accelerate this change. 18

April 2021

Q. WHAT IS THE BIGGEST OBSTACLE FACING SUPPLY CHAIN IN 2021?

» Talent! The industry is adapting

to the changes ecommerce has generated, however it has generated a need for us to step up our game to attract and retain talent in an industry that is already challenged for labour. Technology has been a key driver for all HR activities – and DHL Supply Chain adopted a digitised approach to recruitment activities pre-COVID moving to a centralised recruitment strategy across North America. This strategy has enabled us to connect with the best candidates – faster. A gamechanger for our ability to flex up during seasonal peaks for our customers.

Q. WHAT’S YOUR PERSONAL MANTRA?

» When I was making the decision

to transition into HR with DHL, a mentor shared a quote with me: “Don’t go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” It really resonated with me – empowering me to go all in and stand out and do something new.

Q. THREE THINGS YOU CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT?

» I am a great game night host,

a theme party extraordinaire, and find myself not getting to spend enough days enjoying the view of Lake Erie from my cottage.

“ IT HAS NEVER BEEN MORE IMPORTANT TO HAVE PROCESSES IN PLACE THAT DELIVER QUALITY, CLEAR CONTACT WITH WORKERS” supplychaindigital.com

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SPEND MANAGEMENT

SX:

INTELLIGENT SPEND MANAGEMENT WITH A CX APPROACH

John Wookey is back at SAP, helping procurement up its game, bringing a CX approach to intelligent spend management WRITTEN BY: LAURA V. GARCIA

s one who loves procurement, there are some people I deem myself lucky to meet. Mr John Wookey, President of SAP’s Intelligent Spend and Business Network Group, is one of those people. Wookey has spent much of his career changing the face of how we work, and as the enterprise technology industry continues to evolve, Wookey continues to do just that. Having boomeranged to his old stomping grounds at SAP, Wookey is once again smashing silos and building bridges. Wookey re-joined SAP in October of 2020, after

spending most of the previous decade at Salesforce during a time when they were going through some pretty expeditious growth. Wookey had left SAP for Salesforce back in 2011 when the company consisted of about 5,000 employees. By the time Wookey left Salesforce that number was nearing the 49,000 employees that it reports today. Prior to his departure, Wookey had spent a few years at SAP building the first set of on-demand applications to take to market. This marked the beginning of the cloud journey. Years later, Wookey reconnected with a few board members. As Wookey explained, “We had a very strong alignment in terms of where we saw the market going, and the criticality of things like cloud computing and the operating model for software in the future. We also agreed that some of the new emerging technologies like artificial intelligence needed to come into applications in a much more integral way

“ Every CPO is trying to think about how to make their suppliers a more integral part of their innovation strategy and get them more engaged in the process” JOHN WOOKEY

PRESIDENT, INTELLIGENT SPEND AND BUSINESS NETWORK SAP

April 2021

SPEND MANAGEMENT

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SPEND MANAGEMENT

“ The fact is, all these organisations have these networks of relationships, but they're effectively managing them outside of the technology that they're using to drive the procurement process” JOHN WOOKEY

PRESIDENT, INTELLIGENT SPEND AND BUSINESS NETWORK SAP

than what we saw happening in the marketplace.” He continued, “We also saw a need to move beyond an org-centric approach to software to a network-based approach. We wanted to really delve into how software could not just help to improve internal operations and efficiencies, but also help organisations to interact more effectively with their trading partners. We were looking to build a software model that connects

organisations and helps them optimise various objectives as part of that exercise.” “It was really a meeting of the minds around where we saw the industry going and then an idea for how we wanted to help SAP get there.”And get there they did. Beyond the Org; More Than Just Spend SAP’s Intelligent Spend and Business Network Group break down digital barriers, building bridges instead, creating a network that gives organisations the framework they need to drive improvement initiatives, increase efficiencies, and foster innovationfuelling collaborations. Allowing the free flow of information makes for a more dynamic business model, allowing suppliers, business partners, and stakeholders to gain valuable insights, share supplychaindigital.com

SPEND MANAGEMENT

Intelligent Spend Management

“ It's about how you provide business continuity in the relationship. And that's what we're trying to really support with our business network approach” JOHN WOOKEY

PRESIDENT, INTELLIGENT SPEND AND BUSINESS NETWORK SAP

April 2021

ideas, source suppliers and respond to offers. “Every CPO is trying to think about how to make their suppliers a more integral part of their innovation strategy and get them more engaged in the process. That's much easier to do on a common, single platform than over a hodgepodge of systems,” Wookey said. “The fact is, all these organisations have these networks of relationships, but they're effectively managing them outside of the technology that they're using to drive the procurement process. So the idea is, you have a framework in place but what we need to do is change the boundaries of that framework. We need to take it from the organisation to the network of relationships you're really trying to support as part of optimising that process.”

“And in doing so, this opens up the opportunity for you to drive more cost efficiencies, more operational efficiencies as well as environmental measures and social objectives such as ethical sourcing, or supporting women-owned businesses. People want to be able to instrument all of this with their system. In my view, we're doing two things. We're making the framework bigger, and we're adding more dimensionality to it.” “It's interesting because when I was at Oracle, my biggest competitor was SAP. And I always admired the fact that not only did they have compelling solutions but they took on some of the hardest business problems in the industry,” Wookey said. Finding a way for procurement to gain control and harness spend on things like direct

and indirect materials spend, travel expenses, and contingent labour are some of those industry problems SAP tackled. Cost, Control and Compliance: Gaining Control of The Seemingly Uncontrollable As The Hackett Group’s Key Procurement Issues report showed, increasing spend influence remains a top priority for CPOs for 2021. Hence, a need for better ways to manage all categories of spend across an organisation. John says when it comes to spend management, procurement is always looking to gain what he calls “The three Cs; cost, control and compliance.” This is what allows procurement to gain the control they need to strategise on spend, find and realise cost savings and enhance compliance. supplychaindigital.com

100,000

SAP staffing number for 2020

Of course, SAP provides some handy solutions such as SAP Concur and SAP Fieldglass so you can do just that. As Wookey said, “What's unique about SAP is we provide the best in class capabilities for each of these spend categories across the organisation from a single solution provider. And all of them connect to the SAP Analytics Cloud.” SAP Analytics Cloud offers powerful enterprise-wide advanced analytics 28

April 2021

that gives CEOs and CFOs visibility to look at all the dimensions of spend from operational costs to social responsibility and environmental objectives. SX: The Supplier Experience Before we “sat down” I had dug up an old article Wookey had written while at Salesforce. “You asked me about the CRM article, and it's interesting because CRM to me, is the mirror image of spend management. You're

SPEND MANAGEMENT

“ As a customer, it's frustrating to buy something, then call the service department, and you have to spend time explaining who you are, what you bought and when you bought it" JOHN WOOKEY

PRESIDENT, INTELLIGENT SPEND AND BUSINESS NETWORK SAP

either the buyer or the seller. With CRM, what you need to think about is the full life cycle experience of a customer from the time they're a part of the marketing campaign until you sell your service and you upgrade.” “As a customer, it's frustrating to buy something, then call the service department, and you have to spend time explaining who you are, what you bought and when you bought it. It just doesn't make sense to you that they don't already know that. That's the

problem, not understanding the full lifecycle of the customer. And it's the same for a supplier. Suppliers get frustrated too when they go through that process from being awarded a contract from a sourcing event, to then go through the requisitioning, ordering, invoicing, and settlement process. Then if some part of that process breaks, they call up the buyer, and they can't get it fixed because those systems aren't connected.” supplychaindigital.com

PROCUREMENT

PROCUREMENT’S ST CENTURY EVOLUTION

The modern digitalisation of procurement practices will enable sourcing professionals to deliver more than just cost-savings and goods on time WRITTEN BY: OLIVER JAMES FREEMAN FRSA

s we head into the ’20s, like the organisations that they support, procurement departments and teams face unprecedented levels of disruption. The past decade has seen an abundance of innovation on the technological side of life, and we’ve watched procurement transition from a process of filing towers of paperwork, reading telephone directories, and making sales calls to click-of-a-button purchases on wholly-centralised, third-party systems that act as an all-in-one solution for companies’ procurement and sourcing needs. Last year alone saw a myriad of companies falter and fold under the pressure of a new status quo, forced upon them by increasingly stringent governmental regulations in light of COVID-19’s reckoning. So today, we’re going to explore the future of procurement at the core of thriving business models. Procurement at the Core Supply chain practices, and more importantly, procurement, are imperative to success today. In fact, you can look back as far as 3,000 BCE and find the first

April 2021

PROCUREMENT

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PROCUREMENT

“ With the aid of automation technologies, organisations can identify business needs and predict market demand in real-time to improve the bottom line” ASHISH DESHPANDE CEO AND FOUNDER, FREVVO INC.

traces of procurement in ancient Egyptian society. There wasn’t a named system as such, but if you look at the history of the pyramids, archaeologists and historians have found that the Egyptians used scribes to manage the supply for these gargantuan building projects. Apparently, scribes played an almost secretarial role back then and recorded the volume of materials and human resources needed on papyrus, then made orders. They would then track those orders through to completion — the very first recorded procurement profession.

Essentially, if the scribes weren’t working hard to ensure the right level of supplies and workers, the pyramids as we know them today may not have ever made it to fruition. You can apply this narrative to just about every ancient civilisation with magnificent building feats and structures — Byzantium, Greece, and Rome, for example. History lesson aside… Whichever way you look at business, it’s safe to say that a company's success is defined by the quality of its procurement practices. Sure, there are other aspects, but without a solid method of sourcing the goods and services necessary, a modern company will not reach it’s potential. For this very reason, leading organisations have started to double-down on their investment in procurement practices — at a time when supplychaindigital.com

PROCUREMENT

global markets are becoming oversaturated with competition and technology startups are targetting supply chain revolutionising software advancements. Evolving Practices Needless to say, the art of procurement has come a long way since ancient times, so I figured we should take a look at the future of procurement in an age dominated by digital supply chains and technologically enhanced systems. Earlier in the century, organisations started to deploy multiple ‘core’ procurement technologies as standard; you can probably imagine which systems they focused on already: contract management, spend analytics, eProcurement, and eSourcing, amongst a myriad of others. These systems are and will always be important and, currently, make the foundation for procurement practices for most companies. But, in truth, they’re pricey, demand high levels of capital, and a lot of systems integration work. 34

April 2021

“ Blockchain technology puts incredible value on procurement forwards” DAVID FOOD

STRATEGY DIRECTOR, PROPHETIC TECHNOLOGY

Twenty years on, the picture is a little different, with markets focused on both affordability and efficiency. The majority of companies — especially startups — are now working with Software as a Service (SaaS) models; these models, for the less tech-savvy, are essentially ‘pay as you go’, scalable subscriptions that allow businesses to operate through the power of cloud computing. The new way of working tends to require little to no integration work, and services are affordable so that companies can hit the ground running with less capital that historically necessary.

PROCUREMENT

Digital Technologies Revolutionising Procurement Fortunately, we’ve got a selection of industry-leaders in the procurement field to talk us through some of the emerging gamechanging technologies that are currently hitting the sector by storm — or they should be, at least. So without further ado, let’s take a look at a few of the most interesting technological developments that we can expect to see the widespread adoption of across procurement in the coming years. Blockchain Technology — The Smart Contract We all know about blockchain technology; it’s essentially a distributed ledger technology within which transactions of any kind are both immutable and publicly visible, resulting in a far more transparent system that ensures accountability across procurement and supply chain processes, courtesy of a peer-to-peer, decentralised network. According to David Food, Strategy Director at Prophetic Technology and Principal Lecturer of Supply Chain and Innovation at Royal Holloway College, “Procurement’s rigorous rulings and transparency requisites are embedded on top of other functions, such as ensuring efficient payment processes, data security, or supervising a distinct group of suppliers. “Blockchain technology puts incredible value on procurement forwards. It facilitates adding records into a ledger for processes involving multiple parties. However, new companies still talk about the importance of blockchain in procurement.” Food elaborates that smart contracts, a feature exclusive to the blockchain, are a regular talking-point for companies with

a vested interest in using the distributed ledger technology to better their business operations and procurement processes. “A Smart Contract is a collection of executable codes, for instance, a software program – that runs on top of the Blockchain to complete the contract. It can automatically locate, reach and close deals just throughout the SC, and with no need of relying on the third-party,” he explains. “The Smart Contract will perform smoothly as programmed, with terms and conditions stipulated by both sides, enhancing trust and making both the contract and the identity of stakeholders’ mandatory. When specific circumstances are met, it will automatically deliver a result or trigger an event - for example, if a payment has been collected, delivery can be automatically activated. On the contrary, if a condition is not met, for instance, timely delivery, a penalty can be set. “Given that smart contracts based on software programs run automatically, operating information confirmed by blockchain as correct, manual checking of any issue can constrain third parties drastically, dropping transaction costs making it easier to get valuable transactions outcomes.”

supplychaindigital.com

PROCUREMENT

Collaboration and Communication Tools According to Ashish Deshpande, CEO and Founder of frevvo Inc., “In order to stand out from their competitors and attract more customers, organisations need to break down internal silos. By using the right collaboration and communication tools, companies can support a customercentric procurement process that delivers a seamless purchasing experience. “Organisations can drive productivity and increase cost savings by streamlining internal collaboration. They can strengthen supplier relationships and reduce supply chain risks by improving external communication. 36

April 2021

“ A recent poll found that 63% of procurement leaders consider automation a key priority in their digital transformation initiatives” ASHISH DESHPANDE CEO AND FOUNDER, FREVVO INC.

PROCUREMENT

“Also, many collaboration tools enable real-time information sharing across the entire organisation. For example, you can link the ‘transactional’ and ‘administrative’ sides of the procurement process. That lets you increase operational efficiency while reducing errors and delays caused by transferring data and files manually.” Automation On the topic of automation, Deshpande states that: “A recent poll found that 63% of procurement leaders consider automation a key priority in their digital transformation initiatives. Many of these efforts involve the use of AI-driven technologies, such

as machine learning and predictive analytics. These technologies help organisations analyse a large amount of data quickly. The resulting insights increase operational cost-efficiencies while responding to market demand in a nimble manner. “Two kinds of automation can be applied to the procurement process,” Deshpande continues. “Business process automation (BPA) focuses on the end-to-end process to enable faster and more accurate decision-making. For example, you can streamline operations with purchase order automation or improve customer experience with sales order form automation. “On the other hand, robotic process automation (RPA) facilitates repetitive, manual, and low value-add individual (e.g., data entry). It’s intended to reduce labour cost and minimise human errors. “With the aid of automation technologies, organisations can identify business needs, mitigate risks, eliminate repetitive processes, facilitate suppliers management, track spending, and predict market demand in real-time to improve the bottom line,” the industry-leading technologist adds. Right now, it doesn’t look like there’s an end in sight to the ever-increasing levels of technological innovation that has been fuelling the growing market of digital procurement solutions. The coming decade will, undoubtedly, see procurement leaders and leading organisations struggling to grapple with the rapidly changing pace of the industry and the continued evolution of the procurement function whilst developing strategies and spearheading new initiatives so that procurement can better enable innovative new product designs, M&A synergies, environmental sustainability, and ESG compliance across global supply chain networks. supplychaindigital.com

VODAFONE PROCUREMENT COMPANY

April 2021

VODAFONE PROCUREMENT COMPANY

VODAFONE PROCUREMENT:

READY FOR AN EXCITING

FUTURE WRITTEN BY: SCOTT BIRCH PRODUCED BY: GLEN WHITE & CAITLYN COLE

VODAFONE PROCUREMENT COMPANY

Ninian Wilson, Group Procurement Director of Vodafone and CEO of the Vodafone Procurement Company, prepares for an exciting future fuelled by AI, ML and predictive analytics

Ninian Wilson, CEO of the Vodafone Procurement Company

here is nothing like chatting to a procurement leader with a 30-year career under his belt who still gets infectiously excited by the industry. That’s Ninian Wilson, Group Procurement Director of Vodafone and CEO of its subsidiary, the Vodafone Procurement Company, who visibly lights up when talking about procurement being in the spotlight and the technology that is shaping its ongoing transformation. Or, maybe, he’s in a particularly good mood because his beloved Scotland just beat old rivals England at rugby – the first time that has happened in England for 38 years. Of Scottish origin, Wilson is speaking to us from his home office in Luxembourg. Home working is just one aspect of the Covid-19 pandemic that has impacted Vodafone, from both a business and customer perspective. And where there is disruption, there is opportunity. And when you’re Ninian Wilson with €24 billion to spend on behalf of Vodafone, and also responsible for all supply chain operations, opportunity is around every corner. “I'm overall responsible for our procurement activity across four categories of spend,” says Wilson. “The total spend is about €24 billion euros and that's split across networks, indirect spend, content, and obviously devices. “We always think about the cost savings we've made and, and the spend value coming down as we do more and more work with our internal clients, but also we've made a number of acquisitions. So that spend base has been broadly stable over the last few years, even with buying and selling of companies.” supplychaindigital.com

Start Today

SIRIONLABS, EMPOWERING TRUE COLLABORATION AND PARTNERSHIP Ajay Agrawal, CEO & Co-Founder of SirionLabs, discusses their fruitful partnership with Vodafone and how CLM enables smarter contracting enterprise-wide. Ajay Agrawal, CEO & Co-Founder of SirionLabs, shares how the alignment of values and the power of CLM have made for an effective partnership with Vodafone. “We believe in the power of cost savings and superior customer experience, and therein lies the synergy between our organisations. What started out as a post-signature value realisation exercise back in 2016 has since grown into a full suite CLM solution encompassing customised pre-signature features to cater to local markets spread over more than 40 countries. Nothing gives me greater happiness than a customer who has been able to gain increased visibility and get a tighter grip over their contracts.” “Vodafone has today around 2000 strategic supplier contracts managed through SirionLabs, which oversee a spend of close to 6 billion euros annually. Through our initial discussions, we saw great potential in addressing Vodafone’s commercial engagements, tracking and realising value at scale through a myriad of systems that were retrofitted to suit existing infrastructure.” “Our four-way automated invoice matching solution has contributed to Vodafone’s bottom line, enabling them to save hundreds of millions of dollars. It has also reduced the friction in their supplier landscape,

ranging from missed commitments or complaints to disputes or disagreements. Automation also reaps many benefits and has enabled Vodafone to cut costs in contract management and supplier governance by more than 60%, reducing manual effort by almost 50% and generating further savings through reduced headcount cost. Post signature activities have also become smoother and a lot more efficient, with one enterprise contract repository across all suppliers and managing them according to their footprint.” By leveraging AI and extracting valuable data, SirionLabs’ CLM solution empowers collaboration and continued cooperation and partnership long after contracts have been signed. Agrawal explains, “Collaboration is essential to any partnership. That is really the heart and soul of any SirionLabs project. Unlike many conventional contract management systems that create, store, and maybe extract information from contracts, SirionLabs is unique because it allows both contracting parties to have continued access to the system, even after the contract is signed, while giving a single, consolidated view of data, further enhanced by rich dashboards and insights which help make quick business decisions. The purpose of that continued access is true collaboration across multiple business functions.”

Digitize Your Contracts Now

The spend may not have changed significantly in recent years – Wilson joined Vodafone 12 years ago – but the manner of the procurement process certainly has. That digital transformation story started around 5 years ago and, like many great developments, was born of frustration. Wilson is the first to admit he was trying to get data and information which was not as simple then as it may now sound. kind of hard to get. Out to showcase the digital opportunity to his then boss Nick Reed (now the Group Chief Executive), Wilson and his team set about digitalising the supplier performance scorecard. “From that initial scorecarding, we then worked really hard on some of our P2P processes and digitising all that work and creating scorecards and dashboards in near real time for all of that activity,” says Wilson. “So we started around, strategically, how are we doing? And then we digitised the back 44

April 2021

and now our focus has shifted to what we call ‘autonomous sourcing’, which is going to be the next sort of quantum leap in procurement – procurement that runs itself with almost no human intervention.”

“ You've got to have a digital first mentality – you've got to really think about how you can digitise what we do” NINIAN WILSON

CEO, VODAFONE PROCUREMENT

VODAFONE PROCUREMENT COMPANY

NINIAN WILSON TITLE: SUPPLY CHAIN DIRECTOR & CEO INDUSTRY: TELECOMMUNICATIONS

EXECUTIVE BIO

LOCATION: LUXEMBOURG Ninian joined Vodafone in June 2009 as SCM IT Director, and was appointed to the board of Vodafone Procurement Company in November 2009. From 2014–2016 Ninian held the role of SCM Technology Director, responsible for all Technology sourcing in Vodafone including Networks, IT and new product development. March 2016 he was appointed Director of Group SCM and CEO of the Vodafone Procurement Company. Prior to joining Vodafone, Ninian held the position of Operations Director for

Royal Mail, where he managed the largest workforce in the UK with full accountability for the delivery of its transformation programme. Previously Ninian held senior positions in Cable & Wireless, and was a member of the board of the Caribbean business unit and Trustee of the Pension Scheme. Ninian is also a member of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply and a life member of the Institute of Directors. He lives in Luxembourg with his wife, Philippa.

VODAFONE PROCUREMENT COMPANY

Ninian Wilson describes Vodafone Procurement's Digital Transformation

due to probably three drivers. We mentioned autonomous sourcing, machine learning, and artificial intelligence becoming real and deployable in business as usual activities. “And yes, supply chains have come into very sharp relief through the pandemic because,

“ We will be making some more digital investments to make sure that we maintain that resilience NINIAN WILSON

CEO, VODAFONE PROCUREMENT

you know, does your supply chain work? Does it work in a pandemic? Is it resilient? Will it continue to be resilient? And I, for one, I've never had more airtime with the executive team here at Vodafone – you are high profile as a supply chain function right now. I think it’s a tremendously exciting time, a lot of risk to manage, but a lot of new things coming as well.” The Vodafone Procurement Company -VPC - was well prepared for the pandemic when it really hit home. A lot of digitisation work had already been done. Within three weeks of the company experiencing its first case close to the business, they moved 98,000 working from home. So one of the big learnings was their investment in digital was how that helped them continue. Wilson also recalls back in December 2019 that some Chinese partners mentioned, during a coffee break in London, that something ‘really bad was happening’ in a place called Wuhan. supplychaindigital.com

VODAFONE PROCUREMENT COMPANY

NINIAN WILSON CV

April 2021

DID YOU KNOW...

“My name is Ninian Wilson, and I'm the CEO of the Vodafone Procurement Company here in Luxembourg. I also run all supply chain operations for Vodafone. I started my career in a company called British Gas in 1990 in the department called supplies and transport. I worked in various roles in British Gas through the 1990s until 2000 and then I joined a telecommunications company called Cable & Wireless, becoming chief procurement officer, and chief property officer. In 2006, I joined Royal Mail as CPO then became Operation Director. And then, in 2009, I joined Vodafone.”

Before any procurement professionals drop their mugs of coffee and reach for something a tad stronger, Wilson is not suggesting for one minute that the human role and input will become obsolete – far from it. However, what we will see is a streamlining of processes, leaning on data, artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate certain tasks to provide the best outcomes. “Our jobs all change over time when we get new tools and it wouldn't apply to everything we do,” says Wilson. “But if we think of the vendor selection piece, a tool or a capability that looks at the internet can bring in some suppliers, probably picks a few common ones, create the tender document, send it out, do the balanced scorecard evaluation at the end. “This'll be a cool bit if we get it to do the negotiation, then put it into a contract, and uploads pricing information into our ERP system. That's what we're calling autonomous sourcing. We're currently building that to go live with our POC at the end of April.” It’s certainly an exciting time to be working in supply chain and procurement right now. Can anyone remember a time when supply chain in particular may be leading the news agenda? And while nobody would have wished for the causes of this particular focus (the global shutdown and inevitable pivot caused by the pandemic), it’s good to see that the people responsible for ensuring that everything ran so magnificently for years are now being recognized. Just as scientists are once again trusted experts and key workers applauded from our doorsteps, supply chain specialists are here to solve our fundamental needs – from food to Pfizer-BioNTech. Is 2021 procurement’s time to shine? “It's probably the second S curve that we've been on as a function, with the first around e-procurement in the 2000s,” says Wilson. “I think we're genuinely on the second S curve

Cyber Security & Technical Professional Service Global Field Engineering LEARN MORE

Sustainability / Green Credentials – Ricoh Company limited has received an “A” score rating for the Climate Change 2020 Programme – CDP*1 2020 Supplier Engagement Leaderboard

Ricoh: Empowering Vodafone’s digital capabilities

Watch Ricoh supporting Vodafone with their global services Joanna Parker, Business Development Director at Ricoh UK Ltd on delivering vital IT services directly into Vodafone UK & Group A global organisation historically known for its print services, Ricoh is also recognised today for IT services in its own right – empowering digital workplaces using innovative technologies and services to enterprise organisations around the world. Joanna Parker, Business Development Director at Ricoh UK Ltd, is responsible for delivering cyber security and field services into Vodafone. “Ricoh has worked in partnership with Vodafone since 2004,” says Parker, “supporting their mobile and, more recently, their fixed network with solutions and professional services around security infrastructure, cyber security services, and cloud infrastructure.” When it comes to cyber security, for instance, Ricoh has a dedicated engineering team working with Vodafone’s own highly skilled security engineers, providing design, implementation and support for Vodafone’s critical security infrastructure.

“We support implementation, rationalisation and consolidation, as well as specific programmes to manage increased demand and generate more efficiencies across the Vodafone cellular network,” says Parker. Ricoh has over 90,000 employees, giving the company significant capability to support field services and field engineering globally. Boosting their capabilities even further, Ricoh has also recently acquired MTI Technology – specialising in data and cyber security, data centre modernisation, IT managed services and IT transformation services. MTI provide a range of professional and managed services designed to help customers accelerate and de-risk their IT transformation projects. Such capability allows Ricoh to not only support Vodafone but also Vodafone's customers who are looking at cloud-based and secure managed security infrastructures.

LEARN MORE

VODAFONE PROCUREMENT COMPANY

VPC set up a crisis team in early January to start managing the supply chain, especially for consumer products. “While we had a few blips in the supply chain, we've managed that as a company really well,” says Wilson. “One of the key learnings is really understanding your supply chain and how resilient your supply chain is.” Which brings us around nicely to Procurement With A Purpose – an initiative introduced to place purpose at the centre of how Vodafone runs the business. This means making it central to investment decisions, how they operate and how they engage with stakeholders, whether they're customers, NGOs, or governments. “Our purpose strategy for the company is based on three pillars,” explains Wilson. “One is helping society become more digital 50

April 2021

“ You should be doing machine learning, you should be doing artificial intelligence, but predictive is kind of cool if we can get there” NINIAN WILSON

CEO, VODAFONE PROCUREMENT

“It's not a magic bullet, but our partners will learn that if they do more on these pillars, they will score higher and win more business. And that allows us to translate that purpose vision during the supply chain.”

– everybody can see during the pandemic that's a good thing to do. The second pillar is around diversity and inclusion, both in the workplace but also in our supply chain. And then the third pillar is around planning. And we think there's a fundamental opportunity for both our company Vodafone, but also for supply chains to really reinforce the point that we've only got one planet. “I think if you're in supply chain and there's an opportunity to drive some real systematic change, then I think we should take it – and we've taken that opportunity. Our tender documents now have 20% of the scoring based around purpose. So we're not just talking about it, we're actually putting it into tenders because we know if we do that then over time it will change behaviours.

Key Partners Being a global telecommunications giant means Vodafone inevitably works with householdnames from the consumer technology world. That obviously means Google, Facebook, Apple, while Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Oracle are “key partners for Vodafone”. The company also works with infrastructure partners including Nokia, Ericsson, Huawei and Cisco. On top of those, Wilson estimates Vodafone works with around 11,500 suppliers across the group. However, when considering organisations that are helping Vodafone to transform supply chain, then Wilson highlights some strategic partners that are of particular significance. “There's probably four or five partners who are really important to us,” he says. “First of all, we have a real strategic relationship with SAP and SAP has become the backbone for a lot of our digital enablement within supply chain – whether it's inventory management, PO processing, or actually helping us work through awarding tenders. So SAP Ariba is there. Above that, we're using S/4HANA, which holds all of our data, but then what we've done is built niche products on top of that, to make sure that we could really capitalise on tools that help us visualise performance. “We pull that data from S/4HANA and we then visualise it with a tool called Celonis – a German unicorn. It's a fantastic company to work with. And they've really helped us visualise all of our key metrics and scores, both on compliance and efficiency. “The second to the company we've worked with is SirionLabs. They helped us with commercial contract management, capturing supplychaindigital.com

VODAFONE PROCUREMENT COMPANY

the KPIs and making sure those are presented in the correct way. And also that we actually do manage the contract after the award, which is sometimes a bit of an Achilles heel for procurement. “We've also just resigned with Vizibl – an SRM tool. They provide information and data on your strategic relationships. So if we have a strategic relationship say with Microsoft then all of the data – what we buy from Microsoft, what we sell to Microsoft, what we do together – will be hosted in that tool and made visible to all key stakeholders. One of the challenges in, in distributed companies is keeping everybody joined up with where you are on key relationships, so Vizibl keeps everybody joined up, but also tracks progress against some key initiatives which we've got with each of those partners.” Smarter data analytics Vodafone uses a wealth of smart tools to provide unprecedented visibility, transparency and increased efficiencies based on data, but what if you could take that to the next level with predictive analytics? Having that historical database helps to look ahead to potential problems or to reduce inefficiencies. Wilson talks about getting to a point where he may even be able to predict contract failure. While admitting those advanced analytics are not quite there yet, disruption like Covid-19 highlighted the need to assess and mitigate risk in the supply chain. That not only means being wary of companies that may be at risk of failure, but also supporting those that need it most by perhaps purchasing more inventory or adjusting payment terms. And you've got 12,000 vendors. It's moderately difficult to answer. So I'd like to have all of that analytics in place where I can know, see I'm touching a button. 52

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“I think that becomes the new frontier for procurement,” says Wilson. “You should be doing machine learning, you should be doing artificial intelligence, but predictive is kind of cool if we can get there. Some companies are doing the cool bits of predictive. We saw some great work by Bob Murphy from IBM. I think there's a huge opportunity for us in predictive analytics, especially when you get into physical supply chain operations. “We will be making some more digital investments to make sure that we maintain that resilience and build upon it over the next two to three years.”

“ I think it’s a tremendously exciting time, a lot of risk to manage, but a lot of new things coming as well” NINIAN WILSON

CEO, VODAFONE PROCUREMENT

All of this brings us nicely to Wilson’s ambition to make Vodafone the best procurement function in the world and create sustainable competitive advantage for the company. Our aim is to be the best procurement function in the World and create sustainable competitive advantage for Vodafone. But the billion-euro question is, how do you achieve that? And what does it actually look like? Wilson is modest in his assessment of current performance when it comes to where they ultimately want to be in terms of innovation. He says on a good day, his team are scoring 6.5 out of 10. On a bad day, that might be a straight 6.

VODAFONE PROCUREMENT COMPANY

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© 2021 Adobe. All rights reserved. Adobe and the Adobe logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Adobe solutions empower Vodafone to digitally transform Geoff Pennells, Global Account Director at Adobe, on the collaborative relationship with Vodafone Procurement Company As the inventors of the PDF and pioneers of other smart technologies, Adobe empowers businesses to meet the challenges of digital transformation. Like Vodafone Procurement Company (VPC). Adobe provides it with a wide range of solutions that provide detailed data and insight, asset management, personalisation and data management. “Vodafone Procurement Company is a critical part of our global partnership with Vodafone which has been in place for over 10 years,” explains Geoff Pennells, Global Account Director at Adobe. “VPC is crucial to our ability to understand global demands for Adobe and we are in constant contact to ensure that we are responding to the needs of the business as they evolve over time.” VPC and Adobe are always on the lookout for ways to improve their working relationship. Through continual and open collaboration, both parties provoke their respective broader businesses with challenges on how they can achieve things never before thought possible. “The mindset of never settling for second best, always challenging the status quo where it doesn’t make sense and continuing to evolve our capabilities and value we deliver to Vodafone

with ever more flexible agreements – this is key to how we continue to drive innovation across all levels of our partnership with VPC,” says Pennells. Adobe prides itself on its ability to bring to market industry-leading products and services that can help its customers deliver exceptional experiences to their customers. VPC and Adobe work together to make sure they are sharing innovations and mapping those to better understand the requirements of Vodafone in their own transformation to becoming a digital-first business. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of digital solutions for businesses. “Overnight, we have transitioned to a global digital economy. The pandemic accelerated the need for digital transformation among businesses of all sizes,” says Pennells. “As the world begins to reopen, digital businesses will be the winners and only companies that can understand their customers’ preferences and personalise experiences will survive and thrive.”

Learn more here

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VODAFONE PROCUREMENT COMPANY

HOW TO SPEND €24 BILLION

DID YOU KNOW...

“More than anything, it's a mindset around excellence and wanting to be the best at what you do,” he says. “We try and get everybody in the team to be at their best and we try and develop tools and technologies to help support them. Are we there at the moment? No. Are there companies and sectors that are way ahead of us? Absolutely. So we've got a tremendous amount of work still to do. “You've got to have a digital first mentality – you've got to really think about how you can digitise what we do. One of the other technologies we use to sign contracts is DocuSign. It's really simple. You go in and you click it, you point and you put your signature right here. And I was sitting thinking this morning, we also have our compliance sheet on the front of it. So you look through the compliance sheet and see if you're happy. But I was thinking if I've got a compliance sheet and everything is positive, why am I actually spending time going and clicking and putting my signature on it and why isn't that completely AI and automated right through? And if that was automated and, given we sign off 3,500 contracts per annum at the Vodafone Procurement Company, how long does it take to do that? “So I'm trying to think of the productivity gain. And then I'm trying to think if I got that extra time for me or my direct reports could be running more workshops with some of our key partners around how we can add more revenue together. So that's how I'm trying to think of the operational excellence question. “I think you've got to be excellent in supply chain and you've got to have all of your processes really nailed because if you don't have that excellence at an operational level, how can you actually step up and add more value to the business?”

“If you think of what we spend to make Vodafone successful for both us and our customers, we have about €9 billion of spend in our network around about €3 billion of spend on IT, hardware, software and professional services. What I'd call the indirect spend accounts for about €5 billion. So that's everything from property facilities to fleet. On content, which is a new category for us, which we're bringing into the Vodafone procurement company, we spend about a billion. So that’s Spotify, Netflix, big deals with Discovery. And then the final one is devices spend. With great companies such as Samsung and Apple, we spent about €6 billion a year. It gets you to roughly €24 billion, give a give or take a bit of loose change.”

supplychaindigital.com

“ I think there's a huge opportunity for us in predictive analytics” NINIAN WILSON

CEO, VODAFONE PROCUREMENT

April 2021

VODAFONE PROCUREMENT COMPANY

Ninian Wilson describes Vodafone Procurement's Supply Chain

“So I think you'll never get me above 6.5 out of 10. The moment you think you're 8 or 9 is the moment you start going backwards.” Future of Procurement Throughout our interview, Wilson comes across as amiable, energised and a man who has a clear vision of his global operations – both now and in the immediate future. If events of the last 12 months have taught us anything, it’s that anything can happen, and probably will at some stage. So how do you plan for the future and try to use predictive analytics in times like these? For Wilson, it’s about setting out clear priorities and ambitions. “For us in supply chain for the next 12 to 18 months, there are three clear priorities,” he says. “Number one is the transformation of our physical logistics operation. So we're going to build a European platform, Sub-Saharan

platform and completely transform how we work with partners and how they supply product to us. “Number two is autonomous sourcing. We think that's coming, and we will have a POC up and running by the end of April and will invest in that. And then the third area for us is really thinking about how new buying models evolve. So I'm pretty convinced that the world's going to end up a number of different marketplaces and part of the CPO’s job or the category manager's job will be figuring out which marketplace they want to connect with to get best value, and then how their analytics platforms will help them actually make those decisions.” “It's not easy to do, but it must be doable to actually get to that position.”

supplychaindigital.com

BLOCKCHAIN

COULD

BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY

REVOLUTIONISE

ESG COMPLIANCE?

April 2021

BLOCKCHAIN

With ESG rising the ranks of priority for businesses, we examine the potential role of blockchain technology in compliance across global supply chains WRITTEN BY: OLIVER JAMES FREEMAN FRSA

hese days, mind-boggling technological feats seem to be an almost daily occurrence; in a mere 20 years, we’ve seen unprecedented levels of innovation and growth, moving from the era of data storage rooms and floppy disks to metaphysical cloud computing and global interconnectivity at the click of a button. For some, the development of tech has been terrifying; for others, wondrous. Along the way, we’ve seen ups-and-downs on a global scale, and we’ve watched new ideas rise before swiftly crashing and burning; there have been fads and gimmicks and unrealistic expectations as well as promises across the board. In 2009, the world was introduced to yet another idea that fell into that latter category: Bitcoin. The first-ever cryptocurrency — which promised to challenge and even replace traditional currencies, resource-backed currencies. Bitcoin was laughed at and, for the most part, ignored by the mainstream. But get this… When the cryptocurrency opened on the markets, a person could purchase a single Bitcoin for as little as $0.0008, and just last week, the price surpassed $61,000 — you can do the maths, and I can tell you that this new alternative was far from a 'fad' supplychaindigital.com

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BLOCKCHAIN

Why Blockchain Matters More Than You Think

From Bitcoin's success, hundreds of altcoins have arisen, and the blockchain technology ecosystem has been created off the back of its revolutionary cryptography. Blockchain technology is a complex method of storing information, and sharing it between different parties. In its rawest form, we can best describe it as a 'distributed ledger' technology. This is an environment in which transactions of any kind are both immutable and publicly visible, leading to a much more transparent system that ensures accountability across, in the case of global trade, the entire value chain, courtesy of a peer-to-peer, decentralised network. Blockchain Technology & ESG Now, we all know the hot topic of the day: corporate social responsibility. It’s being called upon or called-out — depending on the scenario — in every country, right now, supplychaindigital.com

BLOCKCHAIN

THE BENEFITS OF BLOCKCHAIN Originally the blockchain network was developed for cryptocurrency usage. But over the past decade, mainstream institutions and companies have realised the potential power that blockchain can enable within daily operations. Some key benefits are:

Accuracy

Security

The blockchain system grows through mutual agreement; every time a new transaction — known as a ‘block’ — is recorded, a network of peers review its contents before allowing it to join the chain.

If you have one copy of a ledger which everybody in a network has access to, and a hacker gains access to it, havoc will quickly be wrought. For this very reason, the blockchain ledger is not stored in one location — it is duplicated across the entire network, ensuring that it cannot be corrupted or manipulated from a single location. In essence, it’d take an army of hackers to gain access.

Collaboration Given that blockchain technology is decentralised and transactions can be managed safely and securely without the assistance of an overarching authority, parties can confidently work together without the additional cost and delay of middle-men.

Consistency Every user works together on the blockchain network through an identical — synchronised — edition of the ledger. It cannot be mistaken on different systems; everybody sees the identical ledger.

Punctuality The blockchain features timely updates at set intervals. This means that the identical ledger held by each individual in a network will be updated near-instantaneously at set times. Nobody is left behind in a blockchain network.

April 2021

Transparency The blockchain ledger is immutable — unchangeable, in other words. The ledger gives every person in-network access to a detailed list of every record stored on the blockchain; there’s no way to manipulate or lie about any transaction, preventing fraudulent activity and foulplay whilst ensuring accountability for all parties involved.

BLOCKCHAIN

“ With all suppliers invited into the network, every time a product changes hands within the supply chain, its precise location and time-stamp are documented by creating a new block” DAVID SNEYD

VICE PRESIDENT OF RESPONSIBLE INVESTMENT, BMO GLOBAL ASSET MANAGEMENT

off the back of our damning impact on the globe. The overexploitation of humans, natural resources and raw materials has pushed the planet to a breaking point and, in the interest of balancing the scales, there’s a widespread drive to address the impact of business practices and create alternative methods to our mostly irresponsible, broadly neglectful ways. It is widely believed that blockchain technology could assist corporations in the pursuit of more socially responsible norms throughout their supply chain practices in several ways. Let’s take a look. Anti-Money Laundering When it comes to business, there’s a lot of fraudulent activity out there. In fact, supplychaindigital.com

according to PwC’s Global Economic Crime and Fraud Survey 2020, from 5,000 respondents across 99 territories globally, there was a reported $42bn deficit across the previous 24 months at the hands of fraudsters. Money laundering is, of course, one of the many popular forms of fraud. Currently, financial institutions do have processes in place to mitigate the risk of potentially fraudulent moves. The most popular is probably the ‘Know Your Customer’ process — which involves in-depth background checks on all parties involved in a transaction to assess the legitimacy of the upcoming trade. The problem is, these are, as you might expect, highly regulated and can take days or even weeks to complete. Blockchain technology can alleviate this delay whilst ensuring all standards and regulations are met. Due to the immutable ledger held in blocks, there will already be an accurate, indisputable history — available in real-time — of a company’s activity on the chain, publicly available on the network, in advance. Companies could either turn away from the traditional financial institutions’ checks and do their own research on the blockchain, or the institutions could also join the network to hasten their services-offered. Cybersecurity Cybersecurity is one of the hottest topics of the day — the advancement of global digitalisation has given rise to greater volumes of malicious activity across the digital world. Investing in the protection of a company’s confidential data has become an absolute necessity; due to the nature of the blockchain’s duplication technique, companies can store data on the distributed ledger to entirely eradicate the vulnerabilities that come with centralised data storage. 66

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So blockchain can prevent data theft or sabotage, and, as an aside, due to a network being distributed across a myriad of locations, it’s also borderline impossible for hackers to launch an attack on companies that use the system. Proxy Voting In this COVID-19-adapted world, the prospect of heading outdoors is a bittersweet one — the office, our usual places of work, and social areas are now classed as dangerous places, while the snug safety of our own sofas is heralded as a saviour’s seat. With that in mind, proxy voting is an excellent addition to the company arsenal, and, of course, blockchain technology makes it better than what we already have.

BLOCKCHAIN

According to Sergio Gámez, Global Head of Shareholders and Investor Relations at Santander, “The Annual General Meeting is one of the most important corporate governance events for any listed company. In the case of Santander, having very fragmented capital, it is very important to ensure the participation by investors and shareholders, and this year using blockchain technology for the institutional vote has been a great help in terms of transparency and agility across the vote lifecycle.”

Shareholders currently send instructions for their proxy votes through a myriad of disconnected middle(wo)men; unless these people become connected on a centralised system away from the blockchain, it’s very difficult to ensure that all of an individual stakeholder’s instructions are shared at a meeting. Following the example of Banco Santander’s 2018 AGM, facilitated by Fintech leader Broadridge Financial Solutions’ blockchain-powered proxy distribution service, in collaboration with J.P. Morgan and Northern Trust, it’s clear that a shareholder network can be created on the blockchain for each meeting, on which all relevant members can participate in crucial processes and votes, regardless of attendance and location.

Renewable Energy Distribution Let’s jump onto the environment for a second. Did you know that electrons generated by fossil fuels and renewable sources are essentially identical? Ergo, unless you know what was put into the electricity grid to create power, there’s no 100%-tamper-proofed way of verifying that the electricity you’re using is ‘clean’. In a world where clean energy and environmentally-friendly habits are an absolute imperative, this is a problem, don’t you think?

“ Using blockchain technology for the institutional vote has been a great help in terms of transparency and agility” SERGIO GÁMEZ

GLOBAL HEAD OF SHAREHOLDERS AND INVESTOR RELATIONS, SANTANDER supplychaindigital.com

BLOCKCHAIN

According to David Sneyd, Vice President of Responsible Investment for BMO Global Asset Management, “To keep track of how much clean energy is produced, a system based on tradable certificates works by renewable-power plants logging their output in a spreadsheet, which is then sent to a registry provider, where the data gets entered into a separate system, and a certificate is created. A second set of intermediaries broker deals between buyers and sellers of these certificates and yet another party verifies the certificates after they are purchased. This whole process increases inefficiencies in the system and reduces the attractiveness of investing in green power. “By comparison, blockchain technology offers the opportunity for smaller-scale energy producers to trade energy peer-to68

April 2021

peer with consumers in their local area, rather than submit their power into the grid. Such an initiative has been launched by the British energy company Centrica, within its local energy market program,” he added. Supply Chain Traceability Finally, the key aspect of blockchain technology that interlinks all others and provides the foundation of the system’s capabilities is traceability across global supply chain networks. The majority of large companies feature sophisticated, interdependent networks of suppliers spanning many companies — usually the most economically-friendly ones. So before a product reaches its final destination — the consumer — it has passed through lots of people. Due to individual, fluctuating

BLOCKCHAIN

regulatory oversight, some of those people may work under safety, environmental, and labour standards that are considered

“ Companies are able to record the journeys of their products more accurately and more cheaply” DAVID SNEYD

VICE PRESIDENT OF RESPONSIBLE INVESTMENT, BMO GLOBAL ASSET MANAGEMENT

lacklustre - or even illegal - in developed nations. The problem is that it’s almost impossible to ensure that every stage of the supply chain is completely synced up on what working conditions can be considered acceptable. On top of that, there are crossborder differences that are increasingly difficult to regulate as global political tensions rise. Through the use of blockchain technology, “companies are able to record the journeys of their products more accurately and more cheaply,” says Sneyd. “With all suppliers invited into the network, every time a product changes hands within the supply chain, its precise location and time-stamp are documented by creating a new block, with the ledger creating a permanent history of every product from its manufacture through to its sale. “Given the number of suppliers involved, a centralised process would be cumbersome and would need to involve intermediaries to liaise between parties. However, with a blockchain network, each party is synchronised in the information it receives, with each transaction validated by other users on the network. Having an accurate record of where a product has come from and who has been involved can be invaluable for responding to product recalls or understanding the exposure from issues being found with a specific supplier,” Sneyd adds. So I suppose the answer is: Yes, blockchain technology could revolutionise ESG compliance across global supply chain networks. While it can’t solve every issue that the business world faces, it can certainly make inroads into ensuring that multinational corporations stay at the top of their game, make moves to eradicate exploitation, and establish fair, environmentally and socially responsible practices and norms. supplychaindigital.com

THE FOUR PILLARS TO STRATEGIC PROCUREMENT AND A BETTER CX WRITTEN BY: LAURA V. GARCIA

April 2021

PRODUCED BY: THOMAS LIVERMORE

COMDATA

supplychaindigital.com

COMDATA

1987 Year founded

€950mn Company revenue

50,000+ Number of employees in workforce

April 2021

COMDATA

Javier Baranda, Group Chief Procurement Officer at Comdata, shares his strategy on driving customer value through strategic procurement

JAVIER BARANDA TITLE: GROUP CPO COMPANY: COMDATA INDUSTRY: CUSTOMER MANAGEMENT BPO

EXECUTIVE BIO

omdata is a leading player in the customer journey, customer attention, and BPO services market with over thirty years in the industry. In the last five years, Comdata has experienced rapid growth through acquisitions in Europe, Latin America, and Africa. It now holds a presence in 21 countries across three different continents, with about 500 customers globally, 600 million customer interactions per year, and more than 50,000 employees. Last year, for the first time, Comdata was included in the Gartner Quadrants as one of the top players in BPO services. I sat down with their Group Chief Procurement Officer, Javier Baranda, to discuss Comdata’s procurement transformation journey and how they drive customer value through strategic procurement. “I started at Comdata about two years ago, after receiving an attractive project challenge. The CEO had a clear vision of how they wanted to leverage procurement to better support the business. And that, honestly, was music to my ears. I have seen in business units, companies, different organisations, different mindsets that believe procurement is purely an administrative function. After 20 years in procurement, I am convinced that procurement has much more to add than just placing orders.”

Javier Baranda leads Comdata’s procurement transformation since 2019 with the goal of implementing a strategic sourcing model globally that helps Comdata’s operations maximise the value obtained from its supply chain. Prior to Comdata, Baranda spent 21 years at Telefonica, eight of them in international assignments across Asia and Europe, where he held various management roles covering all angles of the procurement function, from Category Management to Operations to Strategic Alliances. During his career, Baranda has focused strongly on value generation and stakeholder engagement, positioning Procurement as a strategic partner for the business. Baranda holds a Master Degree in Business Administration from Instituto de Empresa Business School and a MSc in Telcommunications Engineering from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.

COMDATA

The shift; from transactional to strategic procurement “This project allowed me to offer a model that could help combat costly transactional procurement habits and to leverage the strategic procurement concept. In the beginning, I saw that each region had a strong focus on administrative tasks. It was blended with facility services, but in the end, probably 80% of the time was dedicated to facilities and only maybe 20% to procurement. And at least 30%, the vast majority of which was spent placing orders, resolving incidents with suppliers, etcetera. There was, generally speaking, very little focus on the generation of efficiencies for the company. “It was a very standard policy. You get three proposals, you choose the best one out of the three, and that's it. I wanted to 74

April 2021

implement a much more strategic ‘out of the box’ model in which procurement was leading innovation, heading discussions with stakeholders to present alternatives solutions, questioning things, and ensuring the right decisions were being made for the company and its customers. “I also wanted to insert more knowledge about how to negotiate more strategically with our vendors. We started with our most critical contracts to see what we could do differently, such as aggregating and anticipating needs, improved planning and negotiation requirements. As soon as we were able to deliver tangible results with tangible savings, which is the most visible of procurement outcomes, the organisation realised that procurement could be a partner in not only executing

COMDATA

purchases but optimising the budget. In the end, my objective was not to buy cheaper but to buy better and maximise the value of the business.” The Four Pillars of Procurement The journey Baranda is implementing is based on four pillars. “The first pillar is the procurement role itself and how we demonstrate that we can contribute much more than simply placing orders. That means also gaining a seat at the table of key decisions, being very close to the executive committee and presenting

and even championing viable alternatives that can drive cost efficiencies. This redefinition of the role needs to be sustained on a new organisational model, including a talent upgrade “WE HOLD GREAT to become a reference for the business in the different PRIDE IN THE categories of spend.” FACT THAT WE The second pillar is ARE HELPING TO governance. In order to BUILD A COMPANY effect change, people must understand when and how THAT EVERY YEAR to engage with procurement. BRINGS INCREASED Setting clear policies and VALUE TO ITS procedures helps facilitate, CUSTOMERS” in the first instance, the communication with Procurement and, as a JAVIER BARANDA consequence, enables the GROUP CPO AT COMDATA supplychaindigital.com

DESIGNING YOUR FUTURE In a world where everything is connected, where logic meets intuition, we generate great ideas to power the progress.

NETCOM GROUP/COMDATA: 12 YEARS OF INNOVATIVE COLLABORATION

Watch: NetCom Group and Comdata Report

Founded in 2006 by a group of engineers with specialties in the telecommunications and ICT sectors, NetCom Group over the last 15 years has grown significantly. Reaching international levels by having an innovative impact through its research and development (R&D) of automation systems. Speaking with Founder and CEO of NetCom Group, Domenico Lanzo explains that “NetCom Group has always had the vocation for applied engineering, and in particular, automation systems. Our strong presence in strategic markets has called for a complete offer that included the improvement of remote technical support to our Customers. The acquisition of Core Informatica completed our previous Offer by providing technical support.” Explaining that NetCom Group is a service and product company, Lanzo says: “we design and develop solutions for the players in the engineering and ICT fields, where embedded software is written to digitally control automation systems.” NetCom Group’s Partnership with Comdata Beginning their collaborative relationship in 2009, Lanzo reflects that “the historical presence of Core Informatica among the major suppliers of Comdata gives us the honor of considering ourselves a partner rather than a supplier. Our knowledge of the needs of Comdata, during all these years, has made it possible to build, through loyalty policies, our work group which, due to their speed of response to requests, is able to offer quick access to instant technical support.” Over the years Core Informatica and Comdata’s collaborative partnership has gone from strength to strength. “From the remote and on-site helpdesk services provided from 14 offices, it has now moved on to managing 25 offices in 2020. NetCom Group helps Comdata in managing not only workstations and user services, but also provides support in managing new orders, selling ICT devices, provisioning of licenses, as well as in Data Loss Prevention and Virtual Patching.”

DESIGN YOUR FUTURE

COMDATA

No. of countries served

No. of continents served

30+

Years of experience in the market

COMDATA

“AFTER 20 YEARS IN PROCUREMENT, I WAS CONVINCED THAT PROCUREMENT HAD MUCH MORE TO ADD THAN JUST PLACING ORDERS” JAVIER BARANDA

GROUP CPO AT COMDATA

mindset change of the organisation towards cost efficiency and, generally speaking, “value for money”. This helps increase “spend under management, and thus the opportunities to generate value for the company, and the decision-making process.” “Systems are paramount for an effective governance, providing visibility in the spend, transparency and traceability of the procurement management, but also an additional efficiency to the end to end process.” Akin to internal PR, the third pillar is the alignment with the business and its goals, ensuring internal stakeholders see procurement as a true partner. They can effectively and easily engage with procurement beyond policy requirements. “It’s important to avoid the perception that procurement will bog down the process or that it’s simply a box-ticking exercise. Stakeholders shouldn’t feel they need to convince or mobilise procurement to get what they need. Procurement needs to be a willing, proactive partner who will help them in terms of agility and innovation. We will bring ideas from new suppliers, and we will optimise outcomes. My objective is not to lead their business but to help them run their business better. “ The fourth pillar is monitoring and reporting. “When I started in this project, supplychaindigital.com

COMDATA

“THE CUSTOMER’S VOICE HAS BEEN AMPLIFIED, PRESENTING BOTH AN OPPORTUNITY AND A RISK. IF YOU PERFORM POORLY WITH A CUSTOMER, IT NO LONGER STAYS BETWEEN YOU JAVIER BARANDA AND THE CUSTOMER” GROUP CPO AT COMDATA

we weren’t yet monitoring savings or spend by supplier or category. So we are building that framework on how we report spend and performance. That also allows us to benchmark across different regions, see, for instance, who is investing more in IT versus services and identify potential opportunities.” These four pillars, role, governance, alignment with the business and monitoring and reporting, are the foundation of Comdata’s procurement transformation. Leveraging AI for a better CX “Today, one of the main challenges of any industry is customer loyalty. Society has evolved in how we interact with companies or suppliers, especially in industries like retail banking, telcos, insurance. All these companies are facing a situation in which their customers have access to social networks where they share their opinions and experiences. The customer’s voice has been amplified, presenting both an opportunity and a risk. If you perform poorly with a customer, it no longer stays between you and the customer.” Baranda says cost also remains a constant challenge. With increased competition comes increased pressures to reduce costs, and so Comdata must assist their clients in finding efficiencies and improving internal processes. “We need to help our customers 80

April 2021

COMDATA

Javier Baranda from Comdata Group talks about cyber security

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COMDATA

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April 2021

COMDATA

“AS SOON AS WE WERE ABLE TO DELIVER TANGIBLE RESULTS WITH TANGIBLE SAVINGS, WHICH IS THE MOST VISIBLE OF PROCUREMENT OUTCOMES, THE ORGANISATION REALISED THAT PROCUREMENT COULD BE A PARTNER IN NOT ONLY EXECUTING PURCHASES BUT OPTIMISING THE BUDGET” JAVIER BARANDA

GROUP CPO AT COMDATA

enhance customer interactions, as well as improve the efficiency and cost. Comdata aims to achieve excellence in helping our customers to impart company values and improve customer retention. With the evolution of customer interactions through different channels, more and more, we are able to better serve our customers.” AI is one of the technologies that Comdata is leveraging in this area, developing analytics to better understand the needs of customers and better manage perceptions. “When a customer calls you, how is this customer feeling? How can I make them feel better? How can I help them better understand the situation? What previous interactions have we had with this customer, and how were those experiences? What supplychaindigital.com

COMDATA

“WE HAVE SOME INITIATIVES WHERE WE CONTRIBUTE TO THE SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES, AND WE SHARE AND CELEBRATE

THESE THINGS.”

JAVIER BARANDA

GROUP CPO AT COMDATA

600mn Customer interactions managed every year

500+ Number of customers globally

April 2021

COMDATA

are the customer’s interests? It’s that sort of analysis and modelling that AI can provide that is extremely helpful in ensuring our customers feel they are listened to and understood. We need to make our interactions more relevant, more efficient, more effective, and for that, artificial intelligence is massively important.” A deeply embedded culture It may sound cliche, but Comdata’s values are excellence, a strong customer focus, and innovation. In truth, however, it is much more than a cliche and is deeply embedded in the way they work and is evident at every level of the organisation. “We push ourselves not to take things for granted, to revisit old processes for potential improvement opportunities, to challenge mindsets and drive innovation. Our CEO has a very entrepreneurial mindset and is always challenging us to bring innovation. We want to be bigger, but we want to be bigger together, and with the participation of everyone.” “We also have some initiatives where we contribute to the social environment in different countries, and we share and celebrate these things. It's a culture that brings people together and creates a sense of belonging and a sense of pride for what we do. We hold great pride in the fact that we are helping to build a company that every year brings increased value to its customers. And I love that approach, and I am personally very aligned with working collaboratively, seeking excellence, listening to others and remaining focused on our ultimate goal of always finding better ways to service our customers, together.”

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DATA AND ANALYSIS

DATA IN LOGISTICS: THE BENEFITS ARE CLEAR TO SEE Clarity, cost and efficiency in logistics can all be improved with effective data analytics and governance — particularly when navigating COVID-19 WRITTEN BY: RHYS THOMAS

ogistics networks have endured Kafkaesque turmoil in the past 12 months. More strained, more complex and yet, more critical than ever, they are the most visible link in the supply chain and have kept the world moving even as COVID-19 brought many of us to an abrupt halt. But COVID-19 threw even the most detail oriented roadmaps for a loop. Long-term plans to improve efficiencies alongside the steady growth in consumer e-commerce deliveries were found to be too slow, as millions of people confined to their homes turned to online retail for their necessities and entertainment. The boom in online and omni-channel retail continues to place almost daily increases in demand on logistics professionals, and the growing fleet of lastmile delivery vehicles. Meanwhile B2B operations raise their own unique set of hurdles. As some industries — mainly those tied to the COVID-19 safety 86

April 2021

and relief efforts - sought increased capacity, demand in other sectors like tourism and dining, those that once commanded a stable percentage of logistics networks, reduced to a low simmer at best, and stagnancy at worst. These compounding issues strained logistics networks and placed professionals under further pressures to adapt and deliver even as borders locked down, ports became clogged with backlogs and even the fundamental functions required a plan B, C and D. But there has been one effective weapon in combatting these fluctuations: data, which provides the clarity to not only plan and proactively approach these issues as they emerge - because if COVID-19 taught us anything, it’s that issues will and do arise - but to be predictive and prescriptive, to dictate and pre-load response systems to smooth out the bumps in the road before they send operations off course.

DATA AND ANALYSIS

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DATA AND ANALYSIS

“ IN TODAY’S ENVIRONMENT, MANY DC OPERATIONS ARE ACCELERATING THEIR DIGITAL TRANSFORMATIONS” DIANE BLAIR,

DIRECTOR, CONTRACT SERVICES, HONEYWELL INTELLIGRATED

Operational efficiencies The core benefits of effective data usage can broadly be categorised into two complementary improvements: operational efficiency, aiding in smoother processes and greater planning capabilities, and cost efficiency, wringing every last dollar out of the value chain, and cutting costs, not quality. Both work in tandem to empower logistics professionals, says

Diane Blair, Director, Contract Services at Honeywell Intelligrated. On the operational front, “data is the foundation of achieving more uptime,” Blair says. “Organisations that adopt a data-driven lifecycle management approach — one that connects technology and people — to monitor and maintain their equipment are positioned to win by minimising disruptions and maximising uptime for even higher productivity.” Using data in this way will not be a revelation. It has dictated strategy and helped equip logistics professionals for at least the past decade, and Blair concedes that most, if not all, organisations already know this - a point proven by the fact that manual data collection between their disparate systems is a time-honoured supplychaindigital.com

DATA AND ANALYSIS

practice. This isn’t efficient, nor is it often accurate, and inaccuracy can cripple the power that effective data analysis and governance can wield. “Historically, the distribution and fulfillment sector has been slow to recognise the importance of operational data for driving continuous DC performance improvements, increasing system reliability, and transitioning to predictive maintenance programs,” Blair says. “But in today’s environment, many DC operations are accelerating their digital transformations by implementing connected, internet of things (IoT) infrastructures and leveraging the wealth of operational data found in equipment control systems.” Any system that relies on data for its efficacy is limited by a handful of common 90

April 2021

factors, namely the size and scope of the dataset, how ‘clean’ or accurate the data is, and how recent the data was collected real-time being the gold standard here. “With data collection tools like computerised maintenance management systems (CMMS), logistics professionals can streamline workload and staffing projections based on data from other installations and recommended service intervals,” Blair says. “Furthermore, integration with original equipment manufacturer (OEM) parts databases enables automated stock replenishment, ensuring parts availability without storing excess inventory. “Honeywell Intelligrated’s CMMS also supports multi-site implementations but adds an extra layer of complexity due to the importance of a scalable, consistent

DATA AND ANALYSIS

framework to enable comparisons and data sharing between facilities. It will be critical for businesses to ensure standardisation and consistency of data to deliver maximum effectiveness and obtain actionable insights from longer-term KPIs and business intelligence reporting.” Cost savings On the cost front, a data-driven approach fundamentally wrings inaccuracy and inefficiency from core processes, says Arjun Thaker, CEO at Trident Worldwide. The numbers don’t lie, as the old adage goes, and simply using the data you already have free and easy access to will lead to cost-savings and higher efficiencies in almost all cases. “Logistics processes can be expensive if you’re not utilising the data you have access to appropriately,” Thaker says. "It is important to understand your data and therefore have the option to leverage the opportunities that are available to you. “Complete visibility across the supply chain is essential for logistic professionals and having access at every point allows you to obtain both the data and an understanding of how you can achieve better results. Data is hugely important as it allows you to provide not only the best

“ DATA IS THE FOUNDATION OF ACHIEVING MORE UPTIME” DIANE BLAIR,

DIRECTOR, CONTRACT SERVICES, HONEYWELL INTELLIGRATED

Arjun Thaker TITLE: CEO COMPANY: TRIDENT WORLDWIDE Arjun has more than 12 years’ experience in sales, e-commerce, SaaS and digital recruitment. He is the CEO of Trident Worldwide, a business founded on the basis of being the cutting-edge warehousing and logistics platform to send, store and sell.

Diane Blair TITLE: DIRECTOR, CONTRACT SERVICES COMPANY: HONEYWELL INTELLIGRATED With over 25 years of experience in the material handling and logistics industries, Diane Blair is an expert in facilities management and systems maintenance. She is a member of the Project Management Institute, is PMP certified, and honourably served in the U.S. Army. Diane Blair is responsible for overseeing Honeywell Intelligrated’s domestic and international contract services, including more than 400 technicians. She is in charge of Honeywell Intelligrated’s Lifecycle Services international operations.

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DATA AND ANALYSIS

“ LOGISTICS PROCESSES CAN BE EXPENSIVE IF YOU’RE NOT UTILISING THE DATA YOU HAVE ACCESS TO APPROPRIATELY” ARJUN THAKER,

CEO, TRIDENT WORLDWIDE

April 2021

DATA AND ANALYSIS

solution possible to your customers but also various different options to allow an element of choice, in line with business requirements.” Thaker offers his own customers as an example, revealing they save almost a third (27% on average) on the cost of their logistics operations “because we analyse their data and store goods at closer-toend destinations.” “Data intelligence also allows you to improve your supply-chain management by locating your key consumers. This in turn can help you offer better service by consistently meeting demands and offering your services in key locations; reducing the final mile costs,” Thaker adds, explaining that margin generation can also be gleaned from secondary data, particularly amid a global crisis. “Having access to customer satisfaction data is also essential as this allows you to see what improvements can be made to make your overall process more productive and streamlined to cater to your customer’s needs.” As vaccination efforts continue and the world settles into a new mid-pandemic groove, Thaker says agility and agnosticism will be key to get ahead and prepare for the post-pandemic landscape. “Businesses need to be as agnostic and agile as possible to remain competitive as leaders within the industry,” he says. “Without having a stream-lined data driven supply-chain there is room for errors to be made. When faced by global events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, being innovative and efficient is key, and understanding the data and analytics to find out what is happening and identify what can be done ensures you are able to meet the changing needs and expectations of the customer.” supplychaindigital.com

CLARIANT

SUSTAINABILITY and TRANSPARENCY in PROCUREMENT WRITTEN BY: GEORGIA WILSON PRODUCED BY: LEWIS VAUGHAN

April 2021

CLARIANT

Markus Mirgeler Head of Global Procurement, Clariant

April 2021

CLARIANT

Markus Mirgeler, Head of Group Procurement at Clariant, on the company’s drive for sustainable and transparent procurement operations in the chemicals industry “ Typically, at least 60% of your greenhouse gas emissions on record are coming from your supply chains in the form of raw materials and transportation” MARKUS MIRGELER

HEAD OF GLOBAL PROCUREMENT, CLARIANT

ith Clariant being a Europe-based player in the chemicals industry, Markus Mirgeler, Head of Group Procurement explains that “the challenge for anybody in Europe is greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction, and this is spreading globally.” Interestingly, Mirgeler reflects that most CO2 emissions are coming from the suppliers in the chemicals industry. “A chemical company’s operation makes up around 30% of its greenhouse gas emissions, whilst the main share comes from the upstream and downstream value chain activities. For Clariant, a significant share is generated from the raw materials procured.” With most organisations having a 10 year timeframe, which outlines how much they want to have reduced their GHG emissions by 2030, 2035 or 2040, Mirgeler explains that “at Clariant we have defined science-based climate targets that we want to achieve by 2030. But in the chemicals industry this requires technology changes, which we know can take four to five years, so if you don’t have an idea by 2024 of what you want to do, there is no way you can achieve the target in 2030.” Whilst the timeline seems long, by the time each element comes together there are only a few years left to achieve the desired targets.

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CLARIANT

MARKUS MIRGELER TITLE: HEAD OF GLOBAL PROCUREMENT COMPANY: CLARIANT INDUSTRY: CHEMICALS LOCATION: BASEL, SWITZERLAND

EXECUTIVE BIO

Born in Cologne, Germany and now holding more than 30 years of experience in the chemicals industry, Markus Mirgeler has been the Head of Group Procurement at Clariant since 2016, a big shift from the commercial side that he operated in prior to the procurement side he operates in now. Mirgeler believes that although the Chemical industry is mature, it offers substantial opportunities to create valuable change through procurement, specifically in the areas of sustainability and greenhouse gas reduction, geopolitical challenges, automation and robotics, supplier collaborations and supply chain resilience.

April 2021

“ A chemical company’s operation makes up around 30% of its greenhouse gas emissions, whilst the main share comes from the upstream and downstream value chain activities” MARKUS MIRGELER

HEAD OF GLOBAL PROCUREMENT, CLARIANT

CLARIANT

Specifically looking at indirect GHG emissions from suppliers, Mirgeler discusses the importance of directly engaging with them, “ask ‘what can I do for you?’ in order to reduce or change their technologies to reduce GHG emissions.” Other ways the chemical industry can reduce its GHG emissions include taking a more local approach for supply to reduce transportation. “This is a big trend, and you have to create a balance. A lot of the raw materials that we are buying originates from China, India, Indonesia, and Vietnam. You have to look back and say, ‘maybe I need to buy some things more locally in the US for our plants there, or in Europe for those in that region’. Obviously, this may result in more expense but, on the counterbalance,

you get a better CO2 footprint and you’re doing something good for the environment.” With this thought, Mirgeler reflects on the challenges of adopting sustainable methods depending on the types of consumer being sold to. “If you look at companies in the consumer products areas, they committed that a large portion of their cleaning products will be free of fossil oil derivatives by the year 2025. That's not far out in time. That's a real challenge. So now of course, you can imagine they ask suppliers ‘you're supplying me these raw materials for X, can you make them bio based or can you get this out of recycled products.’ Given the timeframe, this is of course also an opportunity for suppliers to change the way they looked at their portfolio in history. supplychaindigital.com

CLARIANT

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April 2021

CLARIANT

Markus Mirgeler from Clariant International talks about sustainability

“ Our focus is where we can have technologies help us to make smarter decisions on when we buy, where we buy and how we buy” MARKUS MIRGELER

HEAD OF GLOBAL PROCUREMENT, CLARIANT

Giving an example of what he means, Mirgeler says “if you look into catalysts, what is the raw material of a catalyst that we're supplying to an industrial application.

More and more questions arise ‘where are the materials coming from? What are the mining operations? What about child labour?’ Industry to industry we are seeing a much higher level of responsibility and curiosity around transparency of value chains. For the chemical industry this is quite new.” When it comes to procurement transparency at Clariant, Mirgeler reflects that the company has been using automation for many years, “It wasn't probably called digital at the time, but we have a really seamless process. We have a fully automated rate of 80% of our purchase orders from demand to placing it at the supplier.” In addition to this automation, Mirgeler also explains that Clariant has a negotiations robot available. However, he adds that the big question is “how much do you want to automate? Clariant has 25,000 suppliers, and a lot of orders in the chemicals industry are repetitive. Without automation, we wouldn’t be able to manage.” supplychaindigital.com

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CLARIANT

1995 Year founded

10,000+ Number of employees

3.860bn 2020 Revenue

This is not what saves Clariant costs in procurement. Mirgeler explains that to drive cost saving “we need to look at artificial intelligence (AI) or digital tools to reduce spend. Our focus is where we can have technologies help us to make smarter decisions on when we buy, where we buy and how we buy.” An example of how Clariant is harnessing AI in this way is for forecasting. “We have launched a raw material forecasting tool for ourselves, which essentially simulates raw materials prices applying artificial intelligence, so we can make smarter decisions on when is the best time to buy certain raw materials, it's very specific, but very powerful. We 102

April 2021

call this end to end forecasting, this is actually quite interesting, and we actually have a collaboration with our developing company for further improvements.” When asked about the importance of cost savings, Mirgeler states, “of course, savings are essential in business. So we have targets, we have them broken down into each category and buyer, identifying seven areas where we are active and where we are providing actual value, whether this is employee engagement and development of people or if it's looking at the inventories that we can control, the cash that we can generate, or moving noncore activities to suppliers.”

CLARIANT

“We have a fully automated rate of 80% of our purchase orders from demand to placing it at the supplier” MARKUS MIRGELER

HEAD OF GLOBAL PROCUREMENT, CLARIANT

Circling back to GHG emissions management, Mirgeler emphasises this as a challenge for the industry, “currently we’re engaging into solar based power generation, and contracts with wind parks to get renewable energies into our sites. Clariant’s made quite some progress to increase the supply of renewable energy in recent years.” A particular interest for Mirgeler when it comes to sustainability is transparency, “supply chain transparency is good for the industry,” says Mirgeler, “but one of the secrets of making chemicals is what ingredients you have, and you don’t want anyone else to know this. This then presents supply

chain transparency challenges when 60% of what you are buying is from the chemicals industry,” explains Mirgeler. “In the chemical industry we all make chemicals. If I know which chemical you are producing and how you produce it, I can probably make it very quickly myself.” Using the food industry as an analogy, Mirgeler continues, “Whoever buys food doesn't raise pigs. So, you can talk about where you get your pigs from or where you get your beef from. But in the chemicals industry, we're all doing the same kind of things and there is a needed trust level between supplier and customer to engage into a higher level of transparency. Whilst these challenges are prominent in the industry, Mirgeler concludes that “if you talk about challenges for Clariant Procurement, firstly it is to make our business more profitable, then it is now to engage with suppliers to reduce GHG, and to enable differentiation for our company via supply chain transparency and last but not least it is holistic supplier risk management and the values beyond savings we can provide to our company.

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INTELLIGENT ERP

INTELLIGENT ERP:

THE SMART, AGILE, SOLUTION DRIVEN BY PEOPLE Real talk: We take a look at iERP and speak with Jan Theissen, procurement transformation consultant & creator of digital supply chains, TARGETP! WRITTEN BY: LAURA V. GARCIA

nterprise resource planning (ERP) - it’s far from a new thing. Although ERP has long-standing roots in manufacturing that trace back to the 1960s, the term ERP was first used by the Gartner Group in the 1990s. Upon its development, ERP was considered to be a big advancement. However, proving that fear is a good motivator, it wasn’t until Y2K that it was more widely adopted. But today’s enterprises exist in a whole new world, one so full of Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity, it’s made the old term VUCA new again. In order to remain viable and recapture profits, today’s businesses require the flexibility of a millennial yogi and more agility than Vivianne Miedema. Yet, traditional ERP doesn’t seem to get them there. Whether it’s extreme weather or a global pandemic that up-ends the market, tariff wars that wreak havoc on your cost of goods and threaten your shipments, or 104

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labour issues that cause production stall outs, today’s complex global supply chains face disruption and risks, and so does your business. Although no software is a magic bullet to resilience, with new technologies such as AI, IoT and data analytics come new transformational powers. Intelligent ERP (aka iERP), part of the new wave of intelligent solutions, can bring agility, allowing you to dynamically respond to changing conditions, sense and mitigate risk. ERP, what it does, and doesn’t do If procurement is the nucleus of supply chain, then ERP is its heart. Let’s take a step back and walk it through. ERP is a business process management software program that manages and integrates a company’s manufacturing, operations, supply chain, financials and human resource activities so each department can plan and manage the resources necessary to fulfil demand. Hence, the name.

INTELLIGENT ERP

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INTELLIGENT ERP

FACT #1

Digitally transformed enterprises see eight times more revenue and two times more profitability IDC's Digital Transformation Survey

So, procurement knows what to buy, and when, and has the tools necessary to do so. Finance has an estimate on what it’s going to cost to make what needs to be made, can create and monitor a budget, pay invoices with a three-way-match process, and ensure approval procedures, segregation of duties and other control mechanisms are in place. Production knows what machines to run when, the labour required and can plan capacity and resources. And, of course, shipping knows what they need to ship when, and how. And all should be right with the world. Except it’s not. Because nothing is static, and your business doesn’t exist in a silo. Trucks or people don’t show up, machines break down, customers change their mind, forecasts can ever so often be inaccurate (winky face). The list of possible disruptions to ‘the plan’ is a long one. As my favourite old boss used to say: “It’s a death by a thousand cuts.” It’s not just the black swans that can severely damage your reputation, your profitability or your long—term viability.

Although traditional ERP does a lot, it doesn’t holistically cover the full handprint of your business, provide enough data for efficient and effective decision making, or offer enough visibility into the supply chain. The complexities of business and the challenges faced by organisations today far exceed the capabilities of ERP. Enter, iERP According to IDC’s Transformation in Times of Change: What Intelligent Enterprises

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INTELLIGENT ERP

Need from Their ERP Systems, “IDC’s Digital Transformation Executive Sentiment Survey found that the top three benefits companies have received are productivity improvements, cost efficiencies, and process cycle times, seeing average improvements of 16–18% across all three areas”. Digitally transformed enterprises see eight times more revenue and two times more profitability, according to IDC's Digital Transformation Survey. “Similarly, small and medium-sized businesses that transformed are more likely to report double-digit growth and higher profitability.” As per a report published by Allied Market Research, the global ERP software market is expected to reach $78.41 billion by 2026. Rachita Rake, a Research Analyst, ICT at Allied Market Research, stated: “Increase in demand for operational efficiency and transparency in business processes, surge in adoption of cloud and mobile applications, and surge in demand for data-driven decision-market have boosted the growth of the global ERP software market.” Intelligent ERP makes for smart business After the sudden shifts in consumer behaviour and market dynamics, organisations worldwide have begun to redesign business models and, ever more urgently, continue down the path of doing more with less. Those who will be successful will challenge the status quo and tap into new markets before their competitors. Intelligent, hyperconnected ERP can help with that, providing the opportunity for a step-level change by leveraging machine learning, algorithms, data science, advanced analytics, and real-time data to better predict, track and analyse, and allow for betterinformed decision making. An assistive interface that improves the user experience 108

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provides actionable data that allows for the optimisation of resources. Moreover, it can shorten time to market and improve service levels. Intelligent ERP gives you the visibility and foresight you need to respond to realworld conditions. Today’s big tech can predict weather patterns and provide an alternative route, give immediate warning upon a shipment delay and, finally, improve forecasting by managing massive data sets and identifying trends humans simply aren’t capable of. And that is just the tip of the iceberg. Industry 4.0 is a game changer, and Intelligent ERP is behind the wheel. The result is improved business performance but not without the right people or processes.

INTELLIGENT ERP

“I often note a crucial factor; the value of educated humans as the most powerful element of digital transformation and resiliency” JAN THEISSEN

PROCUREMENT TRANSFORMATION CONSULTANT & CREATOR OF DIGITAL SUPPLY CHAINS, TARGETP!

ERP Timeline 1990s: Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Although ERP has long—standing roots in manufacturing that trace back to the 1960s, the term ERP was first used by the Gartner Group in the 1990s. Upon its development ERP was considered to be a big advancement, however, proving that fear is a good motivator, it wasn’t until Y2K that it was more widely adopted. 2000s: Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Popularised in the late 1990s to early 2000s, thanks to the work of Siebel, Gartner, and IBM. CRM addressed ERP gaps by systematising customer related interactions. By 2000 leading CRM providers were enhancing their products with shipping and marketing capabilities. CRMs were then integrated with ERPs for financial reporting.

2010s: Human Capital Management (HCM) Much like CRM, HCM plugs into ERP and transforms and consolidates human resource functions, workforce acquisition, management and optimisation, including payroll and performance management. 2020s: Business Spend Management (BSM) BSM exploded in popularity during the global pandemic, driven by the need to curtail spend, mitigate third-party risk and increase liquidity through better control and visibility on spend. BSM fills in the spend management gaps left by ERP, designed to manage spend that traditionally happens in silos like discretionary spending such as travel or marketing expenses.

INTELLIGENT ERP

FACT #2

Small and medium-sized businesses that transformed are more likely to report double-digit growth and higher profitability IDC's Digital Transformation Survey

People first, technology second People first. It’s an important point that often gets overshadowed by all the shiny new tech promising the world. Yes, technology is a wonderful thing, and today’s big tech can alleviate our long-endured pain points, providing the user and the customer with a more friction-free experience. With more of the right information, at the right time, we can get on with doing less with more. But there are a few key things to keep in mind. Jan-Henner Theissen, a CPO advisor and former procurement executive with an extensive background in procurement transformation, digital procurement and supply chain risk management who has performed over 10 system integrations, migrations and roll-outs since 1997, lent us some of his most vital learnings. “Intelligent procurement ecosystems significantly expand the capabilities of the organisation. Increased knowledge, transparency while reducing uncertainty will enable supply chain professionals to make smarter (strategic) decisions, to be more effective and thus increase value delivery. That’s why we see a strong trend towards bestof-breed approaches enhancing traditional ERP landscapes with new (agile) technologies. 110

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“Particularly in the area of supply chain transparency and risk and compliance management, in recent years, we have seen a tremendous expansion of new technologies and third-party solutions. Most of them can be seamlessly integrated into existing ERP landscapes and thus make them more intelligent. However, at the end of the day, we will only harvest all benefits if we comprehensively develop systems, organisations, and humans at the same time. “If the people behind the tech, the actual users, aren’t aware, educated and trained on how to deal with ambiguity, any risk management approach will

INTELLIGENT ERP

“ SCRM is not solely a supply chain or procurement effort nor a project. It is a new capability and a corporate initiative that requires ongoing governance and a strong corporate culture” JAN THEISSEN PROCUREMENT TRANSFORMATION CONSULTANT & CREATOR OF DIGITAL SUPPLY CHAINS, TARGETP!

fail as supply chain risk management is neither a technology nor solely a supply chain or procurement project. It is an essential capability that requires ongoing governance, education and a strong corporate culture. Lately, I have seen too many organisations failing because they put all of their faith into intelligent systems instead of their people and their organisation.” Theissen says he believes a holistic risk management approach requires seamlessly connecting humans and machines within an effective governance and operating model. supplychaindigital.com

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INTELLIGENT ERP

“ If you digitise dirty data, it’s still dirty data. Likewise, if you automate a bad process, it’s still a bad process” JAN THEISSEN PROCUREMENT TRANSFORMATION CONSULTANT & CREATOR OF DIGITAL SUPPLY CHAINS, TARGETP!

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INTELLIGENT ERP

FACT #3

The global ERP software market is expected to reach $78.41 billion by 2026 Allied Market Research

Before wrapping up, he leaves us with a few key takeaways for transforming global procurement organisations and implementing intelligent digital solutions: • There are no intelligent ERP Systems without intelligent humans using them: I often note a crucial factor; the value of educated humans as the most powerful element of digital transformation and resiliency. • Humans build relationships and manage crises, not technology. • Education is key: as long as employees don’t know how to deal with the additional information, data and transparency, intelligent systems only contribute to uncertainty. • Resilience and organisational effectiveness is more than just visibility and digital tools. It involves leadership and organisation as well as partner integration across all areas of the company. • If you digitise dirty data, it’s still dirty data. Likewise, if you automate a bad process, it’s still a bad process. supplychaindigital.com

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SUPPLY CHAIN

consultancy firms Revenue isn’t everything in the world of consultancy, but it makes a good yardstick for assessing the most influential organisations. We consider the 10 biggest. WRITTEN BY: RHYS THOMAS

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McKinsey (USA) Revenue: $10.5bn Employees: 30,000+ HQ: New York*

Founded 95 years ago in 1926, McKinsey is an institution in the world of consulting, delivering expertise and insight on industries as varied as oil and gas, fintech, retail, travel and logistics. Proud of its early achievements in globalised thinking, diversity and a signature predisposition to purposeful dissent, it is now one of the world’s most influential firms, with around 30,000 consultants spread across the map. *Though founded by James O. McKinsey in Chicago, the firm’s global philosophy means it has no static headquarters; instead it is the prerogative of the Managing Director to choose their home office.

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Infosys (India)

Revenue: $13.1bn Employees: 249,000+ HQ: Bengalaru Celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2021, Infosys has rapidly developed into one of the world’s leading global consulting and IT services organisations, shepherding businesses through their digital transformation. Claiming to "expertly steer our clients through their digital journey” and boasting “unprecedented levels of performance and customer delight”, Infosys uses an AI-powered system to help govern and assess where businesses should prioritise digitalisation efforts, serving more than 1,500 customers in 46 countries to date. It is the only Indian corporation to hold the United Nations Global Climate Action Award in the Carbon Neutral Now category.

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Capgemini (France) Revenue: $14.1bn Employees: 270,000+ HQ: Paris

A global leader in consulting, digital transformation and technology, Capgemini believes that people are the most valuable asset for any organisation, and that “the business value of technology comes from and through people”. Its 270,000-strong workforce is testament to this philosophy, serving customers in almost 50 countries around the world. In April 2020, the French multination added engineering to its expertise through the acquisition of Altran, an engineering technology consultancy founded in 1981. Capgemini would place higher in this list if we included revenue generated by Altran: combined group revenue for 2019 was €17bn, or roughly $20.5bn.

Cognizant (USA)

Revenue: $16.8bn Employees: 281,500+ HQ: New Jersey Cognizant offers digital products, IT services and consulting to accelerate companies’ digital transformation under the strapline, “Technology must not only support your business. It must advance it.” The US multinational has acquired close to 70 firms since the turn of the millennium, using M&A to strengthen its capabilities and expand expertise into sectors as varied as fintech and IoT, to cloud, AI and machine learning. Ranking 194th on the 2020 Fortune 500, it counts 177 of the other Fortune 500 companies as its clients, including AWS, Dell Technologies, IBM, Oracle and SAP.

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Tata Consultancy Services (India) Revenue: $23bn Employees: 469,000+ HQ: Mumbai

The second Indian consulting powerhouse on our list, and one of the nation’s biggest companies by market cap, Tata Consultancy Services employs close to half a billion professionals worldwide, representing 147 nationalities in 46 countries. A leader in consulting, IT solutions and services, TCS aims to simplify, strengthen and transform its customers’ business operations. Its expertise currently cover the cutting edge of digital transformation technologies, including AI, cybersecurity and blockchain. TCS is part of the Tata Sons group, which reported combined 2019-20 revenue of £106bn.

KPMG (Netherlands) Revenue: $29.22bn Employees: 226,000+ HQ: Amstelveen

The first, but certainly not the last, of the Big Four accounting firms to make this Top 10, KPMG is one of the world’s biggest professional services networks. It specialises in four key service lines: audit and assurance, advisory, tax and legal, and enterprise, operating in 147 countries around the world. The organisation has "a commitment to quality and integrity”, advising clients on mitigating risk and benefit from rapid transformation and shifts in industry, serving business, governments, publicsector agencies and not-for-profits.

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04 EY (UK)

Revenue: $37.2bn Employees: 226,000+ HQ: London From 700 offices in more than 150 countries, EY is “Building a better working world”. It offers four key service lines - assurance, consulting, strategy and transactions, and tax - and guides clients through capitalising on transformative opportunities in their respective industries. It serves 200,000 clients, from startups to multinationals, in 150 countries. EY’s consulting business has steadily grown in prominence, representing more than a quarter ($10.5bn) of its annual revenue.

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PWC (UK)

Revenue: $43bn Employees: 280,000+ HQ: London PwC is on a mission to “solve important problems”, a goal its 299,000 employees strive for daily. From 800 global offices it provides services in assurance, advisory and management consultancy, and tax across 29 industries, including chemicals, oil and gas, technology, manufacturing and real estate. Former PwC professionals remain in contact through the alumni network, with notable members of which includw Nike founder Phil Knight; Dhivya Suryadevara, CFO of fintech payments giant Stripe; and Delta Airlines CEO Ed Bastian.

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Accenture (Ireland) Revenue: $44.3bn Employees: 505,000+ HQ: Dublin

A contraction of the phrase ‘Accent on the future’, Accenture as it’s known today was formed in January 2001. But its history, like many on this list, stretches back to the mid-20th century, when it began life as a division of Arthur Andersen, the former Big Five accountancy firm whose reputation was tarnished in a high profile legal tussle in the early 2000s and has since splintered into several smaller companies. Today, Accenture employs more than half a billion professionals worldwide, operating from 200 offices across 51 countries. Its consulting division provides services in technology, business and management, though the wider group offers strategy services, interactive media and marketing, research on emerging technologies and more. It was ranked number three on Refinitiv’s Diversity and Inclusion Index, and was named the 34th most admired company in the world by Fortune.

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“When it comes to building a culture of purpose, it’s not only about direct ROI, it’s about the ripple effect” Punit Renjen, Global CEO, Deloitte

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Deloitte (UK)

Revenue: $47.6bn Employees: 330,000+ HQ: London The largest of the Big Four, Deloitte needs little introduction. It is the biggest professional services network in the world by both revenue and employees, offering services in consulting, tax, audit and enterprise risk, and financial advisory. Approximately 330,000 professionals serve clients in more than 150 countries, including four out of five Fortune 500 companies.

Under Punit Renjen, the firm’s Global CEO since June 2015, Deloitte launched WorldClass, an ambitious initiative to improve education, job prospects and developmental opportunities for 50m people around the world by 2030. Deloitte also aims to achieve net zero emissions by the end of the decade under its WorldClimate programme, a mission that includes working with partners to research and create solutions for a low carbon economy.

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