Technology | Workato

Continued from page 87

When turning to one or more tech providers as part of a new digital transformation effort, how challengingbut vital - is it, to get buy-in from existing employees?

Change management is difficult, right? Certainly, in regard to the Expent.ai deployment, it required us to invest time with the teams to explain our vision, and to lay out the path of how procurement would work in the future as a result. This led to more of a co-creation of the workflow that dictated the end system we deployed.

The team has been so passionate about it though, as they knew it was a challenge in need of solving – connecting siloed operations with a view to optimising spending amid a tighter economic environment.

Of course, it helps that they saw Workato’s involvement in our own evolution as well. To explain, Expent.ai is powered by Workato. Once a request is approved in Expent.ai, Workato connectors then create a requisition in Coupa thereby improving the end user experience of not having to resubmit the same preliminary information more than once. Leveraging Workato automation, the business owners can connect best-in-class point solutions to each other without requiring the need to buy a suite of applications from one provider.

Our founding team helped build some of the earliest integration platforms. Now they have reimagined Integration and Automation to enable companies to tap into the growth mindset and transform their organization with Workato.

This allows business stakeholders to either work in Expent or their respective point solutions but still create an ecosystem of interconnected solutions leveraging the power of Workato.

Have you seen the culture around procurement change as a result?

Certainly, investment in the right tools and technology along with good enablement to leverage these technologies empowers teams to work in a more collaborative and efficient way. Take Legal for example, who would have been communicating via emails, but now have the ability to perform reviews and share documents in Expent. Previously, things could easily fall through the cracks, but now an end user has end-to-end visibility as to where their requests are and who is dealing with them.

That visibility is key to sparking a positive culture and strong buy-in, all with the knowledge that automation is adding a layer of security and protection against manual error or system disconnection. And the more and more we see success stories and people’s jobs become easier to manage, the more and more positive they become.

Moreover, what the platform as a whole enables, is collaboration and visibility. Even for basic workflow management, working across multiple teams can become challenging or frustrating. But not being restricted by licenses and being able to connect those who need connecting, there is more method to everyone’s roles. It also provides us with analysis of license utilisation, renewal management and contract management along with the flexibility to enhance workflows and communication levels even more moving forward.

You’ve touched upon aspects of finance and legal as two beneficiaries of this new procurement approach. Do you have any other specific success stories you’d like to bring to light?

When I came in, we had a separate tool for contract lifecycle management (CLM), a separate tool for application management, and no centralised place to track and manage approvals.

So, as you can imagine, when I arrived I was having to deal with four or more different systems with overlapping functions. As a procurement leader, tech stack optimisation is always top of the mind, and investing in a platform to create a more comprehensive single pane of glass view that supports collaboration and capabilities, at a fraction of the cost, was a major selling point. On top of that, we’re cutting down on the amount of manual intervention needed to update these different tools, which frees up the time of employees and teams – this is especially important considering we’re still quite a small team.

I’d also say these areas epitomise procurement as a whole. We need scrutiny, but without these controls in place, spend will be signed off without proper due diligence or targeted decision making around budget approvals. So, by putting in these processes we’ve been able to guide stakeholders towards optimised decision making, because we have connected expertise with all pertinent data to hand.

Presumably you’ve set a bit of a benchmark for yourself now, as a procurement function?

I would say so. You don’t want to sell something you wouldn’t use yourself, so why not ‘drink our own champagne’? If we’re happy to power our own evolution and investment decisions, then we can use that as a positive gauge that the products we’re offering to market are also fit for purpose. We’re our own best case study to prospective customers.

It gives us an air of future-resilience too. We’re using our automating, connecting capabilities as a way to deploy platforms that centralise and optimise procurement. And we’re doing so in the knowledge that digital transformation doesn’t stop. We’re taking this approach and using these technologies because we believe they’re scalable. And that’s good for customers to see as well.

And on your one year anniversary with the company, how would you reflect on the first 12 months? And, indeed, what’s in store for the next 12?

I knew very quickly upon coming in that we needed to get a P2P platform in place, and we needed to get centralised intake in place. Having done that with employees onboard, it’s now a case of becoming more digitally mature. Digitisation is a journey and not a destination.

By that, I mean a digitally mature procurement function not only focuses on cost efficiency, balance sheets and shareholder value, but also on the enterprise’s role in driving a fairer and more socially responsible world. These objectives are not mutually exclusive and can be achieved through effective procurement strategies.

We are technically sound from an operational standpoint and will continue to find ways to improve procurement. I would like to believe we have a put a solid foundation in place to withstand challenges, while at the same time being agile enough to pivot as business needs evolve. Now it’s a case of becoming an example and a resource for customers to learn from us.

Of course, we are always learning too, and I still get excited by new evolutions. But in terms of the next year, our primary goal is to drive value-maximising decisions thanks to a more stable, efficient and connected procurement structure.