The pandemic has charted a new course for enterprises across the globe, challenging businesses everywhere to act with agility as they respond to and recover from its effects. Seemingly overnight, many businesses had to transition to remote working while others were forced to stall operations amid supply chain volatility.
According to thelatest report by the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS), sponsored by Workday, the pandemic served as a catalyst for digital transformation, rapidly accelerating enterprise timelines for new technology solutions. With more enterprises moving to hybrid ways of working, companies need a way to connect their finance, HR, executive leadership, andprocurementteams to stay aligned on corporate goals.
The first volatile months of the pandemic uniquely affected procurement teams who were tasked with navigating supply chain instability, shifting consumer behavior, and sourcing hard-to-find necessities like personal protective equipment (PPE). In 2020 alone,95% of businesses某种形式的破坏而92%的执行utives admitted that their digital sourcing capabilities were less than best in class going into the first months of the pandemic.
Teams with robust digital capabilities were able to more easily weather the storm while also planning strategically for the future. See how two customers, featured in theCIPS report, leveragedWorkday Strategic Sourcingto adapt quickly to shifting priorities and maintain continuity for the business.
Outpacing Disruption With Proactive Procurement
In the case of a leading streaming company, procurement transformation was already a priority before the pandemic struck. While many companies were left scrambling to prop up remote capabilities, this streaming company was able transition fairly seamlessly.
A key piece in its digital transformation strategy was moving beyond manual processes and leveraging automation to improve efficiencies, gain visibility, and empower collaboration across the enterprise. Before deploying Workday Strategic Sourcing, the procurement team managed all requests for proposals (RFPs) via email and had to manually update stakeholders. This manual tracking caused delays throughout the process, and ran the risk of locking critical information within lengthy email chains.
来表rcharge its sourcing processes, the company chose Workday Strategic Sourcing in 2019 and built a centralized hub where procurement could automatically track savings and keep stakeholders in the loop. This increased visibility translated into increased trust between procurement and its business partners, says one company spokesperson: “Now that we have Workday, they [stakeholders] can follow the progress of projects themselves, without actually having to ask us all the time.”
The pandemic has only reaffirmed the company’s decision to digitize procurement, allowing it to keep projects moving smoothly while the team is spread across geographies. Simplifiedsupplier managementalso helped the streaming company keep in lockstep with its vendor partners and navigate unstable supply chains. With the ability to communicate shifting priorities quickly and efficiently to its supplier base, procurement is able to keep ahead of uncertainty.