Heralding Next Generation of Opportunities

The last couple of years threw a curve at the procurement industry, and the resulting supply chain disruptions and shortages changed the reality. As per a survey conducted by Ernst & Young LLP (EY US) in late 2020, disruptions caused by the pandemic negatively affected 72% of the companies. Despite the damage caused by the pandemic, the industry emerged strong as ever. But there are still a few organizations that are in dire straits with immensely disturbed value chains, increasing materials costs, and changing consumers’ buying patterns.

In between the disarray of things, organizations and procurement managers are striving to redesign their strategic planning. While acknowledging the rising disruptions will be first on their to-do list, they will also give weightage to diversity and sustainability for developing socially and environmentally responsible supply chains.

Having said that, the concerns of managers are slightly pushed towards increasing resilient supply chains for a better tomorrow. Solidifying relationships with suppliers, increasing transparency, process optimization, and magnifying agility are some significant aspects these experts will be putting their efforts on.

Merely building supply chains based on vanilla sourcing programs won’t do any good to the CPOs. They will need to widen their horizons while adopting data-driven approaches to withstand the burning issues, such as risk management, which is a different level of concern for the leaders. Not only do they lack the capability to track the risk, but they also don’t possess a data-driven toolkit to map the future crisis. According to Deloitte Global 2021 Chief Procurement Officer Survey, 18% of CPOs were formally tracking the risks that existed in their tier 1 supplier base. So the next question is, how brands must buckle their seat belts to manage their supply chain.

Optimizing the Procurement Cycle with Cutting-Edge Technology Solutions

Soaring inflation puts a huge risk on the backs of purchase managers. While it’s time to step up their game, they must prepare to take procurement beyond just the process of acquiring materials. Amid Hows and Whys, it’s time to deploy a centralized procurement technology having the ability to manage the processes involved.

Empower your procurement experience with SAP Ariba, a platform that enables you to spend better, make wiser decisions and establish more collaborative bonds with your suppliers. So begin the journey to transformation and away from the manual processes and leverage the power of automation to avoid and eliminate process discrepancies in the long run. Be it managing supplier risk or developing category plans, the software is engineered to allow you to meet your end goals seamlessly. Through SAP Ariba, businesses can:

• Reduce cost: Manage the strategic sourcing-to-contract process through an integrated solution and reduce cost by 4%-15%.
• Attain process excellence: Deploy intelligent and advanced technology to avoid process redundancies, eliminating procurement wastage.
• Centralize experiences: Align your vendors effectively through a single platform while automatically catering to the needs of ever-changing market needs.
• Build collaborative relationships: Network across teams and valuable partners to optimize your supply chain and choose from multiple suppliers on SAP Business Network.
• Wiser choices to buy better: Eliminate last-minute anxiety to plan unplanned purchases with guided buying through the SAP Ariba Buying

Position your Efforts with the Right Skills and Talent 

SAP Ariba is powerful for strategic sourcing and procurement operations, but is your implementation strategy going right? Quite frequently, businesses deploy procurement solutions and build their efforts on collaborating with POs. But they forget to track each worker’s skills and responsibilities on the tasks involved in sourcing and procurement. They must understand that to use robust technology at its full potential: there is a need for the right strategy to save time and money.

With a robust talent pool of 1,000+ agile consultants, NLB Services has curated end-to-end digital transformation solutions to drive business sales exponentially. Each solution is designed to complement SAP Ariba while delivering remarkable results.

Owning rich expertise with a team of highly-adept consultants, NLB knows the best way to administer the sourcing and procurement solutions of SAP Ariba. While you are busy working on your core business operations, NLB is dedicated to aligning the right kind of talent, processes, and functions to secure the benefits.

Some pitfalls, such as lack of transparency, insufficient data & analytics, and inability to track shipments, are quite common. But relying on NLB can allow businesses to bid adieu to supply chain hurdles continuously.

To wrap it up, if you are looking forward to improving your business ROI and keeping risks at bay, you need an amalgamation of efforts to use SAP Ariba at its maximum capacity. Manage the entire process of events, from sourcing to invoicing, with the right kind of consultancy and advisory. Leverage SAP Ariba’s rich features with NLB at your service.

Barnali Chaliha

VP – SAP Services at NLB Services