Depending on which way your bread is buttered, an in-depth discussion on data management will either get your juices flowing or lead to invented excuses for why you need to be somewhere else at that very time.
Regardless of which camp you’re in, there’s no denying the importance of clean, timely data. It provides the foundation to unlock a huge amount of value, and with the average procurement function sitting on biblical volumes of third-party information, it also can unlock the true potential of new and emerging technology.
Gerardo Aguilar, global head of indirect procurement at global agricultural technology group Syngenta, certainly understands this – and he has done for a while.
In January 2023, Gerardo launched a transformative data strategy centred on building a ‘one-stop shop’ analytics platform called Procure360 that provides the ability for procurement to shift from tactical tasks to strategic.
By prioritising data quality and collaborating closely with IT, the solution integrates internal ERP data with external market intelligence, enabling the team to leverage agentic technology to drive predictive insights and proactive opportunity spotting.
Gerardo kindly shared learnings from his programme with fellow CPOs during a Procurement Leaders community call a couple of weeks ago, and a few things stuck with me from what he shared.
First, he prioritised data. This sounds obvious but, by making data one of his top three priorities, Gerardo was able to allocate investment, be more purposeful and maintain momentum over several years.
Second, he took an agile approach to launch, iterating the platform with users across successive releases, rather than hoping to build a finished product in one go.
Third, he introduced a certification system, with multi-tiered qualifications to encourage use and, as a result, impact. This succeeded in gamifying the rollout and much greater adoption.
There were many other takeaways from the session, but the picture Gerardo painted was one where the system – which can only be built on clean data – pushes opportunities to the team for them to execute, leading to huge productivity gains and humans spending their time on the important things.
So, while data might not be everyone’s favourite subject, getting it right is the key that can unlock a huge amount of value.
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