Since its inaugural event, we’ve been known to say Digital Procurement World is the “best new procurement event in years.” We made this statement based on its ability to “not only bring supply organizations and technology (and service) companies together in a conversation about digital, but also engage the startup community and investors…and doing a great job of connecting them with buyers, consultants and others.
digital supply word (DPW), now in its third iteration since 2019 (thanks to Covid), has continued to excite and innovate in the digital technology space, fueled by its appetite to unveil game-changing solutions to market, introduce new new concepts, discussing raw topics and hosting an unparalleled roster of expert speakers. This recipe for what our Founder and CEO Jason Busch once called “a runaway success” is about to serve up again in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, on September 21 and 22when he will take center stage to share his thoughts, experience, and long-accumulated knowledge on the task of identifying, comparing, and choosing the right procurement technology for your organization’s needs.
“What I love about DPW,” says Jason, “is that it’s really about a tech community of so many people with so much in common. And I’m thrilled that Spend Matters was invited to participate in various sessions.
Jason will co-lead a main event with his colleague Roberto Mastrigli, an operating partner with our partner and investor, Copley Equity, titled “Better Buy Technology: Lessons from Private Equity on How to Evaluate Procurement Technology.”
The premise is that many companies harbor the same regrets about choosing and buying technology. They regret having made assumptions about how the tool works; they regret not discovering the gaps in features and capabilities before implementation; they regret not having exercised due diligence.
Roberto, like Jason, has spent a very large portion of his career focusing on due diligence, growth strategies and turnarounds for private equity (PE) holding companies. The backgrounds of the two speakers complement each other, with Roberto focusing on finance and operations and Jason on technology and strategy. So, as advisors and consultants, they’re really excited to be able to tap career experience on how private equity firms run their due diligence manuals, and share that to help technology buying become a faster, more informed experience that drives more success. results.
“Throughout my career,” Jason explains, “I’ve seen the same mistakes made over and over again that could be corrected if only buyers could view technology the same way investors consider buying or investing. investing in businesses. There are manuals and checklists for understanding businesses, some of which are very comprehensive. And similar tools exist that can be applied to understanding technology. Although we don’t have the intention to go into all the details of due diligence, we’ll share how important it is to go into the decision with eyes wide open. And in this session, we’ll give listeners the opportunity to do just that. I don’t not saying that problems are inherently a deal breaker (although some certainly are) – you will always find problems when you are diligent. useful to see how these problems can become opportunities if you are fully aware of them, as soon as possible. So, I’m really excited to offer this session, because I think we have some really unique tips to share. »
Some of these tips will cover:
- Understand the current needs of your business
- Explore, with your stakeholders, where you want the investment to take you: what is the investment path, hypothesis and thesis?
- Identify the importance of headwinds and tailwinds that could make or break success, and most importantly…
- Understand the optional nature of what you buy
“The last point is key,” says Jason, “because the options change depending on, for example, whether you buy the technology as a platform or as an add-on. The answer to that changes your approach to buying In my experience, many technology buyers don’t consider this. In today’s high-tech world, we expect our solutions to work. But will they work as efficiently and with as much options we want and need?
“So we’re going to build mental models and frameworks for how you think about evaluating technology investment for your business. And the good thing is that it’s all data driven. You can forget about hunches and replace them with facts, allowing everyone to access the same “good sourcing” page.
“I don’t believe that historically we’ve applied this to buying tech, mainly because the unknowns have trumped the knowns. But we think you can make those unknowns known, if you know where to look.
This is shaping up to be a very informative session, which you can attend on day two of DPW, at 2:35 p.m., Wednesday 21st September.
On Wednesday, in other sessions, Jason will lead panel discussions on:
- How to use CLM to drive enterprise-wide value and improve business impact, with Kai Nowosel, CPO at Accenture “Uber of contract management”, and Roman Howe, VP Customer Advocacy at CLM experts Icertis, discussing the how CLM can drive organization-wide value if used to its full potential, from transparent 360-degree relationship management to driving co-innovation for stakeholders and suppliers.
- How to deal with disruptions and become a master of resilience, with David Simchi-Levi, Business and Supply Chain Analytics at MIT and Pierre-François Kaltenbach, Supply Chain and Operations Europe Lead at Accenture. Here, Jason will dig deeper into one of his passions – supply chain risk – and engage global experts to proactively build resilience where it matters, and how visibility and simulation can reveal hidden risks. .
We’re excited to attend and speak to DPW again because, as Jason points out:
“DPW is a young organization, and that works to its advantage. He has created a conference for 2022. Not only does being entirely tech-focused make him unique, but it gives us, especially those who have been around for a while, a chance to learn from young entrepreneurs who offer innovative ideas that we have not considered before. It’s truly a privilege to be able to share the stage with them, talk to them and more mature companies that are successful in this space, understand what works for them and the ecosystem, and advise customers and investors on how to get the most out of the systems being deployed. So I think it becomes very important to attend an event like DPW because it keeps you in the game and on top of your own game.”
To be part of this information and innovation technology hotspot, visit Digital Procurement World.
And for more from the innovators demonstrating at DPW, check out our previous coverage here.
