The most senior people in company finance and company procurement jobs should co-operate from the outset to drive their organisations forward, a business insight expert has urged.
Omer Abdullah, a seasoned expert in data analytics and procurement functions has laid down some guidelines that are fundamental to organisational success. He stated that there must be better working relationships between Chief Procurement Officers (CPOs) and Chief Technology Officers (CFOs) in any senior collaboration. This is especially so if the result alters the day-to-day procedures of both tech experts and those in supply chain jobs, including procurement interims and supply chain interims.
CPOs and CFOs should communicate with one another from the start of the strategic planning process to clarify the goals of the business. This will give CPOs first-hand knowledge of the value levers, enabling them to get their teams to align procurement plans with them.
CPOs and their teams will also benefit immeasurably from regular communications from the CFO about the organisation’s financial situation. This will help staff holding procurement jobs to go beyond mere numbers and cost reductions to innovate and help the business move to the next level. In this way, they will assist the business in radically transforming its service or product.
The collaboration will also benefit procurement teams. When CFOs are in regular dialogue with CPOs, they become more supportive of funding technologies that the latter need to extend their capabilities, such as performance metrics, analytics tools, contract compliance, supplier analysis. They appreciate that, in order make money, there are occasions when it’s necessary to spend money.
Finally, the collaboration can result in a far more balanced evaluation of procurement performance, going beyond unit cost reductions and factoring in considerations like impact on control compliance and wider measures concerning how many suppliers the firm has per million to spend and how it manages its strategic suppliers.
Abdullah concludes: “Both parties share that responsibility, I don’t see it as something that only one person has to drive. I think both of them have to drive it and then they have to filter that across the entire organisation.”