Future-proofing, Company And Technology

Future-proofing has been a topic in procurement circles for a number of years now and many would argue that its success must be addressed on both technological and organizational fronts. I will try to give a brief guide to the decision points in terms of how procurement can adopt the concepts of future-proofing.

In simple terms, future-proofing is an ongoing effort to grow structural, technological and resource capabilities to adopt new methods to accomplish things better, faster, cheaper. As organizations function in an increasingly competitive environment, the advantages gained from being able to quickly respond to pressures or opportunities is essential.

In the world of procurement, the first step is to adopt a digital or eprocurement system that allows for more efficient processing of purchasing functions like requesting and analyzing quotes, ordering and approvals. This is where our eBuyerAssist system can help you. However, implementing a capable software solution is just the beginning in achieving various opportunities for the technological, structural, and organizational advantages that can be obtained by continuous examination which is what future-proofing is.

The following table is a summary, and by no means all inclusive, of the facets that needs to be looked at where opportunities may be. Based on our discussions with current and potential customers, each client company is unique and will have a different set of challenges and opportunities to address. Therefore, reading this article should be used as a guide to examine rather than provide answers to your particular situation.

	Technology	Organization
Infrastructure	Sufficient Sustainable Right cost	Skills Personnel Structure
Flexibility	Allows for integration Customizable Feature rich	Structure Processes Policies
Procurement software	Extendable features Current technology Progressive provider	Utilization Software/process alignment Skills/training
Innovation	Roadmap for integrating new technologies	Institutional knowledge Culture of learning

Once the assessment of these aspects is completed, the next step is to identify which aspect is lacking more than the other. If, for example, the procurement system is sufficient in terms of features but not fully utilized, then you can take a deeper look at the employee skills and current practices that may be the cause of not taking advantage of the beneficial features in your chosen software. If, however, your staff is asking for more features, then it would be prudent to take a hard look at your software selection. In either of these cases, once the deficiency is resolved, the process of examination will start again. This systematic and continuous gap analysis is the essence of future-proofing.

Eyvo understands this process and constantly works on new features and integration of technologies. Our rapid development process turns customer feedback and industry-specific needs into new features that we share with our entire user community.

Contact us to learn more at sales@eyvo.com

Happy eProcuring!