Procurement has always been fertile ground for tech entrepreneurs. We have pulled together some of the most compelling – and potentially disruptive – procurement solutions for a Special Startup Series. We will ask each entrepreneur questions about what gap in the market their solution addresses, how they differentiate their technology and what their tools look like in action.

In this podcast, we interview Sam Jenks, Chief Marketing Officer at Kodiak Hub, a supplier relationship management platform founded in 2015.

Discussion highlights include:

• Why supplier insight has to be based on both robust scorecards and data analytics.
• That (believe it or not) Excel continues to be Kodiak’s biggest competitor.
• How this is the time – even according to well-known consulting firms and CTOs – to be an early adopter and partner with a startup

Despite their reliance upon legacy systems, manufacturers are all about efficiency. This, combined with the pain caused by those same legacy systems, is finally starting to build momentum for procurement digitalization – especially among larger manufacturers.

Sundar Kamak is the Global Head of Manufacturing Solutions at Ivalua, and his background in manufacturing is largely concentrated in the aerospace and automotive industries. In this podcast, he shares his perspective on the move towards digital procurement in the manufacturing space as well as the overall trends he has observed.

Sundar provides additional insight on topics such as:
· The limitations of ERP systems in the face of inter-enterprise collaboration projects
· Going beyond balancing cost, quality and supply assurance to drive competitive advantage
· Closing the gap between product development and strategic sourcing, especially in the case of direct materials
· Continuing movement away from the use of Excel in favor of increased speed and collaboration

If 2019 was the year of emerging technology hype, then 2020 holds the potential to be the year that we turn our attention to the work that needs to be done to derive concrete value from that technology: blockchains included.

In late 2019, Remko Van Hoek, Clinical Full Professor of Supply Chain Management at the University of Arkansas – Sam M. Walton College of Business and a Member of the CSCMP Board of Directors, co-authored a book titled Integrating Blockchain into Supply Chain Management: A Toolkit for Practical Application. He and his three co-authors were looking to combine the understandable enthusiasm for distributed ledger technology with the knowledge we have about emerging technologies of the past. Their goal: to provide actionable insight and realistic use cases.

In this conversation, Remko answers questions about:

• The use cases he and his co-authors had the opportunity to study and what they learned from those leading companies
• The role of third party advisors in blockchain pilots and implementations
• How to increase the likelihood of success with a blockchain pilot project, including project scope, partner selection, and setting internal expectations