At September’s Digital Procurement World conference in Amsterdam, WNS Denali Business Unit Head Alpar Kamber spoke with WNS’s Denali’s Julie Brignac and Herbert Fonseca of Novartis about the role of AI and Automation as a key catalyst for transformation of the procurement ecosystem. The following conversation with Alpar expands upon this discussion, speaking to considerations and best practices around procurement’s digital transformation.
According to Gartner, the global SaaS market is expected to reach nearly $482 BN USD in 2022 and shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, with the recent lockdowns and rotation to remote and hybrid workforces, the need for SaaS-based software is even greater. With the proliferation of SaaS-based software comes the challenge for procurement professionals to negotiate SaaS contracts that help reduce risk to the enterprise. Below are some considerations and recommendations when negotiating SaaS agreements.
Today, uncertainty has taken a firm grasp in the ocean freight industry. Since the pandemic, the ocean freight market has seen unprecedented port congestion, driver and container shortages in addition to large increases in freight rates in excess of 300% to 400%.
My 13-year-old son has a new favorite saying: “Is it, though?” I’m not sure where he picked it up, perhaps at school or on YouTube. Regardless, now on a regular basis, if I say something even fairly straightforward like “broccoli is good for you,” he’ll tilt his head to approximately 45 degrees, squint his eyes as if deep in thought, and respond, “Is it, though?” It’s a solid tool in his teenager toolbox. It also drives me bananas.
According to Gartner, software spend is the second-highest IT spend category as of today. Much of this spend is comprised of ongoing software maintenance and support costs. For large software publishers such as SAP, Microsoft, Oracle, and IBM, software maintenance and support revenue represents nearly 50% of their total annual revenues. Gross margins on this support average 90%. With so much IT budget being devoted to the maintenance of software, many enterprises are looking to third-party software maintenance providers to preserve and sustain their software titles. The reason? Third-party providers are able to provide high-quality support at typically one-half to one-third of the cost of the OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturer).
Some aspects of high-tech procurement are universal. Just like in other industries, there are categories to manage, ecosystems to develop and design, stakeholders to partner with, and value goals to meet or exceed. But, if you take a slightly deeper look into this space, you’ll see things start to diversify, with a few practices taking a front seat in the critical tool set.
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