25th September, 2015

To quote the late, great Yogi Berra who sadly died on the same day, it was like Deja vue all over again as I emerged out of Westminster underground onto the rain drenched streets, heading off to the 30^th eWorld event on Tuesday this week. Having, like last time, forgotten to bring an umbrella and berating the lack of any enterprising brolly salesperson, I was about to brave the elements when I was saved by a sudden appearance of a brolly-bearing colleague going the same way.

So, suitably dry, I made my way up to the 5^th floor and the exhibition element of the event. Now, I love the newly refurbished downstairs of the QE11 Exhibition Centre – bright, open, modern – plenty of places to sit etc (and perhaps it was too early for me), but the exhibition space reminded me of the “time to leave” lighting at an under 16s disco. A bit bright.

For the second year running, APN had a stand at eWorld, and we love it - nipped in next to Professional Outsourcing magazine, in the thick of the activity and perfect for speaking to people as they grab a coffee or a spot of lunch!

The morning kicked off with Chris Sawchuk from the Hackett Group as the opening keynote. His presentation style was filled with that extraordinary confidence and energy that many presenters wish they could have, and that for whatever reason, many Americans, and yes –others too, have in spades. And his message? Procurement needs to be more customer centric – and make sure that they actually listen and then do something about the feedback they get. The point being that organisations that spend more time aligning with internal stakeholders, the more savings and stronger growth they have as a result.

That, and the need for greater agility, was something picked up by Alex Saric, Global VP Marketing, Ariba during his breakout session. In a world where over 1bn people are on global networks, people expect real-time information and reactions. Thinking of ways to add value is no longer a “nice to have”, but “critical” to business. And yet…nothing’s going to get away from the need to cut costs, or make savings – but Alex is right – procurement (and finance too let’s not forget) must change. And automation has a big seat at the table. So, people, process, technology – seems easy – and I think as a concept it’s an alignment that individually people get, it’s just that sometimes as an organisation, work gets in the way.

Which was why it was interesting to hear from a company I’d not heard of before, and I believe it was their first eWorld, Seal Software. Their VP Contract Strategy, Lloyd Alexander gave a no-frills, and fact filled presentation, hammering home and oft touted, but too frequently ignored point – that if you keep doing the same thing, you’ll get the same thing back. Seal offer something genuinely different, and something which made everyone sit up and listen. In fact, despite some really, very good presentations, his was the only one (that I saw) which ran into several questions. Which was great because it gave me the opportunity to learn a lot more about them, and gave them the opportunity to talk about the software without it being a sales pitch. In fact, I caught up with him later for a more detailed conversation – more of which later.

I rounded up the day’s sessions by listening to Gerard Chick, Chief Knowledge Officer from Optimum Procurement Group – bizarrely someone who came to my attention courtesy of LinkedIn and a conversation with my father (long story), and who I’ve been following for a while on social media. Although the audience was a little thin on the ground (being the last session), the content was good and seemed to be well received. And with the recent upheaval at VW, his message about CSR and brand couldn’t have been more timely.

We finished off the day with bubbles and cake to toast a very happy 30^th (amazingly) birthday to eWorld Procurement and Supply and although we skipped out on a prize for an as it turned out, not too shabby 6/10 in the quiz – I could reflect on a great day as I stepped out into a definitely autumnal, but thankfully sunny journey home.