“A contract lifecycle management platform drives processes for you. That drives your price down, your risk down, and you get the best of all worlds like procurement wants." - Paul Bagley, Director of Commercial Contracting at Acosta

Historically, procurement viewed contracts as a legal formality, something only to be referred to when things go wrong with a supplier.

This outdated approach leaves a goldmine of untapped value and insight on the table, and it’s time for procurement to have a mindset shift when it comes to the way they use, store, value, and leverage digital contracts.

In this episode, Philip Ideson and Kelly Barner talk with Paul Bagley, Director of Commercial Contracting at Acosta, and Toby Laforest, Director of Product Marketing at Ironclad, about how procurement can leverage the full potential of digital contracts and the technology required to make it happen.

They’ll explain:

• Why digital contacts are strategic assets that can provide bottom-line value to the business
• Why most procurement teams are currently not taking advantage of AI and contract lifecycle management platforms to extract value from their contracts (and what that mistake is costing them)
• The myriad benefits procurement - and the business - will see when they normalize contract discussions and regularly refer to contract-based insights with suppliers and stakeholders

Links:

• Paul Bagley on LinkedIn
• Toby Laforest on LinkedIn
• Watch on Demand: Connecting the Dots with Digital Contracts
• Subscribe to This Week in Procurement

Procurement 6 is a short podcast from Art of Procurement that publishes in the Art of Procurement feed every Friday morning at 6am US Eastern Time.

Presented by a member of the Art of Procurement team, each episode has 6 short segments that summarize the week in procurement.

Segments range from procurement tips to podcast summaries, from details of events to news or overviews of blog posts that capture our attention.

“You have to make investments in your supplier network if you want to be successful. The old days of ‘I have to win, and you have to lose’ are gone. We are so transparent. We are using technology. Relationships are key.” - Frank McKay, Chief Supply Chain & Procurement Officer, Jabil

In 2023, Jabil conducted a 2023 Supply Chain Survey in collaboration with SIS International Research. In this episode, Philip Ideson sits down with Frank McKay, Chief Supply Chain & Procurement Officer at Jabil to discuss the results, which pinpointed things like cost reduction, customer satisfaction, communication, and visibility as some of procurement’s top-of-mind challenges.

In addition to sharing his own experiences as a practitioner for over 25 years, Frank also discusses his perspective on the evolving role of procurement and how they can better reduce supply chain operational costs, as well as how Chief Supply Chain Officers should be adjusting their strategies in response to rapidly shifting global supply chain dynamics and volatility.

In the episode, they also explore:

• How procurement should be integrating AI and machine learning technologies into their processes to elevate their function and drive greater impact
• The complex nature of managing global supply chains and how to meet these challenges
• How procurement can help build more resilient supply chains that can adapt to geopolitical tensions, market volatility, and rapid technological advancements
  

Links:

• Subscribe to This Week in Procurement