Associate Partner at IBM, Curt Reppart talks about a new, selective transformation approach that helps his customers find balance in new and existing technology, processes and data.

Guest: Curt Reppart – Associate Partner, IBM

Host: Sarah Nelson – Senior Solution Advisory, SAP Finance & Spend

Host: Erik Derenne – Director, Strategic Solution Advisory, SAP Finance & Spend

Host: Justin Morse – Vice President, Solution Advisory, SAP Americas, Finance & Spend

When taking on any major business transformation or technology upgrade in your organization, two major decisions always take center stage.

1) Where do we begin?

2) Will we go Brownfield (lift-and-shift our existing system) or Greenfield (start fresh with new standards)?

Our guest today, Curt Reppart, has been helping companies navigate these questions for years and offers great perspective as an Associate Partner at IBM. Though it sometimes may make sense to do a Brownfield, lift-and-shift transformation or start completely fresh with a Greenfield implementation, often these options carry significant trade-offs such as carrying forward technical debt and poor processes or create massive disruptions to the business.

At IBM, Curt often suggests a third path to his customers and that is the Bluefield Implementation strategy, where customers use a selective approach that drives deliberate decisions about which configurations, processes and data to keep, redesign, or retire and where to adopt a more fit-to-standard approach.

Further, Curt makes a compelling case for Procurement being the ideal entry point for this transformation journey as it is often a highly disconnected, fragmented and over-customized area of the business in a space where collaboration extending beyond the four walls of the organization requires a certain level of standardization and conformity to succeed. This makes procurement the perfect catalyst for being intentional about what to keep and what to simplify.

So, let’s dive in, and don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe. I am your host Erik Derenne, and you’re listening to The Future of Procurement Podcast.

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Business Transformation Leader Tony Gainsford joins us to explain how he used Supplier Collaboration, Process Mining and Automation Tolerances to drive successful procurement transformation at Molex.

Guest: Tony Gainsford – Business Transformation Leader, Molex

Host: Sarah Nelson – Senior Solution Advisory,SAP Finance & Spend

Host: Erik Derenne – Director, Strategic Solution Advisory, SAP Finance & Spend

Host: Justin Morse – Vice President, Solution Advisory, SAP Americas, Finance & Spend

Oftentimes people think of a business transformation or a procurement transformation as simply a technology project. That the best way to transform and improve the way the business runs is to just find newer software, with fancier bells and whistles, and that alone will solve all the issues, improve all the KPIs, and drive value for the organization.

And if that still doesn’t deliver the expected ROI, the expected results? What next?

Our guest today is Tony Gainsford, Business Transformation Leader at Molex. Tony has spent decades running successful transformation programs at Molex and knows first-hand what it takes to avoid common transformation pitfalls and achieve desired outcomes. In fact, Tony led an effort to digitize collaboration with all their Suppliers across the entire order-to-pay process through the SAP Business Network and strengthened the relationship with his Suppliers in the process.

Tony highlighted just how important it is to have a solid vision before beginning a transformation project and the need to be flexible along the way as new information is uncovered. He reflected on the benefits of using process mining and data mining tools to identify the gaps, bottlenecks and workarounds and how changes to the configurations, tolerances, rules and processes can turn issues into competitive advantages. The biggest revelation is that even in this age of AI, automation and digitization, the human relationship is still a vital component of the transformation process.

So, let’s dive in, and don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe. I am your host Erik Derenne, and you’re listening to The Future of Procurement Podcast.

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SAP AI expert Ryan Skorupski takes us deep into the world of all things AI in procurement shining a light on what it is, what it can do, and what the potential implications are for the future.

Guest: Ryan Skorupski – Senior Director of AI/ML, SAP Spend Management

Host: Sarah Nelson – Senior Solution Advisory, SAP Finance & Spend

Host: Erik Derenne – Director, Strategic Solution Advisory, SAP Finance & Spend

Host: Justin Morse – Vice President, Solution Advisory, SAP Americas, Finance & Spend

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve undoubtedly heard that AI is here and it’s the next big thing for businesses. It will automate tasks, provide incredible insights into our data, streamline operations, cut costs, and improve revenue. Companies are pouring billions of dollars to create AI models, build data centers and infuse AI into every part of their processes.

But what exactly is AI? Where are we today on the AI maturity curve? What’s possible right now and what could be possible tomorrow?

Our guest today is Ryan Skorupski, a Senior Director of AI and ML for Spend Management solutions at SAP. With a background in finance, mathematics, data science and machine learning, Ryan brings a unique and knowledgeable perspective to the table. Today, he’s on the front lines for building the AI foundational model at SAP and applying it to the full suite of procurement applications and processes.

Ryan takes us back through the history of AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) and how they are being used and applied in the business world. He emphasizes the importance of data in training the models and grounding the models to provide not just procurement-specific AI, but ultimately AI that’s fine-tuned to your specific company needs. Ryan also cautions that there is still much we don’t understand about how AI works and how to best utilize AI within the business, so it is imperative that everyone from IT to the business becomes trained on the capabilities of AI, the limitations of AI, and how best to infuse AI into our operations.

So, let’s dive in, and don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe. I am your host Erik Derenne, and you’re listening to The Future of Procurement Podcast.

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Send feedback and questions to ⁠⁠TheFutureOfProcurement@sap.com