Episodes

  • Episode 024: Bridging the Gap in Maintenance and Procurement with Aaron Horn

    Episode 024: Bridging the Gap in Maintenance and Procurement with Aaron Horn
    Dec 3 2025
    Guest: Aaron Horn – Senior Solution Advisory, SAP Finance & Spend 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 What happens with the priorities of maintenance engineers in asset intensive industries don’t align with the polices and compliance goals of procurement? Friction…barriers…transformation roadblocks to name a few. Our guest today would even go so far as to say he “hated” the procurement processes he was asked to follow. But what if there was a better way for these teams to collaborate? Although he’s a Solution Advisor at SAP today, helping customers drive procurement excellence, in a prior life our guest Aaron Horn worked as a Maintenance Reliability Engineer in the Oil Refining industry. Aaron draws on this background to give a unique perspective on the challenges of managing the conflicting priorities of maintenance managers and procurement teams and the importance of collaboration and feedback in bridging the gap. As more companies look to technology to enable business and procurement transformation initiatives, Aaron emphasizes the importance of maintenance professionals being involved in procurement decisions and conversations to better align priorities and embrace continuous improvement to adapt to changing business needs. The surprising conclusion – fostering empathy might be just as important as the underlying technology and AI. 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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    46 mins
  • Episode 23: From Tactical to Strategic with Mike Jasper

    Episode 23: From Tactical to Strategic with Mike Jasper
    Nov 11 2025
    Guest: Mike Jasper – Director of Transformation Product & Client Success, Extropy Advisors 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 One of the most common misconceptions of major procurement transformation projects where new technologies are implemented to drive automation and efficiency across the source-to-pay cycle is that a headcount reduction is inevitable. If a company can process more transactions faster and with fewer Users, then some people will lose their jobs. But what if that isn’t the best way to maximize value from these investments? Our guest today is Mike Jasper, Director of Transformation Product & Client Success for Extropy Advisors. Having spent over two decades leading organizations through complex change, Mike brings a forward-thinking approach and commitment to align businesses at every level in embracing digital transformation and driving a strategic vision for the future. Mike reflects on these experiences to showcase how best run companies look at digital transformations as an opportunity to drive value by shifting resources from manual, tactical activities towards more strategic initiatives. He specifically focuses on the area of Accounts Payable and describes how automating the invoice process (ingestion, coding, matching, exception routing, etc.) can free up AP resources to focus on more complex and value-add priorities such as tax optimization, tariff impacts, DPO terms extension and early payment discount opportunities. 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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    42 mins
  • Episode 022: Unlocking Value Through Business Accelerators with Klaus Fischer

    Episode 022: Unlocking Value Through Business Accelerators with Klaus Fischer
    Oct 8 2025
    Guest: Klaus Fischer – Board Advisor, Nitor Partners and ConvergentIS Host: Erik Derenne – Director, Strategic Solution Advisory, SAP Finance & Spend Host: Justin Morse – Vice President, Solution Advisory, SAP Americas, Finance & Spend Host: Sarah Nelson – Senior Solution Advisory, SAP Finance & Spend Is your organization still operating in silos? In the lack of transparency and collaboration between the offices of the CFO and CPO preventing the business from achieving the types of value outcomes that executives and shareholders expect? What roles can technology, data and AI play in driving impactful business transformations? Our guest today is Klaus Fischer, a former long-time leader at SAP and current board advisor for two valued SAP partners – ConvergentIS and Nitor Partners. Klaus has been an avid and passionate champion for helping customers transform and achieve positive business results in procurement, supply chain and finance. Having joined SAP 35 years ago in Waldorf, Germany near his hometown, Klaus has filled many roles from Engineering to Consulting, Solution Advisory to Strategic Sales and most recently as the Head of North American Center of Excellence helping customers drive real value outcomes across all SAP solutions. Klaus even played a significant role in SAP’s decision to acquire Ariba in 2012 and combine SAP ERP with the Ariba Network and Ariba’s strong cloud-based source-to-pay capabilities. Today, Klaus continues to be an advocate for helping companies drive impactful business outcomes as a growth and board advisor to two excellent SAP partners that specialize in the finance and procurement solutions at SAP. 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. ----- Follow SAP: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sap/ Follow SAP Ariba: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ariba/ Follow Nitor Partners: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nitor-partners/ Follow ConvergentIS: https://www.linkedin.com/company/convergentis/ Follow Klaus: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/klaus-fischer-a970a26/ Follow Erik: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erik-derenne/ Follow Justin: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinmorse/ Follow Sarah: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/swnelson12/ Please like, share, and subscribe! Send feedback and questions to: TheFutureOfProcurement@sap.com
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    45 mins
  • Episode 021: Procurement Year in Review and Welcome to a New Co-Host

    Episode 021: Procurement Year in Review and Welcome to a New Co-Host
    Sep 25 2025
    Host: Erik Derenne – Director, Strategic Solution Advisory, SAP Finance & Spend Host: Justin Morse – Vice President, Solution Advisory, SAP Americas, Finance & Spend Host: Sarah Nelson – Senior Solution Advisory, SAP Finance & Spend Justin and Erik celebrate the one-year milestone of The Future of Procurement by reflecting on the first 20 episodes. Looking back on the growth and learning, some of their favorite and most memorable guests, and recalling some of the interesting things they learned along the way. Not to be forgotten, they also show special love to the Flex and the City segment that ran several times throughout the year with a unique focus on services procurement and the flexible workforce. Next, Erik and Justin welcome a new voice to the podcast, Sarah Nelson, a fellow Finance & Spend Solution consultant. Sarah joins the podcast for year two as a third co-host who brings a fresh voice, great new ideas and a desire to keep the podcast fun and accessible to all listeners. Sarah shares her procurement origin story with us, gives us a sneak peek at some of the fresh ideas she’s bringing to the podcast, and dives in headfirst with her perspective on what the future of procurement will look like…and it’s not the obvious answer. 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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    27 mins
  • Episode 020: Bringing Finance and Procurement Together with Blackline

    Episode 020: Bringing Finance and Procurement Together with Blackline
    Aug 28 2025
    Guest: Stuart Van Houten – Chief Commercial Officer, Blackline Guest: Riyaz Samnani – SVP of Presales & Value Engineering, Blackline Host: Justin Morse – Vice President, Solution Advisory, SAP Americas, Finance & Spend Have you ever noticed that the functions of procurement and finance are often siloed and disjointed at companies? That often their goals and initiatives are not always in sync with each other, and that time-consuming, manual processes are required to reconcile spend and finance data at the end of the month, quarter, or year? As procurement and finance are evolving to become more strategic, how can technology help break down these silos? Our guests today are Stuart Van Houten, Chief Commercial Officer of Blackline, and Riyaz Samnani, SVP of Presales & Value Engineering at Blackline. Stuart is passionate about driving sustainable growth and long-term success and brings over 30 years of experience leading high-growth technology organizations, most recently having led North American sales and business development initiatives at SAP. Riyaz, brings his enthusiasm for building best run solution demonstrations and value-based business cases to his customers with over a decade leading procurement and finance teams at SAP, Coupa and Basware prior to joining Blackline. An SAP Partner and a leading AI-enabled financial operations engine, Blackline helps customers accelerate their record-to-report and invoice-to-cash activities which eliminates delays, strengthens controls, and delivers trusted data throughout the organization. Stuart and Riyaz bring their procurement acumen to their new roles at Blackline to uncover how smart businesses are joining their financial operations and data with procurement data and initiatives to drive the next generation of technological transformation…with AI and data and the center. So, let’s dive in, and don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe. I am your host Justin Morse, and you’re listening to The Future of Procurement Podcast.
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    32 mins
  • Episode 019: Preventing Vendor Payment Fraud with Trustpair

    Episode 019: Preventing Vendor Payment Fraud with Trustpair
    Aug 6 2025
    If you’ve ever fallen victim to payment fraud in your personal life life, you know that it can be expensive, time-consuming and leaves you feeling very vulnerable. Unfortunately, fraud is not simply limited to the consumer. It also impacts thousands of companies each year to the tune of millions of dollars in losses. So, what can be done to protect your business and prevent fraudulent activity? Our guest today is Baptiste Collot, CEO and co-Founder of Trustpair, a best-in-class fraud prevention platform. Baptiste began his career working in the treasury department of a multinational company, when he had an epiphany about why they were losing money on vendor payments. All signs pointed to the data journey from vendor onboarding across the entire procure-to-pay chain and through various systems in finance, AP and procurement. Enter Trustpair, a platform that uses technology to help companies better trust their data by securing the entire procure-to-pay process. Baptiste explains the evolution of fraud in the vendor payment space, why it is such a growing concern, and how solutions from companies like Trustpair and SAP can help prevent fraud at the ultimate source…the data. 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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    35 mins
  • Episode 018: Insights into Procurement Priorities with Gordon Donovan

    Episode 018: Insights into Procurement Priorities with Gordon Donovan
    May 22 2025
    Once thought of as simply a cost management function, procurement today is tasked with juggling a plethora of competing priorities…quality, sustainability, diversity, security, compliance, and AI just to name a few. So how does a CPO determine which of the latest procurement trends deserve the most attention?
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    46 mins
  • Episode 017: Exploring ESG and Sustainability Trends in Procurement with Japen Hollist – Part 2

    Episode 017: Exploring ESG and Sustainability Trends in Procurement with Japen Hollist – Part 2
    May 6 2025
    ESG and Sustainability are topics at the forefront of business these days with C-suite executives setting guidance and maneuvering organizations to comply with ever-changing global regulations while also meeting the expectations of their customers and shareholders.
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    32 mins