That鈥檚 why the latest recognition from two of the industry鈥檚 most respected research firms鈥擜rdent Partners and Staffing Industry Analysts (SIA)鈥攎eans so much to us at 麻豆原创. Their findings reinforce what we see every day: isn鈥檛 just keeping up with the industry, we鈥檙e setting the standard for innovation, execution, and customer value.

Market leadership confirmed by independent analysts

named 麻豆原创 Fieldglass a 鈥淢arket Leader,鈥� a distinction reserved for providers with universal strengths and top-tier execution. The evaluation looked at every aspect of our portfolio, from supporting the full scope of managing the external workforce鈥攔equisitions, candidates, projects, direct sourcing, SOW/services procurement, integrations, and AI鈥攖o our execution ability, client success, references, talent ecosystem, product vision, and future of work readiness.

We鈥檙e especially proud to be recognized as an 鈥淓lite Performer鈥� in four critical categories: AI Innovation, SOW and Services Procurement, Direct Sourcing, and Total Talent Management. Ardent Partners highlights 麻豆原创 Fieldglass鈥� deep integration with 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors solutions, 麻豆原创 Ariba solutions, 麻豆原创 Build Work Zone, and the AI solution Joule, positioning it as a strategic hub for managing external talent and optimizing services procurement. Joule is transforming how users interact with the portfolio, offering conversational, data-driven guidance for requisition creation, SOW intake, job description design, and workflow acceleration.

also confirms 麻豆原创 Fieldglass鈥� global leadership. The portfolio operates in more than 180 countries, supports 22 languages, and enables invoicing in 118 countries, making it the largest footprint in the industry. This extensive reach is further underscored by consistently strong customer retention, reflecting the deep trust and satisfaction 麻豆原创 Fieldglass enjoys among global enterprises.

Customer-validated leadership

Recognition from leading analyst firms is important, but what matters most is the experience of our customers. 麻豆原创 Fieldglass has also been ranked as a category leader by , a respected platform for verified customer reviews. TrustRadius rankings are based on direct feedback from real users, making it a powerful complement to analyst evaluations. While analyst reports validate market position and strategic capabilities, TrustRadius highlights the day-to-day value customers experience, such as ease of use, depth of functionality, and overall satisfaction. This dual endorsement, from both industry experts and actual practitioners, reinforces 麻豆原创 Fieldglass鈥� commitment to delivering solutions that can meet business needs and exceed customer expectations.

Innovation at the core: AI, automation, and analytics

Innovation is at the heart of 麻豆原创 Fieldglass鈥� value proposition. The portfolio鈥檚 embedded AI solution, Joule, helps users initiate job requisitions, design and translate job descriptions, and accelerate approvals through a conversational interface. Rate benchmarking helps ensure customers stay competitive with market rates. Document AI can automate structured SOW creation, while machine learning and skills ontology models can power advanced candidate matching and workforce planning.

SIA notes that 麻豆原创 Fieldglass鈥� 鈥淎I-first鈥� product strategy is embedding intelligence into every workflow, emphasizing seamless data extraction, intuitive user experiences, and impactful use cases across applications. The business intelligence suite delivers real-time and historical analytics, benchmarking tools, and persona-based dashboards, empowering organizations to make data-driven decisions at every stage of the talent lifecycle.

Comprehensive capabilities for a modern workforce

What distinguishes 麻豆原创 Fieldglass is its wide-ranging and comprehensive set of features. The portfolio allows users to effectively manage all kinds of external labor expenses鈥攚hether that’s contingent labor, services procurement, independent contractors, high-volume workers, or field services. It offers streamlined onboarding, advanced and customizable tools for global compliance, AI-driven workflows, and robust skills extraction, helping to ensure depth and efficiency in every area. Additionally, its compliance and audit capabilities, mobile accessibility, and dashboards supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion help create a holistic solution.

SIA鈥檚 research, based on 23 in-depth VMS surveys and 36 customer assessments, found 麻豆原创 Fieldglass excels in supplier management, time/expense/billing, SOW capabilities, candidate sourcing, technical functionality, and customer perceptions. Customers cite the portfolio鈥檚 innovation, influence over roadmap evolution, and ability to scale with their programs. The open API framework, pre-built integrations, and strong MSP partnerships create a connected ecosystem that can support even the most complex workforce strategies.

Customer experience and ecosystem strength

Customer experience is another area where 麻豆原创 Fieldglass shines. SIA鈥檚 customer perception data shows high marks for platform stability, ease of use, integration quality, adaptability, and support. Customers appreciate the portfolio鈥檚 innovation, the ability to influence roadmap evolution, and its capacity to scale with their programs.

Both Ardent Partners and SIA emphasize 麻豆原创 Fieldglass鈥� commitment to continuous innovation. The 鈥淎I-first鈥� and 鈥渟uite-first鈥� strategies focus on embedding intelligence into every workflow and delivering seamless, end-to-end business processes across the 麻豆原创 ecosystem. Key areas of ongoing investment include skills-based hiring, AI, enhanced analytics, and high-volume workforces for SOW management.

A portfolio for the future of work

The latest findings from Ardent Partners and SIA reaffirm 麻豆原创 Fieldglass鈥� leadership, vision, and relentless focus on customer value. Combined with customer-driven recognition from TrustRadius, 麻豆原创 Fieldglass stands as a proven leader in delivering solutions that can empower organizations to unlock the full potential of their extended workforce鈥攖oday and for the future of work.

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Amber Roth vice president of Global Presales & Strategy for 麻豆原创 Fieldglass.

External talent already represents a significant share of the labor: about 20% in the UK and 40% in the U.S., with projections reaching 50% globally by 2050. This surge reflects the growing demand for specialized skills and flexible cost structures.

A and conducted by Economist Impact captures this shift. Drawing on insights from more than 2,000 C-suite executives across industries, the report, 鈥淔rom Cost to Capability: Redefining External Workforce Strategy in 2025,鈥� reveals how the external workforce is evolving from a transactional resource into a core capability that drives adaptability and resilience in the AI era.

The findings underscore a critical imperative: organizations must rethink how they engage talent, integrate technology, and foster collaboration across procurement, HR, and finance to unlock the full potential of external workers.

From cost to capability: a strategic pivot

In 2023, nearly one-third of organizations cited risk reduction as their primary reason for using contingent labor and service providers. By 2025, that number dropped to just 6%. Today, cost efficiency (74%) and access to specialized skills (62%) dominate the list.

Cost efficiency is no longer about short-term savings. It鈥檚 about managing broader business risks, from financial exposure to talent scarcity. As Professor David Ulrich of the University of Michigan notes in the report, 鈥淭o mitigate risk, businesses need to reduce fixed costs, and labor is often a high fixed cost that needs to be seen as a source of growth.鈥�

Leaders increasingly view external talent as a long-term solution for project-based and technology-driven work, especially in fast-moving fields like AI, automation, and data science. Looking ahead, 64% of executives plan to expand their talent networks within three to five years, up from 54% last year鈥攃lear evidence that external workforce strategies are becoming integral to workforce planning.

Building a holistic talent ecosystem

Economist Impact鈥檚 research points to the rise of holistic talent supply chain management鈥攁 model that unites HR, finance, and procurement to forecast talent needs, close skills gaps, and treat the workforce as a dynamic ecosystem rather than a fixed headcount.

This evolution builds on the themes from previous Economist Impact reports, where procurement shifted from cost controller to strategic orchestrator of risk, sustainability, and innovation. Forward-looking organizations now embrace 鈥渢otal talent management鈥� models that integrate people, platforms, and partners while aligning culture and communication across internal and external teams.

Breaking down silos and embedding digital tools for real-time visibility will be essential to managing an integrated, skills-based workforce that adapts quickly to business needs鈥攚hile ensuring external workers feel valued and connected to enterprise goals.

Procurement at the center of workforce transformation

Procurement leaders are moving beyond sourcing and compliance to orchestrate entire talent ecosystems built on governance and collaboration. Yet the function faces challenges: confidence in procurement鈥檚 workforce management skills fell from 51% in 2024 to 43% in 2025, reflecting the complexity of its expanded scope.

CFOs and COOs are also taking a more active role, linking external workforce oversight to financial, compliance, and ESG performance. This trend echoes Economist Impact鈥檚 鈥溾�� report, which showed procurement鈥檚 remit expanding as risk management becomes central to business strategy.

To succeed, procurement must double down on visibility, digital integration, and strategic alignment. Platforms that unify workforce data鈥攆rom contingent contracts to skills mapping鈥攚ill enable teams to balance cost optimization with agility and governance.

AI: driving agility and accountability

Artificial intelligence is reshaping how organizations manage external talent. According to the report, 68% of procurement leaders cite AI proficiency and ethics as their top development priority over the next 18 months. AI can predict workforce needs, automate sourcing, and fill gaps in emerging fields like agentic AI and automation. The payoff: higher productivity and faster decision-making.

But AI also raises a critical questions: who benefits from efficiency gains? How should productivity improvements be measured? Answering these will require new cost models and shared accountability across the enterprise.

As seen in earlier Economist Impact research, AI is once again a catalyst for transformation, redefining how organizations manage, measure, and mobilize external talent.

The external workforce of the future

The evolution of the external workforce underscores a broader truth: agility, capability, and collaboration now define competitive advantage.

Organizations that treat external talent as a strategic asset鈥攊ntegrating governance, data, and culture across internal and external teams鈥攚ill be best positioned to respond to technological change and seize new opportunities.

To meet these demands, companies are turning to solutions like and , which help connect procurement and external workforce management. These solutions can deliver the visibility, intelligence, and agility needed to manage today鈥檚 dynamic workforce ecosystem.

Gordon Donovan is global vice president of Research, Procurement, and External Workforce at 麻豆原创.

In times of uncertainty, spend is one of the levers companies can actively control. Leaders are expected to deliver not only savings, but also resilience, sustainability, and risk-aware processes.

At , we introduced several new AI capabilities to bring more automation, deeper integration, and smarter insights across our . These innovations are focused on improving outcomes: reducing risk, strengthening supply chains, increasing productivity, and freeing people to focus on higher-value work. They ensure spend continues to fulfill its elevated role as a driver of business growth and resilience while helping customers stay ahead of evolving demands.

Next-gen 麻豆原创 Ariba brings deeper AI integrations and new AI assistants in Joule

麻豆原创 is rolling out the next generation of solutions for source-to-pay to automate the power of procurement, improve cost savings, ensure compliance, and build supply chain resilience. Next-gen 麻豆原创 Ariba is the world’s most modern source-to-pay solution designed to power the future of procurement.

The first AI-native source-to-pay suite redefines what is possible today and sets the course for the future. With businesses facing ever-present change, our customers can take advantage of a solution that’s built to endure — intelligent, integrated, and scalable. The capabilities delivered as part of next-gen 麻豆原创 Ariba will empower businesses to tackle today’s challenges and excel in the future.

Next-gen 麻豆原创 Ariba is built on 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform (麻豆原创 BTP), and has a completely redesigned user experience, embedded analytics, and seamless integration with 麻豆原创 Cloud ERP public and private applications.

The advanced capabilities and benefits of next-gen 麻豆原创 Ariba solutions offer the following:

• Accelerated value realization: Faster adoption with intuitive interfaces and guided workflows
• Deeper insights: Actionable analytics that translate into tangible savings and operational improvements
• Empowered teams: A more productive experience for procurement professionals

Next-gen 麻豆原创 Ariba capabilities will be rolled out starting in Q1 2026.

麻豆原创 also introduced new agentic and generative AI capabilities across the 麻豆原创 Ariba suite to help organizations optimize productivity and decision-making. Planned for release in Q1 2026, a new Joule Agent for bid analysis automatically compares supplier bid data, including total cost, to give procurement teams insight and recommendations for award decisions.

麻豆原创 also added three AI features to the 麻豆原创 Ariba procurement portfolio:

• AI supplier-response summary will use to help review, analyze, and summarize supplier responses to questionnaires, helping procurement specialists make more informed decisions. This is planned to be generally available in Q1 2026.聽
• Joule for simplified invoice creation will help employees outside accounts payable to easily submit invoices from for processing with minimal input. The feature will be generally available in Q4 2025.
• Intelligent contracting will use Joule to automatically extract key information, generate summaries, and search historical contracts for discrepancies and compliance issues. This feature will be generally available in Q4 2025.

As part of the broader 麻豆原创 Ariba portfolio, is now globally available. The solution provides a single-entry point for all procurement requests to simplify intake, improve compliance, and give employees full visibility into status updates. With Joule, users can easily submit requests or follow guided steps, while the system orchestrates processes across 麻豆原创 and non-麻豆原创 systems.

Learn more at our upcoming webinar, on November 20, 2025. to see how organizations can streamline intake processes and drive meaningful results.

New AI enhancements in 麻豆原创 Fieldglass connect the right external talent to the right roles

New AI enhancements to the portfolio make it easier to match potential external workers with available positions by automatically analyzing role descriptions to determine the skills required for each position.

The new skills-based hiring feature automatically analyzes role descriptions to determine the skills required for each position, reducing the time to source potential candidates by up to 50 percent. By accelerating candidate matching, organizations can count on a faster, more cohesive, and efficient hiring process.

This feature is generally available and works in conjunction with existing AI features, including resume analysis and job description creation.

麻豆原创 Concur and American Express Global Business Travel make business travel easier, smarter and more impactful for organizations everywhere

with American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT). Complete by 麻豆原创 Concur and Amex GBT is a co-developed solution that will combine booking, servicing, payments, and expensing into one experience with AI at its core. The solution will benefit from 麻豆原创 Concur and Amex GBT technology and business travel expertise. Complete customers will also have access to Amex GBT鈥檚 unmatched marketplace, software, and services via Complete, offering greater incentives and cost savings.

Smarter AI for travel and expense management in 麻豆原创 Concur

We also introduced new AI capabilities for that will streamline reporting, strengthen fraud prevention, and simplify travel planning, helping organizations better control costs while improving the employee experience.

These innovations include:

• The Receipt Analysis Agent, a newly embedded Joule Agent in , will go beyond basic receipt scanning, automatically completing missing information, determining expense types, and verifying vendor details, even for unknown vendors, to deliver accurate results without iterative learning. General availability for these features is expected for Q4 2025.
• , the automated expense-audit service from 麻豆原创 Concur now features an AI-generated receipt checker that flags receipts likely created by AI or online generators, helping auditors stop fraudulent claims. The service is currently generally available.
• A new pre-spend planner tool uses generative AI to estimate trip budgets based on policies and itineraries, while also providing relevant travel advisories to keep travelers informed. General availability is planned for early 2026 and Concur Expense customers can take advantage of the pre-spend planner at no extra cost. It will be available to Concur Travel customers later in the first half of 2026

Partnerships and integrations

麻豆原创 Concur has enhanced its integration with to further automate how ride and meal expenses are processed, providing better visibility to executives and business users. Ride and meal receipts are automatically routed into , with detailed tax, tip, and itemization data, resulting in cleaner data, fewer manual corrections, and faster reimbursement.

Looking ahead

麻豆原创鈥檚 latest innovations across procurement, external workforce, and travel and expense help customers achieve positive outcomes such as cost savings, reducing risk, strengthening supply chains, creating value, improving productivity, and freeing people up to do higher-value work.

Etosha Thurman is chief marketing officer for 麻豆原创 Finance and Spend Management.

This challenge reflects broader trends in the 麻豆原创-sponsored Economist Impact report titled 鈥�,鈥� which dives into how companies like Capgemini are leveraging external workers to meet skill deficits and productivity demands. The report highlights how organizations are turning to innovative technologies and strategies to seamlessly integrate external talent, ensuring they stay competitive in a rapidly changing workforce landscape.

In Capgemini鈥檚 case, it used to help manage its contingent workforce program across more than 30 countries. The cloud-based solutions can integrate with other 麻豆原创 solutions and leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to help optimize external workforce management, helping companies stay resilient in an evolving talent landscape. With the addition of 麻豆原创 Fieldglass solutions, Capgemini has managed contractors and temporary workers across its entire supply chain. The company has successfully leveraged data from over 50 countries, seeing a 26% increase in unitary cost savings with a 50% increase in productivity from the internal procurement services team.

鈥淭he increased visibility into all external workforce-related outcome and process steps has enabled sharpened insights, along with smaller fulfillment time frames, higher fill rates, and improved compliance,鈥� says Andreas Hettwer, group procurement category director at Capgemini. 鈥淲e have truly optimized functions around the external workforce.鈥�

Smart and efficient talent acquisition

In today鈥檚 dynamic business environment, the external workforce鈥攃omprising freelancers, contractors, consultants, and gig workers鈥攈as become a critical component of many organizations. However, efficiently hiring and managing this diverse talent pool while staying adaptable to future workforce needs can be daunting.

This is because talent acquisition for an external workforce requires finding the right people at the right time, often under tight deadlines. The Economist Impact report also shared that internal skills and talent gaps have increased the demand for proper recruitment of the external workforce.

Capgemini serves as a prime example of how this approach works in practice. When it experiences a surge in demand, its preferred suppliers are notified and 麻豆原创 Fieldglass solutions pull recommendations from distribution lists of candidates who have the necessary skill sets. This helps accelerate the hiring process and can ensure Capgemini is choosing from the best possible pool of potential candidates. The data is developed in 麻豆原创 Fieldglass solutions and extracted into Capgemini鈥檚 various dashboards, instantly providing a comprehensive snapshot of each supplier鈥檚 performance.

Robust data maximizes ROI

Managing an external workforce is a delicate balancing act that involves countless variables. Beyond sourcing talent, it requires tracking budgets, ensuring compliance, and measuring performance. AI-powered automation can help streamline these processes, making it easy to capture, compare, and collaborate on critical information about non-payroll labor. This empowers companies to make informed decisions that maximize their return on investment (ROI).

When inflation surged in 2023, Capgemini fielded a large volume of rate increase requests. Through constructive and fact-based discussions with its supply base, the company managed a cost-rate evolution and shared inflation impact KPIs with its board. This increased executive trust in the global contingent workforce鈥檚 ability to deliver productivity. At the end of the implementation, Capgemini fulfilled 80% of its eligible contingent worker demand.

鈥淲e have full visibility,鈥� Hettwer says. 鈥淲e know the number of contractors, we know our demand per geography, per business line, and we know the cost rates we pay for certain roles, and we measure how the cost rates evolve over time.鈥�

Capgemini is also exploring new ways to use the large amount of data coming from the global deployment of 麻豆原创 Fieldglass solutions, including AI. Economist Impact data reinforces Capgemini鈥檚 perspective, as executives cited integrating traditional systems with AI and machine learning as a top priority over the next three to five years.

鈥淎I will certainly be an important factor in our business,鈥� Hettwer says. 鈥淲e鈥檙e being patient and methodical in order to make sure that we introduce it safely and effectively.鈥�

Driving workforce excellence through innovation and insights

Capgemini’s journey with the 麻豆原创 Fieldglass portfolio demonstrates the transformative power of leveraging advanced technology to manage and optimize an external workforce. By enhancing visibility, streamlining processes, and utilizing AI-powered insights, Capgemini has achieved significant improvements in talent acquisition, supplier performance, and cost efficiency. This resulted in the firm capturing 98% of its global contingent workforce spend with a 60% quicker fulfillment time compared to the start of the program.

As the workforce landscape continues to evolve, 麻豆原创 Fieldglass solutions can equip organizations with tools that enable them to manage the complete lifecycle of their external employees, from requisition and engagement to offboarding and evaluation. These capabilities are vital to remaining resilient, agile, and data-driven while transforming external labor into a versatile, value-driving resource.

Capgemini鈥檚 strategic focus on innovation and compliance sets a benchmark for businesses aiming to unlock the full potential of their contingent workforce in today鈥檚 competitive global environment.

Amber Roth is vice president of Global Presales & Strategy for 麻豆原创 Fieldglass.

As we dive into 2025, 麻豆原创 is already making waves in the spend management arena. Building on last year’s momentum, we are constantly innovating our market-leading solutions so you can reduce costs, mitigate risks, improve collaboration, and make sure every spend decision is aligned with your business strategy to help drive your business forward.

Q4 Breakthroughs: Highlighting Our Latest Innovations

It was an honor to collaborate with so many of you last year. When your business is at its best, so is ours, and this mutual partnership is what fuels our commitment to innovation. In Q4, our solutions鈥斅槎乖� Ariba, 麻豆原创 Business Network, 麻豆原创 Concur, and 麻豆原创 Fieldglass鈥攎ade significant strides, particularly in 麻豆原创 Business AI. Here are just a few highlights:

• : Now generally available, this solution can provide a single source of truth for all payment and supplier data, enhanced with AI-enabled spend classifications and supplier insights. It helps streamline spend processes, cut procurement costs, manage supplier risks, and track sustainability goals.
• Generative AI in 麻豆原创 Business Network Discovery: We鈥檝e introduced generative AI capabilities to help accelerate supplier search and improve network catalog product descriptions and summaries with .
• AI flight recommendations in Concur Travel: This new feature can suggest policy-compliant flight options based on user preferences, loyalty programs, available inventory, and other factors.
• Joule, 麻豆原创鈥檚 AI copilot, got cozy in 麻豆原创 Fieldglass solutions this past quarter with the introduction of , including:
  • Interactive guidance for creating and scheduling new reports through natural conversation, helping to navigate report creation, searches, and data insights
  • Quick answers to issues or questions with concise and easy-to-digest summaries of relevant information and helpful links to learn more
  • AI-assisted job posting and statement of work template selection, recommending the most relevant one and pre-filling data fields to save you time

These innovations align perfectly with the findings. The study highlights data and analytics reporting as the top priority for procurement transformation, a need we鈥檙e addressing head-on with our AI-enhanced solutions.

New Customer Stories and Honors

We built our solutions to elevate spend management from the most mundane part of your day to the most strategic. But don鈥檛 just take my word for it. Discover how companies like , , , and leverage 麻豆原创 solutions for better control and business resilience.

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And if customer stories aren鈥檛 enough, how about customer reviews?

Every quarter, G2 publishes Grid^庐 and Index Reports that rate products based on feedback collected from the user community, along with data compiled from various online platforms and social media networks. In December, G2 announced its Winter 2025 Reports, with 麻豆原创 spend management solutions topping the leaderboards:

• : Leader in Procure to Pay, Strategic Sourcing, and Supplier Relationship Management
• : Supply Chain Business Networks
• : Leader in Expense, Travel & Expense, and Invoicing
• : Leader in Vendor Management

In the , 麻豆原创 moved up to sixth place on G2鈥檚 top 10 companies list. In the Winter 2025 G2 Reports alone, 麻豆原创 Ariba, 麻豆原创 Business Network, 麻豆原创 Concur, and 麻豆原创 Fieldglass won 107 awards across multiple categories. Only 4% of software and services on G2 receive a Leader badge, making this recognition truly special!

Media and Analyst Accolades

Our innovations continue to garner industry recognition. Here are a few key highlights:

• won the  in the Procurement/ERP Software category from Supply & Demand Chain Executive.
• 麻豆原创 Ariba was inducted into Spend Matters鈥� for being listed on its “50 Providers to Know” list for 10 years or more.
• Over the holidays, 麻豆原创 was named a Leader in the .* The report is based on IDC MarketScape鈥檚 comprehensive assessment of 麻豆原创 and feedback from our customers. Explore the findings and why 麻豆原创 was recognized in this article from my colleague Baber Farooq.
• 麻豆原创 Concur received the , which bases its Top Rated awards solely on customer feedback. Over 1,500 verified praised 麻豆原创 Concur for its positive user experience, clear budget visibility, mobile receipt capture, time-saving features during usage and reimbursement processes, seamless integration with productivity tools, and the convenience of its mobile app.

See you at 麻豆原创 Concur Fusion

We鈥檙e thrilled to announce that the 麻豆原创 Concur Fusion event is back in 2025 and will be held in beautiful Seattle, Washington. As the premier travel and expense event, 麻豆原创 Concur Fusion offers over 200 learning opportunities, access to experts and consultants, and hands-on training to help you unlock the full potential of your 麻豆原创 Concur solutions. It鈥檚 an experience you can鈥檛 miss.

Looking Ahead

As we move further into 2025, we remain committed to delivering innovation that addresses your most pressing business needs. We鈥檙e excited about the possibilities that lie ahead and look forward to partnering with you to drive your business forward. Whether it鈥檚 through our AI-enhanced solutions, our comprehensive spend management suite, or events like 麻豆原创 Concur Fusion, we鈥檙e here to support your success every step of the way.

Thank you for your continued trust and partnership. Here鈥檚 to a transformative and successful 2025!

*IDC MarketScape: Worldwide SaaS and Cloud-Enabled Direct Spend 2024 Vendor Assessment, #US52734424e, December 2024

Jeff Collier is chief revenue officer for 麻豆原创 Intelligent Spend and Business Network.

Looking ahead to 2025, several key trends are poised to reshape the landscape, promising both challenges and opportunities for forward-thinking organizations. To gain insight into what lies ahead, we鈥檝e reached out to Intelligent Spend and Business Network executives at 麻豆原创 for their predictions.

The AI-Powered Procurement Revolution

Etosha Thurman, chief marketing officer for Intelligent Spend and Business Network at 麻豆原创, envisions a future where artificial intelligence (AI) takes center stage in procurement:

鈥淚n 2025, AI and cloud-based solutions will position procurement at the heart of data-driven decision-making, enabling real-time insights and freeing teams to focus on high-impact initiatives. The future belongs to procurement professionals who blend strategic thinking with relationship management and a combination of functional and technological expertise. These skills will be crucial in fostering cross-functional collaboration and advancing corporate goals, from supply assurance to compliance to sustainability. In the digital age, spend management expertise extends to not just supporting, but also steering the business.鈥�

This prediction underscores the critical role that AI will play in transforming procurement from a support function to a strategic driver of business value.

Streamlining Processes Through Orchestration

Manoj Swaminathan, president and chief product officer for Intelligent Spend and Business Network at 麻豆原创, highlights the growing importance of process orchestration:

鈥淭he technology landscape is rapidly evolving, and organizations are grappling with a heterogeneous mix of solutions. Many companies now employ multiple systems to meet their end-to-end business needs, leading to siloed processes and confused employees. Procurement, in particular, often suffers from fragmented systems handling everything from purchase requests to supplier onboarding, creating inefficiencies and frustration.

To address this challenge, we鈥檙e seeing a shift toward process orchestration 鈥� a centralized approach that connects disparate systems, streamlining procurement inquiries and status updates. Our newest solution, 麻豆原创 Ariba Intake Management, can tackle this head-on by automating request creation and providing a single point of entry so that organizations can empower employees to adhere to policies and regulations without the burden of manual corrections. This approach can not only save valuable time and resources but also drive user adoption and increase compliance and efficiency, positioning companies to thrive in an increasingly competitive landscape.鈥�

The Rise of a New Generation of Procurement Leaders

Jeff Collier, chief revenue officer for Intelligent Spend and Business Network at 麻豆原创, predicts a significant shift in procurement leadership:

鈥淚n 2025, a shift will occur in the procurement landscape as a wave of fresh faces step into the chief procurement officer role. AI-driven procurement strategies, ever-evolving requirements, and changing demographics have created the perfect storm for new leaders to emerge. As the industry stands on the precipice of transformation, organizations must prioritize nurturing existing talent, upskilling their workforce, and attracting bright young professionals to the procurement function. The stage is set for junior procurement leaders, who have proven their mettle during the challenging COVID-19 years, to rise to the occasion, particularly those who can showcase tangible achievements in sustainability, AI integration, or risk management. Brace yourselves for a year marked by new names, fresh perspectives, and a reshaped procurement industry in 2025.鈥�

The Power of AI Across Business Networks

Val Blatt, chief revenue officer for 麻豆原创 Business Network, offers insights into how AI will transform business networks:

鈥淚n the near term, AI is already making waves by optimizing process efficiency and information sharing within and across companies in a supply chain. As we move into 2025 and beyond, we鈥檒l see AI do more to synthesize intelligence and efficiency across areas like risk, demand, and inventory planning, as well as manufacturing and delivery. This evolution becomes even more relevant because no business does business alone, and AI can synthesize and be predictive across company boundaries. We鈥檒l see AI decision support evolve into decision-making 鈥� and, ultimately, automated process execution. These advancements will occur as the need for AI to sense and predict situations with proposed planning recommendations grows, spanning across related functional areas and processes that involve trading partners in a supply chain.

In its Network Adoption Research Study* sponsored by 麻豆原创, IDC found that 鈥淒igital Champions鈥� who use modern, cloud-based tools like AI, analytics, and business networks have grown over 140% in revenue and profit performance indices from 2016 to 2021. As AI capabilities expand to sense, predict, and execute across organizational boundaries, businesses will gain next-level efficiency, visibility, and compliance. This will enable them to maintain a resilient supply chain that delivers on customer promises, especially in times of disruption, by leveraging the collective intelligence of their entire business network.鈥�

The Evolution of Travel and Expense Management

Christopher Juneau, SVP and head of 麻豆原创 Concur Product Marketing, Intelligent Spend and Business Network Marketing & Solutions, (T&E):

鈥淎s leaders strive to position their company for growth in 2025, they will still attempt to maintain employee spending at 2024 levels. Inflation drove higher spending beginning in 2023, resulting in fewer trips in 2024. As inflation slows, many leaders are likely to expect that their T&E budget 鈥� even if flat year over year 鈥� will go further in 2025.

Meanwhile, finance teams and travel managers will adjust their T&E policies to account for AI as more tasks and processes become automated. Will managers need to approve every expense report? Will they need to review them at all? How can policies and rules be modified so that travelers spend as little time in T&E tools as possible? These are some of the questions they will start to ask in 2025.

Investments in technology innovation and security infrastructure will be top priorities. The risks associated with security and privacy incidents will only continue to grow, which means companies are looking for technologies that deliver greater value to customers with lower risk. It is really a balancing act to move fast without disregarding the very important aspects of security and privacy when architecting solutions 鈥� internally and for customers.鈥�

Looking Ahead

As we look to 2025, it鈥檚 clear that the world of spend management and supply chain is on the brink of transformative change. The convergence of AI, sustainability imperatives, and interconnected business ecosystems will reshape how organizations operate and compete.

At 麻豆原创, we鈥檙e not just observing these trends 鈥� we鈥檙e actively shaping them, working to ensure our customers are well-equipped to navigate the complexities of tomorrow鈥檚 business landscape.

For a deeper dive into the future of procurement, be sure to check out . We will also be hosting a global webinar on these findings on February 4, 2025 titled 鈥�.鈥� This is an excellent opportunity to gain comprehensive insights and stay ahead of the curve. We encourage you to read the report and sign up for the webinar to learn more about the exciting developments shaping the industry.

The future may be uncertain, but one thing is clear: those who embrace these emerging trends and technologies will be best positioned to thrive in the dynamic world of 2025 and beyond. As we continue to design and deliver spend management and business network solutions that drive efficiency, leverage AI responsibly, and create greater visibility for businesses of all sizes, we look forward to partnering with our customers on this exciting journey of transformation and growth.

Cindy McKendry is a director for Intelligent Spend and Business Network Corporate Communications at 麻豆原创.

*Source: 鈥淚DC Network Adoption Research Study eBook: Driving Best-in-Class Supply Chain Collaboration with a Business Network,鈥� #US5084723, August 2023, page 18

With more change on the horizon, it is vital to keep these bets in mind to prepare for potential challenges head-on. Over the past year, we鈥檝e witnessed how spend management professionals who stay confident and bet big achieve remarkable results. In fact, according to the , C-suite confidence in the procurement function has increased by 14% in just one year, with 84% of executives now agreeing that procurement is essential for organizational strategy.

As we gear up for 2025 and beyond, let鈥檚 explore these five bets that will solidify spend management’s role as an indispensable part of an organization.

Bet #1: Strategic Collaboration

The first bet that spend management professionals should place is on strategic collaboration. As procurement becomes increasingly integrated with other critical business functions, it is up to procurement professionals to lead these collaborative efforts. Your colleagues are looking to you to take the initiative and ensure that procurement is involved in strategic initiatives that keep your organization agile in the face of uncertainty.

Whether you are partnering with HR to or implementing a in partnership with supply chain, 麻豆原创 is here to support you. Our solutions are designed with collaboration at the forefront, working to minimize miscommunication and simplify business processes so you can focus on what truly matters.

Bet #2: Effortless Compliance

The mere mention of compliance can evoke stress and worry in anyone who has ever worked in spend management. Ensuring every detail is accounted for can be nerve-racking, especially when considering local regulations and sustainability goals. At 麻豆原创, we believe that compliance should not just be simple; it should be truly effortless.

For example, can enable employees to select in-policy vendors from the start. with 麻豆原创 Business Network helps you understand and comply with evolving tax regulations. From complex tax requirements to travel policies, 麻豆原创 can help you eliminate these points of concern before they cause issues.

Bet #3: Seamless Integration

While intraorganizational strategic collaboration is key for an efficient operating model, your software must also be seamlessly integrated to make the most of our connected solutions. Fragmented processes and tools won鈥檛 get you where you need to go, which is why 麻豆原创 is committed to a suite-first strategy that aims to reduce the number of systems used to manage spend.

Whether you are an all-麻豆原创 customer or use third-party technology, we can offer a seamless experience regardless of where you are in your 麻豆原创 journey. From , your single source of truth for all spend data, to that can streamline all your procurement processes, our out-of-the-box solutions help deliver powerful business outcomes across the entire spend management process.

Bet #4: Increased Productivity

The next bet to place is on increased productivity. In recent years, we have seen firsthand how productivity gaps can be detrimental to an organization. Add in unexpected geopolitical and economic events, and you have a recipe for disaster. As the procurement landscape evolves, it is imperative to upskill your workforce to meet evolving demands.

麻豆原创鈥檚 newest innovations, like , can help automate mundane tasks, freeing up bandwidth for making strategic decisions that really count. And increased productivity is not just reserved for key decision-makers 鈥� it benefits every employee at every level.

Bet #5: Informed Decision-Making

Finally, spend management professionals should bet big on informed decision-making. More than ever, it is essential to make choices quickly and confidently, knowing that your decisions are supported by data. That鈥檚 where 麻豆原创 comes in 鈥� solutions like and can deliver the best recommendations for you, helping to take the guesswork out of decisions amid timeline pressure.

With data-informed reports and suggestions, you can be confident that your choices are backed by best-in-class insights. 麻豆原创 helps reduce complexity and can deliver only the insights needed to make the best choices for your business.

New Ways to Streamline Critical Business Processes

To learn more about the innovations shared at 麻豆原创 Spend Connect Live in 2024, I encourage you to read this article by my colleague Manoj Swaminathan, president and chief product officer for Intelligent Spend and Business Network at 麻豆原创.

I say it every year, but there is something truly special about spending time with our incredible customers, hearing transformation stories and tales of success across so many organizations. The 麻豆原创 community鈥檚 resilience, drive, and commitment to excellence inspire me greatly.

When it comes to the right tools, best integrations, and data-driven insights, 麻豆原创 is your go-to partner. Our solutions, informed by your feedback, are here to help you win big. As you close out this year and head into a new one, remember that 麻豆原创 is here for you. When you rely on 麻豆原创, you secure the future success of not just your business function, but your entire organization.

Etosha Thurman is chief marketing officer for Intelligent Spend and Business Network at 麻豆原创. 

If you missed out on the action, we unveiled the following cutting-edge innovations in our market-leading solutions:

• is our newest solution that helps automate procurement request creation and orchestrate routing and support across diverse procurement landscapes and complex workflows. It can connect different systems into one central location for procurement inquiries and status updates, so employees can adhere to your organization鈥檚 policies and comply with necessary regulations.
• 麻豆原创鈥檚 generative AI copilot  will be seamlessly integrated across 麻豆原创 Ariba solutions, 麻豆原创 Business Network, and 麻豆原创 Fieldglass solutions. Joule can enable users to manage their most important tasks quickly and accurately across all areas of 麻豆原创鈥檚 spend management portfolio.  
• The can empower suppliers to find new business, improve match potential, and build relationships with buyers using the network catalog. Available early next year, it includes聽generative AI tools to help suppliers load their full suite of offerings into the network catalog faster and with enhanced product descriptions and summaries.聽
• New can deliver next-level insights into your external workforce for reporting, analytics, and market insights all within 麻豆原创 Fieldglass.

Read this article from my colleague Manoj Swaminathan to learn more about our latest spend management and business network enhancements.

Leading brands such as Goldman Sachs, Kraft-Heinz, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Uber, and Warner Music Group joined us at the event to share how they revolutionized their spend management processes with our solutions. Check out to hear these stories and view breakout sessions, strategy talks, and solution deep dives. This free, virtual event is your opportunity to learn from 麻豆原创 experts, customers, and partners.

Thank You, IDC

As a leader in spend management software, 麻豆原创 is dedicated to helping our customers increase control and business resilience by comprehensively managing all sources of spend. Hard work pays off, as 麻豆原创 has retained the No.1 position for market share with 49.6% of 2023 market share for Travel and Expense Management Software, according to the . This is growth from our 2022 market share of 49.4%. 

Also exciting, 麻豆原创 has retained the No.1 position for market share for Procurement Applications according to the . IDC estimates that 麻豆原创 holds a 27.3% market share for 2023, maintaining the top spot ahead of the next six vendors combined.

Additionally, we鈥檙e honored to win two IDC SaaS CSAT awards for Accounts Payable and Contract Lifecycle Management. These awards recognize the leading software-as-a-service (SaaS) vendors in each application market, across 23 markets, that receive the highest customer satisfaction scores based on IDC’s SaaSPath Survey.

Our Customer Awards Reach New Heights

Every quarter, G2 highlights the top-rated solutions in the industry, chosen by the source that matters most: our customers. Q3 was our most successful quarter yet regarding G2 honors, with 麻豆原创 Ariba, 麻豆原创 Business Network, 麻豆原创 Concur, and 麻豆原创 Fieldglass bringing in a whopping 93 awards across multiple categories at the Fall 2024 G2 awards!

麻豆原创 was named a Leader in the following categories:

• is a G2 Fall 2024 Leader in Procure to Pay, Strategic Sourcing, and Supplier Relationship Management.
• is a G2 Fall 2024 Leader in Supply Chain Business Networks.
• is a G2 Fall 2024 Leader in Expense, Travel & Expense, and Invoicing.
• is a G2 Fall 2024 Leader in Vendor Management.

What鈥檚 more, 麻豆原创 Ariba, 麻豆原创 Concur, and 麻豆原创 Fieldglass have also won Buyer鈥檚 Choice awards from TrustRadius. Winners of a Buyer鈥檚 Choice award are determined by 75% of reviewers selecting a solution for best capabilities, best value for price, and best customer relationship.

We couldn鈥檛 be more grateful to our customers for partnering with us on their spend management transformation journeys, and we鈥檙e honored that the feeling is mutual!

Winning awards from our customers is awesome, but winning with customers is extra special. Last month, customer and 麻豆原创 Spend Connect Live in 2024 speaker Daniel Chapman of Warner Music won a in the Innovation in Sourcing category: 鈥淐reating Harmony in Music Procurement: Warner Music Group and 麻豆原创.鈥� This award recognizes organizations and individuals that show innovation, leadership, and transformation in categories critical to the sourcing industry, and we couldn鈥檛 be happier about this win.

Last but definitely not least, I want to congratulate our customer Capgemini for winning a prestigious from  in the Future of Work: Human Capital Management category. The award recognizes Capgemini鈥檚 innovative use of 麻豆原创 Fieldglass Contingent Workforce Management to optimize its global external workforce, resulting in improved efficiency, cost savings, and quality standards.

New Developments on the Horizon

With 2025 just around the corner, I want to thank our customers for betting big on themselves by investing in our cutting-edge spend management and business network solutions. In a time marked by supply chain disruptions and ongoing economic uncertainty, it’s all too easy for businesses to stick with the status quo. However, 麻豆原创 customers are different. They tackle obstacles head-on, transforming them into opportunities. And their foresight to plan for the future is why they will continue to be successful.

Thank you for choosing 麻豆原创 to help solve your biggest challenges. I enjoyed seeing so many of you at 麻豆原创 Spend Connect Live and I can鈥檛 wait to catch up with the rest of you on the road.

Jeff Collier is chief revenue officer for 麻豆原创 Intelligent Spend and Business Network.

Once again, we are prepared to showcase groundbreaking innovations that will revolutionize the landscape of spend management. As I continue to engage with our customers, their enthusiasm for our latest offerings helps validate our commitment to delivering solutions that streamline processes and empower businesses to achieve their full potential.  

At 麻豆原创 our focus is on automating tedious, time-consuming tasks, allowing you to concentrate on the strategic decisions that drive your organization forward. 麻豆原创 continues to invest heavily in innovations across the spend management and business network portfolio, including new artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities and seamless integrations, enabling users to navigate uncertainty, seize optimization opportunities, and simplify processes. Our goal is to give you the freedom to shape your business鈥檚 future without the distraction of day-to-day operational noise. 

Betting Big on Your Success with 麻豆原创 

During my keynote, I outlined our product strategy for the coming year, emphasizing three key pillars: Data, Intelligence, and Suite. These focus areas are a direct response to the valuable input we鈥檝e received from customers. I am confident that our continuing investments in these areas will provide them with the insights needed to make informed, strategic decisions that propel their organization to new heights.  

Our newest capabilities across our intelligent spend management solutions enable customers to gain visibility across all of their processes, eliminating fragmented touchpoints that hinder progress.

As Mickey North Rizza, group vice-president of Enterprise Software at IDC, recently shared, 鈥溌槎乖� continues to dominate the procurement applications space as measured by market share because customers want a seamless user experience with which to conduct the full spectrum of their spend management/procurement activity. When layering in the breadth of 麻豆原创’s industry experience, the expansive business network, and direct sourcing capabilities, 麻豆原创 has clearly earned its place.鈥� 

I couldn鈥檛 agree more.  Our commitment to maintaining our position as the industry standard in spend management is unwavering, and we will continue to set the benchmark for providing a smooth, efficient user interface while delivering unparalleled visibility into every aspect of spend.

Now, let鈥檚 dive into this year鈥檚 announcements.  

Generative AI Transforms the Source-to-Pay Process 

麻豆原创 is dedicated to delivering best-in-class solutions infused with AI, empowering you to prioritize strategic initiatives over mundane tasks. We understand and hear the concerns surrounding data security when implementing AI, which is why we have made no compromises in ensuring our AI capabilities set the standard for compliance. From third-party advisory boards to adhering to the UNESCO 10 Guiding Principles for Ethical AI and singing the , we enable customers to harness the power of AI without sacrificing control over their data.  

麻豆原创鈥檚 generative AI copilot will be seamlessly integrated across 麻豆原创 Ariba, 麻豆原创 Business Network, and 麻豆原创 Fieldglass starting in Q4 of 2024. Joule will enable users to manage their most important tasks quickly and accurately across all areas of our spend management portfolio.  

In , users will be able to use generative AI-infused capabilities to create RFPs and request help with routine inquiries and surface risks. These capabilities will also provide buying recommendations along with comprehensive supplier summaries from different data sources. In addition, sustainability scorecard from 麻豆原创 Ariba ensures that customers can make informed decisions that align with their organizations鈥� environmental, social, and governance (ESG) objectives.  

With Joule, 麻豆原创 Fieldglass users can take advantage of template recommendations to generate job postings and SOWs with pre-filled information, saving precious time. Users can now request assistance and insights in natural language, and immediately receive responses from Joule directly from the 麻豆原创 Help Portal. It is now possible to ask Joule how to create a job posting and receiving accurate, step-by-step instructions complete with links and resources.  

will use Joule to help with logistics and asset management tasks. Joule provides 麻豆原创 Business Network users a natural language interface and navigation for scenarios such as status requests and queries, supporting freight orders, freight bookings, invoice disputes, equipment, notifications, and work orders. It will also provide insights into rejected invoices to reduce manual intervention for errors. Suppliers can dive into potential business opportunities based on keyword matching that selects best-fit profiles for RFIs. 

Streamlining Procurement with 麻豆原创 Ariba Intake Management  

Most companies have a complex landscape of disparate and siloed solutions for handling procurement needs such as purchase requests, contract processing, or helping onboard a new services provider. Typically, employees don鈥檛 know which platform, portal, or system will handle their request because it isn’t a task they perform regularly. Hours of time may be wasted trying to figure out how to make the request in the first place and track down subsequent status updates. 

But no more: 麻豆原创 Ariba Intake Management, a brand-new solution built on 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform, will automate procurement request creation and provide process orchestration, including routing and support across diverse procurement landscapes and complex workflows. By connecting different systems into one central location for procurement inquiries and status updates, employees can adhere to your organization’s policies and comply with necessary regulations without the need for time consuming manual corrections. 麻豆原创 Ariba Intake Management will offer one pane of glass for status updates and requests, making procurement orchestration simpler and more intuitive. Scheduled to be available in Q1 of 2025, the solution will offer out-of-the-box integration with other 麻豆原创 solutions and a robust set of connectors for third-party integration.  

Empowering Suppliers with 麻豆原创 Business Network, Promote Subscription  

We announced a new promote subscription for the 麻豆原创 Business Network, designed to deliver immediate value to suppliers, helping them to find new business, improve match potential, and build relationships with buyers using the network catalog. Through the promote subscription, suppliers will receive recommendations to improve discoverability, advanced search results, supplier profile verification, and network catalog APIs. With the help of generative AI tools, suppliers can now load their full suite of offerings into the network catalog faster and with enhanced product descriptions and summaries. The new promote subscription will also help suppliers identify sales opportunities based on regional search data and use advanced insights to track business growth on the network.  

Elevating External Workforce Management with 麻豆原创 Fieldglass Analytics Add-On 

麻豆原创 Fieldglass delivers a new, enhanced analytics capability with next-level insights into your external workforce. The analytics add-on with AI capabilities will help businesses meet sustainability and human rights goals, acquire talent quickly, and implement multi-channel talent acquisition strategies. Users can benchmark and predict external talent scenarios, review performance against KPIs, track trends against industry averages, and monitor sustainability and compliance initiatives.  

As we continue to listen to our customers and invest in our spend management and business network solution offerings, our commitment to setting the standard for spend management software remains steadfast. We are committed to providing innovative solutions that help our customers collaborate strategically with their business partners, enhance productivity, and improve compliance.  

To learn more about these new innovations, read 鈥�Innovations in Spend Management from 麻豆原创 Help Customers Improve Productivity, Gain Insights and Boost Growth.鈥�

If you couldn鈥檛 attend 麻豆原创 Spend Connect Live in Las Vegas, sign up here for the to access live and on-demand content from across content tracks. Join us as we continue to shape the future of spend management together.聽

Manoj Swaminathan is president and chief product officer for Intelligent Spend and Business Network at 麻豆原创.

The announcements were made at , the industry鈥檚 premier spend management conference, held October 14-16 in Las Vegas.

麻豆原创 Embeds Generative AI Across Spend Management and Business Network Solutions

麻豆原创 is embedding its generative AI copilot Joule across the 麻豆原创 Ariba source-to-pay solution portfolio to make it easier for customers to manage routine inquiries, such as status updates, summarization and frequently asked questions. Generative AI will be further infused in 麻豆原创 Ariba solutions to recommend buying bundles and provide comprehensive supplier summaries.

Joule will help 麻豆原创 Fieldglass solutions customers perform time-consuming hiring tasks and service requests with speed and accuracy. Joule can recommend best-fit templates to generate job postings and statements of work (SOWs) with prefilled information such as start date and the number of skilled workers needed.

Joule embedded across 麻豆原创 Business Network will facilitate tasks in logistics and asset management. Generative AI will analyze, categorize and transform unstructured invoice rejection errors into structured, actionable insights to reduce the cost of resolving exceptions. Generative AI capabilities within the 麻豆原创 Business Network Discovery solution will help match suppliers with new business opportunities.

Joule is currently available within 麻豆原创 Ariba solutions and will debut in 麻豆原创 Fieldglass solutions and 麻豆原创 Business Network in the fourth quarter 2024. Joule will manage 80% of the most frequently performed tasks in the portfolio of intelligent spend management and business network solutions from 麻豆原创 starting in the fourth quarter 2024 with a phased approach.

New 麻豆原创 Ariba Intake Management Solution Delivers Simplicity in Procurement

麻豆原创 introduces the 麻豆原创 Ariba Intake Management solution to help transform how businesses handle employee requests and process orchestration, starting with procurement.

With 麻豆原创 Ariba Intake Management, employees have one place to go for procurement inquiries and visibility on status. The solution collects employee requests, orchestrates processes across heterogenous landscapes and applications, including all necessary stakeholders, and provides visibility on status while shielding employees from process complexity yet keeping them informed. This simpler, more intuitive user experience is designed to help drive adoption and improve compliance.

麻豆原创 plans to make 麻豆原创 Ariba Intake Management available in the first quarter 2025.

New 麻豆原创 Business Network, Promote Subscription to Help Suppliers Grow their Businesses

麻豆原创 Business Network in the first quarter 2025 will launch a new promote subscription with value-added features to help suppliers differentiate themselves, attract new buyers and grow their businesses. With millions of companies conducting nearly $6 trillion in commerce annually on the 麻豆原创 Business Network, promote presents a sizable opportunity for suppliers to accelerate growth.

麻豆原创 Unveils Analytics Add-On for External Workforce Management

The new analytics add-on with AI capabilities for 麻豆原创 Fieldglass solutions helps procurement, vendor management and HR professionals to quickly implement more agile multi-channel talent strategies. This add-on enables business users to benchmark and predict external talent scenarios.

The analytics add-on for 麻豆原创 Fieldglass solutions lets users:

• Review performance against over 50 external workforce key performance indicators.
• Access global market intelligence including rates, talent supply and demand, and time-to-hire trends.
• Track sustainability initiatives such as spend with diverse suppliers and worker health and safety, while observing cost overruns, worker fatigue, and on- and offboarding compliance.

鈥淲ith 麻豆原创 Business AI as the foundation of our intelligent products, customers can improve productivity and gain insights from their spend data no matter where it sits,鈥� said Manoj Swaminathan, President and Chief Product Officer, Intelligent Spend and Business Network, 麻豆原创. 鈥淲hether it is managing cost, mitigating risk or supporting scope three emission reduction, 麻豆原创 empowers companies with the right solutions for agile and effective spend management and supply chain functions.鈥�

Visit the . Follow 麻豆原创 at .

Media Contact:
Kelly Sheldon Murray, +1 (978) 708-6821, kelly.murray@sap.com, ET
麻豆原创 麻豆原创 Room; press@sap.com

This document contains forward-looking statements, which are predictions, projections, or other statements about future events. These statements are based on current expectations, forecasts, and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and outcomes to materially differ.  Additional information regarding these risks and uncertainties may be found in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to the risk factors section of 麻豆原创鈥檚 2023 Annual Report on Form 20-F.
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麻豆原创 Spend Control Tower can enable business leaders to answer questions, like where and how much did my organization spend? With what suppliers? Can we break that down by normalized categories? Where are my cost-savings opportunities? What about compliance with environmental and social regulations?

I am happy to announce that 麻豆原创 Spend Control Tower is now available for all businesses.

Addressing Your Spend Data Challenges

I frequently discuss spend management challenges with CPOs and CFOs. They consistently seek visibility and insights into their spending, key suppliers, and ways to enhance savings and cash flow, which enable them to make better-informed decisions.

This aligns with our formal market research. In a new Economist Impact study sponsored by 麻豆原创 鈥� 鈥� 44% of all respondents and 49% of CPOs identified spend analytics as the top driver of digitization in procurement in 2024.

Of course, it鈥檚 not just about procurement spend. It鈥檚 about all enterprise spend. And that鈥檚 our sweet spot. 麻豆原创 delivers intelligent spend solutions covering the entire enterprise 鈥� from procurement to travel and expense to contingent labor and beyond.

As we鈥檝e worked to bring together spend data across the enterprise, it鈥檚 become clear to me that many organizations face similar challenges:

• Poor data quality
• Too much data for individuals to process
• Lack of visibility into cost-saving opportunities and ways to improve cash flow

麻豆原创 Spend Control Tower is specifically designed to help address these challenges. It can provide visibility and actionable insights into enterprise spend that flows to 麻豆原创 solutions, such as 麻豆原创 S/4HANA or 麻豆原创 ERP Central Component (麻豆原创 ECC), and non-麻豆原创 systems. Spend information can then be further enhanced with data from 麻豆原创 Ariba, 麻豆原创 Fieldglass, and 麻豆原创 Concur solutions.

How We Do It

麻豆原创 Spend Control Tower helps address the challenges of spend data management by providing:

• A single location for all spend data: Enterprise data for all spend-related applications is centralized in a single 鈥渄ata layer.鈥� This can provide visibility into your overall organizational spend while allowing users to drill down and see data within specific solutions, for example 麻豆原创 Ariba, 麻豆原创 Fieldglass, or 麻豆原创 Concur solutions.
• Data analysis driven by AI and machine learning: Embedded 麻豆原创 Business AI solutions can enable users to analyze spend data, clarify categories, and make data-driven decisions.
• Data harmonization and enrichment: Systems use a variety of formats to store data, which makes it difficult to combine or compare data sets. 麻豆原创 standardizes data into a unified structure, making it possible to analyze a cohesive data set. Additionally, data enrichment helps improve accuracy by adding supplemental, third-party data to your own, then comparing them to ensure completeness and accuracy.

Six Ways 麻豆原创 Spend Control Tower Helps Drive Spend Performance

The process of driving enterprise spend performance is a journey. First you need to explore what you鈥檙e spending and where you鈥檙e spending it. Then you uncover opportunities for savings. Finally, you measure regulatory compliance and how your spending programs stack up against your industry competitors.

麻豆原创 Spend Control Tower can help every step of the way, providing visibility into accurate data sets that can enable you to:

Consolidate Spend, Category, and Contract Data

Spend across your enterprise is a maze of suppliers, invoices, and contracts. How many suppliers do we really have? Which invoices fall into the 鈥渙ther鈥� bucket? 麻豆原创 Spend Control Tower can produce a consolidated list of suppliers and categories by employing artificial intelligence and machine learning classification and matching algorithms.

Improve Compliance and Deliver Savings

Once you identify categories and suppliers, you can look for opportunities to increase compliance and achieve cost savings. For instance, you may find that your business has five contracts with smaller suppliers, all under the same global ultimate parent company. This information allows you to consolidate your contracts, resulting in cost savings and improved cash flow.

Drill Down for Efficient Spend Visibility

With 麻豆原创 Spend Control Tower, you can have visibility across all areas of your enterprise spend 鈥� for example, contingent labor, maintenance, repairs and operation, or travel and expense 鈥� providing a single view of all spend from 麻豆原创 or non-麻豆原创 systems while enabling visibility into the source of spend via 麻豆原创 Ariba, 麻豆原创 Fieldglass, or 麻豆原创 Concur solutions.

Identify Cost-Savings Opportunities and Provide Actionable Insights

麻豆原创 Spend Control Tower utilizes 麻豆原创 Business AI to help guide you toward relevant and timely savings opportunities. Data from 麻豆原创 Spend Control Tower can seamlessly integrate with the spend profile. Furthermore, within opportunity analysis, AI can identify opportunities for end users in 麻豆原创 Spend Control Tower, which are accessible to 麻豆原创 Ariba Category Management. This integration allows category managers to set goals and develop effective category plans. By leveraging 麻豆原创 Business AI, category managers can efficiently narrow down suppliers and deliver procurement opportunities within categories, streamlining the process and optimizing cost saving.

Drive Enterprise-Level Diversity and Sustainability Compliance

Even if you know who your suppliers are, it鈥檚 likely you don鈥檛 have direct access to all their corporate social responsibility credentials. Through data enhancement using generative AI and the solution, 麻豆原创 Spend Control Tower can layer compliance and diversity data onto your supplier and spend data. This can help enable the evaluation of spend for compliance with diversity requirements and sustainability measures like Scope 3 emissions.

Achieve Best-in-Class Spend Performance Based on Industry Standards

A significant portion of the world鈥檚 business runs through 麻豆原创 systems. We leverage this information to help provide realistic benchmarks from leading businesses in your industry. For example, a consumer products company may direct 22% of its total spend on marketing. Using 麻豆原创 Spend Control Tower, they can find out that for leading competitors of similar size and revenue, the average marketing spend is much lower. This will help inform decisions about how to align their costs with the competition.

麻豆原创 Spend Control Tower is now available to all businesses to help drive enterprise spend performance effectively. or register for and watch the 鈥溾�� webinar on 麻豆原创 Spend Control Tower.

Join the 麻豆原创 Spend Connect Live virtual event on October 24 to catch the latest in technology, innovation, and ideas on-demand.

Manoj Swaminathan is ISBN president and chief product officer at 麻豆原创.

Join your peers at the industry鈥檚 premier spend management event from October 14鈥�16. Get ready for an impactful experience with breakout sessions, hands-on demos, powerful keynotes, and a celebratory finale in the City of Lights! This year, we are offering a special discount 鈥� keep reading to learn more about the event and registration deal.

As business continues to move at a frenzied pace with changing dynamics around every turn, agile and effective spend management and supply chain functions are essential to keep up. Whether it is driving cost management, digitizing manual processes, or staying ahead of changing regulations, 麻豆原创 can help you bring out your best. After our at , I am looking forward to diving deeper into what鈥檚 in store across 麻豆原创鈥檚 spend management and business network portfolio.

Over the course of the event, we will share insights and discuss top-of-mind business challenges, opportunities, and priorities. Aside from the dazzling lights, top-notch dining, and world-renowned shows, here are some other reasons you should join me in Las Vegas for 麻豆原创 Spend Connect Live in 2024.

Hear How Other Organizations Are Transforming Their Spend Management Strategy

Between customer sessions, keynotes, and informal networking, we have so many opportunities for you to hear from your peers. In addition to keynotes, several breakout sessions will feature how customers are using 麻豆原创 solutions to help fuel their spend decisions across procurement, external workforce, travel and expense, working capital management, and business collaboration.

Learn How AI Can Transform Your Business

According to this year鈥檚 , 44% of the spend management executives who were surveyed listed AI strategy as their top driver for digital transformation. AI has quickly proven to be a powerful asset for agile, efficient decision-making, and it is here to stay. There are several AI-focused session offerings at 麻豆原创 Spend Connect Live where you will have the opportunity to:

• Learn how built-in AI capabilities help create resilient supply chains through customer demand prediction and suggested adjustments.
• Join a to learn about recent and upcoming product innovations, like how we are integrating Joule into our spend management solutions to help bring natural language processing to day-to-day processes.
• Participate in a to discover how 麻豆原创 Business AI use cases can apply to your business needs.
• Attend a to learn about scenarios within 麻豆原创 Fieldglass and 麻豆原创 Ariba solutions where AI makes a big impact.
• Learn how to leverage AI-based predictive analytics to help create dynamic supply chains that react and respond in real-time.

Attend Keynotes, Breakout Sessions, and Demos Aligned to Your Unique Business Needs

With over 120 sessions delivering content about the latest market trends and industry innovations, it is a sure bet that you will leave with ideas about how to shape your spend management strategy and meet your business challenges. You will have your choice of road map sessions, solution deep dives, and even hands-on master classes. This year, you can look forward to must-see sessions such as:

• Supercharge workforce management strategy with generative AI and analytics
• Revolutionize sourcing success with 麻豆原创 Ariba Category Management
• Cutting costs that count: Transform your travel spend
• Build stronger supply chains with 麻豆原创 Business Network
• AI in action: Transforming procurement and supply chain dynamics

Browse the and find the full to plan your agenda.

Network with Experts, Peers, and 麻豆原创 Leadership in the Marketplace

Our attendees consistently report that the Marketplace is one of their favorite things about 麻豆原创 Spend Connect Live. The Marketplace is your innovation destination 鈥� a one-stop shop to connect with partners, subject-matter experts, and executives while learning how to make the most of your 麻豆原创 solutions. Explore each part of 麻豆原创鈥檚 spend management portfolio with demos for hands-on learning, booths to discover members of the 麻豆原创 partner ecosystem, and 鈥渆xpert bars鈥� where you can get answers to solution-specific questions. This year, we are introducing new ways to expand your knowledge with free, 30-minute, one-on-one solution consulting sessions and adoption labs where you can learn how to optimize your solutions.

Deepen Your Expertise with Exclusive In-Person, Pre-Conference Trainings

Make the most of your conference experience with on-site training at 麻豆原创 Spend Connect Live. These comprehensive, expert-led sessions will help increase your expertise in an era where upskilling is of the utmost importance. Take the opportunity to learn something new that will enable you to help achieve your organization鈥檚 procurement goals. Space is limited, so to secure your spot.

Connect with Peers at Celebration Night and Make a Difference at the Els Autism Charity Golf Tournament

Have you really visited Vegas if you haven鈥檛 had an awesome night out? With over 80,000 square feet of entertainment 鈥� including bowling lanes, six on-site bars, and live music 鈥� Celebration Night at will be one to remember. Don鈥檛 forget to catch mentalist Oz Pearlman for mind-boggling illusions!

In the mood for golf? Participate in the Els for Autism Charity Golf Challenge to make a difference in the lives of those living with autism and those who care for them. Space is limited, so be sure to reach out to your account executive to participate.

Take Advantage of the 鈥淏uy 4, Get 1 Free鈥� Registration Deal

Remember: what happens in Vegas鈥�蝉丑辞耻濒诲苍鈥檛 stay there! Join us this fall for a dynamic experience that will leave you with the tools to help bring out the best in your business.

Ready to sign up, but unsure how to get approval? Download our 鈥溾�� template to explain why your company needs representation at 麻豆原创 Spend Connect Live in 2024!

Etosha Thurman is chief marketing officer for Intelligent Spend and Business Network at 麻豆原创.  

At 麻豆原创, we鈥檝e designed our spend management and business network solutions with this in mind. , , , and help you spend less time bogged down by tactical work, giving you more time to focus on strategic initiatives.

Our market-leading solutions help provide complete visibility into your company spending, so your decisions are smarter and your time and money saved. And with AI becoming ubiquitous, we鈥檙e automating repetitive tasks and analyzing enterprise-wide spend analytics to identify tail spend, improve compliance, and identify rapidly increasing costs.

Artificial Intelligence Is Changing Everything About Enterprise Software

AI is revolutionizing the global business landscape and 麻豆原创 is at the forefront. We continuously embed new AI capabilities into our software to deliver intelligent spend management solutions to our customers. With our AI-infused products, work 鈥� and your workforce 鈥� can be more productive and supply chains more resilient.

At 麻豆原创 Sapphire in June, we announced more time- and cash-saving product enhancements that provide generative AI capabilities. Here are several of them:

• help procurement departments streamline the recruitment of external workers. Hiring managers can generate and maintain effective job descriptions, while project managers can deliver detailed statements of work (SOWs) more rapidly with the press of the 鈥淓nhance with AI鈥� button. This can enable businesses to quickly identify and engage contractors with the right skills and qualifications.
• Business owners and sales executives can now benefit from to help generate accurate and timely RFI responses to potential buyers consistently. This can result in a 2-4 times* increase in lead conversion and can reduce effort in responding to requests by up to 75%*.
• , which can quickly sort and contextualize data from multiple systems to help advance automation and improve decision-making, is expanding throughout 麻豆原创鈥檚 portfolio and will be embedded in 麻豆原创 Ariba solutions to help improve procurement processes and supply chain planning by the end of 2024.

The AI enhancements mentioned above are only a few examples of how we鈥檙e transforming spend management and how businesses approach procurement through AI. Check out our to see which new features will soon be available at your fingertips.

With the , I would be remiss in not mentioning that ! Released in April, connected customers can book tickets directly on the Amtrak website or mobile app, select the business booking path, and see their company鈥檚 negotiated rates while browsing. With skyrocketing airline ticket prices and the extra legroom, I鈥檓 on board with taking Amtrak to my next customer meeting.

Our Customers Are Winning

I could talk all day about how our customers are winning with 麻豆原创 spend management and business network solutions, but these customer examples speak for themselves:

• needed to meet growing demand as a global leader in autonomous mobility with business units for robotaxi, robotruck, and personally owned vehicles. After implementing 麻豆原创 Business Network and 麻豆原创 Ariba solutions, procurement cycle times were reduced by one week on average and the supplier qualification verification process sped up by three times.
• With the introduction of Japan鈥檚 electronic bookkeeping law, , a logistics real estate company, seized the opportunity to digitalize its expense reimbursement process and align with the new regulations simultaneously. It selected to help automate processes and eliminate manual workflows and now spends 80% less time on the expense reimbursement process.
• When wanted to gain deeper insights into its services-based spend activity and align procurement with environmental, social, and governance (ESG) commitments, the firm embraced 麻豆原创 Fieldglass solutions. With rich data on how suppliers deliver against an agreement, Accenture can now effectively tie services spend to individual contracts.

It’s Great Being #1

New honors from Ardent Partners, Procurement Magazine, and TrustRadius have us buzzing with gratitude.

Ardent Partners has positioned 麻豆原创 Fieldglass as a Market Leader in its .** It reads, 鈥溌槎乖� Fieldglass has consistently set the bar for the extended workforce solutions industry through a blend of innovation, advanced analytics, and total talent management functionality.鈥� For a more in-depth view of this win, check out this article from my colleague Vish Baliga.

Ardent Partners has also positioned 麻豆原创 as a Market Leader in its report.*** The firm evaluated 麻豆原创 Ariba Spend Analysis, 麻豆原创 Ariba Sourcing, 麻豆原创 Ariba Contracts, 麻豆原创 Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance, and 麻豆原创 Ariba Supplier Risk, determining that 鈥溌槎乖� has a very broad and deep set of solutions that expand well beyond strategic sourcing. Within strategic sourcing, 麻豆原创 has one of the strongest functional offerings, covering the needs of most user groups.鈥�

Procurement Magazine is an established, trusted, and leading voice on all things procurement, and we are honored that our 麻豆原创 spend management solutions are ranked No. 1 in two of their recent lists:

• on the Top 10 Mobile Procurement Apps List.
• on the Top 10 Spend Analyst Platforms List.

In May, TrustRadius announced that 麻豆原创 is the winner of 11 Top Rated awards in 2024. This includes all our flagship offerings in our spend management portfolio:

•  鈥� Procurement, Expense Management, and Supply Chain Management
•  鈥� Leader in Workforce Management, Vendor Management Systems (VMS), Contractor Management, and Freelance Management
• 聽鈥� Leader in Expense Management, Accounts Payable, and
•  鈥� Supply Chain Visibility Procurement

The  are annual awards that recognize the most trusted and reliable vendors on TrustRadius, based solely on customer satisfaction ratings in customer reviews. 麻豆原创 owes this recognition to our valued customers. Thank you for constantly inspiring us to be better. 

Join Us at 麻豆原创 Spend Connect Live

I hope to see you at the world鈥檚 premiere spend management conference, , which takes place October 14-16, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada. This event is a sure bet to learn how to achieve full visibility into your enterprise spend through 麻豆原创鈥檚 spend management solutions for procurement, external workforce, travel and expense, and business network.

Meet me at the intersection of procurement and supply chain to learn how analytics and 麻豆原创 Business AI can provide visibility into both. 麻豆原创 Spend Connect Live is a unique, in-person networking experience, where you鈥檒l connect with procurement and supply chain leaders from businesses and industries worldwide to share ideas, learn from each other’s success, and discuss best practices.

To learn more and register, visit the .

Jeff Collier is chief revenue officer for 麻豆原创 Intelligent Spend and Business Network.

*Disclaimer: Values mentioned in this blog post are estimates based on average industry benchmark numbers, resulting from an 麻豆原创 analysis. Customers interested in a specific business case calculation can consult their 麻豆原创 account team.
**Ardent Partners鈥� 2024 Vendor Management System (VMS) Technology Advisor is designed to help procurement, human resources, human capital, and talent acquisition executives navigate the complex and mature VMS solutions marketplace. This report analyzes and assesses the primary VMS solution providers in the marketplace today. You can .
***Ardent Partners鈥� 2024 Strategic Sourcing Technology Advisor is designed to help sourcing and procurement leaders navigate the strategic sourcing solution provider market. This report analyzes and assesses solution and market leaders in the strategic sourcing space today. You can .

According to , the makeup of the modern workforce is growing so complex that organizational leaders are realizing that their existing workforce management systems are inadequate for bridging the gap between internal and external contributors.

This doesn鈥檛 have to be the reality anymore, thanks to the expanded edition of the plan for 麻豆原创 Fieldglass solutions. Organizations can now create a consistent strategy and experience for their entire workforce 鈥� from planning and staffing to onboarding and payment. More important, the plan can empower business leaders to innovate strategies that address future disruption, accelerate capacity ramp-up, and reduce costs.

Setting a Higher Standard for Workforce Management

This expanded edition adds more adoption and utilization-driving features to the base subscription of the 麻豆原创 Preferred Success plan. Offering greater access to expert guidance, enhanced services, prescriptive reviews, and firsthand assistance with feature adoption, the expanded edition helps surround organizations with the guidance and conversations they need.

A product specialist orchestrates opportunities for an 麻豆原创 customer to collaborate closely with relevant experts. This includes regular calls to discuss and triage concerns, assess business processes and technology usage, review implementation calendar and plans, document the solution landscape, and deliver services and follow-up.

One enhanced service is a solution review. The one-on-one workshop is tailored to meet the needs and objectives for an effective and efficient operation of 麻豆原创 Fieldglass solutions, setting a higher standard for operational excellence. Engaging with 麻豆原创 experts, organizations can obtain recommendations and advice on solution configuration changes that can alleviate pain points, improve the user experience, and eliminate or reduce bottlenecks.

麻豆原创 experts dive even deeper into an organization鈥檚 specific organizational and workforce needs during the business review. This semiannual, remote, one-on-one workshop allows collaboration with experts to help ensure deployed 麻豆原创 Fieldglass solutions are optimized and aligned with evolving processes, strategies, and leading practices. Areas where new functionalities can be incorporated into the solutions are also assessed and identified, while business process improvements are considered based on KPI analysis.

The expanded edition also facilitates the activation of new features from 麻豆原创 Fieldglass solutions that are relevant to business goals and can further enhance the user experience. Assisted by experienced subject-matter experts, organizations can identify, evaluate, deploy, and measure the impact of new features. The new features can also be tested before going live to pinpoint potential effects and determine changes necessary to maximize adoption.

But the benefits of the expanded edition of 麻豆原创 Preferred Success for 麻豆原创 Fieldglass solutions don鈥檛 end there. It also includes cloud release guidance on new capabilities in the contingent workforce management solutions, allowing organizations to reach their goals on their terms and timelines. Before each release, 麻豆原创 experts identify release dates, notes, and crucial details surrounding new and sunsetting functionality to help organizational stakeholders stay current on what鈥檚 relevant to their business.

Moreover, managed learning resources are available through 麻豆原创 Learning Hub for up to five administrative users at no extra cost. This component of the expanded edition helps empower the workforce with guided, hands-on training that can maximize the organization鈥檚 investment in 麻豆原创 Fieldglass solutions. Access to learning content for all 麻豆原创 solutions can enable business teams to learn faster with a redesigned learning experience, innovate smarter, and manage their knowledge proactively.

Driving Resilience with a Well-Managed Workforce

The expanded edition of 麻豆原创 Preferred Success for 麻豆原创 Fieldglass solutions offers a comprehensive framework for , including contingent workers. The plan can empower organizations to navigate complexities and innovate strategies, achieving operational excellence and staying ahead in a dynamic landscape.

Ready to elevate the management of your workforce and forge a resilient path to future success? or contact your local 麻豆原创 representative to learn more about the expanded edition of 麻豆原创 Preferred Success for 麻豆原创 Fieldglass solutions.

John Wagner Jr. is global practice lead for 麻豆原创 Preferred Success at 麻豆原创.

With new integrations for , , and , as well as the incorporation of new generative AI features, we aim to automate and streamline procurement, supply chain, and external workforce management processes. These innovations will help empower organizations to access real-time spend data and focus on proactive decision-making, ultimately increasing their visibility and effectiveness.

As businesses continue to embrace advanced technologies, the integration of responsible, relevant, and reliable business AI and , 麻豆原创鈥檚 natural language, generative AI copilot, into the 麻豆原创 suite of solutions represents a significant leap forward in optimizing business processes and accelerating strategic initiatives. By harnessing the power of supply chain data alongside business AI and generative AI, we are setting the stage for practical procurement and workforce scenarios to thrive.

Joule Combined with 麻豆原创 Ariba and 麻豆原创 Analytics Cloud Can Improve Procurement Processes and Supply Chain Planning

Digital transformation has brought on endless potential for procurement teams, as embedded generative AI and increased access to data across the supply chain can lead to better visibility into spend. That is why we鈥檙e announcing further integration of Joule into our procurement solutions.

Later this year, will be generally available in 麻豆原创 Ariba solutions. Through this update, sourcing managers can utilize intelligent product and supplier recommendations to develop proposal requests. The combined platform will consider cost-effectiveness, sustainability ramifications, compliance regulations, and previous transactions.

Another new generative AI-based feature in 麻豆原创 Ariba solutions will migrate data from to help provide customers with a 360-degree buying user experience to enable a simple, agile, and collaborative process to identify products and skills in the same purchase order, otherwise known as spend bundling. Buyers can describe their purchasing needs with natural language prompts, and the system will deliver intelligent and personalized recommendations. This will help increase flexibility for buying materials and services, creating a collaborative and straightforward process from searching for products and services through order fulfillment.

To this end, we revealed a version of our generative AI-powered 麻豆原创 Spend Control Tower at 麻豆原创 Sapphire. The command center, which can provide a single location for enterprise-wide spend analytics, can identify tail spend, improve compliance, and constantly identify rapidly increasing costs. This will help create meaningful value for organizations by increasing end-to-end visibility to drive efficient spend performance. Find out how to take advantage of the solution鈥檚 native connections to other 麻豆原创 applications and improved insight to action .

Optimizing 麻豆原创 Fieldglass with Generative AI to Mitigate Risk

HR departments and procurement teams often struggle to collaborate, creating silos that limit the ability to identify proper external candidates who can fill skills gaps in organizations. The latest update to 麻豆原创 Fieldglass solutions will introduce embedded AI to help reduce risk and increase the value of the external workforce.

We are leveraging generative AI to produce scope of work (SOW) descriptions, job descriptions, and job description translations for external workers, automatically identifying the required skills and qualifications for each organization. This will help remove data silos to enable total workforce management, an organizational strategy to provide visibility into all temporary and permanent employees.

Additionally, 麻豆原创 Fieldglass solutions enhanced with generative AI can rank candidates based on salary preference, skills, and experience. Procurement teams can then identify the best candidates in an unbiased manner to reduce the time to hire, ultimately accelerating strategic decision-making. These added facets will help enhance planning and preparation for all external talent scenarios.

Introducing New Enhancements to 麻豆原创 Business Network

One of the highest priorities for any supply chain professional is to ensure their people, processes, and technology are resilient. Supply chain resilience extends beyond being able to withstand disruptions 鈥� it includes visibility into all activity and agility to react quickly to find and secure alternative sources of supply.

In fact, 麻豆原创 was recognized as a Leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Multi-Enterprise Supply Chain Commerce Network 2023 Vendor Assessment* and by TrustRadius as a .

Our latest modernization of 麻豆原创 Business Network helps enhance customers鈥� communication channels with trading partners for increased visibility and agility. Improved integrations between 麻豆原创 Business Network Supply Chain Collaboration and 麻豆原创 Business Network Material Traceability can allow suppliers to share product genealogy data to help ensure full traceability and compliance across the supply chain. Additional links between 麻豆原创 Business Network Supply Chain Collaboration and 麻豆原创 Business Network Freight Collaboration will help automate updates for inbound deliveries, simplifying management of carrier appointments and shipments.

Enhancements to the 麻豆原创 Business Network Asset Collaboration solution will help increase access to millions of supplier profiles from whom alternative products can be found. These new features across 麻豆原创 Business Network solutions will work to reduce silos between and within organizations, resulting in significant time and cost savings with fewer manual steps in processing work orders.

Strategic Investment Across the 麻豆原创 Suite of Solutions

麻豆原创 has augmented integrations across its entire portfolio of spend management and business network solutions, aiming to improve efficiency. By investing in technology that provides catered and end-to-end solutions, customers can have all-encompassing visibility to all business processes, from procurement of raw materials to delivery of the final product.

What we shared at 麻豆原创 Sapphire will only improve relationships between buyers, suppliers, logistics providers, and service providers across the supply chain, developing a larger view of all functions and employees. This will lead to better decision-making, increased productivity, and improved agility.

Manoj Swaminathan is chief product and technology officer for Intelligent Spend and Business Network at 麻豆原创.

*Source: 鈥�,鈥� #US49948423, December 2023.

This recognition is especially gratifying as we continue to invest in enhancements and new functionality that make the 麻豆原创 Fieldglass portfolio the benchmark for VMS innovation. Every day, we focus on empowering organizations to:

• Automate the procurement of external workers and services
• Build a strong external workforce and talent ecosystem
• Enable visibility across their extended workforce
• Use analytics and machine learning to engage and manage top talent
• Track and report on all their external workers
• Onboard, manage, and pay multiple resources for multiple assignments

Because of our focus on innovation, we all know the best is yet to come. New enhancements include the use of generative AI to help create and translate job descriptions, as well as to help produce statement of work descriptions. Even more powerful AI enhancements are planned for later this year that will continue to enhance productivity and streamline processes across hiring and workforce management. We will also continue to improve the user experience. And for midsize organizations, we are planning to deliver out-of-the-box solutions that are simpler to deploy.

We will continue to deliver innovations that enable organizations to deploy 鈥� referred to as 鈥渢otal talent management鈥� by Ardent Partners 鈥� across the enterprise.

Recognizing the Strengths of 麻豆原创 Fieldglass

鈥淲ith a firm commitment to extended workforce innovation and the integration of AI-based tools into total talent management, 麻豆原创 Fieldglass continues to deliver next-generation automation and powerful value within the Future of Work movement,鈥� said Christopher J. Dwyer, SVP of Research at Ardent Partners and author of the new study. 鈥溌槎乖� Fieldglass remains an ideal platform for both procurement and HR leaders to reimagine their contingent workforce initiatives and transform the ways non-employee talent supports work optimization.鈥�

In its assessment of 麻豆原创 Fieldglass solutions, Ardent Partners highlighted some of the portfolio鈥檚 strengths. Here are excerpts from the report:

• Spend management integration: 鈥溌槎乖� Fieldglass is a pioneer in delivering the 鈥榮pend management鈥� attributes of extended workforce management via on-demand supplier intelligence and guided, proactive spend and financial data. With its tight integration into 麻豆原创 Ariba solutions, 麻豆原创 Fieldglass Vendor Management System enables users with a series of real-time insights into the critical spend components of the external workforce.鈥�
• Automation of statement of work (SOW) management: 鈥溌槎乖� Fieldglass offers a powerful SOW management and services procurement module that was designed to optimize this extended workforce subcategory in a data-driven, value-added manner. This solution offers a unique and flexible design that enhances SOW creation, management, and reconciliation.鈥�
• A 鈥渙ne-stop鈥� experience for talent information: 鈥溌槎乖� Build Work Zone offers real-time visibility into all workforce (both extended and traditional) attributes through a centralized entry point that brings together 麻豆原创 Fieldglass, other 麻豆原创 systems (particularly 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors and 麻豆原创 Ariba), and third-party integrations. 麻豆原创 Build Work Zone can serve as a powerful 鈥榦ne-stop shop鈥� experience for critical talent information.鈥�
• AI leadership: 鈥溌槎乖� Fieldglass is at the forefront to AI revolution with its fully-embedded generative AI capabilities, including advanced job description automation, real-time talent recommendations, and on-demand pay rate intelligence. The company has built on its already-robust predictive analytics and scenario-building capabilities with added AI-led functionality that provides real-time rate guidance.鈥�
• Total workforce management: 鈥溌槎乖� Fieldglass is focused on delivering comprehensive 鈥樷�� with an offering that combines external workforce and FTE management with a single, global view. Key integrations with 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors build on this solution with connections into 麻豆原创 Analytics Cloud reporting, human capital offerings (like learning and development), candidate experience automation, and a 鈥榬ecommendation engine鈥� that is embedded across the talent acquisition process.鈥�

Ardent Partners鈥� assessment also praised how 麻豆原创 Fieldglass solutions can simplify assignment management, calling it a 鈥渃ore differentiator.鈥� For managing light industrial, blue collar, and services-heavy labor for asset-heavy industries, the 麻豆原创 Fieldglass portfolio includes end-to-end capabilities like timeclocks and badging, purchase order management, equipment tracking, resource management, and dynamic bill rate management.

Recommendations from Ardent Partners

How do 麻豆原创 Fieldglass solutions fit the needs of organizations looking to purchase a new VMS, or upgrade from their current one? 鈥溌槎乖� Fieldglass deserves strong consideration from enterprises that are seeking a trusted, global, innovative, end-to-end provider that presents cutting-edge technology that converges with total talent management and artificial intelligence,” Ardent Partners concludes. The report suggests the portfolio deserves consideration for these customer scenarios:

• 鈥淏usinesses that desire AI-led tools and technology to guide talent decisions, fuse intelligence into workforce management, and provide real-time staffing insights.鈥�
• 鈥淐ompanies that need a VMS partner that can optimize enterprise-level services procurement spend and SOW management with innovative functionality.鈥�
• 鈥淥rganizations that seek a VMS platform that focuses on Future of Work readiness and skills-based hiring.鈥�

Vish Baliga is chief technology officer for 麻豆原创 Fieldglass.

Ardent Partners鈥� 2024 Vendor Management System (VMS) Technology Advisor is designed to help procurement, human resources, human capital, and talent acquisition executives navigate the complex and mature VMS solutions marketplace. This report analyzes and assesses the primary VMS solution providers in the marketplace today. You can .

Like at home, identifying every dollar you spend and getting the most out of it is more critical than ever for your business. And as we continue to roll out 麻豆原创 Business AI technology, the teams behind 麻豆原创 solutions are working on ways to help you reduce the time spent on mundane tasks so you can focus on executing your strategy, unlocking spend potential, and unleashing efficiency.

The first quarter of 2024 was among the most productive in my 18 years at 麻豆原创. We debuted new AI capabilities in various 麻豆原创 spend management solutions. Check out some of these highlights:

• 麻豆原创 Ariba Category Management: We鈥檝e incorporated that can assist category managers by generating recommendations in the solution鈥檚 category segmentation, market dynamics, and cost structure tools.
• Scoutbee Discovery: 麻豆原创 partnered with Scoutbee, a leading AI-powered supplier intelligence and discovery platform, to launch . This 麻豆原创 endorsed app can rapidly identify qualified suppliers that meet specific criteria and can help advance strategic business imperatives. of me participating in a recent LinkedIn Live with the Scoutbee team.
• Concur Request: Now, this service uses generative AI to help provide for trip planning.
• ExpenseIt: Users can upload receipt images to the ExpenseIt solution, which taps AI to help with several key fields prepopulated. Plus, ExpenseIt can now itemize hotel folios using generative AI.
• Generative AI search: A new capability within Concur Support allows 麻豆原创 Concur customers to type questions in natural language and get quick answers using generative AI, .

麻豆原创鈥檚 market-leading spend and business network solutions are getting even smarter, working to unlock greater value for our customers. We have many resources devoted to spend management and that鈥檚 why we continue to deliver innovation in spend management.

And we are only getting started. By the end of 2024,  is planning the following enhancements:

• Generative AI RFI/RFP responses in 麻豆原创 Business Network Discovery: With generative AI-enabled responses for postings in 麻豆原创 Business Network Discovery, suppliers will be able to respond to RFIs promptly and more accurately, helping to save time and reduce costs associated with manual labor and resource allocation.聽聽
• Catalog enrichment using ChatGPT recommendations: This feature can enable suppliers to generate and improve product descriptions and overall catalog quality based on prompts and keyword recommendations from ChatGPT.聽
• Intelligent error simplification using generative AI:聽This feature uses machine learning and a large language model to interpret and categorize invoice rejection reasons, allowing suppliers to reduce the number of failing invoices, improve rapid invoice submission and payment, and optimize cash flow.

For more on how AI is transforming business networks, read this recent article from my colleague Joern Keller.

But What Are Our Customers Saying?

Each quarter, G2 highlights the top rated solutions in the industry, chosen by the source that matters most: customers. Spring 2024 is no different, and once again our suite of spend and business network solutions scored extremely well.

• is a G2 Spring Leader in Vendor Management.
• is a G2 Spring Leader in Procure to Pay, Purchasing, Strategic Sourcing, Supplier Relationship Management, and Contract Lifecycle Management.
• is a G2 Spring Leader in Expense, Travel & Expense, and Invoicing.

What鈥檚 more, G2 recently announced its , with 麻豆原创 Fieldglass and 麻豆原创 Concur receiving high honors:

• 麻豆原创 Fieldglass came in at No. 26 in G2鈥檚 Best Software Awards across all products and No. 12 in G2鈥檚 Best Software Awards for best midmarket products.
• 麻豆原创 Concur came in at No. 4 in G2鈥檚 Best Software Awards for the account and software product category.

My colleagues are also getting their flowers. Etosha Thurman, chief marketing and solutions officer of Intelligent Spend and Business Network, and Steve Seide, global head of Adoption for Intelligent Spend and Business Network, were named Top Procurement Pros in the . A big congratulations also goes out to Darcy MacClaren, CRO for 麻豆原创 Digital Supply Chain, who received a Pros to Know Lifetime Achievement award.

Driving Success for Our Customers

Hearing me spotlight our direct and indirect procurement, external workforce, and travel and expense management solutions is one thing. Seeing them in action is something way more powerful. Here are a few recent customer success stories to take in:

• American Eagle Outfitters (AEO), a leading global specialty retailer offering high-quality on-trend clothing, accessories, and personal care products through its portfolio of brands, needed to evaluate indirect purchasing processes and vendor relationships to maximize efficiency. See how helped simplify processes and deliver compliant purchasing protocols across the company.
• Power provider to over 900,000 electric customers, Oklahoma Gas & Electric Company (OG&E) faced challenges with the complexity of third-party and cross-department management of contingent workers. After transitioning 麻豆原创 Fieldglass solutions to internal management, OG&E gained the visibility to make more informed financial decisions, like supplier negotiations.
• Vestas Wind Systems, the world鈥檚 largest manufacturer of wind turbines, launched a large-scale quality initiative powered by 麻豆原创 Business Network to help mitigate product defects in a highly complex supply chain. Now, using 麻豆原创 Business Network, suppliers complete predefined quality tests and document them before confirming or sending an order. This enables Vestas employees to be warned in advance of any quality issues further up the supply chain, so they can take corrective action.
• Most KUKA employees are based in Germany, where tax regulation is complex and submitting hotel and entertainment expenses is anything but simple. The KUKA team worked together to develop a simple process using 麻豆原创 Concur solutions, connected to 麻豆原创 ERP, that allows employees to create hotel and entertainment expenses with fewer errors and fewer rejected expense reports.

Join Us at 麻豆原创 Sapphire!

麻豆原创 Sapphire & ASUG Annual Conference is June 3-5 in Orlando, Florida, this year and I can鈥檛 wait to meet with customers, partners, and my fellow colleagues. This is the best event in the industry in my opinion and you don鈥檛 want to miss out. Join us by registering on the , where you can also save your spot at the 麻豆原创 Sapphire Virtual and 麻豆原创 Sapphire Barcelona events. See you there!

Jeff Collier is chief revenue officer for 麻豆原创 Intelligent Spend and Business Network.

These are among the findings of the newly released , conducted by and sponsored by 麻豆原创. In examining the current state of services procurement, the study seeks to answer two basic questions: Is procurement moving beyond the role of 鈥渁 pass-through for services contracts鈥�? And how are procurement teams using new approaches and technology to innovate services procurement?

The Challenges of Procuring Services

Whether it鈥檚 for IT consulting, marketing services, facilities management, or legal services, procuring services through a third party gives organizations access to personnel with advanced skills and expertise. It can also be cost-effective.

Business leaders have taken note, as highlighted in . 鈥淥n average, professional services spending comprises between 45% and 65% of an organization鈥檚 total non-employee spending,鈥� Ardent reports.

However, acquiring these services requires a significant level of procurement sophistication. Many services are too complex to fit neatly into a catalog and sourcing them requires organizations to consider key questions, including:

• Are we buying labor or an outcome?
• What is the cost mechanism 鈥� daily rates, time and materials, fixed-fee?
• Can we balance risk with agility?
• How do we maintain our service provider relationship?

Procurement teams have the expertise to bring a higher level of maturity to professional services. They provide a strategic approach that streamlines everything from sourcing and contracting to invoicing and vendor management. But are businesses taking full advantage of their expertise?

Three Things the Study Tells Us

The Art of Procurement study reveals a lot about the state of professional services procurement. Here are a few of my thoughts 鈥� from a global perspective.

Many organizations aren鈥檛 benefiting from technology.

Fifty percent of respondents said they purchase services contracts via e-mail and phone, and 23% buy from the same procurement catalogs they use to buy goods. Only 27% use a technology platform designed for services procurement.

Choosing not to use services procurement technology creates compliance and governance challenges. It also limits buyers鈥� ability to get the best pricing. Moreover, e-mails and phone calls don鈥檛 provide a secure, centralized data trail, which is useful for demand planning and forecasting and for making strategic decisions about insourcing and outsourcing.

Too often, bidders seek fixed pricing. That inhibits innovation.

Seventy-nine percent of respondents said they use some form of fixed pricing to buy services. Although this allows them to know the price up front, it also presents challenges. For example, with fixed pricing, statements of work must be tightly written to detail exact project requirements. Otherwise, businesses could pay for more than they receive.

The Art of Procurement research also notes 鈥渁 worrisome lack of risk and reward mechanisms in services procurement contracts.鈥� It warns that disregarding these innovative mechanisms can jeopardize supplier relationships and stifle innovation. 鈥淲ithout clear incentives for success and mitigations for failure, procurement could unintentionally foster a transactional, short-term mindset in suppliers, leading to cut corners or a reluctance to invest in long-term innovation.鈥�

Organizations prefer single project bids, which are less efficient.

In the survey, 39% of respondents said they set rates by project. Managing bids one by one forces businesses to go back to the market continuously 鈥� requiring more proposals, more negotiation, and more contracts.

But there鈥檚 also good news. The remaining 61% of respondents say they use either frameworks or preferred supplier panels to drive efficiency. A framework is a general agreement with pre-qualified suppliers, outlining terms and conditions under which specific goods or services will be procured. Panels are groups of pre-approved suppliers, selected for their ability to deliver specific services. These suppliers meet specific qualification criteria and have undergone a competitive selection process.

Overall, the Art of Procurement study paints a picture where procurement is not putting forth its expertise to help the business acquire and manage professional services. As such, it is conceding its strategic role to stakeholders and suppliers.

How Technology Can Help Turn the Tide

The Art of Procurement study advises procurement teams to 鈥渟elect and implement technology with breadth in mind, aiming to address as much services spend as possible rather than allowing pockets of sourcing activity to flow through non-standard platforms and processes.鈥�

is a broad technology application that can simplify how external services projects are initiated, engaged, managed, and completed. It can enable procurement teams to:

• Initiate service requests with competitive bidding, facilitating collaboration on bid criteria with colleagues, expedited approvals for authorized terms and budgets, and distribution of bids to services providers.
• Engage selected vendors through a negotiation process that follows a side-by-side evaluation of all responses, and then finalize an agreement.
• Manage global services engagements within a single, centralized system 鈥� securely onboarding workers, tracking deliverables, validating work, and generating invoices.
• Complete the project with automated offboarding, including terminating system access, retrieving assets, and giving performance feedback.

麻豆原创 Fieldglass has been named to the G2 list of , based on user reviews. It is also one of G2鈥檚 .

Procurement Must Lead the Way

Based on the findings of the Art of Procurement study, it鈥檚 clear that organizations need to adopt a more mature approach to services procurement. Procurement teams have the expertise to lead this transformation, although they must do more to assert themselves within the business. Technology can help accelerate this by enabling procurement to establish consistent, end-to-end processes for initiating, engaging, and managing external service projects.

Read the Art of Procurement report .

Gordon Donovan is global vice president of Research, 麻豆原创 Procurement, and External Workforce at 麻豆原创.

A total workforce management strategy allows businesses to keep the whole workforce in focus for increased agility, productivity, and bottom-line impact.  

OG&E’s experience with contingent and contract labor is unique. Despite the 121 years under its belt, OG&E has embraced the changing landscape of employment with open arms. For over 25 years, OG&E has been utilizing 麻豆原创 solutions, including for over a decade. Together with the HR solutions of , 麻豆原创 Fieldglass solutions 鈥� a comprehensive vendor management portfolio for external labor 鈥� help pave the way for the successful workforce management of permanent and contingent and contract labor.聽

The challenge lies in determining which positions to fill with contingent workers or profile workers, a process OG&E has mastered over the years. The decision hinges on the specific skills required and the immediacy and duration of the need. This flexible approach has enabled OG&E to successfully bring in workers with diverse profiles for various projects, such as its recent 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors Human Experience Management (HXM) Suite implementation project.

Ownership of this process is shared between the departments of HR, the business units, and procurement, reflecting a trend observed across various organizations. A study conducted in 2022 revealed that HR was responsible for external worker functions about 51% of the time.* This is a testament to the rising importance of contingent and profile workers and the need for HR to engage them effectively.

However, this process isn鈥檛 without its complexities, necessitating collaboration between HR and procurement. Issues such as rate cards and other procurement-specific processes require strong cooperation between the two functions.  

Previously, a lack of comprehensive understanding about OG&E鈥檚 workforce made everyday HR and finance decisions increasingly challenging. The management of contingent workers through 麻豆原创 Fieldglass solutions was handled by a third party. However, the transition to internal management provided more visibility.  

This has empowered OG&E to make more informed decisions. For example, OG&E had 10 excellent candidates from different suppliers for a position, two of which came at a significantly higher cost. Recognizing the value of the other eight candidates, it challenged the high markup, resulting in one supplier lowering its rate. This type of negotiation was previously not possible for OG&E due to the lack of visibility, but now it’s an integral part of the process. 

In contrast, Brightspeed, a company that has recently started out, is managing a dynamic workforce of  4,200 employees and almost as many contractors. Its mission? To lay high-speed fiber in the South and Midwest of the United States. Alongside this, it also had a recent divestiture from Lumen, with hundreds of inherited applications and a fresh contingent workforce.

But its workforce needs are ever-evolving. With a contingent workforce that ebbs and flows according to the company’s needs, Brightspeed is flexible and can adapt, from field workers laying fiber to IT specialists building new applications.

Brightspeed utilized 麻豆原创’s suite of applications to help streamline its operations post-divestiture. Lumen had already implemented 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors solutions and 麻豆原创 Fieldglass solutions, so Brightspeed decided to create a seamless transition and continue to use these solutions. The suite it uses now includes 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors solutions, 麻豆原创 Fieldglass solutions, and 麻豆原创 S/4HANA.

The 麻豆原创 Fieldglass portfolio is used to help manage contingent workers. Within this context, Brightspeed鈥檚 managed service provider plays a crucial role. It liaises with the hiring manager, handles candidate selection, and ultimately delivers the temporary worker in 麻豆原创 Fieldglass solutions. These workers are then trained in compliance and technical procedures, with all the information interfaced back into 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors Learning. From an 麻豆原创 S/4HANA perspective, cost center project activities and other elements are pushed out to its time system and raw time is imported to 麻豆原创 S/4HANA, capturing millions of dollars in project cost every pay period.

However, the journey wasn’t without its challenges. As a young company, Brightspeed had a massive task ahead of it in getting these systems up and running in just 10 months. The team successfully navigated this initial hurdle, but soon realized it hadn’t fully prepared for the post-go-live period due to the compressed implementation period. This led to a challenging few months, as it scrambled to train personnel and resolve system errors. Despite this, the team has since stabilized operations.

As these examples show, the role of contingent and profile workers is evolving and becoming increasingly integral to the success of organizations. They are no longer just field workers but are being relied upon for specific skill sets. This allows companies like Brightspeed and OG&E to stay agile, adapt to business needs, and manage their contingent and profile workers as well as their permanent employees.

A , when done right, can leverage the full potential of a diverse workforce and make companies more agile. 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors solutions and 麻豆原创 Fieldglass solutions can work together to help create and manage a dynamic, flexible workforce that can easily adapt. The experiences of OG&E and Brightspeed highlight the importance of strategic planning and the effective use of technological tools in managing the workforce.

Andrea Domhardt is part of Product Marketing for 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors.

*鈥淲orkforce Solutions Buyer Survey 2022, Americas,鈥� Staffing Industry Analysts, 2022.

That鈥檚 why we鈥檝e built our industry-leading suite of spend management solutions that span direct and indirect procurement, external workforce, and travel and expense management. These solutions help you gain visibility into your supply chains, procure what鈥檚 critical to get the job done, and protect your bottom line 鈥� whether you鈥檙e simplifying expense, travel, and accounts payable processes, or finding the right talent to ensure your company鈥檚 profitability.

With our core commitment to 麻豆原创 Business AI, we are focused on applying generative AI technology to all categories of spend. Like my colleague says, we鈥檙e 鈥渄riving efficiency, quality, and insight into processes that cut across spend management.鈥� Here are we鈥檙e hard at work on.

Our spend management and business network solutions continue evolving and improving with time 鈥� and 2024 will be no different. But before I get ahead of myself, let鈥檚 reflect on the incredible last half of 2023, which has laid the foundation for all the amazing innovation to come in 2024.

Enhancing Your Control over Company Spend 

New enhancements to 麻豆原创 Ariba solutions, 麻豆原创 Concur solutions, and 麻豆原创 Business Network can take spend management from the most mundane part of your day to the most strategic. Here are a few enhancements we announced late last year:

• Region-specific strategy and planning for category management: Different regions of the world require different procurement strategies. The ability to in 麻豆原创 Ariba Category Management is now a reality. With its advanced analytics, AI-driven insights, and integrated frameworks and tools, users of 麻豆原创 Ariba Category Management can reap the benefits of data-driven decision-making, identification of strategic sourcing opportunities, and mitigation of risks.
• The biggest Concur Travel release to date: As we continue rolling out the globally, the new end-to-end booking experience became available for customers whose travel management companies use the Sabre GDS from the U.S. point of sale for air, hotel, and car rental bookings. Congratulations to all our customers that made the strategic switch.
• Supplier catalogs within 麻豆原创 Business Network: With the newly released , suppliers can upload a catalog that is publicly searchable and viewable by buyers on the network. With a network catalog, suppliers can maintain a single list of all the products they offer, creating high-quality buyers looking for the exact items listed. More improvements to the catalog and user demos are coming your way soon.

Customer Love

With Valentine’s Day coming up, it鈥檚 only right to brag about all the customer love we鈥檝e been receiving. Words of affirmation is our love language.

• 麻豆原创 Fieldglass is the .
• 麻豆原创 Ariba is the .
• 麻豆原创 Concur is the in Expense, Travel & Expense, and Invoicing.

To top it off, , , and swept the 2023聽鈥淏est Of鈥� Awards from TrustRadius! TrustRadius, the most trusted review site for business technology, also released more wins for our spend management solutions:

• is Top Rated in Workforce Management, Contractor Management, Freelance Management, and Vendor Management Systems (VMS).
• is Top Rated聽in Procurement, Expense Management, and Supply Chain Management.
• is Top Rated in Expense Management, Travel Management, and Accounts Payable.

麻豆原创 Recognized by IDC MarketScape

I am also thrilled to announce that 麻豆原创 was positioned as a Leader in the聽IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Multi-Enterprise Supply Chain Commerce Network 2023 Vendor Assessment.*

According to the assessment report, 鈥溌槎乖� Business Network is a comprehensive B2B collaboration platform that connects people, processes, and systems across multiple enterprises, digitizing transactions and creating transparent, resilient, and sustainable supply chains.鈥�

The report highlights these 麻豆原创 strengths:

• Depth and breadth of product features, functionality, future road map covering all major B2B collaboration categories (indirect, direct material, MRO logistics, financial, services, sustainability), and scenarios in an end-user, persona-based manner
• Integration and extensibility capabilities including integration between 麻豆原创 ERP, 麻豆原创 procurement modules, and other applications (other ERP, SCAM, and customer applications) and technologies (machine learning, AI, blockchain) through 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform
• Global adoption and breadth of collaboration among the industry’s largest, highly adopted B2B collaboration platforms, enabling trading partners to collaborate in real time
• Ongoing efforts to harmonize commerce, asset intelligence, and logistics continue to enhance the power of the connected economy.

Thank you to our customers and my colleagues for collaborating on this fantastic win.

Customer Success Stories

Al Dahra, one of the world鈥檚 largest agribusiness logistics companies, manages food and animal feed supply chains from its home in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to countries around the globe. to gain greater visibility into daily operations and as its digital solution to connect the company with its partners and clients.

Building material manufacturer Heidelberg Materials AG knew that visibility across its supplier base was key to enabling the smart decision-making that would help it improve financial performance while meeting sustainability goals. See how it achieved this by .

Watch how Chobani, America’s top Greek yogurt brand, uses to fully automate its expense processes.

BT Group aims to be the world鈥檚 most trusted connector of people, devices, and machines. Read how it to deliver a modernized, connected colleague experience.

Register for 麻豆原创 Concur Fusion

If you鈥檙e lucky enough to attend this year, don鈥檛 miss my colleague Etosha Thurman, chief marketing & solutions officer for 麻豆原创 Intelligent Spend and Business Network, presenting in the keynote. She will be demonstrating transformative AI in 麻豆原创 Concur travel, expense, and invoicing solutions, and how we鈥檙e creating a world where travel and expenses can practically manage themselves.

Jeff Collier is chief revenue officer for 麻豆原创 Intelligent Spend and Business Network.

*Source: 鈥�,” by Simon Ellis, December 2023, IDC #US49948423.

This is our long-standing strategy, and we have no plans to change something that clearly benefits our customers. No one knows this space better than 麻豆原创. The introduction of 麻豆原创 Ariba solutions more than 25 years ago revolutionized procurement processes for businesses. We鈥檝e taken the investment, innovation, and integration across our product line to deliver a complete portfolio of solutions. 麻豆原创 Ariba is the future of procurement, and everything procurement at 麻豆原创 is now 麻豆原创 Ariba.

麻豆原创 also understands that what works for one business, one industry, or one geography, may not play in another. Businesses need to choose the right source-to-pay solution partner 鈥� with a platform and ecosystem poised to ensure their procurement teams have the tools and actionable data they need to succeed in their increasingly essential and strategic roles.

As we鈥檝e listened to our customers and the market, here is what they have told us are their critical requirements:

• The ability to see and analyze spend across all categories
• Intelligence-driven category management that leverages analytics, spend data, and market intelligence
• Robust contract management functionality
• Automated management of external labor and services
• Practical AI use cases that drive efficiency across the procurement process

Within the source-to-pay landscape, 麻豆原创 delivers integrated solutions to help manage all forms of spend. Our solutions comprise a full suite of enterprise-level functionality spanning sourcing, category management, buying and invoicing, services procurement, supplier relationship management, contract management, and spend analytics. Additionally, we enable businesses to connect with suppliers across 190 countries via 麻豆原创 Business Network.

As you evaluate source-to-pay solution partners, consider the following:

• The source-to-pay landscape is changing quickly. Stay current. Today, everyone鈥檚 perspective on the source-to-pay technology landscape is vastly different than it was even half a year ago. Be mindful of how your business is evolving, and assess providers based on how their vision and road map align with your future needs.
• 鈥淏est of breed鈥� doesn鈥檛 always mean 鈥渂est for your business.鈥� 麻豆原创 has demonstrated that in addition to the breadth of our solutions for source to pay, we can enable businesses to address their global requirements, handle high transaction volumes, and integrate into many back-end ERP systems.
• 麻豆原创鈥檚 ecosystem of partners enables us to deliver advanced functionality to our customers. We remain committed to ongoing development of core, native capabilities across our source-to-pay portfolio. At the same, our strategy is to augment this development in some areas with innovation and advanced functionality through partners. This allows us to add significant value rapidly for our customers.
• Having access to a global network of suppliers is a game changer. 麻豆原创 Business Network, which can extend the source-to-pay process beyond the walls of any business, can give our customers unmatched access to a global marketplace of trading partners. In 2023, annual commerce on the network reached US$5.3T, with 746M B2B transactions.

Five Ways 麻豆原创 Is Addressing Customers鈥� Strategic Needs

麻豆原创 has demonstrated its ability to balance product modernization, innovation, and our larger vision to enhance procurement capabilities in 麻豆原创 S/4HANA with delivery of cutting-edge innovations that benefit our customers. Here鈥檚 how we鈥檙e addressing the critical requirements mentioned earlier.

The Ability to See and Analyze Spend Across All Categories

In our conversations with customers all over the world, this is one of their top asks. They are also asking for greater visibility into spend that impacts their sustainability goals.

Last fall we unveiled 麻豆原创 Spend Control Tower, which offers advanced AI features and the ability to see across all spend in 麻豆原创 cloud ERP solutions, 麻豆原创 Ariba solutions, and 麻豆原创 Fieldglass solutions. Visibility into data from 麻豆原创 Concur solutions, 麻豆原创 Business Network, and non-麻豆原创 solutions is also on our road map. This can enable businesses to uncover cost-saving opportunities and process improvements. 麻豆原创 Spend Control Tower is expected to be available in the second half of 2024. .

Intelligence-Driven Category Management

In our and research with Economist Impact, category management was ranked as a top driver of digital transformation in procurement. Driven by this and our extensive market analysis, 麻豆原创 released the solution last summer, empowering businesses to realize better results in this critical area.

The solution can streamline category strategy development, execution, and monitoring at scale. Additionally, it can enable organizations to optimize source-to-settle processes with embedded analytics enriched with spend data and market intelligence. .

Robust Contract Management Functionality

麻豆原创 understands the importance of balancing risk and profitability within source to pay. To provide the additional advanced contract management capabilities our customers need, we entered into an expanded partnership with Icertis in 2022. This partnership helps ensure a joint product road map and deeper technological integration between 麻豆原创 and Icertis solutions.

For 麻豆原创 customers, integration with Icertis Contract Intelligence can allow them access to best-in-class innovations such as smart authoring, AI-assisted risk identification, obligation management, contract-driven insights for decision support, and the ability to have one contracting system for both sales and procurement 鈥� a capability no other source-to-pay solution offers.

Based on user evaluations, 麻豆原创 Ariba solutions received these leader badges from .

Automated Management of External Labor and Services

Sometimes overlooked within the source-to-pay discussion is services procurement. That鈥檚 changing. A 2023 report said 72% of enterprises plan to focus more extensively on ROI in their services procurement and statement-of-work management activities. The goal is to manage external labor and services strategically, applying the same process rigor there as with any other procurement category.

solutions can enable you to transform how you find, engage, and manage contingent workers and services providers to maximize business value.

Practical AI Use Cases

麻豆原创 is embedding AI throughout the spend management process to help eliminate the mundane and elevate the strategic. Current use cases range from auto-complete and recommendation engines leveraging traditional AI and machine learning, to generative AI functions that can automate complex procurement processes. In 2024, we will continue to develop 麻豆原创 Business AI use cases that help drive efficiency across spend management processes. .

In the Words of Our Customers鈥�

More confirmation that 麻豆原创鈥檚 source-to-pay strategy is sound can be seen in the results we鈥檙e delivering for our customers. Here鈥檚 what they鈥檙e saying:

鈥淸麻豆原创 Ariba] has no comparison in the market. No other software is even close. Best part is, once our supply chain executives get using it, they simply fall in love with it鈥avings are immense.鈥�

, via TrustRadius

鈥淸麻豆原创 Ariba] stacks up by being a great, user-friendly platform that is easy to use.鈥�

, via TrustRadius

麻豆原创 Ariba Sweeps the 2023 TrustRadius 鈥淏est Of鈥� Awards

Each year, TrustRadius issues awards to vendors who provide the best offerings in their category. In 2023, 麻豆原创 Ariba solutions won all four awards based on customer satisfaction ratings.

Leaning In to Our Source-to-Pay Strategy

As we鈥檝e seen in the input from our customers, as well as assessments from analyst organizations like IDC, 麻豆原创鈥檚 source-to-pay strategy is producing solutions that help businesses run better. And that is 麻豆原创鈥檚 mission, plain and simple. In 2024, we鈥檒l lean in to deliver solutions and innovations that continue to outpace the competition across the source-to-pay technology landscape.

Baber Farooq is senior vice president and head of Market Strategy for 麻豆原创 Procurement Solutions.
Salvatore Lombardo is senior vice president, chief product officer, and head of Engineering for 麻豆原创 Procurement.

It was also the year when business leaders worldwide decided enough is enough. They began taking steps to future proof their supply chains. And we can鈥檛 forget that 2023 was the year when generative AI came to dominate every conversation about technology.

Now it鈥檚 time to look ahead. Where will world events, business developments, and technology innovations take spend management in 2024? What strategies and technology will business leaders employ to bring greater resilience and efficiency to their supply chains?

Here are predictions for 2024, from 麻豆原创鈥檚 intelligent spend and business network leaders.

鈥淚n 2023, generative AI was like a bolt of lightning that compelled every business and technology leader to sit up and take notice. We鈥檙e no longer asking if businesses will adopt AI technology, but rather how quickly they can deploy it and realize its benefits. In 2024, businesses leaders will look beyond the industry buzz for solutions that deliver real-life, AI-based use cases. They鈥檒l also see firsthand that AI is only as effective as the quality and availability of data. With the huge number of data and transactions running through our and , 麻豆原创 is uniquely positioned to help organizations access the data they need, visualize it, and take decisive action to drive their success.鈥�

鈥� , President and Chief Product Officer,
麻豆原创 Intelligent Spend and Business Network,
and General Manager for 麻豆原创 Business Network

鈥淎s we enter 2024, procurement organizations will continue to focus on cost containment and supply continuity in order to bring value to their businesses. These have traditionally been the primary value drivers and, in today鈥檚 economic environment, I see this continuing. The opportunity will be maintaining the expanded voice earned with stakeholders during the volatile, crisis-riddled past few years, given the resurgence of hyper focus on cost containment. I believe that the scope of procurement will not contract back to a sole focus on supply stability and cost containment. In fact, I think procurement鈥檚 remit will continue to evolve to lead broader supply chain risk management, given the growing variety and number of risks faced such as geopolitical tensions, sustainability expectations, the need for more diverse sources of supply, and lingering labor availability concerns. The challenge facing procurement will be how to tackle all of this successfully. What we’ll see is the use of innovation like generative AI, spend analysis, and category management solutions to not only provide relevant, real-time business insights, but, importantly, to increase the efficiency and productivity of procurement teams, giving more capacity to focus on the strategic work stakeholders now expect.鈥�

鈥� , Chief Marketing and Solutions Officer,
Intelligent Spend and Business Network, 麻豆原创

鈥淭he more things change, the more they stay the same. Or do they? Last year we were talking about how businesses needed to grapple with economic, political, and environmental uncertainty. That hasn鈥檛 changed. What鈥檚 different is how quickly new strategies and technologies have emerged to help businesses deal with these challenges. In 2024, I expect business leaders to continue pursuing supply chain resilience and to look for solutions such as AI that enable them to make big leaps. There will also be a continued focus on cost savings. With economic concerns looming as central banks raise funds rates to counter inflation, I foresee leaders being asked to deliver higher margins for their enterprises. To do this, traditional cost-focused sourcing and procurement cost compliance will be essential.鈥�

鈥� , Chief Revenue Officer,
Intelligent Spend and Business Network, 麻豆原创

鈥淎s enterprises continue on their journey to digitalize procurement processes, the need for an even more intuitive user experience will increase. Procurement professionals are looking for ways to spend more time on value-adding tasks and are looking to generative AI and analytics to support them at the point of decision. Moving into 2024 and beyond, we expect the demand for these technologies to increase, as well as for new use cases to arise. At 麻豆原创, we are already evaluating further ways to embed generative AI and analytics into solutions throughout our 麻豆原创 Ariba portfolio to help make our customers鈥� business lives easier than ever.鈥�

鈥� , SVP, Chief Product Officer,
麻豆原创 Ariba Procurement Solutions, 麻豆原创

鈥淎s technology evolves, pragmatic business leaders are looking for ways to leverage these new developments to help streamline and simplify their processes. Managing a workforce that can be comprised of up to 40% external workers demands tools that can simplify the user experience and offer broad visibility to both external and full-time workers. I predict that in 2024 we will see more organizations lean into total workforce management strategies to address this need for greater visibility across full-time and external workers, allowing businesses to align the skills they have with the work they need to complete. Along with a more holistic approach to managing their workforce, these same companies can leverage innovative AI tools designed to offer efficiencies and improve the user experience. In 2024, 麻豆原创 Fieldglass customers will be able to leverage powerful AI tools, including AI-enhanced statement of work creation, translation capabilities, and our new powered by generative AI. These offerings are just the beginning, with many more use cases to come.鈥�

鈥� , Chief Technology Officer,
麻豆原创 Fieldglass Solutions, 麻豆原创

鈥淚n my conversations with customers and prospects about their plans for 2024, they consistently voice concerns about supply chain disruption and economic uncertainty. Meanwhile, most seem to appreciate that artificial intelligence is vital to maintaining their competitive edge, yet many are unsure how to distinguish the actual value from the ample hype. In 2024, we will see more of the value that AI can deliver to organizations with capabilities to support their value chains. These include generative and predictive AI capabilities to help forecast disruptions, recommend alternate sources of raw materials, detect errors in invoices, extract pertinent data from requests for information, predict shipment and delivery times, and complete catalogue details. Trading partners need the ability to enter into additional collaborative relationships, such as those between buyers and suppliers spanning 麻豆原创 Business Network Supply Chain Collaboration and material traceability and freight collaboration solutions. Also in 2024, we see network convergence taking center stage to give organizations a shared onboarding experience across all network applications, as well as a set of common data federation services to support data residency requirements.鈥�

鈥� , Executive Vice President and Chief Product Officer, 
麻豆原创 Business Network

鈥淚n 2024, generative AI will deliver trillions in economic benefits. It will help companies realize greater top-line growth, be more productive, and safeguard supply chains. At the same time, resiliency will continue to be a major focus. The combination of AI and business networks will drive game-changing resiliency and productivity by facilitating improved demand forecasting and more efficient inventory management. These technologies will empower businesses to respond proactively to market changes, allowing them to source new suppliers quickly. In times of supply chain disruptions or demand surges, the nimblest companies will benefit most. Business networks will help them anticipate challenges with real-time information sharing and enhanced supply chain visibility. And there鈥檚 more good news for midmarket and smaller companies: as enterprise adoption of these technologies may begin to lag behind due to complex and unique use cases, segments like the midmarket and smaller companies will start to gain the competitive edge, building more resilient, predictable, and sustainable supply chains at scale.鈥�

鈥� , Global Head, 麻豆原创 Business Network
Customer Success and Go-to-Market, 麻豆原创

鈥淲e鈥檒l see business digitalization efforts go a level deeper 鈥� and become substantially more integrated 鈥� in 2024. Continued adoption of AI, automation, and virtual forms of payment will drive streamlined processes in travel, expense, and invoice. Instead of using a company credit card, employees will be able to expand their use of virtual payments for all business expenses, including travel. In turn, we鈥檒l start to see two types of transactions emerge: trusted and exceptions. Most transactions will use trusted payment methods, and AI will quickly validate them as compliant, enabling near-immediate reimbursement. Exceptions will trigger AI-driven, automated audits to ensure compliance. In both cases, payments will be issued faster with more ease, and employees will have more time to focus on what matters most to them and the organization.鈥�

鈥� , Head of 麻豆原创 Concur Market Strategy,
麻豆原创 Concur

“After another year of significant disruption caused by economic and geopolitical uncertainty, supply chain optimization has risen up the agenda as companies seek to better manage their working capital. Embedded finance has emerged as a solution, promising to reshape the way we do business and interact. Embedded finance has the power to expedite transactions, facilitate financing between trading partners, and lower trade barriers. By harnessing embedded finance, companies have the potential to optimize processes and access financing solutions seamlessly through B2B platforms. Ultimately, this will result in more streamlined payments, faster credit decisions, and expanded access to working capital.鈥�

鈥� , Chief Product Officer, Taulia

鈥淎s organizations, especially midmarket companies, continue to navigate today鈥檚 dynamic business environment, they are realizing the need to work with solution partners to create more value for their customers and themselves. A strong relationship between organizations and their partner ecosystems is critical to success, and I expect we will continue to see more businesses, both large and small, looking to establish these relationships. With the cost of managing sustainable supply chains continuing to increase, companies should turn to their partner ecosystems to leverage their expertise, skills, and services. This approach can help unify a company鈥檚 operations to provide a greater experience for its buyers and sellers, enabling stronger collaboration, greater visibility and transparency, risk mitigation, and more efficient operations.鈥�

鈥� , Head of Intelligent Spend and
Business Network Partner Ecosystem, 麻豆原创

One More Prediction

Recent times have shown that unexpected disruptions aren鈥檛 the only reason businesses struggle in times of crisis. It鈥檚 also about their readiness to deal with disruption, to adapt, and to come out stronger when the crisis subsides. Many business leaders have learned this lesson. They鈥檙e taking action to ensure 鈥� to the best of their ability 鈥� that their businesses are prepared for what comes next.

Of course, that鈥檚 easier said than done. Sometimes it feels like we need a crystal ball to see into the future. Or, to use a more common term, we need 鈥渧isibility.鈥� Visibility into market trends. Visibility into world events. Visibility into every corner of the supply chain.

Here鈥檚 a prediction you can take to the bank: in 2024, 麻豆原创 will continue to design and deliver and solutions that can drive efficiency, leverage AI in ways that are relevant, reliable, and responsible, and create greater visibility for every size business.

Mike Conners is a communications specialist for the 麻豆原创 Spend Management Communications team.

Having so many brilliant customers, partners, and colleagues in the same place at the same time is incredibly special. What鈥檚 doubly special is how my own enthusiasm was often eclipsed by our customers about our latest developments in artificial intelligence (AI).

New Intelligent Spend Management Solutions from 麻豆原创

At 麻豆原创 Spend Connect Live, we showed how 麻豆原创 is infusing generative AI technology into our suite of spend management solutions. This includes , which became generally available to customers in August.

麻豆原创 Ariba Category Management can empower category managers to use data insights strategically to help identify trends, develop and implement strategies, and evaluate success relative to tangible business metrics. And with the upcoming integration of large language models through 麻豆原创 Business AI, it can empower procurement professionals to jump-start category strategy development and planning.

Speaking of new solutions, from 麻豆原创 Concur launched in September. It helps automate the reimbursement process so you can securely, accurately, and quickly pay corporate cards or employees directly. This efficient service can free accounts payable teams to focus on high-value activities while helping to reduce the errors that accompany repetitive, manual tasks. With economic uncertainties like inflation and the slowdown of global growth, Expense Payment Manager can help ensure your dollars work on your terms.

Hear from Our Customers

Also at 麻豆原创 Spend Connect Live, an amazing lineup of customers demonstrated the power of effective spend management. I鈥檇 like to share stories from two of our customers, Save the Children International and Medical Procurement of Ukraine, that were featured in the keynote:

(SCI) is working to build a world where every child can thrive, grow up healthy, educated, and safe, and look forward to a future full of promise. Working in the world鈥檚 most challenging environments, the quicker and more efficiently it responds, the more lives it reaches. SCI transformed its operations from spending US$400 million a year for procurement using Microsoft Excel and paper to having 100% supplier visibility and a 30% reduction in procurement lead times with 麻豆原创 Ariba solutions.

Medical Procurement of Ukraine (MPU) is a state-owned entity responsible for centralized procurement of medical supplies and equipment on behalf of the Ministry of Healthcare of Ukraine. It uses digital procurement solutions from 麻豆原创 to help rapidly source medicines and medical supplies through a challenging supply chain impacted by war. 麻豆原创 Ariba solutions provide access to a huge international market, allowing MPU to cooperate with manufacturers of the latest high-quality medical products. It is doing all of this while ensuring compliance with international standards, including anti-corruption, which is an important driver for MPU.

I鈥檇 be remiss to not share two more customer stories that showcase the potential for organizations of all sizes to achieve significant improvements in their operations:

Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and paper receipts are now a thing of the past at (MRN). This UK-based, market-leading clinical trial support organization wanted a single solution for expense and invoice management processes. Before implementing 麻豆原创 Concur solutions, it used to take two to three working days a month for a team of five people to process invoices manually. Now, MRN has halved the amount of time spent on this process and can focus more on strategic activities.

Global science and technology company knew it was time to adopt advanced technology capabilities in its business to address growing customer expectations and increasing business complexities. In the 12 months since implementing 麻豆原创 Business Network and 麻豆原创 Ariba solutions, Merck has seen a 40% uptick in sales in B2B channels. It has also increased the share of its digital channels by 15%, helping reduce operating costs. With 麻豆原创 as its technology centerpiece, we make Merck run better.

We Are Honored

Out of all 麻豆原创 solutions, 麻豆原创 Ariba is reaching Meryl Streep-status when it comes to winning awards. Last quarter, Procurement Magazine placed us as either No. 1 or No. 2 in the following lists:

Congratulations dsm-firmenich!
Sourcing Industry Group, the premier global sourcing association, recently awarded 麻豆原创 and our customer dsm-firmenich the at its Future of Sourcing Awards celebration. This prestigious award honors our work with them in building a cutting-edge procurement process that champions sustainability.

G2 Leaders
麻豆原创 Concur and 麻豆原创 Fieldglass joined 麻豆原创 Ariba as G2 Leaders in its fall 2023 awards.

• is named a leader in Expense Management, Invoice Management, and Travel Management.
• is named a leader in Vendor Management.
• is named a leader in Procure-to-Pay, Strategic Sourcing, Purchasing, Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM), Contract Management, Invoice Management, Supplier Relationship Management, and AP & Spend Analysis.

TrustRadius Corporate Social Responsibility Honor
I鈥檓 also thrilled that 麻豆原创 Concur is this year鈥檚 , which is only awarded to companies that have an outstanding commitment to corporate social responsibility in the tech industry.

Take Advantage of the Virtual Experience!

麻豆原创 Spend Connect Live was only the beginning! By , you can receive on-demand content available through the end of the year. This is your opportunity to see what鈥檚 on the horizon for intelligent spend management solutions from 麻豆原创 and 麻豆原创 Business Network with full keynote presentations, more than 20 breakout sessions for those interested in procurement, supply chain, or external workforce management, and additional on-demand learning opportunities.

The best part is that it鈥檚 completely free, so use this resource to your advantage.

Jeff Collier is chief revenue officer for 麻豆原创 Intelligent Spend and Business Network.

With this integrated approach, real-time people data from the 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors Employee Central solution is automatically consumed by 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud and other 麻豆原创 cloud applications. This 鈥渟ingle source of truth鈥� helps to improve end-to-end business processes, experiences, and insights for the organization. Learn more in this 麻豆原创 Community .

Maryann Abbajay, chief revenue officer at 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors, spoke with some of these customers at to find out how they are leveraging the combined power of 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors solutions and 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud to overcome business challenges and grow their organizations with people at the center of business. 鈥淭hese organizations show how HR and finance come together to enable business transformation while keeping employee experience at the center,鈥� she underscored.

Pandora Becomes a Future-Ready Organization

Connecting people in the moments that matter is at the heart of , the world鈥檚 largest jewelry brand. Based in Copenhagen, Denmark, Pandora employs 32,000 people worldwide. With 6,500 points of sale, including 2,500 concept stores, Pandora depends on the experience of its brick-and-mortar stores, which account for the majority of its sales.

Three years ago, Pandora began its transformation from an analog retailer to a future-ready organization. It set out to strengthen and harmonize the global HR system landscape with an implementation of 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors solutions to gain efficiency in how the company hires, manages, and develops employees worldwide, thus replacing a multitude of local applications.

鈥淲e used the 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors portfolio as a driver of transformation,鈥� said Mihael 艩utalo, vice president of People Technology, Pandora. 鈥淭his is transforming the experience. The future integration of 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud with 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors solutions will give us a tremendous opportunity to manage our workforce and manage our revenue model in a completely different way.鈥�

BT Group Connects People for Good

, the world鈥檚 oldest telecommunications company, recently modernized its HR information systems to provide a digital colleague experience for its 100,000 employees working in 44 countries. 鈥淚n 2021, we started what we call our I-Connect program,鈥� said Elaine Bergin, director of Colleague Experience and Delivery, BT Group. The program name highlights BT Group鈥檚 purpose: 鈥淲e connect for good.鈥�

The new colleague experience, launched in 2022, now uses the 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors Employee Central solution, reporting and analytics, and the full suite of talent and learning management solutions to support the organization鈥檚 big focus on skills. BT Group also uses 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors and 麻豆原创 Fieldglass solutions to manage a contingent workforce of 60,000 additional employees.

Bergin said, 鈥淭hrough our 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors journey, we鈥檙e in a great place with a single master source of truth on our colleague and contingent workforce data 鈥� and our organizational hierarchy.鈥�

Brightspeed Manages Rapid Growth and Contingent Workforce

is a telecommunications company that provides affordable, quality internet in rural areas of the U.S. Since it started in 2022 with 30 permanent employees, Brightspeed has grown exponentially through acquisition. Today, it has 4,200 employees using 麻豆原创 solutions and a sizable contingent workforce. To manage growth, Brightspeed implemented 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors solutions, 麻豆原创 Fieldglass solutions, and 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud.

Greg Williams, director of Human Resources Information Systems, Brightspeed, summarized the value of an integrated approach for the organization: 鈥淔inance is up and running on 麻豆原创 S/4HANA and with 麻豆原创 Fieldglass solutions. We import that data into 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors Learning, so our contractors can train on compliance and technical training. The 麻豆原创 S/4HANA data is integrated into , which is our time system. We capture millions of dollars of project costs. Those are sent back to 麻豆原创 S/4HANA on a pay-for-period basis.鈥�

Versuni Gains Agility with HXM and Connected Cloud ERP

, formerly known as Philipps Domestic Appliances, is a consumer products company with the purpose to help people turn their houses into homes. It took the unique opportunity of reinventing itself as an independent company to transform its entire technology landscape. To succeed in a dynamic, consumer marketplace, it had to adopt best-of-suite applications that power advanced, digital-first consumer goods organizations.

By connecting 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud to 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors solutions, Versuni has achieved three key benefits: a seamless user journey based on a single source of truth across the entire landscape; increased visibility achieved from the integration with other systems, especially finance; and improved reporting, which is leading to better decision-making. Lokesh Rastogi, IT platform leader for Finance and HR at Versuni, summarized: 鈥淚t鈥檚 one source of truth, one system, and one number.鈥�

狈别蝉迟濒茅 Creates Engaging People Experiences at Scale

, one of the world鈥檚 largest food and beverage companies, is using RISE with 麻豆原创 to help advance its digital transformation. With 275,000 employees in 188 countries, 狈别蝉迟濒茅 focused on the modernization of its HR systems. 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors solutions now enable it to standardize and automate HR processes and provide a personalized employee experience from recruitment to retirement. 狈别蝉迟濒茅 plans to continue its journey to migrate its entire business operations to  with finance and procurement already live. To learn more, watch this .  

Giancarlo Pala, head of IT/HR, 狈别蝉迟濒茅 S.A., said, 鈥溌槎乖� SuccessFactors is our people backbone. It provides the common processes, systems, and data that let us create engaging people experiences at scale.鈥�

Accelerating Business Performance

麻豆原创 customers are experiencing firsthand the value of having HR and finance connected on a single cloud platform to help improve speed, accuracy, and insights. This integration can extend beyond the data to connect business processes and employee experiences across all business areas. To find out more about the benefits of connected cloud HR and ERP, watch on demand.

鈥淐ustomers undergo a cloud transformation because they want to accelerate their time to realize business value and they want to take advantage of innovations faster,鈥� says Rohan Patel, global vice president, Customer Support and Innovation, Product Support 鈥� Procurement, 麻豆原创. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 what helps them maintain a competitive edge. And they want to do this while decreasing overall cost and minimizing risk.鈥�

This is where from 麻豆原创 can add real value. In this conversation, Patel gives insight into how 麻豆原创 support can benefit procurement customers.

Q: How are you supporting procurement customers on their journey to the cloud?

A: Support in the old, on-premise world is what I like to call 鈥榖reak-fix鈥� support. When something failed, the IT department submitted a ticket for support, the problem was fixed, and communication ended until another issue arose. Being a break-fix support provider doesn鈥檛 work in the cloud environment. Support requires speed and foresight. Support today identifies problems and optimizes products before customers even notice something鈥檚 not working as it should.

麻豆原创鈥檚 strategy is predictive and proactive. We want continuous dialogue with customers to provide insights and guidance that are a value-add so we鈥檙e there long before something breaks. Success in the cloud requires adoption outside of the traditional IT environment. Business end users and lines of business, like procurement, supply chain, and HR, expect easy-to-use support portals that are intuitive and quickly anticipate user needs.

Can you share some examples of how 麻豆原创 is using data to enhance predictive support?

The tools we use not only help us deliver a great experience to our customers, they also continue to improve the 麻豆原创 solution itself. Consider the cloud health monitoring tools within , our application lifecycle management solution that helps streamline the way our customers implement and operate their cloud and hybrid environments across the entire business.

These tools can analyze what鈥檚 happening at the customer experience layer 鈥� for example, how long it takes a specific page to load, how long a user needs to complete a task, and any delays that could frustrate users, hinder adoption, and slow business outcomes. We act proactively at the engineering and cloud operations layer to help continuously improve that user experience.

We also use knowledge and data to improve the support experience, such as with , which has millions of active trading partners. This business-to-business network of companies connecting, transacting, and partnering with numerous shared processes and information expands the 麻豆原创 footprint well beyond the four walls of traditional operations.

Equally important is that our consumers today aren鈥檛 just IT support users, but rather work in departments throughout the clients鈥� operations. We鈥檝e taken steps to help meet the needs of all those different user types. We can provide quick, easy-to-understand guidance and answers to their questions using intuitive, personalized, and real-time channels driven by both humans and artificial intelligence (AI). This recommendation engine can provide guided answers based on who the users are, what they鈥檙e doing in the application, or what questions they ask. Users can quickly get useful and relevant content for answering their questions. The data from those guided-answer experiences is then fed into the product road map to help make the entire user experience more optimal and eliminate problems before they happen.

What have procurement customers seen in 2023 from 麻豆原创 support?

Our procurement coverage in 2023 hits two themes: harmonization and Real-Time Support. Let me begin with the harmonization perspective. We鈥檙e taking significant steps to create a customer support experience that鈥檚 consistent across all 麻豆原创 solutions 鈥� most notably a single entry point to 麻豆原创 support with . 麻豆原创 Fieldglass solutions went live on 麻豆原创 for Me case management in March 2023, and 麻豆原创 Ariba solutions and 麻豆原创 Business Network will soon follow. The 麻豆原创 for Me portal can give users the information and answers they need, specific to the solution they鈥檙e using. Earlier this year, procurement support went live on , where our business and IT users can access blog posts, tips, and connect with experts. Even customers and partners can provide an additional layer of insights and guidance, especially to a specific industry.

This year we have been working to bring our Real-Time Support concept to reality for procurement. When I talk about Real-Time Support, I mean support that is always on, continuously evolves, and adapts to customer needs. This can be direct access to support experts for business-critical processes when and where customers need it. It鈥檚 the live support channels such as , Ask an Expert Peer, context-sensitive help, , and AI-driven self-service access to a vast knowledge base and user community.

What do you see in the future of support for procurement?

I envision a day when customers don鈥檛 need to see or hear from us because we鈥檙e already working behind the scenes to give our customers a seamless, reliable, and delightful experience. The ultimate vision is preventative support with the help of AI and machine learning 鈥� in other words, self-healing IT systems.

Of course, there will always be times when customers need us. In those times, 麻豆原创 is prepared to offer as simple of a support experience as possible, such as with and direct access to experts or a quick call to solve an issue the moment it occurs. We also continuously look to disrupt ourselves by using new technologies such as ChatGPT to enable self-help or self-guidance and provide the best possible customer experience.

What sets the 麻豆原创 support experience apart in the industry?

麻豆原创 mindfully takes steps that help give customers the best support experience possible. We can provide a cohesive array of support channels, self-service tools, and cloud health and integration monitoring. Even with these successes in hand, 麻豆原创 will continuously push the boundaries of customer support with new innovations, help ensure support interactions are delightful, and offer Real-Time Support that can bring ambition to life.

Follow Rohan Patel on .

Regina Postman is part of Customer Support and Innovation Communications at 麻豆原创.

Muhammad Alam鈥檚 opening keynote supercharged 麻豆原创 Spend Connect Live with the announcement of and how it can help businesses see and analyze their spend across all categories. We also saw how 麻豆原创 is using artificial intelligence (AI) to drive scope 3 carbon reporting within total spend management.

On the procurement side, we鈥檝e had so much news to share. This includes demos of ; the ; and Joule, the embedded AI copilot in 麻豆原创 Ariba Sourcing. We also provided a sneak peek at the future of supplier management 鈥� we’re referring to as “the new supplier 360” that can deliver instant access to risk data, AI-powered sustainability information, and operational evaluation to help track metrics like price variance.

We put the world on notice that 麻豆原创 Ariba solutions are the future of procurement, and that future is already a reality. We鈥檝e taken the investment, innovation, and integration across our product lineup 鈥� successes we relived together 鈥� to deliver a complete portfolio. Everything procurement at 麻豆原创 is now 麻豆原创 Ariba.

Eliminate the Mundane. Elevate the Strategic.

You may have noticed that while others in the market were making noise about AI, 麻豆原创 has been relatively quiet. But we鈥檝e been very busy, with many use cases in production today and more on the way.

Our goal is to streamline procurement processes to remove mundane, manual interventions, elevate strategic activities, and accelerate decision-making and approvals. At 麻豆原创 Spend Connect Live, we announced a series of procurement innovations focused on this goal.

Enhancing 麻豆原创 Ariba Category Management with the Power of Generative AI and Joule

In August, the new solution became generally available to our customers. It helps empower category managers to use data insights strategically to help identify trends, develop and implement strategies, and evaluate success relative to tangible business metrics.

Now, we are pleased to announce the integration of 麻豆原创 Ariba Category Management with large language models through 麻豆原创 Business AI. This can empower procurement professionals to jump-start category strategy development and planning.

By harnessing generative AI, we are enhancing our market analysis tool, offering valuable, visual insights into supply and demand, risk, opportunity, and top suppliers. Additionally, we will be simplifying category segmentation, powering up cost structure analysis.

These innovations help streamline content creation, saving category managers weeks of time and expediting strategy development. General availability is planned by the end of 2023, representing a substantial leap in enterprise-level category management efficiency.

Embedding Spend Analysis Capabilities in 麻豆原创 Ariba Solutions for More Informed Decisions

To make it easier for procurement professionals to make timely, informed decisions, new dashboards in 麻豆原创 Ariba Sourcing and 麻豆原创 Ariba Buying embed near real-time insights where they鈥檙e most useful 鈥� within key process workflows.

These capabilities are available today and built on a new architecture that helps create the foundation for future innovation. Advanced AI features and the ability to see across all spend 鈥� in 麻豆原创 cloud ERP solutions, 麻豆原创 Ariba solutions, 麻豆原创 Fieldglass solutions, and 麻豆原创 Concur solutions 鈥� can help uncover cost-saving opportunities in the new 麻豆原创 Spend Control Tower solution beginning in the first quarter 2024.

Delivering Risk-Aware Procurement by Embedding AI-Infused Risk Assessment in Source-to-Settle Solutions

Successfully managing third-party supplier risk often comes down to the ability to answer basic questions accurately. Does the supplier have the ongoing capacity to satisfy the needs of the business? Do they meet environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards? Are their risk scores in danger of slipping below the acceptable corporate risk standard?

There are software solutions that offer information to answer these questions via dashboards, reporting, and alerts. But this approach can be risky, requiring savvy business users to check the information and assess the risk profiles of suppliers within a specific context. This approach can also waste resources because it allows unqualified suppliers to slip into RFx events, even though they鈥檒l ultimately be eliminated through resource-intensive due diligence.

鈥淩isk-aware procurement鈥� refers to the embedding of risk knowledge into source-to-pay decision processes via software solutions. 麻豆原创 has embedded AI-powered supplier risk assessment capabilities into its source-to-settle solutions to help business users make smarter decisions faster.

This can make it possible to assess risk profiles within the sourcing, contracting, and buying solutions as an integral part of these processes to determine third-party risk. Supplier risk assessment capabilities are available today in 麻豆原创 Ariba Sourcing, 麻豆原创 Ariba Contracts, and 麻豆原创 Ariba Buying.

AI-powered supplier risk assessment capabilities within 麻豆原创 solutions can offer numerous benefits across the procurement process:

• Supplier management: Improved user decision-making throughout supplier lifecycle processes
• Sourcing: Exclusion or warnings when high-risk suppliers are included in sourcing decision-making
• Contracting: Systematic reference risk scoring to include mitigation clauses and activities in authoring and contract signature as needed
• Buying and invoicing: The inclusion of risk workflow if the risk score drops below an acceptable standard

A great example of this activity in action is Lieferkettensorgfaltspflichtengesetz (LkSG), the German supply chain act focused on human rights due diligence. With this, information is not only available to support the due diligence activities with suppliers, it also helps business users make natural decisions that help prevent non-compliant activities from occurring systematically.

Continuing to Lead in Procurement Innovation

Of course, the innovations and use cases we demonstrated at 麻豆原创 Spend Connect Live are just the tip of the iceberg. The coming year promises to be just as exciting, as we continue to roll out new features and capabilities to enhance our comprehensive set of procurement solutions.

We hope you will be along for the ride!

Salvatore Lombardo is senior vice president, chief product officer, and head of Engineering for 麻豆原创 Procurement.

麻豆原创 Global LoB Partner Excellence Awards are a partner recognition program focusing on 麻豆原创鈥檚 strategic business priorities for the following lines of business: 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors, 麻豆原创 Customer Experience, and Intelligent Spend and Business Network.

麻豆原创 Global Intelligent Spend and Business Network Partner Excellence Awards select finalists and winners for their valuable contributions in realizing 麻豆原创鈥檚 vision for cloud growth based on data and key performance indicators.

Winners and Finalists

麻豆原创 Global Intelligent Spend and Business Network Partner Excellence Award 2023 for Sales Success 鈥� Large Enterprise

• Winner: Accenture
• Finalist: Deloitte
• Finalist: PwC

麻豆原创 Global Intelligent Spend and Business Network Partner Excellence Award 2023 for Sales Success 鈥� Midmarket

• Winner: NTT Data
• Finalist: Nitor Partners
• Finalist: Premikati

麻豆原创 Global Intelligent Spend and Business Network Partner Excellence Award 2023 for Delivery Quality

• Winner: PwC
• Finalist: Accenture
• Finalist: Deloitte

麻豆原创 Global Intelligent Spend and Business Network Partner Excellence Award 2023 for Customer Success Management

• Winner: IBM
• Finalist: Accenture
• Finalist: NTT Data

麻豆原创 Global Intelligent Spend and Business Network Partner Excellence Award 2023 for 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform Customer Success

• Winner: Stratesys Tecnologias da Informacao
• Finalist: Cordis Solutions Ltd
• Finalist: Thomson Reuters

麻豆原创 Global Intelligent Spend and Business Network Partner Excellence Award 2023 for 麻豆原创 Fieldglass Managed Service Provider

• Winner: Monument Consulting
• Finalist: Allegis Global Solutions
• Finalist: Kelly OCG

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Media Contact:
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麻豆原创 麻豆原创 Room; press@sap.com

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For the past year, Alam, president and chief product officer of 麻豆原创 Intelligent Spend and Business Network, and his team have been speaking with 麻豆原创 customers, gaining an intimate understanding of their spend management challenges and envisioning solutions to address them. This includes carefully assessing the buzz around artificial intelligence (AI) to separate what is the usual tech hype from the true promise.

They also mobilized their team of spend management-focused developers to deliver the very innovations he was about to unveil. 鈥淭he bottom line is we deliver more spend management innovation than anyone else in the industry because we have more resources devoted to spend management than everyone else in the industry,鈥� Alam told the audience.

With its 鈥渕assive force of engineers鈥� and deep commitment at the highest levels of the business, he reminded everyone that 麻豆原创 is singularly focused on helping businesses solve their urgent and critical spend imperatives 鈥� whether they are practical or existential. This includes:

• Improving visibility into the supply chain and taking action to counter an ever-changing trade landscape
• Doing business in a socially and environmentally responsible manner
• Finding the right talent, at the right time, for the right job

鈥淭he common theme in all of this, of course, is your spend鈥he biggest lever you have to help your business achieve the results it needs to achieve,鈥� he said.

Applying Generative AI Technology to Spend

As 麻豆原创 Spend Connect Live moves forward, there will be a lot of talk about generative AI and how it can help businesses address urgent and critical imperatives. In his keynote, Alam noted that we are seeing a step change around AI 鈥� not just in the technology, but also in the willingness of customers to adopt AI to drive strategic transformation across business processes and functions.

But what does Alam consider the underlying promise and purpose of AI? 鈥淭he ability to harness data to drive insights and make decisions鈥hat is the promise of AI and it鈥檚 what鈥檚 driving all of the AI the momentum and excitement,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not a matter of if anymore with AI. It is a matter of when or perhaps how quickly businesses can adopt these technologies and feel the impact.鈥�

With its intelligent spend management solutions, 麻豆原创 has made it a mission to enable businesses to use generative AI to harness data for greater insights and decision-making. Which brings us to two of the important innovations Alam announced during his 麻豆原创 Spend Connect Live keynote: 麻豆原创 Spend Control Tower and 12 new generative AI scenarios to be deployed across the spend management portfolio.

Introducing 麻豆原创 Spend Control Tower

鈥淚n the hundreds of conversations I鈥檝e had with customers in the last year, the No. 1 ask I get from them is the ability to see and analyze their spend across all categories,鈥� Alam said. 鈥淎nd by 鈥榮pend鈥� I mean more than just the financials. Today, spend also means the carbon emissions impact across all categories.鈥�

Then he unveiled , which offers advanced AI features and the ability to see across all spend 鈥� in 麻豆原创鈥檚 cloud ERP solutions, 麻豆原创 Ariba solutions, 麻豆原创 Fieldglass solutions, 麻豆原创 Concur solutions, and 麻豆原创 Business Network 鈥� to help uncover cost-saving opportunities and process improvements, beginning in the first quarter 2024. Alam said he was also 鈥渆xcited about AI driving scope 3 carbon emissions reporting in 麻豆原创 Spend Control Tower.鈥�

All of the spend data is rationalized in a unified data model as part of our next-generation data lake, the supplier data platform. Three years in the making, it is the backbone for all of our spend analytics. In addition to fueling 麻豆原创 Spend Control Tower, it also enables embedded spend insights in our applications and powers our generative AI innovations.

12 Generative AI Scenarios for Spend Management

Alam noted that each day, individuals spend a significant amount of time doing mundane tasks because they need to be done. These take time and focus away from tasks that are more strategic and of higher value.

鈥淕enerative AI has the potential to eliminate the mundane and elevate the strategic in the daily lives of you and your team members,鈥� he said. 鈥淭his is our moment to unleash productivity gains that have been lacking for years.鈥�

He announced designed to help 鈥渄rive efficiency, quality, and insight into processes that cut across spend management.鈥� Here鈥檚 a high-level view of how these scenarios can help businesses:

• In 麻豆原创 Ariba solutions, they can provide a better understanding of suppliers鈥� sustainability position, enabling businesses to make the right decisions.
• In 麻豆原创 Fieldglass solutions, they can make it possible to write better, more comprehensive statements of work (SOW) and job descriptions in seconds versus hours.
• In 麻豆原创 Concur solutions, they can help users estimate the potential trip cost and better understand travel and expense policies.

Find out more about the new generative AI scenarios .

Virtual Experience

If you were unable to attend 麻豆原创 Spend Connect Live in Vienna, you can still take part in our virtual experience on October 24. for details.

Mike Conners is a communications specialist for the 麻豆原创 Spend Management Communications team.

is a leading international bank headquartered in London with a presence in 59 markets. With over 83,000 employees and almost 14,000 external workers, implementing a strategy was crucial for the bank to remain competitive and compliant. Guided by a workplace culture that champions innovation, technology, and sustainability, Standard Chartered supports customers from around the world to open opportunities in new markets and to live up to its brand promise to be here for good.

鈥淔or us, it鈥檚 really important to have that total workforce management view, where we鈥檙e starting to think about workforce planning and skills planning as the future of work,鈥� said Melinda McKinley, global head, HR Strategy and Digital Transformation, Standard Chartered. McKinley key insights from Standard Chartered鈥檚 HR transformation at 麻豆原创 Sapphire Orlando.

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Due to changing regulations, the banking sector has faced an increasing demand for workers with specialized skill sets to meet IT and cybersecurity requirements. This has led many finance organizations like Standard Chartered to tap into the external workforce. Today, Standard Chartered鈥檚 external workers are integral to how the organization operates. But initially, it lacked the technology and insights to effectively manage them.

The bank had an over 20-year-old HR system that made it increasingly difficult to innovate and respond quickly to changing business and regulatory requirements, according to Steve Leighton, head of HR Digital Enablement, Standard Chartered and a member of the team undertaking the HR transformation journey since it began in 2017. 鈥淲e wanted to replace that legacy system, transform, simplify, implement a global process, and really make an improvement in the experience.鈥�

One strategic requirement stood out as key to the success of the HR transformation: 鈥淗ow do we join together our permanent employees and our contingent workers to get a total view of the workforce across the organization?鈥� said Leighton, who presented the project results at 麻豆原创 Sapphire Orlando. 鈥淭his is a building block in our long-term ambition of being able to perform our strategic workforce planning.鈥�

HR Transformation Wins 麻豆原创 Innovation Award

Standard Chartered adopted a total workforce management strategy by integrating with solutions in the cloud to help deliver a truly holistic capability across its permanent and contingent workforce. 鈥淭hat kind of integration 鈥� [麻豆原创 SuccessFactors and 麻豆原创 Fieldglass] together 鈥� was key for this particular transformation,鈥� Leighton said.

With the implementation of position management, a foundational capability in 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors Employee Central that helps organizations create and manage job positions to maintain a desired org structure, the organization achieved a breakthrough in its HR transformation journey as the result of its clear strategic vision.

鈥淥ne of the key things that set us on a path for a future-ready workforce was really embracing the foundational architecture that position management brings,鈥� McKinley said. 鈥淭hat meant immediately we had a visualization of our total workforce 鈥� our contingent and our employee base. It is leading to much stronger data-driven hiring decisions.鈥�

Standard Chartered remediated 75 interfaces to third-party systems, including outsourced payroll solutions, and migrated 3.5 million data records from its legacy platform. It overhauled processes to achieve an 87% reduction of HR reports. With improved visibility of the entire workforce, where legally permissible, it can now capture richer data for diversity and inclusion metrics to further enable its inclusive culture.

A clear focus on employee experience has significantly contributed to the transformation鈥檚 ongoing success. Applying a 鈥渄eep鈥� experience approach, the team evaluated each phase and decision in the project for its potential impact on employee experience. Approximately 200 colleagues participated in user acceptance testing, providing valuable feedback through surveys and interviews. Collecting insights post-deployment also enabled the team to continuously innovate and improve the experience. Among the resulting innovations is a new employee portal with a modernized interface that integrates adoption nudges and chatbots to support colleagues during the hiring process.

鈥淧osition management was a key tenet of being able to facilitate this single workforce capability,鈥� said Leighton, who shared learnings from the project, including the effort required for change management to educate and prepare stakeholders and the diligent approach to the data integration. He noted that this effort paid off by 鈥渃learly culminating in that success.鈥�

Standard Chartered recently for its success in delivering on total workforce management with a focus on experience.

Strategic Vision for Future-Ready Workforce

鈥淲ith 麻豆原创, we now have a truly holistic view of our permanent and external workers,鈥� McKinley said. 鈥淭his has not only improved the employee experience and given us richer insights into our entire workforce but has also helped set the foundation for strategic corporate planning, integrated talent management, and management of regulatory requirements.鈥�

Standard Chartered is now focused on leveraging and expanding future-ready workforce capabilities by using the 麻豆原创 Analytics Cloud solution for workforce planning. McKinley described how the collaboration of the HR and finance teams is building success for the organization: 鈥淲e鈥檙e working closely with our finance colleagues to bring finance and HR data together a little more seamlessly through the use of 麻豆原创 Analytics Cloud, with a view to actually making a difference to bottom-up planning through our corporate plan.鈥�

She noted, 鈥淭he value that will create, by moving agreed workforce modelling into the position charts, I think will be a game changer for us in terms of our future workforce planning and skills planning.鈥�

Total Workforce Management from 麻豆原创

A total workforce management strategy allows businesses to keep the whole workforce in focus for increased agility, productivity, and bottom-line impact. 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors solutions combined with 麻豆原创 Fieldglass solutions can deliver value and efficiency by providing a single view of the entire workforce, allowing managers to onboard, oversee, and pay employees and contingent workers in one place. Organizations using 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors solutions 57% greater HR process speed, 54% reduction in time spent by managers on administrative HR, and 40% less time required to fill positions. Organizations using 麻豆原创 Fieldglass solutions saw 7.81% savings through competitive candidate sourcing and 16.4% lower project budgets.

Find out more about .

Through our many conversations, one common theme stands out: how 麻豆原创鈥檚 suite of solutions helps maximize efficiency.

Maximizing efficiency is especially needed when the days are longer, and the vacations are too. A spend management strategy that enables cost savings, risk management, supplier management, and compliance with local regulations can give our customers peace of mind. No matter the industry or where you are in the world, our solutions never take a break.

But don鈥檛 take my word for it. Our customers have been strengthening their supply chains, managing talent through a polycrisis, controlling cost while boosting compliance, and gaining critical insight into their suppliers鈥� suppliers鈥� suppliers. Here are some of their stories:

• works with more than 700 direct spend suppliers to create the highest-quality luxury goods. When manual procurement processes were limiting supply chain visibility, Richemont turned to 麻豆原创 Business Network and 麻豆原创 Business Network for Supply Chain. As a result, it saw up to a 50% reduction in employee effort for warehouse receiving and a 12-day decrease 鈥� from 17 days to five days 鈥� in the confirmation feedback cycle.
• is a leading global professional services company that helps the world鈥檚 leading businesses, governments, and other organizations build their digital core, optimize their operations, accelerate revenue growth, and enhance citizen services. It underwent a digital procurement transformation that included the implementation of 麻豆原创 Fieldglass Vendor Management System to help gain visibility into its global external workforce to reduce costs and improve the quality of services and contingent talent.
• is a global leader in designing and manufacturing premium commercial vehicles. Before implementing 麻豆原创 Concur solutions, it had decentralized and inconsistent travel booking and expense reporting processes that blocked visibility into spend data, frustrating employees. Now, the employee travel and expense experience is dramatically improved, reducing costs and improving compliance. This mitigates risks so travelers can focus on moving the business forward.
• When Kenya Electricity Transmission Company Limited (KETRACO), one of Kenya鈥檚 leading state corporations, needed to enhance its procurement capabilities to meet regulatory commitments, it adopted 麻豆原创 to leverage the power and scale of the largest procurement network in the world. With 麻豆原创 Ariba solutions, KETRACO completely eliminated paper-based transactions and now has one centralized repository for invoices. It has 100% visibility into its supplier data and has standardized its templates for contracts. Additionally, 麻豆原创 Business Network allowed KETRACO to monitor and manage suppliers from a single point of view, with a 360-degree view of data and performance. Read the full story here.

Award-Winning Customer Feedback

麻豆原创 has once again won honors from G2 and TrustRadius, two trusted review sites that source their rankings from the people that matter most, our customers.

We are G2 Summer 2023 Leaders for the following categories:

• 鈥� Leader in Procure-to-Pay, Strategic Sourcing, Purchasing, Contract Lifecycle Management, Supplier Relationship Management, and AP & Spend Analysis
• 鈥� Leader in Strategic Sourcing
• 鈥� Leader in Expense Management, Travel Management, and Invoice Management

Additionally, TrustRadius has honored us with these 2023 Top Rated awards:

• 麻豆原创 Ariba is Top Rated in the , , and categories.
• 麻豆原创 Fieldglass is Top Rated in the , , and categories.
• 麻豆原创 Concur is Top Rated in the ,听, and categories.

What鈥檚 more, 麻豆原创 Concur has won TrustRadius鈥� Top Rated award for the fifth year in a row. Thank you to all customers that left us reviews and helped us earn this winning record!

Join Me at 麻豆原创 Spend Connect Live

I鈥檇 be thrilled if you would join me and our community of procurement, supply chain, and travel and expense professionals at 麻豆原创 Spend Connect Live in Vienna, Austria. From October 9-11, 2023 at the Messe Wien Congress Center, you will be surrounded by peers sharing transformation stories and learning how 麻豆原创 solutions can empower us all to reach our corporate goals.

Our keynote speaker is Jim Ridgwick, CPO for (SCI). SCI鈥檚 goal is to create a world where all children have a voice, receive a quality education, and are protected from violence and death due to preventable causes. Join us to hear how introducing source-to-pay 麻豆原创 Ariba solutions led to 100% supplier visibility and a 50% reduction in procurement lead times for SCI.

Like my colleague Etosha Thurman says in her piece, 鈥淲ith today鈥檚 highly complex and sometimes volatile and disruptive environment, spend management and supply chain professionals鈥� remit is bigger than ever.鈥� There will be over 100 interactive sessions covering the hottest topics in spend management 鈥� and we can鈥檛 wait to see you.

Check out the to learn more about joining us. Space is limited, so register today.

The Best Is Yet to Come

What a first half it鈥檚 been, and I believe the best is yet to come! I am so excited to see many of you at 麻豆原创 Spend Connect Live in Vienna. Right now, we鈥檙e working hard to make this an event like no other, with tons of information and opportunities to help your business run better. Stay in touch!

Jeff Collier is chief revenue officer for 麻豆原创 Intelligent Spend and Business Network.