Future of Sourcing - Data https://www.futureofsourcing.com/tags/data en Opening up supply chain data for the benefit of all https://www.futureofsourcing.com/opening-up-supply-chain-data-for-the-benefit-of-all <div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/articles/September%202022%20Article%20Graphics%20%281%29.png"><a href="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/articles/September%202022%20Article%20Graphics%20%281%29.png" title="supply chain data" class="colorbox" rel="gallery-node-2218-C5XlkOhiQdQ"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/styles/juicebox_medium/public/articles/September%202022%20Article%20Graphics%20%281%29.png?itok=YuXrlH9n" width="624" height="325" alt="supply chain data" title="" /></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p><span data-preserver-spaces="true">When considering global supply chains, it&#39;s not new news that they are notoriously complex and opaque. Among other challenges, this means that issues such as child and forced labor, deforestation and environmental degradation can remain in the shadows. Identifying the source of these problems becomes so complex that tackling their root causes and seeking remediation for affected communities becomes a near-impossible endeavor.</span></p> <p><span data-preserver-spaces="true">To tackle these issues, it&#39;s essential to go back to basics and work on the data. Even at the entry-level of name and address data for global production facilities, the quality of data about global supply chains is poor. This then begs the question: if there is no shared understanding of where facilities are located, how can there be any clear sense of those facilities&#39; social and environmental conditions? While efforts have been made in recent years to map supply chain data, with the apparel sector at the forefront of this movement, it has been - and in many cases, continues to be - hidden behind lock and key, which benefits very few. There are several interrelated problems at play here:</span></p> <ol> <li><span data-preserver-spaces="true">Insufficient thought and attention have been paid to how data is&nbsp;</span><em>gathered</em><span data-preserver-spaces="true">: what data points are being collated, and why? How is that data being logged? How is it being standardized?</span></li> <li><span data-preserver-spaces="true">How is that data being&nbsp;</span><em>shared</em><span data-preserver-spaces="true">: what consideration has been given to the format? Tables embedded on websites, data locked in PDFs and other non-machine readable formats are of limited use to anyone trying to use that data in a practical way. This leads to the third point:</span></li> <li><span data-preserver-spaces="true">What is the intention behind gathering the data? How will it be&nbsp;</span><em>used</em><span data-preserver-spaces="true">? Gathering and even sharing data is not an end in and of itself: it is how the data will be used, in a practical sense, that holds power.&nbsp;</span></li> </ol> <p><span data-preserver-spaces="true">Open, standardized data can overcome all this. Making this data accessible to all brings enormous benefits, whether powering interoperability between different datasets, bringing visibility and clarity to complex supply chains, or enabling supply chain stakeholders to work together on the social or environmental improvements that are so desperately needed. Open, standardized data allows anyone to efficiently make connections about global supply chains, in turn enabling:</span></p> <ul> <li><span data-preserver-spaces="true">Informed discussions regarding upcoming legislation and how to meet the raft of incoming ESG reporting requirements</span></li> <li><span data-preserver-spaces="true">Much quicker routes to remediation for affected communities</span></li> <li><span data-preserver-spaces="true">The development of mitigation strategies for the impacts of climate change</span></li> <li><span data-preserver-spaces="true">A clearer understanding of supply chain issues or hotspots at major companies and retailers, of which they may not previously have been aware</span></li> </ul> <p><span data-preserver-spaces="true">Without open, standardized data, these connections may never be made.&nbsp;</span></p> <p><span data-preserver-spaces="true">By opening up supply chain data as a free, public good tool and acting as a single source of truth for global supply chains, we believe stakeholders across sectors and supply chains can come together to improve human rights and environmental conditions in and around factories - a win-win for everyone.</span></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/supply-chain" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Supply Chain</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/data" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Data</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/supplier" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Supplier</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/supplier-data" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">supplier data</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/supplier-management" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Supplier Management</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-addthis field-type-addthis field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style " addthis:title="Opening up supply chain data for the benefit of all - Future of Sourcing" addthis:url="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/opening-up-supply-chain-data-for-the-benefit-of-all"><a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_linkedin"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_facebook"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_twitter"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_googleplus"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_pinterest_share"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_reddit"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_email"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_print"></a> </div> </div></div></div> Wed, 14 Sep 2022 14:51:01 +0000 Natalie Grillon 2218 at https://www.futureofsourcing.com https://www.futureofsourcing.com/opening-up-supply-chain-data-for-the-benefit-of-all#comments Pursuing Data-driven Insights? Start With Your Supplier Data https://www.futureofsourcing.com/pursuing-data-driven-insights-start-with-your-supplier-data <div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/articles/FoS%20Graphic%20%288%29%20%281%29.png"><a href="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/articles/FoS%20Graphic%20%288%29%20%281%29.png" title="Supplier Data" class="colorbox" rel="gallery-node-1922-C5XlkOhiQdQ"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/styles/juicebox_medium/public/articles/FoS%20Graphic%20%288%29%20%281%29.png?itok=hX_W6hKq" width="624" height="325" alt="Supplier Data" title="" /></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-intro field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"> <h1>Pursuing Data-Driven Insights? Start With Your Supplier Data</h1> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-related-news field-type-entityreference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Related news:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/why-transparency-matters-to-us-all">Why Transparency Matters to Us All</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p>For years, experts have <a href="https://hbr.org/2016/11/how-artificial-intelligence-will-redefine-management">urged business leaders</a> to prepare for the coming AI disruption. Realizing the amazing potential of these emerging technologies, <a href="https://tdwi.org/articles/2019/08/16/diq-all-ai-and-bi-data-preparation-tasks.aspx">they argued</a>, would require businesses to overhaul how they manage data. Yet with the economy booming, many found it easier to push tricky data questions into the future.</p> <p>Fast-forward to 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic and trade conflicts have upended entire business models. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/22/business/luxury-fashion-september-coronavirus.html">Across</a> <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/how-six-companies-are-using-technology-and-data-to-transform-themselves">industries</a>, the most resilient businesses are those with a strong handle on their data, using real-time information on consumer behavior and inventories to make strategic pivots. Investors have taken notice, as<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-25/stock-market-warns-workers-that-they-re-the-problem-for-business?sref=GX0WPFvK"> research on the S&amp;P 500</a> shows stock prices are increasingly correlated with the value of &ldquo;intangible assets,&rdquo; such as proprietary data.&nbsp;</p> <p>In response, many companies are <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/cloud-startups-experience-wave-of-pandemic-fueled-investments-11601026201">fast-tracking</a>&nbsp;what had been long-term plans for digital transformations, hoping advanced data capabilities will secure their place in a technology-fueled economy. Yet many would be wise to first improve their data practices to ensure the fundamentals are in place for transformation success.</p> <h2>Data Management for (Enterprise) Beginners</h2> <p>To reform data quality, many businesses are turning to the <a href="https://www.industryarc.com/Research/Master-Data-Management-Market-Research-500874">growing</a> market for Master Data Management (MDM) solutions. MDM aims to improve uniformity, accuracy and governance of attributes relevant to an enterprise&rsquo;s stakeholders. Essentially, this means creating a master record for data on the critical aspects of a business. However, MDM only brings full benefits when rolled out across the entire enterprise &mdash; a potentially daunting prospect.</p> <p>A more accessible strategy would prioritize business functions that stand to gain the most from improved data standards, such as procurement. With Supplier MDM, a sub-discipline of MDM, companies can upgrade their supply network practices while providing a starting point for broader data management endeavors.</p> <p>By creating processes, establishing accountability and setting standards for data integrity, Supplier MDM creates a &ldquo;single source of truth&rdquo; for all essential supplier information. When done right, Supplier MDM can improve supply chain visibility and streamline reporting. Facilitating connections between data points also creates the conditions for successful implementation of new technology such as automation.</p> <h2>Verified Data at the Source</h2> <p>Traditionally, finding supplier data has often meant time-consuming manual searches, with results often undermined by language barriers, outdated database records, or human errors or bias. AI methods now use millions of data points to bring together up-to-date product data, financials, corporate and geographic news, corporate sustainability data, active certifications, etc. The overall result is that supplier management can now be sustained with optimal quality data at all times.</p> <h2>The Perils of Mismanaged Supplier Data</h2> <p>Why is supplier data so critical? In many cases, businesses underestimate the complexity that underlies seemingly basic information like addresses, contact information, bank details and certificates. Often, inaccurate and outdated records are held in various databases across multiple departments, with no clear ownership over either the data or the maintenance process. This results in flawed reporting, impaired analytics and lost trust with stakeholders.</p> <p>Even slight errors can lead to serious headaches. For example, misspelling a vendor name creates duplicate entries in a supplier database, making it difficult to assess spend analysis at a glance. At best, rectifying this mistake will require extra effort to consolidate the information. More worrisome is the possibility that leadership makes critical business decisions based on incorrect numbers &mdash; all because of a wrongly placed keystroke.</p> <p>Lack of coordination around data also leads to missed opportunities. Consider departments within an organization that use the same supplier on different contracts, instead of leveraging volumes for better pricing or payment terms. Innovative solutions to these communication problems face their own data hurdles; while there are AI tools that could flag such cost savings, they require correctly labeled data for proper analysis.</p> <h2>5 Steps to Effective Supplier Master Data Management</h2> <p>Clearly, the risks of poorly governed supplier data are severe and growing. How, then, can companies pilot successful Supplier MDM initiatives?</p> <h3>Build Your Team</h3> <p>Supplier MDM is not the sole province of procurement. As a process with touchpoints across the entire enterprise, it must be overseen by a cross-functional team of dedicated data stewards.</p> <p>These data stewards will set standards for quality and integrity at every stage of the supplier lifecycle from data entry to output, including setting uniform data fields and formats and establishing processes for reporting, updating and verification. Dedicated members of this team will also oversee supplier onboarding procedures, direct data maintenance approvals, and determine how to address irregularities or missing information.</p> <h3>Conduct a Self-Assessment</h3> <p>First, the data governance team should review current supplier management processes and assess how well they fit the organization&rsquo;s evolving needs. The team should document which metrics are being measured and how data is being recorded and used for reporting, especially for growing priorities like sustainability. From the beginning, it is critical to engage every domain that has a touchpoint with suppliers, like finance.</p> <h3>Prioritize Supplier Onboarding</h3> <p>The start of a new business relationship provides an opportunity to lay the groundwork for later success. This is due to the complex but routine work involved at this stage of the supplier lifecycle, including reviewing compliance practices, risks and certifications. Effective Supplier MDM streamlines these tasks by, for instance, pinpointing if the supplier requires a new setup or if there is an existing relationship elsewhere in the organization.</p> <p>Before any business line collects new supplier information, the request should be reviewed according to the data governance team&rsquo;s approval process, followed by another level of review before entry into enterprise resource planning, procure-to-pay or other systems.</p> <h3>Simplify Updates</h3> <p>Typically, various teams make ad hoc updates to internal records as soon as they hear of product or personnel turnovers or other supplier changes, without considering the downstream impacts. For this reason, control processes are a core component of a Supplier MDM structure. Designating responsibility to specific users from each function for their data records ensures the appropriate review occurs.</p> <p>The best Supplier MDM frameworks incorporate both internal and external reviews. This can be done by delegating accountability in vendor contracts or establishing dedicated data portals.</p> <h3>Deactivate, Never Delete</h3> <p>Disengaging with a partner is a natural part of doing business. Yet deleting a record can interrupt data flow to other stakeholders, such as hiding information on dashboards or removing data needed for audits. The supplier data process should involve multiple stakeholder approval levels before deactivation or access to internal portals is revoked. It is equally important to document why a relationship was terminated to inform any future due diligence.</p> <h2>Future-Proofing With Supplier Data</h2> <p>Supplier MDM is an ongoing process. As companies come to view their data as a core business asset, the data governance team will face complex questions around data governance and domain-specific issues like regulatory compliance. Once procurement data governance teams are up and running, they can support the rest of the organization&rsquo;s larger MDM platform. With experience under their belts, these leaders will be well-positioned to instill a culture of data awareness and openness to innovation across the whole organization.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/supplier" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Supplier</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/data" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Data</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/supplier-data" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">supplier data</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/procurement" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Procurement</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/sourcing" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Sourcing</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/master-data-management" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Master Data Management</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-addthis field-type-addthis field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style " addthis:title="Pursuing Data-driven Insights? Start With Your Supplier Data - Future of Sourcing" addthis:url="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/pursuing-data-driven-insights-start-with-your-supplier-data"><a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_linkedin"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_facebook"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_twitter"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_googleplus"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_pinterest_share"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_reddit"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_email"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_print"></a> </div> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-region field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Region:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/regions/global" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Global</a></div></div></div> Fri, 06 Aug 2021 02:00:00 +0000 Ophelia Otto 1922 at https://www.futureofsourcing.com https://www.futureofsourcing.com/pursuing-data-driven-insights-start-with-your-supplier-data#comments Why Should I Maintain My Data? https://www.futureofsourcing.com/why-should-i-maintain-my-data <div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/articles/FoS%20Graphic%20%2810%29.png"><a href="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/articles/FoS%20Graphic%20%2810%29.png" title="data protection" class="colorbox" rel="gallery-node-1924-C5XlkOhiQdQ"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/styles/juicebox_medium/public/articles/FoS%20Graphic%20%2810%29.png?itok=U7ZnRHwA" width="624" height="325" alt="data protection" title="" /></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-intro field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"> <h1>Why Should I Maintain My Data?</h1> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-related-news field-type-entityreference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Related news:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/the-dangers-of-dirty-data-and-how-to-ensure-your-data-has-its-coat-on">The Dangers of Dirty Data and How to Ensure Your Data Has Its COAT on</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p>So, you&rsquo;ve just shelled out big money to have it classified and your data will almost certainly be correct when you receive it, but it will only stay accurate for a short period of time.</p> <p>Updates and changes mean that before you know it, your once neat and tidy data sets will contain unclassified data, data that&rsquo;s been incorrectly classified, typos, and cut and paste errors, to name but a few. That is why, and I cannot emphasize this enough, it is crucial to maintain your data. Specifically, it is important that you continue to check and maintain your data for any errors that can have a knock-on effect to your bottom line.</p> <h2>What&rsquo;s the Big Deal?</h2> <p>Let&rsquo;s say you use IBM for IT services that cost around &pound;50k and you accidentally misclassify this spend as cleaning services. At the next refresh it&#39;s picked up and classified again, and it becomes &pound;100k and then the next refresh it becomes &pound;150k. You now have a major issue on your hands where you are counting your cleaning services spend as &pound;150k plus whatever you are actually spending on it. The problem worsens because you&#39;re now not counting the &pound;150k of IT spend with IBM.</p> <p>What does that mean? Well, you may have agreed to a contract with a cleaning supplier for &ldquo;&pound;X&rdquo; amount of spend based on that data. In reality it&#39;s maybe half of that. Then you might not be able to honor it or you find yourself in a situation where you have to pay it despite possibly not needing that service at all.&nbsp;</p> <p>On the flip side, you could be negotiating better rates with IBM based on usage of the product. However, that&rsquo;s impossible to realize when it&#39;s sitting under the wrong bucket, but that&#39;s something I can help with.&nbsp;</p> <h2>How Do I Maintain My Data?</h2> <p>The secret to keeping your data clean isn&rsquo;t really a huge secret. It&rsquo;s a case of good housekeeping.</p> <p>You need to check and maintain it regularly. In the same way you give your carpets a regular once-over with the vacuum, regularly checking in with your data makes life easier in the long run.</p> <p>Just like a weekly or twice weekly vacuum round the house, it&rsquo;s a smart idea to check in on your data on a monthly or quarterly basis. If you have a lot of data and a lot of inputs, you&rsquo;ll need to review it more frequently.</p> <p>This is still just as important even if you have a third-party supplier checking over your data. Spot-check your data occasionally to ensure your supplier is fulfilling their obligations. If your team is running the checks for you, make sure you check in with their progress once in a while to verify everyone is on board with the same standards and cleaning the data in the same way. It&rsquo;s also a good opportunity for highlighting development areas for your team.</p> <h2>How Frequently Should You Check Your Data?</h2> <p>Let&rsquo;s go back to that carpet analogy. Leaving your carpet for a week doesn&rsquo;t matter. It doesn&rsquo;t really matter if you leave it for a month (as long as you&rsquo;re OK living with dirty carpets). But leave that once fresh and spotless carpet too long and by the time you pull out your vacuum cleaner, your carpet will be beyond saving.</p> <p>It&rsquo;s the same with your data. Data that&rsquo;s not maintained will slowly become unusable over time. Incorrect or conflicting information will build up. AI outputs are corrupted. Since you can&rsquo;t afford to use bad data, you end up spending significant time or money to fix the problem. Ouch.</p> <p><strong>Regular Data Maintenance Means:</strong></p> <ul> <li>Better data accuracy for better business decisions.</li> <li>Avoiding a time-consuming and costly data clean-up operation (because your data won&rsquo;t slowly become corrupted).</li> <li>A better-trained and more-responsive data team. Doing a little bit of something regularly is always easier than doing a lot of it occasionally.</li> <li>An informal opportunity to stay in touch with the work your third-party supplier is doing.</li> </ul> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/data" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Data</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/data-management" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Data Management</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/data-protection" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Data Protection</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/data-privacy" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">data privacy</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/information-technology-it" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Information Technology (IT)</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-addthis field-type-addthis field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style " addthis:title="Why Should I Maintain My Data? - Future of Sourcing" addthis:url="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/why-should-i-maintain-my-data"><a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_linkedin"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_facebook"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_twitter"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_googleplus"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_pinterest_share"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_reddit"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_email"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_print"></a> </div> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-region field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Region:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/regions/global" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Global</a></div></div></div> Wed, 17 Feb 2021 20:32:38 +0000 Susan Walsh 1924 at https://www.futureofsourcing.com https://www.futureofsourcing.com/why-should-i-maintain-my-data#comments Why Transparency Matters to Us All https://www.futureofsourcing.com/why-transparency-matters-to-us-all <div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/articles/supply%20chain%20transparency%20%281%29.png"><a href="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/articles/supply%20chain%20transparency%20%281%29.png" title="Organizations will emerge fitter and stronger, having learned some of the lessons of the pandemic and turning these to good use to reimagine their supply chains for the better." class="colorbox" rel="gallery-node-1909-C5XlkOhiQdQ"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/styles/juicebox_medium/public/articles/supply%20chain%20transparency%20%281%29.png?itok=vcL8_6jK" width="624" height="325" alt="Organizations will emerge fitter and stronger, having learned some of the lessons of the pandemic and turning these to good use to reimagine their supply chains for the better." title="" /></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-related-news field-type-entityreference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Related news:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/global-sourcing-myth-versus-reality">Global Sourcing: Myth Versus Reality</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <h1>The Pandemic Has Sharpened Boardroom Focus</h1> <p>Recent months have shown us the importance of supply chains. In a year of few highlights, the ability for supermarkets to keep shelves stocked and for other vital services to keep going has been heartening. However, conversations are changing as we look to a post-pandemic world. One of these is around sustainability, and it&rsquo;s interesting to note that <a href="https://rfid.averydennison.com/content/dam/rfid/en/news-and-insights/insights/white-papers/SupplyChain-MarketInsightsReport.pdf">even now 65% of business leaders</a> identify sustainability as an even bigger priority post COVID-19.</p> <p>What was already on the boardroom agenda has become more important. Equally as important is the fact that 83% of business leaders believe supply chains and associated technologies can support sustainability objectives. There is consumer pull too with 70% of consumers now believing trust in a brand is more important than in the past. Knowing how a product is sourced and brought to market is critical to this.</p> <p><a href="https://sig.org/sustainable-business-practices-drive-positive-change-supply-chains" target="_blank"><em>&gt;&gt;Related content: Sustainable Business Practices that Drive Positive Change in Supply Chains&lt;&lt;</em></a></p> <h1>Vertical Sector Initiatives Lead the Way</h1> <p>Several vertical sector initiatives are also steering us in this direction. For example, a <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/industries/retail/our%20insights/fashions%20new%20must%20have%20sustainable%20sourcing%20at%20scale/fashions-new-must-have-sustainable-sourcing-at-scale-vf.ashx">McKinsey study</a> found that eight out of 10 sourcing executives in the fashion industry plan to publish their companies&rsquo; level of transparency on at least tier two level by 2025 in the form of supplier lists.</p> <p>The cocoa supply chain has been <a href="https://d306pr3pise04h.cloudfront.net/docs/issues_doc%2Fsupply_chain%2FTraceability%2FGuide_to_Traceability.pdf">identified in a UN report</a> as &ldquo;very complex.&rdquo; The report stated that &ldquo;tagging raw materials at source is key.&rdquo; This same UN report also calls out fishing and estimates that just 8% of wild caught fish adhere to the Marine Stewardship Certified guidelines for sustainability.&nbsp;</p> <p>How can we grapple with these challenges? These are <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkF_o6kGxRA&amp;t=6s">examples of best practice</a> we can draw on.</p> <p>To take the first, in the UK, Emma Bonar has established 69b Boutique, the &ldquo;first store dedicated to a better fashion industry&rdquo; with a vision to bring together socially and environmentally responsible designers. Brands it works with must adhere to a strict policy on transparency and accountability with a commitment to sustainable fashion. In her words, &quot;Our customers rely on us to know where the products that they&#39;re buying are coming from.&quot;</p> <p>In terms of the second, Cacaste is a Mexican cocoa butter producer that has developed a close working relationship with a network of growers in Tabasco, enabling trust and traceability in their supply chain. Connecting raw materials at source with a unique digital identity is key as this fast-growing business supplies cocoa to beauty companies from the United States to New Zealand.&nbsp;</p> <p>Our third example is Greenfish, a seafood business in South Africa committed to ensuring their seafood is sourced from legal fishing operations and traceable back to its point of origin. Every single package includes information about the species, origin and production method.</p> <h1>Data Has Never Been More Important</h1> <p>Each organization works in a different sector with its own individual challenges, but they all share common objectives such as establishing transparency in their supply chains. In doing so, they engender trust with customers.</p> <p>If COVID-19 has taught those of us working in the supply chain industry one thing, it is the importance of data and applying the insights it gives us to every part of our operations. The more we digitize, the more we understand. It not only makes organizations more efficient but improves the well-being of the planet and those that live in it.</p> <p>With the introduction of digital identity technologies, it becomes possible to provide traceable identities for every product, enabling transparency from raw materials to end product and beyond. This means moving beyond just focusing on tier one suppliers to suppliers throughout the chain to ultimately empower people as well as products to build a more sustainable planet. In doing so, this offers consumers the highest standards of visibility, safety, education and authenticity possible, while giving businesses complete control over their supply chains.</p> <h1>Transparency Is a &lsquo;Win-Win&rsquo;</h1> <p>Not only are governments, NGOs and consumers calling for more transparency throughout the global supply chain, but organizations have a vested interest in delivering supply chain transparency. As well as the reputational cost of failing to meet these demands, researchers at the MIT Sloan School of Management found that <a href="https://hbr.org/2019/08/what-supply-chain-transparency-really-means">consumers may be willing to pay up to 10%</a> more for products from companies that provide greater supply chain transparency.&nbsp;</p> <p>The hope is that 2021 will mark a return to near normality. Organizations will emerge fitter and stronger, having learned some of the lessons of the pandemic and turning these to good use to reimagine their supply chains for the better.</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/global-supply-chain" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Global Supply Chain</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/non-governmental-organizations-ngos" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Non-governmental organizations (NGOs)</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/covid-19" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">COVID-19</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/sustainability" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Sustainability</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/data" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Data</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-addthis field-type-addthis field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style " addthis:title="Why Transparency Matters to Us All - Future of Sourcing" addthis:url="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/why-transparency-matters-to-us-all"><a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_linkedin"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_facebook"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_twitter"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_googleplus"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_pinterest_share"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_reddit"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_email"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_print"></a> </div> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-region field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Region:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/regions/global" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Global</a></div></div></div> Fri, 15 Jan 2021 00:40:21 +0000 Francisco Melo 1909 at https://www.futureofsourcing.com https://www.futureofsourcing.com/why-transparency-matters-to-us-all#comments The Dangers of Dirty Data and How to Ensure Your Data Has Its COAT on https://www.futureofsourcing.com/the-dangers-of-dirty-data-and-how-to-ensure-your-data-has-its-coat-on <div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/articles/Data%20COAT%20%281%29.png"><a href="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/articles/Data%20COAT%20%281%29.png" title="Data accuracy is an investment, not a cost." class="colorbox" rel="gallery-node-1876-C5XlkOhiQdQ"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/styles/juicebox_medium/public/articles/Data%20COAT%20%281%29.png?itok=fXyoThLi" width="624" height="325" alt="Data accuracy is an investment, not a cost." title="" /></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-related-news field-type-entityreference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Related news:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/dont-leave-your-data-out-in-the-cold-it-needs-a-coat">Don’t Leave Your Data Out in the Cold - It Needs a COAT</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p>We all think we know what dirty data is, but it can mean very different things to different people. At it&rsquo;s most basic level, dirty data is anything that&rsquo;s incorrect.</p> <p>Within procurement, it could be misspelt vendors, incorrect invoice descriptions, missing product codes, a lack of standard units of measure (e.g., ltr, l, litres), currency issues, duplicate invoices or incorrect/partially classified data.</p> <p>Dirty data can affect the whole organization. We each have an impact on, and responsibility for, the data we work with. Accurate data is everyone&rsquo;s responsibility. However, across many organizations data is the sole responsibility of a person or department, and everyone trusts them to make sure the data is accurate.</p> <p>How many times have you been working with a data set and noticed a small error but not said anything or manually corrected something from an automated report, just to get it out the door on time? These small errors can filter all the way up to the top of an organization through reports and dashboards where critical decisions are being made.</p> <h1>How Does This Affect My Organization?</h1> <p>One of the most widespread and noticeable impacts is around reporting and analytics. If you&rsquo;re in senior management, you will most likely receive a dashboard from your team that is used to review cost savings, supplier negotiations, rationalization, forecasting or budgets.</p> <p>What if within that dashboard was &pound;25k of cleaning spend under IBM? I can already hear you saying, &ldquo;That&rsquo;s ridiculous.&rdquo; Well, it is obvious when pointed out, but I have seen it with my own eyes. It can happen easily and occurs more frequently than you might think.</p> <p>When there are tens or hundreds of thousands of rows of data, errors will occur multiple times across many suppliers. For the wider organization, this could affect demand, planning, sales, marketing and financial decisions.</p> <p>Think back to the IBM example. Each quarter the data is refreshed automatically with the cleaning classification that &pound;25k becomes &pound;50k, then &pound;75k the following quarter. It&rsquo;s only when the value becomes significant that someone notices the issue. By this stage, how many decisions have been based on this incorrect information?</p> <h1>How Do I Fix It?</h1> <p>There&rsquo;s no magic bullet or miracle solution out there to improve the accuracy of your data. You have to use your team or an experienced professional to get the job done. Get your team to familiarize themselves with the data. If they are reviewing and maintaining it regularly, they will soon be able to spot errors in the data quickly and efficiently.</p> <p>Your data should always have its COAT on and be:</p> <p><strong>Consistent:</strong> Everyone working to the same standards</p> <p><strong>Organized</strong>: Categorized properly</p> <p><strong>Accurate</strong>: Correct</p> <p><strong>Trustworthy</strong>: You wouldn&#39;t drive around in a car without a regular inspection, would you?</p> <h1>How Do I Get a Data COAT?</h1> <p>With a spreadsheet of spend transactions over a period of time, such as 12 to 24 months, the first step should be supplier normalization. This is where a new column is added to consolidate several versions of the same company to obtain a true picture of spend with that supplier. For example, I.B.M, IBM Ltd and I.B.M. would all be normalized to IBM.</p> <p>Data can be classified using minimum information, such as supplier name, invoice/PO line description and value. To acquire more from the data, other factors can then be added, such as unit price. Where unit price information is unavailable, the quantity can be divided by the overall value.</p> <p>A suitable taxonomy will then need to be found to classify the data. It can be an off-the-shelf product such as ProClass, UNSPSC, PROC-HE or a taxonomy can be customized to be specific to your organization or industry.</p> <p>This initial stage may take months if you are working with large volumes of data. It might be worth considering outsourcing this initial task to experienced professionals able to complete the project in a shorter time with greater accuracy.</p> <h1>It&#39;ll Save Money in the Long Run</h1> <p>Data accuracy is an investment, not a cost. Address the issues at the beginning. While it may seem like a costly exercise, you will undoubtedly spend less than if you have a to resolve an issue further down the line with a time-consuming and pricey data clean-up operation. By involving the whole team or organization, it will be much easier to manage and maintain the most accurate data possible.</p> <p>Spend data classification shows you the whole picture, as long as it&rsquo;s accurate. You can get a true view of your spend, allowing improved cost savings, better contract compliance and, possibly the most important benefit of all, preventing costly mistakes before they happen.</p> <p>So, does your data have its COAT on? What does &ldquo;dirty data&rdquo; mean to you? Get in touch at <a href="mailto:susan@theclassificationguru.com">susan@theclassificationguru.com</a>.</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/data" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Data</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/procurement" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Procurement</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/data-security" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Data Security</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/data-privacy" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">data privacy</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/vendor-relations" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Vendor Relations</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/supplier-negotiations" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">supplier negotiations</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-addthis field-type-addthis field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style " addthis:title="The Dangers of Dirty Data and How to Ensure Your Data Has Its COAT on - Future of Sourcing" addthis:url="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/the-dangers-of-dirty-data-and-how-to-ensure-your-data-has-its-coat-on"><a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_linkedin"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_facebook"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_twitter"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_googleplus"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_pinterest_share"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_reddit"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_email"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_print"></a> </div> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-region field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Region:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/regions/global" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Global</a></div></div></div> Thu, 22 Oct 2020 19:11:01 +0000 Susan Walsh 1876 at https://www.futureofsourcing.com https://www.futureofsourcing.com/the-dangers-of-dirty-data-and-how-to-ensure-your-data-has-its-coat-on#comments Seven Steps to Progressing Artificial Intelligence https://www.futureofsourcing.com/seven-steps-to-progressing-artificial-intelligence <div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/articles/Artificial%20Intelligence%20%281%29%20%281%29.png"><a href="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/articles/Artificial%20Intelligence%20%281%29%20%281%29.png" title="With the explosive data growth today, increased computer processing power, and strengthened AI technology foundations, the time is now to make AI a competitive advantage for any organization." class="colorbox" rel="gallery-node-1873-C5XlkOhiQdQ"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/styles/juicebox_medium/public/articles/Artificial%20Intelligence%20%281%29%20%281%29.png?itok=nff0LsLS" width="624" height="325" alt="With the explosive data growth today, increased computer processing power, and strengthened AI technology foundations, the time is now to make AI a competitive advantage for any organization." title="" /></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-related-news field-type-entityreference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Related news:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/from-procurement-police-to-the-chief-partner-officer">From Procurement Police to the Chief Partner Officer</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <h1>Artificial Intelligence and the Pandemic</h1> <p>Artificial Intelligence (AI) defines the 21st century, impacting and driving transformation across every business and industry. With the new norms thrust upon us due to the pandemic, businesses and industries have had to find ways to transform overnight. Previously, it may have taken several years for an organization to make an incremental change or improvement.</p> <p>In 2020, these same organizations had to pivot within days to weeks during the pandemic&#39;s onset to continue staying relevant and in business. These unexpected disruptions forced companies to look to AI to accelerate their migration to digital and experience-based business models.</p> <p>Forward-thinking leaders are adapting to digital and experience-based models sought by their internal and external stakeholders. Organizations are investing in AI adoption to create customized experiences, targeted products, and intelligent business processes. AI cannot be excluded from today&rsquo;s business discussions because it is no longer hype. It is here to stay. For organizations actively investing and incorporating it as part of their business strategy, the rewards are evident.</p> <h1>A Business Perspective on AI</h1> <p>AI offers improved approaches to examining various data sets to optimize plans and processes. These improvements can be used to manage sales, marketing, employees, and systems, to name a few. AI features can provide the premise for a higher automation level to enhance productivity for processes and the workforce.</p> <p>Every use case needs to be properly explored to ensure AI efforts and associated applications achieve their desired business results. Each AI application needs various tools and algorithms to achieve efficiency gains and successfully automate business processes. Automation is the only way an AI application will give you the vital information you depend upon for accurate and timely decision-making.&nbsp;</p> <p>The disruption is real. AI is sweeping across the business world, but the trail is long and winding. As such, the true test for an organization is to quickly devise a strategy for creating value from AI investments and identifying the landmines and risk management strategies.</p> <h1>Stepping Stones to AI Success</h1> <p>First, no general-purpose AI application exists. Each organization&rsquo;s AI journey is different. Choosing the right next-level AI application is a fundamental step towards propelling the organization forward on its AI maturity curve. So, how can we achieve this? These seven stepping stones will enable you to make well-informed plans for AI adoption:</p> <ol> <li><strong>Get Familiar with AI</strong></li> </ol> <p>AI is a continuous process of combining tools, techniques, and domain knowledge to solve business problems and streamline processes to deliver personalized experiences with efficiency and scale. As such, the primary step for progressing AI in a company is to get familiar with it by acquiring the right skills.&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Briefly, AI is:</strong></p> <ul> <li>The art of applying machines to make intelligent, human-like decisions relying on evidence.</li> <li>Blending decisions with actions and data to automate human tasks and streamline end-to-end processes.&nbsp;</li> <li>Using machines to detect unique human attributes like standard dialects, speech patterns, and pictures.&nbsp;</li> <li>Simulating human insight by analyzing and acting on machine- and application-produced data.</li> </ul> <ol> <li value="2"><strong>Engage With AI Experts</strong></li> </ol> <p>To determine the most effective strategy for using AI in your business, use task analysis. The goal is to ensure that AI will reduce process complexity, minimize time to execute the process, and improve the end-user experience. Consequently, partnering with domain and AI talent is critical to prioritize AI business objectives, investments, and obstacles. The best partners are the ones who have embarked on implementing AI for their functional processes.</p> <p>These partners should be experienced in visioning, project planning, program management, process re-engineering, training, communications, end-user support, adoption monitoring, and ensuring the post-go-live success of AI applications. As a result, they are unmatched in comparison to break through perceived organizational, economic, and technological barriers that threaten to slow down AI progress. Leading companies often seek professional assistance for strategy, program management, and implementation of AI initiatives. All leaders should consider it to ensure a successful outcome.</p> <ol> <li value="3"><strong>Identify What Problems You Want AI to Solve</strong></li> </ol> <p>In addition to the use case, understand what the previous challenges in solving this problem were to grasp the obstacles the organization may have to overcome in using AI.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>Investigate various ways your organization wants to use AI to improve your overall business. Be open to new thoughts and different approaches to solving long-running problems. AI implementations prompt companies to rethink the rationale for existing processes and see if they still hold relevance when combined with AI.</p> <p>You may discover an AI-led process can eliminate redundant tasks. The key is to rethink the end-to-end process with the user experience in mind, leveraging AI&#39;s capabilities and how it can fit products and services to boost efficiency.&nbsp;</p> <p>The use case should demonstrate business value where AI can help eliminate an existing problem, improve process throughput, or automate service delivery with demonstrable results.</p> <ol> <li value="4"><strong>Build a Business Case to Successfully Deploy AI</strong></li> </ol> <ol style="list-style-type:lower-alpha;"> <li>Think of areas such as predictive maintenance, targeted sales and marketing, logistics optimization, procurement and supply chain personalization, and unified customer service experiences as areas where AI can bring value.</li> <li>Pick the right problems to solve, keeping in mind the AI application&#39;s cost and efforts to the long-term efficiency and competitive advantage it can bring.</li> <li>Bring aboard critical decision-makers in the organization to build a consensus and a shared vision for the long-term role AI technologies will play in the organization.</li> <li>Experiment. Start with a small project to measure AI applicability to a specific use case to deliver results.</li> <li>After an area of focus has been identified, collect data for training the AI algorithm. More data translates to a more accurate AI training model. Consequently, have enough investment available for data gathering efforts from various hotspots to develop a useful AI model.&nbsp;</li> <li>There will also be a need to corroborate that the collected data is not only unbiased but also rich in quality to determine data relevance. AI governance should be considered as a practice to eliminate biases and inefficiencies within the process cycle.&nbsp;</li> </ol> <p>To scale an AI pilot, consider:</p> <ul> <li>Incubating them in innovation labs or AI technology centers of excellence</li> <li>Leveraging the innovation network of technology and consulting partners</li> </ul> <ol> <li value="5"><strong>Evaluate</strong></li> </ol> <p>Once the organization has experimented with a small project, evaluate the outcomes with an objective mindset. What is the feasibility of AI deployment at a broader scale? Can the organization scale AI to add a financial value through improved efficiencies? What is the financial muscle and appetite for change within the organization? Are there enough C-suite champions and investments necessary to accomplish full-blown AI implementations to reap the benefits?</p> <p>Often, the evaluation stage is a tug of war. IT enthusiasts that want to push an AI initiative demonstrating its ability and cutting-edge results may find themselves up against skeptical process owners who are yet to understand how AI works.</p> <p>For this reason, transparency is vital. Equally, it&rsquo;s critical to have business domain experts with C-suite support participate as key stakeholders in the project and governance processes. Functional leaders must feel comfortable about broader AI adoption while understanding successes and flaws to manage the risk.&nbsp;</p> <p>It is AI experts&rsquo; responsibility to explain to business executives the ins and outs of AI. AI activities must be assessed and co-driven by both business and technical leaders to deliver functional, easy-to-deploy winning AI initiatives.</p> <ol> <li value="6"><strong>Gain Employee Trust and Support by Easing Concerns&nbsp; &nbsp;</strong></li> </ol> <p>Research indicates at least 60% of companies speculate most of their workers worry about AI&#39;s impact on potential job cuts, making employees apprehensive about working with new technologies or AI applications. These uncertainties fuel resistance to change and create a significant impediment to AI implementations.</p> <p>Clear this hurdle by involving employees and communicate progress throughout the journey. To ease their concerns:</p> <ul> <li>Provide training and programs to help employees have the data literacy to understand AI dashboards, reports, and analytics. This will increase their comfort level with AI technology.</li> <li>Communicate the positive effect AI will have on the employee and end-user experiences. For example, demonstrate how AI will reduce the mundane and repetitive tasks to free staff up to focus on more high-level activities.</li> </ul> <p>These strategies will grow your workforce&rsquo;s level of confidence with AI. Remember, both employees and AI applications are vital if we want to achieve the intended goals. Neither is dispensable.</p> <ol> <li value="7"><strong>Work With Domain Experts That Understand AI to Prepare Enterprise Data and Skills</strong></li> </ol> <p>Another component of AI is building or having a team of specialists that have domain expertise, understand AI, and are willing to drive the change and adoption. Even so, the biggest challenge facing AI implementations today is the lack of experts with the talent and skills necessary to scale. This explains why we need to continue supporting AI enthusiast domain experts to experiment further and expand AI.</p> <p>Each business will need the relevant data to train and test AI systems. Insufficient or irrelevant data is likely to compromise AI accuracy and relevancy. Accordingly, having the right data and skills within the organization are necessary to fully capture AI&rsquo;s benefits.</p> <p>To progress AI, keep these considerations in mind:</p> <ul> <li><strong>Discover</strong>: Craft the vision for what you want AI to achieve.&nbsp;</li> <li><strong>Devise</strong>: Develop or select the right AI solution to experiment with a small-scale project.</li> <li><strong>Deploy and Sustain</strong>: Broaden the scope of AI for continuous transformation.</li> </ul> <h1>Final Thoughts</h1> <p>When it comes to digital pursuits in enterprises, the next revolutionary frontier is here with AI. While some organizations are still wobbling from previous technological disruptions, a new one is taking shape and will alter how we operate. AI will help improve or replace existing business processes, reduce errors, and broaden the level of automation for better business outcomes. Leading businesses that have already put AI into practice are poised to generate benefits through enhanced relationships, more efficiency, and higher revenues.</p> <p>Given AI&#39;s high capacity to handle and interpret data, the technology offers a range of opportunities to innovate business processes by augmenting their operational frameworks. AI can substantially increase automation, predict business outcomes, revamp customer management, and prevent fraud.&nbsp;</p> <p>With the explosive data growth today, increased computer processing power, and strengthened AI technology foundations, the time is now to make AI a competitive advantage for any organization.</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/risk-management" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Risk Management</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/artificial-intelligence-ai" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Artificial Intelligence (AI)</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/information-technology-it" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Information Technology (IT)</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/automation" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Automation</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/data" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Data</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/supply-chain" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Supply Chain</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-addthis field-type-addthis field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style " addthis:title="Seven Steps to Progressing Artificial Intelligence - Future of Sourcing" addthis:url="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/seven-steps-to-progressing-artificial-intelligence"><a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_linkedin"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_facebook"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_twitter"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_googleplus"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_pinterest_share"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_reddit"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_email"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_print"></a> </div> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-region field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Region:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/regions/global" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Global</a></div></div></div> Mon, 12 Oct 2020 16:02:35 +0000 Purvee Kondal 1873 at https://www.futureofsourcing.com https://www.futureofsourcing.com/seven-steps-to-progressing-artificial-intelligence#comments Achieving Greater Supply Chain Transparency Through Digital Transformation https://www.futureofsourcing.com/achieving-greater-supply-chain-transparency-through-digital-transformation <div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/articles/GettyImages-1094241146%20%281%29%20%281%29.jpg"><a href="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/articles/GettyImages-1094241146%20%281%29%20%281%29.jpg" title="Digital manufacturing ecosystems (DMEs) are an effective alternative to building transparency from scratch. " class="colorbox" rel="gallery-node-1871-C5XlkOhiQdQ"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/styles/juicebox_medium/public/articles/GettyImages-1094241146%20%281%29%20%281%29.jpg?itok=rzfjfFS8" width="1024" height="576" alt="Digital manufacturing ecosystems (DMEs) are an effective alternative to building transparency from scratch. " title="" /></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-related-news field-type-entityreference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Related news:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/for-procurement-leaders-true-business-transformation-starts-at-home">For Procurement Leaders, True Business Transformation Starts At Home</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p>Transparency is the lifeblood of modern business transactions. From real-time international wire transfers and electronic health records to tracking transportation or delivery options, digital transformation has revolutionized dozens of industries by unlocking greater visibility, speed, and efficiency.</p> <p>Supply chain managers and manufacturers have habitually been slow to the digital transformation and transparency movement but are beginning to rapidly make up ground. This transition has been hastened by the recent one-two punch of the U.S. trade war with China and the COVID-19 pandemic. These events built on a litany of prior tariffs, armed conflicts, and other disruptions that have plagued supply chains for decades.</p> <p>Compounding challenges have clearly highlighted the need for new digital tools that replace the old, opaque ways of doing business: late night international phone calls, painstakingly detailed spreadsheets, flights half-way around the world for site inspection visits, insecure file transfers, and dense email chains.&nbsp;</p> <p>The pandemic brought travel to a standstill and led to social distancing guidelines that prohibit teams from in-person inspections&mdash;realities that urgently underscore why these conventional ways of managing partners and supply chains no longer work.</p> <h1>Defining Transparency</h1> <p>Supply chain managers know they must move fast to modernize and compress the next decade&rsquo;s worth of supply chain innovation into the here and now to attain the visibility critical to their survival. In our recent <a href="https://docsend.com/view/g7tr43iudwyx86ww" target="_blank">2020 State of Manufacturing Report</a>, 87% of companies said they are focused on digital transformation as a way to revamp supply chain strategies and avoid future disruption.</p> <p>The first step in this transformation is to understand what constitutes effective transparency. Imagine a virtual window into the manufacturing ecosystem that provides an on-demand and clear picture of every part in production at all times. The technology exists today to provide this level of insight virtually, meaning there is no longer a consistent need to physically obtain that information.</p> <p>To make the most of a move to digital-based supply chain tools, managers should prioritize these four features as the core of any digital manufacturing transparency initiative:</p> <ol> <li><strong>Manufacturing Data in One Place</strong>: Single dashboard access to design files, material and process specifications, historical DFM, and invoices;</li> <li><strong>On-Demand Production Status</strong>: The ability to secure the detailed production status of any part, immediately and online;&nbsp;&nbsp;</li> <li><strong>Virtual Inspection Visibility</strong>: Virtual or digital inspection photos from partner facilities prior to delivery; and</li> <li><strong>Centralized Access to Quality Documentation</strong>: On-demand access to material certifications, certificates of conformance, and inspection documentation for cross-functional team visibility.</li> </ol> <h1>Embracing Digital Transformation</h1> <p>Rightly, many companies see digital transformation&rsquo;s cost as prohibitive. Creating this level of radical transparency from the ground up is very expensive, with complex flows of data moving in many directions to multiple stakeholders. It demands connectivity to a host of operational systems and business units, secure engagement with supplier systems, and redundancy throughout.&nbsp;</p> <p>Digital transformation is never easy, much less under pressure and with limited resources. In fact, only 14% of respondents to the State of Manufacturing Report said their digital transformation initiative is well-funded, while 81% face difficulty finding necessary expertise.&nbsp;</p> <p>Yet, it is critical for nearly every company if they wish to survive and eventually thrive. While the price tag of transparency might seem high, the cost of avoiding it is far greater. Time is money in manufacturing, and the supply chain is the clock.&nbsp;</p> <h1>Digital Transformation &ldquo;Light&rdquo;</h1> <p>Companies that move forward seeking transparency through their own digital initiatives must be focused and disciplined in their change efforts. However, there is another emerging option that provides the same benefits of transparency and digital tools without the pain and sticker shock.</p> <p>Digital manufacturing ecosystems (DMEs) are an effective alternative to building transparency from scratch. These ecosystems are generally tied together through a cloud-based platform and play a key role by helping engineers and supply chain managers source capacity, whether it&rsquo;s prototype or production work, from different locations.</p> <p>DMEs provide users with the ultimate in speed as well as transparency, while affording their respective companies cost avoidance in terms of lofty digital transformation projects. Just make sure you&rsquo;re working with an ecosystem that carefully vets their manufacturing partners versus a marketplace, otherwise quality may suffer.</p> <p>For many, DMEs will be the most effective and efficient path to achieving true transparency as well as a way to avoid or mitigate the next inevitable supply chain disruption.</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/covid-19" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">COVID-19</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/digital-transformation" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Digital Transformation</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/digital-manufacturing-ecosystems-dmes" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Digital manufacturing ecosystems (DMEs)</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/supply-chain" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Supply Chain</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/data" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Data</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-addthis field-type-addthis field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style " addthis:title="Achieving Greater Supply Chain Transparency Through Digital Transformation - Future of Sourcing" addthis:url="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/achieving-greater-supply-chain-transparency-through-digital-transformation"><a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_linkedin"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_facebook"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_twitter"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_googleplus"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_pinterest_share"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_reddit"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_email"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_print"></a> </div> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-region field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Region:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/regions/global" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Global</a></div></div></div> Sun, 11 Oct 2020 13:18:41 +0000 Dave Evans 1871 at https://www.futureofsourcing.com https://www.futureofsourcing.com/achieving-greater-supply-chain-transparency-through-digital-transformation#comments Seven Ways to Avoid Bias in Your Data https://www.futureofsourcing.com/seven-ways-to-avoid-bias-in-your-data <div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/articles/Copy%20of%20FoS%20Header%20Images%20%2832%29.png"><a href="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/articles/Copy%20of%20FoS%20Header%20Images%20%2832%29.png" title="Avoiding data Bias " class="colorbox" rel="gallery-node-1752-C5XlkOhiQdQ"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/styles/juicebox_medium/public/articles/Copy%20of%20FoS%20Header%20Images%20%2832%29.png?itok=1HPhduV4" width="624" height="325" alt="Avoiding data Bias " title="" /></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-related-news field-type-entityreference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Related news:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/the-new-age-of-iot-and-the-supply-chain">The New Age of IoT and the Supply Chain</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p>AI is taking off in all areas of business and in our daily lives &ndash; from improving <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/01/8-ways-ai-can-help-save-the-planet/" target="_blank">agriculture</a> and predicting where <a href="https://phys.org/news/2018-06-ai.html" target="_blank">forest fires</a> might erupt to determining who is likely to return to a hospital after discharge. With advanced GPUs that can crunch more data faster and growing demand from companies looking to increase competitive advantage, machine learning and other forms of AI are expected to become more pervasive.</p> <p>Today, many companies are relying on smart apps to provide the insight needed to make decisions that can affect people&rsquo;s lives, such as who qualifies for a mortgage or who will be insured. Because of this responsibility, it&rsquo;s more important than ever that data professionals don&rsquo;t inadvertently automate any biases into the AI algorithm because of the data they use or don&rsquo;t use, and how they use it.</p> <p>While AI should be regulated to ensure the fair and ethical use of data, particularly as it impacts decision-making and people&rsquo;s lives, unfortunately, we still have a long way to go before this happens. In the interim, it&rsquo;s up to companies to provide the best anti-bias data practices. It&rsquo;s not only the right thing to do, but it will also help them avoid a faux pas that can damage their brand reputation and have a negative impact on the customer experience.</p> <p>Following are seven best practices for avoiding data bias when building an AI solution.</p> <h1>Hire a Diverse Team</h1> <p>Since people from different backgrounds and cultures bring different perspectives, sensitivities and ways of thinking, it&rsquo;s important to have a team of data scientists that reflects this diversity. The majority of data scientists today are white males; according to a Harnham&rsquo;s Diversity Report for the U.S. Data &amp; Analytics Industry, only <a href="https://www.techrepublic.com/article/the-data-science-gender-pay-gap-is-shrinking-barely/" target="_blank">about 16% of data scientists are women</a>. Without diversity, there is a possibility for unintentional racial and gender bias to creep into the data. For example, a study conducted by <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/machine-bias-risk-assessments-in-criminal-sentencing" target="_blank">ProPublica</a> found that algorithms used by Broward County courts to predict repeat offenders incorrectly identified black defendants twice as often as being at higher risk than white ones. It is particularly problematic since these risk assessments can be used to help determine a defendant&rsquo;s treatment by the court, such as whether or not he/she is offered probation.</p> <h1>Conduct Diversity and Anti-Bias Training</h1> <p>Even with a diverse team and the best intentions, people may bring unconscious biases and assumptions into the algorithms they develop. Data scientists, data engineers and other team members today need to know more than technical skills &ndash; they need to be thinking about ethics and potential bias. HR or other experts should train these professionals to become aware of and guard against hidden biases. Every organization should establish guidelines and best practices that all professionals need to follow on how to recognize and avoid bias.</p> <h1>Use Diverse Data</h1> <p>It&rsquo;s important to continually consider if there are inherent biases in the data that is used. For example, are mortgages denied based on a person&rsquo;s ZIP Code, which may be biased against an ethnic group or class, regardless of a person&rsquo;s credit score or ability to pay? What are the questions in the risk assessment algorithms used by courts that might create bias against blacks and other minorities? When <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-amazon-com-jobs-automation-insight/amazon-scraps-secret-ai-recruiting-tool-that-showed-bias-against-women-idUSKCN1MK08G" target="_blank">Amazon</a> tried to vet the best talent from resumes, for example, they used the data from 10 years of resumes to train the algorithm. Since the company received many more resumes from men over that timeframe, the AI program &ldquo;learned&rdquo; for example, that the word &ldquo;women&rdquo; (as in &ldquo;women&rsquo;s organization&quot;) was not desirable and gave the candidate a lower rating. In another case, <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/best-algorithms-struggle-recognize-black-faces-equally/" target="_blank">AI and facial recognition programs</a> have difficulty identifying non-white skin tones, which may be due to the greater availability of facial data for whites, while others are underrepresented in the data set.</p> <h1>Be Transparent</h1> <p>It&rsquo;s critical that companies are transparent about algorithms that impact people&rsquo;s lives. They should disclose the type of data used to teach the algorithm and the criteria that helped make decisions, such as who gets a mortgage, or how a court&rsquo;s risk assessment is determined. Then, these companies need to carefully consider the feedback they receive from the public and adjust their algorithms accordingly.</p> <h1>Hire Tech Linguists to Develop Appropriate Conversations</h1> <p>The development of conversational AI apps for chatbots adds another level of responsibility for organizations. Companies must ensure that they are communicating with their customers appropriately and with respect. They should bring in tech linguists to make sure they are writing natural and appropriate responses and are able to participate in the flow of conversation naturally and clearly.</p> <h1>Develop the Chatbot Conversations in the Language It Will Be Used</h1> <p>A chatbot needs to understand cultural norms, idioms and dialect as well as accents &ndash; for call centers and other telephone applications &ndash; in order to clearly and accurately communicate and avoid miscommunication. As an example of what could go wrong, Jimmy Carter&rsquo;s interpreter famously mistranslated his remarks to the Polish people as stating that he had sexual desire for them when he was talking about the Polish people&rsquo;s &ldquo;desires for the future.&rdquo;</p> <h1>Continuously Test and Monitor the Algorithm</h1> <p>It&rsquo;s critical to monitor your algorithm continually, not just to improve results, but also to make sure new data is not bringing new biases to the application. For example, bad actors on Twitter taught a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/feb/05/coca-cola-makeithappy-gakwer-mein-coke-hitler" target="_blank">Coke</a> bot the wrong things, and it ended up posting Nazi propaganda before the company recognized the problem and took it down. Conduct ongoing testing against diverse audiences. For chatbots, analyze and report on which questions they couldn&rsquo;t answer, and solicit ongoing feedback and recommendations from users.</p> <p>As AI becomes more pervasive across organizations and in our everyday lives, data professionals must be vigilant against bias. In addition to being unfair and unethical, biases can lead to an organization being out of compliance with regulations and expose it to fines and penalties. And in the court of public opinion, as companies rely more heavily on these apps as their public face, if left unchecked, they can damage a company&rsquo;s reputation beyond repair.</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/data" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Data</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/artificial-intelligence-ai" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Artificial Intelligence (AI)</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/robotic-process-automation" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Robotic Process Automation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-addthis field-type-addthis field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style " addthis:title="Seven Ways to Avoid Bias in Your Data - Future of Sourcing" addthis:url="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/seven-ways-to-avoid-bias-in-your-data"><a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_linkedin"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_facebook"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_twitter"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_googleplus"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_pinterest_share"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_reddit"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_email"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_print"></a> </div> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-region field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Region:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/regions/global" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Global</a></div></div></div> Thu, 30 Apr 2020 22:34:38 +0000 Carlos Meléndez 1752 at https://www.futureofsourcing.com https://www.futureofsourcing.com/seven-ways-to-avoid-bias-in-your-data#comments Digital Challenges Around the Water Cooler: 5 Predictions for 2020 https://www.futureofsourcing.com/digital-challenges-around-the-water-cooler-5-predictions-for-2020 <div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/articles/Digital%20Challenges%20for%202020.png"><a href="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/articles/Digital%20Challenges%20for%202020.png" title="5 Predictions for 2020" class="colorbox" rel="gallery-node-1685-C5XlkOhiQdQ"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/styles/juicebox_medium/public/articles/Digital%20Challenges%20for%202020.png?itok=xgnKZpRh" width="624" height="325" alt="5 Predictions for 2020" title="" /></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-related-news field-type-entityreference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Related news:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/buying-open-source-software-support-and-getting-the-best-deal">“Buying” Open Source: Software, Support and Getting the Best Deal</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p>At the end of a dramatic year for technology providers big and small, Richard Grove from digital consultancy Caution Your Blast considers five issues, opportunities and developments that will dominate the start of this decade.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <h1>1. Data Decline</h1> <p><span style="font-size: 13.008px;">I believe the way we value data is going to change rapidly in 2020. Until very recently, &ldquo;data&rdquo; was generically viewed as a good thing for the modern business; grist to the mill of customer insight and business strategy. Accordingly, many companies&rsquo; approach to gathering data was to cast the widest net possible, with a shotgun approach to analysis.</span></p> <p>New regulations like GDPR have shown this can&rsquo;t continue. Data is no longer an unlimited source of useful insight. It&rsquo;s expensive to handle, and if handled incorrectly (or at least, non-compliantly), data can be a toxic burden for a company, which opens it up <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-google-privacy-france/france-fines-google-57-million-for-european-privacy-rule-breach-idUSKCN1PF208" target="_blank">to penalties like fines</a>.</p> <p>What will organizations do with all the data they hold? Firstly, understanding their services is critical &mdash; what is the minimum data they need to continually improve what they do? On top of that, they&rsquo;ll check that they&rsquo;re only keeping data they need to and not holding anything which breaks the rules.</p> <p>Then there&rsquo;ll be a wave of companies dumping data that serves no purpose. Unused data is just a cost, so the role of the data scientist will become more refined and central to the running of a successful business, as they&rsquo;re entrusted to generate ever more useful insights from a shrinking amount of raw material. That said, although data scientists will be working with a smaller amount of stored data, it will, by its very nature, be more relevant data. So, their work may even become a little easier!</p> <h1>2. The End of the Road for Contractors?</h1> <p>Tech talent is plentiful. We may see a tipping point in 2020 whereby specialist contractors can no longer dictate terms in an increasingly competitive market. The days of contractors on highly favorable terms becoming embedded into teams for five to 10 years are surely coming to a close.</p> <p>We should also factor in recent changes to taxation for contractors. In the U.K., post-April 2020, private-sector employers will be held responsible for determining whether IR35 legislation from HMRC applies to any contractor they hire &mdash; which would require them to treat the contractor as an employee for tax purposes.</p> <p>This news has gone down like the proverbial lead balloon. <a href="https://www.computerweekly.com/news/252474123/IR35-reforms-put-IT-contractors-at-risk-of-second-wave-of-loan-charge-like-tax-bills-experts-warn" target="_blank">Computer Weekly</a> went so far as to raise the alarm that, &ldquo;thousands of IT contractors are at risk of financial ruin as HMRC pursues them for tax it claims they owe on work they did up to two decades ago.&#39;&#39;</p> <p>What does this mean for businesses? It&rsquo;s surely a big shake up in how they manage their workforce from a regulatory and administrative point of view. But for business to take advantage, they must shake up how they find, recruit and retain the talent which may become available.&nbsp;</p> <h1>3. Me, Myself and AI</h1> <p>For small- and medium-sized firms in the UK, everyone&rsquo;s talking about AI, but no one is doing it (and if they are, they&rsquo;re doing it badly). So, I&rsquo;m not going to predict that we see a sweeping completion of the &ldquo;digital 2.0&rdquo; revolution people have been touting for years. Instead, and perhaps a little more modestly, I&rsquo;m going to say that most, if not all, companies will (or at least, should) finally deliver on their digital 1.0 projects!</p> <p>That is, ready themselves for more complex technological innovation by learning to walk before they run. As anyone who has been through the process of &ldquo;introducing AI&rdquo; to their business without having the relevant infrastructure in place first will know, you tend to accelerate the process of making errors instead of fixing them.</p> <p>The cost-saving potential of AI will prove too tempting for businesses to ignore. But beware. If you don&rsquo;t understand your users or services and lack a flexible infrastructure to integrate improvements, get ready for an uphill battle. There will be ever increasing cautionary tales out there from implementations gone wrong. That&rsquo;s why 2020 will be the year of preparation, not execution.</p> <h1>4. The Truth Hurts</h1> <p>Companies, suppliers and customers are more closely intertwined than ever before. Something that affects one has strong potential to impact the other. In this era of mis- and disinformation, big brands need to win the fight for truth.</p> <p>I think we&rsquo;ll see dedicated teams created by companies to ensure that the reputation of their brand doesn&rsquo;t suffer by being associated with the misuse of information, not only in the company itself, but also all along the supply chain.</p> <h1>5. Straight to (Open) Source&nbsp;</h1> <p>For decades, <a href="https://aiimpacts.org/trends-in-the-cost-of-computing/" target="_blank">the price of tech has been dropping rapidly</a>, and today you can access software for perhaps just 1% of the price 10 years ago. The days of companies shelling out millions on a 10-year contract with one of the big traditional providers are numbered, not to say gone.</p> <p>One of the biggest drivers behind this has been the rise of <a href="https://futureofsourcing.com/buying-open-source-software-support-and-getting-the-best-deal" target="_blank">open-source software solutions</a>. Hopefully this battle has been won, certainly in the tech circles as more and more companies are based on community-led, value-for-money services.&nbsp;</p> <p>For those who haven&rsquo;t made this change yet, the shift I&rsquo;d like to see coming in 2020 is one whereby more and more organizations start to access benefits, and for those who currently do, to increase their contributions back to the wider community.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/gdpr" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">GDPR</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/data" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Data</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/artificial-intelligence" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Artificial Intelligence</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/open-source" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Open Source</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-addthis field-type-addthis field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style " addthis:title="Digital Challenges Around the Water Cooler: 5 Predictions for 2020 - Future of Sourcing" addthis:url="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/digital-challenges-around-the-water-cooler-5-predictions-for-2020"><a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_linkedin"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_facebook"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_twitter"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_googleplus"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_pinterest_share"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_reddit"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_email"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_print"></a> </div> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-region field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Region:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/regions/global" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Global</a></div></div></div> Thu, 30 Jan 2020 17:00:00 +0000 Richard Grove 1685 at https://www.futureofsourcing.com https://www.futureofsourcing.com/digital-challenges-around-the-water-cooler-5-predictions-for-2020#comments Is it time for an eSourcing solution functionality reality check? https://www.futureofsourcing.com/is-it-time-for-an-esourcing-solution-functionality-reality-check <div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/articles/eSourcing_options.jpg"><a href="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/articles/eSourcing_options.jpg" title="Is it time for an eSourcing solution functionality reality check? " class="colorbox" rel="gallery-node-1594-C5XlkOhiQdQ"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/styles/juicebox_medium/public/articles/eSourcing_options.jpg?itok=Mj5rGwy1" width="624" height="325" alt="Is it time for an eSourcing solution functionality reality check? " title="" /></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-intro field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"> <p>Forget the bells and whistles, focus on the features that your procurement team needs to get the job done.</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <div>As a rule of thumb, there is a list of 10 questions that every procurement team should ask at all solution provider demos. Some of them you&rsquo;d probably expect, like questions about integration and the administration of configuration settings. Others you might not have thought of, for instance asking to what degree the company &ldquo;takes their own medicine&rdquo; by using the technology themselves.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>This list of questions is based on experience in two specific roles: first as a procurement practitioner on a team tasked with selecting and implementing an eSourcing suite; and second, as a consultant at a procurement solution provider where the team was often called to participate in the sales process.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>It is safe to assume that most procurement professionals haven&rsquo;t had the experience of being on the sales side of a bid process in their current role. It is most interesting when your company wins the deal. Obviously, winning is more fun than not winning, but that&rsquo;s not it. When you go from prospect to partner, you get the opportunity to reflect on the selection process in the context of the priorities and maturity of your newly won customer.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>There are three areas of solution functionality that everyone demands, but which at least 90% of companies were not prepared to use.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div> <h2>Optimization</h2> </div> <div>Companies regularly collect more information from suppliers than they absolutely need because this provides them with options. In theory, the more qualified options procurement has to present to the business, the more value they can create. Optimization automates the process of 1) calculating the cost and 2) ranking the value of different supplier proposals. Here&rsquo;s the thing &ndash; in order to benefit from optimization, you need to know all of the award constraints and be able to enter them in the system.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>It is also hugely helpful if you can score/rank the qualitative benefits of each supplier. Without this, procurement will be left with a nice neat ranking of suppliers by price &ndash; one that does not align with the business&rsquo; view of the category at all. It is much harder to articulate the basis of potential award scenarios with the specificity required for a system to understand them than you might think.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div> <h2>Data Points</h2> </div> <div>&ldquo;How many data points can your system handle per project?&rdquo; It&rsquo;s a question that any competent provider should be able to answer right away. You can think of this as items * spec fields * bid fields * suppliers. The number balloons quickly in certain kinds of projects, reaching tens of thousands of data points that pose a challenge to import/export, analysis and optimization.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Perfect examples include sourcing events for location-based services (floor washing, grease trap cleaning) and LTL freight (because of the number of lanes and suppliers involved). While data point scale is absolutely essential for certain kinds of projects, they are not usually the norm. Too much focus on this type of detail may lead to the selection of an overly expensive, overly complex system that will be next to unusable in the vast majority of sourcing projects.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div> <h2>Complex Bidding</h2> </div> <div>One of the primary reasons most companies have for implementing eSourcing is to get their procurement teams away from spreadsheets for bidding and analysis. Given that, it is amazing how many companies will select and implement an eSourcing platform, only to attach a spreadsheet in the bidding section and ask suppliers to input one final number in a single bid field while submitting all of the bid detail in the spreadsheet!&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>If procurement isn&rsquo;t skilled in the fine art of cost modeling &ndash; and able to create a cost model that reflects the need for standardization across bids as well as the flexibility to allow suppliers to move &ndash; you honestly don&rsquo;t need anything more than the most basic bid field functionality.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Not to violate professional standards and name names, there are plenty of companies out there who chide prospective suppliers for not having expansive functionality even when they are nowhere near ready to use it. There is absolutely no harm in asking about the development roadmap or making sure the technology will grow with procurement as their learning curve progresses.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>That said, you&rsquo;re doing your team and your company a disservice if you are focused on a provider&rsquo;s ability to get you to the moon, when you&rsquo;re still getting comfortable leaving your front yard. Instead, define the functionality required by 80% of your company&rsquo;s sourcing projects and pick the best solution for addressing those.&nbsp;</div> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/technology" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Technology</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/esourcing" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">eSourcing</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/data" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Data</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/bidding" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Bidding</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/negotiation" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Negotiation</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/optimization" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Optimization</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-addthis field-type-addthis field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style " addthis:title="Is it time for an eSourcing solution functionality reality check? - Future of Sourcing" addthis:url="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/is-it-time-for-an-esourcing-solution-functionality-reality-check"><a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_linkedin"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_facebook"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_twitter"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_googleplus"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_pinterest_share"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_reddit"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_email"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_print"></a> </div> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-region field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Region:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/regions/global" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Global</a></div></div></div> Thu, 03 Oct 2019 20:38:04 +0000 Julien Nadaud 1594 at https://www.futureofsourcing.com https://www.futureofsourcing.com/is-it-time-for-an-esourcing-solution-functionality-reality-check#comments