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One of the under-appreciated challenges facing procurement today is low-intent purchasing. It’s not something that immediately sets off alarms because it’s not necessarily obvious, and it’s something that tends to build up over time. Low-intent purchasing is a factor that muddies the waters when trying to make the procurement process as efficient and cost-effective as possible.

A year ago, Arkestro (formerly Bid Ops) held Optimal. The conference was a recognition that procurement software is a strategic driver for modern business and that AI has become a critical tool for supporting organizations that are under pressure to make better decisions, faster. Optimal wasn’t all presentations, workshops, keynotes, demos, and networking among the 1,000+ participants. As part of the conference, Opti Awards were handed out. These were a celebration of stellar achievement and innovation in the procurement industry. 

If you’re involved in procurement and procurement strategy, you know Arkestro as the AI-powered, predictive procurement orchestration platform. Arkestro has earned a reputation as a leading solution that will keep its customers ahead of the market in the most challenging times.

As we enter into a new year, Arkestro (formerly Bid Ops)—the pioneer in Predictive Procurement Orchestration platform— has been named as a 2021 Gartner Cool Vendor in Strategic Sourcing Technology.

Food and beverage producers have gone through sweeping changes over the past several decades. Automation has been a big one, but there have also been widespread and dramatic changes in how companies work with suppliers. Consolidation has resulted in fewer, larger plants—for both producers and suppliers.

It’s that time of year. Time to look back at the many challenges the world of procurement faced in 2021. More importantly, it’s time to learn from what took place over the past year and use that information to determine the top procurement and sourcing trends for 2022. 

In November of 2021, Spend Matters announced that they added Arkestro (formerly Bid Ops) to the Spend Matters’ Fall 2021 SolutionMap. Spend Matters has named Arkestro a Value Leader for the small, medium, and large businesses categories. This is Arkestro’ first inclusion in the influential procurement industry technology benchmark, which ranks 68 leading solutions across 12 key technology areas. Spend Matters has previously recognized Arkestro as being a “Future 5” solution, a “Provider to Know,” and a “Provider to Watch.”

In its 2021 survey of Chief Procurement Officers, Deloitte found a significant change. For the first time in a decade, cost reduction had dropped to second place among CPOs’ priorities. Taking first place was having procurement drive operational efficiency. Technology is the key to achieving both of these targets, and CPOs know it. That’s why digital transformation placed third in the list of priorities. All three of these CPO priorities are reflected in a key KPI: purchase price variance (PPV).

Procurement professionals rely on tools to maximize their performance. One of the most essential additions to the strategic sourcing toolkit is procurement KPIs or key performance indicators. KPIs provide the targets that the procurement team needs to hit, and they provide status indicators that make it possible to gauge whether the team’s performance is on track. After the fact, KPIs are essential to evaluating the team’s performance and can provide valuable insights to ensure the organization does better next time.

Predictive procurement is heavy on the letter “P.” However, when you start digging down into what this approach to procurement means, what’s needed to succeed, and the benefits of adopting it, you’ll find a whole lot more “P”s. Not convinced? We’ve put together a list of the five most important “P”s in predictive procurement.