Procurement Insights

JANUARY 18, 2024

Besides drawing parallels between Power Grids and Supply Chains, the post also provides the perfect and practical everyday-life understanding of the difference between agent-based and equation-based approaches to solving complex challenges. There is a lot to “unpack” here, David Shillingford.

supply chain software solutions 61

supply chain software solutions Supply chain Supply Demand 61

Procurement Insights

OCTOBER 23, 2023

In other words, as great as the tech may be, it means nothing if it doesn’t come after people and process understanding. When you lead with people and process understanding – an agent-based model, technology moves from a functional driver to a problem-solving tool that streamlines and delivers efficiencies and tangible results.

Quality 61

Quality Procurement Suppliers Leadership 61

ivalua

APRIL 27, 2023

Our vision is building sustainable communities together, and it’s in our best interest to be transparent with our suppliers, and get them to understand how they’re being measured against sustainability.” Roach added that finding change agents within her organization who could be early adopters and champion the technology was helpful. “We

Supply Chain Efficiency 130

Supply Chain Efficiency Agile and Lean Supply Chain Supply Chain Optimization Sustainability 130

Una

JANUARY 30, 2023

Changing the Face of Procurement Tips for changing the face of procurement and how practitioners can combat outdated perceptions of the sourcing function. Rather than simply firing off a refusal without any context, take the stakeholder through the journey to help them understand why, and work together to find a better solution.

Procurement 98

Procurement Cost of ownership Influencing Purchasing 98

IBM Supply Chain Blog

OCTOBER 10, 2023

Organizations around the world are trying to understand the best way to harness these exciting new developments in AI while balancing the inherent risks of using these models in an enterprise context at scale. IBM watsonx Discovery enables semantic searches that understand context and meaning to retrieve information.

Innovation 88

Innovation Data Quantity Risk 88

IBM Supply Chain Blog

MAY 15, 2023

Powered by AI you can trust, and an intuitive user interface, Watson Assistant empowers users with the tools to build intelligent virtual agents and deliver automated self-service support across all channels and touch-points.

Sourcing 78

Sourcing Management 78

Procurement Insights

APRIL 5, 2024

Peer-To-Peer Trust Once again, the above question, “I would like to connect with you to understand how to apply AI in the realm of procurement,” is a comment from a Senior Vice President of Global Procurement from one company regarding a post by the Head of Global Supply Chain Digital Transformation from another company.

Procurement 64

Procurement Supply Chain Efficiency Supply chain Ethics 64

IBM Supply Chain Blog

SEPTEMBER 5, 2023

Chatbots have made our lives easier by providing timely answers to our questions without the hassle of waiting to speak with a human agent. Chatbots explained A chatbot is a conversational tool that seeks to understand customer queries and respond automatically, simulating written or spoken human conversations.

Data 62

Data Quality Purchasing Sourcing 62

ivalua

APRIL 27, 2023

Our vision is building sustainable communities together, and it’s in our best interest to be transparent with our suppliers, and get them to understand how they’re being measured against sustainability.” Roach added that finding change agents within her organization who could be early adopters and champion the technology was helpful. “We

Sustainability 130

Sustainability Risk Supply Chain Efficiency Agile and Lean Supply Chain 130

Spend Matters

JANUARY 23, 2024

In SAP® Ariba® Sourcing, for example, there are AI-driven tools that enable practitioners to automate the RFx process. To help shape our understanding of the role of AI versus that of GenAI in procurement, our analysts discussed the following four topics. It basically multiplies efficiency through higher process automation.

Category management 63

Category management Data Procurement supply chain software solutions 63

World of Procurement blog

APRIL 23, 2024

Part of their day is often allocated to meeting with other department heads to understand their procurement needs and how they align with the company's overall strategy. The job requires a blend of strategic thinking, negotiation skills, and an understanding of supply chain management.

supply chain budgeting 52

supply chain budgeting Management Procurement Chief Procurement Officer 52

World of Procurement blog

APRIL 23, 2024

Part of their day is often allocated to meeting with other department heads to understand their procurement needs and how they align with the company's overall strategy. The job requires a blend of strategic thinking, negotiation skills, and an understanding of supply chain management.

supply chain budgeting 52

supply chain budgeting Management Procurement Chief Procurement Officer 52

IBM Supply Chain Blog

DECEMBER 4, 2023

As a result, customers often resort to calling the insurance agent or the insurance company’s contact center. We are now starting collaborations with a few insurance companies to incorporate foundation models and prompt tuning to enhance agent assistance capabilities.

Ethics 56

Ethics Data Risk management Risk 56

Pipefy

NOVEMBER 24, 2023

Before RPA bots the detection process usually went like this: an agent analyzed an alert and interacted with the customer. The agent resolved the issue and documented the resolution by filling out a standard form and emailing it to stakeholders according to the fraud department’s service level agreements (SLAs).

Collaboration 52

Collaboration Data Sourcing Management 52

IBM Supply Chain Blog

FEBRUARY 13, 2024

The quality of outputs depends heavily on training data, adjusting the model’s parameters and prompt engineering, so responsible data sourcing and bias mitigation are crucial. It can make necessary documentation easy to access and search, putting case-resolving information at the fingertips of support agents.

Data 124

Data Ethics Quality Project management 124

IBM Supply Chain Blog

JULY 17, 2023

Generative AI has the potential to significantly disrupt customer care, leveraging large language models (LLMs) and deep learning techniques designed to understand complex inquiries and offer to generate more human-like conversational responses.

Data 57

Data Ethics Risk Innovation 57

IBM Supply Chain Blog

MAY 14, 2024

Enter the CFO, whose role is more substantial than ever to unlock value and to scale and fund a technology they are still trying to fully understand. CFOs are not expected to be data scientists, but they are expected to understand how the enablement of this technology can drive business value.

Ethics 74

Ethics Data Innovation Sustainability 74

IBM Supply Chain Blog

FEBRUARY 14, 2024

Using machine learning (ML), AI can understand what customers are saying as well as their tone—and can direct them to customer service agents when needed. And digital customer service agents can boost customer satisfaction by offering advice and guidance to customer service agents.

Real-time Visibility 87

Real-time Visibility Data Supply Chain Efficiency Supply Chain Optimization 87

IBM Supply Chain Blog

APRIL 18, 2024

While these large language model (LLM) technologies might seem like it sometimes, it’s important to understand that they are not the thinking machines promised by science fiction. However, these systems lack genuine understanding and can’t adapt to situations outside their training.

Data 95

Data Supply Chain Efficiency supply chain budgeting Supply Chain Optimization 95

IBM Supply Chain Blog

JANUARY 3, 2024

It is not inconceivable that individuals would go to a popular search engine with an embedded AI agent and query, “ My dad can’t afford the heart medication that was prescribed to him anymore. Empower domain experts to curate and maintain trusted sources of data that are used to train models. Require transparency.

Innovation 78

Innovation Data Sourcing Quality 78

Procurement Insights

MAY 16, 2024

EDITOR’S NOTE: I am now starting to build my Analyst Solution Map of ten solution providers who I not only see as leaders in their specific area of service but will, through the use of an agent-based model , ensure successful implementations and promised practitioner outcomes. Is Scope 3 reporting the Achilles heel of your supply chain?

Leadership 40

Leadership Procurement Sourcing Supply chain 40

World of Procurement blog

MAY 8, 2024

It involves identifying needs, sourcing potential vendors, obtaining quotes and proposals, negotiating contracts, selecting suppliers, managing relationships, and meeting obligations. Sourcing : Procurement uses competitive bidding, e-sourcing, and supplier development. What is Procurement?

Strategic sourcing 52

Strategic sourcing Strategic sourcing Sourcing Supply Chain Efficiency 52

Supply Chain Game Changer

NOVEMBER 20, 2018

Doing business with suppliers located overseas or in another country can be an overwhelming and daunting task even for expert Sourcing professionals. He had a marketing plan. But beyond that he had no idea on where to start to source his product. There should be a key owner of the relationship at your end and at your Agent.

Sourcing 44

Sourcing Strategic sourcing Strategic sourcing Suppliers 44

Arkestro

MARCH 27, 2024

Procurement Buyer Job Description A procurement buyer, also known as a procurement specialist or purchasing agent, is the person responsible for acquiring an organization’s essential goods and services. The best procurement buyers have a solid understanding of market trends, supplier performance, and ethical sourcing.

Buyers 52

Buyers Supply Chain Efficiency supply chain budgeting Procurement 52

IBM Supply Chain Blog

SEPTEMBER 28, 2023

The newly launched features and capabilities of watsonx.ai, a capability within watsonx, include new general-purpose and code-generation foundation models, an increased variety of open-source model options, and additional data options and tuning capabilities that can broaden the potential business impact of generative AI.

Data 93

Data Sourcing Risk Ethics 93

The Procuretech Podcast

FEBRUARY 22, 2022

On this week's show we're digging into the world of direct materials sourcing. It's a part of the digital procurement landscape that's been a bit neglected, except for e-sourcing tools, and my guest this week decided to do something about this. Is it hard to get conversations with innovators and change agents?

supply chain software solutions 40

supply chain software solutions Supply Chain Efficiency Innovation Supply chain 40

ivalua

MAY 15, 2019

One significant area of Artificial Intelligence is language understanding, also called machine reading comprehension (MRC), and the new technologies in this field lead the way for thousands of new applications, such as sourcing, trend analysis, conversational agents, sentiment analysis, document management, cross-language business development, etc.

Contract 150

Contract Data Management Contract management 150

ivalua

MAY 15, 2019

One significant area of Artificial Intelligence is language understanding, also called machine reading comprehension (MRC), and the new technologies in this field lead the way for thousands of new applications, such as sourcing, trend analysis, conversational agents, sentiment analysis, document management, cross-language business development, etc.

Contract 147

Contract Data Contract management Risk 147

IBM Supply Chain Blog

DECEMBER 5, 2023

As the retail industry witnesses a shift towards a more digital, on-demand consumer base, AI is becoming the secret weapon for retailers to better understand and cater to this evolving consumer behavior. Generative AI excels at handling diverse data sources such as emails, images, videos, audio files and social media content.

Supply Chain Efficiency 95

Supply Chain Efficiency Supply Chain Optimization Inventory Data 95

Procurement Insights

MAY 6, 2024

EDITOR’S NOTE: I am now starting to build my Analyst Solution Map of ten solution providers who I not only see as leaders in their specific area of service but will, through the use of an agent-based model , ensure successful implementations and promised practitioner outcomes.

Negotiation 80

Negotiation Supplier negotiation Suppliers Contract 80

World of Procurement blog

MAY 10, 2024

This supports strategic sourcing efforts. This maximizes value from sourcing partnerships. Supplier consolidation, contract negotiation, and other strategic sourcing levers can be applied to categories with the greatest savings potential. AI can also assist with monitoring obligations, amendments, renewals, and expirations.

Procurement team 52

Procurement team Procurement Real-time Visibility Supply Chain Efficiency 52

Procurement Heads

JUNE 22, 2022

We have the Ukraine conflict, Brexit, Covid and all of those effects are still very much in the business and we are finding ways to challenge ourselves in how to buy differently and understand this world better so we can prepare not only for now but for the future.

e2e 130

e2e supply chain software solutions Supply chain Suppliers 130

Supply Chain Game Changer

AUGUST 21, 2022

Using a logistics-oriented strategy helps companies better understand their suppliers, improve customer service, and optimize shipping. By understanding the customer’s needs, logistics managers can implement better route planning to reduce operational costs and improve fulfilment rates. Another important aspect of logistics is time.

Supply Chain Efficiency 104

Supply Chain Efficiency Supply Chain Optimization supply chain budgeting Logistics 104

IBM Supply Chain Blog

JULY 12, 2023

By training their models with company-specific HR data, HR professionals can use AI to help with tasks like creating job postings, summarizing groups of incoming resumes and helping professionals better understand new policy documents. Application modernization Engineers can use AI to generate and build upon starter code and playbooks.

Data 57

Data Ethics Demand Strategy 57

Supply Chain Trend

DECEMBER 22, 2023

And artificial intelligence (AI) and intelligent agents will be part of the solution. Principle 1 : Intelligent IBP takes a decision centric approach and has a thorough understanding of decisions to be made, decision quality and good decision practices. However, what we call this evolution of IBP is not important.

Supply Chain Efficiency 78

Supply Chain Efficiency Supply Chain Optimization Quality supply chain budgeting 78

IBM Supply Chain Blog

FEBRUARY 12, 2024

They site their production process, material sourcing information, product care information, and even their sustainability reports. It is important to understand customer behaviors on various channels. We’re #2.” ” Along with punchy marketing, the brand details exactly how they’re providing sustainable products.

Sustainability 76

Sustainability Strategy Real-time Visibility Data 76

IBM Supply Chain Blog

NOVEMBER 29, 2023

Exploring “what-if” scenarios or new business events using synthetic data synthesized from agent-based simulations. Understanding the latter is crucial due to the complexity and size of most existing data tables. Creating synthetic test data to expedite testing, optimization and validation of new applications and features.

Quality 87

Quality Data Risk Networking 87