| | December 20168CIOReviewIT and Procurement: An Opportunity to Create ValueOnce upon a time, "Purchasing" was viewed as a set of order takers who did little more than buy materials and ensure the vendors were paid. The technology needs were modest beyond, perhaps, an inventory and order tracking system. As Procurement became more strategic and as the science of strategic Sourcing and Logistics developed, there was a void in IT enabling technologies. At that point, the profession was evolving faster than the technology, and buyers used what they could -- often Excel on their individual desktops -- with limited opportunity to look at the big picture, plan scenarios, or mine data. Chief Procurement Officers were just starting to recognize and value the strategic importance of data. Most people outside the Procurement organization did not yet understand the role that good data, access to that data, and the technology to manipulate the data could have on contributions to the bottom line by the Procurement organization. And even if they had, there weren't many tech companies pursuing this segment of the market. In the mid- to late-90s, technology products in the purchasing/supply chain space began to take shape. Today there are a proliferation of tools, and our dilemma is totally different: What tools should I use? For which problem? Does it really work? And today, a strong partnership between the CIO and the CPO presents great opportunity to accelerate the value creation and achieve success. This article provides my viewpoint on a CPO's thinking around how IT (and by extension, the CIO) can best enable data and technology as a strategic advantage for Procurement. Shelley Stewart, Shelley Stewart, VP & CPO, E.I. DuPont de Nemours and CompanyIn My OpinionDeveloping a true partnership between the CPO and CIO makes the difference in maximizing the ROI of your technology investmentByShelley Stewart
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