procurement transformation. “We
have 32 business units in the United
States so we’re getting 32 different
constituencies on board with our
Source-to-Pay process,” explains
Traskos. “For some of them, it’s the
first time they’re doing a purchase
order, so a solid communications
plan is an absolute necessity for us.
It doesn’t stop when we sign the
contract with the supplier and get
them loaded into the Source-to-Pay
system. We have to make sure all of
the relevant stakeholders know who
our suppliers are, what the process
is and what the transition plan is to
switch to newly selected suppliers.”
Consensus building is integral to
improving efficiency. “We aim to give
people a say in the design of the
processes and choosing the vendors,”
pledges Traskos. “After all, they’re the
subject matter experts who know what
they need best.” The next step to
tackle is integrating the right technol-
ogy. “When we win a new client, we
often have to get up and running very
quickly. Procurement needs to support
whatever they need – it could be
research, technology or recruiting, for
example – with very quick turnaround,”
explains Traskos. “But this can lead to
wildly different approaches across the
network which could present a data“ Cisco is helping us
move the employee
base into as few
facilities as possible”
—
Sabrina Traskos,
Senior Vice President, Procurement, Dentsu Aegis Network135http://www.businesschief.com