Taken from a blog written for Digital Procurement World on the 11th and 12th of October 2023, the reasons you should seek out the co -ounders from Deployed, and start a conversation that will bring enormous benefits to your organisation:
You are in or are interested in Services Procurement.
You recognise that Services Procurement is not just about workforce and contingent; Services Procurement is the acquisition of any labour that is outside of permanent employment - from advice and consulting, to freelancers and digital delivery, or even the exciting world of AI delivered services. The broad church of services that are acquired by your company needs a comprehensive strategy that is only now emerging (with your help).
You value the demand side of the supply equation.
You know that Services Procurement is not just aligning your suppliers and getting better sourcing deals, it's about interaction with the business and creating the right inputs to make sure that the demand for services matches the need. You are aware, and support innovations in bidding, marketplace, and sourcing technology, but are concerned that your company is bidding, sourcing, and signing the wrong sorts of deals in the first place.
You are supportive of improving business maturity.
"Procurement are engaged late and they are not informed. They are seen as, at best, facilitators, and at worst, blockers." You've heard this before, but recognise that the equipment at your disposal starts at source, but there is a whole lot of work to do before sourcing, including requesting, intake, advice, guidance, standardisation, playbooks, business partnership, etc... You can't afford a 10% headcount increase, but you can provide benefits through automation.
You believe request and intake is under served by technology and innovation.
There is a thriving content management ecosystem -vendor management, contract management, workforce management; feature rich but downstream platforms that serve as systems of record, but not one of engagement. But when it comes to requesting and intake, this world remains serviced by Word documents, email chains, and SharePoint micro-sites. There is more to do in how we engage and create meaningful pipelines for requests.
