The promise of natural language query processing is that it will greatly simplify the way users interact with business software that drives the procurement process.įor instance, he says users simply need to answer a set of questions.

“We want everything to be achieved in two clicks, and ideally just by speaking,” he says.

Pourrat says even people who are not procurement professionals are able to use the Globality platform.įor Pourrat, enterprise software needs to be “consumer grade”, which means users don’t need training to understand it. This is the way that technology will enable procurement to change.”Īs part of this strategy, BT Sourced has deployed an AI-powered smart sourcing platform from Globality to transform how employees source and procure services. “We truly believe that digital is the way to go. This, according to Pourrat, will enable BT Sourced to run procurement in a different way to other telcos.

“We want you to fully leverage AI, machine learning and the digital ecosystem,” he says. His ambition is to run BT Sourced in a different way to other telcos. Pourrat believes the ability to pull in historical data from the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system and track purchasing across BT Group is key to understanding spending trends and making more informed supplier negotiations. Procurement systems have traditionally been used to track purchase orders and provide the procurement team with a side-by-side comparison of goods and services. It is also using SAP Concur for expense management. Its Making Finance Brilliant Programme has seen the company deploy SAP S/4Hana and SAP’s Ariba procurement platform. “We have absolutely focused on our cost base for all our stakeholders and shareholders,” he says.īT has spent a number of years digitising finance across the business. This is an important consideration, given the company spends billions annually on buying things. He describes the role of BT Sourced as “buying the right stuff at the right price”. Cyril Pourrat is head of procurement at BT Sourced, a separate procurement business within telco giant BT.

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