Following on from our popular CIPS Excellence webinar in September, Digitising procurement: Insights from award-winning transformation programmes, Jag Lamba, CEO and founder of Certa, provides some useful insight.
The full webinar is available to watch back on-demand, here. You’ll hear from Jag, as well as procurement practitioners Raimundo Martinez from BP and Marsel Khanane, who both tell their award-winning stories of success.
How does digitisation promote cost savings in an organisation?
Digitisation allows teams to automate their processes, meaning they can spend more time on tasks that promote cost savings, such as negotiating with vendors and evaluating risks, rather than manual, procedural work, like emailing legal each time they’re onboarding a new supplier.
Are these solutions primarily aimed at larger enterprises? Are they cost prohibitive for small/medium enterprises with <5k employees?
Certa is designed for large enterprises but we offer flexible, modular solutions for organisations seeking simpler, out-of-the-box options.
What are your views on low code/no code platforms in procurement?
Low code/no code has been a buzzword in recent years, so the answer depends on the quality and the usability of the platform. A platform can be low code/no code and still be difficult and confusing to use. Additionally, some low code/no code platforms have limited capabilities, meaning you’ll still end up needing a coder to make most of the updates that you need.
When looking for a low code/no code platform, here are some questions you should ask:
- Is the platform easy to use? Does it require extensive training and is there a steep learning curve?
- What are the scope of the changes I can make with the platform? What type of changes would still require someone to directly edit the code?
- Does the platform offer templates or will I need to start from scratch?
- Can I deploy changes on my own? How long does it take to deploy?
- Does the low code/no code platform incorporate AI in any way?
If you’re interested in learning about Studio, Certa’s low code / no code platform, you can go here.
Editor's note: A low code/no code platform is a tool that allows users to develop applications and make changes to digital solutions with minimal or 'no' coding or programming knowledge.
What approach to triaging of processes to identify those which are suitable (and operationally/financially beneficial) to automate with, say, GenAI have you seen?
Any processes that tend to be repetitive would be a good fit for automation. For instance, at Certa we’ve seen substantial benefit in helping suppliers automate their questionnaire filling process. SmartFill AI uses suppliers’ past answers and answer banks to automatically complete the answers to questionnaires.
One key challenge to investing in digital procurement is the requirement for continuous investment to keep the system updated. Can you provide any comments to procurement leaders on how they can convince leadership to invest?
Investing in a Software as a Service (SaaS) solution like Certa means that your technology provider is the one continuously investing to keep the system updated, rather than your internal team. Our solution is flexible enough to meet the needs of large enterprises, while also providing industry standard guidance for teams that want more support.
How much is the Certa Assist supplier onboarding AI?
Certa AI’s pricing depends on a variety of factors, so we recommend scheduling a demo on our website, certa.ai. Just click “get in touch” at the top right corner of the page.
