#8 Making the Digital Leap in 2024

Planning for 2024 ✌️

Hey Procurement Legend,

Does anyone else feel like the year has flown by?

I suddenly realised I’ve been working in Procurement Tech for a year and a half now. I always wanted to work as a procurement/contracts pro for a tech company.

I then realised I wanted to leap and do something different 2 years ago and get into procurement tech.

December is often a big month of planning and reflection while keeping the foot on the accelerator.

One immediate reflection is that both this Substack and the WoP YouTube are growing at a healthy and sustainable rate, which means any income received I’ve been able to pour back into this content. So, thanks to you all for being part of this Community.

I feel like in 2024 we can make huge leaps in our digital competency. I’m going to help you go from manual ways of working to less manual and more automated, using non-procuretech solutions to help you think in that digital way.

I’m excited to conduct my Annual Review, which is based on a Tim Ferriss concept. Let me know if you want to hear more, and I’ll happily share my Notion template with you. I’ll be doing this during my time off over Christmas, with a healthy helping of Whisky and a few mince pies.

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What I'm Reading

I’m reading a lot of non-procurement and business-related stuff at the moment.

And what I really mean there is I have 3 fantasy books on the go and a book on black holes (I’m obsessed with black holes).

But one piece I’ve enjoyed is this article by Tiago Forte. I’ll write more on this subject as part of my series on Personal Knowledge Management.

Just-in-Time Project Management: A Digital-First Framework for Modern Projects by Tiago Forte.

Summary: Just-in-Time Project Management is a digital-first framework that recognises the scarcity of attention as the most relevant metric in the digital age. Knowledge management is seen as project management, and the challenge is to create systems that free up attention rather than consume it. Personal knowledge management (PKM) is highlighted as the key capability in modern work, allowing continuous use of deployed attention.

There’s a huge correlation here with one of the major ROIs of becoming a digital procurement pro.

What I'm Thinking (about Procurement)

I’ve been thinking deeply about what people are truly struggling with when it comes to procurement. Is it their level of influence? Lacking a budget to bring in tech or more people with different/better capabilities? Why is there such a lack of standardisation in the world of procurement? I have a cool idea on the latter that I might press go on in 2024, but let me get to my annual review first.

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One Procurement Tech-Focused Insight

ERPs and Procurement Tech.

Elousie Epstein says ERPs need to become extinct. Death to the ERP.

“We must also account for the foundational supply chain capabilities (for example, plan, source, make, deliver, reverse logistics). Short term, this is where legacy ERP systems will continue to serve a role as transactional systems of record, but over time these will be replaced by bespoke solutions that simplify transactions. Next is the intelligence layer. This is where we will build our supply chain control tower—an amalgamation of data from all internal supply chain functional areas (plan, source, make, deliver, reverse logistics) and external third parties to holistically model, operate, and respond to supply chain needs, opportunities, and disruptions” - How to hack your supply chain (BUY THIS BOOK, HIGHLIGHT IT, MAKE NOTES, LEARN FROM IT) (#amazonaffiliate).

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One TWO Piece(s) of Content I've Found Useful

James Meads just released his Procurement Tech Map. I love what James is doing with his Procurementsoftware.site website.

Check out and download the Map for free here.

Joél’s LinkedIn post on the Pre-Mortem was a big one for me.

It’s a stoic principle I incorporate into my life. As an example, it was a big reason I rejected the opportunity to jointly run & own a Procurement/Contract Management Education Company in 2020.

Not to mention countless other smaller ideas, including moving away from my Squarespace website to bring my content to substack.

Check out the post here.

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ICYMI

I’m slowly easing back into making the World of Procurement Podcast but with a solo host focus.

Check it out here:

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My Procurement Reading List

Check this out here - make sure you get one of these books.

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