The Benefits of Best-of-Breed Solutions
How best-of-breed can elevate Procurement
Watch the IntroductionEnable A Best-Of-Breed Environment For Procurement Transformation
Disruptive events have put resilience at the top of the agenda for supply chain and procurement professionals. Consequently, more emphasis than ever is being placed on future digital procurement solutions and how they can be used to provide the levels of transparency, collaboration and agility required for the procurement function of tomorrow.
Options include further investment in legacy suites, investment into new best-of-breed technologies, or adopting a hybrid approach and investing in both types of solutions based on business needs. An increasing number of companies are pursuing this best-of-breed hybrid approach.
These organizations understand that:
- Solely relying on traditional solutions is no longer effective as they are not sufficient to deal with the ever-increasing range of business cases
- A data foundation must be in place to enable best-of-breed
- A strategy is needed for the successful implementation and adoption of solutions
9%
of organizations are committed to a suite-only strategy
99%
of suppliers have more than two supplier-facing systems that their suppliers interact with
3000
percent rise in VC deals in procurement space across Europe from 2010-2020
415m
euros is a total number of VC investment into procurement technology
The Benefits of Best-of-Breed Technologies
How Data-Led Procurement Solutions Create Value
In the first webinar in this series, we are joined by Sammeli Sammalkorpi, CEO of Sievo and Costas Xyloyiannis, CEO of HICX, who discussed the rise of the best-of-breed landscape and the role data plays within.
How Data Drives Supplier Experience, Digitization and Transformation
In Part 2 we have welcomed Adriano Garibotto, Chief S&M Officer of Creactives and Costas Xyloyiannis, CEO of HICX to explore how best-of-breed solutions provide a faster time to value.
How Best-of-Breed Technology Enables Strategic Transformation of Procurement
In the final part of the series, we look at supplier centricity and the ROI of SXM. For this discussion, we are joined by Mary Beth Lang, Chief Supply Chain and Procurement Officer at Kaiser Permanente; and Robert Bonnar, Global Procurement Director, at SHV Energy.
Rethinking the Safe Option: Why a Best-of-Breed Hybrid Environment Is Becoming More Attractive
As the saying goes, “No-one ever got fired for buying IBM.” It reflects the perceived safety of choosing traditional, familiar-branded, legacy software over alternative innovative technologies from other vendors. However, given the speed of technological development in Procurement, is a single-vendor suite really the ‘safe’ option?
The need to better facilitate information sharing, communications or specialized workflows in niche areas are frequently outside the scope of single-vendor suite solutions.
Most suites, despite claiming to offer a ‘one-stop shop’ for multiple requirements, are not really integrated at all. They tend to be based on different solutions and architectures acquired over time. It is also often presumed that a suite will be ‘seamless’ across all modules. However, most aren’t. Experience has shown that modules do not always work well together within the suite itself, let alone in combination with external solutions.
It is for these reasons that the best-of-breed hybrid environment is becoming more attractive.
Listen to an Interview on Cloud-Based Procurement Software
Guest: James Meads
Learn about:
- Cloud-based Procurement software
- The future of best-of-breed solutions
- Lessons learned from supply chain crises
[Whitepaper] How To Adopt Best-of-Breed as Part of a Procurement Digital Transformation Strategy
This whitepaper explores the necessary components of best-of-breed planning, including:
- How to ensure the right data foundations are in place to support a best-of-breed environment
- How to architect for flexibility, extensibility and user experience
- How to build a business use case driven approach
How to Enable Best-of-Breed ProcureTech with Dr. Elouise Epstein – Kearney
The panel discusses how to enable best-of-breed ProcureTech and the reasons why best-of-breed solutions within the ProcureTech landscape are growing so rapidly, and the importance of adopting a strategy-based approach for implementation to ensure success.
Tackling Increasingly Complex Procurement Requirements
As an organization’s Procurement function matures, it also gets more complex. Requirements become more specific. Best-of-breed software is able to tackle specific challenges of an organization as they are built with these use cases in mind.
As Dr. Elouise Epstein, Partner at Kearney, highlights, it means that increasingly the ProcureTech landscape will be characterized by numerous plug-ins. The result: “An ecosystem of connected microservices offering value-creating point solutions.”
This underpins the best-of-breed hybrid technology landscape, comprising centralized platform components, supported by a range of specialist solutions from vendors with deep expertise and knowledge in specific fields. New services can be added all the time as requirements quickly evolve. This is already happening in areas such as cybersecurity, sustainability, or diversity and inclusion, as well as in the traditional activities of discovery, sourcing, pricing, contracting and invoicing.
Enabling a Best-of-Breed Environment
A critical foundation for all new services is robust, good-quality data, accessible across different services and platforms. Having the right centralized platform configuration to provide the basis for the enablement of a best-of-breed landscape is therefore key.
By using HICX as part of the centralized platform, organizations such as Mondelez International, BAE Systems, EDF Energy, and others, have been able to support the best-of-breed hybrid architecture. They have been able to consolidate their data, streamline their workflows and improve supplier experience.
As Stephane Sacherer, Associate Director Global Procure to Pay at Mondelēz International, explains, “In order to build a best-in-class experience, you have to have the right foundations that enable the deployment of best-of-breed solutions. With HICX, we now have that and we are looking forward to further differentiating ourselves across the board in areas such as SRM, invoicing, PO and quality management, among others.”
The Era of Best of Breed Solutions: Experts Weigh In
With the right data foundations, best-of-breed solutions are providing more options and therefore exciting new opportunities for Procurement to improve transparency, drive collaboration and become more agile.
It is heralding a new era for Procurement, putting it at the forefront of some of the biggest challenges facing organizations and calling for more cross-functional collaboration than ever before.
“What we have seen, at least with our customers, is the ones which are in industries which, I would say, have very mature procurement functions, is they have started to trend more and more to best-of-breed. Because, if you think about it, as a Procurement function matures, you have more acute, specialized needs.”
Costas Xyloyiannis, CEO of HICX
Best-of-Breed Insights & Opinion
Best-of-Breed vs Single Suite: Sorting Myths from Reality
“No one ever got fired for buying IBM,” so the saying goes, meaning it’s generally safer to go with a household name when you’re in the market for new technology. But does that still hold true? Given the speed of technological development, does buying a procurement suite represent the ‘safe’ option today? Nic Walden, a […]
Best of BreedSupplier Management Read nowHow to Adopt Best-Of-Breed as Part of a Procurement Digital Transformation Strategy
A new era for Procurement Recent disruptive events have been forcing Procurement to become more agile and resilient. Procurement practitioners agree that these demands will have to be supported by digital solutions. As a result, interest in best-of-breed solutions has been quickly growing, with a significant rise in their adoption and overall investment. “There are […]
Best of BreedDigital Transformation Read nowAre Best-of-Breed Landscapes Emerging As the New Suite?
Best of Breed vs Best of Suite; New Trends Taking Hold On Wednesday 23 September, I had the fortune to be able to attend a webinar hosted by Procurement Leaders, featuring speakers Frank McKay and Clement Duquerroy, respectively CPO of Jabil and CPO of Accor Hotels, on the topic of ‘Best-of-Breed vs. Suite ProcureTech.’ As […]
Best of BreedProcurement Excellence Read nowThe Era of Best of Breed Solutions: Experts Weigh In
One of the greatest advantages of working with best-of-breed vendors compared to solutions provided by single suite vendors is that best-of-breed vendors are focused on solving specific use cases within specialist areas, which means that the expertise that they can provide in relation to that area is especially strong. For this reason, there has been […]
Best of BreedTechnology Read now
Elevating Supplier Experience: How Supplier Experience Adds Value
In this webinar on ‘Elevating Supplier Experience’, Tania Seary, Founder of Procurious, is joined by Costas Xyloyiannis, CEO at HICX and Amy Fong, VP at Everest Group to discuss the benefits of improving the way in which organizations work and engage with their suppliers. In today’s era when companies are relying more and more on their supplier community due to rapid […]
Supplier Experience Management (SXM) Watch now
How Data Drives Supplier Experience, Digitization and Transformation
Delivering Supplier Experience Management (SXM) through Best-of-Breed In the first of our series of webinars on Delivering Supplier Experience Management (SXM) through Best-of-Breed, panelists from Sievo, HICX, and BP discussed Best-of-Breed technologies and how data-led procurement solutions create value. In this second part, Charlotte de Brabandt, Global Procurement Expert, Author, Digital Enthusiast, and moderator of this session is joined by […]
Best of BreedSupplier Experience Management (SXM) Watch now
How Data-Led Procurement Solutions Create Value
Delivering Supplier Experience Management (SXM) through Best-of-Breed In the first of our series of webinars on Delivering Supplier Experience Management (SXM) through Best-of-Breed, our panellists discussed Best-of-Breed technologies and how data driven procurement solutions create value. Robert Bonnar, Senior Global Procurement Director at BP and moderator for this session, was joined by Sammeli Sammalkorpi, Co-Founder and CEO of Sievo, a company focused […]
Best of BreedData Governance Watch now
How Best of Breed Technology Enables Strategic Transformation of Procurement
Delivering Supplier Experience Management (SXM) through Best of Breed Technology In the final installment of our series of webinars on ‘Delivering Supplier Experience Management (SXM) through Best of Breed Technology, our panelists discussed how best-of-breed technology enables the strategic transformation of Procurement. James Meads, who runs the Procurement Software Site, was the moderator for this session […]
Best of BreedDigital Transformation Watch now
How to Enable Best-of-Breed ProcureTech
Procurement network and intelligence platform providers, Procurement Leaders, hosted a webinar featuring Supply Chain and Procurement experts, Dr. Elouise Epstein, Partner at Kearney, and Costas Xyloyiannis, CEO at HICX. During the webinar, the panel discussed how to enable best-of-breed ProcureTech and the reasons why best-of-breed solutions within the ProcureTech landscape are growing so rapidly, and the importance of adopting a strategy-based approach for implementation to ensure success. Digital technologies drive path to strategic procurement Technology and data will […]
Best of BreedDigital TransformationSustainability Watch nowAn Interview on Cloud-Based Procurement Software with James Meads
For the twelfth episode of Supplier Experience Live from HICX, we are joined by James Meads. James is an advisor on cloud-based procurement software solutions and an advocate for best-of-breed. Based in Bulgaria, he has aligned his business to focus on the three megatrends which will shape procurement and supply chain for the next five […]
Best of BreedData Quality Listen now
How to Use Best-of-Breed to Create Transparency and Drive Collaboration
In this webinar, hosted by Procurement Leaders, Caroline Dillon is joined by Anthony Payne, CMO at HICX and Andrea Sordi, Clinical Professor at Haslam College of Business to discuss how Best-of-Breed solutions are being used to create transparency and drive collaboration within enterprise. The disruptive events over the past few years have transformed the world […]
Best of BreedTechnology Watch nowContact Sales To Discuss How Best-of-Breed Can Work for Your Organization
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