Fortnightly meetings to define priorities and shared targets have been so successful that the same style of collaboration now takes place with the operations and marketing teams . “ IT , analytics , artificial intelligence , simple task automation , IoT and cognitive technologies mean the workforce of the future will do things very differently ,” Halsall says . “ Speaking as a procurement professional , I will be very surprised if around 40 % of the tasks we do today cannot be automated or completed by cognitive systems within the next five years .”
The profession will look different too . Halsall anticipates that relational , social and commercial skills , and the ability to think and act strategically , will take centre stage . “ For me , procurement is about being a trusted advisor to the business : a commercial advisor delivering innovation and relationships for our market but also leveraging the technology so we can do our job faster and smarter .”
It ’ s a deep and ongoing change management process . Weekly 30-minute sprint sessions on relevant commercial and continuous improvement topics were introduced to leverage and transfer collective knowledge and create project delivery efficiencies . In practical terms , we have been able to understand who has experience in a particular subject area and we have created a knowledge hub within our team so everybody can benefit from that material and is key to the development of the team .
Halsall also engaged ArcBlue , a specialist procurement consultancy and training provider and CIPS partner , to complete a competency assessment resulting in the delivery of technical training aligned to professional development goals within the function . The team also worked on a Vendor Open Learning Tribe ( VOLT ), a concept designed in partnership with the internal Technology business unit leaders to accelerate innovation with supply partners . westpac . co . nz 24