TealBook CEO and founder Stephany Lapierre recently had the opportunity to speak at the World Procurement Congress, the world’s premier procurement event. Stephany discussed the transformational value of good data during a fireside chat with Caroline Alonso, Global Co-Head of Strategic sourcing & Executive Director at Goldman Sachs.
Stephany began the dialogue by outlining the inspiration for TealBook’s mission to deliver trusted, quality data at scale. While building a procurement consulting business, Stephany identified a problem: not with software or processes, but rather, with data. Stephany set out to solve this problem by building a solution that prevents data silos through high-quality, AI-synthesized data capable of powering procurement systems and decision-making processes.
Stephany Lapierre CEO at TealBookIf we could build a better solution that did not depend on suppliers to come and update the portal — if we could do this at scale — we could feed those systems and optimize investment in those systems in a way that… delivers better ROI and ultimately enables procurement to deliver more value.
Stephany’s vision for trusted and high-quality supplier data resulted in the founding of TealBook nine years ago.
During the chat, Caroline and Stephany also discussed the primary drivers for investment in supplier data foundations. Caroline described the challenge of inconsistent data categorizations across Goldman Sachs’ many platforms:
Caroline Alonso Global Co-Head of Strategic sourcing & Executive Director at Goldman SachsHarmonizing that data, getting it in a timely, reliable way, has always been a challenge. In the current macroeconomic climate, the need for agile data has never been more important.
Before adopting a supplier data foundation, Caroline sought a solution to drive operational efficiency, meet ESG targets, improve the user experience, and provide better risk management. She knew good data was crucial to all of these outcomes, as it enables benchmarking, facilitates performance understanding, and identifies areas for improvement and innovation.
Caroline and Stephany also discussed the role of the pandemic in shifting industry expectations — and regulations. According to Caroline, organizations that invested in data infrastructures at this time were more prepared for the oncoming crises than their competitors. This is where the partnership between Goldman Sachs and TealBook was born.
TealBook’s partnership with Goldman Sachs has resulted in collaborative efforts to build the next generation of automation in procurement, complete with richer data streams and a higher-quality distribution system. TealBook’s focus on building a comprehensive data set using AI and ML technologies aligns with Golden Sachs’ goals of increasing diverse spend and sustainability. Through our co-innovation program, we are collaborating to automate the collection, enrichment, and distribution of high-quality data, catering to multiple use cases. Critically, TealBook integrates with all leading application programming interfaces (API), which augments the platform’s collaborative potential.
Goldman Sachs’ partnership with TealBook was catalyzed by the goal to increase diverse spend by 50% — a goal that, with TealBook’s help, was met three years ahead of schedule. As the partnership continues to evolve, the focus will be on diverse vendors, net zero carbon emissions and how to use buying power to influence the vendor landscape.
We would like to extend a special thanks to Caroline Alonso for her meaningful insights and thoughtful conversation during the event and throughout our partnership.
The World Procurement Congress fireside chat is available to stream in its entirety below.
Interested in learning more about TealBook’s supplier data foundation and how it can inform good decision-making at your organization? Click here to get started.
