Podcast

Episode 10: The Future of the Procurement Technology Landscape

By TealBook
Consolidation doesn’t necessarily mean innovation going away. Sometimes two things that join together end up being greater than the sum of their parts. There are some things that I wish were already consolidated. I won’t name specifics, but some things make more sense together than apart. And when it comes to the future of the market … look, I mean, I talk to investors all the time who say, Wow, this is a highly fragmented market. And I pull up slides of different visualizations, like logo maps, as the ones we see from Kearney or the ones we see from other firms, it’s like, Yeah, there’s a lot. And we throw more logos on this slide every single year. So it’s a time for reorganizing a competitive landscape.
Nick Heinzmann VP of Research at Spend Matters

Episode Summary

In the vast and competitive market that procurement is now becoming, how do you find the best suppliers and vendors for your needs? And how do you realize success if you are one of those new suppliers trying to be seen?

At SIG recently, Stephany Lapierre sat down with Nick Heinzmann, VP of Research at Spend Matters, and their conversation delved into the questions above. Among many things Nick is responsible for, he works on Spend Matters’ list of 50 Procurement Providers to Know, 50 Procurement Provides to Watch, and the Future Five. How does he measure what qualifies a provider to be on the list? Find out. 

Nick has a unique insight into what companies have the toolsets required for what he calls a “period of economic reorganization”, as well as the creativity within integration and workflow that organizations should be looking for. 

Show host Stephany Lapierre and Nick Heinzmann address the vitality of data in procurement’s future, where procurement has come in the last five years, projections of where the industry may go in the next five years, and the leaders and thinking driving the future. With Tealbook in its second year on the 50 Procurement Providers to Know list, this is a timely and knowledgeable discussion.

Additionally, in this episode, Nick Heinzmann talks about:

  • Why he sees a lot more partnering, banding together, to address problems in the near future
  • How data will necessarily require a shared consensus standard to speak to the heart of where the industry is operating
  • What he’s been hearing in conversation as the big themes of SIG, what is being looked for, what is moving the industry?

About Nick Heinzmann:

Nick Heinzmann is the Vice President of Research at Spend Matters. Prior to this role, Nick was an associate analyst covering niche and new technology providers for Spend Matters. His coverage spanned solutions that don’t neatly fit into any of the boxes used to bind the Spend Matters SolutionMap analyses (e.g., e-procurement, e-sourcing), along with vendors new to the procurement technology market or ones that need validation of capabilities before entering the rigorous SolutionMap RFI process. 

Nick is a native of Tri-State area Connecticut. He found his way into the world of procurement by indirect means. He started out as a music student at Northwestern University, completing an undergraduate degree in cello performance. He decided to jump ship into journalism, completing the master’s programme at Northwestern’s Medill school the next year. Trading counterpoint studies for the real-world “thrill” of covering agricultural derivatives at the Chicago Board of Trade, Nick got his first whiff of global commerce that, he would later learn, is in large part orchestrated by procurement professionals.

Armed with that minimal procurement knowledge, he decided to take a job out of grad school copy-editing for Spend Matters, spending many hours spelling out acronyms and deciding whether he should be typing e-procurement, eProcurement or eprocurement. The minutiae of grammar and style eventually led to more writing-focused roles within the Spend Matters editorial team, including a stint as the lead writer for our client content programmes within Spend Matters Brand Studio.

Resources in this episode:

Links:

Stephany Lapierre – TealBook: website | twitter | linkedin | youtube | instagram

Nick Heinzmann – VP of Research at Spend Matters: website | linkedin 

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