I left Procurement and joined Gatekeeper
Hey Procurement Legends,
It’s been a while since I sent you an email. Let me catch you up. I left my role at the FinTech, 10x Banking.
My main reasons were:
I exhausted my development there. The next steps were to find a Head of Procurement/Contract Management Role (I was kinda doing that there) but I wasn’t feeling that.
I wanted to try something new out.
So I’ve joined the Contract Lifecycle and Vendor Management software provider Gatekeeper. I’m heading up their Community efforts and social content. It’s a wonderful gig that lets me make content full time.
I’ve put the World of Procurement podcast on pause for a moment. At least from a guest podcast perspective because I’m launching a new podcast with Gatekeeper in the coming months.
However, my main focus with World of Procurement will be helping as many of you learn more about Procurement through:
Our Blog
Our YouTube Channel
My Personal Content
This Newsletter
I’m genuinely excited to be putting pen to paper for this newsletter and to bring you insights from the Dark Side (you know, the software provider side).
What’s on my Mind this week
Breaking down the status quo and creating better systems for procurement and contract management.
What do I mean by this?
One challenge I’ve seen first hand and know so many of you are currently dealing with is inertia. You’re using a tech stack that wasn’t made for Procurement or Contract Management teams. Yes, that excel database might now be a thing of beauty (to some). But it requires manual input at all times. If someone doesn’t add any data to it, it all falls down.
I look at Procurement and Contract Management processes as a potential system that requires fewer touch points from a user now that we have tech purpose built for us to use. When we build a system in this area, we remove the servitude problem we have with excel (insert a dozen other applications) where a user needs to constantly update the data.
Technology can pull data from one place to the other in seconds and update everything we need when considering a typical supplier or contract record.
Many will say we’ve done it this way and it’s worked - why change?
Some will say we know we should but we don’t really have the time or people to do it.
What I say - is read up on how to source tech in this space. Read up how to implement it. Talk with your peers in the community. Reply to this email and I’ll personally do my best to help you get started.
We need to move away from the status quo.
Content you should check out (1 piece is from me)
For this week, I want to leave you with a few links for you to check out when you get a spare moment.
A Special Thank you
A big thank you to any of you who have taken the Contract Management for Beginners course. I’ve now had the privilege of teaching over 200+ people. You can find it here.
For anyone who wants to create content more regularly around Procurement, I’ll be releasing content and creating a dedicated community for this later this year.
Thanks for checking out my thoughts this week.
Reach out if you want to share any insights or take the conversation further (hit reply).
Daniel