James Meads’ Post

Hands up if you'd like to work in Procurement Tech 🙋 A while back, I ran a poll to see how many procurement pros would consider working for a procurement tech company. The overwhelming majority (over 80%) said YES. Which begs the question, "why?" Is burnout from working in under-resourced teams the catalyst? Perhaps frustration of spending too much time on administrative tasks and day-to-day firefighting? Or just a lack of recognition from the wider business? We've got a great episode this week for anyone who's considering moving across to the dark side and working in procuretech. Andrew Daley is back, sharing some fantastic insights of how to pitch and position yourself if you'd like to transition into a role in a procurement software company. If I was in my early 30s right now with a few years of Cat Man experience, this would be something I'd be REALLY striving to do. What about you? Links to episode: Online Player: https://lnkd.in/gJJtKwCw Apple: https://lnkd.in/gbGd2kFQ Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gur27WhZ ************************************* 🚀 Hi, I'm James. I'm passionate about modernising our profession, thinking differently, and escaping winters. ✅ Grab my FREE Digital Procurement 101 online course. Learn the basics of procurement tech in one coffee break. Link at top of profile! 🎙️ Subscribe to The Procurement Software Podcast on all major podcast platforms.

Something different... This week, I had the honour of speaking at Bansko Nomad Fest. It's an annual festival here in the mountains of Bulgaria 🇧🇬, celebrating the benefits and opportunities of location independence. My topic? The next 10 years: Why you need a Plan B Procurement and Supply Chain is all about effective risk management. I like to think that my professional experience has influenced my approach to how I protect my prosperity, safety and freedom. Anyhow, it's been a nice distraction from England being awful in Euro 2024. Back to my usual procurement tech posts next week. But for now, I'll leave you with my takeaway 🌯 slide.

📢 Procurement tech is not just for large corporates! If there's one thing you'll hear me bang on about, it's this. All too often, the focus is on digital transformation for enterprise procurement teams. - Webinars - White papers - Conferences - "Best of" lists - Quadrants, waves and other assorted analyst speak All focused on enterprise customers. Understandable, I guess, when we consider they're the ones with the big ticket budgets for analyst subscriptions, events, and to hire large consultancy firms. But here's the thing... Procurement transformation can often deliver more in terms of ROI % and speed of implementation for mid-sized businesses. These companies often struggle to recruit and retain people for operational roles. And with current long-tenure employees starting to retire, Gen Z doesn't want to come in and do these repetitive tasks. So, you need to leverage some tech. There are several P2P solutions out there on the market, and most of them are very affordable. I'll share my unbiased opinion with the Precoro team about the impact modern P2P software can have on buying operations and finance in mid-sized businesses. What would be my first moves as a greenfield Head of Procurement? Join us to find out! Register now 👉 https://lnkd.in/dFhp3JRC Looking forward to this one!

There are lots of great up and coming startups in the procuretech space. But most folks out there have never heard of them. We need to change that. Which is one reason why I created our Procurement Software directory: https://lnkd.in/dheVz8-Z Fancy a peek at 2 x 25 procurement startups - from each side of the Atlantic - who look like they have a really promising future? That's what we covered in our last 2 podcast episodes. One for US-based startups, and the other for European startups. We've also got 5 blogs on our website covering American, British, Nordic, German and European startups. Curious? Take a peek in the comments for all the info. Oh, and good luck to 🦁🦁🦁 this evening! #procuretech #procurementsoftware

Cold mountain river plunge season is officially open! Best start to a Monday for productivity. It's going to be a good week. What are your focus hacks?

Is this LinkedIn's most useless feature ever? Has anyone actually had a half-way useful suggestion or enhancement from these suggestions? Am I missing something here? It just seems like AI for the sake of AI. Anyway, that's my mini-rant over.

Your office software is not the problem - you are! Yes, it's a bit clickbaity. But blame The Guardian, not me. Claire S. Phillips sent me the article (thanks Claire!!) and asked me what I thought about it. So, here we go... To use a very British term, I think it's bollocks. First of all, let's be fair on the article. It's trying to explain that part of the problem is communication, planning, and mindset. True. Mindset especially is a huge barrier when it comes to accepting change. But you can have the most open-minded attitude and STILL be saddled with clunky software and inadequate training materials. So, is that the software company's fault? Well, yes and no. Poor UI/UX is certainly the software company's fault. If everything is unintuitive, the software company must improve that. There's intuitive and easy-to-use software that also fulfils the same objective as the legacy, confusing software. And it's much cheaper too, because you're dealing with a startup rather than a bloated corporate software behemoth. If we're used to great UX in B2C apps, then why should we have to roll back the clock 20 years when we come into work? Inadequate training of software sales teams is also the software provider's fault. If you need lots of customisation to make it work properly, they should be honest about that. But, most of the time, people hate software because of poor communication and a lack of adequate onboarding / training. And, while the best software shouldn't need a lot of training, it still needs SOME, and it must be done PROPERLY. Not a blanket email directing to a SharePoint site, with a bunch of PDFs on there that nobody has time to read. - Create drop-in "clinic" sessions. - Do podcasts and videos explaining the "why" and the "how" in bite-sized pieces. - Hire a graphic designer for visuals. Use subject matter experts to help you during implementation. There are folks out there who can help you on a fractional basis, or even just for a one-hour "pick my brain" consultation as a trusted right hand 😉📞 Don't dump the project onto an overworked team member as a "development opportunity". That's just bad management. Be more assertive around the budget you need. If you're a leader, then lead! So, it's usually not the end user's fault. Yes, a few will stubbornly resist change. Most, however, just want software that's easy to use, and be shown in a simple, easy-to-digest way how to use it. This is where software companies and project sponsors need to up their game. https://lnkd.in/e4ekGVeT ************************************* 🚀 Hi, I'm James. I'm passionate about modernising our profession, thinking differently, and escaping winters.   ✅ Grab my FREE Digital Procurement 101 online course. Learn the basics of procurement tech in one coffee break. Link at top of profile!   🎙️ Subscribe to The Procurement Software Podcast on all major podcast platforms.

2️⃣ 6️⃣ 7️⃣ people have now downloaded my Digital Procurement 101 course 🙌 I recorded this last summer to give anyone a simple, free, and most importantly *unbiased* introduction to the world of procurement tech. Whether you're a procurement pro, or work in sales for a procurement software company, this will help! If you're worried that you don't understand digital procurement and don't know where to start, we've got you covered! It's a short, 20-minute overview to give you a grounding of the basics of digital procurement. You can watch the whole thing on a lunch break or a couple of coffee breaks. We break it down into bite-sized lessons and use visuals to help explain topics in plain English. No jargon. No acronyms. We'll be updating it soon. This is a rapidly changing space. But anyone who grabs the original will automatically get the update. Grab it here: https://lnkd.in/eNCFj2Bi ************************************* 🚀 Hi, I'm James. I'm passionate about modernising our profession, thinking differently, and escaping winters.   ✅ Grab my FREE Digital Procurement 101 online course. Learn the basics of procurement tech in one coffee break. Link at top of profile!   🎙️ Subscribe to The Procurement Software Podcast on all major podcast platforms.

I don't touch politics on LinkedIn. It's one of my hard rules. But, it's Friday, and this one's a very relevant read, especially for my European procurement tech network. It touches on some well-documented challenges in the European tech and regulatory ecosystem. Despite Brexit, the UK's tech scene is flourishing. Eastern European startups are - generally speaking - not rushing to Berlin or Paris. They're setting up in London. Or they're just going straight to the States. There are no doubt many reasons for this. Ease of doing business, English language, and access to funding are probably the top three. It's certainly not the weather. This isn't meant to be an "everything in Britain is great" post. It's clearly not. As an expat, I'm very much on the ball about where the grass is greener. Anyhow, the article is essentially saying that Europe is burying its head in the sand and is facing increasingly tough headwinds. For what it's worth, I'm not convinced that the author has hit on the correct root causes. He does makes good arguments though for what AREN'T major contributing factors. All in all, I see it boiling down to openness to change, appetite for risk, less regulation / bureaucracy, and a positive, can-do mindset. The last one especially is a massive one. But with all of that being said, I honestly think that when it comes to procuretech, Europe seems to be doing extremely well. Better than the US, I would go as far to say. Why that is, I have no idea. Perhaps more urgency to automate / optimise on this side of the Pond, to compensate for inefficiencies of running a business in Europe? Anyway, have a read, and would love to get your thoughts and musings. Have a great weekend! https://lnkd.in/ePJxQQNQ ************************************* 🚀 Hi, I'm James. I'm passionate about modernising our profession, thinking differently, and escaping winters.   ✅ Grab my FREE Digital Procurement 101 online course. Learn the basics of procurement tech in one coffee break. Link at top of profile!   🎙️ Subscribe to The Procurement Software Podcast on all major podcast platforms.