In September 2019 we carried out our fourth independent Annual Trends Survey with over 1,000 UK business professionals having their say on key topics affecting British businesses. Within this survey we asked a number of Public Sector Professionals what they thought of various trends in technology and how their organisation views these trends.
Nearly half of Organisations looking to Technology over the next year?
Technology is having a growing influence with each passing year for Procurement teams. With more and more manual processes becoming automated, organisations are looking towards technology to increase their efficiency. Therefore, it was of no surprise to see that 43% of organisations surveyed will be looking towards investing in technology in the coming year.
The big question then arises of what sort of technology they would invest in? This can vary depending on each organisation, however there are factors which remain the same - organisations will be looking to reduce rogue spending and take control of their budgets.
New technologies to increase efficiency and safety
When looking at whether or not to invest in technology a key area for thought is return on investment. How will the technology help your organisation and is it worth the sizeable amount that it will cost? The Trends Survey found that over half of those surveyed (59% in fact) viewed increasing cyber security and increasing productivity as the two main areas they would like to invest in.
From a security standpoint, it is vital that an organisation is protected from the increasing threat of a cyber-attack where aggressors would be looking to steal data from a company via hacks or viruses in an attempt for financial gain. Therefore, it is essential that any new technology is completely secure.
In days gone by, procurement teams have wasted countless hours scouring the internet for the best deals they can get on company supplies. With the advancements in technology, this is no longer the case. Teams can now search for office items in a single place via procurement software, allowing them to reduce time spent procuring supplies and to spend their time on other value adding activities. This also interestingly ties into our previous years’ trend survey that found that as many as 65% of those surveyed would be happy to work alongside robotic technology if it meant less manual processes.
Over a third of Organisations already use Technology to improve decision making
Of the 1,000+ Organisations surveyed as many as 36% claim that they have IT software that gives them the business intelligence to make the right decisions. This is a very fascinating stat when compared to last year’s survey where 35% said that they want to see AI in their daily working life which shows that while the number is growing not even half of Organisations use technology to form their decisions. With the rate at which technology is improving year on year we can expect this number to rise with every passing year.
What next?
Ultimately, technological advancement and use within the procurement function is inevitable. The differences in technology within the last decade alone socially and in the office are astronomical, and this can only be expected to continue to grow. Mundane tasks that previously were put into the hands of human workers are taken on by AI and completed in a fraction of the time. It will be fascinating to see how this continues to affect our day to day lives in the coming years and at how quickly a rate.