Integrated end-to-end automation is the ideal when it comes to digitalizing operational business processes. In reality, however, the landscapes of most companies tend to resemble a patchwork quilt. Indeed, in its Digital Office Index 2020 rating digitalization in companies*, Bitkom found that, on a scale of 0 ("not digitalized at all") to 100 ("fully digitalized") points, the companies surveyed scored an average of 55.

Many purchasing departments already categorize their suppliers according to their strategic relevance, to make sure they are supported appropriately. Suppliers are divided into categories and prioritized according to criteria such as purchasing volume, number of orders, strategic importance, etc. — the commonly used ABC supplier analysis.

Digitization is now firmly rooted in the strategy of many companies, and procurement departments are no exception. Digitization is not an end in itself, however; in fact, the opposite is true. In this blog, we explain why digitization adds real value to operational procurement.

Since its peak in 2017, the hype surrounding bitcoin has heightened interest in blockchain, the technology behind the cryptocurrency. Numerous academic articles and studies on blockchain have been published over the last few years, and in late 2019, the state of Bavaria decided to promote this technology by establishing the Bavarian Center for BlockChain, or [bc]2. In the light of these developments, we would like to examine whether blockchain technology might be deployed to improve procure-to-pay processes.

Big changes are currently affecting electronic invoicing in Europe. In EU states, these changes are being made in response to EU Directive 2014/55/EU, which stipulates that all public contracting authorities and entities in the EU must be able to accept and process electronic, machine-readable invoices.

According to EU Directive 2014/55/EU, all public contracting authorities and entities must be able to receive and process electronic invoices. But in transposing this directive into national law, many EU states have gone one step further, introducing mandatory e-invoicing for suppliers and contractors. This means that all invoices sent to public contracting authorities must be electronic, and that invoices in paper form will no longer be accepted. Italy has gone so far as to impose mandatory e-invoicing for all domestic invoices, including those sent to companies and private citizens.

Discounts have long been part of the practice of business negotiations, typically offered by vendors to customers. Discounts might be offered when a large volume has been purchased or when a deal is closed shortly before a certain cutoff date such as the end of the quarter.

We were an exhibitor at this year's Procurement Summit in Hamburg, a symposium for purchasing managers. I took the opportunity to attend some master classes myself. The lectures were titled things like "Artificial intelligence in procurement reporting," "Artificial intelligence in purchasing: How it works and what you get," and "How to optimize your purchasing processes with artificial intelligence." What came out clearly at the event was that artificial intelligence had become a hot topic—no less for digital business processes.

The term cloud native has been a popular buzzword in IT for some time now, and Google now delivers almost 4 million hits for this search term. Since 2015, there has even been a "Cloud Native Computing Foundation," which has the aim of advancing the cloud native philosophy and establishing it as a standard.

In times of digital transformation, one sometimes gets the impression that automation and digitization are ends in themselves. There is an app for everything, and every work step can be performed digitally. This has clearly become a trend—and it does not stop at business processes and documents.

Audit-proof, unchangeable, long-term data retention—until just a few months ago, these were the keywords used for advertising electronic archive systems. What was expected of a good archive solution was that it would store data indelibly and for eternity.