Alex Saric, CMO at Ivalua discusses the latest trends in procurement protocols while highlighting more on how newer AI capabilities are enhancing the overall supply chain cycle in today’s business ecosystem:
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Welcome to this SalesTech Series chat, Alex: tell us about yourself and your role at Ivalua.
The majority of my professional life has been with spend management technology providers in product and marketing leadership roles. I helped found Zeborg before its acquisition by Emptoris, then built and led Ariba’s spend analysis solution before moving to lead international marketing. When the business was acquired by industry giant SAP, I knew my next move would be to a smaller company that would allow me to build relationships with customers in a way that you just can’t when you work with big companies.
Seeking a company that valued both a best-in-class product and genuine customer connections, I found the perfect fit at Ivalua. As CMO for seven years, I’ve spearheaded the development and execution of our overarching marketing strategy and thought leadership programs.
How has Ivalua evolved over the years? Take us through the latest product enhancements.
A recent product development for Ivalua came at the end of last year when we launched our intelligent virtual assistant (IVA) powered by Generative AI. Revolutionizing procurement efficiency, our IVA transforms daily operations by seamlessly blending into existing workflows. This cutting-edge tool allows procurement teams to shift their attention to high-value strategic tasks, significantly boosting overall productivity and improving decision-making. Uniquely, customers can leverage pre-packaged Gen AI use cases or create their own without writing any code. Developed with a strong emphasis on data protection, our solution ensures the utmost security and confidentiality of client information.
As AI usage continues to proliferate across industries, we are committed to providing tools and resources with GenAI capabilities built in so that we can continue to serve this adapting field.
Our latest product announcement, the External Workforce Management solution, helps organizations optimize their use of non-permanent workers by providing detailed insights into service providers, suppliers, and individual workers, aiding informed decision-making. Covering the entire lifecycle of external workforce management—from initial selection to performance evaluation—it assists in identifying suitable talent within budget and timeframe, streamlining onboarding, and monitoring project delivery for cost, scheduling, and quality standards. This adaptable solution can be customized to meet specific organizational needs and comply with local labor regulations, integrating seamlessly into our broader source-to-pay platform for a cohesive user experience and encouraging widespread adoption.
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Can you talk about procurement leaders and how their buying patterns are influencing the SaaS market?
Procurement was long a laggard when it comes to digitization but has quickly caught up. The past few years have also shifted most leaders to focus on a broad range of objectives and become more agile as conditions and supplier strategies rapidly evolve. Yet they are generally not being given more resources. As a result, leaders are increasingly looking beyond simply addressing low hanging fruit to maximizing efficiency, transparency and collaboration. This has fundamentally shifted the SaaS buying criteria for many.
Procurement leaders are shifting away from the legacy approach of cobbling together a patchwork of solutions that address specific needs and moving toward the adoption of versatile, all-in-one SaaS platforms that have generative AI capabilities baked in. You see this in analyst reports, with both leading analysts Gartner and Forrester replacing their past evaluations of specific solutions with suite level evaluations. You also see it in vendor strategies, with more and more acquiring or developing full suites that address the full S2P process and more types of spend.
The seamless process flows and higher adoption from a common user experience maximize automation.
At the same time, having a single source of truth improves data quality and access for faster, more informed decision-making. Gen AI built into source-to-pay systems gives procurement teams safe and easy access to this cutting-edge technology, allowing them to take full advantage of AI’s growing potential. And as conditions and priorities quickly change, leaders are increasingly looking for more flexible platforms that enable digitizing unique or evolving processes.
How is AI changing the game for supply chain: can you talk about some innovative AI enhancements that have piqued your interest from around the world?
AI is being leveraged to optimize supply chain management globally. In fact, a recent study by Ardent Partners found 62% of procurement professionals believe the impact of Generative AI on procurement in the next 2-3 years will be transformational or significant. Even now there are already exciting, functional capabilities. For example. Ivalua’s Gen AI powered IVA can quickly generate a market assessment report looking at factors such as price trends, risks, regulatory aspects and provide recommended coping strategies. Such innovations are making supply chains more efficient, resilient and responsive to changing market conditions.
What are your views on the future of AI and its impact on retail and store shopping?
Retail and store shopping have already changed so much, and they will continue to be transformed by AI.
Here are four areas I see that could be significantly impacted by AI:
- Automating demand forecasting. AI algorithms can analyze vast amounts of data from various sources to predict consumer demand with greater accuracy. This will help retailers optimize inventory levels, reduce waste and ensure products are available when and where customers want them.
- Speeding up processes. AI can streamline many retail operations, from checkout processes to supply chain management.
- Enhancing knowledge of spend. AI can provide deeper insights into customer spending patterns and preferences. This information can be used to personalize marketing efforts, optimize pricing strategies and improve product recommendations.
- Making retailers more nimble and efficient. By automating processes, AI can help retailers improve efficiency. This is especially critical for the many lower margin retailers.
These advancements will likely result in more personalized shopping experiences and improved operational efficiency, ultimately making retailers more nimble and competitive in a rapidly evolving marketplace.
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Ivalua is a leading provider of cloud-based, AI-powered Spend Management software. Our unified Source-to-Pay platform empowers businesses to effectively manage all categories of spend and all suppliers, increasing profitability, improving sustainability, lowering risk and boosting employee productivity. We are trusted by hundreds of the world’s most admired brands and recognized as a leader by Gartner and other analysts. Learn more at www.ivalua.com. Follow us on LinkedIn and X.
Alex has spent over 20 years evangelizing Spend Management, shaping its evolution and working closely with hundreds of customers to support their Digital Transformation journeys. As CMO at Ivalua, Alex leads overall marketing strategy and thought leadership programs. Alex also spent 13 years at Ariba, first building and running the spend analytics business as General Manager. He then built and led Ariba’s international marketing team until successful acquisition by SAP, transitioning to lead business network marketing globally. Earlier, Alex was a founding member of Zeborg (acquired by Emptoris) where he developed vertical procurement applications. He began his career in the U.S. Army Cavalry, leading tank and scout platoons through combat and field deployments. Alex holds a B.S. in Economics from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and an international M.B.A. from INSEAD.