Inside the 15th Edition of Zycus’ Flagship Event ‘Horizon’
After an uphill year for procurement, as the industry continues to recover from the disruptions and shocks caused by the pandemic, Procurement & Finance leaders from across the globe convened at Zycus’ flagship event Horizon’s 15th edition — to discuss their journeys, to share stories of transformation, growth, and resilience, and most importantly, to start conversations around how the industry needs to transform, evolve and operate in this new normal.
Intuitive next-gen solutions. AI as an enabler. Cognitive, Sustainable Procurement. These were among some of the key themes that emerged during the 3-day global conference, held virtually.
After the marked success of the first virtual edition, the heat was turned on high to outperform the first chapter’s success. And just like the quoted theme of this 15th edition ‘Transform to Outperform’ — the event did deliver! It saw massive participation from across the globe with 1800+ attendees representing 1100+ companies, from 65 countries.
The show opened with a stunning VR entry into an island locale where the virtual event was held. The graphics and experience were truly applaud-worthy. From the grand entrance, the attendees were led to a welcome address and a promise of exciting launches, insightful expert tracks, and real customer transformation stories.
MAINSTAGE & EXCITING LAUNCHES
The curtain raiser for mainstage sessions was Gartner’s Director Analyst, Micky Keck’s session, where he struck a chord with all Procurement & Finance Professionals at the event by vocalizing Procurement’s constant challenge of being ‘asked to do more with less. He went into detail about the tactics Procurement can use to deliver savings, the key technology trends with a specific focus on AI that can enable them, and strategic initiatives to unlock bandwidth.
The agenda focused on AI-led digital transformation as an enabler of the ‘Next frontier’ for procurement, over 20 sessions and 15 interactive workshops & demos.
With the disruption caused by the pandemic, organizations have moved on from asking ‘whether they need to take the AI-first route’, to asking ‘which approach will get them there faster.
In Zycus CEO Aatish Dedhia’s words, ‘There are multiple favorable conditions, the confluence of which are driving Cognitive Procurement forward. The Source-to-Pay Software Space is maturing and there is feature-parity in the offerings of leading players, so people are looking to next-gen technologies.’
And in this backdrop, Zycus made the power move of announcing not 1 but 3 AI-related launches, including:
1. Its latest Merlin product in the series — ‘Merlin for eProc’
2. A must-read book on Cognitive Procurement ‘Why the Time for Cognitive Procurement is Now!’ with insights drawn from years of having served in the procurement space.
3. And last but not least, launched in collaboration with SIG was ‘The AI Council’ — a confluence of global leaders coming together to ideate & brainstorm AI-led use cases to solve complex business problems and contribute to the community.
Praise for — ‘Why the Time for Cognitive Procurement is Now!’
“This is the first piece of literature that I have read on AI that answers all my questions on what the future can look like.”
- Ben Briggs, General Manager Procurement & Supply Chain, Crown Resorts, Australia
“A key read for any procurement professional, to help explain and open their eyes to the possibilities which they can bring within their business. Knowing the market challenges that everyone is currently facing, future success will be with those who are brave enough to jump in and “do differently” in the world of tomorrow.”
Ruth Bromley — Director Procurement Enablement, HEINEKEN Global Procurement
Sessions like that of Forrester VP Principal Analyst Duncan Jones, drove home the undeniable and growing importance of sustainable procurement. Customers want better products, better technology, more resilient supply chains, and in response to all this, top CPOs worldwide are already embracing ESG issues including climate change, anti-corruption, supporting local business, fair trade, and more.
“Climate change must be our top priority. Procurement should take a leading role in firm’s sustainability initiatives.”
- Duncan Jones, VP Principal-Analyst, Forrester Research
REAL CUSTOMER TRANSFORMATION STORIES
In addition to a star-studded line-up of expert analyst sessions, the event also witnessed its fair share of real transformation stories from Zycus’ clientele. Global customers like Air Liquide, Brother International, Curtiss-Wright, Department of Treasury and Finance, Victoria, and more, rose to the occasion to share the learnings, challenges, and best practices from their Procurement Transformation Journeys with attendees. The common emerging theme throughout customer stories was a keen emphasis on touchless deployment aimed at agility, fast value & ROI, coupled with a dedicated focus on maximum end-user adoption.
“Two key success factors for the transformation process are Data and Change management, both being addressed in parallel streams. It is always good to benchmark with other companies that have lived or are living similar experiences.”
“…[More] than just a tool, Zycus has been an enabler of our Procurement Transformation…”
- Remi Charachon, Chief Procurement Officer, AirLiquide Group at #Horizon2021
The latter half of the event offered an eclectic buffet of parallel sessions for attendees to pick and choose from, to cover a wide variety of topics trending in the industry today, including sessions that talked about change management, supply chain risk and resilience, implementation, and value-realization, and much more!
FELICITATIONS, FUN, AND FROLIC
The Zycus leadership used this platform to announce the winners of the Zycus Annual Awards and also to make the much-awaited announcement of the winner of SIG’s prestigious Certified Sourcing Professional (CSP) Scholarship.
1. Melbourne Water — The State of Victoria (Stephen Simone) was awarded the Ace Organization Award — recognizing their effective change management, timely implementation, and value realization.
2. Mondelez (Nicolas Gonzalez) was awarded The Enterprise Impact Award — recognizing organizations that have elevated the role of procurement in their firm, embodying Zycus’ core belief — ‘Procurement is meant for more’.
3. Regeneron (John Fox) and Monash Health Victoria (Neil Sigamoney) were awarded the Leading through Innovation Award — recognizing them as beacons of change in the procurement industry.
4. SPIE (Sophie Macquet) was awarded — The Strategic Partnership Award — which recognizes the true sense of partnership where Zycus clients derive great value from Zycus technology, and Zycus on the other hand benefitted from their contribution towards building a better product roadmap.
5. Remi Charachon from Air Liquide was awarded The High Performing Leader Award — recognizing his leadership excellence, and extraordinary vision.
6. Joshua Patterson from Curtiss-Wright was awarded The Young Achiever Award — recognizing his agility and innovation.
7. TCS (Naveen Gupta) was awarded the Partner Award for the most customer-centric delivery.
8. Allison Tatman from Home Depot won the Gift of Education Contest and was awarded SIG’s prestigious Certified Sourcing Professional (CSP) Scholarship.
Keeping in mind the destruction left in the wake of the Pandemic, Zycus leadership decided to donate the equivalent of the award-winning amount to UN central for emergency response fund on behalf of the winning companies.
And finally, as is characteristic of an industry event of this pedigree, Zycus’ Horizon 2021 offered a wide stage for networking and interaction among industry professionals. This included one-on-one chats, pre-scheduled meetings, and ‘Birds of a Feather’ — an eclectic and curated roundtable session with a dedicated focus on networking. One session that wooed audiences worldwide was the much-awaited blockbuster performance by famous mentalist and illusionist Wayne Hoffman. The audiences were left guessing and amazed at what they witnessed in their interactions.
True to its promise, Zycus’ Horizon 2021 was a platform to learn, network, and unwind!
Global sponsoring associates that played a huge role in making Horizon 2021 a success, were — Changemakers —Infosys, Leader — AWS & Velocity Procurement, Champion — Beltrees, Patron — Beeline
Manan Banga, Senior Executive — Marketing, Zycus Inc.
manan.banga@zycus.com
