Procurement occupies a privileged position in the business ecosystem, having excellent relationships with key internal stakeholders as well as thousands of external suppliers.

This unique viewpoint means that procurement can help to match supplier capabilities with business and customer needs; bringing new opportunities to their companies in a systemized, structured way.

Today, however, few procurement functions are focused in this way. The majority are transactional and prescriptive by nature, acting as inhibitors to, rather than orchestrators of, innovation.

Supplier-Enabled Innovation (SEI) changes all that, providing the framework with which procurement can harness the true power of suppliers, and take advantage of their expertise, intellectual property and R&D investments.

“There’s nothing more significant on the horizon than Supplier-Enabled Innovation.” John Paterson, former CPO, IBM.