An Interview With Industry Leader John P. “Jack Miles About the Current State of Procurement in Financial Services: Part Two

In part one of our wide-ranging interview with procurement and business expert, Jack Miles, we discussed the many challenges facing today’s procurement leaders in Financial Services firms, the part procurement stakeholders play in addressing those challenges, and how they can change the perceptions of modern procurement beyond simply quoting prices and saving money.

In this second part, Jack addresses technology’s growing role in procurement practices, the business value of modernization, his visions and advice for today’s procurement leaders, and how Arkestro is leading the next wave of procurement technology.

Technology and Transformation in Procurement

Arkestro: Over your career, you’ve spearheaded several transformational procurement initiatives. Can you share any examples where adopting e-procurement technologies significantly changed outcomes for a business?

Jack Miles: It was in one of my early roles where we adopted technology. This goes back to the end of the 90s, so the technology was in its infancy at the time. You had two big players: Ariba and Commerce One. Commerce One was very supplier-centric. Ariba was very buyer-centric and we had to make a bet on the technology as to what would work and what we could do. After reviewing the approach, product strategy and assessing the team; we chose Ariba.

My company bought billions of dollars of ‘stuff”. We didn’t know what the “stuff’’ was. What using technology allowed us to do was understand the things that we were buying, so that we could start looking at not just the dollars involved, but the units involved in what we were buying and prioritize our efforts.

The technology made things easier for people. It turned a paper process into an automated process and allowed us to get our arms around what our spend was with suppliers and all the relevant details. It helped us streamline and automate the accounts payable process. It cost a lot of money at the time, but we got real value out of it.

Arkestro: For organizations hesitant to adopt new procurement technologies, what would you argue are the most compelling reasons to modernize their processes?

Jack Miles: I’m always looking for that next thing that’s going to add value and change things. There’s always a way to improve the process. It’s continuous improvement. You have to keep changing, adjusting, and modifying the process. It’s also a question of do you have to modernize. What’s the value proposition? What’s it going to help you do that you’re not doing now?

Visions, Insights, and Lessons For Procurement Leaders

Arkestro: Reflecting on your career, what key lessons or philosophies would you share with procurement leaders who aim to drive innovation and transformation in their organizations?

Jack Miles: Be a partner. The word gets overused, but you have to do things that are going to help the business. You should be a business enabler for the folks that you’re working with within the organization. Focus on the big picture, and don’t take on stuff just because nobody else will do it. It’s OK to push back.

What procurement leaders must do is determine how they can communicate with the organization relative to the value that they add and what they bring to the transaction. That’s what it’s all about. And the last thing I would talk about is saving money.

How do you work collaboratively with them? How do you work to understand the requirements and what it is they want to get done? 
How do you do the right risk mitigation to be sure that if things don’t necessarily go well, that gets addressed? What value do you bring a company?

Arkestro: What do you see as the most critical challenges facing procurement in the financial services sector?

Jack Miles: One of the concerns that I have about what’s been happening in procurement, and frankly, other fields, is that they’ve gotten so bogged down with all of the regulatory stuff that it’s almost like it’s turned into a full-time job. And you have to remember what you’re there for and what you’re supposed to be doing. And, how many resources do you have dedicated to things that are not really core for what you’re supposed to do?

The Role of Arkestro In Modern Procurement

Arkestro: From your perspective, what specific benefits does Arkestro offer to organizations within financial services?

Jack Miles: One of the sweet spots for Arkestro is their AI capabilities and how they’re able to speed up the amount of time that it takes to get things done. Arkestro offers the ability to be able to go through a procurement process with less time and effort, less engagement, people, resources, or whatever. Everybody is being stretched today. Nobody has the resources that they feel that they need. Arkestro can actually enable organizations to do more without more people.

Arkestro can also work really well in looking at the time it takes to do a project. The automation or the workflow in doing something that’s not labor intensive. All of those are good value propositions for Arkestro. It’s in the ability to be able to do that and to get a higher percentage of spend under management.

The phenomenal amount of data that you gather and what you can do to turn that data into actionable information. The ability to be able to do work faster with fewer resources and get good results is unique to Arkestro.

Arkestro: Given compliance challenges unique to the financial services industry, how does Arkestro’s platform support organizations in managing complex regulatory standards?

Jack Miles: I’m a big believer in basically understanding the quality process with your suppliers and how well they’re performing and have measurements around that; for instance, how accurate is invoicing?
Arkestro has the ability to capture a lot of that and actually has a module of supplier performance. But it’s not just supplier performance. It’s also how the company performs and their responsibility to the supplier. But to be able to do that is very important. And there are some regulatory requirements around some of that.

Arkestro and Competitive Positioning

 Arkestro: The procurement technology space is competitive. What do you think makes Arkestro stand out compared to other platforms in the market?

Jack Miles: I think Arkestro is actually doing AI and applying AI to the product and process. Arkestro is in a leadership position in the next wave of technology, because it becomes a lot easier to get stuff done. You can do it with big ticket items or high-spend dollars, but you can also go down the food chain for a lot of other things, and it doesn’t take a lot of staff time. It’s a more simplistic process, and it delivers good value.

Arkestro: If you were advising a Chief Procurement Officer in financial services, how would you position Arkestro as a critical part of their strategy?

Jack Miles: If you’re the procurement person, I would say Arkestro may not be what you think. It’s not just another system. There’s a uniqueness to what it does. It’s not just standard procurement stuff.