Will digitisation ‘automate’ relationships?

As a result of Covid-19 companies have been looking at the efficiency of their administrative processes and have considered digitisation as a way of dealing with manual, paper-based tasks such as purchasing and invoicing. This is particularly true of those in the supply chain and procurement departments. (Computer Business Review, 16 June 2020)

Professor Tim Cummins, the founder and President of the International Association for Contract & Commercial Management (IACCM), asserts that “A second major force is the urgency of building resilient supply chains. This demands more collaborative supply relationships and increased transparency. Achieving these depends on increased levels of trust – and therefore a focus on the quality of the overall relationship, rather than on individual transactions.”

https://commitmentmatters.com/2020/07/30/the-end-of-procurement/

We applaud the drive for greater efficiency and reliability through digitisation however the need to positively manage important relationships does not go away. If anything reducing administrative bottle-necks places partnering front and centre. The danger of allowing the process to become ’automated’ is management attention focuses elsewhere and the business becomes vulnerable to any disruption with little warning. Resilience is a two-way street. Organisations must identify their critical supply chains and make relationships their management priority.