What’s brewing in the minds of Boston’s Procurement leaders?

When it comes to technology centers or “tech-hubs”, many think that Silicon Valley is the place to be at. However, what they miss out on is Boston’s rich history in technology and its unique tech DNA.

One of the oldest cities in the United States, Boston is home to some of the most cutting-edge technological movements and trends. There is a transformed energy present throughout Boston and the entire region is becoming a “tech-destination”. This is because implementing technological innovation is a key constituent of this city which leads to gaining a competitive advantage and building a foundation for long-term success.

In this blog, we will look at the massive growth of technology in Boston and how it’s changing the overall functioning of multiple businesses.

Quest for Automation

There is no shying away from the fact that automation is not a new scheme and is being implemented extensively. With every passing day, the quest for automation is only increasing and taking over Boston’s tech ecosphere in order to enable cost savings, better productivity and supply of reliable and accurate data.

For example, automated procurement solutions are an on-going development to empower companies to streamline their procurement processes and create a single view of multiple data sources.  Zycus, a leader in Source-to-Pay suite assisted a leading health and human service provider in Boston with its solutions. Before implementing Zycus, their issues comprised of:

• The purchase order transaction system wasn’t scalable
• The ERP technology was network based and since many of their locations were not on the network, they didn’t have any access to it
• The ERP was very expensive from the licensing and support standpoint
• The ERP was difficult to use and searching for the right item was cumbersome
• There were long lead times to add catalogs with multiple iterations
• For every workflow change instance, the IT team had to be engaged
• Savings from P-Card rebates were not being captured

Zycus’s P2P cloud-based application helped the procurement team to:

• Place orders either at work or on their home computers; all they needed was an internet access
• Access a lot of clean data that they (procurement team) need to do spend analytics without having to spend three-quarters of their time on doing the same manually, thus saving time while identifying savings opportunities
• End-to-end supplier enablement reduced the efforts of Buyers to manage catalogs and the AP team to key in invoices.

VCs now want to know more about start-ups and young tech companies

Due to over 40 plus universities and industry incubators, an upsurge of start-ups has been observed in Boston. Boston is now home to Blade, Bolt, Cambridge Innovation Center, Greentown Labs, Healthbox, LearnLaunch, MassChallenge and Venture Development Center, that are considered to be as some of the most valuable start-ups in the city.

Accordingly, the tune to local start-ups is very pleasing to the ears of Boston’s venture capitalists.  In the last few years, firms such as Battery Ventures, Atlas Venture, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Matrix Venture Partners have moved to Boston with the purpose of being closer to the booming start-up arena.

Moreover, Boston is also known to have an exceptionally solid professional services infrastructure that includes legal services, tech-focused public relations agencies, consulting giants like Deloitte and KPMG, and other service companies which act as an added benefit to tech companies.

Ever growing tech talent in the Boston family

There is a plethora of talent that is generated in this town and Boston exceedingly recognizes the importance of “tech-talent”. The intention is to make a concentrated effort to further open the tech community to Boston millennials who are known to be the second-most impactful millennials nationwide.

As a result, both old and new giants such as Google, IBM, Amazon etc. act as a catalyst by establishing either their headquarters or R&D centers in the city.

Boston also identifies and applauds several female entrepreneurs. There has been a significant growth among women in tech state-wide. Women even make up 10 percent of Massachusetts-based tech company board seats. While this is only the beginning, several attempts are being made to increase the number by leaps and bounds.

Zycus Confluence in Boston

At Zycus, we understand your business challenges and wish to assist you with the same. Zycus offers a comprehensive suite of procurement software applications developed to increase procurement efficiency, generate savings and streamline processes at your organization. Zycus Confluence is an oasis for senior procurement professionals to Network, Share and Connect with industry peers from Boston’s top organizations.