June 27, 2022 , Highlights from the 16th and hitherto, biggest edition of Zycus’ procurement and finance conclave – Horizon 2022!
- 1800+ participants from 65+ countries representing 1100+ companies.
- 30+ speakers, across 25+ sessions over 4 days including Horizon’s first ever exclusive day for Public Sector and Government procurement professionals.
- Aatish Dedhia, Founder & CEO, Zycus launches augmentations to Merlin for Contracts and Merlin for eProcurement - an AI Council-led initiative. Notably - an AI chatbot for eProc called Merlin AI Assist.
- Delegates spend 3000+ hours at Merlin Experience Centre: Real time hands-on AI sandbox during Horizon
- Zycus merges with Ultria to create a Contract Lifecycle Management powerhouse
- Zycus launches Certinal - a new eSignature and Digital Transaction Management Suite
As the world maneuvers its way from one crisis to another, whether it was the pandemic in 2019 and 2020, or the recent geopolitical conflicts, inflationary trends and material shortages, procurement has had its fair share of battles. Despite these uncertain times, organizations continue to pursue growth and spearhead green shoots of recovery. To celebrate that spirit and to facilitate knowledge sharing across the procurement, finance and legal communities, Zycus hosted the 16th edition of its flagship event, Horizon. 2022’s Horizon, being a virtual global event, witnessed an overwhelming participation of over 1800+ participants from 65+ countries representing 1100+ companies.
Zycus Horizon - 2022 – A Look Back
The agenda focused on Cognitive Procurement and intelligent AI usage as the pillars of digital transformations and procurement excellence over 25+ sessions, expert tracks and demos:
- Keynotes and panel discussions on best practices featuring customers & leaders from around the globe including Heineken, Hapag Lloyd AG, Radisson Hotel Group, La-Z-Boy; AXIS Capital, StoneX Group, Perdue Farms, Fannie Mae and Truist Financial.
- Expert panels & industry overviews from leading analysts including Gartner, Forrester & The Hackett Group, and thought leaders - Jon Hansen, Editor and Lead Writer, Procurement Insights, Dr Thierry Fausten, Country Partner, CIPS, Switzerland, Tim Cummins, President, World Commerce & Contracting, and Canda Rozier, President, Collabra Consulting, and Ari Kaplan, Legal Industry Analyst, Ari Kaplan Advisors.
- Case presentations featuring real transformation stories from Zycus’ distinguished clientele bringing regional nuances including Westfield Insurance, Belden, Public Transport Authority of Western Australia, Monash Health, Insignia Financial, TECOM Group, The College Board, Regeneron, Spirent, Vertex, Synovus and Daiichi Sankyo.
- Global sponsoring associates including Changemakers EY and TCS, Leaders IBM, Velocity Procurement & Certinal, and Champion Beltrees.
- Zycus leadership featured new product innovations, surprising AI launches, including a must-read book ‘Cognitive Procurement: Discover How to Embark on Your AI Journey’ co-authored by NC State University Professor Robert Handfield and a session by members of the AI Council, a cohort of pioneering CPOs/CIOs/CFOs coming together to ideate & brainstorm AI-led use cases to solve complex business problems and contribute to the community.
Other notable highlights of the event included the exclusive Merlin Experience Center – which offered audiences a first-hand experience to interact with Zycus’ AI suite, an Ideas Contest - aimed at discovering the next biggest innovation benefiting the procurement, legal, and AP community, and an enthralling performance from famous mentalist and magician Tom Pesce. The event delighted audiences worldwide and received an overwhelmingly positive response from attendees. The Zycus leadership also used this platform to announce the winners of the prestigious Zycus Awards and the winners of SIG's Certified Sourcing Professional (CSP) Scholarship Raffle.
- The Dow Chemical Company was awarded the Ace Organization Award – recognizing their effective change management, timely implementation, value realization and improving organizational efficiency.
- Alexion Pharmaceuticals and TECOM Group were jointly 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’.
- Insignia Financial were awarded the Leading through Innovation Award – recognizing them as beacons of change in the procurement industry.
- Tata Play were awarded the Strategic Partnership Award – that recognizes the organization that developed a strong strategic relationship with Zycus, contributed to product ideas, and leveraged Zycus’ solutions to achieve their procurement goals.
- Erik Van Dulmen of Ahold Delhaize was awarded The High Performing Leader Award, recognizing his 35+ years of experience in procurement, leadership and excellence.
- Bram Heijblom of International Flavors and Fragrances was awarded The Young Achiever Award – recognizing his agility and innovation.
- This year, Zycus appropriately introduced 2 new award categories, one of which was ‘Exemplary Transformation in the Public Sector.’ It was awarded to the Public Transport Authority, Western Australia for their remarkable transformation journey.
- The other new category - Agile Collaborator Award - was won by Ernst & Young for being perfect epitomes of collaboration, and demonstrating shared corporate values of providing agile support to customers.
- KPMG was awarded the Partner Award for the most customer-centric delivery and driving value-based outcomes.
3 lucky winners were also chosen to receive complimentary access to SIG’s prestigious Certified Sourcing Professional (CSP) program. Developed by practitioners, academics, and subject matter experts, the CSP program is the most well-rounded curriculum available in the market for those seeking additional sourcing expertise. We look forward to hosting the procurement community once again, with renewed insights & vigor, very soon. Keep an eye on the Horizon!
About Zycus:
Zycus is the pioneer in Cognitive Procurement software and has been a trusted partner of choice for large global enterprises for two decades. Zycus has been consistently recognized by Gartner, Forrester, and other analysts for its Source-to-Pay integrated suite. Zycus powers its S2P software with the revolutionary Merlin AI Suite. Merlin AI takes over the tactical tasks and empowers procurement and AP officers to focus on strategic projects; offers data-driven actionable insights for quicker and smarter decisions, and its conversational AI offers a B2C type user-experience to the end-users. Start your #CognitiveProcurement journey with us, as you are #MeantforMore.
Zycus Inc.
Pranav Ramkumar
Senior Executive - Marketing, Zycus Inc.
pranav.ramkumar@zycus.com
