Associate Partner at IBM, Curt Reppart talks about a new, selective transformation approach that helps his customers find balance in new and existing technology, processes and data.

Guest: Curt Reppart – Associate Partner, IBM

Host: Sarah Nelson – Senior Solution Advisory, SAP Finance & Spend

Host: Erik Derenne – Director, Strategic Solution Advisory, SAP Finance & Spend

Host: Justin Morse – Vice President, Solution Advisory, SAP Americas, Finance & Spend

When taking on any major business transformation or technology upgrade in your organization, two major decisions always take center stage.

1)    Where do we begin?

2)    Will we go Brownfield (lift-and-shift our existing system) or Greenfield (start fresh with new standards)?

Our guest today, Curt Reppart, has been helping companies navigate these questions for years and offers great perspective as an Associate Partner at IBM.  Though it sometimes may make sense to do a Brownfield, lift-and-shift transformation or start completely fresh with a Greenfield implementation, often these options carry significant trade-offs such as carrying forward technical debt and poor processes or create massive disruptions to the business.

At IBM, Curt often suggests a third path to his customers and that is the Bluefield Implementation strategy, where customers use a selective approach that drives deliberate decisions about which configurations, processes and data to keep, redesign, or retire and where to adopt a more fit-to-standard approach.

Further, Curt makes a compelling case for Procurement being the ideal entry point for this transformation journey as it is often a highly disconnected, fragmented and over-customized area of the business in a space where collaboration extending beyond the four walls of the organization requires a certain level of standardization and conformity to succeed.  This makes procurement the perfect catalyst for being intentional about what to keep and what to simplify.  

So, let’s dive in, and don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe. I am your host Erik Derenne, and you’re listening to The Future of Procurement Podcast. 

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