Thermo Fisher’s Procurement organization has been on a journey to make data work for the company. It was all there, but spread across numerous departments, geographies, and – critically – systems. The journey of consolidation, driven by its Wayfinder project, has brought this data together into one source of truth, paving the way for a host of operational, process, sustainability and governance improvements. Procurement Director, Blessen Kurian explains the journey so far.
Hi Blessen. Starting off quite generally, how would you describe Thermo Fisher as someone who has now been with the company for more than two years?
Thermo Fisher Scientific, the world leader in serving science, is also one of the most broadly impactful companies across the globe. Where its research, laboratory solutions, diagnostics, genetics, and more – we enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer.
Our procurement organisation is a centralised, global function where we are driving improvements in areas such as savings, sourcing, supplier management and sustainability. My role is to lead the technology and data strategy with alignment to the company and procurement objectives.
Here, my main focuses are on digital procurement, which is defining and delivering our multi-year technology roadmap and the investments we want to prioritize; and data science, which involves everything from data capture, transformation, and governance, to exploration, modeling and delivering insights.
Collaboration is foundational to all of this. It’s not just about what procurement needs, but the needs of the broader company, our suppliers, and ultimately our customers. Meeting those needs requires a strong partnership and trust with our IT, sustainability, supply chain, and compliance teams.
With everything we do, we’re focused on how we can drive efficiencies throughout the source to pay landscape, facilitate the identification of savings opportunities, mitigate and manage risk, and help inform decision-making for thousands of colleagues across the globe. This is a long-term endeavour, inclusive of strategy development and execution. Not only do we aim to solve current challenges, but we’re also thinking about future challenges we may need to anticipate.
And, speaking of challenges, since 2019, the role of procurement has become even more critical than it was before…
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Well, I must ask then, what has been your lived experience regarding these challenges?
All the risk factors that procurement organizations had been talking about for many years came to pass during the pandemic, and in the many global disruptions that have happened since then. What’s interesting has been the outcomes and results of these well documented events. People now understand how critical procurement is as a function. It was procurement teams working to help suppliers get back up and running during shutdowns in order to deliver critical materials and products to customers, keeping the world of healthcare running throughout the pandemic. It is procurement that has continued to lead the charge when it comes to mitigating and managing further risk events.
Then there’s data. Historically, you would scramble with the information that you had from ERPs. Now, you can’t just deal with transactional procurement data. You need advanced insights to be able to effectively monitor and mitigate risks when they appear. You can try to predict as much as you can, but disruptions aren’t linear or predictable. The knock-on effects are often quite chaotic. So, you really need a strong data foundation to be able to make quick and necessary adjustments.
And then, finally, there’s the digital transformation.
Digital transformation is certainly a term that’s been given extra weight over the past five years…
Exactly. It was always imperative, but for many procurement organisations it was never really a priority. It was seen as a back-office function. So, while some aspects of Procure to Pay were automated, other areas were deemed ‘optional.’ With procurement now being acknowledged as a critical enabler to any company’s success, there is a lot more interest in investing in the digital space, which has accelerated the solution options that we have.
Procurement tech is now inclusive of a wide range of solutions, including risk management, sustainability, data analytics, supplier management, and significant improvements in the upstream source-to-contract space. It’s all on the table for procurement now.
You’re talking about a general, industry-wide, four-year period there. Let’s condense that slightly – what has been your experience over the past two years since joining Thermo Fisher? Especially relating to data?
Phase one was consolidation: Let’s get our hands on all the data so we can process, normalise and standardise it. We’re a large company, so driving a standard data model was a huge first step to ensure we had visibility over one consistent, accessible data truth.
This helps with decisions and commentary: it encourages discussion around data we didn’t foresee. We can now have fact-based discussions, because we know the dataset wasn’t just an anomaly or one rogue interpretation – it’s an opportunity to improve.
At that point you’re now able to drive data quality and data governance initiatives, and to improve upstream processes so that you continue to generate better insights. A positive data cycle is created.
Am I right in thinking this falls under the banner of the Wayfinder initiative?
Absolutely. Wayfinder is such a major initiative within our broader portfolio of data and digital activities. It is a strategic initiative to establish the analytics foundation to consolidate, govern and extract value from procurement data. Key business outcomes include improved monitoring of supplier diversity and sustainability goals, increased supply base visibility for more effective partnerships and risk mitigation, enabling cash flow improvements and category strategy development, and increased accuracy to measure savings and manage inflation.
In the span of a year, Wayfinder has provided a single source of truth for more than 800 colleagues to get insights into more than 99% of enterprise spend. It is one centralised platform comprised of data from over 100 data sources, enhanced with data enrichment partners, in order to drive improvements in how we manage sustainability, savings, spend, and sourcing activities for the enterprise.
In a nutshell, what were the main challenges you were looking to overcome through the Wayfinder project?
With multiple business lines varying from pharmaceuticals to electron microscopes, along with the need to integrate several acquired companies, there were multiple ERPs and other data sources across individual businesses. Though they did enable the company to be agile when meeting the diverse needs of our customers, this decentralised model leads to difficulties in delivering enterprise-level insights, where cycle times were taking more than eight weeks for some procurement reporting.
The need for high-quality insights that span the various businesses has become even more critical with an increased focus on achieving our aggressive Science Based Targets (SBTi) for sustainability, managing our third-party relationships more effectively, and addressing rapidly changing compliance expectations. As a result, in 2022, we started a transformative journey toward streamlined, advanced and cohesive insights.
We’re so happy with how the project has gone and I’d like to highlight the partnership with our sustainability, supply chain and business teams in making this possible, and especially our own IT team. It’s not often that companies are able to drive this scale of transformation with experts from within their own walls. This is something I’m especially excited about – having the right people and capabilities internally to ensure we have a sustainable solution for insights.
The Wayfinder program is an evolving journey and we continue to increase the scope, depth, breadth and quality of the insights we’re providing.
Of course, getting a handle on data means only good things for a smooth supply chain. But, as you alluded to, there are regulatory elements to the conversation, too. You’ve already touched upon risk, and presumably keeping ahead of the compliance game is one of those aspects you need to manage carefully?
Yes, while technology has come a long way, it still doesn’t meet all needs from a compliance perspective. How could it when regulations are still changing? This does present an opportunity though, especially as a larger company. We’re partnering with smaller innovators to help them develop more robust solutions that meet global compliance needs, both as we see them now, and as we anticipate they will evolve in the future.
We can influence what is being developed in the market to ensure that we meet those compliance expectations.
In general, I’m all for this evolving regulatory landscape. It shows that business and government leaders are putting increased due diligence when it comes to the environment, ethics and human rights. That’s a wonderful thing. Yes, it comes with pressure to make sure you are in compliance, and also that your suppliers are adhering to your way of responsible working, but that’s a responsibility we take on positively.
It relies on increased upstream transparency – having visibility into thousands of suppliers and suppliers’ suppliers who all help keep us moving. So, we have made a point of normalising that need to stay agile, to adapt, and to try and keep ourselves and our partners ahead of the curve. It’s all for good, global outcomes.
I understand a lot of this data strategy falls under a broader ‘PPI’ ethos. Could you explain what this stands for and what it encapsulates?
Our PPI model stands for Practical Process Improvement. It’s similar to other methodologies like Six Sigma or Lean, and reflects a spirit of continuous improvement and operational excellence. This extends beyond the manufacturing space. It’s foundational to how we run our business, and it’s all about maximizing efficiency, quality and our customers’ success.
To explain, if we have any kind of issue or see an opportunity to improve a process, we can initiate a ‘PPI event’. This gives us a chance to collaborate with others to understand how a process really works, the root cause of any issues, and then we can explore the opportunities to improve. In the context of our broader data governance strategy, this is a key lever for improving the quality of data, and the insights that we deliver.
Which presumably also includes cultural elements and internal buy-in around change among the workforce?
Absolutely. With any change, especially digitalisation and new systems, our people are integral to the process and transition itself. They’re part of the discovery, assessment, requirement definition, implementation, and the continuous feedback loop to improve every day.
Not only does this help in terms of usability and satisfaction, but it also helps determine whether a new system is needed at all. Why would we implement a solution to solve a symptom of the underlying problem?
Ultimately, I’m really big on problem statements. You can’t work out the business need until you know what problem you’re trying to solve (not just the symptom). From there, you can dive into the requirements, and then into solutions to address what’s possible and feasible. In cases where we know that digital intervention or a new system is required, we put extra effort into showing before and after scenarios and clearly state how their work lives will improve once we achieved our goal.
Hopefully, this mode of change management eases the adoption process, but then another critical element is ongoing support. Not everyone is tech savvy, and tech keeps changing. We’re not out to make people feel uncomfortable or uneased. From the stage of assessing the problem, to implementation, to ongoing support, it’s a huge collaborative effort with users at the heart of it.
And then we come to the technology itself… what has been the approach and rationale to the solutions implemented since your arrival?
Well, once you know that a technology solution is the right lever to address whatever you’re trying to improve, you have to think more broadly than picking a technology. So many people get caught up in the selection of the exciting tech solution, without fully thinking through the successful enablers of implementation and user adoption. As I said earlier, you need the right level of data quality to inform decisions, to make the solution work the way it should, and you need consistent operational support once implementation is complete to realize the results of what you intended to deliver.
Tech-wise, we’re not trying to reinvent the wheel. We want to optimise our processes and technologies to make sure that the brilliant people in this company are able to do their jobs as effectively as possible, with as few barriers as possible, and in a way that is compliant, sustainable and forward-thinking.
With that mindset, the implementations worth mentioning at this stage would of course include AI. It’s a hot topic and an area of focus no matter what company or industry you’re in. We’re exploring how to best leverage AI to accelerate productivity, enable scalability within our massive data ecosystem, reduce cycle times in building apps, and to improve the user experience. This is in addition to the historical leveraging of AI when it comes to machine learning in the data space. AI presents such a big opportunity for transformative work, with real practical applications. When I connect with others in similar roles like mine, I find that some companies are limiting themselves, their potential, and their progress, out of their fear of data imperfection. Having a solid data foundation is a necessary enabler, but so is experimentation. Things are evolving quickly – we have to be quick when it comes to testing, reviewing, and closing out projects that don’t work. It’s also critical to make sure that our spirit of experimentation has the right collaborators in place. Our IT and broader supply chain colleagues are integral in making sure we’re putting in the right level of diverse thought, innovation and due diligence as we explore.
We have also leveraged cloud technologies, especially to help with proof of concepts and pilots to rapidly test solutions and to identify effective solutions to solve some of our interesting challenges.
There’s also a major opportunity to drive a more seamless connection between the upstream Source to Contract and Procure to Pay spaces. How can we ensure that supplier engagement, collaboration, purchases and payments are aligned to the strategies that our category teams are building? It’s a major area of interest for me in the next phase of our evolution.
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And partners are an integral part of this?
Exactly, yes. We place a huge importance on who we choose to partner with, so they align with the kind of foundations for digital and data transformation we are building. We look for partners who have a strong vision for their future, and who prioritise customer collaboration. They need a good line of sight as well as a solid understanding of scaling through complexity, so we know that we’re deploying technologies that will address the needs of the future, and not just today.
SpendHQ is a really good example in this respect. They are more than just a solid technology. They have an excellent product vision, can see where the market is going, and share that analysis with us so we can see how it aligns specifically with our goals and business objectives, inclusive of sustainability, compliance, and more.
While they already see the industry trends and development of the market from an innovation perspective, we aim to foster a strong level of collaboration with all of our partners, so we can help influence their product in terms of user experience and business value.
Quite often, potential solution providers will tell me how their solution can solve a procurement problem, but they can’t tell me what an ideal enabling process should look like. And to me, that’s a problem as it suggests an inability to deliver a sustainable, holistic solution that meets business needs. Our people are at the center, the process is their guide, and technology is the enabler.
The significance we give to internal collaboration can’t be overstated. It impacts our investments and our selection of digital partners. For example, when we’re evaluating tech providers or doing a proof of concept in procurement, we have our IT partners right there with us. We have users there. We have sustainability, legal and compliance engaged. They’re all integral to the way our procurement function operates, so to leave them out of investment and roadmap decisions when exploring new technologies makes no sense.
Having discussed the journey so far, let’s now look forward. You’ve been in your role for two years now, but if we were to speak again in another year’s time, what are you looking to see in terms of outcomes from the foundations set and the Wayfinder initiative?
I’d say the number one outcome I’d hope to report is more progressive analytics, based on trusted data, so our colleagues can build innovative category strategies, more effectively mitigate risk, and better collaborate with suppliers. This will be supported by the strong data governance capability that we’re building, which will improve how we measure and monitor data quality.
I also want to simplify the user experience for a variety of different spaces. How can people across the company more effectively engage with procurement or make the right decisions by using technology? There’s also so much opportunity to support more streamlined processes with technology and reliable data.
To sum it up, this time next year I want to see the data we’re consolidating being integrated with technologies that support improved processes, enhanced user experiences, and insight-based business decisions.
How would you sum up the journey so far?
It’s been remarkable! There are always more ways to improve, options to explore, and value to be found. Now that we’ve built a strong foundation, it’s time to find, explore and realize it. There’s so much opportunity to learn in this constantly evolving tech landscape, and the work that we do requires us to actively connect with people. It’s why I love what I do!