“There’s no learning curve.”
In our conversation with Anne Myers, senior sourcing manager of indirect procurement at Palo Alto Networks, we spoke about many different aspects of ProcurementIQ’s market intelligence products.
Myers spoke about the value and credibility ProcurementIQ’s research brings to conversations. She spoke about our supplier database streamlining her research process. She spoke about the challenges she faced before ProcurementIQ was introduced at Palo Alto Networks.
Yet, “There’s no learning curve” is perhaps the best way to describe the ease at which ProcurementIQ’s market intelligence enhanced Myers’ process.
Procurement’s Challenges
“Prior to working with ProcurementIQ, my research process was just me quite literally going out and starting a web search.”
As the internet becomes populated with more SEO-optimized content and biased information, it can be difficult to find the intel you need. Palo Alto Networks, one of the world’s cybersecurity leaders, needed a trusted source of market intelligence.
For Myers, market research meant trawling Google search engine results, her valuable time and energy spent conducting web searches and fact-checking what she found as she researched category intelligence and supplier information on her own.
“Prior to working with ProcurementIQ, my research process was just me quite literally going out and starting a web search,” Myers said.
Myers spoke to the challenges of acquiring up-to-date information on the internet. “I’ve found that other sources, particularly on financial information, aren’t necessarily current and aren’t nearly as relevant as ProcurementIQ.”
There were also challenges in identifying the leading providers in niche markets, especially when stakeholders didn’t have any leads on suppliers they wanted to work with.
ProcurementIQ as a Solution
“I’ve absolutely had good success with ProcurementIQ. . . . I’ve even looked up vendors from time to time for the direct side of the business because it’s easy to get the information.”
Becoming an expert in every category isn’t possible — on your own.
Enter ProcurementIQ. Our market intelligence is now fully integrated into Palo Alto Networks’ indirect sourcing process and has “helped build that foundation” of subject matter expertise among its sourcing team.
With ProcurementIQ’s category and supplier insights available at all times, Myers feels confident in her source of information and finds she can bring an extra layer of value to her conversations with internal and external stakeholders.
“It provided guidance for me for things I was doing ad-hoc before,” said Myers.
ProcurementIQ’s supplier profiles have also accelerated Palo Alto’s supplier selection process. In addition to helping identify suppliers in specific regions and categories, SupplierIQ provides crucial insight into supplier rankings in specific markets.
“It starts me off on the right foot,” Myers said. “I’ve been able to come back and say, ‘Here’s the top five in this particular space. Here’s how a vendor the stakeholder recommended is ranking in this space — are they worthy of being included?’ ”
Establishing Credibility
“It brings credibility to the conversation.”
For Palo Alto stakeholders, knowing they have ProcurementIQ’s category and supplier intelligence in their back pocket is half the battle.
Myers confirms that having ProcurementIQ by her side has helped her build confidence with internal stakeholders, become a trusted advisor, and gain an edge in supplier negotiations.
It’s impossible to be an expert in everything. There isn’t time. Nearly every category possesses technical details and regulations, sometimes vastly different from one another, that make it difficult to feel comfortable in conversations with suppliers and stakeholders.
ProcurementIQ’s category intelligence, however, can immediately make you a trusted advisor in more than 1,000 different markets.
Myers agrees: “I’m not a subject matter expert on everything. ProcurementIQ has definitely helped me to build that foundation.”
“It brings credibility to the conversation. We’ve been able to use ProcurementIQ to identify key players or verify that a list provided by stakeholders actually has the top players in their field. Stakeholders obviously appreciate it when I can explain the research to them and they can have it available whenever they want.”
Streamlining the Research Process
“It’s much simpler for me to go in and, whatever the category might be, take the knowledge from ProcurementIQ versus putting my questions into a Google search bar.”
If you have ever Googled something, you know how frustrating getting an up-to-date answer to your question can be.
Whether you’re researching a category that possesses complicated technical details or trying to identify the top suppliers in a market or city, thousands of search engine-optimized pages, blogs, and out-of-date answers are likely to come up.
For Anne Myers and Palo Alto Networks, ProcurementIQ’s reports make everything easier. “I like how the reports are organized. From what I was doing before, it definitely helps to streamline the process.”
ProcurementIQ’s market intelligence is also web-based and requires no installation. For Myers, integrating our RFP templates, supplier profiles, and more than 1,000 categories of data into her process was as easy as logging into ProcurementIQ.com.
Instead of having to sift through pages of Google results, the information Myers needed was a click away, saving hours every time.
Negotiating Supplier Contracts
“It gives us an edge in supplier negotiations.”
Identifying suppliers and negotiating contracts is obviously a key element—perhaps the key element— in any sourcing strategy.
Identifying the appropriate suppliers is the first step. Instead of utilizing web searches alone, Myers is able to find top suppliers in a market using ProcurementIQ’s supplier database. In situations where an internal stakeholder approaches Myers with a request that includes known vendors, Myers is further able to use the SupplierIQ database to place the top vendors in a market and return to the stakeholder with additional vendors to consider.
ProcurementIQ not only helps businesses like Palo Alto Networks identify suppliers, but it helps them negotiate better deals. “More information helps us structure a better RFP or a better negotiation session,” said Myers, “and even a better contract session.”
She lists the “ability to identify the leaders in a marketplace” as one of the top three benefits of utilizing ProcurementIQ, “especially if it’s a market I might not have researched before. I may learn something about a supplier that I wasn’t familiar with before, which motivates me to dig deeper and ask more questions of the supplier.”
The SWOT analysis section of each report also serves as one of the primary advantages for Palo Alto Networks’ indirect sourcing team.
“I’ve definitely shared ProcurementIQ’s SWOT assessment with stakeholders and used it to model who we pursue.”
Conclusion
“I would absolutely recommend ProcurementIQ. I’ve had good success with it.”
Supply chains are becoming more complex. So is the modern economic landscape, as procurement is tasked with delivering value despite frequent disruptions stemming from public health emergencies, geopolitical conflicts, and recessions.
Going back to Google research from ProcurementIQ is like trading in your smartphone for the original BlackBerry: it’s not an option.
Myers agrees. “So long as my colleagues are seeking out vendors and information in their categories, yes, I’d absolutely like to keep using ProcurementIQ.”
Palo Alto Networks
Palo Alto Networks is a global cybersecurity leader responsible for delivering cutting-edge security services, including next-generation firewalls, cloud-delivered security services, among others. Their products, including Industrial OT Security and Prisma Cloud, have been recognized as best-in-class cybersecurity solutions. Learn more about Palo Alto Networks at https://www.paloaltonetworks.com.
