Publications and Events

Constant, F., Johnsen, T., Andreas Wieland, A. (2022). Exploring New Competences for Innovative and Sustainable Procurement: Findings from a Delphi Study. IPSERA Conference 2022.

Constant, F., Johnsen, T.E., and Calvi, R. (2020). Managing tensions between exploitative and exploratory innovation through purchasing function ambidexterity. Journal of Purchasing & Supply Management, 26 (4), 100645.

Picaud-Bello, K., Johnsen, T., Calvi, R. and Giannakis, M. (2019). Exploring early purchasing involvement in discontinuous innovation: A dynamic capability perspective. Journal of Purchasing & Supply Management, 25 (4), 100555.

Mikkelsen, O.S. and Johnsen, T.E. (2019) Purchasing involvement in technologically uncertain new product development: challenges and implications. Journal of Purchasing & Supply Management, 25 (3).

EL AMRANI, R., KIM, E., KUAN, K., VAGHASIYA, M., PENM, J., GUNJA, N., POON, S. (2019). Understanding Health Information Technology Assimilation at Individual Level: The Case of Electronic Medication Management System, European Conference on Information Systems (pp. 1-14).

EL AMRANI, R., ARYAL, A., TRUEX, D. (2018). Enterprise Systems Competency Centers: Structure or a Process? Sociomateriality approach, 23rd AIM (Association Information & Management) Colloquium.

EL AMRANI, R., ARYAL, A., TRUEX, D. (2018). The use of Leximancer in Discourse Analysis of Enterprise Systems Post Implementation Literature, AIM Pre-ICIS (International Conference on Information Systems) (pp. 1-16).

Constant, F., Chabanes, P., Prevost, M. (2022). Purchasing information systems in the midst of change: the three major trends in the sector. Décision Achats

Les SI achats créateurs de valeur métier, Décisions Achats, May 2022

How can procurement contribute to innovation?, Supply Management, March 2022, by Thomas E. Johnsen

The idea that procurement should play a key role in innovation projects is gaining traction: in recent years, procurement has been forced to prioritize dealing with urgent supply disruptions. But CPOs continue to rank contributing to innovation as a top priority - even though 39% of procurement organizations are rarely involved in innovation, despite the fact that most innovation comes from commercial third parties (Deloitte Global CPO Survey, 2021).

A nouvel observatoire pour se repérer dans la jungle des SI achats, La Lettre des Achats N°298, novembre 2020

Faced with the complexity of the procurement information systems market, how can procurement organizations decide on a digital strategy tailored to their challenges? Axys Consultants' Purchasing Performance and Digitalization practice and the "Purchasing and Digital Innovation" chair at Audencia Business School in Nantes have developed a new classification model based on several sources (users, editors, integrators, tests). Twelve startups have been initially identified. First results expected in Q1 2021.

The Chair organized a day of debates during the "Nantes Digital Week", on September 23, 2020.

Impact: 140 participants, including 50 online (local businesses, students, academics).

With Artificial Intelligence (AI), the purchasing and supply chain functions are taking a new step forward in their digitalization process. Going beyond operational tasks, these two functions today see in the capabilities of AI technology a real opportunity to transform themselves and enable the company to be more competitive. Between continuity and disruption, these two functions must reinvent themselves and face the various challenges of this digital transformation.

On this day, the participants had the opportunity to take stock of the practices and uses of AI in these two functions through feedback, roundtables between experts representing different points of view (user companies, publishers, integrators, consultants, academics), and speakers.

Roundtable: How can AI help purchasing and SCM navigate the post-Covid era? What is the impact of AI on purchasing and supply chain performance? What new skills will be required?

Replay of the morning conference

Replay of the afternoon conference

As part of the 8th edition of Nantes Digital Week, which will take place from September 16 to 26, 2021, the Purchasing and Digital Innovation Chair organized the webinar "Digitizing the purchasing function: the art of choosing the right tools".

Despite the Covid-19 crisis, the digital transformation of procurement remains a priority for organizations. In theory, buyers have access to new digital solutions and analytics capabilities ranging from sourcing risk mitigation to unprecedented visibility when it comes to identifying a remote supplier.

Or, these new digital tools come with their own set of constraints and limitations. The data that buyers manipulate remains unstructured, purchasing IS are sometimes complex to integrate, some even to use. Buyers have had to adapt their daily lives to these innovative tools, which are full of promise, but not always with the expected results. The result is an adoption rate that is often low and sometimes disappointing. The cost-benefit ratio becomes questionable, and the choice of digital purchasing solution to install becomes a critical strategic decision.

To add to the complexity, purchasing departments are now faced with a plethora of tools whose diversity, maturity and heterogeneity threaten the relevance of choosing the most appropriate system. If you look closely, you'll find more than 600 purchasing IS on the market by 2021, including innovative, hyper-agile and hyper-specialized solutions, but not very visible to potential end users.

Publishers also often get creative when it comes to over-promising the capabilities of their tools. The easy solution is to turn to the well-known purchasing IS, the "big suites" from SAP/Ariba, Coupa or Ivalua. These technological behemoths cover the entire purchasing process with a myriad of modules that address all types of purchasing activities and can be configured "à la carte". Other, more specialized purchasing IS are known for their positioning as expert IS in a precise field of activity and can provide an alternative to the big suites.

Webinar replay