TECH SOURCING 2024 AGENDA

Pick up your badge and join your peers for a coffee and a chat prior to kick-off!

Welcome to FORGE: Technology Sourcing 2024 - let’s get started!

Choose one of the interactive working groups to kick start your collaboration and learning. Be sure to fuel up on caffeine and come brimming with ideas!

PEER GROUP A - Optimizing contract negotiations: the Procurement-Finance alliance

This session dives into how Procurement and Finance can join forces to elevate purchasing strategies, making sure deals do more than just meet goals—they exceed them.

We will discuss key ways to blend financial know-how into procurement choices, ensuring deals align with our organization's financial health and ambitions. We will explore tactics to boost your negotiation skills, see how teamwork between Procurement and Finance can lead to better terms, make smart use of data, and handle risks well. This is your chance to explore how to bring Procurement and Finance together for top-notch negotiation results. It's a must-attend for procurement pros looking to up their game with financial insight.

Speakers:

Jesse Russell, Head of Purchasing, North America & APAC, Vertice

Mousa Hamad, Vice President of Corporate IT and Procurement, Pushpay

Chris Gonzalez, Head of Finance, A.team 

PEER GROUP B - Drafting & negotiating AI contracts 

Artificial intelligence contracts raise new concerns, as well as familiar ones. They're software agreements and so call for terms many software contract managers and lawyers know well. But certain AI systems raise unique issues, particularly generative AI and other forms of machine learning (ML). This session will look at those issues and explain the new terms they require.

Speaker:

David Tollen, Founder, Tech Contracts Academy

PEER GROUP C - Optimizing your Oracle & Java investment: A collaborative IT/Procurement approach to maximize value beyond price 

In today's technology landscape, securing the best value, not just the lowest price, is crucial for enterprise software like Oracle. This session, hosted by Palisade Compliance, brings together IT and Procurement leaders to share their insights and strategies for achieving this critical goal.

Through real-world case studies, you'll gain valuable insights into:

• Collaborative strategies: Discover how IT and Procurement can effectively partner to optimize negotiations across contracts, pricing, and audits.
• Expert guidance on Oracle licensing: Navigate the evolving licensing landscape and its impact on your organization.
• Proven approaches to maximizing value: Learn from the experiences of IT and Procurement executives who have successfully secured optimal terms with Oracle.

Join us and gain the knowledge and tools to unlock the full potential of your Oracle investment, ensuring it aligns with your business objectives and delivers lasting value.

Speakers:

Craig Guarente, CEO & Founder, Palisade Compliance 

Jason Mullett, Sr Director of Infrastructure & Cyber Security, Boar's Head 

Geoff Saccoccia, Director, Healthcare Operations, Enterprise Procurement, Centene

Head to your next peer group discussion

PEER GROUP D - Making procurement a key, strategic business partner

In this interactive session we will discuss:

• How can procurement become more of a partner to the business?
• Move to become more proactive, and an enabler of change
• Understand the roles of technology as drivers for competitive advantage
• Go beyond a cost reduction mindset, to an investment orientation
• Keep your options open, and recognize how to remain an agile, flexible business through technology choice and contract construction
• Understand risk vectors, and how to mitigate them vis-à-vis technology and vendor selection

Host: Gala Lyne, GVP Global Strategy, Rimini Street

Mark Coggin, VP Portfolio Marketing, Rimini Street

PEER GROUP E - Let's talk spend!

Whether you are new to technology procurement or an experienced team leader, Spend Matters! Tech Sourcing Leader, Jamie Martino will moderate a dynamic discussion around best practices and trends in taxonomy. The panel will help you tackle questions such as: How do I calculate Spend Under Management? Which are the fastest growing Taxonomies within the Tech Investment Portfolio?  How do I organize my team around my spend? The panel will provide data on trends in spend and discuss how they tackle their spend portfolio.

Speakers:

Jamie Martino, SVP Strategic Sourcing, IT Diversity

Pierre Mitchell, CRO, Spend Matters 

Jon Winsett, CEO, NPI

PEER GROUP F - How/When to engage your legal team to optimize your procurement process

In this session we will discuss

• The ideal relationship between procurement and legal in a procurement process
• The objectives of the procurement team vs the objectives of the legal team in supporting a company
• When to reach out to your legal team for support
• How to support the legal team for a successful negotiation
• Improving policy and governance of procurement processes

Speaker:

Sarah Alexander, Senior Legal Counsel, Corporate & Governance, HOOPP (Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan)

For IT professionals

Knowing when to go to an outsourcing company and what options exist is critical to making the right business decisions, if you procure through an MSP this session is not for you! Discussion will examine the market and dive into when you should / or shouldn't be using an outsourcing company for your tech purchasing requirements.

Grab a well-earned coffee and meet our awesome sponsors and partners in the Exhibition Hall

Join us for an exciting stage performance guaranteed to perk you up and get your cognitive juices flowing!

Followed by a welcome from the Chair and overview of what's coming up over the next 1.5 days

The biggest trends, risks, and opportunities for procurement in the years ahead

Join top-ranked economist and financial futurist Jason Schenker for this timely discussion of critical risks and opportunities facing procurement organizations, functions, and executives. Topics for this talk will include the economic outlook, financial market risks, energy prices and inflation, Fed policy and interest rates, labor market trends, AI workforce opportunities, sustainability challenges, Cold War Two, major growth opportunities, and more.

Jason has been ranked the #1 forecaster in the world in 26 different categories by Bloomberg since 2011.

Jason Schenker, Chairman, President & Author, The Futurist Institute / Prestige Economics

Elevating your IT procurement strategy: mastering the toolkit of tomorrow

The IT procurement toolbox is changing. With IT investments becoming increasingly frequent, substantial, and complex, it's imperative for procurement professionals to evolve their strategies to stay ahead. The traditional toolkit is no longer sufficient to navigate the challenges of modern IT procurement and achieve optimal results against the sophisticated sales forces of leading enterprise IT vendors. Join this discussion to learn what must-have skills and tools will help IT procurement negotiate world-class deal outcomes in the next 1 to 3 years.

Jon Winsett, CEO, NPI

Geoff Saccoccia, Director, Healthcare Operations. Enterprise Procurement, Centene

For IT professionals

Have you asked the question on whether to hire talent or buy in the technology to your organization? When you don't have a procurement department, what software can you use to best advantage? What makes sense for you? This session will assess software that can move your organization forwards and discuss moving away from VARs.

Lunch break & Expo

Join all the attendees in the Expo area for lunch & networking. Hit the supplier booths to find out how they can support your goals and objectives.   

Sponsored by:

AI & Gen AI – what it is and the business applicable places to use it!

• What exactly does a procurement person need to know?

• How will it drive up my overall capability and efficiency?

• Full exposure of risks in AI

• How is it going to affect my job?

• How to use AI and digital to augment the procurement team and not lose critical skills

Adam Towers, Software Development Engineer III, Productiv 

Persuasive storytelling

This unique insight from Mark Raffan on improving your ability to ‘speak’ to the business and get deeper embedded in the narrative is unparalleled and not to be missed!

Mark Raffan, Founder, Negotiations Ninja

The Lone Wolf Tech Survival Guide - how small teams can make a big impact   

What do you pack in your survival kit when you land in a new organization with limited resources?

Freya Hurwitz,  Director of Procurement, TripAdvisor

Edward Petrush, Sr Director, Global Procurement, Dynatrace

Em Kushvaliev, Sr Procurement Director, Brightcove

Mathew Schulz, Head of Procurement Strategy, Airbase

Host: Paul Nilsen, Director of Procurement, Douglas Elliman Real Estate

For IT professionals

What can IT learn from procurement? Procurement specializes in negotiation, contract management and if you don't have a procurement person/department, knowing some of the tips and tricks procurement use can only better enable your organization. Jump into this session with Rob and hear the 5 key elements to contracting which procurement use.

Robert Nichol, Sourcing Procurement Manager, Automation Anywhere

Expanding influence & collaboration with key stakeholders

Join this fire-side discussion and unveil usable strategies which can drive greater collaboration and relationships with key stakeholders including Legal, Finance, IT. Hear how procurement can transform its approach to working with the business to drive greater results.

Bart Bartolai, Head of Procurement and Real Estate, Grubhub

Dr. Charlotte de Brabandt, Digital Futurist & Head of IT Governance US, ZF Group 

Natalie Gavrilovic, Sr Director, Strategic Sourcing, Genesys

Host: Mike Cadieux, Founder & CEO, Procurement Foundry

Mastering the Art of Conflict Management

Conflict is a natural part of any workplace. As customer solutions become increasingly more complex, collaboration amongst teams and key stakeholder groups is paramount. Participants will learn how to design strategies that minimize dysfunctional conflict, maximize constructive conflict…and work effectively for both men and women. 

Don't miss this closing address by Shami - a seasoned Executive with over 30-years experience developing, transforming, and leading high performing global teams in Procurement, Supply Chain, and Accounting.

Shami Anand, Certified Leadership Coach & Strategist

Join your peers for informal drinks and digest the best content of the day.

Join your peers for a coffee and a chat prior to Day 2 kick-off!

Welcome to FORGE: Technology Sourcing Day 2!

Recap of Day 1 and what's coming on Day 2.

Making procurement the superhero in the enterprise

In this 30 -minute session, you will hear from an IT executive as to how Procurement professionals can work with IT to create business value.

 To be an enabler of change, procurement needs to become more proactive, strategic and insightful. They also must accomplish the following:

• Understand the roles of technology as drivers for competitive advantage
• Evolve from a cost reduction mindset to an investment orientation
• Keep options open, and recognize how to remain an agile, flexible business through technology choice and contract construction
• Understand risk vectors, and how to mitigate them vis-à-vis technology and vendor selection

Gala Lyne, GVP Global Strategy, Rimini Street

Stacey Taylor, VP Procurement, Ocean Spray

• How are you maximising profitability within your organization / how is procurement affecting profitability across the organization?
• Controlling supplier spend / Impact on gross margins
• Combatting the rate hikes of suppliers
• Licensing: how to maintain leverage

Procurement's new playing field: how unlocking data and insights leads to better decision making and bigger wins

Whether you’re a team of 1 starting from scratch or a team of 10 looking to increase efficiencies, access to stronger data and insights needs to be top of mind. Because with the right intelligence, you can easily identify the most valuable opportunities to drive savings, have confidence that you know you're getting a good deal, and deliver competitive insights and supplier trends that make you a more strategic partner to your organization. Access to unbiased benchmarks and insights elevate your procurement performance, for a finally level buyer-supplier playing field.

Join this session to hear from experienced procurement leaders on how they’re leveraging data and insights to make informed, strategic, and impactful purchasing decisions.

Chandhrika Venkataraman, Founder, Source Refresh 

Michael Shields, VP & Head of Procurement, Tropic 

Program splits into two tracks:

"BUY-TECH" PROGRAM The tech you need to operate your procurement organizations most effectively

ENTERPRISE-WIDE TECH PROGRAM What and how you buy for the wider enterprise

Program Chair: Gala Lyne, GVP Global Strategy, Rimini Street 

"BUY-TECH" - Main Stage

Scale your strategy: Mastering the six essentials of procurement orchestration

Keeping up with demand from the business is tough for any procurement team, but scaling procurement for a high-growth public company is a whole other challenge. That’s why Ed Petrush, senior director of global procurement at Dynatrace, implemented a groundbreaking strategy: procurement orchestration. 

Designed to drastically improve customer experience and simplify how Dynatrace scaled procurement from 0 to 1, procurement orchestration has enabled Ed’s team to deliver compliance, efficiency and savings wins that elevate his team’s standing in the business.

This session is a deep dive into understanding what Procurement Orchestration is, why it’s crucial for procurement success, and how it’s shaping the future for procurement professionals. 

Attendees will:
•    Learn the six fundamental elements of Procurement Orchestration, providing a blueprint for immediate and effective application in diverse procurement environments.
•    Gain insights into the strategic importance of Procurement Orchestration and why it’s becoming a key success factor in procurement evolution.
•    Discover through practical case studies the real-world applications and benefits of embracing Procurement Orchestration.

Nick Heinzmann, Head of Research, Zip

Ed Petrush, Sr Director, Global Procurement, Dynatrace

ENTERPRISE TECH - Main Stage

Mastering change with ALICE: a transformative approach to change management

Discover the ALICE methodology – a set of leadership principles. By understanding and implementing these principles, leaders can navigate change seamlessly, authentically communicate expectations, build supportive communities and effectively engage influencers to ensure successful change adoption. Whether you're navigating technological shifts or organizational reforms, this session is a roadmap to transformative leadership.

Amanda Prochaska, Chief Wonder Officer, Wonder Services

"BUY-TECH" - Main Stage 

SaaS contracts- negotiation tips and tales from the trenches

As SaaS spend continues to grow and the software landscape becomes more complex, it is more important than ever for technology sourcing professionals be planful with their SaaS negotiations and management. How do we keep up with the changes in sales strategies?  Join this session for negotiation tips and real-life examples to help you avoid pitfalls. 

CJ Anderson, Sr Manager, Indirect Sourcing, Sleep Number

ENTERPRISE TECH - Main Stage

Career orchestration: a conversation about your future in procurement

Procurement feels different. It looks different, too. Companies are calling on the function to deliver value quickly and efficiently, and they need professionals who can take on the challenge. Are you ready?

Join Mathew Schulz in this conversational tell all. Let’s talk about how you can meet AND exceed their expectations. From people tactics to technology, we’ll discuss how your impact and influence will shape the new way of doing business.

Mathew Schulz, Head of Procurement Strategy, Airbase

"BUY-TECH" - Main Stage

Intake vs. Orchestration vs. P2P – where do you stand?

Alan Bossano, Director of IT Strategic Sourcing, Kaiser Permanente

Rachel Henney, Head of Procurement Advisory, Velocity Procurement 

Rob Nichol, Sourcing Procurement Manager, Automation Anywhere

Host: Eric Edwards, IT Sourcing Director, Vizient 

ENTERPRISE TECH - Main Stage

Designing a skill-based team to ensure better alignment with business partners (Sourcing, Vendor Management, Procurement Operations)

• How do you make sure your team understands tech from a business perspective, has the right knowledge for the business unit?

• Are you giving/getting enough exposure to suppliers and stakeholders?

• What current and future skills need enhancing?

• How augment difference between what only computers and what only humans can do? How to maintain your talent pipeline

Jon Santee, VP IT, ShipMonk

Michael Dipolt, Sr Procurement Manager, Quanata

Danielle Salyers, 2nd Vice President, Strategic Sourcing, Allied Solutions

Mona Aossey, CFO/Head of Finance 

Host: Ben Pippenger, Co-Founder & Chief Strategy Officer, Zylo

"BUY-TECH" - Main Stage 

Case study on deploying an end-to-end procurement analytics program to maximize speed and agility of your data 

• Mapping out the entire procurement analytics and building the architecture around this, including governance, oversight

• The talent deployed within our Centre of Excellence

• Use cases; category specific 

Syed Naqvi, Independent Procurement Analytics & Data Strategy Consultant

ENTERPRISE TECH - Main Stage

Contracting for agile development

Have you had difficulty working with Agile development resources on anything other than a T&M basis?  In this session, we'll review strategies for applying a deliverable-based structure to agile development contracting.  Incorporating both productivity & quality measures.  

We'll also discuss how utilizing these contract structures can improve performance and enable a leader/challenger model.

Chris Talbot, VP Technology Sourcing, Worldpay

Steven Allsopp, former Professional Services Category lead, SMBC

Hop to the next session!

"BUY-TECH" - Main Stage 

Procurement’s role in Cyber Security

The complexity around cyber security, compliance, governance and oversight and the role which falls to procurement on this is of increasing importance.

Aashish Patel, Global Director, Procurement - Risk management, operations and projects, Grant Thornton

ENTERPRISE TECH - Main Stage

Is Software Asset Management now a procurement issue? 

How much visibility and ownership does your procurement organization have over Software Asset Management. Are you involved, with full oversight of the software entitlements, licenses to ensure that they are being used effectively and efficiently? How much waste can be eliminated?  

Align your experiences with others and find the best path for your organization to manage this essential process in the best possible way, and find the answer to how much Software Asset Management is / or should be a procurement issue?

David Johnson, Senior Director Global Sourcing - Software Category Transformation, News Corp

Jeremy Parkin, Director of Procurement, LastPass

Craig Smith, Sr. Director of Procurement, DHI Group

Host: Susan Patrick Harris, SVP Procurement & Accounts Payable, Wellpath 

"BUY-TECH" - Main Stage

Beyond the hype!
GenAI use cases: building to buy

Hop into this session and hear directly from Ed Mills as he talks us through the University’s building of a service desk use case. Ed will share the model tuning process and some of the lessons learned to help inform their make/buy decisions of GenerativeAI!

Ed Mills, CPO, University of Colorado

ENTERPRISE TECH - Main Stage

Negotiation strategy – how to always be winning in your negotiations!

• Best practice in renewals / contract management & negotiation

• How are you renegotiating?

• What tips and tricks can be deployed to ensure you get what you want out of the contract?

Ed Petrush, Sr Director, Global Procurement, Dynatrace

Ricky Tan, Associate VP, IT Procurement and Supplier Management, Humana 

Soumitra Rathod, Strategic Sourcing and Vendor Management, EisnerAmper

Quick refuel for the final sessions!

Complex relationships: supply chain regulation + tech policy

Emma Walsh, Partner, Complex Communications Practice and former Supply Chain Communications at Apple, Dentons Global Advisors

Kevin Allison, Senior Advisor for Europe & Eurasia and Technology Policy at ASG (Albright Stonebridge Group)