Xeeva welcomes this guest post from Matthew York, Senior Research Analyst, Ardent Partners. For the past two decades, the modern manufacturing facility has become highly automated, employing robots to assemble automobiles and other large and complex consumer goods – sometimes without any direct human intervention (i.e., “lights-out manufacturing”, a hallmark of Industry 4.0). But as these robots and robotically-driven assembly lines age, they need regular maintenance, repair, and operating (MRO) services and supplies. Service calls must...

If you work in indirect procurement, you’re definitely familiar with the problem of imperfect procurement data. Data that’s “imperfect” is unstructured, incomplete, or inaccurate, and is a result of any number of factors – including multiple ERP systems that don’t communicate with each other, widespread locations that operate independently, and people not following the correct process. When you have imperfect data, it’s impossible to accurately understand how your organization is doing or discover ways you...