Imagine this—the force of a global IT powerhouse—sitting atop the throne, determined like any other soul nestled in this tech-savvy city of Bengaluru, India. An appetite of $17.8 billion as of FY23 will tell of their pride. However, this is not just another big number story. It’s a monster with almost 314,000 dedicated souls working from continents away, bringing the best and fresh innovative solutions to the forefront of technology and consulting.
Imagine a place where around 3,600 procurement outsourcing experts join forces with over 225 esteemed clients worldwide, crafting bespoke source-to-pay solutions that span consulting, operations, and cutting-edge technology. This is Infosys, a place where ‘One Infosys’ isn’t just a phrase—it’s a promise to deliver unparalleled, cohesive services, ensuring that every client interaction is seamless, efficient, and transformative.
This serves as the beginning of a comprehensive exploration into the world of Infosys.
Table of Contents
Overview of Infosys Procurement Outsourcing
At the heart of Infosys’ Source-to-Pay (S2P) services lies a visionary approach to redefine procurement’s influence, transforming it into a comprehensive partner offering advisory and operational expertise. This aims to craft next-generation procurement functions for clients, supporting them through their transformative journeys. Infosys is the sole procurement services provider with a specialized procurement technology division, leading the charge in incorporating AI/ML and advanced analytics.
Their innovative solutions, like the AI-enhanced ProcureEdge, are tailored to boost procurement teams’ efficiency, providing intuitive experiences and pinpointing opportunities for improvement while aligning with the broader procurement objectives of cost reduction, risk management, supplier performance, and compliance.
Furthermore, Infosys is transitioning into a ‘Live Enterprise,’ offering an extensive array of platforms, solutions, and digital services that propel traditional enterprises on their digital innovation paths. The Infosys Live Enterprise platform, a recent innovation, empowers organizations to enhance process agility and productivity, providing real-time, collaborative, and connected experiences.
Central to Infosys’ ethos is a steadfast commitment to delivering unparalleled value to clients, a principle that permeates all service aspects, especially in S2P, where the company is acknowledged for its client-centric approach. Infosys’ service structure caters to each segment of the S2P value chain, employing design thinking to meet unique requirements and improve visibility, decision-making, and user experiences across various procurement roles, reinforcing Infosys’ unique position to offer comprehensive consulting, operations, and technology expertise in the S2P service domain.
Benefits of Infosys
Embracing Design Thinking
Design thinking (DT) is extensively utilized in solution development, transition, and stable state operations to deeply comprehend and articulate clients’ fundamental needs in sourcing and procurement, going beyond merely solving the apparent issues. Solutions are tailored to be ‘fit for purpose,’ with clients playing a crucial role in defining what value means to them, ensuring that it is delivered and acknowledged.
Harnessing AI and Robotics for Automation
At Infosys BPM, we come in with Nia, a differentiating AI platform that combines machine learning infused with deep organizational knowledge to fuel automation and innovation. Sparking innovative automation in transactional processes can elevate productivity by 70-90%. In turn, the total gain from such creative automation would imply a 15-50% increase in productivity and improvements to process effectiveness in procurement processes, covering both upstream and downstream activities.
Revolutionizing Sourcing and Procurement with Advanced Analytics and Reporting
Infosys BPM assists enterprises in enhancing their procurement metrics using a blend of descriptive, diagnostic, predictive, and prescriptive analytics solutions. By integrating advanced analytics with AI, the company now presents services like Category Digital Cockpit and Procurement Insights, which offer comprehensive insights, simulations, and decision support services tailored for senior stakeholders.
Enhancing Expertise in Category Management
Infosys BPM consistently invests in enriching its talent pool with highly experienced professionals and establishing category councils to ensure comprehensive coverage across various procurement categories. This strategic approach spans indirect expenses, capital expenditures, and numerous direct categories, demonstrating the company’s commitment to fostering expertise and knowledge in every aspect of procurement. This investment enhances the company’s service offerings. It ensures that clients receive top-tier, specialized support in managing their procurement needs across various categories, enabling them to optimize their resources and drive efficiency.
Committing to Cutting-Edge and Forward-Thinking Solutions
The company’s dedicated team works restlessly to bring innovative products, services, and offerings. The beating heart of the company’s innovation engine: they will operate as such and be on a continual search for new ideas and approaches for the development and growth of the portfolio. In doing so, the values underpin the culture of continuous improvement and creativity at all levels, ensuring the organization remains at the leading edge of its industry in meeting the evolving needs of its clients through groundbreaking solutions that set new standards of service excellence.
Vision and Strategic Role
Infosys is on its way to lifting its procurement from a transaction partner role to a comprehensive capability partner, going well beyond the traditional boundaries. One of the significant things that the firm is delivering is a dual-pronged approach of combining advisory services, ensuring that every bit of their aspect in procurement is well-roundedly supported with execution expertise.
The commitment extends to comprehending the explicit challenges and opportunities of the client so that the Infosys team delivers bespoke and impactful solutions that ring true to the strategic goals of the respective client. Infosys focuses on designing and implementing next-gen procurement functions that will serve any client requirement in preparing for future challenges. Infosys can hold hands and walk close with the clients to bring about innovation, optimization, and revolution of procurement practices. Together, this partnership approach helps ensure that the client is in better shape to face the changing landscape of procurement and the challenges in the market and achieve better operational excellence and competitive advantage within their industries.
Technological Advancements
Thus, this company is the region’s pioneer in integrating AI/ML and advanced analytics within procurement services. It benchmarks innovation and technological advancement for its clients in the field. The company aims to leverage these technologies to streamline procurement processes while infusing intelligence and new efficiency levels in service delivery. This leadership in adopting such advanced technologies outlines a commitment to staying on top in the competitive landscape and developing continuously so that they can meet and exceed the dynamics and needs of their clients.
Yet another testimony with which Infosys showcases its AI-driven capabilities in tailor-made solutions is an exclusive design for procurement: ProcureEdge—designed to take from one level of performance to the next, offering intuitive experiences to users and pointing at areas of improvement using AI. The Infosys ProcureEdge offering is designed to streamline cumbersome procurement tasks and provide strategic insights. They also enable teams to make elegant, intelligent decisions that enable them to optimize workflows. This accumulates over time, allowing them to operate toward the organization’s higher-level cost efficiency goals and better supplier management.
Future of Procurement Outsourcing with Innovation
Looking at the horizon of procurement outsourcing, an innovation that stands out as a critical changer in the procurement outsourcing landscape is At the point of delivery. These cutting-edge technologies of AI, Machine Learning, and Blockchain, coupled with Data Analytics, are poised to revolutionize the procurement processes into strategic, efficient, and cost-effective events. Such would include innovations for predictive insights, enhancements for decision-making, and greater transparency that drives substantial value in client relationships for procurement outsourcing firms.
As procurement evolves from a transactional function to more of a strategic partner, outsourcing firms will be ever more the linchpins for the kind of business innovation that can occur on behalf of their clients in a manner that is genuinely sustainable for long-term competitive advantage. The future of procurement outsourcing in this rapidly changing environment will also be driven by the need to adapt to and, in many ways, anticipate the demands placed on the globalized supply chain. Thus, outsourcing firms must establish flexible and resilient processes against market volatility pressure and geopolitical uncertainties.
More importantly, the focus is on creating more collaborative, interconnected procurement ecosystems that leverage digital platforms to spark real-time communication and collaboration across the globe. It comes down to this: the future for procurement outsourcing lies in using innovation not to improve operational efficiencies but in the complete transformation of procurement into a dynamic, forward-thinking department that drives growth and innovation for the business.
Frequently Asked Questions
What positions or tasks are usually outsourced by Infosys?
Infosys is one of the tech companies whose machine provides different services, such as call center management and data analytics, to assist other businesses with their specific objectives. Additionally, Infosys has a part of services known as human resource outsourcing (HRO). It broadly provides consulting services on technology and outsourcing. Nevertheless, it can be modified to meet your needs based on your business environment and industry-specific requirements.
In which ways is Infosys different from Infosys BPM?
Infosys BPM Limited, a subsidiary wholly owned by Infosys Limited (listed as NYSE: Cognizant Technology Solutions (CTS), which is the IRFY, is dedicated to providing full-scale business process management (BPM) services and also the development of comprehensive transformational solutions to ensure customer’s global needs.
What characterizes outsourcing compared to the business process outsourcing?
The dichotomy between outsourcing and BPO is founded on the range and type of operation outsourced. Outsourcing can be defined as subcontracting the non-critical divisions or components to a third-party contractor. In contrast, BPO is a narrower term that usually refers to outsourcing standardized, repetitive business processes.
Could you give me an instance of successful outsourcing as a case study?
Some exciting examples of outsourcing that dominate the world economy, among many others, are cleaning offices and warehouses, which are outsourced to external entities. In contrast, a company’s advertising campaigns and website building are outsourced to other people and entities.
Can you provide a specific example of BPO in action?
Business process outsourcing (BPO) refers to using external specialists to take over a company’s functional view. For example, businesses can outsource payroll processing, human resources management, marketing activities, supply chain logistics, or customer support.