Tech companies Globality and Aquanima, a Banco Santander subsidiary that works in procurement process management, have agreed for Aquanima to use Globality’s Smart Sourcing Platform, allowing for better artificial intelligence (AI) use in automating the defining of needs and selecting suppliers, a press release from Tuesday (March 23) said.
Globality’s platform uses AI technology to automate the demand creation, supplier identification, proposal evaluation and statement of work processes.
Now Banco Santander users will be able to take advantage of “Glo,” the Globality AI advisor, as well as the natural language processing technology, to search for the best suppliers more easily in topics such as consulting, marketing, IT, financial, legal, HR and real estate services.
The collaboration will allow customers “increased agility,” according to the release. Joel Hyatt, co-founder, chair and CEO of Globality, said that Santander “is renowned for being at the forefront of utilizing technology to gain a competitive edge, and working together will allow us to transform services sourcing through the use of AI.”
Per the release, Jorge De la Vega, global head of Aquanima, added, “It represents an evolution of our procurement function toward a more strategic vision and allows us to increase collaboration by reinforcing our value contribution to the user.”
“Strengthening our product offering and value to our customers is fundamental for Santander, and the digitalization of our processes has become our priority for achieving it,” said Javier Maldonado, head of the group’s Cost Division.
Services procurement has been going through the digitization process that has come with the pandemic, with Globality Chief Revenue Officer Keith Hausmann saying that it’s important for there to be adaptable and sustainable ways to source any type of service. Hausmann said the way many companies used to rely on legacy workflows and strategies in order to find service providers, and they didn’t always yield the best results.
Instead, he said it was important for corporates to understand their needs and be transparent about them.