Introduction
Although SEI is about generating new ideas and moving the organisation to a new place, it cannot do this without the engagement and consent of the stakeholders who will enable, accept and adopt those changes.
Delivering SEI in the form of products services and new ways of working cannot happen in a vacuum, it needs the wider engagement of those who have influence and something to gain through adoption.
Definition
While similar to stakeholder engagement – another of our enablers of SEI – organisational alignment differs in that it’s about positioning procurement, sourcing, supply chain and any formal SEI teams with other business units in a way that allows the greatest level of collaboration across teams and organisations.
Through proper organisational alignment, procurement becomes involved early in relevant projects and cross-functional working groups. A key goal for SEI is to link relevant stakeholders to their peers within suppliers, to assist cross-company collaboration. Such alignment means that suppliers do not become frustrated and the buyer is able to build lasting and trusted relationships.
Maturity levels
Level 1: Functional Competence / Opportunistic Innovation
SEI is developed from within Procurement and has a strong financial or operational emphasis when assessing the viability of proposals.
Level 2: Business Cooperation / Systemic Innovation
SEI is being developed across different parts of the organisation in response to business priorities and a wide range of performance objectives.
Level 3: Partner Collaboration / Interactive Innovation
SEI has a strong focus on influencing and being influenced by the development of partnerships between organisations with complimentary but unique core capabilities.
Level 4: Network Coherence / Embedded Innovation
SEI is used as a key strategic driver for developing and coordinating the future organisational capabilities required to deliver the roadmap of products and services offered across the network of partnering organisations.
Summary
The end goal of SEI is to drive a flat, transparent platform upon which collaboration between partner organisations can take place. This demands a great number of capabilities and enablers to be successfully in place, but it means that procurement must facilitate the right interactions between internal and external stakeholders at the right time, for both push and pull innovation to take place.