Building a Strong Partnership Between IT & Procurement with Steve McKenzie (Zoetis)

Lloyd and Harry. Buzz and Woody. Romy and Michele. We all love a great dynamic duo. But, what about IT and Procurement? According to Steve McKenzie, the IT Supplier Management Lead at Zoetis, IT and Procurement are the dream team of SaaS Management. In this episode, learn why this partnership is so critical to the enterprise, how to overcome common obstacles to collaboration, and the pivotal role data plays in fostering strategic alliances.

Episode Summary

IT and Procurement are a powerful duo to drive SaaS Management in the enterprise, but they don’t always speak the same language.

That’s because, according to Steve McKenzie, the IT Supplier Management Lead at Zoetis, there’s “a disconnect between them that drives misconceptions.”

McKenzie has overcome this obstacle by building understanding between the two business units. “It was hugely beneficial to know the nuts and bolts on the procurement side, understand the objective of the finance team and the indirect sourcing team,” he said.

To ultimately become the SaaS Management dream team, IT and Procurement must focus on building rapport and relationships.

To do that McKenzie advised, “You need to be doing your job well, showing your value, and incrementally you will get there.”

Guest Spotlight

Name: Steve McKenzie
What he does: IT Supplier Management Lead at Zoetis
Connect with Steve online: LinkedIn

Episode Highlights

Disconnect Drives Misconceptions between IT and Procurement Teams

“It’s like your technology partners have a misconception that you’re there to just take and take and take, it’s just budget focused, and leave and be done with it. I just feel that has not been the case in my career so far. Things have changed tremendously in this technology space so long as I’ve been doing it, even more so in what feels like the past nanosecond with AI. And then, on the other side, procurement professionals sometimes feel like there’s a misconception that they just know technology and that they don’t care about a contract. And I think it’s a disconnect, really, between the two that drive those misconceptions.”

Know How to Speak Their Language

“While I’m part of our IT department now, I did join the team initially on the indirect procurement team. But really, again, jumped in right away, thrown into big projects, getting to meet people. And that’s also a credit to Zoetis, where we adapt that flat organization mindset, and its titles aside, we’re always willing to work together. For me, in my current role, it was hugely beneficial to know the nuts and bolts on the procurement side, understand what is the objective of the finance team, of the indirect sourcing team, and bring that over here and say, ‘Let’s be cognizant of those things so that we can make sure we’re always working together, working towards our shared objectives.’ And that’s been huge.”

Visibility to Data Drives IT-Procurement Alignment

“Sometimes it is really just the simple fact that the data is aggregated in one point. And I’m finding those avenues of understanding the larger context, where if this team’s working on executive reviews, how can I bring that forward and say, ‘This is what’s on the docket, so that we’re all aware of it.’ … Just driving that visibility is the biggest thing, to say, ‘I have this coming up. It wasn’t top of mind. Is it as simple as rightsize the contract, align it to our needs?’ Or do I need to think, ‘I have the time, maybe I need to exit this contract, or I’m going to replace it.’ … And even then, it’s just building out those cadences to say everybody is aware of 90 days out, I’m getting a notification from the team that they’re going to be reaching out and letting me know that this is coming forward. To me, it’s almost like you’re taking that administrative overhead and just saying, ‘I’m going to bring it clear, top of mind. Here’s what we see, here’s what’s going on.’ … For me, that’s been the biggest thing of taking that data, bringing it to the team, and not having them have to come and look for it. It’s there, it’s present, it’s top of mind. It’s put in front of the right people to be informed to make those decisions.”

Understand the Demand for and Risks of Using AI

“It is a business at its core. And there’s going to be implications to that, so we’ve got to be conscientious of, if we want to allow ourselves to continue to make those investments, we’ve got to make sure we’re doing a good job with what we have for our core software. How can we bring a platform like Zylo to help you start to monitor that? Are you seeing the buy-in for some of these tools? If everybody came running to the door a year ago in March, are they all still there? Do you see that? And that’s the biggest thing. And then, also, there’s also a risk piece to it. People are eager for it. Are they finding the soft spot in the process to go out? And I don’t think, again, it’s anybody being malicious, they want it. What can we do to redirect and make sure that we’re keeping ourselves secure, too? Because as with anything, while things are different, it is very much like what we dealt with going from running it in your own data center to running it in the cloud. Right? Your data has to be secure, it has to be protected, even more so in our space, right, when your IP is hugely impactful to your company. You’ve got to make sure you’re reaping the benefits of AI to help you accelerate to meet these objectives, but making sure you’re not also opening yourself up to unknown risk.

Advice for Building Relationships with Your IT Peers

“I see that age-old adage, ‘Got to get a seat at the table.’ And at some point I saw it and I rolled my eyes and it’s like, ‘We’re still doing this?’ Don’t give up the fight there. But for me, and putting it into my own professional experience was first off, any relationship needs to be built up. Right? You’re not going to walk into one where it’s like, ‘Oh. Wow, Steve. You showed up day one here. Here’s everything on my forward-thinking plans for three years.’ You’ve got to first say, ‘If you’re coming through those first few pieces, how can I do my job well, provide that value?’ … Don’t be so combative. Yes, you may be viewed as you’re just pushing through an order. If you do that well, point out those few things, apply the skillset you have, you’re going to start building that rapport. And then, show a genuine interest. It was a pitfall that I had a few years ago in my career of like, ‘I know I’m a good procurement professional, but I feel like I’m not speaking the technologist language.’ And I remember going to one of the well-known procurement communities, ‘Guys, what can I do?’ Short of going out and getting an IT leadership executive MBA or something like that. And it was great feedback from very seasoned people saying, ‘That’s not what you need to do. You need to be doing your job well, showing your value, and incrementally you will get there.’”

Top Quotes

2:29 – “I think it’s a disconnect between [IT and Procurement] that drive those misconceptions.”

8:53 – “Driving that visibility is the biggest thing.”

17:51 – “You’ve got to make sure you’re reaping the benefits of AI to help you accelerate to meet these objectives, but making sure you’re not also opening yourself up to unknown risk.”

22:03 – “You need to be doing your job well, showing your value, and incrementally you will get there.”

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