金融科技和金融采购4.0外文文献翻译2018-2019

金融科技和金融采购4.0外文翻译2018-2019

英文

Fintech and Procurement Finance 4.0

Bernardo Nicoletti

Abstract

The future of procurement finance is connected to the digital transformation, which in the case of procurement finance is a digital revolution connected with Business 4.0. The correct concept is to consider procurement finance 4.0 as a platform, with several actors—proprietors, providers, producers, and purchasers—with interchangeable roles. Fintech organizations are and will play more and more an important role in this new vision. At the same time, the technological solution which can make all this possible is blockchain, whose characteristics are more and more appreciated around the world. The digital transformation can gain a lot also from artificial intelligence and mobility.

Keywords: Industry 4.0，Procurement 4.0，Procurement finance，Platform，Open banking，Blockchain，Smart contracts，Artificial intelligence，B2B cloud ，Fintech

Introduction

This chapter analyzes the future of procurement finance, in terms of potential organizational and technological developments, and defines it

procurement finance 4.0.

There are essentially two ways to consider procurement finance 4.0. They are strictly connected with the role that procurement should play in an organization. The role could be either of support or primary, according to the definitions introduced by Porter in its value chain model.1If procurement has a support role, it is a function which supports the other primary and secondary functions. On the contrary, if procurement has a primary role, it would be seen as a primary contributor to adding value to the organization.

The two potential roles would be rather different in a procurement 4.0 vision.

In the support role, procurement 4.0 would be essentially a support to an Industry 4.0 initiative. This is an initiative which stresses at the maximum connectivity and automation of all the resources in the organization, be them machines, infrastructure, products, operators, and so on. This is the vision of procurement finance 4.0 included in many pieces of the literature.

The author of this book believes that procurement is essentially a primary function in Porter’s value chain model. Procurement could contribute between 50 and 80 percent of the operating costs. This value-added contribution is among the largest in the functions of an organization. Under this vision, procurement 4.0, and hence procurement

finance 4.0, is substantially different from the one with procurement in a support role. Industry 4.0 is essentially based on interconnection and on automation. Similarly, procurement finance 4.0 should be based on the same principle as a primary function in adding value to the organization rather than only to support an Industry 4.0 initiative.

Procurement 4.0 considers procurement as a platform. A platform is an organization based on enabling value-creating interactions between producers and consumers. A platform is an evolving organization or meta-organization that:

federates and coordinates constitutive agents who can innovate and compete;

creates value by generating and harnessing economies of scope in procurement and/or in demand;

involves a modular solution composed of a core and a periphery.

This vision of procurement 4.0 sees the interconnection based on the model Industry 4.0 and the automation based on a technology which supports interconnection. This technology is blockchain.7 The interconnection among the modules of the platform should be based on cloud computing which allows a cheap, flexible, and effective way to link all the components.

This chapter develops this concept and this model of procurement finance 4.0. Firstly, the development of the organizations is considered