Frans Barends

Senior Director Procurement & Business Services/ Chief Procurement Officer
Georgia Institute of Technology

Frans is the Chief Procurement Officer and Sr. Director of Procurement & Business Services at the Georgia Institute of Technology, managing Purchasing, Accounts Payable, Travel, Insurance, Assets and Logistics. After leaving the Military, he worked in Supply Chain positions across industries including, Leaf Inc. and Hershey - Food Industry, UtiliCorp United – Energy and Utilities, MA Mortenson, Construction and Dartmouth College before coming to Georgia Tech. Prior to Georgia Tech Frans was the Director of Procurement and Auxiliary Services at Dartmouth College. Across industries, he has focused on process improvement, organizational redesign and system enhancement and integrations. Over the last 15 years he has conducted ERP implementations and upgrades with PeopleSoft and Oracle, and multiple eBusiness, Imaging and travel and expense system implementations. His experience includes leadership, personnel development and change management in the office and in field. His Supply Chain experience includes Procurement, Warehousing, Manufacturing and Logistics. Additionally, he has experience in project management, organization and process design, integrated operations and team building. While at Georgia Tech he has led changes to the organizational structure and processes by implementing a range of systems including a full eBusiness Procure-to-Pay SciQuest Suite, electronic Travel and Expense system, Integrated Imaging storage and workflows, eSourcing, electronic vendor registrations and Spend Analytics. Georgia Tech achieved a rare 100% Federal Audit score on the recent Contractor Purchasing System Review (CPSR).

Check out the incredible speaker line-up to see who will be joining Frans.

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Day 1 - Monday 5th December 2016

Thursday, July 5th, 2018

09:10 Opening Keynote: The CPO Perspective - How to Build An Optimal IT Procurement Organisation With Influence At A Strategic Level

How influential is IT Procurement in our business, and how has this changed over the last 5-10 years? Do we see this category as a hot spot for future CPOs and CIOs?
Which emerging technologies will become key business disruptors? Where is IT investment going in the near future?
Global vs local, centralised vs. decentralised, integration or separation from IT and Vendor Asset Management – where have we seen the most success?
What does the future of IT procurement look like? How can you work with your CPO, C-suite and stakeholders to move the agenda forward to truly innovate procurement processes to drive innovation alongside savings and value?

09:30 Panel Discussion: Elevating Your IT Procurement To The Next Level - What Is The Business Transformation Required To Get From Good To Great?

What can you do to advance your maturity level to be in line with your competitors? How are you driving yourself and your team to become a truly world-class organization?
80 per cent of IT costs are typically trapped in ‘keeping the lights on’ and maintaining infrastructure rather than driving innovation and delivering transformative benefits – how can you challenge the business to deliver proposals for transformative investment that deliver greater returns?
What procurement processes do you need in place to ensure you and your team can focus on the important tasks of negotiating savings, developing category strategies, increasing skillsets, driving innovation and bringing more spend under management?
What does best in class look like and how can you lead with an IT mindset and link strategies to corporate ambitions?