How Siemens Energy and Beroe are Transforming Inflation Management

Beroe collaborated with its customer, Siemens Energy, a global leader in energy technology, to develop Inflation Watch, an AI-powered cost intelligence platform engineered to address supply chain cost volatility. The first solution of its kind, Inflation Watch delivers real-time, data-driven forecasting and cost transparency across procurement and other departmental workflows. 

During the recent webinar, “From Volatility to Visibility: Unlock Smarter Inflation & Cost Management,” Prerna Dhawan, Chief Product Officer at Beroe, and Adrian Vicol, Data Architect & Data Strategy Lead at Siemens Energy, spoke about the journey undertaken by the two companies to transition from an idea to deploying a tool that is today used by more than 2,000 procurement professionals around the world. 

Bridging the gap between insight and action 

Introducing the topic, Prerna explained that recent years have seen a shift from data scarcity to cognitive overload, and this change has highlighted the importance of closing the gap between insight and action for procurement teams. Beroe, a long-time leader in data-driven decision-making, saw an opportunity in its collaboration with Siemens Energy to address this shift by designing a solution that could empower procurement professionals to make faster, smarter decisions, negotiate with confidence, and proactively manage price fluctuations. 

Adrian then outlined the complexities of integrating a tool like Inflation Watch within a global organization like Siemens Energy, explaining how the need for such a solution was made more urgent by crises including the ongoing fallout from COVID-19, geopolitical unrest, and supply chain disruptions.  

Inflation Watch leverages Siemens Energy’s deep industry expertise and Beroe’s data-driven approach to create a bespoke tool that filters data through the nexus of context. Developed iteratively, the Inflation Watch tool involved extensive stakeholder engagement and readiness assessment, ensuring the while company was prepared for the journey. 

Building a scalable and actionable solution 

Inflation Watch needed to be actionable, scalable, and seamlessly adoptable across Siemens Energy’s global operations. By pulling together multiple business units and conducting more than 200 interviews with relevant stakeholders, a solution was designed that can address universal cost concerns, compressing the process of accessing cost information into seconds, and aiding procurement professionals in supplier negotiations and budget forecasting. 

Adrian also highlighted the impact of Inflation Watch on operations at Siemens Energy, which is active in energy markets around the world. Since its introduction, the module has standardized inflation tracking to cover more than 1,500 cost structures, equivalent to 50% of the company’s global spend. This has transformed how teams forecast, benchmark supplier pricing, and manage cost risks. The solution has been embedded across the entire organization, with 2,000 procurement professionals using it to enhance supplier negotiations and improve financial planning. 

Democratizing access to data 

Focusing on the design of Inflation Watch, both speakers discussed how it ensures ease of use across multiple teams within the business, enhancing spend forecast predictability and cost transparency both internally and with suppliers, which helps to navigate volatile market conditions with increased confidence and agility. By democratizing access to knowledge, Inflation Watch has helped Siemens Energy improve cost forecasting and reduce uncertainty. The real-world impact of the collaboration between different domains within the organization has been a huge success, with AI-driven insights enabling better-informed decisions. 

By integrating real-time, data-driven insights into procurement workflows, Siemens Energy has transformed its approach to inflation management, making proactive decisions rather than reacting to unexpected changes. Showcasing the successful collaboration between Siemens Energy and Beroe in developing Inflation Watch, the webinar provided a deep dive into a tool that is empowering procurement teams to take control of cost volatility.  

To view a recording of the Beroe & Siemens Energy discussion, including a live demonstration of Inflation Watch, click here.