Technology is an extremely broad spend category and it is expanding by the day because of our emphasis on digital transformation. Nearly every function and category has an IT software or services component to it. Technology truly forms the foundation, or “lifeblood” as Rene Mathis put it, of corporate initiatives. Rene Mathis is an Associate Director at Corcentric where he specializes in technology category spend. He is currently working side by side with companies that are reevaluating their IT contracts, redefining their uptime definitions and service level agreements, and attempting to put plans in place - despite the fact that no one knows what the next 6-12 months will hold. In this interview, Rene shares his point of view with Philip Ideson and Kelly Barner on: The current state of IT sourcing, including what has (and has not) changed because of the COVID-19 shutdowns The health of procurement’s relationship with in-house IT, and some suggestions for building collaborative bridges while still achieving spend-related objectives Trends in emerging technologies and automation that procurement should be prepared to address in cross-functional sourcing projects