About akirolabs:

akirolabs, founded in 2021 by Michael Pleuger, Detlef Schultz, Christoph Flöthmann, and Tim Ergenzinger, develops and provides an AI-powered SaaS platform for collaborative strategic procurement. akirolabs is based upon a world-class and industry-proven strategic procurement process, methodology, and toolkit, embedded into an intuitive cross-functional collaboration workflow and enriched with all relevant internal and external business insight. akirolabs’ unique approach delivers “Procurement Strategies with Value & Purpose” and a significantly broader and 4-5 times higher value contribution than traditional sourcing solutions.

akirolabs

Procurement has no shortage of ambition — to drive innovation, reduce risk, enable sustainability, and deliver measurable business value.

But the way work gets done today still tells a different story.

Category strategies are often built in isolation — as static documents, filled with assumptions, built in PowerPoint, and disconnected from real-time data or cross-functional input. They’re treated as annual exercises rather than living tools that guide decisions.

Then, when it’s time to act, supplier discovery starts from scratch — often manual, filter-based, and completely removed from the strategy that was just developed. The context is lost. The continuity is broken. And the strategic intent behind the plan rarely makes it into the final sourcing decision.

This disconnect isn’t just inefficient — it’s structural.

Strategy and execution live in separate worlds. Procurement remains fragmented. And value is lost at every step. This session is about changing that.

Join **Christoph Flöthmann** (Co-founder & CPO, akirolabs) and **Aiko Wiegand** (CEO & Co-Founder, Matchory) as they show how to build smarter, more dynamic category strategies and bring them to life through AI-powered, contextual supplier discovery — fully aligned from the start.

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### **In This Session, You'll Learn:**

*   Why most procurement teams still struggle to connect strategy and execution
*   What happens when category planning and supplier discovery are part of the same workflow
*   How **akirolabs** and **Matchory** are integrating strategy and supplier search in a truly contextual process
*   A **live use case** showing how strategy-first sourcing works — from planning to supplier match

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### **Who Should Attend**

This session is for procurement and supply chain professionals who are ready to move beyond tactical sourcing and drive end-to-end strategic impact.

Especially relevant for:

*   Procurement Leadership & Centers of Excellence
*   Category & Commodity Managers
*   Procurement Transformation Leaders
*   Digital Procurement & Technology Teams
*   Strategic Sourcing & Supplier Relationship Managers

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### **Key Takeaways**

✅ How to eliminate the disconnect between strategy development and supplier discovery

✅ How to move from static strategy decks to living, collaborative category plans

✅ What a truly contextual, AI-powered supplier discovery process looks like

✅ How to integrate category strategy and supplier data in a single, real-time workflow
