Inside the CAB
Last week, we brought together our customers, partners, and colleagues in London for our annual Customer Advisory Board, hosted by our CEO, Jesse Lee.
The day was dedicated to exploring the current challenges in supplier management, contract lifecycle management, and third-party risk management, and hearing from customers sharing their own stories and lessons learnt with the wider CAB community, while considering how technology can support organisations in addressing these challenges more effectively.
Throughout the discussions, it became clear that supplier management is evolving rapidly. Leaders are focused on building supply chains that are resilient, agile, and capable of driving value through insight and looking to use technology, such as The Brooklyn Platform, to help them adopt innovation. The conversations covered how organisations can enhance visibility across supplier networks, strengthen compliance, optimise performance, and leverage technology to make smarter, faster decisions.
With multiple Brooklyn customers sharing experiences and perspectives, the group were able to shape ideas that will influence the next generation of supplier management practices and the tools that support them.
After the event, I sat down with our CEO, Jesse Lee to hear his reflections and get a debrief on the conversations, the trends that emerged, and what they mean for the future of supplier management.
Q&A with Jesse Lee, CEO, Brooklyn Solutions
Q: From your perspective, what stood out most during the CAB discussions?
A: From the outset, one thing was immediately clear. Our customers are being asked to do more than ever within their supplier management teams, often with the same or fewer resources. Across industries, geographies, and sectors, the pressure for the SRM, TPRM and CLM teams to deliver measurable value while maintaining resilient supply chains was consistent.
Q: During the CAB, transparency and resilience were highlighted repeatedly. Why are these such priorities for organisations today?
A: Businesses can no longer tolerate opacity in their supplier networks. The lessons from COVID, Brexit, and ongoing geopolitical challenges are still fresh. Visibility, compliance, and resilience have become baseline expectations, and one of our customers shared their plan for how they plan to use technology to address this vulnerability. If you cannot see through your supplier ecosystem and demonstrate resilience, you risk being caught off guard.
Q: Proving strategic value was also a recurring theme. How does this impact supplier management teams?
A: Supplier management teams must show tangible business impact. It isn’t enough to say that your work is strategic. Leaders need measurable outcomes, whether that is cost savings, avoided risks, or faster delivery of business objectives. Without that evidence, the function can easily be undervalued. Multiple of our customers shared examples of how they’ve achieved that, which was both inspiring and practical for the rest of the room.
Q: Artificial Intelligence came up in many discussions. What are your thoughts on its role?
A: AI is already starting to change the way supplier management teams work, and the conversations at the CAB really brought that to life. Our CTMO did a brilliant job of showing what AI can offer, from the AI SRM Agent to Chat with Contract and other capabilities we’ve proactively introduced into the Brooklyn platform. These tools are designed to help teams automate repetitive tasks, surface actionable insights, and make faster, smarter decisions. Of course, it’s critical that AI is applied securely, with strict data access controls and role-based governance, but when done right, it provides a significant competitive advantage
Q: Looking at the bigger picture, how do you see supplier management evolving?
A: Supplier management is no longer just about managing contracts or chasing suppliers. The CAB discussions highlighted that today it’s about enabling transparency, building resilience, proving strategic value, and harnessing AI responsibly. Seeing our CTMO demonstrate the platform’s latest AI features really emphasised how technology can support these objectives, helping teams be more efficient, reduce risk, and drive real business impact. These capabilities are central to preparing organisations for the future and turning supplier management into a strategic enabler rather than a transactional function.
At Brooklyn, we are committed to listening, learning, and evolving our platform to help customers meet these challenges. Our Annual CAB brings together our community to share their stories and learning from one another, with Brooklyn there to support the conversation. We are grateful for the candid insights shared by our CAB members and inspired by the role they are playing in shaping the future of supplier management.
If you would like to become a part of our community or learn more about the Brooklyn platform and how we can support your digital supplier management journey, book a call with our team:
