Running Procurement in Airtable - Brajan Gatys from Personio

In this episode of The Procurement Software Podcast, James Meads welcomes Brajan Gatys, Procurement Operations Lead at Personio, to explore how lean procurement teams can build powerful systems without specialist procurement tech.

Recorded after James and Brajan met in person at the Wolf Pack Summit in New York, this episode is a masterclass in how low-code and no-code platforms can transform procurement operations at scale.

Brajan walks us through how Personio uses tools like Airtable, Make, and Jira to manage intake, automate purchasing workflows, and even parse contracts with LLMs, all without being locked into a single vendor. Instead of buying off-the-shelf procurement suites, his team has built over 250 automations tailored to their exact needs.

You’ll learn why agility, vendor flexibility, and team-wide tech fluency have been core to Personio’s success, and how other teams can adopt a similar mindset.

Other topics covered include:

1. Avoiding traditional P2P and orchestration suites in favour of low-code tools
2. Using Airtable as a central procurement database and workflow engine
3. How they integrate with Ironclad (CLM) and Workday (ERP system)
4. Automating contract parsing and clause extraction with AI
5. Building internal SRM scoring models based on vendor risk and importance
6. Creating a culture that blends procurement expertise with tech-savviness

A must-listen for tech-savvy procurement teams looking to do more with less.

[01:05] Meet Brajan Gatys, Personio

[03:30] Why they chose low-code over SaaS

[07:40] Airtable as the procurement engine

[10:20] Automating POs and vendor onboarding

[14:00] Sourcing and async vendor collaboration

[18:00] Contracts, Ironclad, and clause extraction

[22:30] SRM scoring and supplier risk

[27:00] Culture, mindset, and learning low-code

[32:00] Time-saving tips and breaking the “no capacity” cycle

And that wraps up another episode of The Procurement Software Podcast!

Thanks again for listening, and do please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or rate us on Spotify. Every one helps!

We'll be back at the same time next month, so see you there.

If you want to learn more about Procurement Software, check out the useful links below.

1. Connect with Brajan Gatys on LinkedIn
2. Check out Personio
3. Download our Tech Map for Enterprise
4. Download our Tech Map for Mid-Market
5. Download our Tech Map for SMEs
6. Find your perfect procurement tech solution in our Software Finder app
7. Sign up for the Procurement Software Newsletter
8. Book an Intro Call and let’s talk all things Digital Procurement!
9. Connect with James on LinkedIn