SCALING SMART
Dirk Guinan on Leading Green Tape’s SME-Focused
Procurement Transformation
In today’s rapidly evolving procurement landscape, small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) are often left behind by platforms designed with only large organisations in mind. Dirk Guinan, CEO of AVM Green Tape and the Board of Directors lead by Hiran Cabraal, are on a mission to change that. With over two decades of leadership experience across FinTech, enterprise tech, and regulatory reporting, Dirk brings a sharp strategic vision and deep regional insight to the world of digital procurement.
In this exclusive interview, he shares how Green Tape is redefining procurement for underserved markets, using AI, automation, and supplier inclusivity to drive transformation. From closing the adoption gap to supporting ESG goals and embedding cybersecurity from the ground up, Dirk outlines what it takes to empower SMEs and build a smarter, more equitable procurement future.
Career Journey
Can you share your career journey and what led you to your role as CEO of AVM Green Tape? What experiences have most influenced your approach to leadership in the digital procurement space?
I’ve spent the past 23+ years in leadership roles across Australasia, leading and growing businesses in sectors such as FinTech, e-commerce, aviation, and enterprise technology. Most recently, I served as Regional Head of Finance, Risk & Regulatory Reporting (FRR), APAC at Wolters Kluwer, a global leader in professional information and software solutions. I also led its FRR Professional Services business across 10 countries, gaining deep experience in navigating diverse markets, scaling operations, and driving regional performance.
My journey with AVM Green Tape began as a board member and investor. I had a front-row seat to the platform’s evolution and was genuinely impressed by its quality, scalability, and the impact it could have on digital procurement, particularly for smaller enterprises. That perspective ultimately led me to step into the CEO role.
For me, leadership starts with building talented, highly motivated teams and at Green Tape, we see this as a key priority and an ongoing journey. We are committed to shaping a culture that is purposedriven, customer-centric, and collaborative, where people feel empowered, aligned, and supported.
Equally important is using technology to solve real-world problems. I focus on delivering practical, measurable value by staying close to customer needs and evolving our technology accordingly, creating solutions that are not just functional, but transformative, especially in digital procurement where transparency, efficiency, and trust are vital.
The Vision Behind Green Tape
Green Tape aims to revolutionise procurement through digital innovation. What inspired the creation of Green Tape, and what key challenges does it solve for procurement professionals?
Green Tape was created to close a persistent gap in the procurement space, where small and midsized enterprises, despite powering much of the global economy, have long been underserved. Traditional procurement platforms were often too costly, too complex, or geared toward large enterprises, leaving SMEs reliant on manual processes and exposed to inefficiencies and risk.
The idea for Green Tape emerged from working closely with procurement professionals, particularly in emerging markets, and understanding their day-to-day challenges. What we saw was clear: they didn’t just need another tool, they needed a partner. One that could provide a simple, affordable, and scalable platform that met them where they were and helped move them forward.
That’s what Green Tape delivers: a cloud-based, all-in-one e-procurement solution built around the realities of SME procurement. From automated workflows and full audit trails to GroupBuy and tailspend management, the platform improves transparency, reduces fraud, and drives better outcomes. For organisations without in-house expertise, we also offer managed services to support execution and scale.
Green Tape empowers procurement professionals to move faster, operate smarter, and grow with confidence, redefining what’s possible for the businesses that keep economies running.
AI and Automation in Procurement
AI and automation are transforming procurement. How does Green Tape leverage AI-driven solutions to streamline procurement processes, enhance supplier collaboration, and improve decision-making?
At Green Tape, we see AI and automation as critical enablers in the future of procurement and they are central to our product roadmap. Our goal is to shift procurement from being largely manual and reactive to becoming intelligent, predictive, and highly efficient.
We are actively developing AI-powered features to streamline repetitive tasks, reduce human error, and support smarter, data-informed decision-making. Planned functionality includes intelligent vendor matching, where AI helps surface the most relevant and high-performing suppliers for each request and smart tools to simplify tender processes, from auto-generating responses in the Q&A phase to assisting with bid evaluations using pre-defined criteria.
We are also building toward multilingual support, auto-translation, and adaptive interfaces to improve accessibility and usability for diverse teams across regions.
In future phases, our roadmap includes predictive analytics for demand forecasting, AI-driven fraud detection, and automated policy compliance and duplicate order checks. On the analytics front, Green Tape will offer deeper real-time insights into spend, performance, and risk to empower strategic sourcing.
Ultimately, our vision is to enable procurement teams to focus on high-value collaboration and strategy, while AI handles the heavy lifting behind the scenes.
Sustainability and Ethical Sourcing
How does Green Tape support ESG goals through responsible procurement?
Green Tape is designed to help organisations embed sustainability and ethical sourcing into the core of their procurement operations. By aligning closely with ESG goals, our platform promotes greater transparency, accountability, and inclusivity across the supply chain.
Through our supplier management module, organisations can evaluate and select vendors based on ESG benchmarks, including environmental performance, ethical labour practices, and diversity. These criteria can be built directly into tender processes and bid evaluation matrices, ensuring consistent and values-driven decision-making.
Green Tape also supports traceability and governance with full audit trails and automated compliance checks, helping businesses meet reporting standards and maintain oversight of sourcing decisions. Our OpenSale feature encourages circular economy practices by enabling the resale and reuse of surplus inventory and equipment, reducing waste and unlocking value from existing assets. Additionally, our GroupBuy functionality fosters collaboration within SME ecosystems, allowing businesses to buy from and sell to each other, creating more inclusive and sustainable procurement networks. Altogether, Green Tape empowers organisations to make responsible sourcing decisions that align with both business goals and ESG commitments.
Digital Marketplaces and the Future of Procurement
How does Green Tape differentiate itself from other e-procurement platforms?
Green Tape is purpose built for smaller enterprises, a segment often overlooked by legacy platforms. We offer an affordable, scalable and fully integrated ecosystem that meets the unique needs of SMEs and underserved markets.
Unlike many solutions, Green Tape unifies sourcing, contract management, e-auctions and supply chain financing in a single platform. Standout features include GroupBuy, which aggregates demand across buyers to unlock volume based discounts, and zero cost bidding, which promotes inclusivity.
Smart algorithms and real time analytics help buyers make faster decisions and improve supplier visibility. Looking ahead, procurement will be driven by automation, intelligent sourcing and collaborative ecosystems and Green Tape is positioned to lead that transformation for SMEs.
Supplier Diversity and Inclusion
How does Green Tape help connect buyers with small and diverse suppliers?
Green Tape champions supplier diversity by removing barriers and making procurement accessible for small, minority owned and underrepresented businesses. Our no cost bidding model allows any verified supplier to participate and compete fairly.
Simple onboarding and wide network visibility help small suppliers grow and win contracts. Smart matching and features like GroupBuy and OpenSale improve competitiveness and unlock new revenue streams.
With built-in transparency and supplier ratings, businesses can build digital reputations and connect with new buyers. Green Tape makes it practical and scalable to meet supplier diversity goals.
Data Driven Decision Making
How does Green Tape empower leaders with real time insights and strategic intelligence?
Green Tape captures procurement data across sourcing, contracting and payments, and turns it into insights through real time dashboards and analytics.
Users get visibility into spend, cycle times, performance and risk. AI powered enhancements will forecast demand, highlight risks and recommend sourcing strategies enabling leaders to move from reactive to proactive.
Category analysis and tail spend insights help manage costs more strategically. With strong data, leaders can improve governance, agility and ROI.
Cybersecurity and Risk Management
How does Green Tape ensure security and compliance?
Green Tape is hosted on AWS and uses advanced security measures end to end encryption, role based access and multi factor authentication. Each client operates in a dedicated environment for full data isolation.
Audit trails track all activity, and supplier risk is managed through documentation and performance data. The platform is advancing toward ISO and GDPR compliance, and future AI features will detect anomalies and flag risks.
Security and compliance are built into every layer to ensure safe, trusted digital procurement.
Challenges in Digital Procurement Adoption
What are the biggest barriers, and how does Green Tape help companies overcome them?
Common barriers include resistance to change, concerns about cost, complexity or disruption, and fear of mistakes or job loss.
Green Tape addresses this through intuitive design, value-for-money pricing and strong support. Our cloud based platform is easy to deploy and go live within 8 to 12 weeks. We offer managed onboarding, training and optional procurement services.
By partnering locally and positioning transparency as a benefit, we build trust and ease the transition to digital procurement.
Each client operates in a dedicated environment for full data isolation
Future Roadmap for Green Tape
What’s next for the platform?
Our roadmap focuses on becoming the most scalable and intelligent e-procurement platform for SMEs. We’re rolling out features like smart tender matching, multilingual support, predictive analytics, contract clause risk detection and invoice reconciliation.
New modules include catalogue management and ERP integration to streamline workflows. Strategically, we’re expanding across APAC and the Middle East through partner led growth and brand activation.
Our mission is to democratise high performance procurement for businesses of all sizes.
AVM Green Tape is a Singapore-based startup offering a cloud-based supply chain platform. Its scalable solutions – Enterprise, Docs, and Credit streamline procurement, contracts, and financing to reduce complexity, support governance, and ensure ESG compliance. Green Tape empowers businesses, especially SMEs, to stay audit-ready and operate efficiently year-round.
Guinan CEO
Dirk