• 70% of respondents believe that “delivering cost savings” is the area where procurement has made the biggest impact over the past three years
• However, 97% of procurement chiefs believe procurement should improve the lives of others through its sourcing decisions
• 57% identify data management and analysis as the biggest barrier to demonstrating procurement’s value

Redwood City, CA, August 17, 2023. A new report, “Purpose-driven Procurement: Entering the Age of Holistic Value”, shows that forward-thinking procurement leaders increasingly consider sustainability as “the procurement function’s greatest opportunity”. The report was produced by Procurement Leaders in partnership with Ivalua, a global leader in spend management.

Nevertheless, the report shows that, despite the strategic transformation procurement functions have undergone in recent years, most procurement teams are still primarily focused on controlling costs as they push for providing broader, deeper and more strategic impact.

Delivering cost savings (70%); cost avoidance (39%) and reducing the likelihood or impact of supplier risk (38%) were selected by most respondents as areas where procurement has made the greatest impact over the past three years.

Furthermore, the majority of Chief Procurement Officers (CPO) (97%) believe the function should help suppliers with a poor sustainability record, and the same percentage believes procurement should contribute to improving the lives of others through its sourcing decisions, with 86% of CPOs saying that purchasing decisions should also help address inequality and social justice issues. 

Data quality and access remain the primary obstacles faced by Procurement. When asked to identify the biggest challenges in terms of demonstrating the function’s performance, data management and analysis was identified as the biggest barrier (selected by 57% of respondents); it was followed by limited visibility into supplier performance (38%) and siloed information systems (35%). 

“Procurement’s role is increasingly a juggling act, balancing different objectives that shift in priority and often compete. Maximizing organizational value requires effective and agile optimization,” said Alex Saric, Smart Procurement Expert at Ivalua. “Attracting the right talent is of course a prerequisite, yet, talent alone is insufficient to meet the complex business challenges facing procurement. Staff must be empowered by technology that provides transparency, frees capacity through automation, fosters seamless collaboration with suppliers, and enables agility”.

Download the report here.

This report incorporates the findings of a survey completed by 141 respondents between April and May  2023, and supplemented by interviews with senior procurement executives, as well as insights from Procurement Leaders strategy cohort discussions.

About Ivalua

Ivalua is a leading provider of cloud-based Spend Management software. Our complete, unified platform empowers businesses to effectively manage all categories of spend and all suppliers, increasing profitability, improving ESG performance, lowering risk, and improving employee productivity. We are trusted by hundreds of the world’s most admired brands and recognized as a global leader by renowned industry analysts. Learn more at www.ivalua.com. Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

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