Procurement is undergoing significant change at almost every level as it has matured at a growing pace in recent years. And this change is manifesting itself structurally, technically and operationally as well as strategically and capability wise.

Many have embraced this natural change and run ‘transformation’ projects – often hitched to IT change projects or major new system implementations and often entwined with procurement process reviews to drive greater efficiency, user service levels and compliance. Indeed, some procurement teams are now on their second or even third transformation projects.

The Covid pandemic has, in many ways, simply accelerated this evolution.

• Working from home has accelerated the breakdown of paper processes upon which procurement was built.
• A new focus on the supply side has also brought new questions for procurement from the C suite – some not directly answerable despite past investments in supply side technology.
• Working remotely requires better and more practical technology.
• New mandatory requirements bring greater intolerance for risk, and higher compliance needs – further eroding service levels for operational users
• Supply side risk reviews have rebalanced risk -v- cost for inbound supply chains, demanded greater security of supply and also enabled greater compliance by inbound supply chains

Procurement was a star in the early days of the pandemic during 2020 – cynical stakeholders suddenly saw procurement as entirely aligned with true business needs, demonstrating a real sense of urgency and proactively finding proactive short-cuts to getting things done quickly. And they liked it.

Yet, today, in 2021, there is still a sense that procurement as not yet grasped this great opportunity. The heightened profile and criticality that Covid brought procurement, not yet rewarding procurement with greater recognition or a more proactive role in many organisations.

In all likelihood, in most organisations, procurement still have more work to do. With more still to change to achieve lasting alignment with true business needs, strategic proactivity and that fine balance between high customer service and governance needs that weigh risk for the organisation. A challenge that procurement needs to embrace now.

Many business leaders see these changes as essential of the development of the procurement function providing procurement leaders with the platform to transform their team into a function that is more strategically aligned and can better balance customer and company needs.