Procurement leaders today face multifaceted challenges marked by macroeconomic uncertainties, geopolitical turmoil, evolving regulations, cost pressures, and supply chain volatility. Amid these challenges, they are expected to optimize savings, manage supplier risks, ensure compliance, and meet sustainability goals – all while constrained by fragmented, reactive legacy systems. These legacy procurement systems fall short, often leading to reactive decisions, poor visibility, compliance lapses, and operational inefficiencies. This Viewpoint introduces Systems of Execution (SoE) as the next evolution for procurement: an intelligent, autonomous decision-execution framework orchestrating AI agents and operating seamlessly across the Source-to-Pay (S2P) value chain. By overlaying and embedding SoE capabilities into existing systems, procurement organizations can shift from static, reactive processes to dynamic, proactive workflows, enabling an intelligent, autonomous, agile, and execution-oriented procurement ecosystem. Scope All industries and geographies Contents In this report, we explore: SoE-led procurement transformation Functional transformation across the S2P value chain An implementation roadmap for procurement Strategic considerations for chief procurement officers

The procurement landscape is evolving rapidly due to macroeconomic pressures, increasing cost constraints, sustainability mandates, and regulatory complexities. Procurement leaders must navigate these challenges while ensuring operational efficiency, mitigating risks, and complying with regulations. However, siloed processes, disjointed technology ecosystems, and the lack of stakeholder visibility hinder procurement effectiveness. Procurement orchestration solutions offer a strategic approach to integrating procurement processes, unifying data, and enabling seamless collaboration between procurement and other business functions. These functions include finance, legal, and IT. Leveraging AI, generative AI, Natural Language Processing (NLP), Machine Learning (ML), advanced workflow automation, and analytics, these solutions enhance visibility, enforce compliance, and drive cost efficiencies. In this report, we analyze procurement orchestration technology, highlighting its role in optimizing procurement workflows, enhancing stakeholder collaboration, and ensuring compliance. The report explores key market trends, adoption drivers, core solution components, and key considerations for selecting orchestration solutions. It assesses leading technology providers and demonstrates successful use cases across organizations. This report equips procurement leaders with essential insights to evaluate, implement, and maximize their procurement orchestration solutions’ value. Scope All industries and geographies Contents In this report, we provide: Assess key providers’ procurement orchestration solutions Evaluate market trends and imperatives shaping the procurement orchestration landscape Analyze use cases, highlighting their implementation and business impact Membership(s) Procurement and Supply Chain Sourcing and Vendor Management

This Executive Brief is available only to Outsourcing Excellence members. For information on membership, please contact us Enterprises often struggle with fragmented procurement processes that span multiple systems and business functions. This disjointed data and process flow causes longer cycle times, missed cost-saving opportunities, and limited visibility. While organizations can integrate point solutions such as supplier management, spend management, and contract management into source-to-pay suites, these suites often prove complex and inflexible. AI and generative AI-powered procurement orchestration tools address these challenges by leveraging smart workflows and data mapping to streamline processes and data flow, creating a unified user experience. These tools act as an integrative layer across systems, processes, and stakeholders, with intake management as the centralized entry point. In this report, we study procurement orchestration tools, highlighting their scope, features, and unique capabilities. We also distinguish these tools from intake management solutions and present a landscape of technology providers with diverse functionalities. We also explore key adoption drivers, such as cost savings, improved compliance, and enhanced decision-making, alongside potential implementation risks. Stakeholders looking to optimize procurement through AI and automation will benefit from this report, as it offers the knowledge needed to make significant process improvements. Scope All industries and geographies Contents In this report, we discuss procurement orchestration tools’ benefits and key features and explore the procurement orchestration technology landscape.

Enterprises are striving to streamline their sourcing processes to enhance efficiencies and optimize value, and integrating AI-driven automation can significantly aid these efforts. Autonomous gen AI-powered sourcing tools have made it possible to improve sourcing activities through their capabilities to create content, generate insights, and enhance stakeholder relationships. Enterprises are increasingly interested in fully automating sourcing processes using these tools, which can automate supplier identification and qualification, sourcing event preparation, event administration, supplier evaluation, negotiation, and selection. The market offers many solutions, including best-of-breed tools and comprehensive source-to-pay and source-to-contract suite providers. These solutions offer varying levels of customizability and configurability and, thus, capabilities and functionality. However, enterprises often face challenges in navigating this vast landscape to select, implement, and optimize these solutions effectively. In this report, we examine autonomous sourcing technology solutions and share detailed provider profiles, analyzing their capabilities and solutions across sourcing activities. The report is vital for stakeholders seeking to optimize their sourcing activities through AI and gen AI, including new buyers / parent organizations exploring sourcing activities’ digitalization, autonomous sourcing technology providers, service providers, and industry influencers, such as investors and industry bodies. Scope All industries and geographies This research leverages our interactions with 12 leading autonomous sourcing technology providers worldwide Contents In this report, we examine: Adoption drivers for AI-driven sourcing tools Autonomous and AI-driven sourcing overview and technology provider landscape, as well as provider profiles Best-in-class capabilities across sourcing activities Membership(s) Procurement and Supply Chain Sourcing and Vendor Management

This report is available only to Outsourcing Excellence members. For information on membership, please contact us In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, sourcing organizations are streamlining their processes and maximizing their efficiency. They recognize the potential of digital technologies to revolutionize traditional sourcing practices, so many have adopted e-sourcing tools as a foundational step toward digital transformation. As technology advances, next-generation tools such as autonomous sourcing tools are gaining prominence. These tools fuse automation and AI, leveraging cutting-edge technology to drive productivity and accuracy across the sourcing workflow. In this report, we explore the intricate landscape of autonomous sourcing tools, detailing their functionalities and capabilities. From initial supplier identification to contract negotiation and beyond, these tools are poised to revolutionize every stage of the sourcing process. Scope All industries and geographies Contents In this report, we: Explore the autonomous sourcing technology landscape Share insights on the current state of automation adoption in sourcing technologies Discuss the best-in-class features and functions to seek in an autonomous sourcing tool

This report is available only to Outsourcing Excellence members. For information on membership, please contact us In today’s business landscape, sustained growth relies heavily on the implementation of streamlined and efficient procurement processes. To remain competitive, procurement must embrace cutting-edge technologies, such as generative AI, to drive innovation and operational excellence. Generative AI’s transformative impact extends beyond merely optimizing procurement processes. Its ability to mitigate risks, enhance decision-making, and transform organizational operations positions it as a vital tool for fostering resilience, achieving cost savings, and gaining a strategic advantage. In this report, we discuss AI’s role in procurement, the driving forces behind the demand for generative AI in procurement, potential generative AI use cases, and the associated risks and challenges. Scope All industries and geographies Contents In this report, we: Distinguish between traditional AI and generative AI’s role in procurement List key drivers behind generative AI’s demand in procurement Present existing and potential use cases of generative AI in procurement Address the risks and challenges associated with generative AI adoption

Since the introduction of ChatGPT, organizations have shown a keen interest in exploring the applications of generative AI across various business functions, with procurement being no exception. As procurement has evolved from a back-office function to a strategic one, organizations are increasingly focused on transforming procurement operations by leveraging advanced technologies. While procurement has traditionally utilized technologies such as Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Optical Character Recognition (OCR), and basic analytics, the adoption of advanced technologies such as AI/ML is still in its early stages compared to more mature functions such as Finance and Accounting (F&A) and HR. However, the emergence of generative AI and growing enterprise interest in its applicability are expected to accelerate the adoption of next-generation technologies, including AI/ML, to drive further efficiencies and achieve better business outcomes across procurement operations. Generative AI’s creative and cognitive capabilities offer multiple potential use cases across the Source-to-Pay (S2P) value chain, with some organizations already piloting generative AI-based solutions within procurement. It can potentially transform procurement operations by facilitating increased automation, offering decision support, and reducing manual intervention through virtual assistants. With the buzz around generative AI and its emerging use cases, it is imperative for organizations to prioritize the most impactful use cases while also being cognizant of the various challenges associated with the application of generative AI-based solutions in procurement. In this viewpoint, we explore the current landscape of digital adoption in procurement, examining existing AI/ML-based solutions across the S2P value chain. The report also highlights the emergence of generative AI and its implications for procurement, exploring specific use cases within the procurement value chain and emphasizing the prioritization of these use cases for implementation. Scope All industries and geographies Contents In this viewpoint, we examine: The current state of digital adoption in procurement Use cases of AI-/ML-based solutions across the S2P value chain The emergence of generative AI and its implications Generative AI’s use cases within procurement operations and their prioritization Key considerations to ensure generative AI solutions’ successful implementation Membership(s) Procurement and Supply Chain Outsourcing Excellence

Enterprises prioritize developing strong supplier relationships to maintain business continuity, drive innovation, and capture value. The adoption of digital technologies can potentially improve the efficiency of supplier management activities. However, digital adoption varies significantly across activities within supplier lifecycle management. There is a growing interest among enterprises in leveraging technology for Supplier Relationship Management (SRM), which encompasses various activities such as supplier segmentation, supplier governance, supplier performance management, supplier collaboration, supplier-driven innovation, and supplier conflict management. Best-in-class SRM tools focus on enabling optimized workflows, comprehensive performance management, seamless collaboration and communication, and targeted relationship management by leveraging data. The market offers an increasing number of solutions, including best-of-breed tools and S2P and S2C suite providers, each with varying depth and breadth of functionality across SRM activities. These solutions provide different levels of customizability and configurability, influencing their capability and functionality. Enterprises typically face challenges in selecting, adopting, implementing, and utilizing such SRM solutions. In this report, we study SRM technology solutions and analyze technology provider capabilities and solution characteristics across SRM activities, along with sharing individual provide profiles. The report will be relevant for stakeholders interested in driving agile and resilient supplier relationships using digital tools to achieve diverse objectives. This includes new buyers / parent organizations exploring the digitalization of SRM activities, SRM technology providers, service providers, and industry influencers such as investors and industry bodies. Scope All industries and geographies This research leverages our interactions with 11+ leading SRM technology providers worldwide Contents In this report, we examine: Digital adoption trends across supplier lifecycle management activities Best-in-class capabilities across SRM activities SRM technology provider landscape and provider profiles Membership(s) Procurement and Supply Chain Sourcing and Vendor Management

Procure-to-Pay (P2P) is a critical business process encompassing the full spectrum of activities associated with the acquisition of goods and services, from the initial procurement request to the final payment made to the supplier. Additionally, the efficient running of the process also requires close collaboration with the finance team to ensure alignment on policies and objectives. Traditionally, the P2P process had a multitude of highly repetitive manual tasks and frequent handoffs involving various stakeholders. With the advent of advanced technologies such as RPA, IDP, AI/ML, many of these processes can now be automated, improving the timelines, process accuracy, KPI performance, and enabling employees to focus on more strategic procurement processes. With an intention to move toward a touchless and streamlined P2P process, enterprises are exploring various technological solutions that are being developed by procurement/finance platforms and P2P-focused best-of-breed solutions. This report highlights the challenges and gaps faced by enterprises with existing technological solutions, while also providing insights into the selection, adoption, implementation, and utilization of the gamut of solutions available across the P2P technology landscape. We discuss the value proposition and capabilities of different categories of P2P technology providers along with the applications of different digital levers in P2P. This report also includes a comprehensive set of profiles of various P2P technology providers covering their solutions and offerings, client footprint, and partnerships. Scope All industries and geographies Process scope: Procure-to-Pay (P2P) Contents In this report, we examine: Current state of P2P operations P2P technology provider landscape Enterprise approaches for P2P technology adoption Building a future-ready P2P technology ecosystem Key P2P technology providers Membership(s) Procurement and Supply Chain Finance and Accounting Service Optimization Technologies Sourcing and Vendor Management

This report is available only to Outsourcing Excellence members. For information on membership, please contact us Organizations prioritize efficient supplier management to ensure business continuity, consistency, and quality. Various stakeholders play vital roles in supplier life cycle activities such as onboarding, risk management, performance management, governance, and collaboration. Traditionally, organizations relied on manual processes and spreadsheets for supplier management. However, with advancing technologies, many organizations now create roadmaps for best-of-breed and purpose-built solutions to manage suppliers. Adoption of these tools/solutions varies across supplier management activities, depending on factors such as complexity, ease of transition, integration ability, and stakeholder accessibility. In this report, we assess technology adoption in supplier management across organizations, while understanding organizational transformation through digital adoption and the challenges encountered in this journey. The report establishes a framework for the supplier management technology solutions space, details how these solutions enable organizational transformation throughout the supplier life cycle, and identifies factors that help achieve desired outcomes with technology adoption. Scope All industries and geographies Contents In this report, we: Examine the supplier life cycle management technology landscape Discuss supplier management tools/technology adoption trends Study challenges and success factors in adopting supplier management tools