Latest news & insights

Procurement teams today are under constant pressure to move faster, control costs, and manage complexity across suppliers, contracts, and internal stakeholders. While enterprise tools act as enablers to help structure workflows, there’s a growing opportunity to use AI assistants like Claude or Co-Pilot to boost productivity across everyday procurement activities. However, not every business and procurement team has full access

Private equity and real estate firms depend on high‑quality market data to inform acquisitions, valuations, financing decisions, and investor reporting. Yet as portfolios expand across regions, strategies, and asset classes, managing multiple market data subscriptions quickly becomes complex and inefficient.   In many firms, market data subscriptions are owned and managed by individual deal teams, funds, or local offices. This decentralised model often

Most Procurement teams are measured on the value of the cost savings they can secure. Yet many run into challenges when baselining the budget or calculating the savings that have been secured.  There are some basic guidelines that you can use to baseline your budget (even if you do not have a formal budget in place) and to show how

With world events as unpredictable as ever, managing risk within your organisation has become drastically more important. Therefore, it is imperative that you get the correct level of insurance coverage to suit your business needs. Procurement can help play a vital role, not just in getting you the correct coverage at the best cost, but also ensuring that you have

As Procurement functions evolve into strategic enterprise drivers, 2026 will be defined by a shift from cost-centred operations to value-centred leadership. Across industry insights, three core focus areas emerge as essential for Procurement teams aiming to stay competitive and resilient. 1. Strategic Digital Transformation & AI Adoption Procurement is moving beyond basic automation toward intelligent digital ecosystems where artificial intelligence

Choosing the right Procurement software can transform your purchasing and procurement processes, optimise costs, engage stakeholders and suppliers and improve efficiency. You might be looking for Procure-to-Pay software for the wider business, through to full Source-to-Pay suites down to individual topic areas such as Contract Management, Spend Analytics or e-sourcing software more aligned to daily Procurement use. With so many

What is SCM? Strategic Category Management (SCM) transforms procurement from a transactional buying function into a strategic value engine. Rather than focusing narrowly on price negotiations, SCM aligns business demand, supply markets, and organisational strategy to deliver sustainable outcomes across cost, risk, innovation, and ESG - consistently and at scale.  At its core, category management groups related products and services into logical

Change is constant Looking back over last year the defining feature of global affairs is not any single headline - but the tempo of change itself. Markets have grown further sensitive to geopolitical tremors, climate-related disruptions are no longer rare events, and technology, especially AI, continues to reshape cost structures, labour models, and regulatory expectations. In this ever changing and

Procurement has evolved into a strategic support function driving innovation, resilience and value – at the heart of this movement is a critical capability; Relationship Management. Relationship management isn’t just about managing suppliers. Internal stakeholders – from finance and legal to operations, marketing and technology – rely on Procurement support to create and deliver value, ensure compliance and support strategic

Procurement plays a central role in business performance. When Procurement is structured and well managed, it delivers cost control, reduces risk, delivers cost control, generates profits and supports long-term growth. A right fitting and well managed Procurement function provides a business with the proactive visibility and control needed to operate proactively and successfully in a competitive global market. Typically, a

The Circular Model With the focus on sustainability now less of a trend and more a mainstream aspect of Procurement, the traditional linear supply chain model - take, make, dispose - has become outdated. Enter the circular supply chain, a transformative approach that reimagines how products are designed, used, and reused to minimise waste and maximise value. A circular supply

Considering termination Strong supplier relationships are essential to deliver value and drive innovation, however, not all partnerships are destined to succeed. When a supplier poses a material risk to your business through consistent underperforming or failing to meet their obligations, a business naturally turns to the potential termination of the contract. Ending a supplier relationship is a sensitive process that

Striking the right balance Procurement is often seen as a numbers game. Driving down costs, negotiating hard, and securing the best possible outcome. This approach, rooted in commercialism, can often prioritise short-term financial gains. But in today’s complex supply chain environment, and where the PE environment is holding onto assets for longer, focusing solely on price and in year outcomes

The defining question If you were asked, could you explain your Capex (Capital Expenditure) from your Opex (Operating Expenditure)? Note: Opex is the money a business spends on its day-to-day running costs (services and goods such as rent, utilities, salaries, supplies, repairs, subscriptions). Capex (Capital Expenditure) is long-term investments like equipment, vehicles, technology, property). Your business has a new Finance

The current landscape In an era of global uncertainty, Finance and Procurement professionals are increasingly expected to do more than just negotiate good deals and deliver return on investment - they must also equally safeguard their organisation against supplier-related risks. Supplier risk scoring, once a back-office process and compliance tool, has become a strategic lever for protecting business margins, ensuring

A Finance & Procurement Perspective With the latest Budget (the Chancellor will deliver the Budget on Wednesday 26 November 2025) potentially introducing higher business taxes, most organisations are facing tighter margins andincreased pressure to maintain profitability. Whether it's a rise in corporation tax, reduced reliefs, or new levies on international payments, the impact is being felt across departments from Finance to

Whether you are in Procurement, Executive team, Finance, Commercial, or a business function, you will appreciate that the need to reduce costs and align to challenging budgets is constant and getting more important by the day! As a practioner professional who has been in Procurement and Supply Chain for 25 years, I have witnessed Procurement evolve from an administrative and

AI coding tools are emerging as a transformational force in the SaaS market and software procurement decision making for enterprises. We as software buyers are finding Gen AI procurements taking up a much greater portion of our time and effort as the tools become core to the IT function’s tech stack. Like the rest of workforce coming into contact with

Everyone loves a triangle, right? Procurement has one of the most ferocious: the cost, quality, time triangle. You can optimise for two maybe, but never all three, something always gives.   Let's take a dive into the Time side of the triangle.   The mistake I often see, is acting like speed (time) is free. It’s not. When time becomes the

The UK government’s recent challenges in delivering major digital transformation projects have placed a spotlight on critical procurement inefficiencies, as highlighted in a report published by the National Audit Office (NAO).  The report reveals that delays, cost overruns, and repeated resets of key digital programmes - such as Universal Credit - have collectively cost the taxpayer more than £3 billion

Increasingly, in our post-pandemic world, we are hearing more and more of our clients investing heavily in their office environments as a means of encouraging employees back into the workplace. Employee engagement strategies that were once the preserve of a few select forward-thinking organisations are increasingly becoming an important tool to attract a workforce with expectations of greater flexibility back

Procurement isn’t just about buying goods and services anymore. It’s become a strategic part of how companies grow, save money, and stay competitive. But without the right structure in place, procurement can quickly become messy, inconsistent, and full of missed opportunities. That’s where a strong Procurement Target Operating Model (TOM) comes in. Think of a TOM as the blueprint for

Private Equity (PE) firms are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence in procurement to drive EBITDA growth across their portfolio companies. AI-powered procurement solutions streamline sourcing, reduce costs, and improve supplier management, directly impacting profitability. Here’s how AI can transform procurement and enhance EBITDA: 1. Predictive Analytics for Cost Optimisation AI-driven predictive analytics help PE-backed companies forecast demand, identify pricing trends,

We have recently started to notice significant cost increases in contract renewals, which when queried have been attributed to ” AI integration and development”.  So why should the cost be so high and what can you do to mitigate it?  AI integration often involves cutting-edge technology requiring skilled professionals, whose services come at a premium. Companies may bundle R&D costs