This article originally appeared in Spend Matters on June 21th, 2017: Click here for original article

As the pace of business continues to accelerate, procurement has been recognized, and rightly so, as a fundamental business enabler and strategic function. Now it’s time for the next step.

The priority of achieving sustainable cost reduction and reducing risk has met a new role: enabling agility. Considering the current hyper-competitive and fluctuating state of global business, the question procurement should be looking to answer is, How do you move fast while also remaining compliant?

Procurement and P2P technology platforms have been in the limelight of late, offering the opportunity for procurement process simplification. However, what is left unaddressed is an integral part of the procurement cycle — full lifecycle procurement contract management, from origination and in-platform negotiation to a company-wide system of record and analytics. This leaves opportunity and money on the table and omits an essential component to reconciling speed with compliance.

Agility and the ability to quickly grow and scale are key differentiators for incumbents and insurgents alike, the ultimate goal to capture the most market and mindshare. Consider the divergent examples of Netflix and Blockbuster. Netflix has grown and become more stable as it’s changed with the market, a true case study in scalability and agility. Blockbuster, on the other hand, was unable to pivot when disruptive competitors hit the market — one reason why Blockbuster is defunct and Netflix is a well-regarded, publicly traded company.
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