For nearly a decade, our team gathers to discuss and review the prior year and lay out plans for the new one. We review, in depth, the key findings and trends from the prior years’ market research studies. We also discuss the highlights and takeaways from the previous year’s briefings delivered by solution providers, consultants, and investor groups.

Our goal is to develop a list of the big trends impacting procurement today as well as a list of predictions for the industry this year and share them in a published report.

While our promotions for the formal report – Procurement 2022: BIG Trends and Predictions – have ended, I wanted to share some of the highlights with you here.

BIG Trends & Predictions

Procurement’s momentum has not been thwarted by the global pandemic. If anything, COVID-19 and its impact on business and the supply chain has provided yet another opportunity for procurement departments to show their executives that it is a strategic function, fundamental to overall operations and enterprise success.

Ardent Partners has identified the “BIG trends” that have emerged from its recent research that will impact procurement in 2022. Ardent also makes a series of predictions based upon those trends that are intended to help Chief Procurement Officers, sourcing executives, category managers, and other procurement staffers focus on the important issues facing the profession in 2022.

BIG Trend #1: COVID’s Impact Continues

It is “déjà vu all over again” in 2022 as this year’s first BIG trend is that the impact from COVID-19 on procurement (and everything else) remains massive. The following is from a Marketwatch.com article that published on January 10, 2022:

“The U.S. is still weeks away from a peak in the number of new COVID-19 cases as the country continues to report soaring rates of new infections due to the rapid spread of the highly transmissible omicron variant. Airlines are still canceling flights, citing weather and outbreaks among workers. More lawmakers are testing positive for the virus.

“We believe cases in major metropolitan areas on the coasts will likely peak in the next two weeks,” said a health policy expert. Though infections with omicron are thought to be milder, the sheer volume in cases still means that hospitals are filling up. It takes about two weeks after cases first start to increase to see a rise in hospitalizations. The U.S. is expected to hit a record number of COVID-19 hospitalizations within days.”

But this is not an American problem. This is a global problem and stories like this one are being written in a majority of countries around the world right now.

And yet somehow, even with the millions of reported cases, hospitalizations, and deaths, not to mention the direct impact on large parts of most people’s lives, the overall impact of COVID remains underreported. For example, many experts believe that the actual number of deaths brought on by COVID-19 (directly and indirectly) is significantly greater than the numbers reported. When the “excess deaths” over the duration of the pandemic are considered, the body count is staggeringly higher. This is not a political statement. It is a fact that many millions more have died during the pandemic than what was expected based upon actuarial estimates.

Beyond these devastating numbers, it is also pretty clear that the massive impact on business and communities has also been underreported. That is because the full scope and breadth of this unprecedented event cannot be accurately gauged in real time. What is also clear is that the impact of the pandemic on procurement and society, at large, will far outlast the Coronavirus itself.

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RELATED RESEARCH

Report Card on Ardent Partners’ Procurement 2021: Big Trends & Predictions

Three “Macro” Predictions for Procurement in 2030

Two More “Macro” Predictions for Procurement in 2030

Ardent’s Other Predictions (through the years)

Tagged in: Ardent Partners Research, BIG Trends, Chief Procurement Officer, CPO, Predictions, Procurement 2022, Strategy