Did you miss Ardent Partners’ recent webinar, Cast a Wider Net: Leveraging Innovation to Expand Procurement’s Influence and Impact, that shed light on how procurement can deliver greater value by focusing on user experience and operational agility?
Moderated by Ardent Partners’ Andrew Bartolini, the session featured industry experts, Magnus Bergfors, VP of Research at Ardent Partners, and Sudhir Bhojwani, CEO of ORO Labs, who explored strategies to enhance procurement’s impact amid increasing complexity.
In this three-part series, we provide some of the webcast highlights and this link to the full event.
Part Two focuses on intake management and procurement process orchestration (IM&PPO) to solve challenges related to user experience, process complexity, and system fragmentation.
The Future of Procurement: Bridging Complexity with Orchestration
In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, procurement must evolve beyond transactional processes to become a strategic enabler of business goals. This transformation hinges on solving key challenges: user experience, process complexity, and system fragmentation. The webcast discussion on Intake Management and Procurement Process Orchestration highlighted how orchestration offers a comprehensive solution to these challenges, combining usability and execution to deliver seamless, impactful results.
A User-Centric Approach
At the heart of effective orchestration lies an emphasis on user experience. The goal is to make procurement accessible for business users, who often lack deep expertise in procurement policies. For example, consider a typical request for a supplier proposal. Without a guided system, users might miscategorize requests, omit critical financial details, or struggle with compliance and legal integration. A robust intake solution not only simplifies the submission process but also guides users step-by-step, embedding best practices and offering real-time visibility into approval workflows.
This focus on ease of use reduces frustration and boosts early engagement, enabling smoother collaboration across stakeholders. It ensures that procurement technology serves not just procurement professionals but also the broader organization, meeting diverse needs with minimal friction.
Coordinating Complexity Through Orchestration
Procurement processes often span multiple systems and involve diverse stakeholders. For instance, supplier onboarding might require input from compliance teams, fraud prevention specialists, and ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) evaluators, each with distinct responsibilities. Orchestration serves as the connective tissue, harmonizing these workflows and ensuring data flows seamlessly across platforms like ERP systems, contract management tools, and procure-to-pay solutions.
This coordination extends beyond technology to human accountability. The orchestration layer integrates with a company’s RACI (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed) model, ensuring that every task is assigned to the right person at the right time. It transforms complex, fragmented processes into cohesive, streamlined operations.
Delivering Business Value and Credibility
Orchestration is the “missing glue” that turns procurement technology into a truly user-focused, impactful system. By integrating point solutions into a unified experience, orchestration empowers businesses to embrace innovative tools without overwhelming users with disparate interfaces. This approach delivers tangible benefits: improved efficiency, better user adoption, and enhanced collaboration.
At Roche, for example, orchestration has transformed procurement from an internal service to a valued partner for the business. With technology that meets the needs of its stakeholders, procurement has gained credibility, and its strategic initiatives have come to life.
Orchestration isn’t just about integrating systems; it’s about enabling business success. By prioritizing user experience and seamless execution, it creates a bridge between procurement’s technical capabilities and the broader organization’s needs. In doing so, orchestration not only simplifies processes but also elevates procurement as a key driver of innovation and value.
Part Three provides a deep dive into the transformative role of IM&PPO in delivering value by focusing on user-centric design, adaptability, and integration.
