Happy Fourth of July!
From all of us here at Ardent Partners to our community, we wish you and yours a happy and safe July 4th holiday. We’ll pick it back up on Monday,…
Inside the Chip Supply Shift
[Editor’s Note: Today’s article is a guest post based on a conversation between Ardent's Andrew Bartolini and Graham Scott, Senior Vice President, Chief Procurement Officer at Jabil. Scott leads a…
The Control Tower Bet: Ardent Partners on Intake-to-Pay and the Zycus Approach (Part Two)
In Part One of this series, I covered my February briefing and live demo with Bikash Mohanty, VP of Solution Consulting and Product Strategy at Zycus, on Merlin Intake, Zycus’…
Coupa Inspire 2026: Betting the Future on Data, Agents, and Outcomes
Ten Inspires in that you develop a feel for the difference between a company “performing” confidence and a company that actually has it. Recently, Inspire felt like a conference in…
Zip AI Summit 2026: From Agents to Superagents
On June 2, procurement, finance, and technology leaders gathered at the Ace Hotel in Brooklyn for Zip's AI Summit 2026. It was one of those classic early-summer New York days.…
Inside IVA Studio: Architecting the Autonomous Procurement Workforce
(This is Part 2 of our series on the 2026 Ivalua NOW conference in Paris. You can read Part 1: Procurement Enters the Agentic AI Era here.) As I discussed…
Happy Memorial Day From Ardent Partners
Memorial Day in the United States has different meanings for different people. For many, it is a weekend to reflect on the sacrifices made by the men and women of…
The Front Door Problem: A Deep Dive into Zycus Merlin Intake (Part One)
Every procurement transformation has a blind spot, and for most enterprises, it sits right at the beginning of the process. Not at sourcing. Not at contracts. Not even at purchase…
Redefining Procurement, AP, and Financial Control with Unified Orchestration
Last week, we explored how the relationship between procurement and accounts payable (AP) is undergoing a profound transformation. What was once viewed as a transactional, back-office function is rapidly becoming…
Inside IVA Studio: Architecting the Autonomous Procurement Workforce
(This is Part 2 of our series on the 2026 Ivalua NOW conference in Paris. You can read Part 1: Procurement Enters the Agentic AI Era [here].) As we discussed…