rocurement teams have historically spent close to a third of their time buried in manual, paper-based processes, time that could otherwise be better spent on strategic sourcing and supplier relationships.

It is little wonder that procurement leaders are deploying RPA or are actively scaling it, with some organisations reporting cycle-time reductions of up to 50 % once automation takes hold, according to Deloitte’ s 2023 Global CPO Survey.

Joel R. Klemmer, Director of Procurement and Chief Procurement Officer for Gallup-McKinley County Schools in New Mexico and Rakesh Sancheti, Chief Growth Officer & Chief Business Officer for Manufacturing at Tredence, say that the real story is not just about speed; it is about navigating the line between robots being useful and the need for human judgement to take over.

The administrative burden stifling procurement strategy Historically, procurement was built as a purchasing and control function rather than a strategic one.“ Procurement became the human bridge between departments and systems that did not communicate well with each other,” says Joel.“ Technology helped, but it did not fully solve the problem. Many ERP and e-procurement systems simply turned the paper process into an electronic process.

96 October 2026