The last few years have taught many finance leaders that the risks in their supplier base and payment flows can hurt them much faster than a missed savings target ever could.“ Cost still matters,” says Donna Wilczek, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Basware.“ It always will. But it isn’ t the whole job anymore.” The biggest risk to procurement isn’ t overspending. It’ s missing a payment to a strategic supplier and having them stop shipping to you.“ Operations have to keep running,” adds Donna.“ If a critical supplier walks because they didn’ t get paid on time, that’ s not a finance problem anymore; that’ s the business at risk. And on top of all that, there’ s a tsunami of government regulation hitting finance teams right now. Falling behind isn’ t a missed-deadline problem; it’ s a you-can’ t-transact-in-that-market problem.” As a result, compliance has gone from a back-office checkbox to something that determines whether the business can operate at all. Put this together and the mandate now is about control and resilience.“ Cutting costs gives you a one-time win,” says Donna. Building an operation that protects the relationships the business actually runs on, that keeps paying off,”