By Kate Jeter, Head of Global Field Marketing
Every procurement transformation begins with a vision.
But the real work begins during implementation: when strategy turns into workflows, systems connect, and teams begin operating in new ways. It’s in this phase that organizations start to see what transformation actually looks like in practice.
In this first edition of Inside the Implementation, we look at how procurement implementations unfold at ORO, or what happens when teams align around a shared vision, where early wins create momentum, and how complex organizations begin simplifying the way work gets done.
To explore this, we spoke with Petya Venelinova, Senior Implementation Consultant at ORO Labs. With 17 years of experience in procurement, Petya works directly with organizations implementing ORO, guiding them through transformation from early discovery through go-live.
Her perspective reflects a common truth about implementation: the technology matters, but the real transformation happens in how organizations rethink their processes.
Early in an implementation, there’s often a moment when the client’s vision suddenly becomes real.
At ORO, this frequently happens during workshops where teams map the “art of the possible.” These sessions go beyond traditional process mapping. As ORO orchestrates requests across systems, teams can see how intake connects seamlessly to approvals, sourcing, and supplier onboarding - without the need to toggle between tools.
For many organizations, seeing the possibilities clearly for the first time can be energizing.
“One of the most powerful moments is when clients realize what can actually be achieved,” Petya explains. “They suddenly see how their organization could operate differently, and they start asking how quickly they can get there.”
Another turning point often comes when teams begin reviewing early system demonstrations.
Even before go-live, stakeholders can see how requests will move through workflows, how approvals will be orchestrated, and how procurement intake will be centralized.
“When clients can actually see and interact with the system they’re going to use, it gives everyone confidence that the transformation is real and achievable,” Petya says.
These early moments of alignment often set the tone for the rest of the project.
Large transformations rarely begin with sweeping change all at once. Instead, momentum builds through quick wins that demonstrate immediate value. Sometimes these wins appear in unexpected places.
In one implementation, the team was rolling out the solution country by country when they encountered a surprising use case: employees in one region were submitting purchase requisitions on behalf of colleagues located in completely different geographies.
The practice had gone largely unnoticed.
Once procurement intake was centralized and visible, the issue became clear.
“The moment everything became transparent, we discovered something the organization didn’t even realize was happening,” Petya recalls.
Rather than replicating the practice in the new system, the discovery prompted the client to address a compliance gap in their process. It’s a reminder that implementation often reveals opportunities to improve processes rather than just digitizing them.
That discovery wasn’t just luck, it was orchestration in action. By centralizing intake through one connected layer, the client could see patterns scattered across regions and spot noncompliant behaviors that had never been tracked before.
Implementation projects frequently involve more than one platform or provider. For many organizations, achieving an end-to-end procurement experience requires integrating multiple technologies and coordinating across several partners.
In one case, delivering the client’s vision meant integrating ORO with solutions from two additional service providers, bringing together four organizations to deliver the final experience.
“It was extremely challenging,” Petya says. “But it was also a huge learning experience that showed how important coordination and governance are in large transformations.”
To manage the complexity, the teams established program-level governance, ensuring that all parties communicated regularly and worked toward shared milestones. For the client, ORO acted as the connective tissue, orchestrating user journeys across systems managed by multiple vendors. This meant users experienced one coherent process even while the back end spanned several platforms.
Many organizations begin their transformation journey with procurement processes that have evolved over years or decades. Multiple systems, regional variations, and siloed teams often create a fragmented landscape that’s difficult to fully understand. One of the first steps in implementation is process discovery, where teams map the procurement journey end-to-end.
For some clients, this exercise is eye-opening.
“One client told us they had never actually seen their full procurement process mapped from beginning to end,” Petya says.
The resulting map revealed a complex network of systems and process variations. Unlike a static process map, ORO’s orchestration view visualizes how requests actually move across integrated systems. For many clients, it’s the first time that they can see the full request-to-pay journey on a single canvas.
From there, the team designed a future-state process—a simplified and structured model supported by ORO’s orchestration layer. Seeing the two side by side helped the client clearly understand both the challenges they faced and the opportunities ahead.
After discovery, design, configuration, and testing, there’s a moment every implementation team looks forward to: go-live. It’s when transformation moves from planning to reality.
Requests begin flowing through the platform. Procurement teams start interacting with new workflows. End users begin experiencing a simpler way to initiate and manage procurement activities.
“The first day of go-live is amazing,” Petya says. “You see real requests coming through the system, and suddenly all your work comes together.”
For implementation teams and clients alike, it’s the moment when the transformation truly begins.
Technology is only the starting point in transformation; the real shift happens when procurement is orchestrated from end to end. Through centralizing intake, connecting siloed systems, and enforcing policy through a single, intelligent layer, ORO helps organizations move from fragmented activity to a unified, guided experience for every request.
Implementation becomes the moment where this new operating model takes shape: hidden workarounds surface, compliance gaps become visible, and teams finally see the full journey from request to outcome on one canvas.
For Petya and the implementation team, the go-live isn’t just switching on a new tool - it’s the point where orchestration starts working in the background every day, so that procurement teams can focus on strategic decisions rather than stitching processes together by hand.
Want to learn more about how ORO can transform procurement at your organization? Book a demo with one of our experts.