Procurement teams today operate in a landscape that’s anything but stable. Shifting global regulations, economic pressure, and rising expectations from internal stakeholders are driving a renewed push for agility. But despite digital transformation efforts, many organizations still face frustratingly slow procurement cycles and fragmented workflows.
A recent report on the state of enterprise procurement agility paints a clear picture: agility remains more aspiration than reality for many procurement leaders. So what’s holding them back?
1. Fragmented Processes and Systems
One of the most pressing challenges is the proliferation of disconnected systems. Enterprises often rely on a mix of ERP platforms, legacy tools, and best-of-breed applications that don’t speak to each other. This siloed environment creates delays, duplicative work, and a lack of visibility across the procurement lifecycle.
Instead of driving value, procurement becomes a bottleneck, slowed by the manual coordination required to bridge these gaps. Only a minority of procurement teams feel confident in their ability to respond to fast-changing requirements across global business units.
2. Inflexible Workflows and Reliance on IT
Procurement teams frequently struggle with workflows that are rigid and difficult to adapt. Change requests must be submitted through IT or external system integrators, which can turn even minor updates into months-long projects. This limits procurement’s ability to quickly respond to new compliance requirements, supplier disruptions, or shifts in business strategy.
As a result, teams default to static processes that may no longer reflect real-world needs, which undermine both efficiency and compliance.
3. Poor User Experience for Stakeholders
For many internal stakeholders, engaging with procurement feels like navigating a black box. Requests get lost in a maze of emails and spreadsheets. There’s no straightforward process or transparency into timelines. This lack of visibility erodes trust and often drives business users to bypass procurement entirely, resulting in maverick spending and unmanaged risk.
These experiences aren’t just frustrating—they’re costly. Long cycle times and poor compliance are directly tied to fragmented intake and a lack of orchestration.
4. Reactive Risk Management
Procurement agility also suffers when teams are stuck in reactive mode. Without integrated tools to proactively assess supplier risk, compliance, or ESG standards, procurement can’t keep pace with evolving expectations. Manual processes leave little time for strategic focus, making it harder to drive meaningful change or deliver insight at the speed business leaders expect.
The good news? A new generation of tools is emerging to help procurement overcome these barriers—starting with procurement orchestration.
Procurement Orchestration: A Unified Front Door
Orchestration platforms act as a process layer that sits across your existing systems. Instead of forcing users to navigate multiple tools, they offer a single, intuitive entry point where requests can be guided, tracked, and completed—all without duplicating functionality or ripping out existing solutions.
This unified intake experience ensures that every request, regardless of complexity, follows a compliant and optimized workflow. It removes the guesswork for business users and gives procurement teams complete visibility into what’s happening, where, and why.
No-Code Development: Agility Without IT Bottlenecks
One of the most potent enablers of agility is no-code configurability. Instead of relying on IT for every change, procurement teams can now adjust workflows, business rules, and routing logic themselves—without writing a single line of code.
This means faster response to changing regulations, new business priorities, or supplier needs. It also significantly reduces the cost and effort associated with continuous improvement.
AI Agents: From Automation to Intelligence
While automation has helped reduce manual work, the future lies in AI agents (i.e., intelligent systems that can understand context, learn from behavior, and take proactive steps to improve efficiency). AI agents can analyze supplier data, monitor risk signals, and even suggest alternate sourcing strategies when disruptions arise.
By integrating AI agents into procurement orchestration, organizations can move from reactive firefighting to strategic enablement. AI augments human decision-making, offering recommendations, triggering workflows, and continuously improving based on real-world outcomes.
Procurement agility is a competitive necessity. But to achieve it, organizations must rethink how they manage processes, connect systems, and empower their teams. By combining no-code flexibility, intelligent AI agents, and a centralized orchestration layer, procurement can finally deliver the speed, visibility, and control the business demands, without sacrificing compliance or adding more complexity.
The road to agility isn’t just about technology. It’s about creating a better experience for everyone involved, from the requester to the supplier to the procurement team. And with ORO, that future is closer than you think.