Procurement Process Improvement

Malbek recently hosted a dinner with a small group of legal leaders to discuss Contract Lifecycle Management trends and how AI technology might enhance CLM solutions. Our conversation highlighted some key areas ripe for AI/CLM collaboration: 1) Pre/Post M&A Due Diligence - Streamline extraction of critical contract information - Create intelligent summaries for business stakeholders - Track and manage due diligence obligations with automated reminders 2) Intelligent Workflow Optimization - Provide in-context guidance within Teams/collaboration tools - Execute tasks proactively rather than simply suggesting next steps - "don't make a list, just do it" - Automatically route contracts to appropriate approvers based on content 3) Document Analysis & Process Improvement - Extract key data points from contracts and related documents - Generate actionable insights for process optimization - Identify bottlenecks and recommend specific workflow improvements 4) Enhanced Contracting - AI-powered contract intake via conversational interface - Mass amendment capabilities with intelligent targeting - Smart identification of contracts requiring bulk amendments - Precise budget forecasting based on contract obligations 5) Guided Self-Service Workflows - Step-by-step guidance for users through complex processes - Built-in guardrails and best practices - Reduced dependence on legal team for routine matters #legaltech #innovation #law #business #learning

An old boss once told me: “You made procurement feel less like compliance and more like competitive advantage.” I still think about that. Because outside of pay rises, here are the things I’d have killed for, and the things businesses can use to actually retain their best procurement people: • Interesting work → If your best people spend their time chasing approvals and fixing policy breaches, don’t be surprised when they leave. Put them at the forefront of delivering business innovation, digital, or M&A projects that move the business dial and grow their knowledge. • Learning budget → Top talent doesn’t grow on spreadsheets. Send them to DPW, World Procurement Congress or specialist training. And give them autonomy. No one should have to grovel for travel budget to attend these. And no, you should NOT have to use your annual leave to attend a networking event. • Admin support → Stop drowning your best people in endless reporting and low-value queries. Their job isn’t answering “why did we spend £2k on stationery?” It’s driving strategy and shaping commercial outcomes. • Better travel & tools → Invest in meaningful supplier engagement and modern procurement tech. Face-to-face visits matter. So does a CLM or S2P that works. Don’t expect top talent to deliver multimillion-pound outcomes on clunky systems and budget travel. • Access to power → If your best people never see how the big decisions get made, don’t be surprised when they hit a ceiling. Put them in the room with the CFO, the board, the risk committee. That’s where future leaders are built. • Coaching & mentors → If you think a generic “career chat” once a year will grow your top talent, you’re kidding yourself. They need negotiation experts, transformation mentors, exec sponsors. The kind of support that accelerates careers. I would have moved mountains for a company that invested in me - the human - in this way. And that spend? It pays itself back 100-fold. In retention. Productivity. Morale. Stakeholder satisfaction. 💡 Salary gets attention. But investment builds loyalty.

Your procurement team isn’t underperforming—they’re under-led! (Great leaders build high performing teams by fueling hearts, not just filling roles) Procurement Excellence | 21 JUN 2025 - As a procurement leader, I used to focus on processes and savings until I realized that high-performing teams aren’t built on spreadsheets - They’re built on people! This is about creating an environment where team members thrive! The big question is "what sets high-performing procurement teams apart?" 1. Reward & Recognition → Always celebrate achievements, no matter how small e.g. risk mitigation, dispute resolution not just cost savings. Recognizing effort will lead to motivation and loyalty, encouraging team members to go above and beyond. 2. Continuous Training → A knowledgeable team is an empowered team. Invest in ongoing training programs. Equip your team with the latest skills in negotiation, data analytics, and market trends. Embed training in data storytelling, stakeholder influence, and AI tools. Rotate roles to combat stagnation. 3. Motivating Culture → Eliminate silos with a culture of "One Team" which promotes collaboration and open communication. Create goals with the team to manage expectation and kill blame culture. When team members feel valued and heard, they’re more likely to contribute innovative ideas. 4. Coaching and Mentorship → Implement a coaching model where experienced team members mentor newer ones or reverse mentoring where junior staff teach seniors about Gen Z expectations/digital trends. This not only builds skills but also strengthens team cohesion. 5. Lead by Example → By embracing the values of your organisation, an effective leader inspires trust and respect, setting the tone for a high-performing procurement team. Be transparent in decision-making and encourage feedback. 6. Lead with Purpose → Tell a story to connect procurement’s work to big-picture impact e.g. "Our sourcing enabled product X to reach 1M users within a period of X days". Purpose always drives discretionary effort. 7. Lessons Learnt → Evaluate the failure and success debriefs while analyzing missteps without punishment. Always focus on lessons learnt and encourage your team to be agile. In a rapidly changing market, the ability to pivot and adapt is crucial for success. Procurement excellence starts when leaders shift from process police to talent accelerators. To build a high-performing procurement team, a holistic approach that combines recognition, training, a supportive culture, and strong leadership is required. Your team’s potential is unlocked not by policies—but by #passion. What’s ONE leadership tactic that transformed your procurement team? #ProcurementLeadership #TeamRecognition #Leadership

Day 2 learnings at the WCC event in Berlin. If you go “digital” in contractmanagement, the biggest risk is treating it as a tooling project. In practice, digital only works when you build a shared foundation first, then standardise, then automate, and only then scale adoption through behaviour and culture. Here’s a pragmatic step-by-step sequence that works. 1) Start with a uniform language (before you touch systems) If different teams use different words for the same thing, your data model will be inconsistent from day one. Align on a shared vocabulary and definitions, for example: contract types, obligations, milestones, change requests, claims, variations, approvals, risk categories, and ownership. This is not “nice to have”. It is the basis for clean reporting, reliable workflows, and meaningful automation later. 2) Do a cross-functional painpoint analysis (end-to-end) Digital contract management is cross-functional by nature: procurement, legal, contract management, finance, operations, and sometimes sales. Map the full lifecycle and identify painpoints together. Focus on where value leaks today, such as: handovers, unclear accountability, missing data, late approvals, uncontrolled changes, poor visibility of obligations, and recurring exceptions that are “handled in email”. 3) Implement a best-practice process framework (make it stable first) Before automating anything, implement a process framework that is clear, repeatable, and measurable. Define: - roles and decision rights - minimum required data per phase - standard workflows and gates - templates and playbooks - KPIs that reflect performance and compliance The goal is stability: a process that people can execute consistently, even without automation. 4) Once stable: automate the hell out of it (but only what you understand) Now you can digitise and automate with confidence: workflow routing, reminders, obligation tracking, dashboards, audit trails, integrations, and exception triggers. Automation should reduce friction and increase control. Not hide process weaknesses. If you automate a broken process, you simply get broken outcomes faster. 5) Then the real work starts: culture and behaviour (adoption is the multiplier) Processes and tools can look perfect on paper, but without adoption they will not fly. This is where many “digital transformations” stall. Plan explicitly for: - coaching and guidance in daily work - process support (someone must own questions and improvements) - error and exception handling (because reality never fits the happy flow) - feedback loops and continuous improvement - leadership behaviour that reinforces the new way of working Digital contract management is not a one-off implementation. It is a capability you build. If you follow this sequence: language → painpoints → framework → automation → behaviour. You create a foundation that scales, instead of a toolset that disappoints. #contractmanagement

Procurement Spend Analysis: What It Is, Why It Matters, & How to Get Started If you don’t have clear visibility into your spend, cost control becomes guesswork. Procurement spend analysis helps organizations turn raw purchasing data into actionable insights, so teams can control costs, improve supplier performance, and make smarter budgeting decisions. What is Procurement Spend Analysis? It’s the process of collecting, cleaning, categorizing, and analyzing procurement data to understand: ▫️What you buy? ▫️How much you pay? ▫️Who you buy from? ▫️Where the money flows? The goal? Reduce hidden costs and enable data‑driven procurement decisions. The Core Questions Spend Analysis Answers Every effective spend analysis starts with six simple questions: 🔹️What are we buying? 🔹️How much are we paying? 🔹️How much are we buying? 🔹️Who are we buying from? 🔹️Who is buying? 🔹️On what payment terms? When you can answer these clearly, you unlock cost savings, reduce maverick spend, and strengthen supplier negotiations. Key Types of Spend Analysis 🔸️Tail‑spend analysis – control low‑value, high‑volume purchases 🔸️Vendor & category analysis – consolidate suppliers and leverage volume 🔸️Item‑level analysis – identify price variance for the same product 🔸️Payment‑term & contract analysis – improve cash flow and compliance KPIs That Matter 📌Cost savings 📌Spend under management 📌Supplier performance 📌Procurement process efficiency These metrics show how mature and controlled your procurement function really is. How to Get Started (Practical & Simple) 1.Define your objective (cost savings, visibility, or vendor optimization) 2. Pull data from all source systems (ERP, invoices, POs, expenses) 3. Standardize and classify the data 4. Analyze using Excel or BI tools (pivot tables go a long way) 5. Present insights clearly to leadership Even basic analysis can highlight price leaks, duplicate suppliers, and quick wins. Bottom Line Spend analysis isn’t about complex tools, it’s about visibility, discipline, and better decisions. Do it right, and procurement moves from a back‑office function to a strategic business partner. Follow Wasim Akram for more insightful posts. Save this post and share it with your network.

AI agents will soon make enterprise decisions autonomously. No human involvement. From negotiating contracts to signing deals. Most companies aren't even ready for what's already here: After 30 years in procurement, from McKinsey to founding Summit Procurement, I've watched countless transformations. But nothing compares to what Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) is currently doing. Here's what keeps me up at night: Companies are hemorrhaging money through their contracts. Not because of bad deals, but because contracts live in email threads, random folders, and Susan's desk drawer from 2019. The old way was simple. Store contracts. Find them when needed. Hope nothing falls through the cracks. AI changed that game completely. Modern CLM creates something revolutionary: A single source of truth where every contract lives, breathes, and talks to you. AI agents now handle the bulk of the work. Extraction agents read faster than any human team. Redlining agents negotiate while you sleep. Compliance agents never miss an obligation. Risk agents spot problems before they explode. But here's what everyone gets wrong about CLM implementation. They buy the technology and expect magic. I've seen this movie before. Great tech, poor adoption, wasted investment. The companies winning with CLM understand something crucial. Technology is 30% of the equation. The other 70% is transformation. Start with one contract type. Just one. Get your first win. Build momentum. Show the skeptics what's possible. Then expand methodically over 9 to 12 months. Train your people properly. Not a 2-hour webinar. Real training that sticks. Choose platforms built for AI from day one... Not legacy systems pretending to be modern. You'll know the difference when you see it. The compliance piece alone should be enough to wake you up. In Europe, DORA requires financial institutions to have complete visibility into IT contracts. Not some contracts. All contracts. This is coming to the US soon. Data protection violations can cost up to 4% of annual global revenue. Without proper CLM, you're one audit away from disaster. I've watched procurement evolve from a back-office function to a strategic driver. CLM represents the next leap forward. But technology alone won't get you there. You need the right processes. The right people. The right approach. Most importantly... You need someone who's been through this transformation before. We help companies implement CLM as part of a complete procurement excellence strategy. Send me a DM and let's discuss how we can help you adopt CLM properly.

🚀 Implementing a Contract Lifecycle Management system is no small feat—it requires strategic planning, cross-functional collaboration, and clear communication. In the latest episode of the Contract Heroes podcast, we sit down with Susan Zagorski, Legal Operations Director at FMC Corporation, who shares her insights on successfully navigating their implementation journey with Agiloft. With over a decade of experience in legal operations, Susan discusses how her team tackled the challenge by: 🔹 Taking a systematic and collaborative approach to selecting the right CLM solution. 🔹 Addressing key pain points to streamline decision-making and enhance efficiency. 🔹 Ensuring strong leadership support and conducting thorough real-life testing. 🔹 Aligning cross-functional teams and managing user concerns through effective communication and training. Susan's experience highlights the importance of building a solid foundation and tailoring the system to meet both user and administrative needs. If you're considering a CLM implementation or looking to optimize your current system, you won't want to miss this episode! 🎧 Listen now and gain valuable insights: https://lnkd.in/eUjZeTSB

The AI Handbook Legal A must-read for: General Counsels, Chief Legal Officers, Legal Operations Leaders, Contract Lifecycle Management Leads, Privacy Officers, and Information Technology Security Partners who need practical ways to deploy Artificial Intelligence (AI) in legal work while managing risk and proving value. Overview from our team at AURORA9: This guide shows how legal teams are already using AI to speed research, automate routine review, and turn contract data into decisions. It explains why Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) is a high-impact starting point, which risks matter most, and how to evaluate vendors for encryption, auditability, and compliance. It also offers a metrics playbook to track cycle time, negotiation rounds, risk scores, renewals, and value leakage so leaders can quantify return on investment. Five key takeaways: 1. Start where volume meets risk control: Target high-volume, low-risk work first such as nondisclosure agreements, clause extraction, and bulk contract ingest. Use retrieval-augmented generation and approved playbooks to keep humans in the loop while cutting turnaround times. 2. Treat data governance as day one work: Define what data can be used, enable zero data retention where appropriate, and document prompts, reviews, and decisions. Align with European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and maintain auditable logs. 3. Evaluate vendors like a security architect: Require strong encryption at rest and in transit, granular access controls, audit trails, clear retention and deletion, third-party audits, and certifications such as International Organization for Standardization 27001 (ISO 27001) and Service Organization Control 2 (SOC 2). Verify model transparency and bias mitigation practices. 4. Customize for your clauses and risk posture: Build custom clause libraries, industry-tuned models, and risk scoring that reflect your thresholds. Flag nonstandard language, propose approved alternatives, and route by risk to the right reviewers to shrink negotiation rounds. 5. Measure what matters and report it: Track contract cycle time, approval delays, negotiation rounds, compliance gaps, renewal windows, and unrealized value. Share dashboards with business partners to demonstrate time saved, faster deals, and reduced exposure. A question from AURORA9 to our #LinkedIn #community: How is your organization bringing #AI into legal in a way that reduces risk and speeds revenue without sacrificing accuracy? Which metric has been your best proof point so far? #AURORA9 #ArtificialIntelligence #LegalTech #ContractManagement #DataPrivacy

Tariffs: +10% Supplier A: +10% Supplier B: +8% Supplier C: +20% One of these things is not like the others. Yesterday a customer spotted this pattern in her analytics dashboard. She called Supplier C: "Walk me through this pricing." They stumbled. Then, they admitted "it must have been an admin mistake." That conversation saved her tens of thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands. Before: She would've just paid it without even noticing the change. After: Her procurement tools track every price movement across 100+ suppliers. The outliers jump off the screen. This is what happens when procurement teams have real visibility into their operations. Not just spreadsheets. Not just emails. Actual intelligence on how prices evolve. Every company is paying inflated prices somewhere. The difference? Some can see it. Most can't. In a world of constant disruptions, such as tariffs, natural disasters, or international conflicts, visibility isn't a luxury. It's survival. What price increases are you accepting without question? 💡 #Procurement #SupplyChain #Analytics

Imagine GenAI drafting your contracts overnight. Now imagine a misstep exposing sensitive data. That’s the reality leaders face as contract lifecycle management evolves. CLM platforms have moved from basic storage to full lifecycle solutions: drafting, performance tracking, compliance, and now AI-driven intelligence. GenAI can speed workflows, surface insights, and automate tasks but only if trust, accuracy, and data security are built in. Next-gen CLM systems are tackling these challenges: • AI trained specifically on contracts, not generic models • Strong data privacy that keeps sensitive information in-house • Multi-model AI that balances broad understanding with contract-level precision GenAI can unlock smarter, faster contract management but only when intelligence, human in the loop and security all go hand in hand. Are your CLM tools ready to deliver speed without compromising trust? I'd love to hear your thoughts. #CLM #ContractManagement #RiskManagement #AI