Procurement excellence positions are designed to ensure best practice within a procurement function. They define and implement transformation, deliver continuous improvement and set governance, technology and process guardrails that elevate the function beyond reactive sourcing. They free up more time to be spent on driving efficiency, clarity and value and centralise knowledge to reduce risk, rogue spending and time spent on manual tasks.
Procurement excellence as a lever for procurement functions has risen to prominence for a number of reasons. It is in part due to the natural evolution of procurement into a more strategic function (chasing that ‘seat at the table’), but also as a result of growing supply chain complexity and global disruptions that have exerted additional pressure on businesses. An ever-increasing number of procurement leaders are looking to embed excellence functions, ranging in size from a single person through to a full Centre-of-Excellence build.
How does a focus on procurement excellence deliver positive outcomes?
When broken down, procurement excellence is covered by 4 key areas: Process, People, Tools & Systems.
- Process: improving how your business does procurement, with process improvement/design and greater data visibility driving efficiency and compliance, embedding ESG and value beyond savings.
- People: upskilling who is doing your procurement and ensuring alignment on how your procurement teams and wider business stakeholders approach the market.
- Tools: equipping your team to do better procurement by implementing new systems or software to improve productivity and reduce time spent on manual tasks (implementing AI for instance).
- Systems: crafting the ecosystem within which your procurement takes place, which tracks and safeguards payments and improves cash flow
Procurement excellence was once viewed as the purview of multinationals, a luxury SMEs couldn’t afford or justify. That picture is changing. A growing number of procurement leaders are looking to more effectively highlight procurement’s value, communicate best practice and measure success more accurately. They wish to move beyond the perception of procurement being a cost management and supply continuity function and build stronger internal relationships, bring increased agility and be better equipped to work proactively.
Taking the first step
Begin by identifying the problem you are trying to solve, or the improvement you want to drive. A Greenfield function may benefit from addressing all four of the key areas listed above, whereas a more mature function may wish to attack one area in particular.
Once decided, craft a role spec and pick a title that accurately reflects what you need.
(A quick note for procurement professionals: if you’re looking to move from sourcing into an excellence role, it’s useful to try and understand the skillset a company is looking for. It is possible to make the move across, but it does become more difficult if the role is made with a specific requirement in mind. Examples of this include implementing a specific ERP system or leading large-scale procurement transformation programmes. It is generally easier to move into a ‘BAU’ excellence role, rather than one created to deliver a specific transformation or digitisation workstream.)
Many organisations are moving beyond the broader Procurement Excellence Manager title, splitting the function to bring both specificity and alignment with 2026’s procurement talent pool. Different role titles imply the focus for a excellence agenda. It’s important as a hiring business, or candidate, to be mindful of the different titles being use. Here are some examples along with what they often infer:
- Procurement Excellence Manager: the catch-all role title that covers Process, People, Tools & Systems. Someone from industry or consulting can fit here so think about who you’d prefer to target.
More targeted titles can include:
- Procurement Strategy/Transformation Manager: covers Process & People, will attract management consultants and is often a good fit for them.
- Procurement Performance Manager: covers Process, People & Tools, most often coming from industry or a tech consulting background
- Digital Procurement Manager: covers Tools & Systems, can come from a range of backgrounds.
- Source to Contract/Source to Pay/Purchase to Pay Manager: covers Tools & Systems, most often coming from industry. This role preceded the rise of the excellence function and excellence functions often stemmed from the P2P position.
Here at Pod Talent, we have been supporting a number of businesses to embed procurement excellence for the first time, or to supplement existing teams. There has been a strong trend toward centralising AI strategy, hiring someone to own the AI roadmap to ensure consistency in adoption and implementation. Other recent hires have been with a view to map Scope 3 emissions through supplier data capture, or to be the figurehead for building relationships with the rest of the business to increase influence.
There are myriad benefits for procurement leaders to having someone, or a team, bringing value beyond sourcing. If you would like to discuss building an excellence function, or hear what other procurement functions are doing, email me at alex@pod-talent.com to arrange a conversation.