Procurement is plagued by convoluted internal processes

Enterprise stakeholders have long been struggling with inefficient ERP-based procurement systems, making spend management more frustrating. When you ask internal teams about their procurement process, you’ll often hear, “Procurement is slow. Deals get held up due to excessive internal processes.”

The current processes are inefficient, with manual tasks stored in email or SharePoint repositories. Subjective decision-making and a lack of improvement have created a black box in decision-making and project management. Even experienced procurement leaders lack the necessary tools and technologies to manage their value chain systems, people, and processes effectively.

Legacy vendors, SAP Ariba and Coupa, have failed to keep up with the increased complexity of governance processes. Emerging technologies, including generative AI, are far down the product management wish list as these companies struggle to integrate procurement suites with their other products.

Enterprise leaders are overwhelmed by governance processes imposed by their information security, privacy, and regulatory teams, while their C-suite leaders push for cost reduction. Procurement must be extended, but this only adds to the inefficiency and increased spending.

Feature-starved by their legacy technology providers, procurement teams are turning to generative AI, which is available in workflow tools such as Globality, ORO Labs, Levelpath, and Focal Point. According to the HFS Pulse survey, 85% of procurement professionals believe that generative AI will positively affect the business.

Exhibit 1: What do you think the overall impact of GenAI will be on your business services over the next 12-18 months?

Source: HFS Pulse Survey, 2024; Sample Size: 40 (Procurement)

ORO addresses convoluted procurement workflow challenges

A few startups are working hard to address the procurement challenges of mid-to-large organizations. One such startup is ORO Labs. ORO is a GenAI procurement platform that can coordinate various teams, processes, and existing procurement systems within any enterprise. It is a no-code platform with deep procurement semantics, creating an agile and intelligent workflow to simplify the user experience.

The company uses AI and machine learning to enhance its integration and automation capabilities, making procurement more humane with an intuitive interface that simplifies the process.

• Makes the intake process easy: Thanks to the no-code platform, enterprise procurement personnel can easily submit, approve, validate, and develop specifications using simple workflows without the need for specialized IT skills. This flexibility enables quick adoption and helps streamline workflow adjustments, speeding up purchase requisitions in approved categories until the requirement is fulfilled.
• Streamlines the workflow with AI: With ORO, enterprises can eliminate category complexity and supplier onboarding and assessment. It leverages AI and machine learning to guide users through procurement processes, offers category suggestions, and assesses and recommends suppliers based on historical data and insights. This simplifies decision-making and makes the workflow more straightforward and less convoluted.
• Increases visibility throughout the requisition: ORO’s integration with other procurement tools makes it a transparent platform for reviewing the requisition at multiple levels, including legal, marketing, data privacy, and vendor approval at each stage. The platform’s risk management in the procurement process addresses specific use cases that often complicate procurement workflows.

ORO Labs’ strategy also involves addressing midsize and large entities’ procurement functions, supporting both mature and immature functions. The platform can be a starting point for immature procurement functions, facilitating a smooth transition to more robust platforms without significantly altering the user experience. It can be laid on top of existing platforms for large enterprises, enabling changes without significant user experience disruptions.

As every platform has some hitches, ORO is limited in its industry offerings and ability to address comprehensive procurement solutions. It focuses on intake, supplier onboarding, and assessment solutions with seamless integration of procurement software. With its huge potential and GenAI capabilities, ORO can surpass existing offerings and solutions for enterprise customers across industries and levels.

The Bottom Line: Every organization faces the challenge of coordinating people, processes, and platforms to improve productivity and visibility. Connecting multiple teams in the workflow to process product requisitions takes more time and effort. However, small and specialized procurement platform providers such as ORO can help address workflow and product category issues, ultimately enhancing employee experience and efficiency.

ORO Labs specializes in tackling the challenges that procurement departments encounter. They use an orchestration approach that involves integration, automation, humanizing the procurement experience, and AI for process improvement. This enables organizations to streamline procurement processes, make better decisions by applying AI, and integrate flexibly with both mature and immature procurement functions.