The pace of change in technology today is staggering. It seems like we’re reading about breakthroughs in AI almost every day. These changes impact the way entire industries think about their workforce and workflow, and how they can apply these lessons to streamline operations and reduce costs.
In procurement, technology trends go well beyond just enabling digital procurement solutions. They’re about strategy and transparency as much as cost reductions. Here’s what you need to know to stay ahead of the curve.
The biggest procurement technology trend is automation. By automating your processes, you can reduce the time it takes to complete many tasks by hours or days. Think about how long it can take to manage requisitions and all of the approvals that need to take place. Or the time it takes to onboard new suppliers and make sure all of the requirement credentials are met. Downstream, invoice matching and validating third-party suppliers takes time for finance teams.
All of this can be automated, freeing up everyone to work on strategic initiatives rather than basic processing functions. Quite simply, automation empowers you to work smarter and faster. For example, 43% of organizations deploying automation found they reduced manual workloads by at least 25%. Nearly half reported significant efficiency gains.
In higher education institutions, these gains translate directly into operational savings. Faster processing, fewer errors, strong compliance, greater transparency—it all helps you manage procurement with today’s budget challenges where you have to justify every dollar.
Higher education institutions are deploying new AI solutions in a variety of areas. Procurement teams are helping departments and IT teams get the AI tools they need to stay competitive. The same tools are helping procurement teams as well. For example:
Together, these capabilities elevate procurement from transactional management to strategic decision-making. And that’s only the start.
Digital procurement solutions are no longer stand-alone platforms, nor do they rely on spreadsheets and file folders. Today, they are integrated systems that connect all of the tools your procurement and finance teams use. ERP, finance systems, departmental budgets, eProcurement platforms, catalog enablement, RFPs, supplier management—all integrated so you streamline your workflow and have better access to data without having to go to multiple sources. Perhaps the procurement technology trend is a single source of truth, bringing all of your data into a single, cohesive ecosystem.
This holistic approach helps you:
When you unify these functions, you eliminate redundancy and improve accountability. You can also more easily uncover other places to save. For example, uncovering maverick spend can identify areas where you can bring more spend under contract to reduce costs.
Despite these advantages, integrating digital procurement solutions can still be a challenge. It takes time and an investment to build your tech stack and make sure all of your tools account for your policy frameworks and workflow requirements.
New concerns are emerging around AI and automation. As academic institutions adopt these technologies, there needs to be a new emphasis on data governance, privacy, and ethical use. At every step, you need to make sure that policies and framework align with your institution’s values and compliance regulations.
There’s also a learning curve for users, and some of them may be reluctant to make the change. Getting buy-in from leadership to implement new tools campus-wide is essential, but it also requires training and change management strategies to get broad acceptance.
In reality, you need to think of digital procurement solutions as more of an evolution rather than a typical system upgrade. Moving forward, procurement technology trends will tie together automation, AI, analytics, and machine learning. With the right guidance and governance, systems can learn and optimize spend at ever-greater speed.
E&I Cooperative Services can help you make smarter decisions about how you implement digital procurement solutions. As the only sourcing cooperative that focuses exclusively on the education sector, E&I aggregates demand across 6,000+ academic institutions to achieve significant volume discounts that few institutions could achieve on their own.
Regardless of the technology, systems, and processes you put in place, E&I Cooperative Services can provide you with competitively solicited contracts that meet your needs and lower your costs.
View our cooperative agreements covering eProcurement and other digital procurement solutions, consulting and integration, and emerging technology. Save time and money while simplifying your procurement process with E&I.