Everyone’s racing to adopt agentic AI. But many procurement teams are overlooking the fundamentals, and it's costing them.
On this webcast, GEP’s Rich Rivera and Brian Bergersen discuss the three biggest missteps holding teams back. From broken data foundations to outdated systems and internal knowledge gaps, we cover what’s really causing AI efforts to stall and what it takes to succeed.
Key Discussion Points:
The demand for clean energy is accelerating, and so are the challenges it presents. From surging data center loads to two-year transformer delays, energy procurement is facing a new era of complexity.
Procurement teams are at the forefront of execution, resilience and risk management.
This new bulletin examines how procurement can navigate the gridlock. It outlines practical steps to respond to rising AI-driven demand, strengthen supplier resilience and secure long-lead components.
What’s Inside:
July 09, 2025 | Procurement Strategy read
Procurement leaders: if someone asked you what your team will spend next month, could you confidently answer? Not what’s in the budget, but what will actually go on the P&L?
Don’t worry, most people can’t. But that blind spot may be costing your company more than you realize.
Procurement may be laser focused on driving savings and negotiating better contract terms, and finance teams might obsess over monthly budget reports. Yet the lag between financial planning and procurement reality is sabotaging both efforts.
Procurement and finance can align better by sharing real-time data, collaborating on forecasts and jointly reviewing spend plans to ensure purchasing decisions match financial goals.
The budget lag effect delays updates to financial data, causing procurement to make decisions based on outdated information. That can in turn lead to overspending or missed savings.
Real-time visibility helps procurement teams track spend against budget instantly, avoid overspending and make smarter, faster decisions when market conditions shift.
Removing silos allows procurement, finance and business units to share insights and data more efficiently, leading to more accurate budgeting, fewer surprises and better overall spend management.
July 08, 2025 | Procurement Strategy read
Maverick spend in an organization takes place outside the approved buying channels and vendor contracts. It occurs when internal team members continue buying goods from a vendor who is not approved by the procurement team. Or they make a quick purchase to cash in on available discounts and neglect the established buying process.
July 04, 2025 | Accounts Payable read
What happens between the moment someone needs a product or service and when the supplier is paid?
For many, the purchase order (PO) workflow seems routine. Yet it forms the backbone of all procurement operations.
A robust PO workflow ensures compliance, controls costs and builds supplier trust, but it can also be a source of friction, delays and risk if not managed strategically.
July 03, 2025 | Procurement Software read
Let’s first look at an example to understand procurement approvals.
A hydraulic press in a factory starts leaking at 9 am. The maintenance team finds a blown $10 rubber gasket.
Now, procurement rules demand a manager’s approval for any spare part and a second sign-off from finance for over $5 purchase.
The machine remains idle for 8 hours. By the time they got the gasket the next day, three shifts of workers did not know what to do. Many unfinished units had jammed the assembly line, and the factory had lost significant amount in productivity.
July 03, 2025 | Accounts Payable read
Accounts payable (AP) is one of those business functions that rarely gets attention—until it becomes a problem. And for many enterprises, the biggest problem in AP is invoice exceptions.
Whether it’s missing purchase orders, mismatched data, unauthorized invoices, or duplicate submissions, invoice exceptions clog workflows, delay payments, and consume valuable time of finance and procurement teams.
New U.S. tariffs are disrupting Mexican exports across key sectors, including automotive, agri-food and electronics. Nearly half of Mexico’s exports to the U.S. — over $233 billion — are now exposed to tariff impact due to non-compliance with USMCA rules of origin.
This timely bulletin outlines tailored actions to mitigate risk, stabilize operations and capture new growth.
What’s Inside:
June 25, 2025 | Procurement Software read
Most procurement teams believe they have spend visibility because their dashboard lights up with colorful charts and supplier stats.
However, many dashboards tell only part of the story — a backward-looking, fragmented view of spend that doesn’t support strategic decision-making.
In today’s uncertain business environment, where agility and accountability are non-negotiable, that’s a risky place to be. It’s time for procurement to consider what a spend analysis dashboard should do — and why many tools still fall short.
The analytics on a spend analysis dashboard can highlight patterns in spending, flag maverick purchases and reveal opportunities to consolidate suppliers or negotiate better contracts.
AI improves data classification, detects anomalies and uncovers trends that might be missed manually, giving procurement teams a smarter, faster way to manage spend.
Modern dashboards offer real-time insights, better data accuracy and interactive visuals — helping procurement teams act faster and make more informed decisions.
June 25, 2025 | Procurement Strategy read
Procurement teams invest a lot of time in choosing the right supplier – one that has a good track record and aligns with their business goals.
They also make a lot of effort while negotiating contract pricing and payment terms. When awarding a contract to a vendor, they often have specific objectives to achieve. How do they plan to measure the vendor’s performance against these objectives?
