Procurement digitization has stalled since the COVID-19 pandemic, even though it reliably cuts costs and boosts efficiency. PwC's Digital Procurement Survey 2024 found digitization levels have barely moved since 2020, despite companies targeting a 70% digitalization rate by 2027. The main reason: unresolved concerns about ROI, change management, tool selection, redundant systems and vendor lock-in. This article breaks down the five most common reservations we hear from procurement teams – and how to address each one.
Even the upstream decision for or against new software is difficult for many companies, and in procurement specifically the question deserves more openness. As a hidden champion, procurement can make a decisive contribution to company success through its many levers. Here is what we hear most often when talking to potential customers, and how we respond.
1. Does procurement software pay for itself? Not immediately – but it should within about two years. ROI is the top reservation because software costs and service fees are easy to quantify, while the gains are often described in soft terms like a "60% increase in effectiveness." A credible ROI case compares the new tool's cost against the redundancies it removes, not against the price tag alone.
The main task of procurement is to save costs, so an upfront software investment naturally raises doubts. The ROI calculation may look manageable in the first year, but by the second year, rising service fees turn the software into a real monetary burden if the savings case wasn't solid from the start.
We're talking hard savings: ivoflow guarantees you an average return on investment of 30%.
A thorough amortization case also requires looking at the existing IT infrastructure and system landscape: which systems have redundancies, and which tools can be eliminated because their functions are now combined in the new software? A spend analytics assessment of the current system and spend landscape makes this calculation concrete before you sign a contract.
2. How do companies build user adoption for new software? Low adoption is the second-biggest fear, and it usually comes down to two gaps: change management and onboarding. Companies that assign a dedicated change management owner – one who involves every stakeholder group, mindset and skill level – and run a train-the-trainer launch model see meaningfully higher software usage after go-live.
There is something to the proverb "better the devil you know than the devil you don't." When something is unfamiliar, people tend to be hesitant and prefer the old, familiar way of working. We see this constantly in conversations about digitization projects in procurement. Companies that are already worried about underutilization are, in a sense, a step ahead – they have at least recognized the problem. Underutilization typically comes down to two causes:
Inadequate change management: depending on company size, it is worth having a dedicated team or person who owns change management for the project and makes sure every stakeholder group is involved – different mindsets, age groups and skill levels included.Poor onboarding & launch management: companies should make sure enough internal resources are available to support the go-live and onboard users properly. A train-the-trainer concept is recommended here.Tip: when selecting a vendor, check how mature their implementation and launch management process is, and whether it includes a real training concept for users.
3. Should companies only choose proven, established tools? No – defaulting to the best-known name isn't the same as choosing the best fit. Companies often pick established, more expensive tools without testing whether they actually solve their specific use case, and IT departments frequently make this call alone. The fix is including procurement itself in every tool evaluation, not just IT.
Experience shows that companies like to go with the crowd and rely on proven, established solutions when it comes to digital transformation. This is problematic because there is often no real check on whether these – usually more expensive – products are the best solution for the company's use case. The decision is also often dominated by IT departments, which brings back the classic silo mentality. For a closer look at what to check before shortlisting a vendor, see what to consider when implementing procurement software .
4. How can companies avoid fragmented, redundant systems? The fear of ending up with disconnected "island solutions" is real, and it cuts both ways: rolling software out to only part of the organization for budget reasons creates the exact fragmentation it was meant to avoid. The fix is a holistic rollout that considers the entire system landscape from the start, not just individual tools.
Proper data integration across existing systems is what turns isolated tools into one coherent landscape, rather than trading one set of silos for another.
5. What other reservations slow down procurement digitization? Beyond ROI and adoption, three reservations come up repeatedly: fear of vendor lock-in, business processes bent to fit the tool instead of the other way around, and skepticism left over from a past failed rollout – often traced back to poor ERP integration.
Companies worry about becoming too dependent on a single tool. Instead of finding a tool that matches the company's actual requirements, some end up reshaping their business processes around the tool instead – a real risk that is best avoided. Past unsuccessful implementations, for reasons like a poor ERP connection, also leave lasting frustration among users and make the next project harder to sell internally.
What's the takeaway for procurement digitization projects? Across all five reservations, the common denominator is the same: procurement teams need a credible ROI case, real stakeholder involvement, and software that fits into – rather than fights – their existing system landscape. At ivoflow, we address this directly by involving customers from day one and keeping our deployment team in close contact with the IT/digitalization side to plan system integration properly. Results speak for themselves: see how automotive supplier GRAMMER cut costs with ivoflow . If you'd like to hear directly from a current customer, just ask – we're happy to make the introduction.
