In today’s uncertain business environment, Best-in-Class procurement organizations are not just surviving— they’re setting the standard. These high-performing teams deliver measurable results in cost savings, compliance, supplier performance, and strategic value creation. But what exactly makes them different?

According to the newly released CPO Rising 2025 Report by Ardent Partners, the top 20% of procurement teams—classified as Best-in-Class—consistently outperform their peers across all critical metrics. These leaders are more likely to leverage automation, invest in AI, operate with greater visibility, and maintain tighter integration across their Source-to-Pay (S2P) processes.

What Does “Best-in-Class Procurement” Mean?

“Best-in-Class” isn’t just a label—it’s a data-backed status.

These organizations are defined by their ability to:

• Influence more than 90% of enterprise spend
• Achieve 8%+ realized cost savings annually
• Maintain 80%+ contract compliance
• Enable a majority of suppliers digitally
• Proactively manage risk and performance

They don’t just process transactions. They shape strategy, align with the business, and use technology to drive agility and resilience.

Pillar 1: Strategic Procurement Success Strategy

The first major differentiator? A clearly articulated procurement success strategy that aligns with enterprise priorities.

Best-in-Class teams don’t just chase cost reductions, they:

• Collaborate closely with business units
• Own or co-own strategic sourcing initiatives
• Influence supplier innovation
• Play a key role in ESG, compliance, and risk governance

They define procurement’s mission in terms of business value—not just efficiency.

How Zycus helps:

Procurement Orchestration from Zycus enables seamless alignment of tasks, teams, and tech—ensuring that sourcing, contracting, and purchasing all move in lockstep with your strategic goals.

Pillar 2: Spend Optimization Through Visibility and Control

Top-performing procurement teams master the art of spend optimization. They know exactly where money is going, why, and how to better allocate it. The key is data visibility.

Yet for many companies, spend remains:

• Poorly classified
• Siloed across systems
• Undermanaged at the tail end

Best-in-Class teams avoid this by using intelligent spend analytics.

How Zycus helps:

Zycus Spend Analysis uses AI and machine learning to:

• Classify and cleanse 100% of enterprise spend
• Identify savings opportunities
• Detect contract leakage or maverick spend
• Enable accurate category planning

When spend is visible, optimization becomes proactive—not reactive.

Pillar 3: Contract Compliance and Value Realization

High-performing organizations don’t stop at the sourcing award; they ensure that negotiated value is realized through airtight contract compliance.

Where others rely on fragmented contract repositories and manual audits, Best-in-Class teams automate the entire Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) process.

How Zycus helps:

Zycus Contract Management enables:

• Centralized contract repositories
• Automated alerts and renewals
• Clause-level risk detection using AI
• Linkage between contracts, spend, and supplier data

This helps maximize contract utilization, ensure audit readiness, and minimize financial risk.

Pillar 4: High Supplier Enablement and Lifecycle Visibility

Best-in-Class procurement teams approach suppliers not just as vendors, but as strategic partners. They:

• Digitally onboard and qualify suppliers
• Track KPIs and performance benchmarks
• Factor ESG and diversity into supplier scoring
• Create feedback loops to drive mutual growth

How Zycus helps:

Zycus Supplier Management provides:

• 360° supplier profiles
• Risk scoring across financial, operational, and ESG metrics
• Performance dashboards
• Self-service portals for onboarding and updates

With intelligent supplier data, procurement teams can make faster, more informed sourcing and collaboration decisions.

Pillar 5: Automation and AI-Driven Agility

What separates top procurement teams isn’t just process—it’s procurement maturity powered by technology.

Best-in-Class organizations are more likely to:

• Automate intake-to-pay workflows
• Use AI to score bids or generate RFPs
• Embed intelligent agents in sourcing and contract workflows

How Zycus helps:

The Merlin Agentic AI Platform deploys a suite of AI agents that assist with:

• Smart intake routing and classification
• Autonomous RFP creation and bid scoring
• Predictive spend and risk analytics
• Contract clause drafting and redlining

These AI-driven capabilities drastically reduce cycle times and unlock procurement’s full potential as a strategic business partner.

Traits Shared by the Best-in-Class

Drawing on both industry insights and decades of experience, here’s what the top 20% of procurement teams consistently do:

Your Roadmap to Best-in-Class Performance

To build a world-class procurement function, here’s how to start:

• Benchmark Your Current State
  Use key KPIs such as SUM, contract compliance, and savings realization as baseline metrics.
• Fix the Data Foundation
  Spend and supplier data must be clean, classified, and centralized.
• Invest in Modular Tech
  Start with areas that offer fast ROI—spend analysis, CLM, supplier management.
• Adopt AI in Targeted Areas
  Pilot intelligent sourcing or smart intake to validate outcomes.
• Measure, Adjust, Improve
  Continuously track KPIs, refine workflows, and celebrate incremental gains.

Zycus can support every phase with built-in performance dashboards, benchmarking tools, and AI agents tailored to procurement.

Procurement excellence isn’t an accident—it’s the result of strategic vision, operational discipline, and smart technology adoption.

The CPO Rising 2025 report gives us a crystal-clear picture: the top 20% are pulling ahead fast.

They’re digitizing. They’re automating. They’re aligning procurement to strategic enterprise value.

Whether you’re mid-transformation or just starting, the Best-in-Class playbook is clear—and Zycus offers the AI-powered tools to help you run it.

Download the full benchmark report: CPO Rising 2025 – Ardent Partners x Zycus

Related Reads:

1. Whitepaper: The Need For A Best-in-Class Procure-to-Pay Solution – Integrating ERP with P2P: Zycus
2. How AI Is Reshaping Procurement: From Automation to Agentic Intelligence
3. Navigating Tariffs and Trade Volatility: What Procurement Leaders Must Know
4. Procurement’s AI Adoption Curve: Why Most Are Still in the Early Stages
5. CPO Priorities for 2025: Balancing Cost, Risk, and Digital Transformation
6. Benchmarking Procurement Performance: Where Do You Stand in 2025?
7. The Rise of eSourcing and Intelligent Bidding: AI in Action