In today’s, global & dynamic market place, characterized by volatility and risks, procurement’s role as a strategic contributor to the organizations growth and success is a no brainer. Procurement today has become an integral part of organizations performance and continues to gain attention from the ‘C-level’ folks within the organization. Amongst other key responsibilities, CPO’s today are tasked with the need to monitor and demonstrate the value procurement contributes to the organizations success. In a recently concluded Hackett study 69% of procurement organizations rank measuring and monitoring their value contribution as a key objective in 2014.

So as procurement takes its ‘mark’ for 2014, what kind of investment is it planning to ‘get set’ and ‘go’ for the key objective?

According to the 2014 Key Issues Study by The Hackett Group, 96% have cited Strategic sourcing as the top investment when it comes to achieving procurement’s 2014 objectives. This for many may not be coming as a surprise considering the volatility and risk surrounding the businesses today.

Looking at investment interest by major procurement technology category, respondents from our recently concluded Pulse 2014 survey, have placed ‘Procurement Management Solutions’ (which encompasses cost savings documentation, validation and alignment with corporate financial metrics as well as project and process management for strategic sourcing and other initiatives) as a lead for overall investment interest in 2014, with some 33% of procurement professionals expecting their organizations to invest soon in these types of solutions.

Supplier Management, which encompasses supplier performance measurement, score carding and reporting as well as supplier information management takes a close second place with 32% overall saying they expect to see near-term investments in this area.