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Procurement has come a long way from its paper-heavy, transactional past. In 2025, the role of procurement is more strategic, data-driven, and technology-enabled than ever before. Yet despite significant investments in digital tools, procurement automation gaps still persist across the lifecycle, as revealed by the CPO Rising 2025 report from Ardent Partners. These gaps highlight the disconnect between technology adoption and measurable procurement outcomes.

1. Fragmented Systems and Lack of Integration

Challenge: Many organizations operate with disparate procurement systems that lack seamless integration. This fragmentation leads to data silos, redundant processes, and a lack of visibility across the procurement lifecycle.

Solution: Implementing an integrated Source-to-Pay (S2P) platform is crucial. Zycus offers a comprehensive Source-to-Pay solution that unifies procurement processes, ensuring real-time data flow and enhanced collaboration across departments.

2. Manual Processes and Procurement Automation Gaps

Challenge: Despite advancements, many procurement tasks remain manual, leading to errors, delays, and increased operational costs.

Solution: Adopting AI-driven automation can significantly reduce manual interventions. Zycus’ Merlin Agentic AI Platform empowers organizations with intelligent agents that automate routine tasks, from requisition to payment, enhancing efficiency and accuracy.

Explore Hackett’s report on AI Agents in Procurement: The Next Wave of Digital Transformation

3. Inefficient Supplier Management

Challenge: Managing supplier information, performance, and risk manually can be cumbersome and prone to inaccuracies, affecting procurement decisions and supplier relationships.

Solution: Zycus’ Supplier Management solution offers a centralized platform to manage supplier data, monitor performance, and assess risks, enabling informed decision-making and fostering stronger supplier collaborations.

4. Lack of Spend Visibility and Analysis

Challenge: Without comprehensive spend analysis, organizations struggle to identify savings opportunities and control expenditures effectively.

Solution: Zycus’ Spend Analysis tool provides deep insights into spending patterns, helping organizations uncover savings opportunities, enforce compliance, and make data-driven procurement decisions.

5. Delayed and Error-Prone Invoice Processing

Challenge: Manual invoice processing is time-consuming and susceptible to errors, leading to delayed payments and strained supplier relationships.

Solution: With Zycus’ e-Invoicing solution, organizations can automate invoice capture, validation, and approval processes, ensuring timely and accurate payments while reducing processing costs.

Download Hackett’s Report: 2025 Purchase-to-Pay (P2P) Trends & Insights: Key Challenges, Automation, and AI-Driven Strategies

6. Resistance to Change and User Adoption

Challenge: Introducing new procurement technologies often faces resistance from users accustomed to traditional processes, hindering adoption and ROI realization.

Solution: Zycus emphasizes user-centric design and offers the Merlin Intake solution, which integrates with familiar platforms like Microsoft Teams, providing a seamless and intuitive user experience that encourages adoption and compliance.

7. Inadequate Contract Management

Challenge: Managing contracts manually can lead to missed renewals, non-compliance, and lost savings opportunities.

Solution: Zycus’ Contract Management solution automates the entire contract lifecycle, from creation to renewal, ensuring compliance, reducing risks, and maximizing contract value.

8. Limited Data-Driven Decision Making

Challenge: Without real-time analytics, procurement decisions are often based on outdated or incomplete information.

Solution: Zycus’ Procurement Orchestration provides real-time dashboards and analytics, enabling procurement teams to make informed decisions, track KPIs, and continuously improve processes.

Hence, Procurement automation is no longer a nice-to-have—it’s a strategic imperative. But while tools may be in place, true value lies in closing the remaining gaps:

From disconnected to unified systems
From reactive to predictive processes
From compliance monitoring to value realization

The CPO Rising 2025 report offers a wake-up call—and a roadmap—for organizations ready to close the gap between technology adoption and technology impact.

With Zycus, procurement leaders gain more than tools—they gain a platform for Best-in-Class performance.

Download the CPO Rising 2025 Report

Related Reads:

White Papers

Why Procurement Tech Fails: A CPO’s Guide to Success

Amit Shah

Amit is a seasoned business leader who brings to Zycus about 18 years of experience in strategic marketing and communications, business management, and strategy. As CMO and Head Global BD, he is responsible for all aspects of global marketing and demand generation. He also leads other strategic functions like sales ops, bid desk and sales enablement. Before joining Zycus, Amit was based in London and served as Managing Director at OakNorth, a B2B SAAS unicorn and supported large enterprise engagements across the US, Europe, and Australasia. Amit holds an MBA from IIM Mumbai and B.E from REC Surathkal (NIT Karnataka). He has also completed an executive program in strategic marketing from Stanford Graduate School of Business. He was recognized as 40under40 by Reputation Today in 2017, has been a Power Profile on LinkedIn in 2018 & 2016, and has served on the advisory board of S.P.Jain Institute of Management & Research and Fintech committee of FICCI.