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In 2025, procurement organizations face a pivotal question:

Are you performing at Best-in-Class levels—or falling behind?

The answer lies in benchmarking.

The CPO Rising 2025 report by Ardent Partners, sponsored by Zycus, developed with participation from over 326 CPOs globally, provides a goldmine of procurement performance benchmarks. It reveals striking disparities between average procurement teams and the top 20%—those defined as Best-in-Class.

As procurement continues to evolve into a strategic, AI-enabled, and risk-savvy function, benchmarking becomes more than a scorecard. It becomes a roadmap.

Why Benchmarking Matters More Than Ever

In an era of heightened global risk, inflationary pressure, and rising expectations from stakeholders, performance isn’t optional—it’s essential.

Benchmarking gives procurement leaders the tools to:

Diagnose process inefficiencies
Build a strong business case for digital transformation
Align procurement outcomes with enterprise goals
Prioritize technology investments that deliver measurable ROI

According to Ardent Partners, Best-in-Class CPOs consistently outperform their peers across every key procurement metric—and the gap is growing.

The Numbers Don’t Lie: Procurement Performance Benchmarks

The CPO Rising 2025 report benchmarks performance across five foundational categories:

Performance Metric	Best-in-Class	All Others
Spend Under Management	91.7%	61.1%
Realized Savings (2024)	8.0%	6.4%
Contract Compliance	79.5%	56.2%
Addressable Spend Sourced	67.4%	43.6%
Enabled Suppliers	61.7%	44.2%

These metrics reflect more than operational health—they signal procurement maturity.
The greater the visibility and control, the greater the value delivered.

Reference: CPO Rising 2025 Report – Zycus & Ardent Partners

How Zycus Helps You Benchmark and Optimize Performance

Zycus offers modular, AI-powered Source-to-Pay solutions that align perfectly with Ardent’s benchmarking framework.

1. Spend Under Management

Zycus Spend Analysis provides deep visibility across indirect, tail, and direct categories—classifying 100% of spend using machine learning.

Helps identify uncontrolled spend and opportunities for sourcing.

2. Savings Realization

Using Zycus eSourcing, organizations achieve greater savings through competitive bidding, TCO modeling, and AI-assisted negotiation.

Turns negotiated savings into realized, tracked impact.

3. Contract Compliance

Zycus Contract Lifecycle Management ensures compliance with negotiated terms and improves visibility across contract obligations.

Reduces value leakage and improves audit readiness.

4. Addressable Spend Sourced

Zycus helps bring more categories under formal sourcing through automation, supplier discovery, and standardized RFX creation.

Merlin Agentic AI proactively identifies new sourcing opportunities using AI agents.

5. Supplier Enablement & Performance

Zycus Supplier Management and Supplier Risk tools ensure faster onboarding, robust qualification, and real-time performance tracking.

Supports ESG scoring, diversity goals, and resilience planning.

Why Best-in-Class Teams Win

As per Ardent Partners’ research, the most successful procurement organizations:

Are 4x more likely to fully automate spend analysis
Use AI to uncover maverick spend, duplicate invoices, and risk exposure
Operate with tighter procurement-finance alignment
Rely on platforms like Zycus to track real-time KPIs across global operations

The lesson is clear: Digital maturity drives procurement excellence.

Benchmarking: A Process, Not a Project

Here’s how to embed benchmarking into your procurement strategy:

1. Baseline Your Metrics

Start with where you are—across spend, contracts, suppliers, and performance.

2. Benchmark Against Best-in-Class

Use the CPO Rising 2025 metrics to identify where gaps exist.

3. Set Measurable Goals

Tie improvements to enterprise-level objectives like cost-to-serve, risk reduction, and speed-to-market.

4. Deploy Intelligent Tech

Platforms like Zycus Source-to-Pay deliver the automation, data, and insight needed to scale.

5. Track & Report Progress

Use dashboards and AI analytics to visualize trends and accelerate decision-making.

Try: Zycus Performance Dashboards

Don’t Just Benchmark—Build a Culture of Excellence

Benchmarking is most powerful when paired with a performance-driven culture. That means:

Empowering teams with data they can act on
Creating internal KPIs that reflect benchmark targets
Celebrating small wins and iterative improvements
Embedding AI tools that scale visibility and efficiency

Zycus helps you institutionalize this mindset with embedded performance tools across all modules.

The CPO Rising 2025 report offers both a mirror and a map.
It shows where procurement is—and where it’s heading.

So ask yourself:

Is your spend truly under control?
Are your contracts delivering their full value?
Are you sourcing smartly and sustainably?
Is your procurement data helping you lead—or holding you back?

With Zycus, you don’t just benchmark—you transform.

Download the full report: CPO Rising 2025 – Ardent Partners x Zycus
Explore Zycus benchmarking-ready solutions: Supplier Risk Management

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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.