Recognized as a Leader and Customer Favorite, Zycus received the highest score possible in 17 evaluation criteria and outstanding customer feedback in The Forrester Wave™: Supplier Value Management Platforms, Q4 2026.
What does this mean for CPOs navigating the shift toward Agentic AI and outcome-driven procurement?
The Next Big Procurement Decision Isn’t About More Technology. It’s About More Value.
What if the biggest risk in procurement transformation isn’t falling behind on AI but investing in technology that never moves beyond automation?
CPOs have spent years digitizing procurement, improving spend visibility, and automating processes. Yet disconnected systems, manual handoffs, and fragmented workflows continue to limit efficiency and business impact.
Now, Agentic AI is changing expectations.
The question is no longer simply, “How much can we automate?” It’s “How effectively can procurement translate business needs into measurable outcomes?”
Against this backdrop, Zycus has been named a Leader in The Forrester Wave™: Supplier Value Management Platforms, Q4 2026, and recognized as a Customer Favorite.
Zycus also received the highest score possible in 17 evaluation criteria and outstanding customer feedback, which Zycus believes reinforces its competitive positioning in Forrester’s assessment.
But beyond the recognition, what should procurement leaders take away from these findings?
Agentic AI Is Redefining Procurement Execution
Traditional automation focuses on completing individual tasks faster. Agentic AI offers an opportunity to connect decisions, workflows, and execution across the procurement lifecycle.
Consider a routine purchase request. What begins as a simple business need may involve policy checks, supplier identification, sourcing, approvals, contracting, and purchasing. When these activities operate independently, delays and manual intervention become inevitable.
The opportunity is to connect them through intelligent orchestration.
Forrester cites Zycus’ AI-driven Intake-to-Outcomes vision, where agentic workflows orchestrate end-to-end autonomous procurement through a unified Merlin architecture.
Powered by the Merlin Agentic AI Platform, this approach aims to move procurement beyond isolated automation toward connected execution.
With Merlin Intake, organizations can simplify how business requests enter procurement and guide them into appropriate downstream workflows.
The question for CPOs: Is your AI strategy automating individual activities, or transforming how procurement delivers outcomes?
Why Integrated SVM Capabilities Matter More Than Ever
AI’s effectiveness depends on the workflows, data, and systems it can access.
Adding intelligent capabilities to disconnected applications may improve individual tasks without eliminating fragmentation across procurement.
This makes integration and orchestration critical considerations when evaluating Supplier Value Management (SVM) platforms.
In its evaluation, Forrester cites Zycus’ comprehensive SVM suite, that excels in intake management, services procurement, contract management, procurement orchestration, guided buying, invoice automation, and tail-spend automation.
Zycus’ Source-to-Pay platform connects capabilities across the procurement lifecycle, including:
- Strategic Sourcing for sourcing events and supplier selection.
- Contract Lifecycle Management for managing agreements and obligations.
- Supplier Management for supplier visibility and collaboration.
- eProcurement for guided purchasing.
- eInvoicing for streamlined invoice processing.
Forrester also cites Zycus’ investments in native Agentic AI workflows supported by a unified data layer like Merlin Autonomous Negotiation, Merlin Autonomous Sourcing and Contract Value Leakage.
Why does this matter?
Because procurement outcomes rarely depend on one process. Sourcing decisions influence contracts, contracts influence purchasing compliance, and supplier performance affects business continuity.
For CPOs, the real opportunity lies in connecting these activities into an intelligent procurement operating model—not simply optimizing them independently.
Customer Experience Is a Business Value Driver
Even advanced technology delivers limited value when employees struggle to use it.
For procurement transformation to succeed, platforms must support adoption across employees, procurement teams, finance stakeholders, and suppliers.
This makes Zycus’ recognition as a Customer Favorite particularly relevant.
Solutions such as Merlin Intake and Procurement Orchestration are designed to simplify procurement interactions while connecting business requests with downstream execution.
For CPOs, adoption should be considered alongside functionality when evaluating technology investments.
A platform’s value isn’t determined only by what it can do, but by how effectively organizations can put those capabilities to work.
From AI Investment to Measurable Procurement Outcomes
As AI investments accelerate, CPOs face increasing pressure to demonstrate business value.
Faster cycle times reduced manual effort, improved compliance, stronger spend management, and more effective supplier engagement are among the outcome’s procurement leaders may seek.
However, these benefits should be measured rather than assumed.
Forrester notes that Zycus emphasizes autonomous execution and measurable business outcomes to align closely with emerging procurement priorities.
This thinking is central to Zycus’ Intake-to-Outcomes approach, supported by its Merlin Agentic AI Platform and integrated Source-to-Pay capabilities.
When evaluating procurement technology, leaders should ask:
- Can the platform connect workflows across sourcing, contracting, purchasing, and payment?
- Can AI support intelligent execution with appropriate governance and oversight?
- Can the organization measure the operational and financial value delivered?
These questions help shift procurement evaluations from feature comparisons toward long-term business impact.
What Does Forrester’s Recognition Mean for CPOs?
Zycus believes its positioning in The Forrester Wave™: Supplier Value Management Platforms, Q4 2026 offers procurement leaders an opportunity to evaluate its capabilities and strategy within a broader competitive landscape.
Three report findings stand out:
- Recognition as a Leader: Zycus was positioned as a Leader in Forrester’s evaluation of SVM platforms.
- A Customer Favorite: Zycus received recognition that it believes adds a customer-experience perspective to its positioning.
- Highest score possible in 17 criteria: Zycus achieved the highest possible score of 5 in 17 evaluation criteria, which it believes provides additional insight into its assessed strengths.
For CPOs planning procurement transformation, these findings provide useful context for evaluating platform capabilities, vendor strategy, and future technology priorities.
The Future of Procurement Starts With Outcomes
The next era of procurement won’t be defined by the number of AI agents deployed or processes automated.
It will be shaped by how effectively organizations connect business needs, intelligent execution, and measurable results.
For CPOs, this means looking beyond individual features to evaluate integration, orchestration, adoption, governance, and long-term business value.
Zycus believes its recognition in The Forrester Wave™ offers an opportunity to explore how the SVM landscape is evolving, and what that means for your next procurement technology decision.
Ready to Discover What Sets Zycus Apart?
Explore why Zycus was named a Leader and Customer Favorite, examine its highest-scoring evaluation criteria, and understand how the top SVM platforms stack up.
Access The Forrester Wave™: Supplier Value Management Platforms, Q4 2026 Report →
Make your next procurement technology decision with greater confidence.
