Procurement digitalization: memories of a dinosaur

When I look back today, in 2025, I feel a bit like a dinosaur who witnessed the rise of procurement digitalization from the front row, but somehow this incredible tool for improvement actually passed me by.

1996: Procurement by phone and fax

My career in procurement began in 1996, at a time when phones and faxes were the essential work tools, and an Excel spreadsheet was considered the pinnacle of efficiency. Requests for quotations were sent over phone lines for long minutes, and you had to make sure the fax went through correctly. Supplier offers piled up on the desk—and often under it—in the form of paper sheets. And yet, it felt like a modern way of working back then, faster than regular mail or deals scribbled on a piece of paper and confirmed with a handshake.

1998: Email as a game changer

Two years later, in 1998, a true revolution came to our company: the massive shift to email procurement. We got laptops and could send requests for quotations within seconds. I remember how many suppliers heard the word “email” for the first time and had to learn how to use it. Of course, it didn’t come without problems, and we often ran into technical issues—especially large drawings attached to emails that “wouldn’t go through.” There were also those magical moments when we added all potential suppliers into one email, and they submitted their bids by hitting “Reply all.” Excel quickly became second nature to buyers. Suppliers sent us their cost breakdowns in spreadsheets, and we created templates with automatic calculations. I remember how we would go through supplier offers, copy-paste the most important information into Excel, and then choose the best bid. And I also recall all the errors in formulas, when something wasn’t added because it wasn’t in numeric format, or a parenthesis was misplaced… Not to mention the currency mix-ups—like when a bid in pounds surprisingly won, because a colleague copied it into the spreadsheet as euros without converting the currency.

2004: first e-auctions and sourcing software

From 1998 to 2004, not much really changed in my procurement life. I moved up into companies with fantastic procurement know-how, but processes that still belonged to the early computer age, where most buyers lived in the email–Excel–Word triangle. The peak of sophistication were electronic purchase requisitions, pivot tables, and the very first e-auctions. In some companies, for example among the big players in the automotive industry, e-auctions started bringing in the first million-level savings, but the rest looked at them with a fair bit of distrust. I remember in 2004 sitting in an interview with one of the largest players in the rail industry, and the global head of procurement asked me whether I had “already heard of e-auctions, because they were planning to start using them in the next two or three years! Maybe.” I experienced my very first e-auction in 2002 and my first sourcing software in 2004 – and it was actually an in-house experiment. Our management concluded that procurement software was the height of sophistication and had to be tailor-made. And since we had deep pockets, we decided to build it ourselves. Honestly, it was terrible, and every buyer had to mentally prepare for the daily hour of struggling with it. Clunky, complicated, completely unintuitive. But it was the beginning of a journey – one that eventually led to admitting failure and buying proper software (because the buyers simply refused to use the old one). While we were experimenting, companies like Procter & Gamble and Unilever were already rolling out professional e-sourcing platforms across the board, and thanks to them they were achieving not only savings but also transparency, and even supplier management – something we, at that time, were still only passionately debating inside the company.

2005: Strategic procurement and “back to the pencil”

Paradoxically, as I was moving up toward “super” strategic procurement, I found myself going back to Excel, pencil, and paper. Among strategic buyers, there was a strong belief that strategic procurement—sophisticated strategies, negotiations with key suppliers, complex contracts, or supplier development partnerships—was simply too important and complex to be “handled by software.” Occasionally, there might be an e-auction or a tool for managing modifications, but otherwise, the peak of our tools were ERP extracts, complicated pivot tables, and various templates. Meanwhile, in operational procurement, technology was quickly gaining ground. Catalogs, internal request systems, and the first approval workflows were being introduced. By contrast, we were drafting “supplier selection proposals” for management committees. In other words, it was a time when the paths began to diverge: strategic procurement stayed with Excel, while operational procurement was moving into a digitalized environment.

2009 – 2015: missed opportunity

When I look back at the digital transformation of procurement, what I regret most is the period from 2009 to 2015. At that time, I was in the front row and could have digitalized processes the way I wanted. Looking back, I know I could have saved billions—I’m really not exaggerating. For example, Siemens rolled out e-sourcing company-wide starting in 2010, and thanks to centralization and process automation, reported savings in the hundreds of millions of euros. Similarly, Škoda Auto began systematically using e-auctions and electronic catalogs during this period and managed not only to reduce prices but also to speed up tender cycles by dozens of percent. While the best were digitalizing frantically and leaving us far behind year after year, the rest of us were watching from the sidelines, not even knowing where or how to start—and often looking at it with distrust. But back to my personal experience. There’s no excuse for not having digitally transformed my department. I could have introduced robust processes that would have simplified the procurement of serial components and spare parts, minimized information leaks through internal customers, eliminated pointless administrative tasks that literally paralyzed my team, and freed buyers to focus on real savings and strategic work. The truth is, I didn’t realize the potential of digitalization at the time, and even if I had, I wouldn’t have known how to put it into practice—because I had never experienced it firsthand as a “regular user and a member of an implementation team.” I also put part of the blame on software vendors. Back then, I didn’t attend any procurement conferences, because they seemed like boasting platforms for narcissistic procurement managers or marketing lectures paid for by sponsoring companies. And over the years, no one actively reached out to me, no one offered me a helping hand with implementation. And I myself didn’t feel the urgency, because “I didn’t know what I didn’t know.” That was a mistake I have to own.

2025: second chance

If I were today, in 2025, in the same situation I was in back in 2009, I would see procurement digitalization as a unique opportunity to leap light years ahead in a single step. Today, there is no need for lengthy explanations of why e-procurement makes sense—there are hundreds of examples and references from companies of all sizes. Quality procurement software is readily available, its implementation can be completed within weeks, and vendors now provide not only the technology but also methodology and support. Of course, the best time to digitalize procurement was twenty years ago. But the second-best time is today. If you are hesitating, ask yourself a simple question: what will you regret in ten years that you didn’t do but should have? Experience shows that we most often regret the things we didn’t do—but should have.

Conclusion?

I’m afraid no final conclusion is coming any time soon. Another revolution in the digital transformation of procurement is arriving—this time in the form of artificial intelligence. And once again, it will likely be the case that the best companies will learn to use this technology meaningfully (and it won’t be easy, as the path will be full of trials and errors) and will gain a competitive advantage. Meanwhile, the late adopters will fall further behind, with the risk of being swept away by progress. I wish you the courage to seize the current opportunity: take advantage of today’s state of e-procurement, which allows you to radically improve your processes, and at the same time be ready to jump on the AI train in time. Because that’s your chance to hold your future firmly in your own hands.