In procurement, success is often measured by spend under management, process digitization, and compliance dashboards. The big cloud procurement platforms have indeed delivered all of this – and more. They have transformed procurement into a transparent, automated, and data‑driven discipline.
A 2024 McKinsey report notes that procurement is entering “a new era” where digitalization, supplier collaboration, and sustainability are the main drivers of value creation – yet supplier integration remains among the hardest gaps to close.
Yet beneath the surface, there is a silent cost of supplier exclusion that undermines these achievements – supplier exclusion. While the top 5% of strategic suppliers are usually integrated, the other 95% are either partially onboarded, reluctantly engaged, or not connected at all. That majority does not just sit idle – they actively erode the return on investment that organizations expect from their digitalisation strategies.
The Unseen Effort: Quantifying Onboarding Effort
Our own experience across more than 1,600 suppliers mapped through cloud procurement platforms like Ariba shows just how costly onboarding can become:
Our own experience across more than 1,600 suppliers mapped through cloud procurement platforms like Ariba shows just how costly onboarding can become:
- 4 hours per supplier just to enable basic web portal use.
- 30 hours per supplier to extend web portal functionality into e‑invoicing.
- 250+ hours per supplier (4–6 months of work) for full end‑to‑end integration – excluding upstream activities.
Each incremental supplier onboarding draws scarce time and IT attention. Procurement teams are hired for strategic impact, but instead, many are forced to spend weeks orchestrating forms, guiding small vendors through portals, and juggling integration tests. Scale this across hundreds or thousands of suppliers, and the true cost of onboarding – in hours and in lost opportunity – is staggering.
Beyond Efficiency: The True Impact of Supplier Exclusion
Onboarding does not fail because buyers lack intent – it fails because most suppliers lack resources or incentives. In practice, organizations see three categories of “non‑onboarded suppliers”:
- The Long Tail – Small or infrequent suppliers where the economics do not add up. If annual spend sits in the tens of thousands, no SME will allocate 30–250 hours to configure SRM integrations.
- The Reluctant – Vendors who simply do not want to change the way they work. Their internal processes may be messy, but they are familiar.
- The Fully Integrated – Ironically, even strategic suppliers often stall. Deep EDI projects consume scarce IT resources on both sides. Months pass, integrations remain incomplete, and significant spend still flows outside digital channels.
The result is the same: digital supplier coverage stalls, while shadow processes – spreadsheets, emails, duplicate invoicing – resurface around the gaps.
The Hidden Cost of Supplier Exclusion
Supplier exclusion carries multiple hidden costs:
Supplier exclusion carries multiple hidden costs:
- Operational inefficiency: high administrative load, duplicated efforts, low adoption of digital workflows.
- Opportunity cost: teams spend precious time firefighting onboarding instead of building relationships, innovating, or meeting sustainability goals.
- Data fragmentation: missing or inconsistent information breaks visibility across the procurement process.
But perhaps the most serious – and the least openly discussed – are the compliance and ESG risks.
The Unacceptable Risk: Compliance and ESG Blind Spots
Modern procurement leaders live under mounting pressure to demonstrate end‑to‑end compliance, traceability, and ESG responsibility. Investors, regulators, and stakeholders demand not just cost efficiency, but also assurance that entire supplier ecosystems meet standards.
That is impossible when large swaths of suppliers remain outside the cloud procurement system. Without digital onboarding, organizations lack visibility into critical details such as:
- Tax, legal, and banking verifications.
- ESG self‑assessments and certifications.
- Ethical sourcing standards or carbon reporting.
The risk is not theoretical. Compliance failures invite regulatory fines, reputational damage, and delays in ESG audits. Corporates cannot credibly claim sustainable supply chains if the majority of their suppliers remain digitally invisible.
The Unfinished Chapter: Where Current SRM Solutions Fall Short
It is important to acknowledge just how far the incumbents have brought the field. Cloud procurement platforms like SAP Ariba, Ivalua, Coupa, and Jaggaer have redefined procurement processes. They deliver governance, automation, and transparency at scale.
It is important to acknowledge just how far the incumbents have brought the field. Cloud procurement platforms like SAP Ariba, Ivalua, Coupa, and Jaggaer have redefined procurement processes. They deliver governance, automation, and transparency at scale.
But their focus has always been the strategic spend. Their architectures are heavy and robust – exactly what large enterprises demand, but far too complex and resource‑intensive for the long tail of suppliers. Vendor portals were introduced to address this tension, but portals still pass the entire compliance and adoption burden onto suppliers who often lack the capacity or willingness to participate.
This is not failure; it is an unfinished chapter. Cloud procurement has achieved breadth at the top, but depth across the full supplier landscape remains elusive.
The Path to Inclusive Procurement: A New Opportunity
The unaddressed frontier is clear: inclusive digitalisation.
The unaddressed frontier is clear: inclusive digitalisation.
Imagine a procurement ecosystem where onboarding is not just possible, but easy, for every supplier – from high‑value partners down to the smallest vendor. Where compliance data flows digitally, empowering companies to meet audit and ESG requirements with confidence. Where procurement teams are liberated from administrative churn and can direct their energy toward value creation and innovation.
This is not about replacing existing cloud procurement stacks. It is about unlocking their full promise – extending their reach across the long tail and transforming them from partial solutions into truly universal ones.
SupplyConnect: Bridging the Gap to Full Cloud Procurement Value
The path forward lies in building an integrative layer – one that complements the incumbents rather than competes with them. A layer designed to:
The path forward lies in building an integrative layer – one that complements the incumbents rather than competes with them. A layer designed to:
- Reduce onboarding friction for suppliers, including those with limited resources.
- Extend compliance and ESG monitoring across the full supplier base.
- Protect ROI by allowing procurement teams to focus on strategy, not system babysitting.
That is exactly why we founded SupplyConnect. Our mission is to bridge the gap for organizations already invested in cloud procurement platforms, by ensuring long‑tail suppliers are included without imposing disproportionate cost or complexity. In using our solutions, companies recover lost ROI, reduce compliance risk, and finally achieve the inclusive visibility that regulators and stakeholders demand.
The Future is Inclusive: Unlocking Full Potential
The story of cloud procurement is impressive: compliance, automation, cost savings, governance. But the unspoken truth is that exclusion of the majority of suppliers still caps its ROI – and opens dangerous compliance and ESG blind spots.
The story of cloud procurement is impressive: compliance, automation, cost savings, governance. But the unspoken truth is that exclusion of the majority of suppliers still caps its ROI – and opens dangerous compliance and ESG blind spots.
Every hour wasted on manual onboarding is an hour stolen from strategic impact. Every supplier left out of the system is a gap in ESG reporting, a weakness in compliance resilience, and a silent drain on value. The silent cost of supplier exclusion continues until organizations act. The future of procurement will not be defined by partial visibility, but by inclusion. The 2025 Deloitte Global CPO Survey shows that digital‑ready procurement teams outperform peers in supplier performance and innovation – reinforcing that inclusion and automation are now strategic differentiators. And with inclusive digitalisation, procurement leaders, investors, and suppliers alike stand to gain.
At SupplyConnect, we believe ending supplier exclusion is the next unlock – and we are building the integrative layer to make it possible.