The Hidden Costs and Risks of Relying on Legacy Procurement Systems

Here’s what nobody talks about when they say their old system “works fine”, the hidden costs that pile up when you’re not looking.

Unseen Productivity Losses and Security Threats from Aging Procurement Tools

Start with time. How much of your day gets eaten up by workarounds? Manually double-checking orders because the system can’t flag duplicates. Building reports by pulling data from three different places. Calling suppliers because the portal crashed again. One study found procurement professionals spend 60% of their time on stuff like this instead of actual procurement strategy.

Then there’s the fragmentation mess. Supplier info lives here, contracts live there, spend data lives somewhere else entirely. You end up making decisions with incomplete information because getting the full picture takes too long.

Security is the big one though. These old systems are sitting ducks. They miss critical updates, can’t handle modern compliance requirements, and basically wave a red flag at cybercriminals. For regulated industries, that’s not just inconvenient, it’s a lawsuit waiting to happen.

Look, I get it. Change is scary and expensive. But sticking with systems that drain productivity and expose you to risk? That’s expensive too, just in ways that don’t show up on the quarterly budget.

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