Michael Roesch
We recently published Measure What Matters, our Manufacturing Supply Chain and Procurement Benchmark 2026, a study of real procurement ROI across more than 200 global customer projects. The data is unambiguous: procurement digitalization pays off at every company size. But the gap between organizations achieving median returns and those falling short comes down to one thing: execution.
Trade policy volatility and rising input costs have made procurement a more strategically visible function than at any point in recent memory. The question manufacturers are asking is no longer whether to invest in procurement technology. It is where to focus, and in what order.
Measure What Matters delivers a clear answer: with a typical median ROI between 2.7x and 6.6x and peak values reaching 58x, the economic lever is substantial. But where your organization stands, and where the greatest opportunities lie, depends significantly on your size.
If your organization is not achieving median ROI, the data points to a clear path forward. Every organization is different, but the benchmark strongly suggests that your next move largely depends on the size of your business. Here is what the data says for each segment.
Large organizations with revenues > €5 billion
Median ROI: 6.6x (560% gain)
Large enterprises that fall short of this benchmark often suffer from what the data reveals as module bloat: broad rollouts without deep adoption. The prescription is to pause further expansion and focus intensively on scaling strategic sourcing to unlock immediate, high-value savings. In parallel, offline approval matrices should be transferred into configurable digital workflows to enforce global compliance.
Organizations that execute on these priorities can unlock multi-million-dollar savings alongside a unified, compliance-ready global process landscape.
Mid-sized organizations with revenues €1-5 billion
Median ROI: 4.2x (320% gain)
Mid-market companies falling short of the benchmark should extend platform usage across the full procure-to-pay chain. The immediate priority is activation of eCatalog, ASN, and electronic invoice processing. Linking purchase orders and invoices creates touchless, automated transactions that dramatically reduce process costs and eliminate manual invoice reconciliation.
Organizations that execute here can expect drastic reductions in process costs and a scalable procurement operation built for growth.
Smaller organizations with revenues < € 1 billion
Median ROI: 2.7x (170% gain)
Smaller returns in absolute terms, but significant nonetheless. Companies in this segment that fall short are often implementing overly complex processes too early, which results in low user adoption across the board. The path forward is to focus strictly on two areas: order processing and sourcing, including Easy RFQ (quick Quotes). The goal is broad organizational adoption of these user-friendly, foundational functions before more demanding supply-chain modules are introduced.
Organizations that commit to this approach can expect fast time-to-value, high user acceptance, and meaningful cost savings from bringing maverick spend under management.
AI will boost ROI across the board. But only if your data is ready.
Deep adoption does more than drive immediate ROI. It builds the data foundation that AI will run on. And that matters more than ever.
According to combined research from Hackett, Gartner, and Deloitte, around 94% of procurement leaders now use generative AI at least weekly, a rise of 44 percentage points since 2023. But only 4% have rolled it out at scale, and 49% remain stuck in pilots. Just as in platform adoption, there is a significant distance between “in use” and “truly productive.”
The reasons for the scaling gap are consistent across all three studies. According to Hackett, 74% of procurement leaders say their data is not AI-ready, by far the biggest blocker. 88% cite integration issues as the primary trust inhibitor. And Gartner projects that by end of 2026, around 60% of AI projects will be abandoned, not because of the technology itself, but because of insufficient data quality.
A modern source-to-pay platform addresses this directly. It brings procurement data from supplier management & sourcing through purchase order through invoice into a single, consistent data model. Organizations that invest in deep adoption now are not just improving today’s ROI. They are building the infrastructure that future AI capability will depend on.
The question is not whether procurement technology delivers returns. The data is clear on that. The question is whether your organization is executing with enough focus and depth to claim them.
Download Measure What Matters full report and register for our upcoming webinar to explore the complete dataset and find out where your organization stands on the adoption curve.
