READ THIS FIRST FOR CONTEXT to understand today’s post: Can great tech overcome poor communication and collaboration within a company?
Here Is Today’s Post
There isn’t a single, definitive survey providing an exact percentage of organizations leaning towards consolidating their ProcureTech stacks versus those who don’t, specifically for 2025. However, I have synthesized available industry trends and insights to estimate this split and explain what organizations might say—and why—based on their stance.
The push for consolidation reflects a maturing ProcureTech market, but resistance persists due to practical and strategic factors.
Let’s break this down.
Estimated Percentage Split
Based on industry reports and trends:
- Leaning Toward Consolidation: 50–60%
- Evidence: The ArcBlue survey (via Kodiak Hub, 2024) shows 72% of procurement organizations lack a full Source-to-Pay (S2P) suite, implying many are dissatisfied with fragmentation and likely considering consolidation. A CIO poll (BizTech, 2024) found 95% of IT leaders plan vendor consolidation, and while ProcureTech is a subset, Spend Matters (2025) predicts heightened M&A activity as firms seek integrated solutions. A 50–60% range balances this enthusiasm with slower adopters.
- Not Leaning Toward Consolidation: 40–50%
- Evidence: Smaller firms or those with legacy systems (e.g., Onventis’s data standardization challenges) and the 25% potential AI provider fallout (Procurement Insights, 2024) suggest resistance or inertia. Some organizations may prefer best-of-breed tools over unified stacks, as noted in Forbes (2025) on orchestration trends.
This 50–60% vs. 40–50% split is an educated estimate, reflecting a market tipping toward consolidation but not universally committed.
What Organizations Leaning Toward Consolidation Might Say and Why
What They Say:
- “We’re consolidating our ProcureTech stack to streamline operations, reduce costs, and leverage AI for better insights.”
- “A unified platform cuts through the noise of too many tools, giving us end-to-end visibility and control.”
- “Regulatory pressures like ESG compliance and tariff volatility demand an integrated approach we can’t achieve with scattered solutions.”
Why They Say It:
- Efficiency and Cost: Fragmented stacks (e.g., 5,000+ solutions per ProcureTech100) create inefficiencies—duplicate licenses, training overhead, and data silos. Consolidation promises 25% efficiency gains (Focal Point, 2024) and aligns with CFO priorities (SAP, 2025).
- AI and Data Integration: GEP Outlook 2025 and Trustpair emphasize AI’s need for clean, centralized data, which consolidation enables (e.g., McKinsey’s shift from 20% to broader data use). Firms want prescriptive AI, not just reactive tools (Tropic, 2025).
- Strategic Resilience: With tariffs (e.g., 60% on Chinese goods, EY 2025) and ESG rules (EU’s Omnibus Package, 2025), integrated stacks help manage risk and compliance, a priority for 46% of firms seeking supply chain visibility (Focal Point, 2024).
Critical View: These firms assume consolidation delivers promised ROI, but integration hiccups (e.g., Tipalti’s adoption resistance) or over-reliance on single vendors could backfire, locking them into inflexible ecosystems.
What Organizations Not Leaning Toward Consolidation Might Say and Why
What They Say:
- “We prefer best-of-breed tools tailored to our specific needs over a one-size-fits-all stack.”
- “Consolidation is too costly and disruptive—our current setup works fine for now.”
- “We’re not ready to bet on a single platform when the market’s still shaking out.”
Why They Say It:
- Flexibility: Forbes (2025) notes orchestration trends, where firms integrate preferred tools without full consolidation, preserving niche solutions (e.g., Akirolabs for analytics) over broad suites like SAP Ariba.
- Cost and Change Management: Onventis (2024) highlights data standardization woes and employee resistance (Tipalti, 2025), deterring SMEs or legacy users. Manual processes still dominate for some (NetSuite, 2024), with 77% lagging digitally (Procurement Insights, 2022).
- Market Uncertainty: With 25% of AI ProcureTech firms at risk of failing (Procurement Insights, 2024), cautious organizations avoid consolidating into potentially unstable platforms, preferring to wait for winners to emerge.
Critical View: Resistance may stem from inertia or underestimating long-term costs of fragmentation (e.g., missed ESG compliance). Yet, their caution avoids vendor lock-in and preserves agility in a volatile 2025 landscape.
Why the Split Exists
- Maturity Gap: Larger, digitally mature firms (e.g., SAP users) consolidate for scale and ROI, while smaller or less mature ones (e.g., manual spreadsheet users) delay due to resource constraints or satisfaction with status quo.
- Strategic Goals: Consolidation aligns with strategic CPOs (50% of budgets on automation, ProcureCon 2021), but tactical players prioritize short-term flexibility over long-term integration.
- External Pressures: Tariffs, AI hype, and ESG push consolidation, but budget cuts or talent shortages (ProcureTech’s Younger, 2025) pull others back.
Conclusion
Roughly 50–60% of organizations are leaning toward consolidating their ProcureTech stacks in 2025, saying it boosts efficiency, leverages AI, and meets strategic demands—driven by cost savings and market pressures. Conversely, 40–50% resist, citing flexibility, cost, and uncertainty—rooted in practical hurdles and a wait-and-see approach. This split reflects a market at an inflection point, with consolidation gaining ground but not yet universal.
THERE IS A THIRD OPTION
After reading the following Procurement Insights post: What Is The Difference Between An Internal And External Metaprise And Why It Matters To Procurement, you will begin to appreciate the third option’s practical simplicity.
TODAY’S TAKEAWAY
In the AI era, autonomous agents are people, not technology, so we need to get our heads out of the conceptual equation-based lab and get into the real-world agent-based production environment.
Consolidating equation-based tech stacks is not the same as agent-based communication and collaboration between internal and external “human agents.”
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Procurement Insights
ProcureTech Stacks: Consolidation Versus Best-Of-Breed. Is There A Third Option?
Posted on April 10, 2025
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READ THIS FIRST FOR CONTEXT to understand today’s post: Can great tech overcome poor communication and collaboration within a company?
Here Is Today’s Post
There isn’t a single, definitive survey providing an exact percentage of organizations leaning towards consolidating their ProcureTech stacks versus those who don’t, specifically for 2025. However, I have synthesized available industry trends and insights to estimate this split and explain what organizations might say—and why—based on their stance.
The push for consolidation reflects a maturing ProcureTech market, but resistance persists due to practical and strategic factors.
Let’s break this down.
Estimated Percentage Split
Based on industry reports and trends:
This 50–60% vs. 40–50% split is an educated estimate, reflecting a market tipping toward consolidation but not universally committed.
What Organizations Leaning Toward Consolidation Might Say and Why
What They Say:
Why They Say It:
Critical View: These firms assume consolidation delivers promised ROI, but integration hiccups (e.g., Tipalti’s adoption resistance) or over-reliance on single vendors could backfire, locking them into inflexible ecosystems.
What Organizations Not Leaning Toward Consolidation Might Say and Why
What They Say:
Why They Say It:
Critical View: Resistance may stem from inertia or underestimating long-term costs of fragmentation (e.g., missed ESG compliance). Yet, their caution avoids vendor lock-in and preserves agility in a volatile 2025 landscape.
Why the Split Exists
Conclusion
Roughly 50–60% of organizations are leaning toward consolidating their ProcureTech stacks in 2025, saying it boosts efficiency, leverages AI, and meets strategic demands—driven by cost savings and market pressures. Conversely, 40–50% resist, citing flexibility, cost, and uncertainty—rooted in practical hurdles and a wait-and-see approach. This split reflects a market at an inflection point, with consolidation gaining ground but not yet universal.
THERE IS A THIRD OPTION
After reading the following Procurement Insights post: What Is The Difference Between An Internal And External Metaprise And Why It Matters To Procurement, you will begin to appreciate the third option’s practical simplicity.
TODAY’S TAKEAWAY
In the AI era, autonomous agents are people, not technology, so we need to get our heads out of the conceptual equation-based lab and get into the real-world agent-based production environment.
Consolidating equation-based tech stacks is not the same as agent-based communication and collaboration between internal and external “human agents.”
30
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