Five Procurement Priorities for 2026

Part of ERA Group's leadership series, this edition is written for chief procurement officers. The premise is that procurement's remit keeps expanding: protect margin, de-risk supply, move faster and deliver measurable sustainability — while AI, tariffs and tighter capital rewrite the rules.

Five priorities are set out. First, re-architect the operating model around value rather than categories, with clear ownership for cash release, risk and innovation, and cross-functional teams carrying quarterly value targets for the largest enterprise categories. Second, move GenAI from scattered pilots to embedded decisions that move cash — built on consolidated, classified data and explicit policy guardrails.

Third, level up key supplier relationships from transactional management to outcome-based partnerships with joint KPIs such as OTIF, CO2 per unit, total landed cost and defect ppm. Fourth, make sustainable procurement measurable and CFO-credible: shift from lowest price to total value and track carbon, risk and cash on one scorecard. Fifth, design optionality into the supply base — dual sourcing for critical items, qualified alternates and pre-negotiated surge capacity.

The report closes with a picture of what good looks like by Q4 2026, including more than 90% of addressable spend clean-classified and decisionable, and outcome-based agreements across the top ten categories. The content is ERA Group's own; JMF Europe summarises it briefly and the original English document remains the complete source.