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In 2025, procurement organizations face a pivotal question:
Are you performing at Best-in-Class levels—or falling behind?
The answer lies in benchmarking.
The CPO Rising 2025 report by Ardent Partners, sponsored by Zycus, developed with participation from over 326 CPOs globally, provides a goldmine of procurement performance benchmarks. It reveals striking disparities between average procurement teams and the top 20%—those defined as Best-in-Class.
As procurement continues to evolve into a strategic, AI-enabled, and risk-savvy function, benchmarking becomes more than a scorecard. It becomes a roadmap.
Why Benchmarking Matters More Than Ever
In an era of heightened global risk, inflationary pressure, and rising expectations from stakeholders, performance isn’t optional—it’s essential.
Benchmarking gives procurement leaders the tools to:
- Diagnose process inefficiencies
- Build a strong business case for digital transformation
- Align procurement outcomes with enterprise goals
- Prioritize technology investments that deliver measurable ROI
According to Ardent Partners, Best-in-Class CPOs consistently outperform their peers across every key procurement metric—and the gap is growing.
The Numbers Don’t Lie: Procurement Performance Benchmarks
The CPO Rising 2025 report benchmarks performance across five foundational categories:
| Performance Metric | Best-in-Class | All Others |
| Spend Under Management | 91.7% | 61.1% |
| Realized Savings (2024) | 8.0% | 6.4% |
| Contract Compliance | 79.5% | 56.2% |
| Addressable Spend Sourced | 67.4% | 43.6% |
| Enabled Suppliers | 61.7% | 44.2% |
These metrics reflect more than operational health—they signal procurement maturity.
The greater the visibility and control, the greater the value delivered.
Reference: CPO Rising 2025 Report – Zycus & Ardent Partners
How Zycus Helps You Benchmark and Optimize Performance
Zycus offers modular, AI-powered Source-to-Pay solutions that align perfectly with Ardent’s benchmarking framework.
1. Spend Under Management
Zycus Spend Analysis provides deep visibility across indirect, tail, and direct categories—classifying 100% of spend using machine learning.
- Helps identify uncontrolled spend and opportunities for sourcing.
2. Savings Realization
Using Zycus eSourcing, organizations achieve greater savings through competitive bidding, TCO modeling, and AI-assisted negotiation.
- Turns negotiated savings into realized, tracked impact.
3. Contract Compliance
Zycus Contract Lifecycle Management ensures compliance with negotiated terms and improves visibility across contract obligations.
- Reduces value leakage and improves audit readiness.
4. Addressable Spend Sourced
Zycus helps bring more categories under formal sourcing through automation, supplier discovery, and standardized RFX creation.
- Merlin Agentic AI proactively identifies new sourcing opportunities using AI agents.
5. Supplier Enablement & Performance
Zycus Supplier Management and Supplier Risk tools ensure faster onboarding, robust qualification, and real-time performance tracking.
- Supports ESG scoring, diversity goals, and resilience planning.
Why Best-in-Class Teams Win
As per Ardent Partners’ research, the most successful procurement organizations:
- Are 4x more likely to fully automate spend analysis
- Use AI to uncover maverick spend, duplicate invoices, and risk exposure
- Operate with tighter procurement-finance alignment
- Rely on platforms like Zycus to track real-time KPIs across global operations
The lesson is clear: Digital maturity drives procurement excellence.
Benchmarking: A Process, Not a Project
Here’s how to embed benchmarking into your procurement strategy:
1. Baseline Your Metrics
Start with where you are—across spend, contracts, suppliers, and performance.
2. Benchmark Against Best-in-Class
Use the CPO Rising 2025 metrics to identify where gaps exist.
3. Set Measurable Goals
Tie improvements to enterprise-level objectives like cost-to-serve, risk reduction, and speed-to-market.
4. Deploy Intelligent Tech
Platforms like Zycus Source-to-Pay deliver the automation, data, and insight needed to scale.
5. Track & Report Progress
Use dashboards and AI analytics to visualize trends and accelerate decision-making.
Try: Zycus Performance Dashboards
Don’t Just Benchmark—Build a Culture of Excellence
Benchmarking is most powerful when paired with a performance-driven culture. That means:
- Empowering teams with data they can act on
- Creating internal KPIs that reflect benchmark targets
- Celebrating small wins and iterative improvements
- Embedding AI tools that scale visibility and efficiency
Zycus helps you institutionalize this mindset with embedded performance tools across all modules.
The CPO Rising 2025 report offers both a mirror and a map.
It shows where procurement is—and where it’s heading.
So ask yourself:
- Is your spend truly under control?
- Are your contracts delivering their full value?
- Are you sourcing smartly and sustainably?
- Is your procurement data helping you lead—or holding you back?
With Zycus, you don’t just benchmark—you transform.
Download the full report: CPO Rising 2025 – Ardent Partners x Zycus
Explore Zycus benchmarking-ready solutions: Supplier Risk Management
Related Reads:
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- How AI Is Reshaping Procurement: From Automation to Agentic Intelligence
- Navigating Tariffs and Trade Volatility: What Procurement Leaders Must Know
- CPO Priorities for 2025: Balancing Cost, Risk, and Digital Transformation
- Research Report: Procurement Benchmarking: Analyzing the Cost of Procurement as a Percentage of Spend
- Real-time Procurement Benchmarking: Insights into Key Issues & KPIs for 2014 & beyond
- Procurement Efficiency Metrics & AI: A Strategic Guide for 2025
- Whitepaper: Efficient Procurement Measures for Effective Cost Benchmarking in Procurement
- Essential sourcing KPIs for Maximizing ROI in Source-to-Pay (S2P) Processes
