Developers, business units, and functional teams can now acquire technology with far less friction than in the past. For procurement and IT leaders, the harder task is maintaining visibility, managing risk, and ensuring technology investments deliver business value.
At a forum in Singapore hosted by AWS Marketplace and organised by Jicara Media, procurement and technology leaders discussed how procurement’s role is evolving in response, from earlier involvement in technology decisions to managing the governance challenges created by AI.
Procurement and IT are sharing ownership
For many organisations, procurement and IT have traditionally operated with different priorities.
“Historically, procurement has often been viewed as a strict gatekeeper, while IT is focused on rapidly deploying solutions to drive technology roadmaps,” said Kobu Kotaraju, Global Procurement Lead, CBRE.
Kotaraju argued that the real challenge is not inherent friction, but structural alignment.
“I don’t think it’s so much a matter of friction, but rather how we align our objectives,” he said. “It is about finding a common path to ensure that we work toward the same enterprise goals.”
Rather than focusing solely on the transactional purchasing of software, he believes organisations should move towards joint ownership, where procurement and IT share responsibility for ensuring technology investments deliver the intended business outcomes.
“If you don’t work together, you won’t reach the finish line,” Kotaraju said. “When a project falls short, both functions feel the impact. That shared accountability naturally incentivises teams to collaborate, resolve issues early, and deliver real value.”
Procurement needs earlier involvement
The panel also highlighted the importance of involving procurement earlier in technology decisions.
Arun Saksena, Global Lead: Strategy, Customer and Channel Programs, AWS Marketplace at Amazon Web Services (AWS), described procurement as a “team sport” involving procurement, IT, and business stakeholders.
One recurring challenge, he said, is that procurement is often brought in after a vendor or product has already been selected.
“What I’d like to see a little bit more is procurement being pulled early in the process to develop the sourcing strategy, help assess the supply base, conduct should-cost analysis and bring pricing intelligence to the table,” Saksena said.
Kotaraju added that early engagement helps organisations identify operational and commercial risks much sooner while allowing teams to evaluate a broader, more competitive range of potential suppliers.
Managing risk, visibility, and control
Technology spending has also become more difficult to forecast.
Traditional procurement often revolved around hardware purchases and software licences. Today, cloud spending, SaaS subscriptions, and consumption-based pricing models introduce greater variability.
Drawing on his experience as a CIO, Saksena said budget pressures often shaped technology decisions. “Cost was my number one concern,” he admitted. “Anytime I was exceeding budget, I had to go and have a very hard conversation with my CFO.”
While employees increasingly have access to powerful technology tools, Saksena said organisations still need visibility into what is being purchased and used.
“You want to enable innovation, but you want to put in place guardrails around visibility,” he said, adding that these concerns extend beyond software purchasing to shadow IT and shadow AI.
Saksena also said shadow IT and shadow procurement are unlikely to disappear.
“The best you can do as an IT leader, or as a procurement leader, is at least be aware of what’s going on, have visibility into that, and try to influence it by bringing in your own expertise,” he said.
AI changes procurement, but expertise still matters
Kotaraju said AI should be viewed as an enabler rather than a replacement for procurement expertise.
“AI is an incredibly powerful partner. But you cannot lose control of the strategy, you need to remain firmly in the driver’s seat,” he said.
Kotaraju believes professionals still need the foundational knowledge, critical thinking skills, and domain experience to evaluate AI-generated outputs objectively rather than accepting them uncritically.
Throughout the discussion, procurement emerged as a strategic partner in helping organisations manage technology investments, risk, and governance.
