Procurement as a transformation engine: How Chief Transformation Officers can gain control over cost, risk, and delivery

As organizations grapple with relentless technological disruption, Chief Transformation Officers are being asked to deliver large-scale change faster, at lower cost, and with greater certainty than ever before. Yet many find themselves battling the same structural constraints: budgets that tighten just as ambitions grow, delivery teams stretched beyond capacity, and supplier landscapes that become more crowded and harder to control with every new digital initiative.

Compounding this pressure is a rising exposure to commercial, operational, and delivery risk. Transformation programs increasingly rely on third-party partners for critical capabilities, but fragmented sourcing decisions and limited commercial oversight make it difficult for transformation leaders to keep programs on track. Cost overruns, slipped timelines, and delivery failures are becoming the rule rather than the exception.

And while Chief Transformation Officers are held accountable for these outcomes, they often lack full access to one of the most powerful levers for regaining control: procurement. When deployed strategically, procurement can serve as a transformation engine, helping transformation leaders reduce cost, mitigate risk, and improve delivery certainty across an organization’s most complex change programs.

Why commercial expertise matters: The transformation supply market

Tech transformation programs rely on specialist supply markets, each carrying distinct opportunities, risks, and commercial complexities.

• System Integrators (SIs): Offer strong delivery capability, but commercial models are often geared towards effort rather than outcomes. Milestone-linked contracts can significantly increase delivery confidence.
• BPO & Managed Services providers: We see a wide variability in maturity, pricing, and transition capability. Transparent benchmarking, scalable SLAs, and protections against hidden transition costs are essential.
• Cloud & SaaS providers: Licensing structures, usage-based pricing, and integration dependencies require active end-to-end commercial lifecycle management to prevent spiraling spend.
• Niche technology SMEs: Often critical for innovation, but introduce resilience and continuity risks in multi-vendor ecosystems. Clear accountability and controlled hand-offs between vendors are essential to avoid delivery problems. 

These nuances can easily derail cost control, capacity availability, and delivery – which is why firmly embedding commercial expertise in transformation programs is a priority.

Understanding procurement’s potential as a strategic transformation partner

When engaged early and strategically, procurement becomes one of the Chief Transformation Officer’s most powerful partners in securing commercial and delivery success. Procurement has a key role to play in mitigating risks and putting transformation teams – and not their suppliers – in the driver’s seat.