Smart business buying: A strategic approach to growth and efficiency

As organisations evolve, so do the expectations placed on procurement teams. Today’s procurement leaders are no longer just focused on cost savings; they are helping shape how organisations grow, streamline processes, and make better use of limited resources. The key to unlocking this value? Taking a strategic approach. Whether in healthcare, education, or life sciences, organisations like Achieve Together, The White Horse Federation, and Bayer are rethinking how procurement can create tangible value across the business.

Procurement's role in organisational growth

For many organisations, legacy systems and disconnected processes slow down progress. Strategic procurement shifts the focus—from enforcing rigid controls to enabling smarter and faster decisions. It’s about simplifying complexity, improving transparency, and building the right partnerships to unlock long-term impact

Healthcare: Bringing structure to a decentralised environment

Achieve Together, one of the UK’s leading care providers, faced a significant challenge: fragmented, uncontrolled spend. With thousands of individual credit card transactions taking place annually and limited visibility across teams, there was no central mechanism for oversight, standardisation, or cost savings.

To address the issue, the organisation implemented a standardised procurement process supported by Pay by Invoice and Invoice by Amazon. This transition reduced reliance on personal and ad hoc purchases, introduced monthly invoicing, and enabled the procurement team to gain full visibility over organisational spend.

Local care managers are now able to procure essential items quickly and efficiently, from a consolidated list of approved products—ensuring staff are supported while helping the organisation save time and budget.

Education: Enabling compliant and agile procurement

At The White Horse Federation, which oversees more than 30 schools across Southwest England, the shift to strategic procurement has been a gradual but impactful journey. Early on, the organisation faced a range of challenges: uncontrolled teacher expense claims, multiple currency transactions, high transaction costs, and a lack of spend visibility and control. In many cases, purchasing processes were non-compliant or difficult to audit.

These issues made it clear that a more structured, scalable approach was needed—one that supported both agility in schools and alignment with public sector procurement rules. Through phased implementation, the Federation moved toward centralised, compliant purchasing. Integrating its systems with Punchout and embedding approval workflows helped establish a clear governance model, while reducing friction for staff on the ground. Procurement is now not just a control mechanism, but a strategic enabler. It is guiding spend rather than restricting it, and helping ensure educators have the tools they need, when they need them.

Life Sciences: Streamlining procurement through a trust-based model

At Bayer, a global pharmaceutical and life sciences company, procurement had traditionally focused on reducing risk but at the cost of speed and flexibility. Recognising this, the organisation launched its Freedom to Spend Smartly initiative, which shifted decision-making power closer to the teams with subject-matter expertise.

Rather than requiring upfront approvals, the new model introduced ex-post monitoring—allowing employees to make purchasing decisions immediately, with compliance checks happening after the transaction. This approach helped reduce bottlenecks, improved employee satisfaction, and created space for procurement to focus on strategic initiatives.

Benefits like Guided Buying can support shifts like this one by surfacing preferred suppliers and enforcing category restrictions, giving procurement visibility without getting in the way. 

Characteristics of Smart Business Buying

Organisations embracing smart business buying often exhibit five key traits:

• Empowered teams with accountability – Decentralised decision-making with policy controls

• Data-driven visibility – Real-time insights into purchasing behaviour and supplier performance

• Integrated systems – Procurement tools that reduce friction and support compliance

• Supplier collaboration – Strong partnerships that evolve with business needs

• Agile, user-friendly processes – Simple interfaces that support productivity and reduce manual effort

Strategic procurement is not about restricting spend - it’s about guiding it. Whether in a care home, a classroom, or a corporate lab, smart business buying helps teams operate more effectively, stay compliant, and deliver better outcomes for the organisation. With the right tools, visibility, and supplier relationships, procurement can go far beyond controlling costs. It becomes a key driver of growth, innovation, and long-term value.