The best procurement control is the one nobody notices
Ask a clinician what they think of their organisation’s procurement process, and if the answer is enthusiastic, something unusual is happening. The far more common answer, delivered with the particular weariness reserved for administrative systems that get in the way of patient care, is some version of: it’s fine, as long as I don’t have […]
What 99% onboarding looks like
There’s a version of supplier onboarding that most retail and food businesses know too well: a spreadsheet that gets more unreliable the longer it exists, a handful of suppliers nobody’s quite sure are still compliant, and a contract repository that’s really just a folder structure held together by whoever set it up originally and hasn’t […]
The trade-off telecoms procurement teams shouldn’t have to make
There’s a version of procurement that telecoms businesses have learned to distrust, the version that treats every new supplier relationship as a six-week gauntlet of forms, reviews and sign-offs, regardless of how urgent the business need actually is. In an industry where a competitor can stand up a new network offering in the time it […]
The supplier conversation that should have happened three months earlier
Every manufacturer has a version of this story. A key component supplier flags a capacity constraint, quietly, almost in passing, during a routine check-in. Nobody escalates it immediately, because on paper the supplier is still delivering, the numbers still add up, and there are a dozen more urgent things competing for attention that week. Three […]
The project was already decided before it started
There’s a moment on most construction projects where the outcome is essentially locked in, and it isn’t the moment anyone expects. It isn’t the first day on site, and it definitely isn’t the final account. It’s earlier: when the work packages were sourced, when a subcontractor’s insurance and competence were checked, or weren’t, when the […]
The leak nobody budgeted for
Nobody sets out to lose money slowly. It’s not how procurement failures usually happen in energy and utilities businesses. There’s rarely a single bad decision to point to. Instead there’s a rate card agreed two years ago that nobody’s revisited, a contractor whose insurance certificate expired quietly last spring, a contract renewal that auto-triggered because […]
The audit question no one wants to be asked twice
There is a particular kind of quiet that falls over a room when a regulator asks a question nobody in it can fully answer. It usually is not a technical question. It is something closer to: “Which of your critical suppliers would cause the most disruption if they failed tomorrow, and what would you do […]
From recognition to real transformation: TSM at Ivalua NOW and Procurement Innovation on Tour
Over the past few months, the procurement community has come together at two of Ivalua’s key events: Ivalua NOW and Procurement Innovation on Tour London. For TSM, both events were opportunities to reconnect with customers and partners, exchange ideas and celebrate the organisations and people turning digital transformation into real results. Celebrating IPC International at […]
TSM shortlisted for the CIPS Excellence in Procurement & Supply Awards for the third consecutive year
London, UK – 2 July 2026 TSM is delighted to announce that it has been shortlisted for the CIPS Excellence in Procurement & Supply Awards 2026, marking the third consecutive year the consultancy has been recognised by one of the profession’s most prestigious award programmes. This year’s shortlist recognises TSM’s partnership with IPC International in […]
Practical AI in Procurement: Where It’s Actually Delivering Value Right Now
AI in procurement has generated no shortage of ambitious claims this year, autonomous agents negotiating contracts, fully automated sourcing decisions, procurement functions running themselves. The reality on the ground looks different, and arguably more useful. Recent industry research points to a wide gap between intention and deployment. A large majority of procurement organisations are now […]