Transforming Procurement & Financial Control in Professional Services Control costs, ensure compliance and embrace the power of procurement.
Agenda
01 02 03 04 05 06 07
Executive Overview
Industry Snapshot - Driving India’s economy
Business Imperatives for Indian Enterprises
Challenges vs Solutions Matrix
Solution Deep Dive – How SAP Can Help
Value Delivered to Indian Enterprises
Future of Procurement & Workforce in India
08
Why Now?
09
Call to Action
Executive Summary
The professional services industry faces unique challenges in managing procurement, controlling costs, and ensuring compliance across projects and geographies. As firms scale, inefficient spend processes, manual approvals, and lack of transparency can hinder growth and operational agility.
The typical challenges faced by top management are as follows:
• Fragmented procurement processes leading to inconsistent vendor management.
• Limited visibility into project-related expenses and overheads.
• Compliance risks due to scattered documentation and manual workflows.
• Pressure to reduce costs while maintaining service quality.
• Difficulty aligning finance, operations, and project teams in real time.
At the same time, the professional services market in India is projected to grow at a CAGR of 13.9% between 2025 and 2030, reaching an estimated US$64 billion in revenue. This presents a significant opportunity for professional services firms to expand their operations and accelerate growth.
SAP’s Spend Management solution offers an integrated approach to procurement, supplier management, and spend analytics tailored for the complexities of the professional services sector. It empowers organizations to:
• Centralize and streamline procurement processes.
• Gain real-time insights into spend patterns and supplier performance
• Automate workflows while ensuring compliance and audit readiness.
• Improve forecasting and cost controls across multiple projects.
• Align cross-functional teams with unified data and actionable intelligence.
Executive Overview
These capabilities empower professional services companies to operate more efficiently. Below are some key business benefits they can expect to achieve after successful adoption –
✓ Enhanced visibility and control over spend across projects and regions.
✓ Reduced processing times and administrative overhead.
✓ Increased compliance and audit readiness.
✓ Optimized supplier relationships and negotiated contracts.
✓ Improved financial agility and decision-making capabilities.
Infosys achieved a 50% reduction in supplier onboarding time , NTT Data secured $250 million savings in controllable spend from 2018 to 2021 and Accenture achieved 50% faster turnaround time for purchase requisitions.
With decades of experience delivering enterprise-grade solutions, SAP combines industry best practices with cutting-edge technologies. Our Spend Management framework is built to meet the demands of service-driven organizations, enabling them to operate efficiently, mitigate risks, and scale with confidence. Next Steps This flipbook outlines how SAP Spend Management can transform procurement and finance operations within your organization. We invite you to explore actionable strategies, implementation frameworks, and real-world success stories designed to help your business navigate spend-related challenges and achieve sustainable growth.
Growth and Sectoral Overview
Professional services market in India is expected to grow at a CAGR of 13.9% from 2025 to 2030 and is estimated to generate revenue of US$ 64 Billion
Source: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/horizon/outlook/it-professional-services-market/india
Sectoral share of services sector in terms of GVA, exports and employment
• Bubble size represents sectoral share in India’s services sector employment • Professional, scientific & other business services is a sector with high export & GVA, low employment share
Sector to Defend- Sustain global sectoral presence and enhance market growth
Source: Economic Survey- 2024-25; Government of India
Business Imperatives for Indian Enterprises
Procurement in India’s professional services industry struggles with intangibility of services, fragmented spend, vendor performance measurement, regulatory complexities, and lack of digital visibility
Spend as a percentage of total transactions
ERP master/ service items 12%
Travel andexpense 8%
Contingent labor/ time sheets 25%
Catalog/spot/ marketplace 25%
Recurring service/ contract/rental 12%
Complex service/ SOW/limit order 18%
Trend
Impact on Professional Services Procurement
Generative AI & Automation
Faster and smarter procurement cycles through automated workflows and intelligent supplier selection. Enhanced control over unmanaged spend and data-driven contract negotiations. Suppliers evaluated on sustainability, diversity, and ethical practices
Spend Analytics & Visibility
ESG Integration
Risk & Resilience
Flexible contracts and diversified supplier base to reduce disruptions.
Digital Procurement Platforms
Cloud-based tools replacing manual, legacy systems for efficiency.
Outcome-Based Partnerships
Shift to collaborative, long-term supplier relationships.
Local Sourcing Initiatives
Government policies encouraging engagement with domestic service providers
Building a Future-Ready Workforce
The procurement function of Professional Services Industry continues to focus on building a future ready workforce that can adequately handle the available digital capabilities
Source: Economist Impact 2025: Executive survey on Procurement
With flat budgets and shift towards technology investments, procurement organizations may become slimmer and new operating models being deployed.
People that focused on technical procurement skills alone may find themselves displaced
Challenges vs Solutions Matrix
In the Professional Services industry, procurement transformation is essential to unlock visibility, ensure compliance, and shift from tactical cost control to a strategic enabler of growth and client value
Challenge
SAP Solution
Impact
Excel or email based Sourcing SAP Ariba Sourcing Digitalizes and streamlines the full sourcing lifecycle—from RFP creation and supplier invitation to bid evaluation and award—minimizing manual work and cycle time.
Fragmented & Indirect Spend (software, training, travel, legal, contractors)
SAP Ariba Buying + Catalogs
Provides a unified, self-service platform for employees to source approved services & tools from catalogs; improves control and reduces maverick spend. Centralized contract repository, clause library, and compliance tracking to avoid overbilling, manage renewals, and enforce legal safeguards. Manages external workforce lifecycle – sourcing, contracting, onboarding, compliance checks, and time & expense tracking for gig/freelancers. Consolidates decentralized spend data from multiple practices (IT, legal, HR); provides dashboards for CFO and CPO to monitor services procurement. Tracks supplier ESG certifications, sustainability scores, and ensures vendor alignment with client ESG mandates.
Contract Complexity (SOWs, rate cards, IP clauses)
SAP Ariba Contracts/Icertis
Talent Procurement (freelancers, gig consultants)
SAP Fieldglass
Lack of Spend Visibility Across Units
SAP Spend Control Tower
ESG & Sustainability Compliance
Ariba SLP and Supplier Risk
SAP Ariba Sourcing
Accelerated Sourcing Cycles: Automates the end-to-end process of requesting proposals, comparing bids, and awarding contracts—reducing turnaround times and freeing procurement teams from manual paperwork. Risk Reduction and Policy Compliance: Guided sourcing workflows enforce company policies and regulatory requirements at every step, reducing exposure to maverick spending or contracts with non-compliant vendors. Data-Driven Decision Making: Built-in analytics deliver clear visibility into spend patterns, supplier performance, and sourcing outcomes, helping procurement leaders to make informed, strategic choices.
Enhanced Collaboration: Provides a single sourcing platform for procurement, legal, suppliers and business stakeholders to communicate and collaborate.
Seamless Integration: Integrates with contract management and supplier management, supporting efficient onboarding of approved suppliers and ensuring contract terms are monitored throughout the engagement. Business Outcome: ✓ Incremental price optimization/cost reduction potential of 3% - 8% with improved sourcing strategies, e-auctions , new vendor introduction, better reporting and analytics
✓ 25%-35% reduction in manual activities associated with sourcing
✓ Accelerate PR-PO cycle time with elimination of manual efforts
✓ Complete Audit trail with better visibility and transparency
SAP Ariba Buying
Simplifies Requisition Process: Offers an easy self-service interface where professionals can create and submit requests, with automated routing and approval workflows that align with business needs. Ensures Compliance & Controls Maverick Spend: Embeds procurement policies into the buying process, instantly flagging and preventing non-compliant or off-contract service spend before requests are submitted. Enhances Supplier Collaboration: Works easily with trusted suppliers, making it simple to choose, work with, and get quotes from them for short-term or specialized projects that rely on people and expertise. Drives Process Efficiency & Transparency: Automates and records all requisition steps, approval flows, and budget checks, producing an audit trail that is critical for cost tracking and regulatory needs in professional services. Boosts User Adoption: Provides a familiar, guided, consumer-like shopping experience that reduces training needs and encourages broader adoption, allowing both procurement specialists and business users to manage service buying confidently.
Business Outcome: ✓ Easier, mobile, AI/ML end-user requesting ✓ Higher user adoption / customer 479K users, 65 countries ✓ Savings of $20M in contact leakage per $1B spend ✓ 14% Reduction in Maverick Spend ✓ Managed catalogs with catalogue enablement
SAP Ariba Contracts & Icertis Contract Intelligence
Improves Contract Visibility: Create a unified searchable repository of contracts including historical and 3rd party/external paper contracts. Provides deep insights into contractual terms, trends, deviations and risks. Automates Contract Requests & Authoring: Using an easy self-service interface to collect contract requests from business teams, contract managers can generate draft contracts that adhere to organization standards and policies. Rule-based dynamic contract assembly ensures that contracts are adaptive and clauses are automatically added depending on the context. Ensures Real-Time Compliance Monitoring: C ontinuously monitors contract performance against agreed terms, using smart rules and alerts to flag potential compliance issues. Improves governance across departments by aligning contract terms with procurement execution . Drives Contract Collaboration: Enables secure collaboration with cross-functional teams and external parties through integrated communication tools, and audit-ready workflows. Easily capture contractual redlines, analyze them and route deviations for approval to relevant stakeholders Identify and Mitigate Contractual Risks: Uses AI to identify common risk factors such as ambiguous language, hidden obligations, unacceptable positions, & third-party dependencies. Proactively manage legal, financial, and operational risks to ensure compliance and flag deviations early.
Business Outcome: ✓ 250K+ supplier contracts in 17 languages ✓ Enforce contract terms and purchase orders across 765 legal entities ✓ Cost savings of $70mil+ per year ✓ Supplier contract awarding accelerated by 60% ✓ 15-30% reduction in operational costs ✓ Compliance with standards like BAA, HIPAA, CCPA, GDPR, COPPA,ISO 27001
SAP Fieldglass
Full Lifecycle Management: Automates sourcing, onboarding, management, evaluation, payment, and offboarding of contingent workers in a single system, reducing manual effort and errors across all phases.
Talent Sourcing & Selection: Uses AI and machine learning to quickly identify and rank top candidates, compare vendor proposals, and guide hiring managers to the best talent.
Operational Efficiency: Streamlines requisition approval, time sheet and expense processing, invoicing, and ensures accurate payments, reducing delays and increasing satisfaction for both managers and workers. Centralized Visibility & Analytics: Provides detailed reporting on spend, assignments, performance, and workforce distribution, supporting better planning and strategic decision-making.
Global Scalability: Supports contingent workforce management in more than 190 countries, handling local regulations, multi-language support, and global tax compliance.
Business Outcome: ✓ Visibility to external workforce for strategic planning ✓ Process efficiencies help leaders focus on core ✓ 30% improvement in cycle time for on/offboarding ✓ Significant savings by eliminating invoice errors ✓ Up to 2% program savings with rate card enforcement
SAP Ariba Supplier Management
Centralized Supplier Management: Provides a unified platform to onboard, qualify, segment, and manage suppliers with up-to-date supplier information maintained by suppliers themselves, ensuring data accuracy and reducing administrative overhead.
Supplier Performance Monitoring: Tracks supplier quality and delivery metrics with performance scorecards, enabling continuous improvement and better supplier selection.
Real-Time Risk Monitoring: Continuously monitors supplier risk using data from 600,000+ public and private sources, providing early warning on financial, operational, environmental, social, regulatory, and legal risks affecting suppliers. Risk Scoring and Segmentation: Uses personalized risk scoring and segmentation to prioritize due diligence efforts on high-risk suppliers, reducing disruption risks in critical service engagements. Compliance and Risk Mitigation: Supports regulatory compliance through ongoing assessments, third-party risk questionnaires, and automated alerts on policy violations or adverse events, vital for meeting industry and legal standards. Business Outcome: ✓ Up to 40% reduction on-boarding Cycle time ✓ Compliance to vendor Salutatory Documentations / Certifications ✓ Vendor self-service capabilities simplify supplier experience for updating their profile information or bank records, certificate etc.. ✓ Mitigate supplier risk & disruption
SAP Spend Control Tower
Comprehensive Spend Visibility: Aggregates spend data across all suppliers, contracts, and categories—highlighting overlapping suppliers providing similar services or goods across business units . Supplier Classification and Grouping: AI algorithms automatically classify suppliers by category, location, and service type, and group related suppliers that may be part of the same parent company. Smart Dashboards & Reporting: Provides customizable dashboards with KPIs relevant to professional services procurement, such as service category performance, supplier concentration, and contract compliance.
Spend Analysis: The tool identifies high-volume spend spread thinly across multiple suppliers where consolidating to fewer vendors could yield volume discounts.
Supplier Performance and Risk Profiles: Consolidation suggestions consider supplier risk ratings and performance metrics, recommending consolidation toward reliable, high- performing suppliers. Business Outcome: ✓ Achieved significant cost reductions—often in the range of 10-20%—through better spend management and supplier negotiation ✓ Reduced procurement cycle times by up to 30%, gaining agility in sourcing and contracting ✓ Enhanced supplier compliance and risk management, lowering disruptions and regulatory issues ✓ Improved strategic supplier relationships and data-driven procurement planning
7 Reasons Why You Should Start Now!
1. Increasing Complexity of Operations: Professional services firms are now managing more global projects, diverse teams, and clients across regions. Without efficient spend management, operational overheads and compliance risks escalate. 2. Rising Client Expectations: Clients demand faster delivery, better cost control, and higher transparency. Efficient spend processes enable firms to meet these expectations without compromising service quality. 3. Digital Transformation Accelerating: Organizations are shifting toward integrated, cloud-based systems. Delaying adoption risks falling behind competitors already leveraging automation and real-time insights and losing client & revenue. 4. Compliance and Regulatory Pressures: Financial governance, audits, and reporting standards are becoming stricter in every countries, specially in India. Structured spend management ensures firms stay compliant and avoid high penalties. 5. Cost Optimization Imperative: Post-pandemic recovery and inflationary pressures make controlling costs more critical than ever. Spend visibility and supplier management are key levers for maintaining profitability and stay competitive. 6. Talent and Resource Allocation: With talent scarcity in many regions, firms need to optimize existing resources, reduce wasteful spending, and enable teams to focus on high-value activities. Firms are more and more relying on external workforce to make resource allocation agile, flexible and cost-effective. 7. Data-Driven Decision Making: Access to real-time analytics empowers leadership to make informed decisions, pivot quickly, and align teams toward strategic goals. Without tools like category management, AI/ML driven decision making, firms can not compete in the market as well as meet clients’ expectation to retain them.
In summary, NOW is the time for professional services firms to streamline spend management, automate procurement, and optimize resources to stay compliant, profitable, and competitive.
Call to Action
1. See It in Action Discover how SAP Spend Management can optimize your operations—request a personalized demo today. → EXPERIENCE 2. Engage with an Expert Ready to take control of your spend? Book a 30-minute consultation with our experts. → ENGAGE 3. Explore Spend Management Learn and explore SAP’s Spend Management portfolio and see how leading organizations are leveraging them. → EXPLORE
WEBSITE: SAP.COM/INDIA
PHONE: +91-80-66655771 | 1-800-266-2208
EMAIL: contactFSM@sap.com
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