The Things We Still Sign Off

LET’S STEP INSIDE →

In Today's Issue

• The Quiet Fix - Zombie Approvals

• The Tech Bit - Digital Twins

• My Best Post Lately

• Template(s) of the Week

The Quiet Fix

ZOMBIE APPROVALS

In case you were wondering what this catchy subject meant, "Zombie approvals" are legacy sign-offs lurking within your procurement workflows.

Those that you probably added years ago, now meaningless, but still slowing you down.

They're relics of previous leadership preferences, outdated policies, or overly cautious procedures.

These zombies drain your team's energy, create unnecessary bottlenecks, and most importantly… frustrate your stakeholders!

Practical examples you might recognise:

• Low-value spend sign-offs: Approvals needed for routine items like office stationery or minor IT equipment.

• Annual contract renewals: Multiple approvals required annually even when the scope, pricing, and terms haven't changed.

• Duplicate legal checks: Legal approvals for standard template agreements already vetted multiple times.

• Multiple-budget-holder sign-offs: Having two or more budget holders approve small budget deviations (e.g., under £500).

How to remove your zombie approvals:

1. List your approvals: Map a quick workflow of your current approval steps (do this today - it shouldn't take longer than 20 minutes!).

2. Identify unnecessary layers: Highlight any step where the approver is habitually rubber-stamping without meaningful review or challenge.

3. Get alignment: Propose their removal or delegation (e.g., empower lower-level managers or automate through thresholds).

4. Communicate clearly: Tell your stakeholders you've simplified the process to speed things up—everyone wins.

This quick, cost-free fix can instantly improve your procurement speed, satisfaction, and reputation.

The Tech Bit

DIGITAL TWINS

Most of what we call procurement is done looking backward.

Reports, audits, reviews.. all attempts to make sense of what already happened.

But every so often, a moment appears when we can turn and look the other way. Not to predict the future (like a gambler) but to sit with it before it arrives.

A Digital Twin offers that kind of moment.

It’s a living model of your procurement landscape. A space where your data moves.

Spend, contracts, suppliers, risk… all shifting in relation to each other, the way things do in real life.

Except here, you can stop time, test a decision, and watch what unfolds.

Just like stepping to the bank of a river just long enough to see where the current is pulling, before you wade in.

There’s no magic in it.

Just a little more attention, a little more time, and the willingness to look ahead instead of behind.

That moment, the pause, the breath, the ability to sense what might happen, is where I think procurement can start to use Digital Twins differently.

The list below that I have created is where I believe a Digital Twin offers unique value you can’t get from a simple dashboard or policy change, but justifies the kind of conscious build this requires.

1. Tail Spend Rationalisation Simulation

We all wants to “fix” tail spend. But few can show what happens after the fix. A digital twin could simulate:

• Supplier reduction and its impact on admin cost

• Preferred supplier rerouting

• Policy enforcement (e.g. P-card thresholds)

• Invoice volume and processing effort shifts

What you’d need:
Spend cube, supplier master data, invoice volume, transaction history (from ERP, P2P, AP, and BI tools like Power BI or Tableau)

Why it’s worth doing:
It’s about safely testing “what if” decisions and seeing second-order consequences before rollout rather than looking back at past spend.

2. Contract Policy Impact Modelling

Thinking of changing payment terms? Adding a Living Wage clause? A digital twin could simulate:

• Supplier exits or pricing changes

• Legal exposure or dispute risk

• Impact on working capital, payment performance, or supply base stability

What you’d need:
Contract metadata, supplier segmentation, payment history, risk ratings (from CLM, ERP, and sourcing platforms)

Why it’s worth doing:
Because this lets you test the commercial and operational cost of policy change before you trigger it and adjust with your eyes open.

3. Category Strategy Simulator

You’re rethinking your consulting, facilities, or marketing strategy.
A digital twin could model:

• Consolidation vs diversification

• Sourcing route impact (e.g. framework vs RFP)

• Demand variation across business units

What you’d need:
Historic category spend, sourcing routes, supplier overlap, stakeholder demand
(from ERP, sourcing tools, budget systems)

Why it’s worth doing:
Because most category strategies are built in decks. This helps you show and test the impact of real strategic choices.

But Is It Feasible?

MVP cost estimate: A working digital twin for a single use case could cost £15k–£30k, assuming you use tools you already have and focus narrowly.

What you don’t need:
You don’t need real-time feeds from supplier systems, or to model your entire procurement world.

Start small. Pick a specific scenario. Use your own data.

Caution:
Don’t build a Digital Twin if a dashboard or process fix will do the job. This is about making better, faster decisions where there’s complexity and cost to getting it wrong.

My Final Thought

Digital Twins won’t solve every procurement problem. But for the big, messy, high-stakes decisions, where data, politics, and uncertainty collide, they offer something we’ve never really had: a way to see the impact before we commit.

A Digital Twin won’t give you all the answers, but when used right, it changes the conversation from “let’s wait and see” to “let’s test it first.”

My Best Post Lately

22 PROCUREMENT SKILLS FOR 2030

Hiring hasn’t caught up with how Procurement is changing.

Most job specs still ask for “cost savings”, while the real work is shifting towards ESG, AI, and value chain risk.

I mapped 22 skills into one simple view:

• what’s core

• what’s rising

• what’s quietly becoming irrelevant.

It sparked a lot of conversation. You can read the post here.

READ THE FULL POST →

Template(s) of the week 

1,000+ Subscribers Celebration 🎉

I am so thankful so many of you want to read my stuff, thank you!

To mark this little milestone, I’m sharing two freebies instead of one.

And if you've already used them and found them useful, feel free to drop a quick review on the store. It really helps.

A Final Note

SMALL CHANGE OF PLANS

I’m still getting to grips with the rhythm of this newsletter (you might’ve noticed the new layout today), so I’m making a small tweak to the schedule while I A/B test a few things.

From now on, newsletters will land in your inbox on Tuesday mornings (UK time).

So just a heads-up that the next one will come two days later than usual, not five days early. I will send you a reminder on the Sunday in case you forget 🙂 

I really hope that is ok!

As always, if you have any feedback, comments, ideas for new posts… anything! just reply to this e-mail and let me know.

It would be hugely appreciated!

Until next time,

Procurement worth reading.