Digital Procurement Engine

Product Development & Procurement

Digital Procurement Engine is McKinsey’s next-generation approach to source-to-pay (S2P) transformations that delivers value, fast.

We help clients design new ways to get value from their S2P function, helping them navigate the complexity of technology transformations, ensure operational readiness, build capabilities, and transition to a new digitally enabled way of working. Our methodology works at the intersection of people and technology, delivering S2P excellence with results that stick.

Our approach

We prioritize people and the value at stake to target immediate and long-term ROI in procurement transformations. Our approach addresses low end-user adoption in S2P transformations, futureproofing your tech stack, and shifting teams to adopt an outcome-focused mindset. We provide end-to-end support—from setting a future-proof procurement vision to deploying a next-generation operating model and sustaining performance for the long term—to deliver tangible improvements for our clients.

Set a North Star

We help the organization, across procurement, finance, IT, operations, and more, to align on a joint source-to-pay vision and ensure it’s in sync with the corporate strategy.

Drive adoption at scale

It’s never just tech. We go beyond implementing the tool: we emphasize shifting mindsets and behaviors to drive true tool adoption.

Build capabilities

Continuing learning journeys well after successful implementation will boost user adoption and higher satisfaction levels.

Design the approach

The future-proof process design is anchored around the user and utilizes personalized user journeys to guide adoption across diverse audiences.

Broaden training scope

Our approach goes beyond technical skills—we focus on long-lasting impact by building functional and leadership expertise.

Measure impact

Setting milestones is important to stay on track. Our impact-backed approach works with project outcomes and continuously measures performance.

Our impact

Triple win

A global insurer launched an enterprise-wide effort with the goal of achieving a more competitive expense ratio. The organization introduced a lean S2P landscape and redesigned its procurement organization. Doing so helped the insurance company increase the speed, agility, and quality of its procurement function, including doubling its spend under management from $1 billion to $2 billion, introducing 15 new cross-functional KPIs, and boosting the number of strategic procurement professionals.

Inflation response

A US-based utility provider was ready to transform its outdated and fragmented S2P process and tool landscape. Within 12 months, the company moved from over ten dispersed systems to one cloud-based S2P solution and created a centralized and effective contract management and sourcing process. They were able to counteract $60 million in cost avoidance from inflationary pressures and working capital impact from payment terms improvement and inventory optimization of $200 million.

M&A success

After many mergers and acquisitions, a global chemicals manufacturer needed to transform their S2P process and consolidate a multitude of systems and disparate processes. They introduced a digitally enabled and standardized approach across 50+ countries with a focus on upskilling and change management. By training up 3,000 end users they were able to extend the visibility across their total spend from 60% to 99%.