90% of Procurement and Sourcing Executives Say Managing Supply Chain Disruptions is Top Priority, According to New Keelvar Survey

Keelvar, the leading global provider of intelligent sourcing optimization and automation for procurement teams, today released the results for its first annual 2021 Voices of Sourcing report. The study includes insights from procurement leaders worldwide on emerging challenges and priorities amid this year's ongoing global supply chain disruptions.

The research found that managing supply chain issues is the top priority for procurement and sourcing executives, with 68% noting it's a very important priority and 22% saying it's somewhat important. The top three challenges keeping executives up at night are meeting cost and reliability targets, fluctuating supply and capacity constraints, and the ability to react to disruptions. This has led to a shift in sourcing strategies, where speed and reliability are now tied with cost as the number one supplier attribute organizations look for when selecting suppliers.

"Today's bottlenecked supply chains are causing delays and shortages like we've never seen before," said Alan Holland, founder and CEO of Keelvar. "Procurement leaders are facing severe capacity and labor limitations, a spike in canceled contracts, supplier risk and more while trying to balance priorities like sustainability and reliability. With complexity at an all-time high, organizations must have the ability to make quick sourcing decisions to ensure continuity and resiliency. Keelvar's agile sourcing solutions are helping our global customers navigate through the many pressures revealed in this data."

Select highlights from the research include:

• Sustainability will increase in value over the next five years as the top sourcing priority ? outranking quality, innovation, cost and more ? yet only 32% rank it as very important to them right now. 65% of professionals say justifying potential cost increases associated with making sustainable decisions remains a roadblock.

• 35% of sourcing teams reported significant or slight growth in the size of their team over the last 12 months ? regardless of tightened budgets and higher manufacturing and logistics costs. More than half of respondents predict that their sourcing teams will grow over the next five years, suggesting a heightening of procurement's strategic importance to the enterprise.

• Many teams haven't fully adopted modern sourcing technology to manage today's complexity. In fact, nearly a quarter of respondents rely mostly on manual processes and spreadsheets ? yet 99% of respondents agree parts of the sourcing process should be more automated.

• Geographical differences are evident ? especially in sustainability, with 18% more respondents from Europe/UK listing it as very important vs. North American respondents.

The 2021 Voices of Sourcing survey represents feedback from more than 100 procurement leaders in industries including retail, consumer goods, food & beverage, pharmaceutical products, industrial manufacturing, automotive manufacturing, transportation/warehousing and more. Leaders manage spend categories such as transportation, direct materials, indirect materials, indirect services and packaging materials. Nearly all of the respondents work for supply chain-driven companies, and over 75% for large $1 billion-plus enterprises.

As part of its survey commitment to respondents, Keelvar donated to 501(c)3 charity One Tree Planted to have 1000 new trees planted to support environmental sustainability.

To read Keelvar's 2021 Voices of Sourcing report, visit https://www.keelvar.com/resources/2021-voices-of-sourcing-report.

About Keelvar

Keelvar is moving procurement forward with its best-in-breed software for intelligent sourcing optimization and automation, designed for easy adoption, scale, and productivity. Keelvar's SaaS-based award-winning products utilize artificial intelligence, machine learning, and category expertise to deliver purpose-built solutions that are delivering results for blue-chip global companies and mid-sized enterprises. Customers are turning to Keelvar to advance their strategic sourcing journey spanning logistics, packaging, direct materials, and indirect spends. That momentum has resulted in Keelvar receiving $18 million in Series A funding in June 2020 and steady growth of its team worldwide, with headquarters in Cork, Ireland. Visit www.keelvar.com for more information.