A technology company operating across multiple global markets had scaled its vendor base to over 7,000 vendors without a formal procurement policy to govern any of it. Approvals were inconsistent, legal exposure was rising and accountability was nearly absent across the entire procurement function.  

Through Colleague-as-a-Service, Denova embedded a seasoned Procurement Manager to help the organisation systematically build its procurement foundation. What followed was a structured, collaborative programme to establish clear policies, close compliance gaps and introduce the governance controls the business had long been missing. 

As a result, there was a meaningful shift in how the wider business thinks about procurement operations. 

What Was Lacking

When Denova’s colleague joined the engagement in early 2026, the scale of the gap became clear quickly. The organisation had grown rapidly but its internal procurement controls had not kept pace.

• No formal procurement policy: There was no documented framework to guide purchasing decisions, leaving stakeholders to proceed based on individual judgement or past experience. Confusion around which workflows to follow was widespread. 

• Absent approval matrix: All purchase approvals, regardless of value, were routed to the CFO. Low deals still required executive sign-off, creating unnecessary bottlenecks at the top of the organisation. 

• Over 7,000 non-compliant vendors: A significant portion of the vendor base had incomplete or missing onboarding documentation, representing a substantial compliance risk that had been left unaddressed. 

• No legal visibility on contracts: Many contracts, including multi-year agreements, had been signed without any legal review. Some contained unfavourable terms and no opt-out provisions, leaving the company financially exposed with limited recourse. 

• Duplicated effort and unclear ownership: Manual coordination, ad hoc approvals and a lack of defined accountability created delays, confusion and repeated back-and-forth across teams. 

• Limited system integration: The company used two separate platforms — Zip for purchase orders and Workday for payments — but data was not flowing cleanly between them, undermining visibility and reporting. 

Putting Structure in Place

Rather than treating this as a policy-writing exercise, the engagement was approached as a full governance reset. The priority was not just producing documentation, but building a procurement function that the business could trust and use.

• Policy design with early integration: Key principles were introduced into existing workflows progressively. By the time formal implementation begins, stakeholders will already be familiar with the expected practices. 

• Approval matrix restructuring: A tiered approval framework was proposed to distribute decision-making appropriately, reducing unnecessary escalation to the CFO while maintaining accountability at each spending threshold. 

• Vendor compliance programme: A structured effort was launched to bring all 7,000+ vendors into full compliance with onboarding requirements, closing a risk gap that had accumulated over time. 

• Legal alignment: Procurement was repositioned as a first-line legal reviewer, working directly under the Chief Legal Officer. The team reviews contracts for high-risk language, escalates red flags to legal and acts as an intermediary with vendors. 

• System improvement: Alongside policy work, the team engaged with Zip and Workday to improve the data integration between platforms, reducing manual reconciliation and improving downstream reporting accuracy. 

• Dashboard development: A procurement metrics dashboard was designed and presented to management, providing visibility into spend by team, category and volume for the first time. 

How Structure Was Delivered

Delivering across all of these workstreams simultaneously required close collaboration with internal stakeholders, particularly the Procurement Director, who championed each initiative and helped drive alignment across the business.  

One of the more challenging aspects was handling a legacy contract portfolio where legal had not been involved. Renegotiating vendor terms after execution, without opt-out provisions and with previous signatories no longer at the company, required careful navigation and stakeholder communication.  

Where urgent business requests arose, the team worked to adapt the process rather than enforce rigid timelines, which helped build credibility and trust with internal teams who had previously seen procurement as a bottleneck.

The Results

What We’ve Learned

Governance gaps compound quickly in fast-growing organisations Without a procurement foundation in place early, risk accumulates faster than it can be managed. Contracts get signed, vendors go unchecked and accountability erodes. The cost of retrofitting governance is almost always higher than building it right the first time. 

Policy alone is not enough; adoption has to be designed in A policy that people do not follow provides limited protection. Embedding new practices gradually, communicating clearly and maintaining consistency are what turn documentation into real operational change.