IT procurement best practices: A 2025 strategic guide

Once a back-office function, IT procurement has transformed from a transactional task on a supplies list to a strategic growth lever. Considering information technology underpins nearly every aspect of business operations, procurement teams are no longer simply purchasing tools—they’re shaping their organizations’ ability to innovate, pivot, and expand.

But with this increased responsibility comes new challenges. IT procurement specialists now face more complex cybersecurity risks, increasing cost pressures, and higher expectations surrounding sustainable procurement and socially responsible purchasing. And, with more people working remotely, shadow IT has also become a bigger problem, creating additional security risks and opportunities for compliance violations.

To create an effective IT procurement process that can withstand these growing concerns, it's helpful to learn how to build agile workflows for IT purchases, why formal IT procurement management matters, and how to overcome common challenges.

Why IT procurement matters in 2025

As software solutions and other technology needs become more complex and interdependent, IT procurement plays a larger role in keeping your organization adaptable and resilient. It’s no longer just about purchasing licenses or hardware—it’s about aligning technology investments with your long-term business goals.

An organized IT procurement framework supports:

• Cost optimization: Centralized processes help you avoid duplicate or unnecessary purchases and reduce expenses through cost-effective, strategic sourcing.

• Risk reduction: Vetting suppliers and solutions against regulatory, operational, and security standards helps minimize the risk of supply chain disruptions and quality issues.

• Operational efficiencies: Streamlined buying and onboarding processes eliminate bottlenecks, improve cycle times, and lower administrative costs.

Smart business buying solutions even help standardize this process, helping you align purchasing to specific organization-wide goals like cost efficiency, socially responsible purchasing, sustainability, and increased automation.

How to build a modern IT procurement process

Creating a structured IT procurement process can ensure consistency, enhance security, and improve ROI. Here are five IT procurement best practices to help your team operate with more control and foresight.

1. Identify internal needs with a strategic lens

The first step to building a better procurement strategy is always understanding your organization’s business needs. This includes defining goals by department and prioritizing requirements based on factors like: 

• Risk exposure

• Regulatory compliance

• Return on investment

• Strategic fit

It can be challenging to create consistency when different departments have varying demands. Smart business buying tools, with features like custom catalogs and approval workflows, can help you enforce consistent standards across buyers while still giving each team some autonomy to make their own purchasing decisions.

2. Research potential vendors with compliance in mind

Choosing the right vendor goes beyond pricing. To develop a strong vendor selection process, consider creating an evaluation checklist with criteria like the following:

• Security certifications (SOC 2, ISO/IEC 27001, etc.)

• Data protection practices

• Supplier diversity and sustainability credentials

• Proven reliability and customer support

• Financial stability

With features like Guided Buying (a Business Prime feature), you can quickly find suppliers that align with your organizational needs, using intuitive filters to search for certified diverse sellers, buy Climate Pledge Friendly products, and surface local suppliers.

3. Evaluate contract terms

Contract negotiation is a critical part of IT procurement, as evaluating contract terms helps you ensure clarity, assess risk management, and secure the best value for your organization. Whether you’re purchasing procurement software, IT services, or IT products like laptops, be sure to analyze the following:

• Pricing models: Some software providers charge a recurring subscription fee (known as SaaS licensing) while others require a one-time up-front payment (known as perpetual licensing). Make sure you know which kind of license you’re paying for.

• Service-level agreements (SLAs): SLAs outline important performance metrics and provider responsibilities, such as uptime guarantees, response times, and remediation terms. Read these terms carefully to support informed contract negotiation.

• Contract duration: Contracts can be month-to-month, annual, or based on another schedule. Note how long the contract lasts and how renewals and cancellations are managed.

• Data ownership: Data ownership terms specify who controls the data created, collected, and processed by the software. Make sure ownership remains with your organization.

Once your supplier is in place, you can help manage internal compliance with Guided Buying to steer buyers toward preferred vendors and products. You may also be able to take advantage of the Pay by Invoice feature to extend your payments by up to 30 days for more flexibility.

4. Integrate regulatory and security requirements early

Building regulations such as HIPAA, GDPR, SOC 2, and other cybersecurity considerations into the sourcing and vetting process from the outset is essential. Create checklists of regulatory obligations based on your geography and industry, and verify that each vendor meets the baseline requirements. 

5. Finalize agreements and drive adoption

Once you’ve chosen a solution, shift your focus to implementation. To help ensure smooth adoption, consider these strategies:

• Onboarding: Configure new software or tools to align with your organization’s needs and requirements by integrating with existing systems, customizing settings, and establishing user permissions.

• Training: Hold stakeholder training sessions so employees understand how the new tools integrate into their workflows and feel confident using them.

• Communicate: Keep users informed about the implementation timeline, how the tools support organizational goals, and any changes or updates.

• Support: Provide ongoing support via documentation, a help desk, FAQs, and tutorials.

To further streamline adoption, use features like Single Sign-On to simplify your buyer experience and enhance security by requiring users to log in with their existing organizational credentials. You can also set up multi-user accounts to control permissions by role and create unique budgets for different departments or branches with budget management tools. These features are especially helpful for large enterprises.

Key IT procurement challenges and solutions

Even with clear processes, IT procurement still faces complex challenges. Here are a few of the most common issues and strategies for how to solve them:

• Lengthy approval cycles: IT procurement approval cycles may become drawn out due to complex approval hierarchies, reliance on manual processes, poor interdepartmental communication, and limited visibility into progress.

  Solution: Streamline purchasing with automated approvals. Our smart business buying solution lets you set up workflows that automatically route purchase orders to designated approvers, who are then notified and reminded via email.

   

• Shadow IT: Employees sometimes use their own project management software, personal devices, or communication channels for business purposes, which can compromise data security.

  Solution: Increase visibility and control with training on approved procurement processes, custom buying policies, and role-based permissions. If your buyers are frequently on the go, choose a solution that offers mobile purchasing so they can access what they need, when and where they need it.

   

• Disconnected spend: Spending on smaller purchases may occur outside of established procurement processes, which means it lacks proper oversight, tracking, and adherence to company policies. 

  Solution: Centralize spend with streamlined buying journeys that integrate across systems, departments, and locations.

   

• Supplier risk: Issues with your IT vendor relationships, like operational failures or compliance breaches, can lead to financial losses, legal penalties, and reputational damage.

  Solution: Use tools that track supplier performance, credentials, and certifications to ensure effective vendor management.

   

• Global procurement complexity: Procurement teams are facing supply chain disruptions, regulatory hurdles, and fluctuating market conditions that require strategic adaptation and resilience. 

  Solution: Leverage solutions that offer region-specific fulfillment options through local suppliers.

   

Data privacy considerations for compliance and security

With growing regulatory scrutiny, data privacy has become central to IT spending. Procurement specialists must consider factors like:

• Where and how personal data is stored

• How artificial intelligence or machine learning features use customer data

• Whether solutions support encryption and access controls

Cybersecurity measures and data visibility are critical in every phase of technology procurement, just as they are within your organization. According to a study by the Poneman Institute, 49 percent of risk management professionals reported a data breach caused by a third-party vendor in the 12 months prior. These breaches can lead to costs not only in damage control but also in fines, as vendor compliance is ultimately your responsibility.

Use tools that help you stay on top of supplier performance to reduce this administrative burden.

Next steps for future-focused IT procurement

IT procurement can help you standardize processes, embrace automation, and embed socially responsible purchasing into your vendor relationships. It can bring your IT department—and entire organization—greater compliance, control, and consistency while speeding up lifecycle times and reducing manual labor. 

We can help support this transformation by:

• Offering fast shipping, bulk buying discounts, and exclusive offers through Business Prime

• Integrating with more than 300 e-procurement systems

• Delivering real-time analytics to inform smarter decisions
  
  

By putting structure, strategy, and technology behind IT procurement, you can unlock not only cost savings but also the innovation and agility required to thrive in 2025 and beyond.

Explore how we can help your team purchase smarter, faster, and with greater control. Connect with our sales team to explore ways to support your organization’s IT procurement goals.