Procurement cycle time by contract value

Six-figure deals take twice as long to close

The duration of a procurement cycle is fundamentally tied to the size of an investment. While requests under $10,000 are finalized in an average of 50 days, this doubles for contracts exceeding $100,000.

This delay is driven by intensifying layers of scrutiny. These often come with larger financial commitments, necessitating rigorous compliance checks, multi-stakeholder assessments and extended negotiation rounds.

This is particularly evident in the "middle ground" of SaaS spend. Contracts valued between $10,000 and $50,000 take an average of 66 days to clear. This jumps to 75 days for those in the $50,000 to $100,000 range. These timelines represent more than just administrative lag – they are a barrier to operational momentum.

Elongated cycles are often viewed as an inevitable byproduct of corporate governance. However, those leveraging AI-powered procurement orchestration are in a position to defy this. By automating complex workflows and surfacing the data needed to navigate common compliance and stakeholder hurdles, businesses stand to significantly reduce these timelines without affecting procurement quality.