Procurement process stage completion times

While internal approvals move fast, negotiations are a bottleneck

With a high percentage of most stages taking less than 24 hours to complete, the data suggests that internal workflows are lean, yet there is still significant room for improvement. Customer Negotiation remains the clear outlier, taking an average of 17.9 days – and stretching to over 32 days for those in the 80th percentile. This highlights why starting renewals early is so vital; once you lose that three-week window, you lose your leverage.

While subsequent stages like Commercial Approval (9.1 days) and Legal (8.6 days) typically take about a week, procurement leaders should be wary of "stage drift." In the longest cases, these approvals can balloon to 12 or 13 days, often needlessly. By identifying what causes these delays – whether it’s missing data at the intake stage or a lack of integration with the tools teams already use – procurement can shave crucial days off the cycle.

On the positive side, IT/Security and Executive Approvals are now averaging closer to 6 days, with nearly half of these tasks being cleared in under 24 hours. By assessing why Contracting (3.9 days) is so much faster than earlier approvals, teams can replicate those efficiencies across the entire workflow to help the business move at the speed it demands.