Best-of-breed SaaS platforms are very popular amongst procurement teams to aid their day-to-day workings in the age of AI. From supplier discovery to category analysis, every stage of the procurement lifecycle now has a best-of-breed solution ready to solve a specific challenge. But are we reaching a tipping point?
In 2023 it was reported that the average company has 371 SaaS tools in its arsenal. This number highlights both the innovation and complexity facing today’s procurement teams.
This blog explores a way forward, we don’t want to sacrifice specialist functionality but encourage partnerships between best-of-breed tools. Furthermore, with the invention of Agentic AI, how can this be used to aid integration to become smarter and less reliant on manual input?
The Evolution of the Procurement Tech Stack
Procurement technology used to be far more rudimentary. It was defined by a handful of heavyweight systems that were often clunky ERP modules promising end-to-end control.
However, even though these platforms were positioned as a one-size-fits-all solution, that could handle everything from requisition to contracts, or supplier data to invoicing. They lacked the agility and depth that modern procurement teams now have access to and expect.
The procurement functions role within an organisation has grown increasingly strategic, now responsible for innovation, sustainability, diversity, and risk mitigations to name a few. The limitations of these clunky ERP modules has become apparent.
This is where Best-of-Breed SaaS solutions have thrived. They offer specialised tools that can tackle specific aspects of the procurement lifecycle with precision, speed, and accuracy.
Today’s procurement leaders are often managing a mosaic of tools:
- Spend analysis software that provides granular visibility.
- Supplier discovery platforms for finding innovative or diverse suppliers.
- Risk and ESG tools that assess supplier sustainability and compliance.
- Contract lifecycle management systems.
- E-sourcing, e-auction, and intake platforms.
There’s no question that this modular approach has brought in real benefits.
However, this evolution has also introduced new complexity. The more tools in play, the greater the challenge of ensuring they work together seamlessly. Data duplication, process fragmentation, and disconnected workflows are common side effects when best-of-breed systems operate in silos.
As a result, many procurement teams are now facing a crossroads; how can they keep the flexibility of best-of-breed solutions without falling victim to tool sprawl and inefficiency?
The real solution here may lie within these best-of-breed tools partnering to provide procurement teams the best outcome.
The Pain of Disconnection
As the number of tools in a procurement stack grows, so does the friction between them, this will continue unless they’re intentionally designed to collaborate.
Even when tools are best-in-class, lack of integration at the partnership level can cause:
- Duplicated Effort: Supplier data entered in a discovery platform must be re-keyed into sourcing or contract tools.
- Manual Handoffs: Sourcing decisions stall because insight from risk tools or diversity platforms doesn’t flow automatically.
- Workflow Gaps: Procurement teams become the middleware, manually stitching together processes and systems that don’t natively connect.
- User Fatigue: Multiple logins, disconnected dashboards, and scattered notifications make it harder to maintain engagement across teams.
The result? Procurement teams are weighed down by overhead instead of lifted up by technology. Worse, they may underutilise powerful tools simply because they’re not connected to the daily flow of work.
This goes beyond being a technical issue but instead a missed opportunity. Without strategic partnerships between best-of-breed providers, each tool is performing below its potential and procurement can’t fully realise the value of its investments.
Partnerships: The Future of Procurement Tech
There has always been a discussion within procurement between best-of-breed vs. all-in-one suites when it comes to tech, with arguments made on both sides of the debate. In reality, procurement leaders don’t want to pick between specialisation and precision or simplicity and ease, they want both.
The true future of procurement technology lies not in consolidation, but in collaboration. Specifically, in strategic partnerships between best-of-breed solutions that bring together the sharpest tools and make them work like one.
Why Partnerships Matter?
Best-of-breed tools do excel individually and if teams only need to supplement their workflow with a specific use case they can be great.
However, procurement teams live in a connected world. Their workflows span a whole host of different modules that complement one another. When tools are designed to interoperate, the end-user experience becomes exponentially better.
By forming partnerships that are strategic collaborations, it allows providers to:
- Deliver seamless experiences: When two tools partner deeply, users don’t have to jump between platforms or copy/paste data. Information and workflows flow intuitively across systems.
- Enable shared value creation: A supplier discovery platform paired with a sourcing solution creates more efficient RFPs. A contract management tool integrated with a risk platform makes compliance automated. The sum is greater than the parts.
- Improve data quality and visibility: Partnerships allow for harmonized data models, reducing redundancy and errors, and enabling richer analytics across the procurement lifecycle.
- Reduce the cost of complexity: Procurement teams can retain best-in-class functionality without the overhead of managing a fragmented stack.
From APIs to Alliances
While APIs can be a great resource for partnership and integration. A step beyond this provides enhanced value in the form of intentional and strategic partnerships. This means going beyond simple plug-ins or one-way data syncs, and instead committing to:
Shared product roadmaps where integration is baked into the UX, not bolted on.
Co-developed use cases that solve real pain points for joint customers.
Mutual support models that ensure users get cohesive service.
Unified messaging that helps customers understand how the tools fit together.
These kinds of partnerships amplify value. They allow procurement teams to build curated tech stacks with confidence all the while knowing their tools are not isolated islands but part of a connected ecosystem.
This sort of collaboration is building an ecosystem. Just like procurement teams are moving from transactional buying to strategic supplier relationships, procure tech vendors must shift from tool builders to ecosystem partners.
A Supplier Discovery Example
To put this argument into perspective. We can look at an example of this in real life. At Forestreet we provide AI-powered supplier discovery and market intelligence that aids procurement teams find alternative suppliers and map unknown markets.
We currently partner with Beroe, another best-of-breed procurement tool (which you can read more about here). Within this partnership, Beroe integrates a slice of Forestreet’s supplier discovery functionality into their platform.
This allows Beroe’s users to receive lists of suppliers that they need quickly using AI. This partnership was driven by user demand for an AI-powered supplier discovery module and both Beroe and Forestreet saw a chance for growth and to create value together.
This has been a mutually beneficial relationship. Partnerships like these enhance value for everyone. Procurement teams can now access both Beroe’s deep market and category intelligence and Forestreet’s advanced discovery capabilities in one place.
This kind of partnership is a powerful example of what’s possible when best-of-breed providers work together with a shared vision of procurement excellence.
Using Agentic AI to Make Integration Better
As we look to the future of procurement, it is impossible to ignore the impact of agentic AI. It represents one of the most transformative shifts in how systems can operate together.
Unlike traditional AI models that perform tasks within a single platform, agentic AI is built to function across multiple systems with autonomy, contextual awareness, and the ability to take proactive action.
This makes it an ideal fit for best-of-breed partnerships, where intelligent coordination across tools is essential. Agentic AI enables disconnected systems to collaborate more effectively and unlock their full potential.
When partners incorporate agentic AI into their integrations, the nature of the integration itself evolves. It becomes less about data movement and more about intelligent orchestration.
Here are a few ways agentic AI can enhance these integrations:
- Cross-platform orchestration: Agentic AI can sit across several tools and coordinate workflows between them. It reduces fragmentation by passing information from one best-of-breed platform to another, eliminating manual work and enabling a seamless and automated flow.
- Amplified partnership value for providers: Agentic AI makes it possible for partners to create joint tools that function in sync. This leads to smoother, more connected user experiences and maximises the effectiveness of the collaboration.
- Greater return on technology investment: By unlocking the full capabilities of integrated tools, agentic AI ensures procurement teams are not simply paying for software but are continuously extracting value from it. This supports stronger adoption and helps justify investment. At the same time, providers benefit from higher usage rates, improved retention, and deeper customer engagement.
Agentic AI is not just an enhancement to integration; it is a catalyst for smarter and more proactive procurement ecosystems.
Conclusion
As procurement continues to evolve into a more strategic, value-driven function, the tools that support it must also evolve. While the proliferation of best-of-breed solutions has brought greater specialisation and precision, the fragmentation it introduces can undermine efficiency and limit their full potential.
The clear solution to overcome this is collaboration. Strategic partnerships between these best-of-breed tools can bridge the gaps in procurement tech stacks to create seamless workflows, improve data quality, and provide enhanced value for procurement teams.
Rather than facing the choice between specialisation and simplicity, procurement leaders can now have the best of both worlds when solutions integrate thoughtfully.
Looking ahead, the emergence of agentic AI will only accelerate this shift. By enabling systems to work together autonomously and proactively, agentic AI can turn these partnerships into truly intelligent ecosystems.
It reduces the reliance on manual effort, ensures smoother data flow across tools, and helps procurement professionals focus on high-value work rather than stitching together workflows.
For those who embrace tech integration and agentic AI, it will not only keep them competitive but also help shape the next generation of procurement excellence.
