Procurement can identify where a purchasing request is getting stuck by tracking its progress across the full workflow, including handoffs to other functions. Procurement operations leaders need to see who owns the next action, how long each stage takes, and whether work is actively progressing or waiting. That visibility helps teams distinguish a capacity constraint from a complex requirement or an unnecessary process step.

A conversation at ProcureCon East 2026 highlighted how workflow visibility can guide practical improvements. Ethan Ziemba, Procurement Transformation Senior Manager at American Family Insurance Group, described using orchestration to understand how requests moved through the organization. "Orchestration now gives me that whole entire picture of where we are truly spending time," he said. Seeing the work across stages helped his team identify opportunities to reduce manual effort before introducing AI agents.

Conference discussions also highlighted why a shared view matters: a request may be waiting on an understaffed stakeholder outside procurement, and that person may not realize they are holding up the process. Once teams can see where work is waiting, they can investigate whether the cause is volume, complexity, or process design and choose an improvement that addresses it.

Start with one common request type and map its path from intake through approvals and completion. Record stage owners, handoff times, and reasons for waiting, then review the findings with the functions involved. Use that shared view to decide whether the best improvement is clearer routing, additional support, simpler requirements, or targeted automation, and measure whether the change reduces waiting time.

Join procurement leaders at ProcureCon East to explore how better workflow visibility can help teams improve purchasing speed and stakeholder service.