Episode 11: Why Procurement Tech Still Misses Direct Spend (w/ James Meads, EntProc)

Procurement technology has exploded. Yet many of the hardest direct-spend problems still live in email, spreadsheets, and ERP screens built decades ago.In this episode of Leveraged Supply Chains, Andrew Stroup sits down with James Meads, founder of EntProc, host of The Procurement Software Podcast, and creator of the Procurement Tech Maps for SME, mid-market, and enterprise teams.After 16 years inside corporate procurement across automotive and fast-moving consumer goods, James set out to give practitioners a vendor-neutral view of the software market. His maps now cover hundreds of tools, but the map also reveals where investment has lagged, especially across direct materials and supplier execution.They get into:Why mid-market procurement teams should not copy an enterprise technology stackThe white-collar waste hiding inside procurement, from supplier chasing to manual ERP updatesWhere investment has flowed across intake, orchestration, agentic AI, and niche direct-spend toolsWhy the ERP remains a powerful system of record but often fails as the user experience for supplier collaborationWhy supplier portals struggle outside a supplier's largest customers, and why email continues to winHow to separate useful AI from unnecessary complexity, including James's warning not to buy a Ferrari after just passing your driving testA practical modernization framework for a $100M manufacturer: understand the spend, eliminate waste, delegate lower-value work, automate the rest, and test the ROIJames also gives blunt lightning-round answers on the most overused term in procuretech, the metric procurement teams overvalue, why best-of-breed wins in the mid-market, and why more software founders should sell to the CFO.If you lead procurement, supply chain, operations, or finance at a mid-market manufacturer or distributor, this conversation offers a practical way to decide what belongs in the ERP, what should sit around it, and where AI can create real leverage today.Subscribe to Leveraged Supply Chains for more operator-level conversations on AI, supplier performance, procurement technology, and operational excellence.