The self-service approach has been used in a number of corporate process areas, such as requisitioning, contingent labor, benefits, employee onboarding, mobility, and travel booking. What's more, it has been in use for decades - it is no longer an untested method. Procurement must catch-up with stakeholder expectations for scalable, digital enablement in purchasing as well.

At Art of Procurement's Digital Outcomes event in March, session moderator Philip Ideson had the opportunity to speak with Elisabeth Schlag Lawrence, SVP, Head of Procurement Governance & Enabling at Bayer, and Mita Gupta, Senior Vice President at Globality Inc., about this topic.

The central question was whether self-guided buying can enable the business to scale quickly and easily - and how procurement can adjust to the change as well.