COOs, restore your procurement speed and control by centralizing intelligence

COOs are losing speed and operational control as decentralized procurement decisions slow execution, fragment compliance, and leak value across regions. Without codified knowledge and shared visibility, you can lose up to 10% of value annually to fragmented decisions and inconsistent controls.

Olam Agri, one of the world’s leading Agri businesses, had different regional policies, procurement standards, and a dispersed supplier network, and it was confronting more than a billion in fragmented, non-commodity spend across Africa, Asia, and beyond. It created a successful AI-led model that showed enterprises they can regain velocity by centralizing intelligence rather than centralizing teams—delivering faster cycle times, consistent execution, and measurable savings at scale.

Centralized intelligence restored control without organizational change

Olam Agri’s antiquated decentralized procurement ecosystem spanned multiple regions, currencies, and compliance structures. Traditional consulting logic would have demanded a central control tower. Olam Agri collaborated with Mindsprint to challenge this orthodoxy. Instead of moving people, Mindsprint migrated data by leveraging Snowflake to build a unified visibility layer across all business units and geographies. Its proprietary ProcureSPRINT platform made intelligence, not structure, the source of control, as elaborated below:

• ProcureSPRINT unified source-to-pay workflows into a single intelligent orchestration layer, embedding compliance and governance by design.
• Its embedded spend analytics suite delivered real-time visibility and actionable insights.
• The category intelligence workbench mined historical data to shape forward-looking category strategies.
• AI-powered Negotiation cockpit analyzed vendor behavior to script dynamic negotiation plays.

This engagement delivered 3%–5% savings in the first year, established global category management in place without adding resources, and introduced a new scalable model for intelligent, insights-driven operations. It turned procurement from transaction-heavy administration into a self-learning discipline—accelerating decisions, embedding policy, and freeing up hours for strategy.

AI-guided workflows created consistent execution across 5,000 suppliers

In less than a calendar year, the digital sinews of this platform connected over 5,000 suppliers across geographies as diverse as Nigeria, Vietnam, and India. ProcureSPRINT empowered category managers with advanced intelligence to identify savings targets and execution levers, while delivering real-time spend insights. Embedded AI reduced cycle times by 40%–60%, freeing capacity for strategic sourcing, and enabled faster, data-driven negotiations, driving better business outcomes. Olam Agri’s buying teams successfully leveraged ProcureSPRINT’s e-sourcing modules to achieve double-digit savings, with significant productivity gains in non-commodity categories such as packaging and MRO across geographies.

Yet the biggest breakthrough was cultural change. Instead of stripping regional autonomy, ProcureSPRINT codified global best practices into the system itself. Every local buyer now acts upon insights from a global category lead. In effect, technology became the governance model, embedding intelligence where structure once ruled.

At Olam Agri, we are not only transforming procurement, but we are redefining it with AI-powered intelligence at every step. We are driving smarter decisions, maximizing value, and shaping the future of procurement. And this is just the beginning.

— Vivek Agarwal, Senior Vice President – Global Operations, Olam Agri

This insight captures how deeply the transformation shifted both process and mindset across the enterprise.

From command to cognition, procurement is invented on a global scale

For Olam Agri, the narrative dismantled the shibboleth that digital sophistication is the preserve of the developed world. By designing for complexity, i.e., multi-country, multi-supplier, and multi-language, it created a model that scales globally, from Africa to the Asia-Pacific.

Mindsprint’s success lies in reframing procurement as a value-generating nervous system. Intelligence flowed unimpeded across domains, geographies, and hierarchies. Compliance was no longer enforced. Each sourcing event became a data point, and each buyer a custodian of knowledge.

The success story underscores the transforming mandate for CIOs, CFOs, and COOs

For CIOs and CFOs, Olam Agri’s case exposes a major shift in how technology enables operational agility. The tension between central control and local autonomy in the enterprise isn’t new, but AI now changes the equation. Knowledge-led decentralization gives global firms a way to act fast without losing alignment. When intelligence and policy live in the system, not in headquarters, every node of the organization can execute with consistency and speed.

For COOs, this means rethinking scale. The lesson from Olam Agri’s model is that control and scale are no longer antithetical. By fusing AI, automation, and behavioral design, procurement can achieve both governance and agility. The ancient regime of centralization, once a metonym for discipline, now teeters on obsolescence. The implications extend far beyond procurement. Olam Agri’s case redefines how enterprises think about governance in the AI era.

From data to decisions, the emerging ethos of enterprise agility

• Data is the new HQ. The nucleus of agile execution is not an organizational chart but a shared data fabric.
• Proof before policy. Adoption follows evidence, not mandates. Mindsprint demonstrated value in pilot regions before scaling globally, thereby earning trust.
• Digital behavior change matters. Real transformation happens when technology rewires habits. Training, gamified sourcing events, and in-context policy guidance within ProcureSPRINT made adoption natural, not forced.
• GenAI as an enabler, not a replacement. The platform capability didn’t replace human expertise but just amplified it by creating AI-assisted buying.
• Velocity is the new virtue. Those wedded to outdated command paradigms risk decision torpor, being 15%–20% slower than AI-powered counterparts.

The Bottom Line: Centralizing your procurement intelligence is key to gaining both control and speed in operations.

Olam Agri’s transformation proves that control and agility are no longer opposites. By embedding intelligence directly into systems, enterprises can achieve consistency without central command.

For COOs, CFOs, and CIOs, the lesson extends far beyond procurement: the new operating model is knowledge-led execution. When intelligence becomes your governance layer, every decision across functions, regions, and suppliers moves at the speed of trust and data.