Discover how Centium’s Procurement and Contract Management Maturity Models empower organisations to improve performance, reduce risk, and drive strategic value.
By Penny Corkill, BA (Hons), MBus (with merit), Grad Cert in Internal Auditing, PFIIA Partner Risk & Assurance
Procurement and contract management have evolved far beyond simple business functions. Today, they serve as strategic levers – capable of driving measurable success and mitigating serious risks such as mismanagement, fraud and corruption. This dual focus is particularly vital for government bodies and small to medium-sized organisations, where budgets are finite and accountability is paramount.
Recognising this shift, Centium has developed forward-thinking maturity models that incorporate procurement and contract management, as follows:
Grounded in decades of risk management expertise and aligned with Federal, State and Local Government frameworks, these models equip organisations to strengthen performance and governance through clear, practical steps—both before and after the ink dries on a contract.
At its core, procurement is about finding the right suppliers, negotiating terms, and awarding contracts for the goods or services you need. Sound procurement ensures every decision adds value and complies with regulations.
From managing service contracts to procuring mission-critical systems, effective procurement:
Unfortunately, many organisations still manage procurement reactively, resulting in delays, inefficiencies and even fraud exposure. Approximately 12% of complaints to the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) include procurement allegations, and 30% of their inquiries find corrupt conduct. Centium’s Procurement Maturity Model was created to directly respond to these challenges—offering a structured, practical way to diagnose inefficiencies and improve procurement step by step.
A procurement model outlines the strategy and structure a business uses to acquire goods, services, or works from external suppliers in an efficient, cost-effective, and risk-managed way.
Strategic procurement is not just about cutting costs. When embedded into business planning, it drives innovation, enhances agility and creates a competitive edge.
For example:
In other words, procurement and contract management go together. One negotiates the best deal; the other makes sure that promises are fulfilled.
Even well-intentioned organisations often wrestle with some or all of the following obstacles, whether they’re focusing on procurement, contract management – or both:
Centium’s Procurement and Contract Management models tackle these challenges head-on, offering a concrete roadmap that integrates policy, process, people and technology. Rather than trying to retrofit contract management onto existing procurement processes (or vice versa), our approach builds both pillars at the same time—ensuring seamless hand-offs delivery and no gaps in accountability.
When procurement is mature, organisations capture significant value. The following industry benchmarked examples illustrate this:
Despite these advantages, many organisations still wrestle with hidden inefficiencies—fragmented data systems, siloed departments and underused frameworks.
Centium’s integrated procurement model identifies and addresses these weaknesses early, providing a clear path to:
Increased compliance confidence: Sector studies (e.g., Bain & Company and McKinsey) note that organisations moving to integrated digital procurement and contract-management tools report markedly fewer audit findings and compliance breaches, thanks to automated audit trails and real-time monitoring
Benefits of Procurement Maturity Assessment
A structured Procurement Maturity Assessment reveals hidden inefficiencies, compliance gaps and opportunities for innovation.
Key benefits include:
When procurement functions mature, organisations typically capture 1.5× more savings than their less-mature peers (Bain & Company). Centium’s model ensures those savings are sustainable and repeatable.
Centium’s model is a living framework designed to evolve with the procurement landscape. It enables organisations to benchmark their current practices, identify key gaps, and build more resilient, efficient procurement systems.
The model supports a structured evaluation of procurement practices, assessing compliance, transparency, and efficiency through effective risk assessment. At the same time, it lays the foundation for transforming procurement functions by fostering a cultural shift towards data-driven, cross-functional, and outcome-oriented processes. This holistic approach empowers organisations to strengthen their procurement ecosystem while driving long-term operational excellence.
The model assesses procurement performance across these critical areas:
By assessing each area, organisations can target specific improvements—whether that’s tightening a policy framework or deploying digital tender-management tools.
Moving from transactional to strategic procurement requires a cultural shift. Centium supports this transition by promoting:
Centium’s probity checklist for procurement further ensures accountability and strategic alignment throughout the procurement lifecycle.
Overcoming Common Challenges with the Procurement Maturity Model
Shifting to a strategic procurement function requires navigating several roadblocks: Organisations often encounter:
Centium helps overcome these with targeted risk assessments and tailored frameworks, giving teams a clear path toward improvement.
Leveraging Technology Technology is a key enabler of procurement transformation. Leading tools include:
E-Procurement Platforms: Automate sourcing, bidding and award processes. Features like online bid repositories, supplier scorecards and embedded compliance checks reduce cycle times and fraud risk.
Spend Analytics Dashboards: Provide real-time visibility into category spend, cost-savings opportunities and supplier performance metrics.
Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) Tools: Aggregate performance data, facilitate collaborative scorecards, and support innovation workshops.
AI & Predictive Analytics: Forecast spend trends, detect anomalies (e.g., price spikes), and recommend category consolidation strategies.
Strategic procurement is no longer a back-office function—it’s a core driver of organisational resilience and growth. By embracing structured assessment models like Centium’s procurement maturity framework, organisations can unlock hidden opportunities for improvement and innovation.
An honest, structured assessment is the first step toward procurement transformation. Centium simplifies this process through actionable insights and proven methodologies.
Organisations that invest in procurement excellence don’t just reduce risk – they gain an advantage. Modern, tech-enabled procurement supports better decisions, stronger partnerships and faster service delivery.
While procurement sets the foundation for acquiring value, contract management ensures that value is actually delivered. These two disciplines remain distinct yet deeply interconnected. As we pointed out:
Procurement is the act of buying goods or services. Contract management is ensuring that you actually receive what you’ve paid for.
In many organisations, contract management receives less strategic focus than procurement – often treated as an administrative task rather than a key driver of performance. This imbalance can result in missed opportunities, unmitigated risk, and a lack of accountability for deliverables and service quality.
That’s why Centium has also developed a Contract Management Maturity Model—one that replicates certain control attributes of the procurement model but focuses entirely on post-award activities.
Centium’s approach recognises that effective contract management is just as essential to organisational success as procurement maturity. Once a contract is signed, ongoing monitoring, compliance checks, and performance evaluation are critical to ensure that obligations are met and public value is delivered. Poor contract management has real consequences – from service delivery failures to reputational damage and financial loss.
Drawing on our article Effective Contract Management – A Key to Government Efficiency, we advocate for structured, proactive contract management practices that:
Centium supports clients in embedding contract management into broader governance and assurance frameworks, ensuring contracts are not only compliant but actively contributing to outcomes.
Key Features of the Contract Management Model
By focusing on these areas, organisations move from reactive, spreadsheet-driven contract administration to proactive, data-driven contract governance.
Ultimately, high-performing organisations don’t just buy better—they manage better. By maintaining two complementary maturity models, Centium helps clients strengthen accountability, transparency and service quality from the moment a tender is issued through to final delivery.
If you're ready to future-proof your procurement ecosystem, start with a Centium maturity assessment. It's the first step toward building a smarter, more resilient procurement function. Whether you aim to enhance compliance, improve vendor performance, or align procurement and contract management with broader strategic objectives, Centium is here to help.
