Author

Nell Walker

Published

30 July 2026

Estimated Read time

3Mins

Ivalua finds it takes 25 days to replace a failed supplier, with 74% of businesses left exposed to shortages or disruption in that time

A new report from Ivalua, the enterprise AI platform for procurement, has found that in the past 12 months, 70% of organisations have had between one and five critical suppliers fail, while 41% say they’re one supplier failure away from a supply chain crisis.

Ivalua’s report – ‘Building Resilience from the Ground Up: Anchoring Supplier Risk in a Unified System of Record’ – surveyed 800 supply chain and procurement decision makers. It found that organisations take 25 days on average to identify and onboard a replacement supplier, during which 74% are exposed to shortages or significant operational disruption. More concerning still, 57% of organisations admit they are reacting to these events rather than preventing them.

Reactive behaviours to disruption mean that much of this supply chain fragility goes undetected until it is too late. Over half of organisations (53%) have little to no visibility into the cybersecurity posture of their suppliers, and 51% admit that a major supplier cyber incident would catch them entirely by surprise. Other areas of limited visibility include ESG performance and risk (53%), financial health (44%), operational capacity and delivery performance (41%), and compliance status, including certifications and regulatory requirements (40%).

“Supplier failure is no longer an exception; it is a cost of doing business. The organizations suffering the most aren’t necessarily those with weaker suppliers, but those blind to risks until it’s too late,” says Jarrod McAdoo, Director at Ivalua. “With inflation, tariffs, and rising costs already stretching operations, a single supplier failure can be the tipping point that pushes an already strained supply chain into collapse.” 

Closing the visibility gap

Organisations are also grappling with fragmented data, making it difficult to identify risks before they escalate. The findings show that 45% of organisations have no single, trusted view of supplier risk across the business. Crucially, 76% still rely on manual processes for due diligence and risk checks on critical suppliers, with 58% agreeing that their reliance on spreadsheets leaves them exposed to human error. As a result, blind spots remain: over half (53%) report low or no visibility into their sub-tier suppliers, and almost three quarters (73%) say they would like to spot supplier distress earlier to prevent disruption.

AI plays an important role in helping to predict and holistically plan for supplier failure, but only 39% of organisations are currently using AI in supplier due diligence or risk monitoring. Further, AI’s potential is limited by the quality of underlying data, with 50% agreeing that their supplier data is not AI-ready, limiting their ability to scale analytics and surface risk early.

“The goal is not to predict supplier failure. That is a pipe dream, considering the complexity of modern global supply chains. The goal is to build the capability to anticipate it by spotting early signals and to be ready to act on contingency plans with confidence,” says McAdoo. “AI can make a real difference, but is only as effective as the data it’s working with. Organisations without a strong, unified supplier data foundation will struggle to deliver meaningful value from AI investment, regardless of how sophisticated the tools are. The organisations that fix this will be the ones still standing when future disruption hits.”

Find out more about how to build a proactive and anticipatory approach to supplier risk management in the full report.

  • Collaboration & Optimization

Author

Nell Walker

Published

10 November 2025

Estimated Read time

2Mins

The acquisition allows FourCentric to expand its procurement and supply chain expertise in the defence and security sector

FourCentric, a leader in procurement, supply chain and operations improvement services, has announced the acquisition of Evolve Commercial Ltd, a UK specialist in Commercial as a Service (CaaS). Evolve provides technology procurement and supply-chain support across both public and private sectors. 

Effective 31 October 2025, Evolve Commercial joined the FourCentric group, enhancing the company’s capability to help UK government departments and private organisations efficiently optimise contracting for high-value and complex projects. 

Evolve’s consultants bring extensive experience in areas such as complex tender transactions, post-contract management and commercial due diligence, helping clients unlock full supplier capability and enhance commercial outcomes.

“We’re thrilled to welcome Evolve to the group,” said Simon Terry, Group CEO of FourCentric. “This acquisition perfectly aligns with our strategy to deliver commercial services in support of complex technology transactions throughout the commercial lifecycle. Evolve’s specialists bring deep government procurement experience and a strong focus on delivering powerful outcomes in the defence and security sector. Backed by a highly secure infrastructure, clients are assured of secure, seamless integration and trusted, high-quality delivery.”

The addition of Evolve enhances FourCentric’s ability to build long-term partnerships with clients by offering new ways to drive value and improve operational performance. 

“We are delighted to be part of the FourCentric group,” said Alan Riordan, Director of Evolve. “FourCentric is the ideal fit for us. Not so large that we get lost in the crowd, and not so small that it limits investment and growth opportunities for us and our clients. The FourCentric model provides a fantastic platform to enable the continued development of our business and our team for the future. This, coupled with the group’s clear vision: To be known as the leading procurement, supply chain and operations firm, recognised for creating significant, positive impact for our clients, people, and society, was a real compelling reason to join.”

  • Collaboration & Optimization

Author

Andrew Woods

Published

11 September 2025

Estimated Read time

5Mins

Brent Wilson takes time out at Kinexions 2025, to talk us through rapid change in supply chain operations at Qualcomm

Over the past five years, supply chain disruption has been relentless, causing many companies to rethink how they handle ongoing delays and uncertainty. Few companies have undertaken a transformation as profound as Qualcomm, a multinational corporation that designs and develops semiconductors, software, and services related to wireless technology. 

At the heart of that transformation is Brent Wilson, Senior Vice President of Global Supply Chain Operations, who joined the tech giant when supply chain volatility was at its peak. Speaking at Kinexions, the flagship supply chain conference hosted by Kinaxis in Austin, Texas, Wilson shares Qualcomm’s transformation story. 

A full change in thinking

“When I joined Qualcomm,” Wilson explains, “they had lost control of the supply chain. There was no confidence in being able to promise orders to customers, and there was no real connection between the many parts needed to build a working product.” During the chaos of COVID, that was a wake-up call for the business.

Tasked with rebuilding the entire supply chain, Wilson implemented a comprehensive sales and operations planning (S&OP) process powered by Kinaxis Maestro, a process that went beyond software implementation; Qualcomm required an organisational and cultural shift.

“Up to that point, supply chain was seen as the supply chain team’s job,” Wilson explains. “We made a conscious effort to get everyone involved to get them to understand the process. This meant every department was going to have a say in what the data should be. And I think that really alleviated some of the fears.”

That shift in mindset allowed the entire business to see the supply chain as a shared responsibility. But what truly accelerated Qualcomm’s evolution was the technological backbone of Kinaxis Maestro.

Real-time impact

“The power of Maestro is its concurrency,” Wilson says. “The visibility allows us to have conversations around what might happen at the leading edge. In some cases, it allows us to change where we might point a particular design or take a softer approach into a market.”

Qualcomm’s business has evolved dramatically in recent years. Once focused almost exclusively on handsets, the company now operates in diverse markets including automotive, compute, XR (extended reality), and hyperscale servers. These sectors operate at different speeds, with different expectations and constraints. “Having better control of our supply chain means we can enter these markets flawlessly,” Wilson explains. “We can service the customers at a very high level from the very first day we start shipping, all in an efficient and cost-effective manner.”

Maestro enables Qualcomm to model what-if scenarios, evaluate long-term constraints (some as far out as three years), and even make early calls about where to push or pull investment. Wilson details: “We’ve had cases where we planned to go hard into a market, but the data showed a constraint coming years down the line, so we changed strategy. That kind of foresight was unheard of at Qualcomm before Maestro.”

Letting the results speak

Wilson’s metrics for measuring success might be simple, but that doesn’t make them easy to achieve. The first is response time — how quickly the company can commit to a customer order. The second is accuracy — how reliably they hit that first committed delivery date. “When we started tracking the metrics before the planning system, we were at 65%. Now we’re over 95%,” Wilson says.

Those gains are not only operational but also strategic. For many, supply chain disruption has become the norm. The organisations able to respond quickly and reliably have a distinct competitive advantage. Wilson believes that’s exactly what Maestro has unlocked.

People-powered transformation

While technology has been central to the change, Wilson points out that tools alone aren’t enough. “You can have the best systems in the world,” he says, “but if your people aren’t behind it, it won’t work.” To that end, Wilson and his team invested heavily in alignment. They mapped out roles and responsibilities, built transparency into data-sharing, and emphasised the principle of one source of truth. That meant breaking down silos and agreeing on common data sources, even when the data didn’t originate within Wilson’s team.

“There were fears,” he admits. “People thought this new process would take control away. You see, you have to convince people that this is going to be better for the corporation. I always say supply chain is a team sport, so it’s important to make sure everyone understands their role.”

Kinaxis became a strategic partner in Qualcomm’s transformation. Maestro’s ability to unify planning across time horizons and business functions made it the right fit for a company with Qualcomm’s complexity.

Making Kinexions

At Kinexions, Wilson finds true value in the network. “The presentations are great,” he says, “but the real value is found in the peer connections. It’s good to hear how others are implementing Maestro at different stages and to get some references from what people are going through.”

Kinexions isn’t just a stage for Kinaxis to show off its AI-driven platform. It’s a gathering of supply chain professionals all facing similar pressures: geopolitical volatility, inflation, talent shortages, and the increasing demand for agility. Wilson sees opportunity in all of it, especially when it comes to technology. He says, “The things that are being introduced with AI are really exciting, and I think we’re just tapping into the potential of what that can be.”

For Qualcomm, the transformation is ongoing, but there’s a clear trajectory that goes beyond the supply chain team. The whole organisation approach provides greater visibility, greater agility, and a deeper understanding of how supply chain touches every corner of the business.