Many procurement organizations determine the importance of a software/service renewal by the price. The million-dollar-plus purchases are usually cared for and checked to ensure the company is getting the full value out of them and that they are renewed on time. The lower the dollar value, the less attention is paid to it.
Sometimes the smallest purchases can have an outsized impact on business operations.
Yesterday, 4G mobile networks across 11 countries suddenly went offline and it took hours to bring them back up. The culprit appears to be an expired certificate on certain Ericsson devices that carriers had installed in their infrastructure.
Although Ericsson didn't specify the type of certificate it was (i.e. code signing, SSL, etc.), most certificates are well under $1000/year, depending on the type and vendor. For a company of their size ($22 billion in revenue last year), a purchase that small is a drop in the bucket.
While procurement is almost certainly not at fault in this instance (the team in charge of the software would be), it highlights how procurement can be an extra fail-safe in the system and increase their value to the company. Renewals should be prioritized not just by dollar value, but what would happen if the product were to accidentally lapse.
Don't assume a 1:1 correlation between cost and business impact. Procurement should understand not just what they are buying, but how even the smallest purchases could affect the company as a whole.
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