The corporate payments world has experienced a significant evolution over the past decade. This now allows procurement to be a key contributor of top line revenue growth as well as traditional bottom line savings.

We've passed the mid-year mark, which means that the budgeting process is upon us. For CPOs and procurement managers, this isn't exactly a high point of the year - few enjoy taking an annual break from the work at hand to focus on the budget. And of course there is added pressure to finalize strategic plans that align with an effective budget.

For most of the past three decades, private equity firms and other investors have relied on two simple questions to assess the supply chains of the companies in which they've invested: Are our companies leveraging low-cost country supply sources and are they keeping supply chain costs in check? Deeper inquiries have always seemed unnecessary, so private equity firms and investors have focused on other aspects of the businesses they own to drive value.