We're all familiar with maturity curves, but how helpful are they really? Telling a company how mature they are, based on academic factors, means next to nothing if it's not rooted in practical applications that relate to a procurement professional’s day-to-day work.

A global survey of CFOs and supply chain leaders by professional services organization EY finds that companies with evidence of strong "business partnering" between the CFO and the supply chain leaders report better results than those with a more traditional finance model in place.