TransferMate: When Payment Infrastructure Becomes Strategic

Procurement, today, has become one of the most complex operational roles in a global business; managing currency exposure, supplier relationships across multiple tiers, digital integration and cross-border payment infrastructure simultaneously.

Gary Conroy, President and CCO of TransferMate, has a front-row view of where these systems break down. Gary works closely with banks, fintechs and software providers to help businesses simplify and modernise global payments through embedded payment technology.

Two kinds of ROI

The metrics for evaluating procurement success are evolving rapidly.

As industry benchmarks show a shrinking gap between traditional cost-cutting and digital transformation, forward-thinking leaders are redefining the ultimate return on investment.

Gary says: “There are two ways of looking at ROI in supplier relationships. You of course have the cost savings, but also the value that can be derived from operational efficiency, improved cash flow visibility and the overall experience suppliers can deliver across the payment lifecycle,” 

Deloitte’s 2025 CPO study echoes this belief, showing that the gap between digital transformation (67%) and cost reduction (72%) being a top priority for enterprises is closing. 

“Implementation is only the beginning of the journey,” said Tricia Miller, SVP product marketing at Coupa, in the study. 

“You’ve accomlished something through technology or AI deployment but if you don’t add an investment in people to sustain gains, they won’t grow and may even slide backwards.”

While the definition of ‘high performing’ is ultimately individual and comes down to the perspectives and needs of an organisation, Gary explains that for him, “the definition of a high-performing supplier has evolved significantly in recent years, mostly down to rising expectations around digital capability, while reliability and pricing remain a constant importance.”

Businesses increasingly want suppliers that can integrate seamlessly into digital procurement and finance ecosystems, particularly as global trade becomes more interconnected. 

Echoing Deloitte’s findings, McKinsey's analysis also projects that those who embrace AI will see procurement functions be 25 to 40% more efficient (Transforming procurement functions for an AI-driven world) – but only if they have the right digital infrastructure in place.

“Procurement can no longer afford to operate with fragmented, outdated, or incomplete data,” explain Aasheesh Mittal, Partner; Roman Belotserkovskiy, Partner; and Theano Liakopoulou, Senior Partner at Deloitte. 

They add: “We estimate that today’s procurement functions use less than 20% of the data available to them to support decision-making [...] That will require a systematic effort to break down data siloes, first with digital links between existing tools and data, and ultimately with the creation of a common “data spine” that provides a single source of truth.”

Embedded payments are also becoming a major differentiator by removing friction from cross-border transactions, allowing businesses to initiate and manage payments directly within the systems they already use.

“Suppliers that support automated workflows, embedded payment experiences, real-time payment tracking and greater transparency have been able to move beyond the basic supplier relationship and are now viewed as strategic partners,” says Gary. 

Fluctuating exchange rates can quickly impact margins and make financial planning more difficult, especially for organisations managing large supplier networks across multiple currencies. 

Gary adds: “This is where FX hedging and the ability to lock in exchange rates become increasingly valuable. Having certainty over future costs not only protects businesses from sudden market swings, but also gives procurement and finance teams greater confidence when forecasting, budgeting and negotiating supplier agreements.”

Businesses are now starting to see FX strategy as more than just a risk management tool, but as an opportunity to create competitive advantage and improve overall supply chain resilience. 

With these major fluctuations in FX markets, suppliers that can offer greater certainty through FX hedging and locked-in exchange rates are becoming far more valuable partners. 

“The ability to reduce exposure to unpredictable currency movements gives businesses more control over costs and cash flow, while also strengthening long-term planning,” says Gary. 

“Helping businesses reduce operational complexity while improving speed, compliance, visibility and financial predictability across international transactions is what increasingly makes suppliers stand out as high performing.”

The blind spots

When it comes to supplier performance, one of the biggest blind spots is the lack of visibility into supplier payment experiences beyond primary supplier relationships, something which PwC highlights in its ‘What’s important to the CFO in 2026’ report; boards are pressing for greater visibility into second- and third-tier risks, especially vendors.

“Many organisations still underestimate how much friction exists within fragmented international payment processes, particularly for Tier 2 and Tier 3 suppliers managing multiple banking systems, varying FX costs and inconsistent settlement times,” says Gary. 

These inefficiencies can quietly damage supplier relationships and create operational risk within the wider supply chain. 

Harnessing embedded payments can help solve this by centralising payment activity within a single platform environment, giving businesses much stronger visibility, better reporting and a far clearer understanding of how suppliers are actually being paid across the ecosystem.

A report conducted by The Hackett Group (The Hackett Group's 2025 Digital World Class Procurement) echoes this, highlighting that those adopting intelligence-driven operating models and embracing technologies are accelerating execution, capitalising on opportunities more quickly and driving greater strategic impact.

“Leading procurement organisations are showing what’s possible when digital capabilities and human expertise come together to drive value,” Chris Sawchuk, principal and Global Procurement Executive Advisory practice leader at The Hackett Group, during the release of the report.

“These teams aren’t just navigating volatility – they’re using it as a catalyst to transform procurement into a faster, more agile and insight-led business partner.”

Closing the gap

As the gap between cost reduction and digital transformation continues to narrow, the KPIs that matter most are shifting with it. 

Payment speed, FX predictability, settlement transparency and multi-tier visibility are no longer nice-to-haves; they are just some of the baselines in which supplier performance is measured and supplier relationships are won or lost.

For years, procurement has been evaluated almost exclusively through the lens of cost savings. But as global trade grows more interconnected and supply chains more complex, that single-dimensional view is giving way to something far more nuanced. 

The organisations leading the way are those that have begun to treat their supplier ecosystems as strategic assets, investing in the digital infrastructure needed to drive performance at every tier, not just at the top.

The blind spots that remain, if left unaddressed, represent a genuine competitive liability. The good news is that the tools to close those gaps are increasingly accessible, from embedded payment platforms that centralise cross-border activity to FX hedging strategies that bring greater certainty to long-term financial planning.

For procurement leaders, the challenge is less about identifying what needs to change and more about the pace of that change. The organisations that move now will not just be better positioned to manage volatility. They will be the ones defining what high performance looks like for everyone else.