Software updates address the expanding role of the procurement pro, helping control costs, manage supplier risk, and enforce compliance spending, enterprise software vendor says.

Enterprise software vendor Oracle Corp. has upgraded its suite of procurement tools to give supply chain customers greater visibility into business spending and address the expanding role of the procurement professional, the company said today.

Oracle released upgrades to its Oracle Fusion Cloud Procurement suite, a product that manages an organization’s complete source-to-settle cycle. The suite is designed to help customers minimize risk, reduce costs, enforce compliance spending, and simplify supplier management and contracting. The update includes 25 new capabilities that represent a “step forward in industry depth and additional value” in an area where companies tend to “bolt on” solutions, according to Tom Anthony, Oracle’s vice president of procurement strategy.

“With these additional capabilities in the procurement area, we are continuing our pace of fast innovation,” Anthony said in an interview, emphasizing the procurement professional’s widening area of responsibility and need for easy access to expanded tools and solutions.

“Now that procurement professionals are measured on their ability to control costs, manage supplier risk, and enforce environmental policies and [compliance] spending, they need to have full visibility into supplier performance and company spend,” Oracle said in a statement announcing the upgrades. “Too often, a lack of visibility into what the business is spending on and with whom quickly leads to inefficiencies and increased risk.”

Anthony highlighted three of the new capabilities, focused on managing complexity and spend: