844: Contracting for Speed: How Orchestration Empowers Procurement W/ Clare Cassano and Toby Laforest

"Your contracts are your source of truth. You should have a tool that can go through the contracts and help you understand the impact and make an assessment, all in one place." -Toby Laforest, Senior Director PMM - Market Insights and Solutions at Ironclad 

Procurement leaders can no longer afford to wait for requests to land in their inbox. Facing regulatory change, market volatility, and growing demand for business partnership, some organizations are reimagining their procurement operating models and putting technology and process both front and center. 

In this Art of Procurement podcast episode, Clare Cassano, Head of Procurement Strategy & Execution at Invesco, and Toby LaForest from Ironclad, share how Invesco tackled the shift from reactive service to proactive business enablement. They discuss the tough choices behind their technology stack, the reality of orchestration layers, and why "best fit" often wins over "best-in-class" for their unique needs.

Listen in for practical lessons on realigning talent, building true contract intelligence, and future-proofing your procurement process with an eye toward AI and automation. 

In this episode, Clare and Toby discuss:

• How AI-enabled contract management can deliver real-time contract insights, not just document storage
• Honest advice about choosing best fit tech over one-size-fits-all suites
• Future opportunities (and things to watch out for) related to agentic AI in procurement

Links:

• Toby Laforest on LinkedIn
• Clare Cassano on LinkedIn
• From Reactive to Strategic: Transforming Procurement Through Contract Intelligence
• Contracting for Speed: How Orchestration Empowers Procurement
• Subscribe to This Week in Procurement
• Subscribe to Art of Procurement on YouTube