Levelpath participated in last week’s SIG (Sourcing Industry Group) Global Executive Summit in Nashville and hosted a session with Ace Hardware called “Delightful Procurement in Action”. Fraz Baig, Director of Category Management at Ace Hardware, shared insights from their procurement journey alongside Michaela Dempsey, Levelpath CMO.
Procurement teams are facing mounting pressure to deliver strategic value for the business while often still relying on manual, fragmented processes. To create a delightful procurement experience from beginning to end, teams need access to a contemporary AI-powered platform.
Many organizations still rely on manual and outdated, static procurement processes as the first step in submitting a request. This can create delays, confusion, and an overall poor stakeholder experience with the purchasing process.
Additionally, if data is stored across the business in multiple applications and places, procurement leaders are left with very little awareness of the scope of requests. This limited visibility and transparency increases both financial and compliance risks.
With an easy-to-use, centralized solution, teams simplify the procurement process from start to finish, empower stakeholders, and reduce the overall noise.
When Fraz Baig joined Ace Hardware ten years ago, there was no formal source-to-pay process for indirect spend. Since then, under the direction of strong leadership, Ace has been on a transformative journey to build and mature its source-to-pay capabilities. Guided by this vision, the indirect procurement function has steadily evolved into a robust team of fourteen, supporting both corporate and retail operations across the organization.
Fraz’s vision is clear: make procurement so seamless that the business rarely needs to interact with procurement directly. As he put it, “I want to make procurement where you don’t need procurement.” This means educating the business, simplifying processes, and enabling self-service across departments.
Ace aims to drive strategic value through procurement by focusing more on high-impact business outcomes. Removing manual work will allow the team to focus on the strategic goals and less on the day-to-day process flow of procurement. In addition, Ace’s focus on empowering stakeholders to self-serve has reduced friction in the process, replacing frustration with stakeholder delight. His goal to simplify workflows has increased transparency across the business and has saved time, allowing executives and stakeholders to become engaged.
Upon completing a planning exercise and thinking about how to leverage technology to reduce the noise, Ace decided to partner with Levelpath. Ace was accustomed to working with legacy systems in the 100 year old business, finding them limiting to configure without reliance on IT or consultants. Levelpath’s AI first platform, white glove service, and desire for continuous improvement stood out. Levelpath’s orchestration layer was also important, allowing Ace to use certified integrations and keep the entire process in one unified platform.
Since implementing Levelpath, Ace Hardware has achieved several measurable benefits that support its vision for scalable procurement. The team now operates with a unified, AI-powered intake process that simplifies the experience for stakeholders and reduces the need for traditional back-and-forth communication. Procurement workflows and project timelines are easily visible within the platform, giving stakeholders and executive leadership real-time insight into where things stand 24/7.
Leveraging Levelpath to enrich supplier data was a key enabler in streamlining the supplier base and reducing non-critical vendors. With improved visibility and cleaner data, the team was able to focus on building and managing more strategic supplier relationships, ultimately driving better compliance and stronger partnerships across the organization.
Mobile accessibility has been especially critical for Ace’s distribution and field teams, who are fully mobile and not in front of a computer. Executives benefit from real-time reporting and use the built-in AI to access project updates and summaries quickly. This full picture visibility helps drive faster, more informed decision-making at every level of the business.
As part of their routine approach to staying aligned with evolving marketplace capabilities, Ace Hardware continually explores best-of-breed solutions to help drive the business forward. The team is also working to extend front-door access across to co-op business units and retail locations, making it easier for the network of retail stakeholders to initiate and track procurement activity. As AI capabilities evolve, Ace is exploring future features like AI agents and voice-driven intake to further streamline the process and remove friction.
The flexibility of the Levelpath platform supports Ace’s long-term vision for efficient, scalable procurement. Teams like legal, insurance, compliance, security, and IT collaborate directly within the tool, eliminating manual follow-ups. Executives can access real-time insights whenever needed, replacing traditional update meetings with self-serve visibility 24/7. With Levelpath’s AI Assistant that summarizes documents and provides intelligent recommendations, the Ace team is equipped to move faster and focus on strategic priorities.
Together, Ace and Levelpath are building a foundation for procurement that is easy to use, transparent, and, of course, delightful.
Fraz Baig’s takeaway from the SIG Nashville session was clear: procurement success equals reduced friction plus real business impact. By focusing on simplified workflows, enterprise-wide visibility, and stakeholder empowerment, Ace Hardware is redefining what the future of procurement can look like in an AI-enabled organization.
We are grateful to SIG for hosting such an engaging and insightful event, and to Fraz and the Ace Hardware team for sharing their journey with the broader procurement community. Their ongoing collaboration with Levelpath is a strong example of how the right technology and mindset can turn procurement into a true business enabler.
For procurement leaders, the message is simple: now is the time to reimagine complexity. With AI, automation, and a platform with unified data in place, procurement can be more than a function, it can be a strategic driver of growth and agility.
–Rose
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