Sourcing Intangibles: The Supply Chain Spend Category Most Organisations Are Not Managing Well

Supply chain management has traditionally been built around physical goods. Raw materials, components, finished products, logistics. The frameworks, the metrics, and the expertise have been developed with tangible inventory in mind.

But a growing share of what large organisations spend is not physical. Media rights, software licences, digital advertising, data services, and content production represent significant and often poorly structured expenditure for corporates operating at scale. These are intangibles, and most procurement functions are not set up to source them effectively.

Why Intangibles Get Overlooked

Part of the problem is categorical. Procurement teams are organised around commodity areas, and intangibles do not fit neatly into established categories. A software licence sits differently in the procurement process than a logistics contract, even if the value is comparable.

The result is that intangible spend often bypasses formal procurement processes entirely. It is managed by marketing, technology, or legal teams who have domain expertise but limited commercial structuring capability. Pricing is rarely benchmarked. Contract terms are accepted rather than negotiated. Volume leverage across the organisation is rarely captured.

For large corporates, this represents a material gap. Intangible spend is growing as a proportion of total expenditure, and the absence of structured procurement oversight means that organisations are consistently leaving value on the table.

The Scale of the Opportunity

Consider media and advertising spend. Global digital advertising expenditure exceeded $700 billion in 2025. For large companies, media procurement is one of the largest single spend categories outside of core supply chain inputs. Yet the commercial disciplines applied to media buying rarely match those applied to physical supply chains.

Similar patterns exist in software procurement. Enterprise technology contracts are complex, multi-year commitments with significant pricing variability. Organisations that approach them without dedicated commercial structuring capability consistently pay more than necessary and commit to terms that reduce flexibility.

Sourcing Intangibles Requires Different Skills

Effective intangible procurement requires a combination of market knowledge, commercial structuring expertise, and an understanding of how these categories are priced. Unlike commodities, where benchmarking data is relatively accessible, intangible categories are often characterised by opaque pricing and significant negotiating room that is only accessible with category-specific knowledge.

This is one reason why intangible spend tends to cluster outside formal procurement channels. The skills required are different, and most procurement functions have built their capabilities around physical supply chains.

The Structural Fix

Bringing intangible spend under formal commercial management does not require a complete reorganisation of procurement. It requires recognising these categories as procurement categories, applying the same discipline around sourcing, benchmarking, and contract management that physical categories receive, and ensuring that commercial expertise is available at the point where commitments are made.

For organisations looking to improve overall procurement performance, intangibles represent one of the more accessible opportunities. The spend is already happening. The question is whether it is being managed with the rigour it warrants.