Nearly Half of Procurement Leaders Don’t Trust Their Supplier Data, Study Finds

Survey of 70 global procurement organizations reveals an “Operational Elite” group that achieves faster onboarding without sacrificing data quality

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Lehi, UT — May 20, 2026 — Today, Graphite Connect released its highly anticipated research initiative, The 2026 Supplier Data Benchmark Report. The study reveals key challenges global procurement teams face in removing the bottlenecks and friction caused by dirty data, bad process and flawed AI adoption. 

Surveying nearly 70 organizations across North America and Europe, the study showed that 47% of procurement leaders don’t trust their supplier data, and only a small group of “Operational Elite” are able to achieve faster-than-average onboarding times and high data quality.

"Procurement teams face an artificial trade-off: do it fast or do it right," said Conrad Smith, CEO of Graphite Connect. “We’ve operated under that false assumption for decades. But some have cracked the code on how to do both, and the Operational Elite are turning that into a business advantage.”

Key findings from the study:

• Increased risk exposure is the most common challenge posed by dirty data: 55% of procurement leaders said this is a core challenge.
• 17 hours a week are wasted on administrative friction: Procurement teams lose a massive chunk of their weekly capacity to manual data work—specifically averaging 8.14 hours on onboarding tasks alone and 8.89 hours fielding redundant supplier questions.  
• Onboarding times can stretch up to 91+ days: While the market baseline sits at an average onboarding time of 18.8 days, the structural gap between the fastest and slowest organizations spans from under 3 days to over 3 months.
• 1 in 3 suppliers complain about having to submit data multiple times. Supplier portal fatigue is real, and networks are beating fragmented databases in creating a better supplier experience.

Is AI the Solution?

The study found an interesting juxtaposition between those using AI to improve their supplier management and those who haven’t adopted AI yet.

• Procurement teams that said their data was “ready for AI” and use AI see faster onboarding on average.
• Teams that adopted AI before they were ready see their performance worsen.

How to Join the “Operational Elite”

Three common threads were clear in how the Operational Elite ran their procurement process and addressed supplier data challenges:

• Holistic data governance: Supplier records are treated as a shared, trusted asset — not siloed by department.
• Continuous vetting: Compliance isn't a one-time onboarding gate. It's an automated, real-time loop of monitoring and validation.
• Standardized workflows: Manual workarounds are eliminated. Technology handles the repetitive checks firm-wide.

The full 2026 State of Supplier Data Report is available today, as well as personalized consultations for enterprise procurement teams working on data challenges.

About Graphite 

Graphite Connect is a supplier management platform that drives clean vendor data & faster onboarding through AI & automation. Our patented network lets suppliers create one shareable profile containing validated commercial data and documents, creating one source of truth for vendor data that streamlines your day-to-day supplier management.

Media Contact

Kali Geldis 

VP of Marketing

kali@graphiteconnect.com

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