Proof of Value Risks Every Procurement Team Should Manage

Procurement leaders are under growing pressure to make better supplier decisions, faster.

Vendors know this, and more are offering Proof of Value (PoV) trials: structured, short-term engagements designed to demonstrate ROI before a contract is signed.

Organisations want to trial vendors but hesitate to create formal vendor records too early. They want speed and flexibility without shouldering the burden of premature onboarding.

While PoV offers opportunity, it also creates new exposure.

Every vendor - even those “on trial”, slip through compliance checks, or touch data that regulators won’t excuse as “temporary.” For Procurement teams, the risk is clear: if Proof of Value isn’t managed within a controlled framework, it becomes Proof of Vulnerability.

What is Proof of Value (PoV)?

A Proof of Value is a structured trial designed to show measurable ROI within a set period - often 30, 60, or 90 days. According to G2, 57% of buyers expect to see positive ROI within 3 months of purchase, putting pressure on vendors to show quick wins and prove value.

For Procurement leaders, PoV promises two immediate advantages:

• Reduced upfront risk: no large commitment before the vendor delivers.
• Faster validation: suppliers prove their impact under live conditions.

The appeal is obvious. But so are the risks if the process isn’t controlled.

What are The Challenges of Managing Proof of Value Vendors?

Most Procurement functions handle PoV vendors one of two ways:

• Prematurely onboarding them: creating full vendor records and running them through full due diligence, only to discover they weren’t worth keeping. This creates duplication, wasted cycles, and data clutter.
• Bypassing compliance entirely: treating trials as informal, keeping them in spreadsheets or inboxes, and risking compliance blind spots.

Both options fail. And for Procurement leaders, the fallout is serious and the consequences reach far beyond admin inefficiency. They compromise compliance, leak spend, and weaken Procurement’s authority as the guardian of third-party value.

When Proof of Value Becomes Proof of Risk: The Hidden Cost of Unmanaged Trials

Proof of Value (PoV) trials are meant to bring agility. But when they aren’t managed properly, they create friction, duplicate effort, and introduce risk including:

1. Operational Inefficiency

Onboarding a trial vendor as though they were a permanent supplier slows Procurement from day one.

Teams collect, review, and enter data that may never be used again. When a vendor later proves value, the cycle repeats - the same information re-keyed, the same risk checks rerun, the same documents uploaded.

This duplication wastes hours and increases the chance of errors. Spreadsheets fall out of sync. Approvals disappear in inboxes. Vendor records - the foundation for future contracts - become unreliable before a partnership even begins.

Procurement can’t move quickly or decisively when it’s rebuilding the same information twice. What should be a controlled and agile process becomes a grind of manual rework.

2. Compliance Gaps

Trial vendors are often viewed as low risk because they’re temporary. That assumption is dangerous. Even in a trial, these vendors can access systems, process sensitive data, or interact with customers - creating the same exposure as a fully approved partner.

Regulators don’t recognise “trial” status. If a vendor handles protected information, they fall within the same compliance requirements as every other third party. One unchecked supplier can easily trigger GDPR, DORA, or CPS 230 breaches before a contract is ever signed.

What feels like flexibility often hides real exposure. Every third party represents both opportunity and risk - and unmanaged trials leave that gate wide open.

3. Spend Leakage

Free trials rarely stay free. Vendors often convert quietly into paid subscriptions, upgrades billed to corporate cards, renewals processed automatically and invoices buried in departmental budgets.

Without a single view of vendor status, contract terms, and live spend, Procurement loses sight of when a trial becomes a cost. Over time, this hidden spend fragments budgets, disrupts category strategies, and undermines negotiated savings.

What began as an experiment turns into untracked expenditure - the kind that drains budgets and weakens Procurement’s position as a cost-control function.

4. Audit Exposure

Shadow vendors are the invisible legacy of unmanaged trials. They operate inside the organisation without formal approval or full oversight, often long after their trial period ends.

When auditors arrive, Procurement must evidence due diligence for vendors that were never properly recorded. Hours are lost chasing documentation, retrieving emails, and recreating risk assessments after the fact.

Hidden vendors signal weak governance. They show that Procurement has lost visibility and control at a time when regulators and boards expect complete oversight.

5. Lack of Control

Proof of Value should be a structured way to test innovation before committing. But when trials operate outside a unified process, they do the opposite: they multiply effort, obscure risk, and blur accountability.

The challenge for Procurement isn’t whether to run PoV trials, it’s how to manage them responsibly. Success means ensuring every trial vendor sits inside a controlled, transparent, and compliant lifecycle where agility and governance work together, not against each other.

How Gatekeeper Makes Proof of Value Safe, Visible, and Scalable

Gatekeeper reimagines Proof of Value (PoV) as a governed workflow - not a bolt-on or workaround.

It embeds trial vendors inside the unified contract and third-party lifecycle, giving Procurement the ability to test innovation safely while keeping risk, compliance, and spend under control.

Within this lifecycle, LuminIQ - Gatekeeper’s AI intelligence layer - acts as the guardian of due diligence, ensuring every vendor is not only onboarded quickly but trusted completely. Rather than ticking boxes or running isolated checks, it applies AI-powered scrutiny that continuously validates, monitors, and reinforces confidence in every relationship.

The result: Procurement can approve, evaluate, and conclude trials with confidence, without losing oversight or creating duplication.

Gatekeeper brings PoV inside the same controlled workflow as every other vendor, so Procurement can test safely and learn quickly.

PoV becomes a defined stage in the continuous third-party lifecycle - fully visible and auditable.

Procurement adapts to new engagement models without adding tools, bolt-ons or extra admin.

Every trial, win or loss, adds intelligence that strengthens sourcing and vendor management strategies.

It’s the only unified platform that connects contracting, third-party compliance, and spend in one continuous process. From first request to final renewal, every vendor interaction is visible, governed and ready for audit.

With Gatekeeper, Procurement can:

• Run Proof of Value trials safely, without side processes or manual workarounds.
• Approve new vendors with full visibility into risk, compliance and cost.
• Move from trial to contract instantly, with data, evidence and guardrails already in place.

Conclusion

Proof of Value should demonstrate innovation, not introduce exposure. The difference lies in control.

With Gatekeeper, Procurement transforms PoV from an isolated experiment into a governed, data-driven stage of the continuous third-party lifecycle. Every trial becomes an opportunity to learn, not a liability to manage.

By unifying vendor risk, contracting, and spend oversight in one intelligent platform, Gatekeeper turns uncertainty into assurance and trials into tangible value. Procurement no longer chooses between agility and compliance - it leads with both.

Ready to make Proof of Value a source of competitive advantage?

Book your demo to see how Gatekeeper brings visibility, control, and intelligence to every trial vendor - so your next PoV proves Procurement’s leadership.