IT procurement doesn’t get much love. It’s often buried under layers of approvals, scattered across email threads, and tracked in Google Sheets that are only updated when someone remembers. But here’s the thing: IT procurement is foundational. It affects everything from how fast new hires get access to tools, to how well your systems stay compliant and secure, to how your internal teams collaborate.
When the process works, no one notices. When it doesn’t? Everything slows down.
In this guide, we’ll walk through how IT procurement actually works today (for better or worse), the steps you need to get it right, and what best practices can make the whole thing faster, more transparent, and easier for everyone. And yes—we’ll show how platforms like Siit can take the chaos out of IT purchasing by helping teams automate, triage, and track every step of the way.
Let’s Start with the Basics: What Is IT Procurement?
At a high level, IT procurement is the process of sourcing, purchasing, and provisioning the tools, devices, and services your team needs to work. That includes everything from SaaS licenses and laptops to vendor subscriptions and MDM licenses.
But it’s more than just buying things.
It’s a multi-step process that usually involves employees submitting a service request, IT reviewing technical requirements, Finance approving budget, Legal weighing in on terms, and someone (usually IT again) making sure everything gets set up properly.
If that sounds like a lot of back-and-forth… it is.
That’s why defining and streamlining the steps involved matters so much.
The End-to-End IT Procurement Workflow (And Where It Gets Stuck)
Let’s break down the key stages of IT procurement. Each of these steps is important—and each one has the potential to create friction if it’s not handled well.
1. Request Initiation
This is where it all starts: someone in the company needs a tool, device, or service.
In a good system, they fill out a structured form that includes the “what” and the “why”—what they’re asking for, what it’s for, and how urgent it is. In a bad system, they drop a vague Slack message or send an email with no details.
Using a platform like Siit, employees can request tools directly in Slack or Teams, with dynamic forms that guide them through a structured intake process. This avoids confusion later on and ensures requests are triaged to the correct team instantly.
2. Needs Assessment & IT Review
Once a request is submitted, the IT team reviews it for feasibility, necessity, and overlap. Does the company already have a similar tool? Is the license compatible with existing systems? Will this require custom configuration or support?
This is where you prevent redundancy and sprawl. It’s also where AI-powered workflows can make a huge difference—by auto-assigning categories, surfacing similar approved tools, and routing the request to the right IT admin without manual sorting.
3. Budget & Finance Approval
Here’s where things often slow down. Finance needs to review the cost, check if it fits the budget, and decide whether it needs additional sign-off.
This step is essential—but it doesn’t have to be a bottleneck. Automated approval routing based on request type, department, or spend threshold can help Finance stay looped in without having to manually monitor every request.
4. Security & Legal Review
Not every procurement request needs this, but when it does, it really does.
If the tool involves sensitive data, third-party access, or contractual obligations, Security or Legal needs to review vendor policies, ensure compliance with internal standards, and sometimes negotiate terms.
This step is often skipped or delayed because it’s not built into the workflow. With Siit, you can add legal or security reviewers directly into the automated approval chain, ensuring the right people are looped in without slowing things down unnecessarily.
5. Purchase Execution
Once approvals are in place, someone—usually Procurement or IT—places the order, purchases the license, or initiates the subscription.
The smoother the prior steps, the faster this one goes. And with everything tracked in one system, there’s no need to dig through emails or ping four people to confirm the request is actually good to go.
6. Provisioning and Setup
Once the item is purchased, IT handles the final steps: setting up access, deploying devices, configuring systems, and informing the requester that everything’s ready.
Ideally, this provisioning is tracked as part of the same service request—not siloed in a separate system. Siit helps keep this process connected and visible, ensuring that IT admins can see the full history of the request and close the loop efficiently.
7. Documentation & Asset Tracking
Finally, the purchase should be logged in your CMDB or asset inventory. Details like vendor, renewal date, cost center, license type, and assigned user should all be captured.
This step helps with forecasting, compliance, audits, and avoiding redundant purchases in the future.
With integrations into MDM tools, HRIS platforms, and IAM systems, Siit can automatically sync this data and tie it back to the original request, giving you a full audit trail with zero extra manual effort.
The Real-World Challenges with Procurement (and How to Fix Them)
Even if the steps above look good on paper, things still break down in practice. Here's where most teams get stuck—and how to fix it.
Problem 1: Disconnected Communication Channels
Requests come in through Slack, approvals happen in email, Finance uses a spreadsheet, and IT is left guessing who signed off.
Solution: Centralize the process in a single system that integrates with the tools your teams already use. Siit brings request intake, approvals, status updates, and documentation into one platform—with updates pushed through Slack or Teams in real time.
Problem 2: Unstructured Request Intake
When people don’t know how to ask for something—or where—they either wing it or ask the wrong person.
Solution: Use dynamic forms and guided workflows that walk employees through request intake, collecting the right info upfront. Siit’s request forms adapt to the employee’s department, role, and needs.
Problem 3: Approval Bottlenecks
You’re waiting for Finance. Finance is waiting for context. Legal was never looped in. And the employee? Still doesn’t have the tool they need.
Solution: Automate routing logic based on request type and value, and send status updates automatically. Approvers can sign off directly in Slack or Teams, and everyone stays in the loop.
Problem 4: No Visibility or Reporting
How much are we spending on licenses? Which vendors are due for renewal? Which departments request the most tools?
Solution: Use real-time dashboards to track request volume, spend by category, SLA adherence, and common bottlenecks. With Siit, this data is already captured and visualized—no spreadsheets required.
Best Practices to Make IT Procurement Actually Work
Here are a few tactical moves that help turn procurement from a headache into a strength:
- Standardize intake: Don’t let procurement requests live in Slack DMs. Use structured forms that collect the right details every time.
- Automate common approval flows: If a $20/month license request always gets approved, automate it. Save time for the complex stuff.
- Involve Finance and Legal early: If they’re always getting pulled in at the last second, build them into the workflow from the beginning.
- Tie provisioning to the original request: Don’t force IT to chase context. Make it part of the same flow.
- Track renewals and vendors centrally: Knowing what’s due when (and who owns it) is key to avoiding surprises and duplicate purchases.
A Day in the Life of Smart IT Procurement
Here’s what it looks like when things just work:
An employee requests a new SaaS tool from Slack. They’re guided through a short form that collects business context and budget justification.
The request is triaged automatically—IT gets a heads-up, Finance gets a notification to approve the spend, and Legal gets a flag to review the data policy.
Once approved, the tool is purchased and provisioned. The request is closed, the license is added to the inventory, and the requester is notified—all without anyone needing to chase updates.
No missed messages. No spreadsheet checklists. Just clean, structured internal support with full visibility and traceability.
Procurement Doesn’t Have to Be This Hard
Procurement touches every department—but when it’s run through disconnected tools, manual approvals, and inconsistent processes, it creates unnecessary friction for everyone involved.
Modern procurement is about streamlining internal operations, connecting the dots between teams, and using smart automation to keep things moving without constant hand-holding.
Siit helps you do exactly that.
From intake to approval to provisioning, Siit brings structure, speed, and visibility to your internal purchasing workflows—so your team can stop chasing approvals and start working smarter.
Try Siit free for 14 days and see how AI-powered procurement workflows can simplify IT purchasing, reduce delays, and improve internal support across the board.
