T-Mobile transforms procurement at a $35B scale

Michael Simpson, CPO at T-Mobile, recently joined Zip’s Co-Founder Felix Meng on stage at Zip Forward and shared the company's ambitious journey to modernize procurement operations serving 30,000 suppliers and managing $35 billion in spend.

The transformation vision

T-Mobile's transformation initiative spans finance, supply chain, and all of procurement, driven by a simple but powerful mandate: simplify the business. Michael explained that not every transaction should be prioritized equally, and procurement's role must evolve from being transaction-heavy and policy-driven to becoming a strategic value-add partner that moves "further to the left in the right conversations."

The core philosophy is simple: make procurement frictionless for repeatable buys while ensuring procurement rockstars focus on deals that truly matter. Michael believes that every procurement professional should actually use their own process to understand the employee experience firsthand.

The modern CPO mindset

Michael outlined critical attributes of the modern CPO: being data-driven, leading with business process change first, and having the right conversations at the right times with informed information. Gone are the days of relying solely on outdated benchmarks or consultants. Today's procurement teams need to be armed with research capabilities and equipped to educate the business, asking questions like: "You already have five applications. Do we really need five for the future?"

Culture plays a vital role in transformation success. Michael emphasized listening to team members at all working levels and gathering constructive feedback from business partners to distill actionable change.

The intake and orchestration journey

T-Mobile had previously built a homegrown orchestration tool about five years ago, but it lacked system linkages and real integration. When evaluating the build-versus-buy decision, Michael concluded that procurement deserves purpose-built applications that evolve with peer group feedback rather than static ERP platforms.

Interestingly, Michael discovered Zip through a LinkedIn ad about procurement orchestration—a testament to meeting procurement leaders where they are. T-Mobile's vision centers on having "one door into procurement" with full visibility into where deals are stuck in the process, whether with legal, cyber risk, or other stakeholders.

Advice for transformation success

Michael's guidance is clear: invest in business process change first, allocate bandwidth for leaders to dive into the work, and commit to real, measurable efficiencies and savings. Most importantly, find a business sponsor willing to go first and learn together. As Michael candidly shared, his own procurement team is using the new system.

Michael’s biggest piece of advice: If you're not willing to fundamentally change your business process, you're not ready for transformation. But if you are, you have one really significant crack at making a big enough leap in experience that the business can get behind.