SAP cited analysts who found service contracts are 39% of contractor spend. Only 13% of programmes track them in contractor software.
The figures come from Staffing Industry Analysts' 2026 field guide to vendor management systems (VMS), the software companies use to hire and pay contractors.
SAP summarised it on 4 November, noting that its Fieldglass product received the second-highest overall score. SAP did not say which product came first.
Statement-of-work (SOW) deals pay a supplier for a defined piece of work rather than by the hour. According to SIA, global VMS spend under management reached $303 billion in 2025, up 7%.
SIA also found that 88% of surveyed organisations in the Americas and 86% in Europe already use a VMS. Most of them still manage SOW deals outside it.
Our reading for procurement leaders: the biggest slice of outside-worker spend sits in contracts the tracking system does not see. Rates, supplier performance and overlapping deals for that money are harder to compare. Bringing SOW into the VMS is a process change as much as a software one, because each deal is written differently.
Sources
Our file on SAP
- 13 Nov
IT leaders are listing SAP's ERP among software they may replace, CIO reported. Gartner says most won't make the switch for years.
- 13 Nov
Trek says SAP online store fixes now take a day, not one to two weeks. Developers still approve every AI change.
- 13 Nov
SAP now shows emissions for selected cloud products, based on its servers. It still calls its spend-based estimate the reporting reference.
- 12 Nov
SAP is building seven AI agent families to help upgrade customer code. Its ABAP chief said ABAP changes are usually not undone.
- 12 Nov
SAP says Joule AI, used by 110,000 staff, brought 20% gains. Bloomberg reported SAP has not shown how it measured them.
For your next steering committee
- 1Ask which exit clauses your largest software and services contracts carry, and when each can be used.
- 2Ask what leaving would cost, in money and in months.
- 3Ask who reads the contract when a dispute starts, and whether they have read it before.
Issue 01 of the ERP LEADERS brief puts a timeline, the three-number review and six questions on one page. Read issue 01
Welcome back. · Issue 01
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