Strategic IT Procurement in the Financial Sector

A Practical Handbook for the C-Suite: Strategy, Procurement, Contracts, Compliance, and Supplier Management Across the Full Lifecycle Every major IT decision a financial firm makes today is also a decision about technology, economics, security, law, and regulatory compliance - all at once. *Strategic IT Procurement in the Financial Sector* reframes procurement not as a checkpoint that IT projects pass through, but as a strategic partner that extends the CIO's ability to govern supplier relationships long after the contract is signed. Written for anyone who sits in or close to the leadership team of a bank, insurer, fund manager, or pension provider - the CIO, CPO, CISO, CEO, and the risk, legal, and compliance functions around them - this handbook follows a single continuous lifecycle: need, strategy, market, supplier selection, price, contract, implementation, governance, and exit. Each chapter is built around one question: what does leadership need to already have secured, before the question becomes urgent? The book opens with the foundations - procurement theory, technical literacy for IT buyers, mandate, and cross-functional collaboration - before moving into the commercial core: needs analysis, sourcing strategy, RFPs and supplier selection, and the pricing logic behind everything from software licenses to cloud services and AI. A substantial part of the book treats the contract itself as a governance instrument, working through requirements and SLAs, data protection and intellectual property, liability and audit rights, and change and exit provisions. A dedicated section shows, chapter by chapter, how DORA, GDPR, NIS2, the AI Act, and the Data Act translate into concrete procurement requirements - not as a legal appendix, but woven into the process itself. The…