Is an procurement an innovative function?

I've been reading and hearing a lot about innovation in the last few days. First it was this great article from David Rae at Procurement Leaders discussing supplier enables innovation. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/innovation-maturity-tale-two-approaches-david-rae?trk=hb_ntf_MEGAPHONE_ARTICLE_POST Then I had a discussion with a leading Australian Oil and Gas producer who, with its competitors was collectively prequalifying suppliers. I've even noticed that The Faculty are running a series of procurement innovation workshops in Australia. http://www.procurementinnovationworkshop.com/#intro If you ask me, innovation seems alive and well in the procurement space. What do you think?