Two articles ago, we noted that The Key to Procurement Software Selection Success: Affordable RFPs! was critical to getting the right technology to help manage your complex supply chain. This was because a proper RFP required a LOT of understanding to get it right, including, but not limited to:

• Procurement Maturity
• Process Maturity
• (Critical) Use Cases
• Current Technical Maturity
• Missing Capabilities
• Key Solution Types to Address the Gap(s)
• Key Existing Solutions to Maintain
• Globalization Requirements
• Service Requirements
• Unique Organizational Requirements (less than you think, but those that exist are situation critical)

And this required a breadth of understanding across

• the market
• process evolution
• use case specification
• … including what must be technology backed
• … and what should be technology or data enhanced
• common module/solution types that mind the gap
• internal foundations
• the unique requirements, regulations, and resignations of each country you do business in
• the services your team, and current partners, can and can’t do — even service specializations you didn’t know exist
• what other organizations do

And most of this you won’t have in house. So you need Affordable RFPs. But we know all too well that you are all asking Affordable RFPs — What Are Those? because, as far as you know, they don’t exist. And we hear you, because they don’t exist at the Big X, rarely exist at the mid-size consultancies the next tier down (because only a select few from their talent pool can do it efficiently and relatively cost-effectively and they are going to be dedicated to any F500/G3000 that could afford a Big X to keep them as a client), and unless you are a larger mid-size buying a mini-suite, they don’t even exist at the Niche Consultancies where they should be common.

We also spent a fair amount of time explaining why they don’t exist, even though one would think that they should be readily available at the niche consultancies (as this could not only make those niche consultancies true leaders in Procurement but also help them grow). In this last case, it was because it was typically only their senior resources that could do these projects, and since these projects aren’t currently quick to complete, it doesn’t take long for a senior resource day rate to add up. And, as we noted before, while this won’t be that much when you are larger mid-sized organization looking for a mini-suite or suite, if you’re just looking for one or two modules to fill a gap, this could add up to quite a bit.

So if this is the case, why are we telling you that Affordable RFPs are the answer if they’re almost impossible to find?

Because:

1. they are the answer,
2. they would be affordable at Niche Consultancies if those niche consultancies stopped thinking like consultants and started thinking like enhanced product-and-data-based SaaS Management Providers, and
3. they only require knowledge management and expert augmentation to get it right.

So what would a Niche Consultancy have to do to get it right?

We’ll outline that in our next part. But it starts with investment. (And how many partners at consultancies want to invest their money? They were brought up on the Wall Street Mantra — Other People’s Money.)