But that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
In a recent LinkedIn article, Joel said that digital procurement is like a pie eating contest, and while we’re not sure we agree, he made one valid point:
The system you select is already heading toward obsolescence the moment you go live.
But it’s worse than that!
1) It’s heading toward obsolescence from the minute the implementation starts … you have no idea the technical debt in the systems you are being sold today from the build fast, scale faster, fix it later mentality infused by VCs and most PE firms!
2) It was probably obsolete when you selected it, especially if you chose a vendor who has been leading the same Gartner and Forrester maps for 10 years with no significant changes to their product or platform!
3) Even worse, chances are that the process you digitized makes you outdated anyways and keeps you that way — digitization is the best time for identifying not how things work, but the way they should work to maximize efficiency and minimize risk (and that’s not, as we continually point out, jumping on the Gen AI / Agentric AI bandwagon and being blinded by the hype).
4) Moreover, you really shouldn’t need different channels (i.e. completely different apps) to source, just different workflows and interfaces, but since most providers don’t do more than one category (among indirect, direct, services, capex projects, etc.), you likely need MORE apps. Moreover, few suites have more than one or two modules that are truly best of breed (despite their claims), so if you don’t plan for the constant upgrades and bolts ons … well … you won’t be ready when you have to select and implement one quick, and then you’ll have even more obsolescence than you planned for.
That doesn’t mean that you should give up on modern tech because it’s all obsolete, because it’s not, and the good vendors recognize this and continually update their tech to minimize the obsolescence. It does mean that you need to be very careful when selecting your tech to find a solution that has minimal technical debt, is beyond where you are at today with respect to the processes it supports, and is being continually enhanced by the vendor. If the vendor offers a truly best of breed solution, is beyond where you are today, and has a track record of keeping up with best practices, and best tech, it’s likely a good vendor.
Especially if the tech today is considerably enhanced against the tech it had two to three years ago (which you should be able to determine by looking up old demo videos, articles, independent reviews, etc.).
However, if you can’t tell any difference between the (mega) suite tech being pushed at you today vs. what the (mega) suite tech were advertising five years ago, then you should probably stay away. Far, Far Away.