For those of you who want to be a noise maker, trouble maker, Debbie Downer, complainer, etc. etc. etc., the doctor can confidently tell you that these are ten proven ways to accomplish that goal! Enjoy!
10. Point out that Tech Failure Rates have reached an all-time high of 88%! (Bain)
(As it is, in Procurement, We Don’t Get No Respect. We’ll get even less if 9 of every 10 projects fail! They’d fail less if … )
09. State that that RFPs for Tech should be Affordable!
(They are a critical first step in proper vendor selection once your need has been identified, and skipping this step has always proven disastrous. And then, after you select the vendor, the next step is to kick of Project Assurance, so the implementation doesn’t go off the rails.)
08. Go further and suggest that Big X SHOULD NOT be used for analytics and AI!
(The reality is, as we’ve stated again and again, limited tech talent is generally NOT interested in consulting — they want to work with the big powerful mega-corps [Meta, Alphabet, etc.] or join the wild west start-up frontier. Those not good enough get scooped up by the consultancies to try and fill the bench they need to staff the projects they sell. Doesn’t matter how good the outdated playbook is if you’re starting with the B-Team if you’re big, and rich, enough to afford it … or the C-Team if you’re not. Also, as we’ve said before, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use Big X for strategy, internationalization advice, etc. or the roots where they started where they have, and attract, the best people — just that, like every business decision, you have to be smart about where, and how, you engage to get your ROI. In fact, there are a whole slew of areas we generally recommend Big X for, and sometimes ONLY recommend Big X for, and these are covered in When Should You Use Big X?)
07. Dare to suggest it may be the end of an era for an early ProcureTech suite!
(Is The Third Act the Final Act?) Let’s ignore the fact that there has been more consolidation and failure in this space over the last two decades than anyone realizes, and that the seven suites appear to be sailing the seven seas without a sextant [foreshadowing?]. See SI’s classic Vendor Day Reprise and count how many of those companies are still around as-is. These were representative of the cream-of-the-crop when they were covered. The rate of disappearance is actually higher across the board!)
06. Note that Gen-AI is way overhyped.
(Unless you want suicidal people committing suicide in suicidal self-driving cars, for example. See valid uses for Gen-AI. And note that one of the big analyst firms pushing it in its hype cycle also noted that that it’s failure rate is 85%! [Source])
05. Remind people that intake & orchestrate is not new!
(With intake in ProcureTech tracing its beginnings back 24 years and orchestrate tracing it’s way back over 50 years as it’s just the fancy new name for middleware, which was a term coined in the 60s and implemented in the late 60s/early 70s with RPC being one of the earliest examples. See Point 11 for more hard truths.)
04. Rail against 2*2 vendor maps, and logo maps, as vendor selection tools!
(They are NOT Appropriate for Tech Selection. At most, they can be used to identify vendors to shortlist — but you still need to create a proper RFP! Remembering that:)
03. FREE RFPS are NOT free!
(How many times do we have to tell you There Are NO Free RFPs? Too many, since vendors will NOT get the message!)
02. State that there is no demonstrable ROI for attendees and vendors at big (Procure)Tech events.
(We need better events. A great experience is not business ROI!)
01. Mathematically argue that no business is worth more than a 10X multiple at investment time.
(‘Nuff said. Deeper dive in linked article.)
Now, I don’t know about you, but if wanting
- (10) tech project success,
- (09) affordable RFPs for all Procurement departments that need them,
- (08) value for your consulting dollar,
- (07) a true picture of the ProcureTech space and where the best cost/value ratio is for all buying organizations (not just G3000s),
- (06) real AI powered by real HI that delivers real value,
- (05) solutions that do what they should with (true) open APIs,
- (04) real solution guides,
- (03) valuable RFP advice,
- (02) valuable events for all (not just organizers and consultants), and
- (01) fair investments across the board for underfunded ProcureTech companies
means being a troublemaker, then make me the leader of the troublemakers! I’ve had enough of platform failures, enough of marketing soundbites, enough of one-way sales, enough of vendor marketing packaged as analysis and advice, and enough BS. Without procurement, there is no business. And, like Rodney Dangerfield, who unfortunately never got it in his lifetime, we deserve a little respect.
Procurement deserves better!
P.S. If you lead a provider organization that wants to do better, please feel free to reach out!