Dont invest in any Big Procurement Tech without reading this!

Here is my big, bold claim. Over the last few years, I have spent an enormous amount of time experimenting with data science, procurement operations, coding, and problem-solving in almost every aspect of strategic and tactical procurement operations.

- The next popular digital procurement and procurement advisory will come from Procurement Excellence in-house. 

- A solid Procurement Excellence team is category managers who can do data science (and not vice versa). 

- Let us talk about the Tech Side first: With GenAi coding suites, Building a basic suite of eSourcing, Spend Analysis, Contract Management, and Supplier Management in-house is possible. The combined market price of such platforms is $1.5M per year or 4.5 to 5 Mn 3Y TCO (typical contract duration for any SaaS subscription).

- Let's talk about strategic operations now: With specific negotiation and spending analysis skill sets, Procurement Excellence can unlock millions in cost savings—people who will use your data and implement using sourcing events/tail spend/vendor or material swaps.

Procurement consulting has become so inefficient now that 80% of procurement consultants don't even understand procurement operations. It is easy to sell shiny tools (and earn commissions) at exorbitant prices or put bad consulting advice in pretty slides, but almost always, that advice never gets implemented. The slowing down of procurement consulting revenue is a trend that will stay for the next few years. 

- We are entering into the age of Microservices. Big, Heavy, and Feature platforms are a waste of time. Example? Just let me launch RFP in 5 seconds, let me speak freely during negotiations, assist me with relevant negotiation tactics, don't make me click your 1000 buttons, analyze my spend for me, and tell me what I can use for negotiations, don't drown me in 100 dashboards, register my vendors in 5 seconds by performing all scans..These are all micro-use cases that make buyers 100x more productive but require a category manager's mindset. This is what Microservices are! 

At Supernegotiate, I am building precisely this! Basic, Boring Microservices that help me as a buyer! Use cases that empower my buyer's operations without fancy dashboards.

- Again, Big Fancy eProcurements Platforms are on their way out! Microservices are going to be massively BIG, and most of them will be built in-house or by niche Procurement Excellence labs! I am keen to show a proof of concept on this to my supernegotiate family soon!