How to Actually Choose Procurement Technology (hint: quit it with a zillion RFPs)
Where should procurement turn to choose and implement the best tech? We’ve got the latest advice from procurement technology experts at Spend Matters on how to get stakeholder buy-in, and do the best due diligence across the source-to-pay spectrum prior to releasing an RFP.
The other day, I was catching up with a Chief Revenue Officer at a well-known spend analysis company.
“We made it to the final ten companies they’re releasing RFPs to,” he said about one of his prospects.
He sounded pleased. I thought: “That’s utterly insane.”
In my time at Spend Matters, I’ve worked with procurement organisations of all shapes and sizes to help them choose and implement the best technology across the source-to-pay spectrum. From that experience, there’s something that needs to be said: Stop. Doing. So. Many. RFPs. For. Procurement. Tech.
I get it – the market is saturated with hundreds (over 500 at our last count) of procurement software providers who want to help you digitise, automate, synchronise, analyse, connect, reduce errors, get suppliers paid faster, optimise your shipping lane buys, rank your suppliers, tell you about port strikes, and help you become chummy best friends with your CFO. How do you even begin to prioritise internal initiatives around tech, let alone actually choose and implement the right solution?
The answer? Let someone else do the work for you. When my husband and I bought a new washer and dryer last year, I spent twenty minutes with Consumer Reports, did some price comparisons, and our new machines were delivered and installed within a week.
“But Sheena,” you say, “There’s no Consumer Reports for procurement technology. I have to go to vendor websites, fill out forms, and deal with 700 sales emails and phone calls before I’m ready to talk. If they even get a whiff of the fact that I’m exploring options, ads follow me around the entire internet. Then I have to go to all of my internal stakeholders and get their requirements. Then I have to build an RFP and send it to any vendor who could remotely be a fit. THEN I have to read all of the RFPs, analyse who’s best, and deal with all of the internal politics around who needs what specific line-level capability.”
We feel you. So Spend Matters created a (free) Procurement Technology Buyer’s Guide to help. It includes:
Step 1: Benchmarking Maturity
● Is your company ready for a technology implementation?
● How to build an internal business case for technology selection
● Capability roadmap templates
Step 2: Make the Case
● Stakeholder diagnostic survey
Step 3: Assess the Market
● Explore the provider landscape
● How to address stakeholder naysaying
● Spend Matters SolutionMap Free Vendor Rankings
Step 4: Evaluate the Vendors
● (Video) The seven deadly sins of RFPs
● Play with Spend Matters TechMatch (a tool that helps you get to a shortlist based on your own internal requirements; free trial available)
Step 5: Select a Vendor
● We can help here via TechMatch, but there are so many other external resources and consultants who can be helpful as well. The time, effort, and small investment in true due diligence with trusted experts up front is beyond worth it when you’re looking at a three-year implementation and potentially millions in spend.
Buying tech should run as smoothly as buying the complex goods and services that procurement teams successfully do every single day, and yet there seems to be a collective short circuit on best practices when procurement technology sells into a procurement function.
Deep breaths. Follow the process. And quit releasing unnecessary RFPs!
Sheena Smith is the managing director for Azul Digital, the agency arm of Spend Matters.
