Big Consulting's ProcureTech Blind Spot

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Hi readers,

We're just 2 days away from crowning this year's ProcureTech Cup Champions! 🏆

As we approach the finale, there's one comment I keep hearing over and over again from viewers:

"I didn't know half the vendors in the competition..."

And you know what? That's exactly the point.

One of my primary motivations for creating the ProcureTech Cup was to showcase the incredible breadth of today's procurement technology market. By the latest count, there are over 600+ procurement technology solution providers operating worldwide.

Yet the ProcureTech Cup features just 64 of them…

Even with 64 competitors, we're only scratching the surface of what's available.

How many procurement professionals are aware of this vast landscape? I'd wager it's a small minority.

There's a reason for this knowledge gap!

The "mainstream" sources of digital procurement advice – big consulting firms and market research companies – aren't particularly incentivized to highlight this diversity.

Why? Because it complicates their business models…

In today's post, I'll explore the misalignment between these traditional advisors' incentives and your organization's needs.

More importantly, I'll provide some practical tips for evaluating your consulting and research partners before you commit to their recommendations.

Onwards!

P.S. I was “Big Consulting” consultant for about 7 years myself… Important context 😅

📰 In this week’s edition:

• 🏆 2025 ProcureTech Cup Tournament Update

• 🌙 Big Consulting’s ProcureTech Blind Spot

Note: Some of the content listed above is only available in the email version of this newsletter. Don’t miss out! Sign up for free to get the next edition.

Grab the 2025 ProcureTech Cup Tournament ebook!

260+ digitally-minded procurement professionals have already grabbed this year’s edition of the ProcureTech Cup Almanac.

They’re using it to get an overview of ProcureTech’s latest and greatest in 2025.

The 64 ProcureTech Cup participants have provided their:

• Company details

• Solution category

• HQ location

• Solution demo links

• Etc.

In an easy to read and navigate format.

Grab your copy before the tournament ends!

The 2025 ProcureTech Cup tournament ends Wednesday morning!

If you missed the action so far, here are the links to catch up:

• Episode 1 - Tournament Setup (13 mins)

• Episode 2 - Round of 64, Group 1 Results (12 mins)

• Episode 3 - Round of 64, Group 2 Results (14 mins)

• Episode 4 - Round of 64, Group 3 Results (17 mins)

  • And special guest!

• Episode 5 - Round of 64, Group 4 Results (13 mins)

• Episode 6 - Round of 32, Group 1 Results (13 mins)

• Episode 7 - Round of 32, Group 2 Results (15 mins)

• Episode 8 - Round of 16, Group 1 Results (10 mins)

• Episode 9 - Round of 16, Group 2 Results (13 mins)

We’ll be covering the “Elite Eight” results and speaking with the Final Four solution providers tomorrow (Monday) at Noon ET on LinkedIn Live.

BeNeering, Fairmarkit, Trust Your Supplier and Crown will be regaling us with their unique value propositions.

Don’t miss it!

What is the ProcureTech Cup? Start Here.

Big Consulting’s ProcureTech Blind Spot

Imagine this scenario: Your procurement team needs to modernize. You're ready to embrace new technology, so you bring in consultants from a prestigious global consulting firm.

They spend weeks analyzing your processes, interviewing stakeholders, and creating impressive PowerPoints with quadrants and matrices. Then comes the grand reveal...

"You need to implement an end-to-end Source-to-Pay suite."

And coincidentally, they have an implementation team ready to deploy exactly that solution over the next 18-24 months for a substantial six or seven-figure fee.

Sound familiar?

I've had countless conversations with procurement leaders who've been fed this exact script. But here's the truth that's rarely discussed: Big consulting firms aren't always the best places to look for innovative procurement technology advice.

Let me explain why.

Understanding the Big Consulting Business Model

To be fair, big consulting firms operate on a business model that makes perfect sense for them:

1. Develop partnerships with a select set of technology providers

2. Invest heavily in becoming excellent implementers of these solutions

   • Train and certify consultants extensively on those specific platforms

   • Develop solution specific accelerators and assets

3. Recommend platforms where they have implementation expertise

4. Generate consistent implementation and support revenue

This is a rational business model…

If I were building a consulting firm focused on growth and profit, I’d structure it similarly. The economics simply work better this way - investing deeply in expertise across a handful of platforms rather than spreading resources thinly across dozens of solutions.

The issue isn't that consulting firms are making bad business decisions for themselves. The issue is that their incentives aren't necessarily aligned with yours.

When a firm has invested millions in training consultants on specific platforms, their natural recommendation bias is inevitable.

It's not malicious - it's just reality.

The Innovation Challenge

From a consulting firm's perspective, it's risky to recommend emerging technologies…

If they recommend a platform they don't have deep experience with and the implementation goes poorly, they risk their reputation. Sticking with established solutions that have proven track records makes good business sense for them.

However, this creates a fundamental tension with procurement organizations seeking the most innovative, efficient solutions to their specific challenges.

While large consulting firms continue to recommend comprehensive Source-to-Pay Suite implementations (an approach that has dominated their thinking since 2010…), the procurement technology landscape has evolved considerably…

With over 600 procurement technology providers worldwide today, the options are vastly more diverse and specialized:

• Modern spend intelligence platforms that can be implemented, classify and analyze your data within days instead of months

• Purpose-built sourcing applications designed for specific complex categories like logistics, marketing services, or direct materials – That can FULLY automate the sourcing process

• Flexible, purpose-built intake and workflow orchestration systems that procurement teams can configure themselves, eliminating lengthy development cycles and IT bottlenecks

Yet how often do you hear about these innovations from your big consulting partner?

Aligning Implementation Resources

From a resource allocation perspective, it makes perfect sense that consulting firms prefer larger, comprehensive implementations:

• They provide more predictable revenue streams

• They enable the investment needed to build out capabilities

• They allow for more efficient staffing models

• They create opportunities for cross-selling additional services

• They establish longer-term client relationships

This isn't wrong or unethical - it's simply how the business works.

But as a procurement leader, you need to recognize that what's optimal for their business model may not be optimal for your specific needs.

When a “big firm consultant” recommends a comprehensive platform implementation, they're not necessarily being disingenuous - they're operating within the constraints of their firm's capabilities, economic model and view of the world...

“If it’s been good enough for our other clients for the past decade, it’s good enough for you!”

The Implementation Reality

The typical pattern with large implementations isn't necessarily a deliberate bait-and-switch, but rather a natural result of how consulting firms must allocate their limited senior resources:

1. Senior experts are involved in the assessment phase

2. The recommendation aligns with the firm's implementation capabilities

3. Senior experts move on to the next assessment

4. Implementation is staffed with a mix of experience levels, often weighted toward junior resources to improve margins

5. Budget and timeline challenges often emerge

This staffing pattern isn't unique to procurement implementations - it's standard operating procedure across the consulting industry.

Understanding this reality helps set appropriate expectations.

Even More Challenging in Multi-Function Transformations

This problematic approach gets exponentially more complicated when procurement is just one piece of a larger corporate functions transformation project.

When big consulting comes in to overhaul finance, HR, IT, production and procurement all at once, guess what happens?

Procurement gets treated as just another module in a massive transformation initiative. Your specific needs and unique challenges? Those become secondary to the larger transformation goals and the platform that drives the largest consulting fees.

I've seen it countless times:

• The procurement team's input gets diluted amongst competing priorities

• The chosen platform is optimized for finance or HR processes, with procurement needs treated as an afterthought

• Specialized procurement requirements get labeled as "customizations" that balloon the budget (and risk getting taken out entirely)

• The consulting team lacks deep procurement expertise, focusing instead on general system implementation skills

The result?

You end up with a watered-down solution that works just well enough that you can't justify scrapping it, but not well enough to deliver real value… 😭

And by the time you realize this, the consultants have moved on to their next mega-project.

Finding the Right Balance

I'm not suggesting you should never work with big consulting firms…

They bring valuable expertise, resources, and implementation experience that can be crucial for large-scale transformations. Their focus on proven solutions also reduces certain types of risk.

However, when seeking procurement technology innovation, consider complementing their perspective with:

1. Independent advisors who can provide unbiased technology assessments

2. Peer networks of forward thinking procurement leaders who've navigated similar challenges

3. Specialized boutique firms with deep procurement-specific expertise

4. ProcureTech specific events where the market diversity is celebrated and explored

5. Your own research into emerging solutions that address your specific pain points

The Market Research Parallel

Interestingly, a similar dynamic is at play with big market research firms in the procurement technology space. Have you ever noticed how their influential reports and quadrants typically feature only a dozen or so vendors?

This limited representation creates a curious disconnect: in a landscape with 400-600+ procurement technology providers, how can a report with just 10-12 vendors claim to represent the full market?

The answer lies in methodology and business models:

• Research firms often have specific criteria that favor established vendors (like revenue thresholds, minimum number of customers, or years in business)

• These firms tend to generate revenue from both the report purchasers AND the vendors featured in the reports

• Tracking hundreds of evolving solutions would require significantly more research resources

• Established vendors may have deep relationships with research firms

The result? Many innovative, specialized solutions never appear in the most widely-read market reports. The same consolidation bias that affects consulting recommendations affects market research visibility.

This creates an even more challenging environment for procurement leaders seeking innovative solutions - both the advisors and the market research they rely on may be showcasing only a small fraction of available options.

The Bottom Line

Understanding the business realities that drive consulting firm and market research firm recommendations doesn't mean you should dismiss their advice. But it does mean you should evaluate it with clear eyes. It’s not the “be all, end all…” It’s just a starting point.

The most successful procurement organizations I know take a balanced approach:

• Leveraging big consulting for certain aspects of their transformation

• Complementing this with specialized expertise for procurement-specific needs

• Maintaining constant awareness of emerging technologies that might deliver outsized value

• Prioritizing solutions that address their most pressing and valuable challenges

• Looking beyond the dozen vendors in market research reports to discover truly innovative solutions

The key is alignment of interests.

When evaluating technology advice, always ask: "Are the advisor's incentives aligned with my organization's specific needs?"

Questions to Validate ProcureTech Expertise

Before engaging a consulting or market research firm for procurement technology advice, consider asking these questions to assess their expertise and potential bias:

1. Which procurement software providers are your strategic partners? Establish the baseline…

2. Beyond your strategic partners, what emerging procurement technology providers have you been impressed by in the last 12 months? Their answer will reveal whether or not they're actively monitoring the broader procurement technology landscape.

3. For our specific industry and size, what three alternative approaches would you consider besides a full suite implementation? This tests their ability to think beyond the standard playbook and consider modular or phased approaches.

4. Can you share examples of where you've recommended point solutions from emerging providers rather than established platforms? Look for specific examples that demonstrate willingness to recommend best-fit solutions rather than just strategic partners.

5. What is your estimate of the current size of the ProcureTech market in terms of number of vendors? The answer should be in the range of 400-600+ providers (depending on how they define the market). A significantly lower estimate suggests they're not tracking the full landscape.

6. Who won last year's ProcureTech Cup? You can give them a pass if they don’t get this one. This is still pretty niche… 😂

The answers to these questions won't just reveal technical expertise – they'll help you understand if your consultant or researcher:

1. Only has “strategic partners” in his toolbox…

2. Views procurement as a distinct function with unique needs, or just another function/module on a transformation checklist...

What do you think? Have you experienced the big consulting approach to procurement technology? How did it work out?

Let me know in the comments 👇

I'm genuinely curious about your experiences.

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