While most solution providers are using smoke and mirror claims of “sentient capability” to cash in on the latest dot-com-type buzz that is today’s GenAI craze, the “Real” GenAI providers know that their success today is built on processes and technology that existed in the late 1990s. That’s right; they recognized the power of true connectivity, which leverages technology to empower human processes rather than define them.
Instead of “chasing solutions,” successful practitioners and solution providers solved problems using an Agent-based people-process-technology implementation model.
What this means is that intake and orchestration – or as we called it a couple of decades ago, “stakeholder engagement within a Metaprise” is driven by empowering people to communicate and collaborate in a decentralized world on a real-time basis. With funding from the Government of Canada’s Scientific Research & Experimental Development program “SR&ED,” I developed a web-based self-learning, nascent AI platform to support the DND’s IT infrastructure that generated the following results:
- Improved next-day SLA delivery performance from 51.7% to 97.3% within 3-months
- Achieved a 23% on average reduction in MRO cost of goods annually over several years
- Reduced the collective organizations’ FTE count from 23 to 3 within 18 months
Before selling the company in 2001 for $12 million – something I regret doing to this day- we had achieved similar success for the NYTCA.
“I can only wonder how things might have been different had the June 2004 Mendocino Project materialized. Would Microsoft’s reported/purported plans to buy SAP turn the myth of a single-source solution into a reality?” https://procureinsights.com/2007/12/05/microsoft-acquires-sap-a-commentary/
The same agent-based approach was a critical part of the failed Mendocino and later DUET initiatives in which Microsoft’s Office solutions were seen as the user-friendly gateway to realize the full potential of SAP’s enterprise platform. In short, we can overcome user resistance to change by providing them with a familiar and easy-to-use “intake capability” via the Office Suite.
There are probably many reasons why the MS acquisition of SAP never materialized. However, I do not have an answer to the question of why someone or anyone else didn’t pick up and run with the Mendocino concept. Perhaps the technology mindset overshadowed the fact that it’s the people who make technology work, not technology, that makes people work more effectively. Technology is the “LAST” piece of the puzzle in an Agent-based world, not the first.
“Bob’s statement that government is not just a “single business,” but is actually comprised of many different “lines of business” tweaked my interest. This was due to the fact that the majority of e-procurement initiatives are championed by senior level managers who recognize the potential of a technology-centric program but lack a firm understanding of operational challenges and therefore underestimate the impact of a proposed strategy at the department level.
As a result, they avoided the trap of eVA becoming a software project as Bob put it, and were thereby able shift the emphasis from an exercise in cost justification, to one of process understanding and refinement. And while the Ariba application has done the job it was required to do, eVA’s effectiveness has little to do with the technology and more to do with the methodology the Virginia brain trust employed. It is when technology (nee software) is seen as the primary vehicle to drive results that it becomes ineffectual and mostly irrelevant. The 75 to 85% e-procurement initiative failure rate gives testimony to this fact.” – Yes, Virginia! There is more to e-procurement than software! (Part 1)
While the Microsoft – -SAP initiative sputtered, around the same time, the Commonwealth of Virginia’s eVA initiative had started to successfully employ an Agent-based model to create the enduring success that continues to this day. Make particular note of the following excerpt from the above article: “And while the Ariba application has done the job it was required to do, eVA’s effectiveness has little to do with the technology and more to do with the methodology the Virginia brain trust employed.“
80% of initiatives over the decades – including today’s GenAI- are failing because most solution providers are pushing the shiny object distraction that is technology as a way to bypass the problem-solving process. Just pop one of these GenAI Ozempic-type pills, and the results will happen with little to no effort on your part. I think this is what my esteemed colleague Michael Lamoureaux would call “SENTINENT BULLCRAP.” Okay, he would use a less delicate term than I did, but you get the picture.
One thing is sure: because of the above GenAI hocus pocus mania, it is no mystery why 75% of all solution provider map logos will be gone by the end of 2025.
A NEW DUET?
It shouldn’t be as big a surprise as it is, but Microsoft is on the dance floor again, this time with a new partner: Zycus Merlin Assist.
When I asked ChatGPT why these two surprising but likely organizations came together in 2024, here is the answer I received:
Zycus chose to integrate its Merlin Assist platform with Microsoft Teams to enhance the accessibility and efficiency of procurement processes. By leveraging the Microsoft Teams platform, Zycus aimed to democratize procurement functions, ensuring that everyone in an organization could easily access procurement-related tasks like extracting contract details, generating RFQs, and summarizing supplier responses. This integration also uses advanced AI, powered by Microsoft Azure OpenAI, to improve user productivity and streamline procurement workflows.
The partnership provides Zycus users with enhanced decision-making tools, faster risk assessments, and better compliance tracking, while simplifying manual procurement processes and improving efficiency across the procurement lifecycle.
In my next post, I will explain what the above Microsoft—Zycus Duet means and why it is a significant turning point.
For now, I leave you with the following short videos, after which we can pick up the conversation.
One More Thing!
I originally wanted to choose our industry’s ten best solution providers (call it the Procurement Insights Suite). However, given my more recent experiences, I may have been a little too ambitious. The number is more likely to be four or five.
In an upcoming post, I will share with you my screening process—which is not a walk in the park—and provide “full transparency” into my personal revenue model working with these select providers.
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Procurement Insights
Finally, No GenAI Hocus Pocus (A new DUET?)
Posted on September 6, 2024
0
While most solution providers are using smoke and mirror claims of “sentient capability” to cash in on the latest dot-com-type buzz that is today’s GenAI craze, the “Real” GenAI providers know that their success today is built on processes and technology that existed in the late 1990s. That’s right; they recognized the power of true connectivity, which leverages technology to empower human processes rather than define them.
Instead of “chasing solutions,” successful practitioners and solution providers solved problems using an Agent-based people-process-technology implementation model.
What this means is that intake and orchestration – or as we called it a couple of decades ago, “stakeholder engagement within a Metaprise” is driven by empowering people to communicate and collaborate in a decentralized world on a real-time basis. With funding from the Government of Canada’s Scientific Research & Experimental Development program “SR&ED,” I developed a web-based self-learning, nascent AI platform to support the DND’s IT infrastructure that generated the following results:
Before selling the company in 2001 for $12 million – something I regret doing to this day- we had achieved similar success for the NYTCA.
“I can only wonder how things might have been different had the June 2004 Mendocino Project materialized. Would Microsoft’s reported/purported plans to buy SAP turn the myth of a single-source solution into a reality?” https://procureinsights.com/2007/12/05/microsoft-acquires-sap-a-commentary/
The same agent-based approach was a critical part of the failed Mendocino and later DUET initiatives in which Microsoft’s Office solutions were seen as the user-friendly gateway to realize the full potential of SAP’s enterprise platform. In short, we can overcome user resistance to change by providing them with a familiar and easy-to-use “intake capability” via the Office Suite.
There are probably many reasons why the MS acquisition of SAP never materialized. However, I do not have an answer to the question of why someone or anyone else didn’t pick up and run with the Mendocino concept. Perhaps the technology mindset overshadowed the fact that it’s the people who make technology work, not technology, that makes people work more effectively. Technology is the “LAST” piece of the puzzle in an Agent-based world, not the first.
“Bob’s statement that government is not just a “single business,” but is actually comprised of many different “lines of business” tweaked my interest. This was due to the fact that the majority of e-procurement initiatives are championed by senior level managers who recognize the potential of a technology-centric program but lack a firm understanding of operational challenges and therefore underestimate the impact of a proposed strategy at the department level.
As a result, they avoided the trap of eVA becoming a software project as Bob put it, and were thereby able shift the emphasis from an exercise in cost justification, to one of process understanding and refinement. And while the Ariba application has done the job it was required to do, eVA’s effectiveness has little to do with the technology and more to do with the methodology the Virginia brain trust employed. It is when technology (nee software) is seen as the primary vehicle to drive results that it becomes ineffectual and mostly irrelevant. The 75 to 85% e-procurement initiative failure rate gives testimony to this fact.” – Yes, Virginia! There is more to e-procurement than software! (Part 1)
While the Microsoft – -SAP initiative sputtered, around the same time, the Commonwealth of Virginia’s eVA initiative had started to successfully employ an Agent-based model to create the enduring success that continues to this day. Make particular note of the following excerpt from the above article: “And while the Ariba application has done the job it was required to do, eVA’s effectiveness has little to do with the technology and more to do with the methodology the Virginia brain trust employed.“
80% of initiatives over the decades – including today’s GenAI- are failing because most solution providers are pushing the shiny object distraction that is technology as a way to bypass the problem-solving process. Just pop one of these GenAI Ozempic-type pills, and the results will happen with little to no effort on your part. I think this is what my esteemed colleague Michael Lamoureaux would call “SENTINENT BULLCRAP.” Okay, he would use a less delicate term than I did, but you get the picture.
One thing is sure: because of the above GenAI hocus pocus mania, it is no mystery why 75% of all solution provider map logos will be gone by the end of 2025.
A NEW DUET?
It shouldn’t be as big a surprise as it is, but Microsoft is on the dance floor again, this time with a new partner: Zycus Merlin Assist.
When I asked ChatGPT why these two surprising but likely organizations came together in 2024, here is the answer I received:
Zycus chose to integrate its Merlin Assist platform with Microsoft Teams to enhance the accessibility and efficiency of procurement processes. By leveraging the Microsoft Teams platform, Zycus aimed to democratize procurement functions, ensuring that everyone in an organization could easily access procurement-related tasks like extracting contract details, generating RFQs, and summarizing supplier responses. This integration also uses advanced AI, powered by Microsoft Azure OpenAI, to improve user productivity and streamline procurement workflows.
The partnership provides Zycus users with enhanced decision-making tools, faster risk assessments, and better compliance tracking, while simplifying manual procurement processes and improving efficiency across the procurement lifecycle.
In my next post, I will explain what the above Microsoft—Zycus Duet means and why it is a significant turning point.
For now, I leave you with the following short videos, after which we can pick up the conversation.
One More Thing!
I originally wanted to choose our industry’s ten best solution providers (call it the Procurement Insights Suite). However, given my more recent experiences, I may have been a little too ambitious. The number is more likely to be four or five.
In an upcoming post, I will share with you my screening process—which is not a walk in the park—and provide “full transparency” into my personal revenue model working with these select providers.
30
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