DUNCAN JONES—I expect it’s as Pierre Laprée suggested—the most effective demo requires more discovery, and you haven’t convinced the vendor that you’re sufficiently important to merit the investment of scarce pre-sales resources.
JWH – Duncan Jones: That could definitely be a factor,
The origin of implementation failure scalability, which goes back to the dBASE II and MAI Basic Four days, is that human experience and expertise are not scalable like an Excel spreadsheet application.
You can give five different people the same recipe to make, yet one will be different and even better than another. The more complex the recipes and cooking techniques are, the wider the differences in successful outcomes will be.
I know this is an overly simplistic example of how technology may be scalable for simpler situations or tasks but less so when faced with more complexity.
The above makes demonstrating a solution beyond a rudimentary features, functions, and benefits framework increasingly difficult because, at a certain point, everyone shows the same thing with minor cosmetic differences.
However, effective demonstrations incorporate the logic or smarts behind the platform’s functionality and adaptability. For that reason, many solution providers are reluctant to showcase their thought processes because, to them, that is a competitive advantage.
Thoughts?
Related Video Information
The following video is an excerpt of my initial interview – I call it the pre-demo interview with Promena, whose ambitions to expand beyond Turkish boundaries to become a global force in the procurement world are worth following.
While I am still waiting for a demo of their platform, they have the experience, expertise, and resources to make a serious run at the Everest of the procurement world: mass scalability of their platform. Of course, as deep and stable as their core talent base is, the following is always a critical factor: do they have the “bench strength and depth” to go global and do it right. I still have more homework to do regarding this last point – including seeing the demo. However, I am comfortable with their foundation and would like to share this excerpt with you.
Procurement Insights 
Duncan Jones weighs in on solution provider demo reluctance
Posted on September 27, 2024
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The following is a comment shared by Duncan Jones about Wednesday’s post Why Is It So Hard To See An Actual Demo Of A ProcureTech Solution?
DUNCAN JONES—I expect it’s as Pierre Laprée suggested—the most effective demo requires more discovery, and you haven’t convinced the vendor that you’re sufficiently important to merit the investment of scarce pre-sales resources.
JWH – Duncan Jones: That could definitely be a factor,
However, consider the following post – https://bit.ly/3BxK976
The origin of implementation failure scalability, which goes back to the dBASE II and MAI Basic Four days, is that human experience and expertise are not scalable like an Excel spreadsheet application.
You can give five different people the same recipe to make, yet one will be different and even better than another. The more complex the recipes and cooking techniques are, the wider the differences in successful outcomes will be.
I know this is an overly simplistic example of how technology may be scalable for simpler situations or tasks but less so when faced with more complexity.
The above makes demonstrating a solution beyond a rudimentary features, functions, and benefits framework increasingly difficult because, at a certain point, everyone shows the same thing with minor cosmetic differences.
However, effective demonstrations incorporate the logic or smarts behind the platform’s functionality and adaptability. For that reason, many solution providers are reluctant to showcase their thought processes because, to them, that is a competitive advantage.
Thoughts?
Related Video Information
The following video is an excerpt of my initial interview – I call it the pre-demo interview with Promena, whose ambitions to expand beyond Turkish boundaries to become a global force in the procurement world are worth following.
While I am still waiting for a demo of their platform, they have the experience, expertise, and resources to make a serious run at the Everest of the procurement world: mass scalability of their platform. Of course, as deep and stable as their core talent base is, the following is always a critical factor: do they have the “bench strength and depth” to go global and do it right. I still have more homework to do regarding this last point – including seeing the demo. However, I am comfortable with their foundation and would like to share this excerpt with you.
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