A Welcome To Procurement Insights’ New Subscribers!

I have been meaning to write this post for the last several weeks, as the number of new subscribers has been steadily increasing in recent months.

To start, welcome to Procurement Insights! As the author and curator of what is often referred to as the “living archive and collective memory of the procurement industry,” I thought it would be a good opportunity to provide you with some background on one of the procurement industry’s first blogs.

Of course, I would be remiss if I failed to thank my longtime subscribers, followers, and readers. Your contributions, through direct comments and participation in LinkedIn post discussions, have helped create a rich and critical understanding of our great industry and profession as a whole.

What Procurement Insights Is Known For:

1. Procurement’s Historical Memory & Digital Archive

• Often referred to as the “memory of the procurement industry”, the blog contains more than 4,000 articles, interviews, and cross-sector case studies dating back to the mid-2000s.
• Chronicles everything from early eProcurement debates and ERP fiascos (e.g., Hershey’s SAP disaster) to modern AI and semantic taxonomies.
• Features detailed retrospectives on failed public procurement initiatives, flawed analyst models, and missed transformation opportunities.

Why It Matters: It allows practitioners, academics, and solution providers to trace patterns, root causes, and systemic blind spots across decades of procurement evolution.

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2. Original Models & Frameworks

Jon Hansen is credited with pioneering foundational models, including:

• Metaprise Architecture (1998) – Viewing procurement as a dynamic, interoperable system of systems.
• Agent-Based Model for Procurement – Framing decision-making as decentralized, context-sensitive, and behaviorally complex.
• Strand Commonality Theory – Describing how recurring problem patterns link disparate procurement failures, enabling future risk prediction.
• Hansen Fit Score (HFS) – A readiness and alignment framework used to assess the success probability between procurement solutions and client organizations.
• RAM 2025 Platform – A six-model, five-level framework for evaluating AI-readiness and platform fit.

Why It Matters: These frameworks predate or rival many mainstream analyst tools and are now being adopted by next-generation platforms and strategy teams.

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3. Early Recognition of Black Swan Risks

Hansen’s blog predicted or flagged major procurement-related risks before they became headlines:

• Time-Zone Polling Model (1998) for MRO procurement delays in defense & transit
• AI adoption pitfalls years before the term “AI hype” entered analyst vocabulary
• Forecasting the fall of standalone taxonomies and the rise of semantic-layer AI
• Highlighting the spreadsheet error epidemic as a systemic performance drain

Why It Matters: It built credibility as a foresight-driven, not reactionary, source of insight.

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4. Unfiltered Critique of Analyst Firms & Vendor Narratives

• Known for pulling back the curtain on conflicts of interest, e.g., Gartner, IDC, and others, whose vendor-sponsored research often lacks transparency.
• Calls out ProcureTech solution providers when they fail to deliver transformation or promote buzzwords without substance.

Why It Matters: It earns trust from seasoned practitioners looking for truth over marketing.

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5. Interviews & Cross-Sector Engagement

• Hosted the “PI Window on Business” podcast, one of the first procurement-focused online broadcasts (900 episodes, ~2M downloads).
• Engaged a wide spectrum of voices—from public sector CPOs to startup founders and academic theorists.

Why It Matters: It creates a pluralistic, cross-disciplinary dialogue in a traditionally siloed profession.

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Summary: What Sets Procurement Insights Apart

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Benchmark Dimensions (Scores out of 10):

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