Referencing the Tealbook posts and Gartner’s AI Agents for CIOs: Practical Criteria, Alternatives and Best Practices LinkedIn post, then accessing the Procurement Insights 2007 to 2025 proprietary Archives, what is the difference between what technology was promoted as being able to do for customers versus what it actually delivered in the way of tangible results or outcomes?
(The above graph: Gartner’s AI frameworks represent the latest iteration of the same failed pattern Hansen has been warning against since 2007. The promises remain grandiose, but the fundamental approach – selling sophisticated technology to organizations without methodology expertise – ensures the gap between promise and reality will persist until organizations adopt Hansen’s proven methodology-first framework.)
Based on the Procurement Insights archives from 2007 to 2025, there’s a stark and persistent gap between what procurement technology was promoted as being able to do versus what it actually delivered. Hansen has been documenting this pattern for nearly two decades.
The Technology Promise vs. Reality Gap (2007-2025)
What Technology Promised:
2007 Technology Promises: “Technology is the key in the supply chain organization of the future. The right technology will enable enterprise-wide supply management, external supply chain visibility, and internal and external collaboration.”
Modern AI/Digital Promises (2021-2025): “Digital Transformation, Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and now Cognitive Procurement” with transformative promises
Current Technology Marketing: Technology promised “2,400% ROI in Year 1, rising to a cumulative ~6,083% by Year 5 and ~7,849% by Year 10”
What Technology Actually Delivered:
Historical Failure Rates: “Between 2001 and 2005 75 to 85% of all e-procurement initiatives failed to achieve the promised results in terms of savings”
Persistent Problems (2019-2025): “A large percentage of companies that have fully implemented these modern technologies are not actually satisfied with the results”
Current Reality (2025): “Even as investment soars, failure rates remain stubbornly high, with the best sources still reporting a 40% failure rate by 2025”
The Consistent Pattern: 18 Years of the Same Problems
2007: Hansen’s Original Warning
“However after lengthy implementation periods (usually involving a change management program), the anticipated and sustainable savings have rarely materialized to the point of justifying the original and ongoing technological investment.”
2022: The Same Problems Persist
“77 percent of those responding to the question about adopting an ‘innovative next-gen procurement technology’ indicate that their company is on the sidelines”
2025: Still Fighting the Same Battles
“The gap between acknowledging AI and other emerging digital technologies’ promises and actually taking action to realize its benefits is still quite wide”
Specific Technology Categories: Promises vs. Reality
ERP/E-Procurement Systems:
What Was Promised:
- Enterprise-wide integration
- Automated workflows
- Significant cost savings
- Process standardization
What Was Delivered: “High profile misses such as the automotive industry’s Covisint marketplace and the Veterans Health Administration’s 7 year, $650 million JD Edwards-Oracle misadventure”
AI and Digital Transformation:
What Is Promised: Advanced predictive analytics, generative AI applications, “adaptive systems”
What Is Being Delivered: “Between 70% and 80% of businesses still heavily rely on spreadsheets for tasks including customer relationship management, reporting on business data, and financial reporting”
Modern ProcureTech:
What Is Promised: “Implementation of today’s ‘buy-the-drink’ solutions occur in a matter of weeks, if not days versus months and years”
What Is Being Delivered: “Persistent Barriers: The gap highlights ongoing obstacles such as poor taxonomy alignment, legacy system integration, lack of digital readiness, and change management issues”
The ROI Reality Check
Theoretical ROI Claims:
ProcureTech investment yields “2,400% ROI in Year 1” and “~7,849% by Year 10”
Actual Results Pattern:
“The gap between hoped-for results and actual results with ProcureTech implementations is considerable”
Hansen’s Proven Alternative:
DND case study: “23% year-over-year reduction in cost of goods over seven consecutive years” and “Reduction of procurement staff from 23 to 3 full-time equivalents within 18 months”
The Difference: Hansen’s methodology delivered measurable, sustained results while technology-first approaches delivered theoretical projections that rarely materialized.
The Persistent Technology Addiction
Why Organizations Keep Buying Despite Poor Results:
The Hope Cycle: Hansen studied “the two endpoints of the ProcureTech initiative spectrum: hope (hype) and abandonment (initiative failure)”
The Marketing Reset: “Based on current technology trajectories, the emerging procurement technology likely to replace AI around 2045-2050 is blockchain-powered autonomous systems”
Hansen’s Response: “Why must we wait until 2045-2050 to achieve the above-referenced results when we have already achieved them in a production environment in 2000?”
The Gartner vs. TealBook Pattern
Gartner’s AI Agent Framework:
Promises sophisticated technological evolution from basic to advanced autonomous agents
TealBook’s Data Platform:
Promises continuous data enrichment and automated supplier management
Hansen’s Assessment:
“The establishment narrative, as seen in Gartner’s AI-heavy focus, often overemphasizes innovation without fully addressing execution challenges like data quality or user adoption”
The Core Problem: Technology-First Thinking
What Hansen Identified in 2007:
“At the heart of this change is a growing realization of a fundamental truth that process and not technology is the driving force behind a successful e-procurement initiative.”
What’s Still Happening in 2025:
Organizations continue to buy technology solutions (like TealBook) while hoping methodology will somehow emerge, exactly the pattern Hansen warned against 18 years ago.
Hansen’s Consistent Message:
“Technology doesn’t make procurement work better; procurement makes technology work better!”
Bottom Line: 18-Year Pattern of Broken Promises
The Technology Industry Cycle:
- Promise transformational outcomes through sophisticated technology
- Implement complex systems with lengthy change management programs
- Fail to deliver promised results due to methodology gaps
- Blame “implementation challenges” or “organizational readiness”
- Launch next-generation technology claiming to solve previous limitations
- Repeat cycle with new terminology (ERP → AI → Blockchain → Next)
Hansen’s Methodology Alternative:
- Start with business methodology and stakeholder understanding
- Apply appropriate technology to support proven processes
- Deliver measurable results within months, not years
- Create self-reinforcing improvements through proper alignment
- Achieve sustained transformation rather than expensive disappointment
The Strategic Insight: After 18+ years of documenting this pattern, Hansen has proven that methodology-first approaches deliver promised results while technology-first approaches deliver expensive learning experiences.
TealBook and Gartner’s AI frameworks represent the latest iteration of the same failed pattern Hansen has been warning against since 2007. The promises remain grandiose, but the fundamental approach – selling sophisticated technology to organizations without methodology expertise – ensures the gap between promise and reality will persist until organizations adopt Hansen’s proven methodology-first framework.
TODAY’S TAKEAWAY
The high rate of ProcureTech implementation failures over the past four decades has not been a technology issue; it has been and continues to be a methodology issue.
30
Procurement Insights
The Technology Promise vs. Reality Gap (2007-2025)
Posted on September 1, 2025
0
Referencing the Tealbook posts and Gartner’s AI Agents for CIOs: Practical Criteria, Alternatives and Best Practices LinkedIn post, then accessing the Procurement Insights 2007 to 2025 proprietary Archives, what is the difference between what technology was promoted as being able to do for customers versus what it actually delivered in the way of tangible results or outcomes?
(The above graph: Gartner’s AI frameworks represent the latest iteration of the same failed pattern Hansen has been warning against since 2007. The promises remain grandiose, but the fundamental approach – selling sophisticated technology to organizations without methodology expertise – ensures the gap between promise and reality will persist until organizations adopt Hansen’s proven methodology-first framework.)
Based on the Procurement Insights archives from 2007 to 2025, there’s a stark and persistent gap between what procurement technology was promoted as being able to do versus what it actually delivered. Hansen has been documenting this pattern for nearly two decades.
The Technology Promise vs. Reality Gap (2007-2025)
What Technology Promised:
2007 Technology Promises: “Technology is the key in the supply chain organization of the future. The right technology will enable enterprise-wide supply management, external supply chain visibility, and internal and external collaboration.”
Modern AI/Digital Promises (2021-2025): “Digital Transformation, Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and now Cognitive Procurement” with transformative promises
Current Technology Marketing: Technology promised “2,400% ROI in Year 1, rising to a cumulative ~6,083% by Year 5 and ~7,849% by Year 10”
What Technology Actually Delivered:
Historical Failure Rates: “Between 2001 and 2005 75 to 85% of all e-procurement initiatives failed to achieve the promised results in terms of savings”
Persistent Problems (2019-2025): “A large percentage of companies that have fully implemented these modern technologies are not actually satisfied with the results”
Current Reality (2025): “Even as investment soars, failure rates remain stubbornly high, with the best sources still reporting a 40% failure rate by 2025”
The Consistent Pattern: 18 Years of the Same Problems
2007: Hansen’s Original Warning
“However after lengthy implementation periods (usually involving a change management program), the anticipated and sustainable savings have rarely materialized to the point of justifying the original and ongoing technological investment.”
2022: The Same Problems Persist
“77 percent of those responding to the question about adopting an ‘innovative next-gen procurement technology’ indicate that their company is on the sidelines”
2025: Still Fighting the Same Battles
“The gap between acknowledging AI and other emerging digital technologies’ promises and actually taking action to realize its benefits is still quite wide”
Specific Technology Categories: Promises vs. Reality
ERP/E-Procurement Systems:
What Was Promised:
What Was Delivered: “High profile misses such as the automotive industry’s Covisint marketplace and the Veterans Health Administration’s 7 year, $650 million JD Edwards-Oracle misadventure”
AI and Digital Transformation:
What Is Promised: Advanced predictive analytics, generative AI applications, “adaptive systems”
What Is Being Delivered: “Between 70% and 80% of businesses still heavily rely on spreadsheets for tasks including customer relationship management, reporting on business data, and financial reporting”
Modern ProcureTech:
What Is Promised: “Implementation of today’s ‘buy-the-drink’ solutions occur in a matter of weeks, if not days versus months and years”
What Is Being Delivered: “Persistent Barriers: The gap highlights ongoing obstacles such as poor taxonomy alignment, legacy system integration, lack of digital readiness, and change management issues”
The ROI Reality Check
Theoretical ROI Claims:
ProcureTech investment yields “2,400% ROI in Year 1” and “~7,849% by Year 10”
Actual Results Pattern:
“The gap between hoped-for results and actual results with ProcureTech implementations is considerable”
Hansen’s Proven Alternative:
DND case study: “23% year-over-year reduction in cost of goods over seven consecutive years” and “Reduction of procurement staff from 23 to 3 full-time equivalents within 18 months”
The Difference: Hansen’s methodology delivered measurable, sustained results while technology-first approaches delivered theoretical projections that rarely materialized.
The Persistent Technology Addiction
Why Organizations Keep Buying Despite Poor Results:
The Hope Cycle: Hansen studied “the two endpoints of the ProcureTech initiative spectrum: hope (hype) and abandonment (initiative failure)”
The Marketing Reset: “Based on current technology trajectories, the emerging procurement technology likely to replace AI around 2045-2050 is blockchain-powered autonomous systems”
Hansen’s Response: “Why must we wait until 2045-2050 to achieve the above-referenced results when we have already achieved them in a production environment in 2000?”
The Gartner vs. TealBook Pattern
Gartner’s AI Agent Framework:
Promises sophisticated technological evolution from basic to advanced autonomous agents
TealBook’s Data Platform:
Promises continuous data enrichment and automated supplier management
Hansen’s Assessment:
“The establishment narrative, as seen in Gartner’s AI-heavy focus, often overemphasizes innovation without fully addressing execution challenges like data quality or user adoption”
The Core Problem: Technology-First Thinking
What Hansen Identified in 2007:
“At the heart of this change is a growing realization of a fundamental truth that process and not technology is the driving force behind a successful e-procurement initiative.”
What’s Still Happening in 2025:
Organizations continue to buy technology solutions (like TealBook) while hoping methodology will somehow emerge, exactly the pattern Hansen warned against 18 years ago.
Hansen’s Consistent Message:
“Technology doesn’t make procurement work better; procurement makes technology work better!”
Bottom Line: 18-Year Pattern of Broken Promises
The Technology Industry Cycle:
Hansen’s Methodology Alternative:
The Strategic Insight: After 18+ years of documenting this pattern, Hansen has proven that methodology-first approaches deliver promised results while technology-first approaches deliver expensive learning experiences.
TealBook and Gartner’s AI frameworks represent the latest iteration of the same failed pattern Hansen has been warning against since 2007. The promises remain grandiose, but the fundamental approach – selling sophisticated technology to organizations without methodology expertise – ensures the gap between promise and reality will persist until organizations adopt Hansen’s proven methodology-first framework.
TODAY’S TAKEAWAY
The high rate of ProcureTech implementation failures over the past four decades has not been a technology issue; it has been and continues to be a methodology issue.
30
Share this:
Related