You Don't Need 3 Quotes

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In Today's Issue

• The Quiet Fix - You Don't Need 3 Quotes

• The Tech Bit - Don't Buy AI

• My Best Post Lately

• Free Template of the Week

The Quiet Fix

YOU DON’T NEED 3 QUOTES

Whenever a team I work with spends six months building a framework running a full-blown sourcing exercise, going through the commercial terms, onboarding suppliers, checking everything with legal…

…and THEN ends up re-tendering every time someone wants to use it, a little bit of me dies inside.

It’s particularly common in public procurement environments, where the frameworks are solid, but nobody feels confident enough to just, well, use them!

• So instead, we ask for three new quotes

• We rerun a mini competition

• We treat it like we’re starting from scratch

And it wastes hours of procurement time, stakeholder time, and supplier time, for something that’s already been competitively sourced.

The real issue is actually trust.

The rules are there but we just don’t back ourselves to follow them.

Here’s the shift I’ve seen work: write it down.

Actually define the thresholds where frameworks can be used without re-validation.

Spell it out for stakeholders.

If a supplier is on the framework and the scope fits, that should be enough. No “just in case” sourcing.

I’ve personally seen this save weeks of admin per quarter, especially in services categories where the spend is low but the process is the same every time.

It makes procurement look decisive.

But most importantly, it respects the work you’ve already done.

The Tech Bit

DON’T BUY AI

Do you know what really makes my blood boil lately?

Hearing this: “We’re an AI First Company.”

That sentence doesn’t mean anything at all. It’s simply a distraction.

A company that solves problems may survive.

A company that leads with a slogan about intelligence, artificial or otherwise, usually doesn’t know what it’s trying to fix.

AI is a tool.

• It won’t make a bad process better

• It won’t make bad data useful.

• It won’t help if the people using it don’t know what they’re looking for.

But it can be helpful, if you use it in the right way, with the right questions, on the right kind of problem.

Procurement doesn’t need more agentic press releases.

(PLEASE, I am begging you not to!)

What we really are in need of is help with better decisions, made faster, with fewer blind spots.

If AI helps, great. But let’s not worship the hammer before we know what kind of nail we’re hitting.

You don’t need to buy AI to use it

Here’s the bit they never put in the brochure:

You don’t need a full platform, a six-month roadmap, or an “AI strategy” to get started.

You can use what’s already in front of you right now.

• Pull up your spend report

• Your last supplier negotiation

• A contract that’s been sitting in your inbox

And drop a redacted version into ChatGPT, Copilot, or whatever tool your company allows. Then ask something useful.

You’re not asking AI to decide (or replace you) but to speed up the thinking, cut through the admin, and give you a head start.

It’s not revolutionary but there is no licence approval-workflow required.

One thing to be clear on: confidentiality matters

I am sure I don’t need to remind you not to paste sensitive contracts or commercial details into public models like ChatGPT.

Use dummy data, anonymised examples, or your company’s private instance if it exists (e.g. ChatGPT Enterprise, Microsoft Copilot with Azure). AI isn’t exempt from your data policies.

Think of it like a contractor: useful, fast, but you wouldn’t give them your salary database on day one.

Same rules apply.

What to remember

AI doesn’t need your loyalty. It’s not a movement, it’s a tool.

And in procurement, tools are only as good as the problems you point them at.

So ask yourself:

What’s the thing that’s slowing you down this week?
What’s the decision that’s stuck in your inbox?
What’s the spreadsheet you’ve opened five times without making progress?

Start there.

Because no one’s asking you to be “AI-first.”
But it’s not a bad idea to be problem-first.

To think faster. See patterns. Spot risks.

Even if it’s just to stop you writing that strategy slide from scratch for the fifth time.

If AI helps, keep using it.
If it doesn’t, close the tab.

But don’t get distracted by the packaging. The smartest work just gets done, regardless of the how.

My Best Post Lately

PROCUREMENT ORGANISATIONAL CHART

Ever look at a procurement org chart and feel like you’ve time-travelled back a decade?

I shared one in this post, then tore it apart.

Because while those traditional roles still show up on PowerPoint slides, real transformations are doing something different:

• Fewer Category Managers

• More embedded analytics

• New roles like Digital Leads and Product Owners

I feel this one sparked a lot of discussion because it challenges the idea that every category needs “owning”.

So if your TOM still looks like it did five years ago, it might be time to rethink what you’re designing around"!

READ THE FULL POST →

Template(s) of the week 

STRATEGIC PLAN ON A PAGE

This edition’s freebie is a complete yet simple Procurement Strategy Plan to help you align and deliver.

Because most procurement strategies are 15 pages too long.

So by the time you’ve finished writing them, no one wants to read them… let alone use them!

So this template is designed to fix that. It captures your core objectives, KPIs and priorities in a format that’s clear, focused, and ready to share with leadership.

Everything you need to turn procurement goals into results, at a glance.

Download it here!

A Final Note

This time last year, I was still figuring out what The Procurement Blueprint might become.

Now, there are thousands of you reading along, sharing, replying, sending kind messages, and challenging the way procurement is “meant” to be done.

It’s not lost on me how lucky I am to be in your inbox.

So, thank you.

For reading. For thinking. For showing up.

Until next time,

Procurement worth reading.