Imagine you've got a choice between two superhero tech upgrades: the "Big Bang" where you get a brand-new, flashy super-suit built from scratch, or the "Bionic" where you gradually enhance your existing suit with cool gadgets and powers. Sounds fun, right? Let’s dive into how these concepts play out in the world of procurement technology, and why the "Bionic" approach is often the smarter choice.
The Big Bang Approach: High Risk, High Reward
Going for the Big Bang is like throwing out your old tech and starting from zero with something totally new. This can be super exciting because you get to design everything from scratch and potentially leap ahead of the competition. But it’s also a bit like jumping off a cliff and hoping your new wings will work. These massive projects can be hit or miss, often running into delays, budget blowouts, and unforeseen headaches. Plus, ripping out the old system can cause chaos for your team as they scramble to learn the new ropes.
Imagine launching a spaceship with an untested design—you could end up with a revolutionary ride or a catastrophic crash. That’s the risk with the Big Bang.
When we talk about GenAI, the issue with the Big Bang approach becomes even more pronounced. GenAI is fantastic for putting together a quick demo; it’s the tech equivalent of showing off a shiny new prototype. For example, you can hop onto ChatGPT today (or other Large Language Models (LLMs) like Perplexity.ai) and say, “create an RFI for corrugate.” What you’ll get is something that looks pretty impressive at first glance. You might then become excited and think, “we should use this for all our RFI generation.”
But here’s where the Big Bang approach stumbles: the LLM is the average of all the knowledge it was trained on, which means it generates average content. While it might look good to someone who doesn’t know the area well, an expert is likely to poke holes in it. It won’t be nuanced to your requirements, and it’s unlikely to be tailored to your specific locations.
A lot of VC money has encouraged companies to go all-in on Big Bang AI based on these sorts of over-simplified demo implementations that look good to investors but don’t work in the real world. There’s going to be significant fallout from companies that bet big on GenAI based on the early hype, only to find out that the reality doesn’t match up.
Read more: Guide to AI in Procurement
The Bionic Approach: Smart, Steady Upgrades
Now, the Bionic approach is all about smart, steady upgrades. Think of it like adding awesome new features to your trusty tech suit bit by bit. Instead of throwing out what already works, you enhance it with cutting-edge AI tools. This way, you’re not just hoping for the best—you’re building on a solid foundation.
I use the term ‘Bionic’ to evoke the iconic Six Million Dollar Man series from the ’70s. While inflation may have outpaced Lee Majors’ original valuation, the idea of bionic upgrades—enhancing human abilities with advanced technology—feels more relevant now than ever. Applied to procurement, a Bionic approach means building on existing systems with smart, incremental improvements rather than overhauling everything at once. It’s about taking what already works and making it better, stronger, and more efficient by integrating cutting-edge tools. This method ensures continuity, minimizes risk, and allows for continuous, manageable advancements that drive substantial benefits over time.
The beauty of going Bionic is that it’s less risky whilst being faster to deploy. You can roll out improvements gradually, so your team has time to adapt without feeling overwhelmed whilst fine-tuning improvements along the way. It’s like adding a new gadget to your gear every few months, making sure each one is tested and perfect before moving on to the next.
Such an approach lends itself to AI deployment more than other technology innovations. That is because AI innovation is based on training data, and the closer you can place the LLM to the actual, relevant data, the better it can be applied. By integrating AI into your existing procurement processes, you can automate boring tasks, dig through data to find hidden opportunities, and make smarter decisions faster. For example, AI can help you pick the best suppliers, manage contracts seamlessly, and spot savings opportunities you might miss otherwise. It’s like having a super-intelligent sidekick who never sleeps.
So, here we have tech (in the tradition of the Pac-Man ghosts) that has identified patterns in written text and can generate human-like text with which you can converse.
Sprinkling AI for Precision: How Simfoni Blends Human Insight with Machine Intelligence
AI technology is evolving at an unprecedented pace and models and algorithms are only going to get better. That’s why R&D is so crucial at Simfoni. But instead of jumping into the Big Bang approach—where you build massive AI-powered products from scratch, siloed off and burning through time and money—we prefer a more nimble, integrated approach. We sprinkle AI into our products gradually, when it’s ready, so our customers can start benefiting from it right away.
AItemizer: Streamlining Requisitions with AI Precision
Take something simple, like auto-naming a purchase requisition. Most users don’t want to deal with raising a purchase req, let alone naming it. So, we use AI to handle that task automatically, making things smoother and faster for the user. On a larger scale, there’s our AItemizer, which helps users build out meaningful descriptions for non-catalog items. By guiding them through this process, it makes procurement’s job easier, helping them get sourcing started without the usual back-and-forth to clarify specifications. Our goal here? To make Simfoni feel less like a corporate tool and more like a helpful assistant that users actually want to interact with.
In Strategic Sourcing, this sprinkling of AI might help you find anonymized questions from similar RFIs or uncover hidden insights and opportunities in your spend data. Whatever the use case, we’re focused on blending AI into our solutions in a way that enhances, rather than complicates, your procurement processes.
InsightsAI: The Bionic Eye of Spend Analytics
Let’s go back to the Six Million Dollar Man. Remember his bionic eye that could zoom in, spot any hidden detail, and reveal things you’d never see with the naked eye?
That’s what Simfoni’s InsightsAI does for your spend data. It’s like a high-powered, AI-driven eyeball, constantly scanning your data and automatically spotting cost savings opportunities that might otherwise slip by unnoticed.
Instead of manually combing through mountains of spend data, hoping to find areas for improvement, InsightsAI zooms in on key trends, inefficiencies, and savings possibilities in real-time. It looks at every corner of your procurement spend, identifies where you’re overspending, and highlights the fastest paths to savings—just like the bionic eye that never misses a thing. And just like that, your procurement strategy becomes not just smarter, but practically superhuman.
At Simfoni, our Bionic approach to AI isn’t about flashy, all-at-once innovation—it’s about smart, focused enhancements that empower users. Whether it’s AItemizer simplifying requisitions or InsightsAI unlocking hidden savings, we’re using AI to elevate procurement in practical, meaningful ways. By blending technology with human insight, we’re creating tools that don’t just work for you—they work with you, making procurement smarter, faster, and more intuitive.
The Smarter Path: Go Bionic
In this high-stakes game of procurement technology development, choosing between Big Bang and Bionic is crucial. While the Big Bang approach might seem glamorous, it’s often too risky and unpredictable. The Bionic route, on the other hand, is all about smart, rapid and sustainable growth. It’s not just about making the biggest leap—it’s about making the right one. The Bionic approach allows Simfoni to build with precision, ensuring that every enhancement is deliberate and impactful. It’s about refining what works and weaving in AI where it truly makes a difference.
The future of procurement doesn’t need to be flashy to be revolutionary—it needs to be smart, adaptable, and grounded in what truly matters: driving results without disruption. At Simfoni, we’re not just building tools for today—we’re creating the foundation for tomorrow’s procurement superpowers.
“We have the technology to rebuild…better, stronger, faster”.
Alan Buxton
CTO at Simfoni
Simfoni
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