Playbooks for procurement leaders who ship
Field-tested guides, benchmarks, vendor comparisons and practical tools — by operators, for operators. Free.
Latest insights
Tail spend categories: what sits in the tail and how to sort it
Which purchases end up in the tail, and how to sort 12 months of your own spend by category to see where suppliers are most fragmented.
Tail spend baseline: how to set it and measure it
A tail spend baseline is a dated snapshot of 12 months of indirect spend. Here is how to build one from your own books and measure it every month.
Tail spend consultants vs. outsourced desks vs. software: which one a mid-market team actually needs
An honest guide to when tail spend management consultants make sense, when an outsourced buying desk does, when software is the right base, and how the three combine.
Guides
Punchout catalogs explained: full assortment, zero maintenance
How punchout works, why large distributors prefer it, and what you keep control of when the buyer shops on the supplier's site.
Supplier/client catalogs: making negotiated prices the default
Most negotiated savings never reach the P&L because the agreed price never reaches the buyer. This fixes the handoff.
Supplier global catalogs: finding a second source without an RFQ
When the item is worth less than the sourcing event, a supplier-published catalog is the faster path.
Hosted catalogs: how to stop buying recurring items by email
The cheapest control in procurement is a list. Here is how to build a hosted catalog that requesters actually use.
The complete tail spend management handbook for US mid-market companies
An end-to-end handbook for $50M–$1B US companies: definition, baseline, controls, governance cadence, and the metrics that matter.
How to write a procurement policy your teams will actually follow
Policy structure, dollar thresholds, exception handling, and the change-management tactics that get a policy followed.
The vendor consolidation blueprint
A step-by-step blueprint to cut vendor sprawl without breaking operations.
AI-driven supplier evaluation: how to build scorecards that work
Scorecard structure, weighting, evidence requirements, and where AI helps vs. where it quietly hurts.
How to build an RFx that suppliers actually answer
Templates, scoring weights, and the three questions that separate good bids from great ones.
Research and comparisons
Tail spend benchmarks: how growing companies without a procurement department buy
How growing companies without a procurement department buy, why tail spend escapes control and how to apply the 80/20 lens. Plain-language guide.
Hosted vs punchout vs supplier catalog: which one do you need?
A decision guide across the four catalog models, by category type, volume and who should carry the maintenance.
Enterprise platforms vs. agile solutions: what your CFO needs to know before signing
A blunt CFO-level comparison of legacy enterprise P2P suites and purpose-built mid-market platforms — TCO, time-to-value, audit risk, adoption.
Why email is no longer a procurement option for companies above 50 employees
The compliance, audit and cash-leakage case against running procurement out of an inbox once you cross 50 US employees.
Seven signs your supply chain urgently needs automation
A diagnostic checklist for US mid-market teams.
Tail Sourcing vs. B2B marketplaces
When a procurement platform beats a marketplace, when it doesn't, and how the smartest teams use both.
The state of AI in procurement, 2026
Where AI is genuinely moving the needle in procurement, where it's overhyped, and what to fund next year.
Buy vs. build a procurement system
Total cost of ownership analysis for growing companies without a procurement department considering both paths.
Tail Sourcing vs. legacy P2P platforms
Side-by-side feature, pricing and implementation comparison with the four best-known incumbents.
Why negotiated savings never reach the P&L
And the governance pattern leading procurement teams use to make savings stick.
Tools
Free tools to size your tail spend
Start here: three self-service tools to see where your tail spend leaks and what fixing it is worth. Just your work email, no credit card.
Tail spend report, ROI calculator and leakage calculator — free and instant — just your work email.
Tail spend report
Answer 10 quick questions and see your top 3 categories by transaction volume with no structured sourcing process — with the estimated leakage in dollars.
ReadLeakage calculator
How much is maverick buying and unmanaged tail spend costing you? Size the leak in your indirect spend in under a minute.
ReadSee your plan and savings in 10 seconds
Two sliders. Recommended plan, monthly cost and the annual savings opportunity vs. an email/spreadsheet baseline.
Read
Guest experts, published in full
Practitioners and analysts we learn from. We republish their work with permission and credit, and add our own editor's note — never a rewrite.
Recognized international authority on supply chain and procurement improvement. Featured on CBC's Venture for his procurement programs, former President of Parts Logistics Management Corp., and Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year finalist (2004, 2005). Retained by PMAC, NIGP and NAEP to deliver accredited procurement courses, and author of the Procurement Insights body of work.
What you gain when tail spend is under control
Maximize savings, free up procurement time, tighten compliance and lift internal-customer satisfaction — the four wins leading procurement teams see in the first two quarters.
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Field-tested playbooks — not vendor white-papers
Templates, benchmarks and breakdowns we've used inside real procurement teams. Skim them, steal them, ship them.