Daily Archives: April 9, 2008

SourceOne scores a Grand Slam with WhyAbe

Gartner recently named Source One’s (acquired by Corcentric) free WhyAbe.com (sunset) platform as a Cool Vendor in Procurement and Finance for 2008. This is a big score for the sourcing and contract management toolset, when you consider that not many sourcing providers get this recognition from Gartner and that previous winners have included FreeFlow, Vinimaya (rebranded Aquiire, acquired by Coupa), and BIQ (acquired by Opera Solutions, rebranded ElectrifAI) – the latter of which are really cool vendors.

Source One, a Procurement Service Provider (PSP), is a fairly major player in the strategic sourcing & cost reduction consulting marketplace, having been incorporated back in 1993 – well before companies like FreeMarkets (now part of Ariba) made strategic sourcing vogue, and many of their consultants have over 20 years of experience in the field. They take the traditional approach to sourcing projects with a two part project team (consisting of Source One personnel who do the project and Client personnel who sponsor and manage the project on the client site), as compared to the resource augmentation approach some of the newer consultancies take. The approach may seem heavy to a smaller organization, but the results speak for themselves. With an average savings of 18% across 60+ categories (whose average savings range from 5% to 25%, while some outliers, like cash management, are as high as 90%), when they say their aggregated purchasing power allows them to secure exceptionally competitive pricing, they mean it. And from what I hear, they’re doing so well that it’s a daily struggle to keep up with a constantly increasing demand for their services. (P.S. They’ll be making a big announcement at ISM next month. You might want to watch for it.)

But let’s talk about WhyAbe.com. From a technology perspective, RFX, Reverse Auction, and basic Contract Management is nothing new … basic solutions for the former has been available for over ten years and a basic solution for the latter for at least seven years. There’s nothing new about cookie-cutter on-line stores or stripped down supplier networks either. What is new is the fact that it’s totally free.  WhyAbe.com is cracking the sourcing mold and offering a free solution that companies new to sourcing and sourcing technology can use and experiment to find out what works for them, what doesn’t, and what they need help on. It’s a great way for a company to test the water as it provides a quick start to e-Sourcing with a price that can’t be beat. Then, when an organization has identified it’s needs, and, more importantly, identified what it can do well in house – and what it can not, it can always upgrade to a more extensive e-Sourcing platform and retain a PSP, like Source One, to help it with those categories that it doesn’t have the experience, or the leverage, to get savings on. Furthermore, should it retain Source One, it can still use the tool as a way to work with the PSP. In other words, even though there’s nothing new from a technology perspective, the model is very cool and I think they deserve the Cool Vendor award for it. If nothing else, it will force some of the stagnant providers in the e-Sourcing space that haven’t done much with their solution for 2, 3, 5, and in some cases, 7 years to update their offering to provide real value for the $$s they’re charging, or fall by the wayside to make room for the new innovators. And that’s a win for the space you can’t argue with!