You may think catalogs are passe, but you need look no further than Coupa’s, yes Coupa’s, acquisition of Simeno … for it’s catalogs! WOW! Isn’t that what Coupa did, easy catalogs for easy buying?

According to the press release it acquired a leader in cross-catalog search and advanced catalog management that creates localized content from third-party supplier sites to power cross-catalog searches, including content from many of the leading B2B marketplaces and it did it to grow its Open Buy Program with the addition of the marketplaces to deliver a best-in-class cross-catalog search capability that is competitively distinguished while increasing its local presence in key German and Swiss markets.

We guess Coupa really wants to be the Amazon Business of the S2P world in the global market place!

But it does prove our point – the paper may have gone away, but people love their catalogs! Search, click, buy. Search, click, buy. Why RFI when you can search, click, buy. And, implemented and managed right, they are a great tool for attacking a significant portion of often overlooked tail spend.

And even if people don’t, this is obviously what Coupa believes as the new Simeno site focusses entirely on catalogs and those of you who knew Simeno knew that, especially if you read the Spend Matters Pro brief co-authored by the doctor (Part I, Part II, and Part III [membership required]), they also offered a procurement, basic contract management, and basic analytics application as well before the acquisition.

The catalog is dead. Long live the catalog!