One Vendor Won’t Rule Them All … And One Ring Won’t Bind Them!

A common question (from buying organizations and investors alike) these days is which vendor is going to win out in the end? Who will still be around in 5, 10, and 20 years and which horse should take all the bets?

The answer is no single vendor is going to win. And the reason for that is many-fold. One, different types of companies need different types of vendors. That’s why SpendMatters SolutionMaps (where 3.5 of the 4 SPT maps were developed by the doctor) classifies vendors according to six different buying personas. While six personas doesn’t quite cover all the buyers out there, it covers the majority and shows that most vendors don’t do everything well.

Two, different locales around the world have different regulatory and compliance requirements, as well as (culturally) different ways of doing business, and one vendor is not always going to be the right fit, if they are even a fit at all.

Three, different organizations are at different stages on their e-Sourcing journey and need a different amount of complexity — and if they are just beginning, there’s no way they will be able to start with, and adapt to, a complex 42-step sourcing platform designed as a one process fits all. (Yes, those still exist, and they are the reason some organizations are abandoning major players with solutions they’ve invested millions in for mid-market solutions that cost a tenth of the price with a tenth of the functionality.)

As a result, different organizations value different things depending on where they are on their journey. Companies just starting their e-Sourcing journey just want a simple, configurable, workflow that can be configured to minimal requirements. Companies a bit further along want to easily centralize and manage their supplier information. Companies further along want to be able to centralize all their spend and do advanced analytics. (Or vice versa, depending on who whispered in their ear first.) Companies quite advanced on their journey want advanced modelling and optimization capabilities.

In other words, the sourcing platform with the best workflow management solution will be a winner among the newbies. The sourcing platform with the best supplier lifecycle management platform will be a winner among those that need good supply base management. The sourcing platform with the best analytics will be a winner among those that need a good understanding of their spend. And the sourcing platform with the best optimization capability will be a winner among those that need to extensively model and optimize their supply chain.

Just like there are a multitude of winners in real estate who can make money focussing on low rental, suburban housing, condos, high-end mansions, low-end commercial, and high-end commercial, there will be a multitude of winners in the sourcing space. The best in each category — and each persona — will win.