Platforms in 2020

Last week we talked about analyst predictions for analytics in 2020, most of which were just statements of the obvious, wishful thinking, or some combination thereof, but there was one prediction in particular that stood out … the one that was 100% correct. In particular, the prediction that companies will continue failing analytics and AI transformations.

Considering that most companies don’t have a good grip on analytics and an even worse grip on AI, what it really is, and how to judge if a company truly has some level of Artificial Intelligence — be it Assisted, Augmented, Cognitive, or Autonomous Intelligence — or if the company is just using Applied Indirection in their marketing.

But Analytics is just one aspect of technology that an average company is going to be interested, and if the company is not looking for a best-of-breed analytics vendor, it is looking for a platform. So what’s in-store for platforms in 2020?

Well, as usual, more of the same-old same-old, but their might be a few pinpoints of light in the near future. However, first, let’s discuss what’s going to happen for sure.

1) The M&A Mania is going to continue … and accelerate.
Workday’s (almost) ridiculous multiple for Scout (based upon current revenue) is going to make everyone hungry for acquisitions to keep up.

2) CLM and Analytics will be focal points.
Contract Management is the buzz, and while most organizations still don’t quite understand how to really extract value from it, no one wants to be left behind.
Similarly, AI is weaving it’s way into analytics, and while most vendors don’t have what the market thinks they have, it’s bringing analytics back into the limelight.

3) Mega-Acquirers (large companies and PE firms) will be all-in with suite mania.
If they don’t have a sourcing, supplier management, contract management, analytics, e-Procurement w/ Catalog Management, Invoice Management, and Payment management capability, they will be out to acquire any of those pieces as fast as possible to check all the major boxes and claim equivalency with Coupa, Ivalua, etc.
If they have the main pieces, they will be looking for ancillary pieces to increase the value and differentiate from the competition along the lines of T&E Management, BoM management for direct sourcing, Quality Management for Direct, Optimization and What-if Analysis, Freight “Broker” platform integration for (near) real-time weights and accurate Total Cost bids, etc.

But this is no surprise … it’s just an acceleration of what we’re seeing now.

So will anything be new?

1) “Chat-bots” will be put to work.
They will slowly transform from interactive help systems to actual assistants that will take commands and implement standard actions across the application. “Create an RFP for all off-contract products and products that will be off-contract in 90 days in the office supplies category” will find the template, find the products, identify the minimum information needed (release date, initial supplier pool, etc.) and ask it, and create a RFP ready to be finalized and sent out (using naming conventions, standard definition of incumbents, etc.).

2) “Predictive” Analytics will start to be integrated cross platform.
But don’t get too excited … for the most part it will be traditional trend algorithms or open-source models that have been found to typically work on that type of data and little to no machine learning, but it will be a step in the right direction.

3) “MDM” will be bandied around like it’s the new acronym candy.
And while platforms will make progress in terms of managing all of the data that flow through them, their ability to push data back to source systems and manage master data across systems will still be a while off. MDM will stay in the hands of ERP and highly specialist vendors for a few years to come.

While not an in-depth discussion of the trends that will continue or the trends that will start, it’s a good start.