Category Archives: SaaS

The Sourcing Maniacs 2008 Vendor Tour Part 21: Vinimaya

Today’s post has been broken down into vacuity, vindication, and veil.


Vacuity

 

Wakko I never imagined a Stampede could be so much fun!
Editor’s note: the maniacs took a little detour through Calgary after finishing their visit with Upside Software in Edmonton
Yakko It sure is! But we should probably be getting back to our tour. After all, we still haven’t been offered a job!
Dot We’re not done yet?
Yakko We’re only at U!
Dot Precisely. Who uses V, W, X, Y, and Z anyway?
Yakko Well, I’ll admit that a lot of companies start with the early letters of the alphabet, presumably to come first in the listing or to take advantage of common power words, that usually start with M, N, R, S, T and other Wheel-of-Fortune favorite letters, but there are still a few companies left. I’m sure there are at least ten companies in the space that start with V.
Dot Precisely. Who uses V, W, X, Y, and Z anyway.
Yakko Verian Technologies, Vertical Net, and Viewlocity.
Dot Vertical Net is Bravo Solution now.
Yakko Okay, Vendormate.
Dot Touche! So who next. Any recommended by the doctor?
Yakko Let me check.
more flipping through the handy dandy notebook
the doctor mentioned a company called Vinimaya (rebranded Aquiire, acquired by Coupa) when we asked him who the innovative companies were.
Dot What do they do?
Yakko Catalog Management.
Dot Sounds so Web 1.0. What else?
Yakko Looks like they’re billing themselves as the B2B Search Engine now.
Dot B2B Google?
Anything else?
Yakko Looks like that’s it.
Dot Are you sure?
Yakko I think so.
Dot So what are we missing? the doctor says they’re innovative, but catalogs and search have existed for over a decade.
Yakko I don’t know. I guess we’ll have to go find out!
  the maniacs take off for Shelton, CT

 



Vindication

 

Dot Are we here?
Yakko Uhmm, I think so.
Dot I’ll knock.
tap tap-tap tap tap … tap tap
Smiling Man a smiling man opens the door
Howdy! How can I help you!
Yakko We’re a little confused. the doc said you were innovative, but we understand that you do catalogs and search.
Smiling Man That’s right!
Dot And how’s that innovative?
Smiling Man You need to understand, it’s not what we do, but how we do it.
Dot What do you mean?
Smiling Man To use the doctor‘s terminology, we’re B2B 3.0 all the way.
Yakko B2B 3.0?
Smiling Man Business-to-Business 3.0. We provide enterprise software technology that puts business users on the same footing as consumers who have had “3.0” technologies at their fingertips for years. B2B 3.0 is about connectivity that is open and free to all, content that is managed once in a non-redundant fashion by the content owner, and an open community where buyers and sellers can come together for short periods of time through virtual networks that allow them to conduct the business they need to conduct — when, and how, they need to conduct it. We provide the technology platform that, using the open connectivity of the internet, enables innovative content management that allows buyers and suppliers to engage in productive e-commerce.
Dot And how do you do that?
Smiling Man Through content unification. If you go back to the beginning, B2B 1.0 if you will, you had the catalog, which was different in every ERP, procurement, and sourcing application, and which had to be maintained by the buyer — who had to collect data from the supplier to populate their application. This led to stale data, and an inability to find new products in a timely fashion. Then the punch-out came along and helped to usher in B2B 2.0. This was a slight improvement, as the supplier was able to maintain their own catalog, which the buyer could connect to, but there were still issues. The catalog was only as fresh as the last supplier update, which could be months in the past as the supplier had to maintain a different puchout with different pricing for each buyer, and the buyer could only connect to, and search, one punchout at a time.
Dot So?
Smiling Man How do you get the best price?
Dot You review and evaluate all the options.
Smiling Man And how do you do that if you can only search one catalog at at time?
Dot You build a spreadsheet …
Smiling Man Don’t you buy a technology solution to help you with your job? Doesn’t having to build a spreadsheet hinder you? Why not just use Google and search each vendor site individually. It would be just as effective and save you money.
Dot True.
Smiling Man So buyer hosted catalogs don’t work, as they are always stale and don’t have the right prices, or products, and punch-outs don’t work as they restrict a buyer to one site at a time. Plus, both solutions often cost way more money than they’re worth. Sure you can get a catalog solution cheap, but how much is it going to cost you in salaries to keep it up to date? If you’re a large company, millions. And you might think punchouts are cheap, but a supplier has to pay someone to create a separate punchout with distinct pricing for each buyer, and then has to pay someone else to maintain that data. And who do you think pays for that overhead? That’s right, you!
Yakko So what’s the solution?
Smiling Man Our platform.
Yakko And how’s that work?
Smiling Man It’s a web-services enabled agent-based meta-search technology that can plug into any electronic product listing a supplier has at its disposal — be it punch-out, e-Catalog, a web-enabled database, or a plain old ASCII flat file — and integrate the listings into one consistent, coherent view for the buyer.
Wakko So it’s e-Bay for enterprises? A single view into all available products and services that you can search — by product name, characteristic, or price range — to find the best product to meet your need at the best price, right now?
Smiling Man That’s right Wakko! We enable buyers and suppliers to conduct commerce the way it was meant to be — simple, easy, and cost effective.
Yakko That’s it?
Smiling Man That’s it. We’re the first company to utilize the full power of the internet to let buyers and suppliers to conduct business using the technology they have available; we add the ability for both parties to define pricing and presentation rules that are applied in real-time on every search; and our powerful interconnectivity platform allows us to integrate seamlessly with all of the major platforms. What else would we need to do?
Yakko I can’t think of anything else.
Smiling Man Precisely! Sometimes you just have to keep it simple.

 



Veil

 

  we join the maniacs an hour or so later at a diner
Dot So, are we done?
Yakko We’ve done WhyAbe, and the only other W company I know of is WeSupply, but they’re on the other side of the Atlantic.
Dot And the only X company I know of is Xign, but since they’re owned by a bank, we know they’re just payments, which isn’t that exciting.
Yakko I don’t know of a single company in the space that starts with Y!
Dot I guess that brings us to …
Yakko, Wakko, & Dot … Zycus!
Wakko Aren’t they based in India?
Dot They are. But don’t they have US locations?
Yakko They do, but they’re mainly sales offices, and the doctor says he hasn’t had any luck getting a response from them locally.
Dot I guess we’re done for now, then.
Yakko It’s probably for the best. I’m feeling a chill in the air, and I don’t like the cold as much as I used too.
Dot We did get awfully used to the wonderful year-round weather in the valley, didn’t we?
Yakko We did. Let’s go home for the winter. We can start a new tour next year … and maybe, armed with our superior knowledge from this tour, we’ll even find a job!
Wakko And in the mean time, I can be Califorina Dreamin’.
Yakko, Wakko, & Dot All the leaves are brown
And the sky is grey
I’ve been for a walk
On a winters day
I’d be safe and warm
If I was in L.A.
California dreamin’ …
  the maniacs fade into the distance

I don’t know about you, but I think they deserve a 21-gun salute for their efforts. Twenty-one posts and one hundred and thirty pages of amazing content that is so rich that you have to read it multiple times to thoroughly extract all of the nuances is more than some blogs give you in an entire year (or lifetime)! Rest up maniacs, you deserve it!

 

The Sourcing Maniacs 2008 Vendor Tour Part 20: Ketera

This post is a wee bit lengthy, so I’ve broken it into kidding and Ketera.


Kidding

  the maniacs are enjoying themselves somewhere in Alberta
Wakko Hee Haw!
Dot That was a classic, wasn’t it. Did you know it had Canadian roots?
Wakko Yippie Ki Yo Yippie Yay!
Dot We’re in Alberta, not Texas, Wakko!
  ring, ring
Yakko Yakkos Yiddish Yamakas … cheery caps for cheery chaps!
Australian Accent G’day, Mates! You wanted a demo of Ketera?
  if you’ll recall, back in part 12 (Kinaxis) the maniacs asked Ketera for a demo … they were too busy at the time, but promised to get back to the maniacs
Yakko Yes, we did.
Australian Accent Ace! Could you do it now?
  neeiiggghh!
Australian Accent Is that a Brumby I hear? Is this a good time for you blokes?
Yakko It’s just fine. I’ll fire up the satellite and we’re good to go!
Australian Accent Bonzer!
Are you out in the bush, mate?
Yakko No, we’re just enjoying the ranch.
Australian Accent Texas?
Yakko Alberta.
Australian Accent You’re in the Back of Bourke, aren’t you?
Yakko I guess you could say that.
Australian Accent You’re sure it’s a Mickey Mouse time for you?
Yakko No problem. I’m ready.
Dot I’m ready.
Yakko We just need to wrangle Wakko. One sec.
Wakko!
Get your strides over here now!
Wakko Why?
Yakko It’s time for the Ketera demo!
Wakko Now? Here?
Yakko We got sattelite internet, remember?
Wakko glumly
o. k.
Dot You can get back to having fun as soon as we’re done!
Wakko cheering up
A’ight!
  Wakko moseys on over.
Yakko We’re ready to give it a fair go!



Ketera

Australian Accent switching to his best American for the demo
Today I’m going to run through our new e-Sourcing application. It’s pretty straight-forward, so it won’t take much time.
  unlike the maniacs’ walkabout …
Yakko No problem! Take it away.
Australian Accent I should start off by noting that what we noticed was that a lot of people were spending a lot of money on enterprise sourcing applications without using the full extent of their capabilities … most of our catalog, procurement, and supply network customers were just using e-RFX and e-Auction and most of those customers were just using single round RFXs and traditional reverse auctions … not the dozen or so variants that have sprung up over the last ten years.

We saw the need for a low-cost 80% solution that would give the market what we felt it needed most … a basic sourcing solution for small and mid-size companies without large budgets or sophisticated software needs. And that’s what we built.

Our e-Sourcing solution is just RFX and Reverse Auction … and unlike many enterprise applications that take hours, if not days, to set an event up … our solution allows an event to be configured in minutes using a very simple 3-step process.

Step 1: Create a new event.
Step 2: Specify the items and item details.
Step 3: Invite suppliers.
  Then you just sit back, and watch prices tumble.

Yakko If it’s that easy, is it really an 80% solution?
Australian Accent Think about it. How much does an e-RFX and e-Auction solution really have to do?
Yakko Well, one thing we learned from talking to Source One about WhyAbe is that, for many categories, and many small to mid-size companies, it doesn’t have to do that much.
Australian Accent Precisely. And their offering is actually a good starting point to understand our offering.
Yakko So how does your offering compare to theirs?
Australian Accent Quite good. We both have the bare minimum requirements for e-RFX and e-Auction, but whereas, in our view, they’re more of a 60% to 70% solution, we add a few features that, although they sound like bells and whistles, are actually necessary for an 80% solution in today’s global e-Sourcing marketplace.
Yakko Like what?
Australian Accent Localization. Contract tracking. Fine-grained scoring on RFX questionnaires. Microsoft Excel integration. Templates. Instant-Messaging and Alerts. Customizable dashboards. Supplier Master Management. Wizards for each step of the process. The little things that make it easy, useful, and a pleasure to use — all embedded in a streamlined application with a carefully designed UI that buyers want to use.

And, unlike many other e-Sourcing platforms, it’s a low-cost, self-service, pay-as-you-go platform.

Yakko How low?
Australian Accent $39.99/month for unlimited RFIs, RFPs, RFQs, and reverse auctions. Plus, you get instant access to thousands of suppliers in the Ketera network.
Yakko Beaut!
Australian Accent Too right!
Yakko Anything else we should know?
Australian Accent It’s very easy to administrate, and the item and supplier master views support numerous filters for quick location of the appropriate item or supplier. It’s straightforward to enter proxy bids on behalf of a supplier. All of the reports have decent graphic capabilities. We support the UNSPSC schema for item categorization. And it has basic project tracking capability — you can quickly see your open events, events requiring bid evaluation, and recently evaluated events at any time.
Yakko So it really is a decent sourcing solution for small and mid-size companies just starting out on their e-Sourcing journey, or those companies without sophisticated sourcing needs.
Australian Accent We think so. And, as I said before, very easy to set-up a sourcing event.
Wakko I’m out of baloney. How long to set up an event to source a 3-months supply?
Australian Accent Five minutes. Watch.
  five minutes pass as the salesperson demos the tool
Wakko That’s it?
Australian Accent That’s it!
Wakko Fair suck of the sav!
Apparently, Wakko has his Aussie down pat! If I didn’t know better, I’d say he was from the Never Never!
Yakko Well, thanks for the demo. It certainly is an interesting take on the e-Sourcing space. A sourcing tool that every business can afford.
Australian Accent Thank you. Hooroo, Journo!
Wakko Hooroo, mate.

On the Eleventh Day of X-Mas … (Introducing Trade Extensions)

On the eleventh day of X-Mas

my blogger gave to me
another vendor hyping,
blog posts worth keeping,
l’il hampsters dancing,
thoughts for a shilling,
strategies for winning,
tactics for saving,
five golden rings,
four little words,
tri-focal lens,
two boxing gloves
and a lesson in strategy.

Allow me to introduce you to Trade Extensions. Founded in Sweden in 2000, it offers an optimization-based negotiations platform to European clients (from Sweden and a base of operations in the UK), and now, American clients through its office in Houston, Texas.

Trade Extensions offers a self-service on-demand e-Sourcing platform that is available on a per-event basis and backed up by industry leading optimization algorithms designed by scientists with expertise in algorithms, combinatorial optimization, and micro-economics. Like many other platforms, it offers full featured e-RFX, e-Auction, and sourcing project management, but unlike the vast majority of e-Sourcing platforms on the market, optimization is embedded into the RFx bid evaluation and auctions. It’s your favorite sourcing platform on steroids.

The auctions are lot-based, and support as many items, associated attributes, and prices as you want per lot. In addition, pricing, and ranking, can support arbitrary formulas and comparisons can be made against bid logs and historical transactions. Lots are also color-coded, with yellow indicating fields that only the user sees, brown indicating historical data fields that only the user sees, and green indicating fields that the bidder sees. Example fields include name, description, bidder-entered, type, min-value, max-value, decimals, required, distance-to-bidder, and rank-displayed-to-bidder.

The underlying optimization is sufficiently sophisticated and qualifies as true strategic sourcing decision optimization, as per the requirements set forth in the wiki-paper. It supports a number of different types of constraints, called rules, that are based on filters that can act on any attribute. For example, it supports hard limit capacity rules, soft limit allocation rules, meta-allocation “chunk” rules, and composed rules that specify limits on specific lots or lot components. The rules are template-based, which permit them to be saved, copied to, and applied to any relevant scenario. The filters can work on bidders, lots, bids, plants, and lot fields, among others. Furthermore, it can support alternative bids … allowing tiered bids and certain types of matrix bids. And in addition to standard sourcing and freight optimization, the underlying platform can also support limited multi-level supply chain optimization … which is more than most platforms give you!

Analysis is flexibile and powerful, supporting as many scenarios, and comparisons between scenarios, as you like. The analysis screen also allows you to see the status of each scenario, the award volume, the lane allocation, historic costs, savings, applied rules, and solver data. Reporting is above average and allows you to create your own report templates using a plethora of fields, matrices, formulas, and reporting rules.

Now it’s not perfect, as it doesn’t yet support certain types of discounts through the UI that are occasionally useful (although I’m told the underlying model can support them), certain types of mixed freight bids (which, in reality, don’t occur that often), and the UI isn’t designed to support distribution network optimization (but hey, what tool is?), but it’s definitely a tier-1 solution, and it’s nice to see that there’s more than one company who understands that, to be truly useful to the average buyer at the average organization, strategic sourcing decision optimization needs to be powerful, embedded in an e-Sourcing platform and user-friendly. And, they are improving it every day, unlike some “competitive” applications that haven’t changed significantly in years.

Furthermore, unlike most of their competitors, it’s very affordable. They have an event-based model and an unlimited usage model. Their event-based model starts at 0.5% of the value of the tendered goods and services for a full-service event, and drops to as low as 0.3% of the value of the tendered goods and services for a pure self-service event (if multiple events are committed to). Ongoing licenses start at only 10,000 Euros / month for unlimited use (for up to 10 users). Considering that it was only a few years ago where events started at 100K and annual licenses at 50K a month for less functionality — just for optimization — and Trade Extensions’ platform also contains extensive RFX and Auction support built-in, it’s certainly worth investigating if you have optimization needs.

The Sourcing Maniacs 2008 Vendor Tour Part 18: SupplierSoft

This post is a bit lengthy, so I’ve broken it into Set-Up and Supply.

Set-Up

Waiter Your pie, sir!
Wakko Thanks!
Wakko dives into yet another pie. A stack of empty pie trays sits beside him.
Waiter Shall I fetch another?
Wakko Most certainly!
Yakko So, not all industries are created equal when it comes to sourcing.
Dot I guess not! I never knew that some categories were so involved!
the maniacs just finished their visit with Power Advocate, an end-to-end solutions provider to the energy and utility industry
Wakko between mouthfuls of Boston Cream Pie
So, where next?
Dot On to the Q’s I guess!
Yakko Quintiq?
Dot Supply chain optimization? That’s too much for Wakko …
Yakko QP Group?
Dot I think they’re consulting.
Yakko You’re right. How about Quadrem?
Dot The marketplace? Maybe.
Yakko I think they also provide solutions and services.
Dot Sounds good. So where are they?
Yakko Good question. I believe they have offices all over the world.
Dot I bet most our sales. Where’s their head office?
Yakko Let me check.
tappity-tap-tap
Amsterdam.
Dot Too bad. They might have been interesting. On to the R’s?
Yakko Rapt?
Wakko between mouthfuls of Boston Cream Pie
Didn’t Microsoft buy them?
Dot I think you’re right. I don’t want anything to do with Microsoft …
Yakko Rearden Commerce?
Dot Back in California … and they’re a little corporate for my taste.
Yakko I’m not ready to go back to the valley either. Resources Global Professionals?
Dot They’re a consulting and staffing services agency, not a consulting and staffing solutions provider.
Yakko Oh. Hmmm.
ring
Yakko Yakko’s Yummy Yams … picture perfect produce …
the doctor Hello, Yakko. You guys looking for someone else to check out?
Yakko We are, actually.
the doctor Great … I just got contacted by SupplierSoft … a new supplier management solutions company … they want to give a demo.
Yakko Will they give it to us?
the doctor I don’t see why not.
Yakko Great! Where are they based?
the doctor The valley.
Yakko We’re not ready to head back to the valley yet.
the doctor That’s okay. They’re 100% SaaS and they will do the demo on-line.
Yakko That sounds good.
Wakko between mouthfuls of Boston Cream Pie
What does doc want this time?
Yakko He wants us to review SupplierSoft, a SaaS company. He says we can do the demo from here.
Wakko Great!
Waiter …
Yakko So, when’s the demo?
the doctor Ten minutes. I’ll send you the details. Have fun!
Yakko Later, doc!
the maniacs prepare for the demo
beep bip-beep-bop boop-bop-bip boop-bop-bip-beip
Yakko Hello?
Mr. CEO Hello. Is this the doctor?
Yakko No, this is Yakko.
Wakko I’m Wakko.
Dot And I’m Dot.
Mr. CEO The maniacs? Don’t you work for …
Yakko Not since last year.
Wakko We were wakko’d. Get it?
Mr. CEO Sorry to hear that. Anyway, I’m expecting a call from the doctor …
Yakko Something came up. Doc can’t make it. He asked us to take the demo on his behalf.
Mr. CEO Well …
Dot Don’t worry. We’ll convery everything we learn!
Mr. CEO Do you work for the doctor?
Yakko We don’t work for anyone at the moment.
Dot So we’re doing a vendor tour …
Wakko learning as much as we can about the sourcing world …
Yakko and passing on anything useful that we learn to the doctor …
Mr. CEO That’s interesting.
Dot Very. We’ve learned a lot!

Supply

Yakko So, can we have the demo?
Mr. CEO Uhmm, sure. Where should we start?
Yakko Well, Doc literally just asked us to do this ten minutes ago, so we haven’t the first clue about you. We didn’t even know you existed until then!
Mr. CEO That’s probably because we’ve been in stealth mode developing our solutions and working out the kinks with our beta customers until very recently. I don’t believe in vaporware, and since we’re a pure SaaS solution, I wasn’t going to launch a product for mass-market adoption until it was ready.
Yakko So how long have you guys been around?
Mr. CEO I started the company last year …
Yakko and you already have a product ready for the mass-market?
Mr. CEO We have four actually …
Dot Are you serious?
Mr. CEO Yes. Since we built our solution on the Salesforce platform …
Dot Isn’t Salesforce CRM? I thought you were in the supplier management space.
Mr. CEO We are. There’s actually a lot of similarity between CRM and SRM …
Yakko But one solution is focussed on customers and the other solution is focussed on suppliers …
Mr. CEO That’s true, but what you have to realize is that both platforms require the same foundation …
Dot … which is?
Mr. CEO Extensive information management capabilities. CRM requires you to maintain an interaction history with the client. Those interactions are captured and categorized as data. SRM requires you to maintain an interaction history with the supplier. Those interactions are also captured and categorized as data. Fundamentally, from a technical standpoint, they’re almost identical solutions … the only real difference is one solution faces the downstream customer while the other faces the upstream supplier.
Dot But what about SPM? (Supplier Performance Management) There’s no CPM equivalent …
Mr. CEO You’re right. But the foundation is, again, data.
Yakko So you’re telling us it really is possible to build an extensive supplier management platform on Salesforce?
Mr. CEO And then some!
Yakko Ok, I’ll bite … why would you do so?
Mr. CEO Salesforce is a scalable, secure, reliable, and proven platform with 47,000 customers and 1.2 Million users. They’ve spent over 150 Million on their infrastructure. It allows us to offer our customers big enterprise scalability and reliability from day one … and do so at small company prices. How many companies in the supply management space can say they’re hosted on a 150 Million infrastructure?
Yakko Uhmm … uhmm … uhmm …
Mr. CEO That’s my point!
Yakko So what solutions do you offer?
Mr. CEO We currently offer Supplier Management, Environmental Compliance Management, Supplier Corrective Action Management, and Supplier Audit Management solutions with embedded process and project management. And we have a Supplier Help Desk Application in beta.
Yakko I guess we should start with the Supplier Management solution.
Mr. CEO As you can see, it’s an extensive supplier information management solution that captures a complete supplier profile; contacts based on roles; diversity, quality, and environmental certificates; insurance certificates; non-disclosure agreements; documents; meetings and meeting notes; projects; and custom data-capture requirements. In addition, you can tag items, include custom links, and search your entire supplier database based on multiple filters. It also has fairly extensive reporting capabilities, and a customizable dashboard for the home-page which keeps track of your tasks, calendar, waiting approvals, and the reports of your choice.

In addition to being able to define your own suplier data model, it supports multiple sections for each information type, it supports attachments whereever you need them, customizable step and task-based workflows by user or role, and an instantly accessible supplier view from anywhere in the supplier management application.
Yakko What does that do?
Mr. CEO It allows you to see what the supplier will see at any time.
Yakko Well, so far it sounds similar to what Aravo and CVM Solutions offer.
Mr. CEO There are similarities, as they also offer supplier information management solutions, but we feel we have some significant differences that will make our platform more attractive to our target market.
Dot Like what?
Mr. CEO The stability of our underlying platform, our low-cost, and, most-importantly, the tight integration with our other modules, which include not only the environmental compliance (which we believe allows us to match Aravo’s capabilities) and the supplier audit management (which we believe is better than CVM’s capabilities), but our rather unique corrective action management and help desk solutions.
Yakko Let’s move on. I’m still waiting to be suitably impressed.
Mr. CEO No problem. As you can see, our Environmental Compliance Solution comes with extensive environmental data collection capabilities at the Bill of Material (BOM), part, and raw material level; the ability to track all of the relevant regulations and regulatory exemptions; complete specifications, parts, component materials, and material declarations; substances and substance declarations; and AVLs.

It supports standard PDF forms that can be filled out by suppliers and uploaded into the system by way of XML extraction and automated data load; it validates and verifies all data on definition and import; it can generate user-defined alerts whenever a substance, material, part, or BOM is not in compliance; and in addition to a standard set of compliance reports, it allows users to define their own.
Yakko So you’ve more or less matched the lesser-known offerings from EcoVadis and Co-exprise.
Mr. CEO Well, I’m not really familiar with those solutions, but I think our solution does what an environmental compliance solution needs to do. And it integrates with our Information and Audit Management solutions, which we feel is a big plus.
Yakko Interesting. Show us your Audit solution.
Mr. CEO No problem. As you can see, it builds on our information and environmental compliance solutions and allows for collaboration between our customer, their suppliers, and third party auditors. It also allows for the definition of corrective action plans and projects to implement and monitor those corrective action plans, which is based on our integrated workflow and project management capabilities.
Yakko Not bad at all. So how did you build it all so fast?
Mr. CEO We took advantage of everything Salesforce had to offer and built it in their Apex language, which essentially wraps Java in a rapid development language designed to take full advantage of the multi-tenancy Salesforce.com environment. We also used good coding practices and created our applications in an object-oriented manner that allowed us to re-use common components, which could be tested once and re-used wherever needed.
Yakko So what are your plans?
Mr. CEO Eventually, we plan to be the Salesforce++ of the SRM world.
Wakko But I thought you said you used a Java-Based language?
Mr. CEO Ha, ha. Good one, Wakko.
It’s an ambitous plan, but one we believe is ultimately realizable. Of course, we’re starting small. Right now, we’re focussed on manufacturing and distribution.
Yakko Why?
Mr. CEO That’s where we see the biggest pain, and the biggest benefit of our solution.
Yakko How so?
Mr. CEO Consider a large manufacturer sourcing 10,000 parts from 500 suppliers who has to get the lead out to comply with RoHS. How are they going to do this without our solution? They’re going to use spreadsheets. This is going to result in hundreds of thousands of spreadsheets. How do you analyze that many spreadsheets to find out which parts from which suppliers are not in compliance. And, more importantly, how do you insure that they get to the right person at the supplier who you are certain will fill them out properly without a central supplier database with up-to-date contact information? You don’t … and you scramble a very large team on a very large project, that takes way too long, trying … and risk huge losses from product recalls if just one part slips through.
Yakko And with your product …
Mr. CEO You select the parts that need to be in compliance, all of the suppliers get the PDF forms e-mailed to them, once the form is filled out it is automatically uploaded into the system, and you can run a report at any time that tells you how many parts are compliant, non-compliant, or in an unknown state because the supplier hasn’t provided you with the information. You can then run another report to get a list of the suppliers, listed contacts, and follow-up with them through the system, which integrates with Outlook. As you maniacs would say, once the supplier and part masters, and their relationships, have been defined … it’s easy-peasy.
Wakko Whoa!
Mr. CEO You said it, Wakko. And if anyone wants to see for themselves how powerful our solution is, we offer a free 30-day trial. We’re sure that it won’t disappoint.

 

The Sourcing Maniacs 2008 Vendor Tour Part 13: MFG.com

This post is a little lengthy, so it’s been broken down into Comedy and Community, which you can skip to if you’re short on time.

Comedy

Yakko Rapid Response Management. I don’t think we’d ever have thought of that at our old jobs!
  The maniacs just finished visiting with Kinaxis.
Dot It’s sure one cool concept! So Who’s Next?
Wakko Awesome album!

Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I’ll get on my knees and pray
We don’t get fooled again
No, no!

Wakko breaks into his best air guitar routine
Yakko & Dot Wakko!
Wakko What?
Yakko I believe Dot was asking a question!
Dot And I want to know what company we’ll be visiting next.
Wakko Oh.
So, onward where?
Yakko Are we done with the K’s?
Wakko I wonder what’s up with that little company down in the valley that we used to pretend didn’t exist?
Yakko Are you referring to Ketera?
Wakko That’s them!
Dot I’m not ready to go back to California.
Yakko I heard they have a new SaaS e-Sourcing offering! Maybe we can get a web-demo and research them online!
Dot That would be cool. I’ll give them a call.
Dot rings up Ketera.
Sales Voice You’ve reached Ketera! How can we help you?
Dot We’d like a demo of your new e-Sourcing offering.
Sales Voice Who are you with?
Dot The Media.
Sales Voice Well, we’re a little backed up right now … the platform is taking off much faster than we expected. Can you wait a few weeks?
Dot Well, uhm, okay.
Obviously not used to being asked to wait.
Sales Voice If you’ll give me your details …
  the maniacs trailed off here
Yakko Well, I guess we’ll have to catch up with them later.
Dot So where are we?
Yakko I guess we move on to the L’s.
Wakko Elle MacPherson … oh yeah … I could definitely …
Dot WAKKO!
Wakko looking confused
Yakko Lexington Analytics?
Dot Too Consulting.
Yakko Lexis Nexis?
Dot Too Data Focussed.
Yakko LlamaSoft?
Dot Too mathematical. And Wakko would spend the whole time tearing the place apart looking for llamas.
Yakko Log-Net?
Dot Too logistical.
Yakko LSC Consulting Group?
Dot Again, consulting.
Yakko Well, I’m out of L’s! On to the M’s!

Editor’s Note: Yakko wouldn’t be out of L’s if he’d check the resource site once in a while, which listed over 500 companies in the space, alphabetically sorted, and accessible by starting letter and major category.

Dot I seem to remember this company called Moai from years (and years) back. Think they’re still around?
Yakko I haven’t heard of them in years! Last time I saw a press release from them was … was … 2004! Not long after the Medebiz merger / acquisition. I thought they were as long gone as the Moai statues on Easter Island that they named themselves after!
Dot Maybe … but I thought I noticed that their web site was still there a few days ago.
Yakko Web site! That’s it! the doctor told us about a web-based operation that starts with M that we’re supposed to check out. Just a minute.

Yakko fetches his handy-dandy notebook.

MFG.
Wakko Are we going for Chinese food! I’m hungry!
Yakko M-F-G, not MSG!
Wakko Oh. Well, can we still go for Chinese food! I’m hungry!
Yakko You’re always hungry!
Dot So who’s this MFG?
Yakko According to the doctor, MFG, who bill themselves as the on-line manufacturing marketplace, is a SaaS-based marketplace where buyers and sellers can come together and do business.
Dot So where are they?
Yakko I believe they’re in Atlanta, Georgia …
Wakko Georgia, Georgia
The whole day through
Just an old sweet song
Keeps Georgia on my mind
Yakko ignoring Wakko
… but the doctor says that everything they offer, and everything we should care about, is on-line.
Dot Time for another trip to the cyber-cafe!
Wakko Look! Look! Here’s a Chinese Cafe!
jumping up and down
Can we go? Can we? Can we?
Yakko Yes, Wakko.

 

Community

Wakko I love Chinese food!
Dot Is there any food you don’t love?
Wakko thinking … despite the look of consternation on his face
Escargot and Cavier.
Dot That’s sophisticated food.
Wakko I’d rather baloney.
Yakko breaking out the MacBook
Shall we begin?
Dot Sure. Where do we start?
Yakko Let’s go to the blogs for background. the doctor appears to have two MFG-focussed posts: MFG: A Community in the Making and MFGX.com – Exploding onto the scene, which I found through his handy Annual Vendor Day master index post.

Starting as a “parts marketplace” that is free to buyers, it has, especially after its recent acquisition of SourcingParts.com, a large supplier community that you can search, and tap, for custom manufactured parts and products through its free on-line sourcing and collaboration tools. Furthermore, it goes beyond just simple supplier directories, as MFG verifies the listed capabilities of suppliers who use the site and allows buyers to post their feedback, which it compiles into supplier ratings.

On top of this, it has a real-time supplier matching capability that works on detailed part specifications which will automatically locate the suppliers who are capable of filling your order. Once you select one, you can work with them using the built-in tools to collaborate on, and refine, the design until you get a high quality design that is cost-effective to produce.

And then there’s the companion MFGX.com site, released about six months ago, open to all manufacturers, and buyers, in an on-line forum that allows them to come together, share information, ask questions, post classifieds, find work, take advantage of open-source machine tools, and keep up with the latest news and trends. It’s all based on “Web 2.0” technologies – forums, blogs, wikis, and networking tools.
Dot Anything else?
Yakko the doctor has also cross-indexed a number of Spend Matters posts on MFG as well. Let’s check them out.

In Going Global with a Unique Leader, JB of Spend Matters tells us about their CEO, Mich Free, and how he’s a b-school type — gritty, school of hard knocks, and personally knowledgeable about how a machine shop actually works — and how he used that knowledge to build a team that actually understood what manufacturing is and what it needs in an on-line platform.

In Smock Gets the Scoop, JB references a recent interview that notes that MFG.com is planning to offer an advanced sourcing solution to buyers, which goes beyond its basic platform that will remain free, that will include “the whole nine yards of sourcing capability plus supplier relationship management and contract management for a subscription price of less than $500 a quarter per buying company”.
Dot Wow! That’s bargain basement pricing! For sourcing!
Yakko In the Fusion posts (on Spend Matters), JB told us about some of the visionary insights of Mitch Free, MFG’s founder, and how he’s trying to open up the manufacturing space in ways not previously thought of, and in “MFG.com — Building a Textile Marketplace”, he tells us how MFG is creating a new marketplace for textiles, an industry that, like traditional manufacturing, has been traditionally underserved on the web.
Dot Wow! Sounds like MFG are one busy bunch of guys and gals!
Yakko And that’s not all! In “Surviving China’s Rapidly Changing Sourcing Tides” (I and II), the doctor mentions MFGChina.com, the MFG companion site … in Chinese … to serve the Chinese marketplace.
Wakko Gan Bei! More Tsingtao please!
Dot Busy, busy, busy!
Yakko Very! I think it’s time to check the MFG.com site out!

Wow! RFQs are sorted into standard, commodity parts, for open, public bid and custom parts — making it easy for suppliers to find the RFQs most appropriate to their orientation. Hundreds of categories, allowing everything to be precisely specified. There has to be over a thousand standardized parts and products here!

And the resource collection is awesome! Industry LInks to CAD & CAM Software, Consulting Srvices, and Machine Tool Builders to name a few. Links to over 20 relevant Manufacturing Publications. Over 15 relevant manufacturing industry associations. Information on the major certifications and standards. Even a collection of useful utilities.
Wakko That’s a collection that even the doctor, with the largest collection of useful resources (on the Sourcing Innovation Resource Site) in the space, would be proud of!
Yakko And the help, and online process guidance, is very extensive. Even you could use it Wakko!

And as far as I can tell, MFGChina.com is just as extensive!
Dot What about MFGx.com – The Global Manufacturing Community?
Yakko I see over 10 active communities – Buy and Sell, Employment, Open Source Machine Tools, General Manufacturing, Sourcing and Procurement, Marketing for Manufacturers, Metalworking and Machining, Textiles and Apparel, Design and Engineering, Software, Logistics, and Materials. And everything’s a wiki document, so you can log in and make it better. And then there’s the blogs. Led by their blog-master, former analyst extraordinaire, AJ Sweatt.
Dot Does Mitch blog?
Yakko Occassionally.
Dot Too bad he doesn’t blog more. the doctor says he’s one smart cookie.
Yakko I don’t think those were quite the words he used.
Dot Same Dif.
Yakko Anyway, this MFG.com looks like a great resource for manufacturing buyers and suppliers alike!