Category Archives: Vendor Review

Determine – Determined to Conquer b-pack’s Brave New World Part I

Determine is one of those companies that is a name you know even if it’s a name you don’t know (and a name you should know as it’s a 50/50 company with the doctor‘s seal of approval). It’s a name you don’t know because it didn’t exist until 4th Quarter last year. But it’s a name you should know as it is essentially the merger of the Selectica (founded 1996), Iasta (founded 2000), and b-pack (founded 2000) solutions into one cohesive whole (and not just a Frankenstein solution patched together when one company acquires two others).

Understanding that a true CLM-enhanced Source-to-Pay solution is only valuable if it is one solution that empowers one process based on one workflow, the first thing that the new company did was standardize on one platform — namely, the b-pack platform — and the next thing it did was figure out how to integrate the other two solutions on that platform. Since the b-pack platform is, at it’s core, a business process oriented workflow platform with native Master Data Management capabilities, and not a PO or invoice-driven e-Procurement platform with workflow kludged in as an afterthought, Determine was able to quickly accomplish two things:

  • Convert the Iasta Sourcing platform into an “app” on the b-pack platform
  • Rebuild and integrate all of the core CLM IP from Selectica they were missing native on the b-pack platform

which means that

  • even though you have to load the Iasta app to do your full-featured sourcing events that go beyond simple RFX and include powerful auctions, SRM, and strategic sourcing decision optimization (Iasta is one of the six sourcing samurai), all of the data is stored in the central MDM repository in the Determine core, which means it is 100% available when you start the contracting and/or ordering process (and, similarly, all historical data is instantly available in the Iasta app)
  • even though some more advanced (nice-to-have) features from CLM are still missing, there is sufficient functionality (or workarounds) to meet over 80% of CLM needs (for example, native editing and redlining is not yet integrated, but Word versioning is 100% integrated, which is the solution the Legal team wants anyway)

And the core business process workflows have been extended to cover the end to end sourcing lifecycle as well as the end to end purchasing cycle from both a line item and business object perspective (you can trace a line item all the way from initial sourcing and forward to final return and disposal and you can trace the entire history of each contract, purchase order, invoice etc.).

Plus, all of the unique, non-standard, features of the b-pack platform have been maintained and as soon as an organizational asset has been purchased, an asset record to track the lifecycle of that piece of equipment, software license, or IP can be created (and custom managed by asset type); as soon as inventory appears, appropriate inventory records are created (and pushed to the ERP and/or [W]IMS solution as necessary); as soon as a vehicle is acquired or leased, an appropriate entry in the native (or integrated) FMS (Fleet Management System) is created, and so on. The platform not only enables a true source-to-sink source-to-pay process, but also recognizes that acquisitions and artifacts of the source-to-pay process are the starting points of other business processes and supports those as well. It’s the platform that many sourcerors always wanted but never knew they were missing.

And we’ll tell you more about it in Part II.

Transcepta : Global e-Invoicing with Dynamic Discounting Support

Transcepta is an eleven year old company that provides a global supplier network for fast supplier on-boarding and e-Invoicing. Whereas many supplier networks are setup for supplier discovery, and most support e-Invoicing, not many are set-up for straight-through processing and industry-leading auto-match capability.

In addition, most of the solutions that support e-Invoicing are limited in terms of the way invoices get into the system and many can only support invoices through the portal, delivered in a specific XML standard, or pushed into the ERP system the network is integrated with. For mid-size operations, this is typically good enough, but when you work for an organization that has a very large supplier base with thousands (or tens of thousands) of suppliers that use a dozen or more different formats (PDF, virtual printers, EDI, XML, cXML, Oracle Network, etc.), it typically ends up being the case that only 60% to 80% of invoices flow through the e-Procurement application automatically and the rest have to be manually entered or converted through OCR, which just adds more invoices to the exception queue for manual review. That’s where network-based e-Invoice automation solutions come in, and the best ones can easily plug-in to your current infrastructure (through the ERP). Transcepta is no exception to this rule.

Transcepta, recognizing that if you want to achieve a maximal throughput through an e-Invoicing platform, you have to support all of the standard formats used throughout your supply base, has built a platform that not only supports just about every EDI and (c)XML format that you can think of, but also supports Oracle validate integration, virtual printer drivers (that print direct to the platform, which was not a common feature of network platforms when Transcepta first offered this capability), and advanced PDF processing capability. If the invoice PDF is created from QuickBooks (or other supported standard accounting applications), the Transcepta platform will dissect and extract the electronic properties of the PDF to obtain as much information as possible about the supplier, associated purchase order or contract, and items being billed to automatically identify the supplier (from a standard database, such as D&B), and the purchase order in the organization’s ERP.

The strength of the platform lies in it’s advanced auto-match capability. It’s a reasonably well known statistic that invoice error rates are in the 10% to 15% range. SI and SM have quoted multiple studies from Paystream, Aberdeen, etc. over the past few years that consistently report numbers in this range. As a result, most e-Invoice automation solutions will bounce 10% to 15% of invoices back to the supplier or to an AP clerk for review upon first submission. This is a rather high error rate when many of the exceptions are not a result from price or order receipt discrepancies (when the invoice should be bounced back to the supplier with a clear explanation of the necessary adjustments for [automatic] approval and payment) but from missing supplier, purchase order, or line item information that is available somewhere in the organization’s e-Procurement systems.

In their effort to increase straight-through processing, Transcepta has developed advanced PO cloud-match software that implements automated reasoning, statistical matching, and other “AI” technologies that allows the organization to upload every PO and relevant piece of supplier information for processing by an advanced matching algorithm that is able to evolve over time. Using this extra data in conjunction with advanced algorithms, Transcepta is able to match about 80% of invoices that are rejected by traditional matching algorithms. One customer that received 45K to 50K invoices a month saw an 85% improvement in straight through processing from this algorithm, going from an average initial reject rate of 15% to 2%. That’s a lot of man-hours on exception processing saved.

As hinted at in the introduction, Transcepta has a number of other strong capabilities in supplier on-boarding and dynamic discounting, and for more information on these, see the recent and upcoming pieces on Spend Matters Pro (membership required) by the doctor and the prophet.

FusionOps, Supply Chain Intelligence in the Cloud

FusionOps, a supply chain intelligence company that recently raised 25M, was founded in 2005 in Sunnyvale, California (the birthplace of Ariba) to automate ERP-based business processes (like direct materials Procurement and supplier collaboration) that could not be effectively accomplished using the stand-alone sourcing and procurement solutions of the day. However, around 2009, they switched directions and started amalgamating “big data” from ERP, MRP, and other Supply Chain and Supply Management systems in an effort to extract actionable intelligence for their clients.

As part of this evolution, they realized that in order to amalgamate the data that was required to compute metrics that would lead to useful, actionable insights that would guide enterprises in cost reduction, efficiency improvements, and customer service improvements, they would have to extract “big data” from a MDM solution. But most companies do not have a MDM (master data management) solution, “big data” scientists to work on the data, or the know how. As a result, FusionOps realized that they had to focus on “big data as a service” though a “supply chain intelligence cloud” which provided their clients with the metrics and models they need for diagnostic, predictive, and even prescriptive analytics.

The FusionOps solution s a pure SaaS-based solution with an open API that can be used to integrate with any supply chain / supply management solution that can import or export data. Out-of-the-Box it can integrate with over a dozen platforms including SAP, Oracle, Infor, JDA, Microsoft Dynamics, IBM, IFS, Kinaxis, and QAD. The solution is implemented as an application suite that combines S&OP, Procurement, Finance, Inventory, Quality, Production Planning, Sales, and Customer Service data into a cohesive whole across 50+ built-in models that cover over 1,000 KPIs across the inbound, internal, and outbound supply chains.

From this data, the platform can create customized reports, dashboards, and even infographics, which can be easily extended, modified, and enhanced by the user. This makes it easy for the system to be used for day to day tactical operations planning, reporting, executive briefings, and strategic planning. Many of their larger clients use the system in C-Suite briefings and Board briefings, as the reports and graphics can be configured to use company colours and templates.

For a deep-dive on the solution — including the three-main dashboard, report builder, and reporting solutions — check out the doctor and the prophet‘s deep dive over on Spend Matters Pro (membership required) which will dive into the strengths, weaknesses, and unique capabilities.

Cap Gemini IBX – Closing the Loop on Source to Pay

Cap Gemini is a one of the world’s largest multi-national consulting companies headquartered in Paris, France that focusses on management, outsourcing, and technology-based consulting and specializes in strategy, digital transformation, finance, marketing, IT strategy, solutions design, big data / analytics, and supply chain management consulting. Of course, we are primarily interested in the latter and, in particular, any technology underpinnings.

As part of their technology underpinnings, Cap Gemini has three primary offerings. Spend Analysis, powered by Spend Radar; Procurement Intelligence, powered by Microsoft’s Strategy Companion; and the IBX Business Network that implements their Source-to-Pay platform with e-Sourcing, e-Procurement, and supplier (portal) support. This is what we’re going to cover briefly in this post.

The solution is a seamlessly integrated Source to Pay Solution with a global supplier network, where suppliers can self-register, manage their customer interactions through a portal with a single integrated view, and even manage their invoices that originate outside of the IBX platform (which is a unique capability that will be discussed later on). If you consider the classic Sourcing and Procurement lifecycle, first diagramed by the doctor on SI back in the doctor wants to remind you it’s Sourcing and Procurement, a good S2P solution needs a lot of capability, especially if you want to capture low-volume purchases and spot-buys (and, in particular, catalog management needs to underlie the requisition through the approval process). The IBX platform contains, to some degree, almost everything indicated in this diagram (with the exception of true strategic sourcing decision optimization, which we know is currently limited to the six samurai) plus a lot of cool supplier network, catalog management, and spot-buy features, including a few that you will not find in any other (best-of-breed) platform on the planet.

In this post, we’re going to focus on spot-buy and the invoice management dashboard, as they are the most unique offerings in the platform. The new spot-buy functionality allows a requisitioner to create a requisition for anything they need, fill out as much information as possible (including expected pricing), suggest one or more suppliers on the network, and route it to Sourcing for identification of the proper products and/or services. A (senior) buyer in Sourcing will validate the request, choose the appropriate sourcing process (RFX, auction, third-party catalog offering), make a selection, and return it to the buyer for final acceptance and submission, at which time it will be routed to the appropriate approvers. Note that we say Sourcing, not a buyer, as it contains rule-based workflow management that allow it to be routed to the buyer with the proper authority with the smallest workload to minimize processing time.

The new invoice management dashboard, designed for the supplier, allows a supplier to sign in and see on one screen the status of every invoice sent to every customer on, and off, of the IBX network as well as drill in and get as much related information as there is for IBX platform invoices (including, but not limited to, conversations, buyer requested corrections, goods receipts, purchase orders, etc.). The system supports uploads from standard AP and ERP systems for suppliers to get this information in the system. Being able to log into one portal and service all their IBX customers through one login and one interface is great, but being able to manage all of their invoices, which is something that is always top of mind for a supplier, is even better still.

There’s a lot of other cool and powerful features in the IBX system, and they are covered in detail in the recent piece by the doctor and the prophet over on Spend Matters Pro (Part 1 of 2, membership required) which gives one of the most in-depth and balanced reviews of the system that you are going to find anywhere.

HICX: HI-C to the X for SXM

HICX Solutions, a provider of a leading Supplier Management platform, was founded in London in 2004 to create a platform to effectively tackle supplier master data management and supplier risk management. Recognizing that the Supplier Information Management (SIM) platforms of the day were not enough to effectively manage suppliers — especially since the data was needed in ERP/MRP, sourcing, procurement, logistics, and related systems — they embarked upon a mission to create a solution that fixes that.

The problem with SIM solutions, besides the fact that they aren’t true SPM (Supplier Performance Management) or SRM (Supplier Relationship Management) solutions; don’t address risk; and don’t address supplier development, is that SIM is not master data management. It’s supplier data management, but it’s data management within the platform. An organization needs supplier data management throughout the enterprise, not just a single platform. And that is effectively master data management (MDM).

And that is HICX’s core strength. It’s cradle-to-grave supplier management and contract management is built upon this core industry leading MDM capability that can not only accept data from and push data to dozens of ERP and best-of-breed systems throughout the enterprise, but can automatically match and merge the majority of such data, even upon an initial engagement. (HICX has already mapped common fields in dozens of ERP and best-of-breed systems and if your systems have already been mapped, you can skip the mapping step that typically precedes a data merge process.) The MDM system will automatically identify duplicates and conflicts and human data stewards will only need to correct records on an exception basis (when there is a conflict as the system can be programmed to ignore exact duplicates on import).

On top of this MDM capability, HICX has implemented a suite of solutions for:

  • Supplier On-boarding for discovery, enrolment, and enablement on the system
  • Supplier Data Management for supplier data centralization and management
  • Supplier Performance Management for KPI, issue, and initiative tracking
  • Supplier Risk & Compliance Management for risk factor, regulatory, and insurance tracking
  • Supplier Corrective Action Management for issue identification, resolution plans, and implementation tracking

The supplier on-boarding, which is built on the industry leading MDM, is a particular platform strength. In the HICX, the on-boarding process can start as early as the identification of a new supplier which is onboarded using a process that adapts to the type of supplier (be it under consideration as a long-term [strategic] supplier, a sub-contractor, a one-off vendor, logistics company, government organization, etc.) and that is simplified with the provision of a D&B (or equivalent) number that allows for all public information to be automatically imported. One advantage of the solution is that, even before a supplier is onboarded, potential matches or duplicates in the system are automatically identified to prevent a user from inviting a supplier that is already doing business with another organizational unit. And if additional data is needed, data can be imported quickly from any platform using their script-based import capability.

For more information on HICX Solutions, check out the 2-part series on Spend Matters Pro (Part I and Part II [coming soon]) [membership required] by the doctor and the prophet. This in-depth analysis is definitely worth your time if you are on the market for a SxM solution and trying to not only identify the leaders (of which HICX is one), but determine which of the leading solutions is right for you.