Pool4Tool: Bringing The Direct Procurement Platform — And Message — To the Masses! Part II

In Part I we began our discussion of the Pool4Tool platform, focussed on its Sourcing capability. Specifically, we discussed the RFX and e-Auction capability, the Contract Management capability, and the Catalog capability which can be used to kick-off Sourcing events or procure much needed products and services. Today, we are going to discuss the Pool4Tool platform’s Procurement and SRM capabilities.

It’s important to understand what the Pool4Tool platform does, and how it is different because, as we have been saying (in the Direct Procurement Challenge), indirect platforms cannot support complex direct sourcing needs and the Pool4Tool platform is one of the few platforms that can. (For more information on complex direct sourcing needs, see our recent paper on The Direct Procurement Challenge, sponsored by Pool4Tool, and for more details on the importance of efficiency and effectiveness, see the doctor‘s recent paper on The Procurement Value Engine, co-authored with the procurement dynamo.)

As per our last post, one of the capabilities of the Pool4Tool platform is a powerful catalog management platform that can be used to manage not only multiple supplier catalogs, internal and external through punch-outs, but also multiple requisition types and templates that can be reused as needed across sourcing and procurement projects. These catalogs can be managed by the buyer or by the suppliers themselves, and fully supports UNSPSC. The catalog is fully integrated into the e-Procurement platform and supports approval workflow by employee, cost center, or organizational unit. Requisitions can be approved in full or in part and (partially) approved requisitions can be automatically pushed into the ERP as soon as an approval is made. This can also kick off an automatic purchase order to the relevant suppliers (as requisitions can contain requests for products and services to multiple suppliers) and can do so in their own currencies (as not only does it support multi-currency, but even multi-currency within a single order).

The entire process can be kicked off by a Procurement Requisition from somewhere in the organization that can be made through the platform, be automatically routed to the right buyer, and kick off the right sourcing or (catalog) procurement process. This allows for all requests to be captured and managed in a central fashion. This is more important than you think as this allows all spend to be captured, tracked, analyzed, and brought under management.

In addition, service orders are deeply embedded in the e-Procurement platform and can be kicked off like procurement requisitions and tracked and managed through the entire process outside of the catalog or the standard PREQ if need be. Each type of service order can have its own workflow and approval process, can be tracked, invoiced against, and paid only when services have been rendered.

From an supplier point of view, the Pool4Tool Supplier portal is quite extensive. Suppliers can (self) register and create, and maintain extensive profiles. They can also manage their certifications, qualifications, insurance policies, and other documentation that is required by the buyer. They can access all their RFXs, auctions, communications, orders, invoices, and have a 360 degree view of their activities with the buyer.

Flipping back to the buyer view, the buyer can also use the portal to manage and develop their suppliers using the supplier development and (corrective) action management capabilities of the platform. And, like the buyer, they can get a full 360-degree view of all activities associated with the supplier. Past and present RFX and auctions, contracts, current orders and commitments, innovation initiatives, development activities, issues and corrective action plans, and overall supplier scorecards are all centralized. It’s a central point to get a comprehensive view of supplier capabilities, commitments, engagements, and possibilities.

In Part III, we are going to discuss the SCM capabilities of the Pool4Tool platform.

Pool4Tool: Bringing The Direct Procurement Platform — And Message — To the Masses! Part I

Hopefully you caught the recent webinar on The Direct Procurement Challenge or at least downloaded Sourcing Innovation’s recent paper on The Direct Procurement Challenge and realize that not all platforms are cut out for direct procurement. The majority of Procurement platforms were custom designed for indirect procurement and only handle those categories well.

The core issue is that direct procurement is typically much more complex than indirect procurement and requires capabilities that are not typically found in indirect platforms. As per our recent post on 5 Reasons Why You Need to Take the Direct Procurement Challenge, there are (at least) fifteen (15) capability requirements that a direct sourcing professional requires to efficiently and effectively source direct categories, and none of these are completely satisfied by indirect procurement platforms. To be more precise, nine are only partially satisfied and six are not satisfied at all.

That’s why you need the right platform, with the right capability, and an understanding of what that capability is and how to use it. Pool4Tool has been heavily focussed on educating you on the why (with the aforementioned white-paper, a two-part white-paper on The Procurement Value Engine Part I, and upcoming papers on Value-Based Sourcing and Virtual Procurement Centers of Excellence), and core capabilities to look for, so in these posts we are going to discuss the Pool4Tool platform and some key capabilities it has to support your direct procurement.

Pool4Tool has a very extensive platform with capabilities that not only span the traditional Source to Pay process, but also what we’re going to call the Procure to Produce process, as it can also manage inventory and production processes as part of its PLM capabilities. And all of this, as anyone who read the paper or attended the podcast would infer, allows everything to be done in a very supplier centric manner so that all of the needs — material composition, quality, delivery, etc. — can be evaluated in a balanced fashion against each and every supplier.

Pool4Tool capabilities can be divided into 4 (four) major buckets: Sourcing, Procurement, SRM, and SCM. Today we’re going to tackle the sourcing bucket.

Pool4Tool sourcing capability consists of standard RFX and auction capability, which is found in any e-Sourcing platform, but also includes sophisticated cost breakdown analysis and bill of materials support. A key requirement for any direct platform is bill of materials (BoM) support, and the need for BoM support is a key differentiator between indirect — where you are buying finished products for use or distribution — and direct — where you are buying dozens, if not hundreds, of raw materials and components to complete a product. Furthermore, these cannot be purchased separately or put out in separate lots as they all have to be compatible and meet rigid, interlocking, specifications in order for the product to be properly assembled and meet the quality requirements. In the Pool4Tool product, the Bill of Materials can have as many components as needed, and can be included in the cost breakdown analysis which can also include energy costs, labour, and overhead costs. This analysis can be done by product by supplier and insures that only useable bids are considered.

In addition to RFX and auction capabilities, designed for direct, it also has contract management capability. The contract management module, while not a best of breed enterprise contract management solution with deep authoring support, is just as good as the contract management capability found in the majority of sourcing platforms, and includes the capability to store and index all necessary documents required by the sourcing process, as well as search the (meta) data associated with those contracts. Finally, it also has deep catalog management capability that can store all direct, indirect, and even standard service requirements required by the company that can be used to either (insta-)buy products and services as needed or kick-off sourcing projects by populating requirements in RFX or auctions.

In Part II, we will discuss the e-Procurement and SRM capability of the Pool4Tool platform.

marketdojo Opens the Dojo to Suppliers as Well

When we last checked in on MarketDojo with our posts on how you could walk your own way and plan your own path, they were a relatively new UK company that offered a basic e-Negotiation suite with category guidance. Not much, but when you consider you could:

  • try before you had to commit to a buy with their open sandpit,
  • pay per event, on your P-card and
  • see what suppliers see with toggle view

It was a good entry point for a mid-market Procurement organization that was stuck in the Procurement dark ages and unable to obtain budget for a modern suite (because the C-suite needed to have a guaranteed ROI).

While it was a good start, MarketDojo realized that is all it is — they needed that and more to conquer the mid-market, even in their native homeland. Once a lean, agile, over-tasked, and under-resourced mid-market Procurement organization gets their hand on a tool, they want to advance fast, learn faster, and apply it fast and furious — and they want to be as effective and efficient as possible.

For many companies, this means four things:

  • minimize data re-entry
  • minimize unnecessary supplier interaction
  • track relevant documents and sourcing artifacts
  • identify suppliers with potentially innovative capabilities

That is why MarketDojo has rolled out a full-featured supplier (information) management portal, called, obviously, SIMDojo and included innovation management in their primary offering (the InnovationDojo corner).

With their new SIMDojo offering, which can be used as part of the platform or standalone, which supports supplier self-identification and self-registration, buyers can create the appropriate questionnaires, have suppliers upload the appropriate documents, and lock supplier data (from updates). When suppliers change data, their profile is invalidated until reviewed by an appropriate sourcing professional, insuring only valid and validated suppliers can be included in sourcing events. The platform is simple to use on both sides, and some customers are buying it to augment other platforms they already have.

InnovationDojo is built on the RFX/Survey functionality in MarketDojo, but allows a buyer to issue innovation challenges, collect and score responses, include that information in RFPs, and track and manage innovation projects and responses separately. It’s basic, but it works quite well for the mid-market.

MarketDojo has also made functionality and usabiity enhancements to their platforms across the board, with template management in particular being noticeably improved. With few e-Sourcing companies left serving the mid-market, MarketDojo provides a solid offering, especially to those companies without (a modern) e-Sourcing solution that need to start quick, and keep it basic (to maximize efficiency and SUM [Spend Under Management]).

Influential Sustentation 97: (Traditional) Analysts

There are a number of influential damnations, but as per our post last yer, analysts are among the worst. Why?

  • Analysts are the Gatekeepers of the Gold Seal of Approval

    Just because you have this great new product that contains at least half a dozen innovative features and functions not (yet) found in the competitors’ products, and just because you built one of the best solutions on the market, that doesn’t mean that you will even get a mention in the back pages of a local business journal until it gets a star of approval as an “emerging” solution.

  • If You’re Not on Their Lists, You’re Not on BigCo’s List

    The best way to get coverage, paid or otherwise, is to get a big win. But a big win won’t happen until a big company adopts your solution and gets a big result it wants to advertise to the world. But the chances of a big company even including you on an RFx are slim to none if you’re not on an analyst’s shortlist.

  • If You Won’t Pay to Play, You Might Never Get on the Analyst Firm’s Shortlist

    Analyst firms have two major client pools: BigCos that want to buy the best (tech) solutions and TechCos that want to supply those solutions. BigCos pay for access to the research library and analyst time and TechCos also pay for access to the research library and analyst time to help them draft an attractive roadmap. As a result, the TechCos that get the bulk of consideration are the TechCos that are (big) customers.

  • If You’re Not a Big Client, Good Luck Making the Perilous Pyramid

    Even if you happen to get the attention of the lead analyst on the research report and even if the lead analyst likes you, if your solution is too much of a threat to the research firm’s big TechCo clients good luck meeting the bulk of criteria for inclusion. Minimum revenue, core modules, absolute feature lists, etc. tend to change year to year in a manner that tends to keep big TechCo clients in and keep their biggest threats out.

So what can you do (especially if you don’t have the ability or inclination to write a cheque with a lot of zeroes)?

Be Open.

Don’t be ultra secretive. Don’t shy away from demos. And definitely don’t ask for an NDA. (Which, by the way, is really, really stupid. How can they write about you if you tie them up in an NDA?) Just like customers like a provider that is open and honest (and focussed on helping them solve their problem, not force-feeding a canned solution down their throat), so do (good) analysts.

Be Educative.

Educate them on what you do, why you do it, and why it’s important. Case studies, calculations, efficiency improvements, cost reductions, ROI(C), impact on WACC, etc. Make sure the analyst understands the value to the customer, how much comes from the uniqueness of your offering, how you will educate the customer to help them do better, and how you will continue to improve the solution.

And Be Prepared to Use the Back Door.

If the analyst in question doesn’t care about openness and education, find an analyst that covers an overlapping area in the same firm who is. Especially one that knows she needs to learn and is willing to listen. They can be your way in, and can often hold more influence over their peers than any pay check you could provide.