Iasta: Smart Source-Style! Part I.

Iasta: Smart Source-Style! Part I.

It’s 2012 and your fiscal year is coming to an end.
It’s time to get a handle on organizational spend.
Because if you don’t, you will find that the Mayans were dead on.
And in 2013, your organization will be gone.

But there’s no need to worry because, Iasta’s got (To the tune of Gangnam Style)

Sourcing Smart-Source Style.
Smart-Source Style.

Sourcing platform for users and bosses too. Sweet.
SaaS on the cloud, always on, real-time reporting complete. L33t.
Analyze this. Auctions, Performance. Real time data.
Optimize It. Contracts, and vendor schema.
One. Two. Smart-Source Success!

So what’s changed since we last covered Iasta in depth in 2008/2009? Especially since the solution footprint looks the same from a cursory review of their web site? If you’re taking a thirty-thousand foot view, not much. But if you take the time to get down in the weeds, everything!

The biggest changes are:

  1. Native Analytics Capability
  2. Improved (Native) Contract Management Capability
  3. Better, Integrated, SIM and SPM Capabilities
  4. Extensive Support for Third Party Data Feeds
  5. P2P Integration Capabilities
  6. Customizable Reporting and Dashboards for Users and Executives
  7. A Broader Services Offering

Native Analytics Capability
A few years ago, Iasta was dependent on third parties like BIQ, now part of Opera Solutions and Spend Radar, now part of SciQuest for their spend analytics capability. And while they still make use of third parties for initial cleansing and classification in new initiatives, they now have the same slice-and-dice reporting capability that you’ll find in any other sourcing suite on the market. (And while it doesn’t have the data analytics power of best-in-class solutions like BIQ, it is the 80% solution for most sourcing departments, especially in the mid-market, which typically have very little insight into spend.)

Improved (Native) Contract Management Capability
A few years ago, Iasta’s contract management capability was limited to the definition of a few meta-data elements. Now, it’s a fully featured contract management offering that allows for storage and indexing of all your contracts, authoring of new contracts, and automated reporting for SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley) to keep you out of stripes like Fox.

Better, Integrated, SIM and SPM Capabilities
You wouldn’t know it from their web-site, but Iasta has developed some fairly extensive built-in SIM/SPM capabilities that your organization can use to track compliance, performance, sustainability, and risk data elements that can have an impact on your sourcing events. In addition, this is integrated with the supplier data that has always been collected in the RFX module and the contract data in the contract module and all of this data can be sliced and diced by Iasta’s built-in analytics and reporting modules.

In Part II we’ll cover the remaining significant changes.

Wallmedien Puts Another Brick in the Wall – With Contract Management!

When I was hired in Procurement there were certain people who would lay bare our spend anyway they could by pouring their derision upon anything we bought exposing every weakness however painfully skilled it was wrought

But among us it was well known that when they went home at night
they too were paralyzed with fright that gripped them fully throughout their work life.

… because …

We don’t have no contract system.
We don’t have no price control!
No spend monitors in the software,
buyers left in a black-hole
Yes, Buyers, left in a black-hole!

Without contract management and monitoring, most buyers are in a black-hole as they don’t know whether their carefully negotiated savings-laced sourcing strategy is being properly implemented. Every organization needs (near) (real-time) contract management, even if it already has a sourcing suite. That’s why, noticing the dearth of stand-alone contract management solutions on the market (as the best-of-breed vendors keep getting acquired), Wallmedien decided to release a stand-alone contract management solution for those who already had a (partial) sourcing or procurement solution and just needed to fill a gap or two.

Like any good contract management system it supports all organizational contracts (buy and sell side), roles-based access, reporting, inventory and spend tracking, early-warning of upcoming terminations or automatic (evergreen) renewals, automatic identification of contracts that are no longer linked to products or services (or that have not been purchased against in the last x-months), and extensive contract authoring features for framework, services, purchase, maintenance, license, telecommunication, and rental contracts. It can also track warranties and alert a user when a return can be made against a contract. And it seamlessly integrates with numerous third party systems, including the big-name ERPs and MRPs.

Since we all know what contract management systems do and how they work, there’s no need to go to deep into any of these points as the whole point is to let you know that if you need a BoB point-solution to augment an existing sourcing or procurement solution, and are having difficulty identifying a stand-alone contract management solution that meets your needs, Wallmedien is one option that you can definitely consider.

Technology Trials 2012 – Part VI

In Part V we outlined the most critical question that needed to be addressed after you decided that you needed a BoB or FuSS solution and what the critical features of that solution was, namely, what was required for globalization.

Now that we have outlined the high-level functional requirements from a multi-faceted view, we’re ready to go to market with a supplier RFI, and, in particular, an RFI that answers the following (set of) question(s):

(06) How will you support my solution requirements as a vendor?

And, more specifically:

  (06.1)Who are your references who are comparable in size, scope, and needs to us?
  (06.2)Does your solution support the functionality we absolutely require? Explain.
  (06.3)Do you currently have customers in the (majority of) countries we need to deploy in and do you support the (majority of) languages that we require? (If you don’t currently support all the languages we need, how long does it take to add another language into your solution?)
  (06.4)What is your organizational culture?
  (06.5)How many non-critical functions on our wish-list can you address?
  (06.6)How financially stable are you? Will you open your books to us or let us speak to a reputable third party that has seen your books?
  (06.7)What is the total end-to-end cost of your solution up-front and on an annual basis? Will you guarantee this in writing?
  (06.8)What third parties can we talk to who will verify your claims

  (06.1)Who are your references who are comparable in size, scope, and needs to us? And can we speak to them?
As they say, the best proof is in the pudding, and the best pudding that a vendor can give you is references who are comparable in size, scope, and needs that they are currently serving successfully. They don’t necessarily have to be in your industry, but the industry should be similar enough that you can feel confident that the vendor could handle you. For example, electronics and component manufacturing are similar, but finance and pharmaceuticals aren’t that close.

  (06.2)Does your solution support the functionality we absolutely require? Explain.
After you’ve divided your requirements into must-haves, should-haves, and nice-to-haves, ask the vendor to describe in detail how all of your must-have requirements will be met and briefly how they will meet each should-have that is on your list.

  (06.3)Do you currently have customers in the (majority of) countries we need to deploy in and do you support the (majority of) languages that we require? (If you don’t currently support all the languages we need, how long does it take to add another language into your solution?)
If you need to deploy your solution across 20 countries and the vendor has only deployed across two countries and both were English speaking, how likely is it that the vendor will be able to meet your needs? On the other hand, if you only need to deploy across 6 countries and the vendor has deployed across 30 countries in twice as many languages, you know that you’re covered now and likely will be covered for years to come.

  (06.4)What is your organizational culture?
When all is said and done, if you have three vendors who appear equal from every other perspective, the tie breaker will be the vendor’s organizational culture and how cleanly it meshes with yours. Even if you are IT and services savvy, you’re always going to need some help from the vendor. Maybe not that much compared to its other customers, but the vendor is typically the only expert in tweaking every last bit of value out of its solution.

  (06.5)How many non-critical functions on our wish-list can you address?
Even though the functions are non-critical and wish-list, they’re on the list because someone wants them, and every wish-list item put there by a stakeholder that can be met is one less reason for resistance that you won’t have to overcome.

  (06.6)How financially stable are you? Will you open your books to us or let us speak to a reputable third party that has seen your books?
Considering the effort that goes into solution selection, the last thing you want is to select a solution from a vendor that goes bankrupt in a year. Even if the code is under escrow, and you get complete rights to it, the value of the solution will decrease rapidly once the vendor stops improving it. That’s not a situation you want to find yourself in.

  (06.7)What is the total end-to-end cost of your solution up-front and on an annual basis? Will you guarantee this in writing?
Considering that there will likely be implementation costs, integration costs, and training costs in addition to up-front license costs and annual maintenance costs, and may be costs for third-party middleware, data feeds, and other solution components, it’s important that you know all of these costs up-front and account for them accordingly. Otherwise, that 500K solution with an expected ROI of 9X return might actually be a 1.5M solution with an expected ROI of 3X – which won’t impress the CFO at all come performance evaluation time.

  (06.8)What third parties can we talk to who will verify your claims
The vendor should be willing to give you names of investors, analysts, and bloggers who can verify their claims. If these do not exist, be wary. A good vendor is open about it’s capabilities and claims. It doesn’t hide behind NDAs and embargoes.

Technology Trials 2012 – Part V

In Part IV, after we determined in Part III that you needed to find a new supply management solution, we outlined the critical (set of) question(s) that you needed to answer before you selected a BoB (Best-of-Breed) or FuSS (Full Supply Suite) solution.

Now that we know the critical questions that need to be asked in the selection of a BoB or FuSS solution, we will move on to the next (set) of question(s) that you need to answer before you can start to narrow in on a solution.

(05) What are the globalization requirements?

In particular,

  (05.1)Who are my stakeholders and what do they need??
  (05.2)How many countries will the solution be used in?
  (05.3)How many languages does the solution need to support?
  (05.4)How much support from the vendor will be required?
  (05.5)How much support for the suppliers will be required?

  (05.1)Who are my stakeholders and what do they need??
No solution exists in a vacuum. And you won’t be the only one depending on it. Executives will be depending on the reporting capabilities for insights and compliance purposes. Procurement will be depending on the contract details generated by a sourcing platform. Warehouse Management Systems will require the orders created in the Procurement Systems for m-way matching and inventory planning. Risk management will require compliance and performance information. Finance will require orders. Etc.

  (05.2)How many countries will the solution be used in?
If the organization is a global multi-national, then the solution will probably need to deployed across multiple countries, especially if services are shared across multiple locations. And if the solution is a sourcing solution, and services are sourced from a dozen countries, then the solution may need to be (partially) deployed in that many countries.

  (05.3)How many languages does the solution need to support?
Again, if services are shared across the globe or the solution needs to be used by suppliers across the globe, the solution could need to support a dozen, or more, languages.

  (05.4)How much support from the vendor will be required?
Do you have a cracker-jack IT and/or services support team, or was your solution cobbled together from the trinkets in boxes of cracker jacks? In the first case, your organization might not need too much support from the vendor. In the second, your organization might require extensive support from the vendor.

  (05.5)How much support for the suppliers will be required?
None, some, or quite a bit? In the former case, just about any solution could fit the bill. In the latter case, there might only be a few solutions with extensive supplier support capabilities that could even be considered. In between, there could be any number of suppliers with solution on a sliding scale.

In other words, there are a lot of questions that need to be answered before you even consider sending out that first RFI.