Monthly Archives: May 2017

… And Trade Extensions is No More!

As of Thursday, one could look up a Form 8-K filing on the SEC site from May 3, 2017 that simply stated that Coupa had completed its acquisition of Trade Extensions, now called Coupa Advanced Sourcing for those of you on the ball (and watching TE profiles on LinkedIn for updates as well). SI expects you’ll see a formal press release early this week.

While SI completed its initial analysis shortly after announcement, it’s going to hold off publishing until after Coupa Inspire to see if Coupa inspiration changes the doctor‘s mind at Inspire. 🙂 # Look for a deep analysis the week of the 22nd.

(For speculators, you can check out SI’s historical writings on M&A in general and its posts on the importance of cultural conformity in partnerships and then balance these views with the simple fact that only one* acquisition of an optimization platform provider has succeeded in the Sourcing/Procurement space to date, and probably take a guess as to the doctor‘s current view. But it would be only a guess.)

*Tigris was swallowed by VerticalNet; CombineNet shrivelled in SciQuest, now Jaggaer; Mindflow was killed by Emptoris (which was in turn butchered by IBM, whose initial foray into optimization was so bad that they ended up giving it all away for free in COIN-OR) and the founders of Algorhythm subsumed their optimization capabilities into their rapid application development platform Applifire! Only the VerticalNet acquisition by BravoSolution was a success, and likely only because the BravoSolution model required keeping VerticalNet more-or-less in-tact as the US operation of the global BravoSolution organization (as there was essentially no US presence at the time).

#Or at least lets him focus in on one analysis in particular (as his analysis is actually a bifurcated analysis that depends on decisions and directions taken over the next year … will make for a very long blog series as is … )

Fraggles and Doozers Require a Delicate Balance to Co-Exist

Thirty-Four years ago Fraggle Rock debuted on TV. This masterpiece of the late Jim Henson featured a number of races including, but not limited to the Fraggles (that the show was named after) and the Doozers (that were critical to their survival).

The Fraggles (mainly Gobo, Mokey, Webley, Boober, and Red) are small anthropomorphic creatures, typically 18 inches tall with fur-tuft tipped tales, that generally live a carefree life playing, exploring, and enjoying themselves. With their 30 minute work-week, they enjoy their bohemian life-style to the max and are generally worry free as they can subsist mainly on radishes (which grow plentiful) and Doozer sticks (that the Doozers use to build their constructions).

The Doozers are pudgy, green ant-like creatures that stand about 4 inches tall and that live an industrious lifestyle dedicated to work and progress. They spend their days (and the waking part of their nights) busily constructing all shapes and sizes of scaffolds and buildings throughout Fraggle Rock from their Doozer sticks, which are made from processed radishes (and taste like candy to Fraggles).

This gives the Doozers a steady stream of work as the Fraggles love Doozer sticks and tend to eat the constructions on a daily basis, given the Doozers constant space to rebuild.

This is generally the only interaction between the two species, and in Fraggle Rock it makes both groups happy as Doozers like their work to be enjoyed and Fraggles love enjoying the work (by eating it). But this only works because there is a delicate balance between the two races.

Consider what would happen if there were not enough Fraggles relative to the Doozer population. The Doozers would build and build until they ran out of space. Then they would be unhappy as they could not build any more. They would eventually go into a bleak depression, as they need to build creatively to be happy, and some might even become suicidal. Either way, it would be devastating to the Doozer population.

Now consider what would happen if there were too many Fraggles. They’d eat the Doozer’s constructions faster than those poor little Doozer’s could build. The Doozers, who would initially be pleased at the standing ovation, would build harder and faster until they literally collapsed. Then, without the food supply they are used to, the Fraggles, who’d have to resort to a single food source (ground-up radishes), would become very unhappy as this would not only be boring, but they’d have to work a lot more making the food (which would substantially cut into their bohemian lifestyle).

Lesson? Don’t forget to take culture into account in your relationships. If the partner you intend to select has a substantially different, almost opposite, culture, even though opposites attract, if the relationship isn’t delicately balanced, at least one side will wither away. Keep this in mind as you start thinking about that new IT partner (which is on your mind after our three-part series this week that asked should I stay or should I go?)

Box Nation

… most of what America is now is just boxes going back and forth …
Stewie, Family Guy, Season 15, Episode 18

Seth MacFarlane is extremely insightful when he chooses to be. We not only have boxes on pallets in containers going back and forth between countries but we have boxes in trucks going back and forth between local warehouses, stores, postal outlets, and consumer residences … it’s a boxes in, boxes out society. And it doesn’t matter how much we optimize the boxes coming in if the boxes going out still cost too much.

The point is, you don’t just optimize the inbound supply chain if the outbound supply chain consists of lots of small deliveries that will considerably eat up the savings you worked so hard to generate. In order to keep costs down, you have to optimize these little boxes as well.

This means that you not only need to optimize:

  • packaging costs
  • (outbound) distribution costs
  • insurance costs

But you shouldn’t do separate sourcing events, because packaging is used inbound and outbound. Plus, distribution inbound and outbound uses trucks … and while inbound might typically use big trucks and outbound might typically use small trucks, not only is the situation sometimes reversed, but the same carriers often have big trucks and little trucks and the more volume you can source, the better the deal you can get.

And then there is insurance. While the insurance inbound will likely be of the supply chain variety, and insurance outbound will likely be small carrier insurance / goods insurance, it doesn’t mean that both policies can’t be sourced from the same provider, and that you can’t get a better deal simultaneous sourcing.

In other words, if you really want to save money and achieve sourcing success in Box Nation, you have to consider all the boxes, not just the inbound ones. And if you want to be successful, use optimization. Check the archives (linked) for more info.

OEM Software Maintenance: Should I Stay or Should I Go? Part III

After working your way through Torey’s 2-part series, you have probably figured out that it’s a tough decision. It all comes down to ROI, which is a two part calculation. The first part is what does it cost to stay, and what does it cost to go:

This calculation requires filling out the following table at the very least and getting a good feel for total cost outlay either way:

Provider 3rd Party
Annual Maintenance Cost Usually % of License Often Fixed Amount
Estimated LifeSpan Annual Maintenance Cost * (Years-1) Usually fixed amount, sometimes lower for longer lifespans
Required 3rd Party Software Upgrades Extra Provider Costs Extra Third Party Costs
Forced Provider Upgrades Provider Costs 3rd Party Costs
Extra Training Costs if not included if not included
Extra Customization Costs if not included if not in base support
Grand Total $$$ $$$

If the third party cost is significantly less (at least 20%, preferably more, because there are always unknowns and gotchas and switching costs), then you consider switching. But only if there is also value.

Cost alone should not be a consideration. What sort of value will the new vendor bring with them? Will they bring best-in-class processes? Do they have any needed industry and category expertise? Do they consistently out-perform the vendor in areas of inefficiency in the organization? If they don’t also bring value, the savings will be limited compared to what is expected. But if they bring added value, then it’s a totally different story, and one that needs to be read.

OEM Software Maintenance: Should I Stay or Should I Go? Part II

Today’s guest post is from Torey Guingrich, a Project Manager at Source One Management Services, who focuses on helping global companies drive greater value from their expenditures.

As a strategic sourcing consultant, the very broad category of “software” seems to always be an area in which companies are looking to reduce costs. . But is there an opportunity to substantially reduce maintenance costs if you want to continue utilizing the applications? Are third party maintenance providers an option?

The first step to answering these questions is to properly frame questions with IT to better determine if third party maintenance is a potential solution for your organization. Yesterday we provided you with the important Application Lifecycle questions. Today we address value from support, level of customization, and level of response.

  • Value from Support:
    • How often do we engage with the vendor support? Assuming you are in a stable environment that opens the door for third-party maintenance, consider the support/content you are receiving and utilizing from the software publisher directly.
    • Are we apt to upgrade with every release or do we tend to push off upgrades?/What are the pain points in upgrades and what is the perceived value we see from them? Third party providers provide break/fix support, troubleshoot bugs and typically provide tax/regulatory updates as well as potential support for customization, but you would not be eligible to receive updates and upgrades direct from the OEM. This is an opportunity to discuss with IT your organization’s typical appetite for change, e.g. do they immediately act on update/upgrade opportunities, or do you typically push these out for a few releases? It is not uncommon for OEMs to charge (or try to charge) back maintenance for some period of time when an upgrade is warranted, so you shouldn’t be cutting ties if you have planned upgrades or new version releases in your roadmap (assuming you are upgrading due to perceived value, as opposed to being forced off an older release by the OEM).
  • Level of Customization:
    • What level of customization does the system have and what support is in place for that custom code? When applications are highly customized, standard maintenance from the OEM is very unlikely to support those customizations. Many third party providers do include support for custom code in the cost of annual maintenance which may be an opportunity to alleviate the work of internal resources or other providers you may be utilizing to support customizations. Consider how customized your environment is and the level of effort IT resources (internal or external) spend to support that custom code; question your IT stakeholders on the systems that are most customized and any past issues they may have run into when it comes to customization (or if they already rely on an outsourced model to do so). Highly customization systems typically run into issues when it comes time to upgrade, so if your company has delayed upgrades or prefers to retain the current version because of the level of customization, this again may be an opportunity to look to third party maintenance.
  • Level of Response:
    • How happy are you with the level of support and responsiveness from the vendor? One final area to consider are the service levels/guarantees of your current support model. Third-party maintenance providers tout their strong SLAs and dedicated account management, with many offering 24×7 support and aggressive response and resolution timeframes. While some customers think this alone may be a reason to switch maintenance models, work with IT to try and quantify the frequency with which you engage the current support model and if there is truly a business impact or benefit that could come from stronger or more responsive support.

While third party maintenance providers boast large reductions in cost (many market a 40-50% decrease in annual maintenance cost), Procurement needs to work with IT to define if these providers can be used strategically given the considerations above. Considering compressed IT budgets and heavy reliance on ERP vendors, it may be high time to explore the options in the market, have the conversation with your IT leadership, and challenge third party providers to help you determine if they are a good fit given your current environment. At the very least, this option can be used as a leverage position with some of the software giants out there to negotiate maintenance percentage or mitigate increases to maintenance structures.

So now you need to decide, Should I Stay or Should I Go?