Category Archives: Decision Optimization

The UX One Should Expect from Best-In-Class Optimization … Part I

In our last four posts, we dove deep, really deep, into the basic requirements for any modern e-Negotiation platform (which we defined as e-RFX and/or e-Auction) and then dove deeper into the additional requirements for any e-Auction platform that claims to be a modern, best-in-class, e-Auction platform in the year 2017 (not 2007, where some seem to be stuck — but we won’t talk about them). [See Best-in-Class e-Sourcing Part I, Best-in-Class e-Sourcing Part II, Best-in-Class e-Auctions Part I, and Best-in-Class e-Auctions Part II.] But we excluded optimization for a reason, because the requirements for optimization go beyond — way beyond — the requirements for even the most intense set of requirements for the most advanced e-Auction platform (which can support bills of materials and constraints).

Last Thursday, over on Spend Matters Pro [membership required], the doctor and the prophet posted the first article in our four part series on “What to Expect from Best-in-Class Sourcing Optimization Technology and User Design (Part 1)” (that’s right, 4-part series), where we begin our deep dive into what best-in-class sourcing optimization looks like and how form follows function from a design perspective.

First of all, optimization is important — and about to become even more important as savings go up in smoke due to inflation, protectionist policies, and insufficient supply of raw materials. Why do you think Coupa spent a healthy chunk of its IPO proceeds to purchase Trade Extensions. (They might not understand what they bought, or how to use it, but they saw the future and wanted to get in the game early enough to have some time to, hopefully, figure it out before their competition.)

Secondly, it’s the only advanced sourcing solution that has been demonstrated, when properly applied, to generate year-over-year returns over 10% (and an average of 12% according to two of the first back-to-back studies conducted by Aberdeen last decade). Plus, unlike spend analysis, which only identifies the high-level savings opportunities (which can only be captured if appropriate events are undertaken, possibly based on optimization), optimization produces the exact award scenario required to generate the savings.

Third, and most important, optimization identifies opportunities for both savings and value generation that no other platform can. Opportunities and supply chain designs no human, even with thousands of spreadsheets, will ever identify. It’s the foundation for a new sourcing age, but one that will only happen if optimization gets adopted, which will only happen if it provides a great user experience (as that’s the only thing that will overcome the math-based fear that surrounds it).

So what does such a platform need? Many, many things (as we dive into in What To Expect from Best-in-Class Sourcing Optimization Technology and User Design (Part 1) [membership required], but one thing it requires is powerful cost modelling.

You see, true calculation, and optimization, of the cost of goods sold requires complex breakdowns and formulas because, in practice, with even the most “vanilla” or simplest of products, there are fixed costs and variable costs and that these change at different production levels. For example, there are fixed costs to set up and start a production line, and then variable costs for each production level depending on raw resources, energy and manpower required to produce the product. And that’s just the beginning. You also have to worry about import / export tariffs, taxes, logistics costs, utilization costs, warranty, return, and disposal costs and a host of other category specific costs. If the costs aren’t modelled accurately, they can’t be optimized accurately. A great optimization platform thus supports flexible and powerful user defined cost models that break down costs as needed and to levels where individual elements can be optimized when possible.

And this is just the beginning.

Stay tuned for Part II in our series.

… 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 … )

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.

Are We About to Enter the Age of Permissive Analytics?

Right now most of the leading analytics vendors are rolling out or considering the roll out of prescriptive analytics, which goes one step beyond predictive analytics and assigns meaning to those analytics in the form of actionable insights the organization could take in order to take advantage of the likely situation suggested by the predictive analytics.

But this won’t be the end. Once a few vendors have decent predictive analytics solutions, one vendor is going to try and get an edge and start rolling out the next generation analytics, and, in particular, permissive analytics. What are permissive analytics, you ask? Before we define them, let’s take a step back.

In the beginning, there were descriptive analytics. Solutions analyzed your spend and / or metrics and gave you clear insight into your performance.

Then there are predictive analytics. Solutions analyzed your spend and / or metrics and used time-period, statistical, or other algorithms to predict likely future spend and / or metrics based on current and historical spend / metrics and present the likely outcomes to you in order to help you make better decisions.

Predictive analytics was great as long as you knew how to interpret the data, what the available actions were, and which actions were most likely to achieve the best business outcomes given the likely future trend on the spend and / or metrics. But if you didn’t know how to interpret the data, what your options were, or how to choose the best one that was most in line with the business objectives.

The answer was, of course, prescriptive analytics, which combined the predictive analytics with expert knowledge that not only prescribed a course of action but indicated why the course of action was prescribed. For example, if the system detected rising demand within the organization and predicted rising cost due to increasing market demand, the recommendation would be to negotiate for, and lock-in supply as soon as possible using either an (optimization-backed) RFX, auction, or negotiation with incumbents, depending upon which option was best suited to the current situation.

But what if the system detected that organizational demand was falling, but market demand was falling faster, there would be a surplus of supply, and the best course of action was an immediate auction with pre-approved suppliers (which were more than sufficient to create competition and satisfy demand)? And what if the auction could be automatically configured, suppliers automatically invited, ceilings automatically set, and the auction automatically launched? What if nothing needed to be done except approve, sit back, watch, and auto-award to the lowest bidder? Why would the buyer need to do anything at all? Why shouldn’t the system just go?

If the system was set up with rules that defined behaviours that the buyer allowed the system to take automatically, then the system could auto-source on behalf of the buyer and the buying organization. The permissive analytics would not only allow the system to automate non strategic sourcing and procurement activities, but do so using leading prescriptive analytics combined with rules defined by the buying organization and the buyer. And if prescriptive analytics included a machine learning engine at the core, the system could learn buyer preferences for automated vs. manual vs. semi-automated and even suggest permissive rules (that could, for example, allow the category to be resourced annually as long as the right conditions held).

In other words, the next generation of analytics vendors are going to add machine learning, flexible and dynamic rule definition, and automation to their prescriptive analytics and the integrated sourcing platforms and take automated buying and supply chain management to the next level.

But will it be the right level? Hard to say. The odds are they’ll make significantly fewer bad choices than the average sourcing professional (as the odds will increase to 98% over time), but, unlike experienced and wise sourcing professionals, won’t detect when an event happens in left-field that totally changes the dynamics and makes a former best-practice sourcing strategy mute. They’ll detect and navigate individual black swan attacks but will have no hope of detecting a coordinated black swan volley. However, if the organization also employs risk management solutions with real time event monitoring and alerts, ties the risk management system to the automation, and forces user review of higher spend / higher risk categories put through automation, it might just work.

Time will tell.

Coupa Enters into a Share Purchase Agreement for Majority Ownership of Trade Extensions

SI typically does not do analyze of acquisitions and, unlike it’s brethren, does not do public analysis of transactions until the deal is done because it ain’t over until the fat lady sings, or in silicon valley, it ain’t over until the money hits the bank. And even though the chances of this deal not completing are, in the doctor‘s view, extremely small, he’s still going to withhold his analysis until the deal is done.

That being said, there are huge implications for both parties once the deal completes, and just like you should be doing risk mitigation when a potential disruption event is identified in your supply chain, you should be doing a cost/benefit advantage/disadvantage analysis as soon as a large acquisition that impacts your primary platform is announced. Every acquisition brings with it opportunities, but if an organization is highly resistant to change or locked into an existing platform or, even worse, a current (but now no longer) partner solution, there could be disadvantages as well. So do your homework and be prepared to take advantage of any opportunity that arises.

And if you want analysis, Spend Matters US and Spend Matters UK have chimed in already. You can start there. SI is providing these links as information only. While the doctor did provide his insight into the Trade Extensions’ technology platform strengths and capabilities for an upcoming piece on Spend Matters, he is not releasing his views on the merger (announcement) until its done and none of the speculations as to the implications of the merger in that piece are his. (However, the technology assessments of Trade Extensions are likely all his, and as these are not impacted by a business transaction, he will comment on these freely if asked. Great thing about software is it’s code, and code is algorithms, and algorithms is math, and it does what it does.)

Coupa Enters an Agreement to Buy Trade Extensions: A Game Changing Move For Strategic Sourcing by the prophet, Spend Matters US

Coupa Acquires Trade Extensions, Leading Sourcing Optimisation Software Provider by the public defender, Spend Matters UK

The SEC filing is online for those interested.