Category Archives: SaaS

The Sourcing Maniacs 2008 Vendor Tour Part 13: MFG.com

This post is a little lengthy, so it’s been broken down into Comedy and Community, which you can skip to if you’re short on time.

Comedy

Yakko Rapid Response Management. I don’t think we’d ever have thought of that at our old jobs!
  The maniacs just finished visiting with Kinaxis.
Dot It’s sure one cool concept! So Who’s Next?
Wakko Awesome album!

Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I’ll get on my knees and pray
We don’t get fooled again
No, no!

Wakko breaks into his best air guitar routine
Yakko & Dot Wakko!
Wakko What?
Yakko I believe Dot was asking a question!
Dot And I want to know what company we’ll be visiting next.
Wakko Oh.
So, onward where?
Yakko Are we done with the K’s?
Wakko I wonder what’s up with that little company down in the valley that we used to pretend didn’t exist?
Yakko Are you referring to Ketera?
Wakko That’s them!
Dot I’m not ready to go back to California.
Yakko I heard they have a new SaaS e-Sourcing offering! Maybe we can get a web-demo and research them online!
Dot That would be cool. I’ll give them a call.
Dot rings up Ketera.
Sales Voice You’ve reached Ketera! How can we help you?
Dot We’d like a demo of your new e-Sourcing offering.
Sales Voice Who are you with?
Dot The Media.
Sales Voice Well, we’re a little backed up right now … the platform is taking off much faster than we expected. Can you wait a few weeks?
Dot Well, uhm, okay.
Obviously not used to being asked to wait.
Sales Voice If you’ll give me your details …
  the maniacs trailed off here
Yakko Well, I guess we’ll have to catch up with them later.
Dot So where are we?
Yakko I guess we move on to the L’s.
Wakko Elle MacPherson … oh yeah … I could definitely …
Dot WAKKO!
Wakko looking confused
Yakko Lexington Analytics?
Dot Too Consulting.
Yakko Lexis Nexis?
Dot Too Data Focussed.
Yakko LlamaSoft?
Dot Too mathematical. And Wakko would spend the whole time tearing the place apart looking for llamas.
Yakko Log-Net?
Dot Too logistical.
Yakko LSC Consulting Group?
Dot Again, consulting.
Yakko Well, I’m out of L’s! On to the M’s!

Editor’s Note: Yakko wouldn’t be out of L’s if he’d check the resource site once in a while, which listed over 500 companies in the space, alphabetically sorted, and accessible by starting letter and major category.

Dot I seem to remember this company called Moai from years (and years) back. Think they’re still around?
Yakko I haven’t heard of them in years! Last time I saw a press release from them was … was … 2004! Not long after the Medebiz merger / acquisition. I thought they were as long gone as the Moai statues on Easter Island that they named themselves after!
Dot Maybe … but I thought I noticed that their web site was still there a few days ago.
Yakko Web site! That’s it! the doctor told us about a web-based operation that starts with M that we’re supposed to check out. Just a minute.

Yakko fetches his handy-dandy notebook.

MFG.
Wakko Are we going for Chinese food! I’m hungry!
Yakko M-F-G, not MSG!
Wakko Oh. Well, can we still go for Chinese food! I’m hungry!
Yakko You’re always hungry!
Dot So who’s this MFG?
Yakko According to the doctor, MFG, who bill themselves as the on-line manufacturing marketplace, is a SaaS-based marketplace where buyers and sellers can come together and do business.
Dot So where are they?
Yakko I believe they’re in Atlanta, Georgia …
Wakko Georgia, Georgia
The whole day through
Just an old sweet song
Keeps Georgia on my mind
Yakko ignoring Wakko
… but the doctor says that everything they offer, and everything we should care about, is on-line.
Dot Time for another trip to the cyber-cafe!
Wakko Look! Look! Here’s a Chinese Cafe!
jumping up and down
Can we go? Can we? Can we?
Yakko Yes, Wakko.

 

Community

Wakko I love Chinese food!
Dot Is there any food you don’t love?
Wakko thinking … despite the look of consternation on his face
Escargot and Cavier.
Dot That’s sophisticated food.
Wakko I’d rather baloney.
Yakko breaking out the MacBook
Shall we begin?
Dot Sure. Where do we start?
Yakko Let’s go to the blogs for background. the doctor appears to have two MFG-focussed posts: MFG: A Community in the Making and MFGX.com – Exploding onto the scene, which I found through his handy Annual Vendor Day master index post.

Starting as a “parts marketplace” that is free to buyers, it has, especially after its recent acquisition of SourcingParts.com, a large supplier community that you can search, and tap, for custom manufactured parts and products through its free on-line sourcing and collaboration tools. Furthermore, it goes beyond just simple supplier directories, as MFG verifies the listed capabilities of suppliers who use the site and allows buyers to post their feedback, which it compiles into supplier ratings.

On top of this, it has a real-time supplier matching capability that works on detailed part specifications which will automatically locate the suppliers who are capable of filling your order. Once you select one, you can work with them using the built-in tools to collaborate on, and refine, the design until you get a high quality design that is cost-effective to produce.

And then there’s the companion MFGX.com site, released about six months ago, open to all manufacturers, and buyers, in an on-line forum that allows them to come together, share information, ask questions, post classifieds, find work, take advantage of open-source machine tools, and keep up with the latest news and trends. It’s all based on “Web 2.0” technologies – forums, blogs, wikis, and networking tools.
Dot Anything else?
Yakko the doctor has also cross-indexed a number of Spend Matters posts on MFG as well. Let’s check them out.

In Going Global with a Unique Leader, JB of Spend Matters tells us about their CEO, Mich Free, and how he’s a b-school type — gritty, school of hard knocks, and personally knowledgeable about how a machine shop actually works — and how he used that knowledge to build a team that actually understood what manufacturing is and what it needs in an on-line platform.

In Smock Gets the Scoop, JB references a recent interview that notes that MFG.com is planning to offer an advanced sourcing solution to buyers, which goes beyond its basic platform that will remain free, that will include “the whole nine yards of sourcing capability plus supplier relationship management and contract management for a subscription price of less than $500 a quarter per buying company”.
Dot Wow! That’s bargain basement pricing! For sourcing!
Yakko In the Fusion posts (on Spend Matters), JB told us about some of the visionary insights of Mitch Free, MFG’s founder, and how he’s trying to open up the manufacturing space in ways not previously thought of, and in “MFG.com — Building a Textile Marketplace”, he tells us how MFG is creating a new marketplace for textiles, an industry that, like traditional manufacturing, has been traditionally underserved on the web.
Dot Wow! Sounds like MFG are one busy bunch of guys and gals!
Yakko And that’s not all! In “Surviving China’s Rapidly Changing Sourcing Tides” (I and II), the doctor mentions MFGChina.com, the MFG companion site … in Chinese … to serve the Chinese marketplace.
Wakko Gan Bei! More Tsingtao please!
Dot Busy, busy, busy!
Yakko Very! I think it’s time to check the MFG.com site out!

Wow! RFQs are sorted into standard, commodity parts, for open, public bid and custom parts — making it easy for suppliers to find the RFQs most appropriate to their orientation. Hundreds of categories, allowing everything to be precisely specified. There has to be over a thousand standardized parts and products here!

And the resource collection is awesome! Industry LInks to CAD & CAM Software, Consulting Srvices, and Machine Tool Builders to name a few. Links to over 20 relevant Manufacturing Publications. Over 15 relevant manufacturing industry associations. Information on the major certifications and standards. Even a collection of useful utilities.
Wakko That’s a collection that even the doctor, with the largest collection of useful resources (on the Sourcing Innovation Resource Site) in the space, would be proud of!
Yakko And the help, and online process guidance, is very extensive. Even you could use it Wakko!

And as far as I can tell, MFGChina.com is just as extensive!
Dot What about MFGx.com – The Global Manufacturing Community?
Yakko I see over 10 active communities – Buy and Sell, Employment, Open Source Machine Tools, General Manufacturing, Sourcing and Procurement, Marketing for Manufacturers, Metalworking and Machining, Textiles and Apparel, Design and Engineering, Software, Logistics, and Materials. And everything’s a wiki document, so you can log in and make it better. And then there’s the blogs. Led by their blog-master, former analyst extraordinaire, AJ Sweatt.
Dot Does Mitch blog?
Yakko Occassionally.
Dot Too bad he doesn’t blog more. the doctor says he’s one smart cookie.
Yakko I don’t think those were quite the words he used.
Dot Same Dif.
Yakko Anyway, this MFG.com looks like a great resource for manufacturing buyers and suppliers alike!

 

The Sourcing Maniacs 2008 Vendor Tour Part XI: Integration Point

When we left off in our tale of the Sourcing Maniacs 2008 Vendor Tour, they had just finished meeting with the CEO of Iasta who told them all about bringing e-Sourcing to the mid-market masses and, in particular, the benefits of applying decision optimization and supplier relationship management to your sourcing process. We catch up with the maniacs in Indianapolis, Indiana.

The post is a little lengthy, so I’ve again broken it up into parts; Interlude and Integration (which contains the content).

Interlude

Wakko Faster, faster!
Dot Go! Go! Go!
Yakko Floor it!
For the sake of clarity, I should point out that the maniacs are currently at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway watching the cars take practice laps in preparation for their next race.
Wakko Do you think I can take one for a lap?
Dot Given your penchant for mischief, I’d be surprised if they’d even take you for a lap in the 2-seater experience.
Wakko Why not?
Yakko What happens every time you drive fast?
Wakko I tend to crash on occasion.
Yakko I didn’t hear you!
Wakko I usually wreck the car.
Yakko So do you think they’re going to let you take a mulit-million dollar piece of precision equipment for a spin?
Wakko solemnly
No.
Yakko Now that that’s settled, ready to move on?
Dot Where next?
Wakko I thought you said it was eSourcing Place now?
Dot glares at Wakko.
Yakko Well, we’re on the I’s and the doctor strongly suggested that we check out this place called Integration Point (acquired by Thomson Reuters).
Dot Where are they?
Yakko North Carolina.
Wakko Sweet Home Carolina
Where the skies are so blue
Sweet Home Carloina
I’m coming home to you
Dot Don’t you mean Sweet Home Alabama?
Wakko Yakko said Carolina!
Dot But …
Wakko Works, don’t it?
Dot Yes …
Wakko Okay, then!

Sweet Home Carolina
Where the skies are so blue
Yakko & Wakko Sweet Home Carloina
I’m coming home to you
Dot, reluctantly, joins in
Yakko, Wakko, & Dot Here I come, Carolina!
  We catch up with the maniacs a few days later.
Dot Are we here?
Wakko reaching for his mini-mallet
I’ll check!
but before Wakko can tap-tap-tap, the door opens … a woman, who appears to be dressed like a marketing-type executive, answers
Marketing Executive Oh. Sorry. Can I help you?
Dot Is this Integration Point?
Marketing Executive Yes it is.
Dot What do you integrate?
Marketing Executive Now that’s a strange question. Who are you?
Dot I’m Dot.
Yakko And I’m Yakko. And that fella over there …
pointing to Wakko who has decided to bonk himself on the head with the mini-mallet, presumably in disappointment in not getting to use it on the door
is Wakko.
Marketing Executive I can see that. Is he okay? Do I need to get help?
Dot Oh, he’s fine. Don’t worry about him.
Marketing Executive Dot. Yakko. Wakko. Why do those names sound familiar?
Yakko & Dot We’re the sourcing maniacs!
Marketing Executive guarded
Oh. Well …
pause
we don’t have any open positions right now. Sorry. Have a nice day.
she starts to close the door … obviously, she’s heard of the maniacs and their antics
Dot Wait. We’re not hear for jobs, unless you have them.
Marketing Executive Then what are you hear for?
Wakko who has grown bored of his mini-mallet
Knowledge!
Marketing Executive I can see that you could certainly use some!
Yakko We want to know what you do and why it’s important.
Marketing Executive Why us?
Yakko the doctor said you’d broaden our horizons!
Marketing Executive Well
glancing at Wakko
I don’t think that will be too hard!
Dot So will you tell us what you integrate?
Marketing Executive If you’re sure you want to broaden your horizons. They say ignorance is bliss, and
glancing back at Wakko
it seems to me that he likes his blissful state of ignorance.
Yakko & Dot We want to broaden our horizons!
Yakko And you can ignore Wakko.
Dot Everyone else does.
Marketing Executive OK.
Looking sternly at Wakko. But the construction tools stay in your backpack. Got it?

 

Integration

Dot So what do you integrate?
Marketing Executive I think you misunderstand what we do. We’re not your run of the mill software development or consulting shop … we don’t “integrate” anything, except data.

Let me ask you this, how much do you know about global trade?
Dot You call up your supplier in China, tell him you’d like 20,000 DVD players, and then call up your 3PL to handle the delivery to your warehouse. Easy-peasy!
Marketing Executive Are you sure?
Dot What do you mean?
Marketing Executive What about government regulations? Import and export classifications? Duties and Tariffs? Consignment? Free and Secure Trade Zones?
Dot Aren’t regulations the supplier’s problem?
Yakko And don’t the suppliers know the classifications?
Dot And doesn’t the supplier just add the tax?
Yakko And doesn’t the 3PL take care of consignment …
Dot and the free and secure trade zones?
Marketing Executive No, not necessarily, maybe sales tax and VAT, not always, and definitely not.

Regulations are your problem. You’re the one taking ownership, you’re the one trying to import the goods, and you’re the one who’s going to sell them. You’re the one who has to make sure that the goods meet material and quality regulations, or face the consequences.

The supplier might know the right export code, and the supplier might not. But it’s definitely your responsibility that the right (HTS) import code is utilized. Otherwise, you could face huge losses if the wrong code is used and the tarriff is higher, or huge fines if the wrong code is used and the tarriff paid is lower than it should be. Your 3PL might be able to help you, but proper classification is ultimately your responsibility.

Identification of the appropriate duties and tariffs, and prompt payment, is ultimately your responsibility.

And whether or not you consign goods, and when you do it, is totally up to you.

As is the determination of whether or not you use free or secured trade zones in an effort to take advantage of what they have to offer.

Are you at least familiar with the basic Global Trade Import Cycle and Export Cycles?
Dot The Global Trade What-Now?
Marketing Executive You say the doctor sent you. Didn’t you at least take the time to read his introductory wiki-papers on Global Trade, Customs & Security, Free Trade, and Regulatory Compliance?
Dot Uhm … no. Were they important?
Marketing Executive Very. And they’d help you better understand what we do.
Dot Which is?
Marketing Executive Global Trade Data Management solutions that help customers with import management, export management, free trade zones, compliance, and other aspects of global trade.

Our solutions, which are web-based and true SaaS, help suppliers with classification; advance notification (as required by 10 + 2); denied party screening; free trade zones, foreign trade zones, and special economic zones; customs warehousing; AEO, C-TPAT, and PIP; free trade agreements; and import/export safety.

If you understand the cycle, you understand that there are significant documentary requirements at each stage. These documentary requirements can only be fulfilled with good, up-to-date data. Our systems maintain that data and help you with the creation and, where possible, the electronic transmission of the forms you need to the required parties — which include your supplier, your 3PL or import/export broker, and various government agencies. And, to go bo back to your “what we integrate” question, we can also integrate with a wide range of ERP (and competitor trade platforms) to pull the data you need for form creation out of your ERP and then push the data your missing back into your ERP for archival purposes.
Dot So you generate e-paper?
Marketing Executive Sort of. In terms you can understand, we generate e-paper that keeps you compliant. How much do you know about 10 + 2?
Wakko 10 + 2 = 12?
Marketing Executive It’s the new secure freight initiative from the US Government that requires a more detailed Security Filing that is being dubbed the “10+2” because it requires 10 data elements from the importer and 2 data elements from the carrier that must be electronically filed 24 hours prior to loading cargo onto a shipping vessel ultimately bound for the US. And it’s a doozy. Besides the fact that some estimates believe that it might cost importers 690 Million annually to implement, there’s the little caveat that if the principal fails to comply with the proposed Importer Security Filing requirements, the principal and surety (jointly and severally) would pay liquidated damages equal to the value of the merchandise involved in the default. So, if you’re importing a 1 Million dollar shipment, and you screw up, that’s a 1 Million dollar fine.
Dot That’s a lifetime of Prada bags!
Marketing Executive giving Dot a strange look
At least!
Marketing Executive And how much do you know about REACH? WEEE? RoHS? ELV?
Yakko What now?
Marketing Executive REACH: Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals, WEEE: Directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment, RoHS: Restriction Of Hazardous Substances, and ELV: End of Life Vehicles. The European directives that specify what can, and more importantly, can’t be in products you want to import into the EU. Failure to comply can result in seizure and destruction of your entire shipment.
Yakko But that’s just in the EU, right?
Marketing Executive For now. But similar acts, especially with regards to RoHS, are popping up all around the globe in countries like India, China, and Korea, for starters.
Yakko But China’s the biggest user of coal. Why would they care about electronics?
Marketing Executive A few grams of certain metals and chemicals, which are restricted or banned by acts like RoHS and REACH, in old electronics equipment can contaminate over a million litres of ground water!
Yakko Wow!
Marketing Executive And even the third world countries are trying to clean up their acts these days. But back to topic. These aren’t the only compliance directives out there … different countries, and sometimes even industries, have their own. Our product can track any product-specific data you like, compare it to the regulatory requirements of major acts that we track, and even allow you to add your own industry or company specific regulatory requirements to compare the product data to. This helps you maintain compliance and, more importantly, helps you to avoid large fines and stay out of the headlines.
Wakko So your product helps companies get a complete view of their global operations from a regulatory and compliance perspective?
Marketing Executive stunned (since no one really expects Wakko to listen)
Yes.
Wakko Cool!
So, can we go get some pulled-pork now? I’m hungry!
Yakko stunned (since he usually asks for baloney)
Uhm, sure!
Dot I guess we have to go now. Thanks for the insight. I never knew global trade was so involved.
  And with that, the maniacs take their leave.

At this point, we take another short break in our story.

 

Hackett Hacks Away at Recession Declines

Hackett recently published a research piece on how “G&A Spending Cuts Can Offset 21% to 45% of the Anticipated Decline in Pre-Tax Profit During Recession” as part of their Enterprise Strategy Series which noted that their 2008 benchmark data reveals a savings of 184 – 400 Million for a typical global 1000 company that’s worth a re-read. Unlike most of their pieces, this was available to the public (registration required), and, if it’s still available, you should definitely download it – as it is jam-packed with more information than a single blog post can cover.

The piece starts off that by noting that while mandated G&A cuts are the norm in times of recession, arbitrarily cutting costs across the board can lead to serious deterioration in service-delivery capacity. It’s critical that cuts are made in ways that minimize impact on business value delivery, but this requires an understanding of the strategic alternatives, current cost structures (as compared to those of world-class organizations), and clear-eyed risk assessments. Furthermore, Hackett found that average companies can reduce G&A cost between 15% and 41% simply by optimizing process cost. Furthermore, reduced technology spend can take out another 6% to 7%.

The research brief also points out that you should not determine a savings target before understanding what a “normal” spend level is in a world class organization. For example, a typical Global 1000 company (with 23.4B in revenue and 56,100 employees) spends 3.6% of its revenues on four core principle G&A functions (Finance, HR, IT, & Procurement), but world-class companies execute significantly better by combining process excellence with technology leverage. They perform at lower cost levels (22%+) and enable the business to succeed by producing improved financial results and cash-flow; by recruiting, training, and retaining talent; by driving costs out of the supply chain; and by making superior use of technology.

The research brief also identified 10 targets for G&A reduction across the four core functions that, when combined, should allow for a cost reduction of at least $158M in a typical Fortune 1000 company in process costs alone (labor and outsourcing) that can be achieved by way of best practices, simplification, and standardization. Specifically, the 10 functions, and potential cost savings were:

  • Infrastructure Management : 25.1
  • Revenue Cycle : 22.7
  • Application Maintenance : 21.6
  • General Accounting : 17.9
  • Application Development & Implementation : 15.8
  • Compliance Management : 13.4
  • End-User Support : 12.7
  • Transactional HR : 11.7
  • General Disbursement : 10.6
  • Purchase Order Processing : 6.4

The research brief identified a cost difference of 55.6 Million in technology spend between average and world-class organizations.

Hackett also identified another 74.9 Million in cost savings that may be available through globalization (and outsourcing).

So how do you start identifying these cost savings? You start by reading the research brief and focussing on the specifics in the identified areas. You also apply the expertise the doctor and his fellow bloggers have imparted to you over the years while noting that most of the savings opportunities are in technology (75.2), finance (51.2), and procurement (19.8). If you have been paying attention, this should screen one acronym to you: SaaS. If you’re currently using bloated behind-the-firewall software, switching to SaaS will simultaneously reduce your infrastructure (the largest), application maintenance (the third largest), application implementation (the fifth largest), and end-user support (the seventh largest) costs. Plus, if it’s e-Sourcing or e-Procurement, you’ll also reduce your revenue cycle (the second largest), compliance management (sixth largest), general disbursement (ninth largest), and purchase order processing (tenth largest) costs. That’s eight cost reductions with one decision! How can you go wrong?

the doctor Gives You A Very Important Reason to Go SaaS

Those of you who read the On-Demand / Software as a Service Application Platforms wiki-paper on the e-Sourcing Wiki [WayBackMachine], already have fifteen (15) great reasons to go SaaS, which include:

  • Pay As You Go
  • Instant Deployment
  • Single Instance
  • Economies of Scale
  • Provider Handles Administration, Maintenance, and IT Headaches
  • Free Upgrades
  • The Customer Has the Leverage
  • Anywhere Access
  • Buy What Is Needed, And Only What Is Needed
  • Single, Accountable Entity
  • Regular, Automated Data Backup
  • Built for Change
  • Unparalleled Collaborative Capabilities
  • Integration with Office Applications
  • Low Total Cost of Ownership

However, perhaps the biggest reason you should go SaaS, is:

  • Sustainability

Reading the article “Analyzing Costs and Benefits”, I was reminded just how fast energy costs are rising (much faster than the referenced rate from the Energy Information Administration) and how much savings there is to be had just by reducing your energy needs.

And if you maintain all of your systems in house, then, unless you are manufacturer, one of your biggest energy needs is your IT data center – especially since you probably can’t afford to be updating all of your hardware every other year (like many modern data centers do). If you maintain PC-based servers for 4 (or 5 years), and mini-computers / racks for that long or longer, than your hardware needs are probably three or four times what they would be if everything was running on latest technology with real-time load-balancing and virtualization. Furthermore, chances are each of these machines is requiring at least twice as much energy to run as a modern machine with a lower power utilization processor and much better energy conservation technology. All in all, you’re probably consuming at least eight times as much energy as you need to be, especially when compared to an up-to-date data center used by a SaaS provider.

Furthermore, not only are you allowing for significant energy savings by using SaaS, but you’re also contributing to green in a big way, because the hardware resources of a SaaS provider are shared between multiple organizations. This not only allows for even more efficient resource utilization, but also reduces the amount of hardware, and thus the amount of future electronic waste, that will need to be recycled.

Coupa + Amazon EC2 = Energized Procurement!

One of the great things about the blogsphere is we don’t have to wait for them to stop the presses to get a great story in at the last minute. We just type, save, publish – and presto! – you get the latest news as soon as we get it, as it happens, and, when you’re really lucky, before!

Tomorrow, the latest press release from Coupa will blanket the wire, traditional e-Procurement companies will cringe, and new age technophiles will rejoice. For tomorrow, the world’s simplest e-Procurement system will be available on-demand to enterprises of all shapes and sizes at a fraction of the cost of traditional e-Procurement systems. Just like SalesForce.com revolutionized the CRM world, Coupa is revolutionizing the e-Procurement world – and then some! By basing their new services on Amazon’s EC2 Virtual Grid Computing Cluster, they are ensuring that they’ll always have the computing power required to ensure rapid response times, regardless of how many users decide to use the system at exactly 4:55 p.m. to get that last order of the day out before they leave.

Normally it takes a big merger, acquisition, or introduction of a brand-spanking-new technology to shake-up a market – but Coupa has achieved puree with nothing but open source and a revolutionary pricing model. They don’t know it yet, but I’d say at least three quarters of the e-Procurement companies I track over on the resource site are in dire straits once procurement professionals realize everywhere that it doesn’t cost in the high six, or even seven, figures for basic enterprise e-Procurement anymore – and that it doesn’t require a six month roll-out plan either! Specifically, I predict that any company trying to make a living just selling decade old order management, e-RFX, e-Invoicing, and catalog management technology is headed for extinction. Unless they are also providing advanced payment solutions, supply chain finance, inventory visibility, or other advanced service offerings – they’re going to have a very tough time competing with a true multi-tenant on-demand e-Procurement platform with unlimited scalability and exponentially decreasing costs on a per-user basis as your organization grows.

This brings us to their transparent four layer pricing model – the first of its kind – that is designed to make the Coupa e-Procurement system affordable to even the smallest 3-guys-in-a-garage start-up while simultaneously making it best-value for your large enterprise who’s still struggling to embrace the 21st century and just needs a basic e-Procurement system. How affordable? How valuable? Although the exact prices won’t be available until tomorrow, I have it on good authority that a 10-user organization can get started for as little as 3K a year (and maybe a little less)! And – you better be sitting down for this one – a 1000 user organization can get started for under 50K per year! That’s less than $50 / user / year! And the enterprise package also includes their new “Quick Start” program which gives you a dedicated solution delivery expert, guidance on collection of key company information, and assistance in configuring your Coupa-On-Demand instance – including chart of accounts, users, suppliers, contracts, catalogs, approvals, and integration advice.

Coupa has also been working hard since their last release to extend their functionality, and now supports a number of common office supplies and electronics vendors using punch-out and cXML order delivery (including Office Depot, Office Max, Dell, and VWR), direct quickbooks order import via Traxian for small businesses, and an integration web services layer that automates the movement of data in and out of Coupa-On-Demand using XML and an open API that supports seamless integration with accounting systems and ERPs.

And I’m sure there’ll be goodies aplenty on their newly designed web-sites that will be live tomorrow. That’s right – Sites! In addition to Coupa.com, there’ll also be a new Coupa.org site as well that will provide a dedicated home for Coupa Express, the world leading open source project for e-Procurement that has already surpassed 9,000 downloads and will probably pass the 10,000 mark before the month is up!

So watch the wire – and check out Coupa*! The e-Procurement revolution is at hand!

And, for those of you still wondering, this post fits in perfectly with the Sustainable Sunday theme : On-Demand e-Procurement that uses Amazon EC2 Virtual Computing Grid to only consume as much resources (and energy) as is required to support your needs and keep your costs low helps you sustain your procurement initiatives!

*Wouldn’t Coupa make a great sponsor of Sourcing Innovation? They’ve been pretty innovative lately.  Feel free to leave any comments – including dissenting ones! – below. I know they read this blog from time to time.