Category Archives: Supplier Information Management

Source-to-Pay+ part 2: End-to-End Risk Management

In Part 1 we noted that Risk Management goes much beyond Supplier Risk, and a primitive Supplier “Risk” Management application (which we prefer to label Supplier Uncertainty Management since it’s not full blown risk management, and there’s uncertainty as to how much it will actually do for you) is only the beginning of what your organization will likely need.

When it comes to risk, there are risks in:

  • your company
  • your suppliers
  • their suppliers
  • third parties you interact with (which may not be [direct] suppliers of goods or services)
  • your carriers
  • your supply chain network (ports, warehouses, [cross]docks, etc.)

These risks can be with

  • your people
  • your board
  • your investors
  • your supplier’s people, board, or investors
  • the materials your suppliers use
  • the locale they operate in
  • the suppliers your suppliers use
  • the locale they operate in
  • the carriers
  • the ports your carriers use
  • the warehouses used for interim storage
  • and any other part of, or player in, the supply chain

And the types of risks are numerous. They include, but are far from limited to:

  • unskilled/uncertified people
  • sanctioned/prohibited individuals and entity
  • restricted / banned materials
  • use of underage / forced / slave labour
  • geo-politics
  • economics / currency fluctuations
  • natural disasters
  • labour unrest / strikes
  • fraud / theft
  • the internet
  • and so on

And you need a very extensive application to identify, analyze, monitor, mitigate, and manage these risks. In fact, you may even need a suite of these applications, especially when you consider that most applications consider risks from the viewpoint of:

  • the company (especially those that offer GRC applications)
  • the supplier / third party (SRM/SUM+ / TPRM)
  • supply chain visibility
  • … w/or in-transport visibility
  • w/or multi-tier (manufacturing chain) visibility
  • cyber monitoring

And such an application will need entity/function specific capabilities as well as generic capabilities. The generic capabilities might include, but not be limited to:

  • data feed/stream integration
  • metric definition
  • trend analysis
  • user defined reports
  • data / trend monitoring
  • (mitigation) plan creation
  • plan management

Risk is broad, and the solution footprint needs to be broad as well. In the next few articles we will tackle some of the major application areas we noted above.

It Doesn’t Matter Where You Start, You End with BoB in SXM!

In a recent article, we asked in the battle of Suite vs. BoB (Best-of-Breed), which do you choose, and ended up with the answer of neither, but potentially both, because, as indicated in our article we asked in our post on Where’s the Procurement Management Platform, you need a true platform (that enables the creation of a true source-to-pay plus ecosystem for the various workflows and processes that need to be managed).

As a result, we indicated you could start where you wanted, provided:

  • you could conceivably manage it (if you don’t have any reasonably modern e-Procurement applications, expecting you can dive into more than a couple, learn them, and incorporate them in your daily processes in a short-time frame is completely unrealistic, so you shouldn’t buy from a suite vendor unless you can activate modules over time as you are ready for them)
  • the vendor offers, and publicly publishes, a complete Open API that, at a minimum, can be used to import and export all data the platform supports and should support the execution of core functions (so that you can script in a related module a date/time-based import/refresh process, re-execution of a core function/calculation, and retrieval of updated results)
  • the vendor offers the necessary quick-start services (you need to be able to get going quickly — if it requires a 3 to 6 month onboarding process, you’re dead in the water before you begin from both a first year ROI and adoption perspective)

But where do you end up? It depends. On what:

  • the module (Spend Analysis, Sourcing, Contract Management, Supplier Management, e-Procurement, e-Invoicing/AP, etc.)
  • the organization’s biggest need for workflow/process management
  • the organization’s biggest savings/cost avoidance/value creation opportunities

And for some modules, like e-Procurement, standard sourcing (no optimization/automation), AP (accounts payable), it’s quite hard to make the case for one over the other for an average organization (as it’s not how many features, functions, bells, and whistles, but which of those will actually add value to the organization acquiring the solution).

But for others, it’s crystal clear. And the clearest case is Supplier Management. Why? As per our recent article in our Source-to-Pay+ Series, Supplier Management is a CORNED QUIP Mash, and there’s no way that a suite, which is typically only average across-the-board, is going to be deep enough for the key functionalities needed by an organization (and the majority only address SIM reasonably well, with limited SRM-related capabilities). In fact, you’re not even going to find a single BoB provider that provides leading functionality in more than a few areas of what supplier management can encompass (especially if an organization needs quality, enablement/innovation, orchestration, or other specific direct or service support requirements, etc.). (So do you think you’re finding a suite that does everything? Not a chance!)

So you can start with a suite (that serves as a foundation for comprehensive SIM), or even a module from a BoB provider (that likely provides baseline Supplier Information Management as a Sourcing/CLM/Analytics add-on), but if you are serious about improving supplier performance (quality, compliance, cost of service), you will eventually progress to one (or, for extensive, different, Supplier Management needs, multiple) BoB solutions.

The 39 Steps … err … The 39 Clues … err … The 39 Part Series to Help You Figure Out Where to Start with Source-to-Pay

Figuring out where to start is not easy, and often never where the majority of vendors or consultants say you should start. They’ll have great reasons for their recommendations, which will typically be true, but they will be the subset of reasons that most benefits them (as it will sell their solution), and not necessarily the subset of reasons that most benefits you now. While you will likely need every module there is in the long run, you can often only start with one or two, and you need to focus on what’s the greatest ROI now to prove the investment and help you acquire funds to get more capability later, when you are ready for it. But figuring out how much you can handle, what the greatest needs are, and the necessary starting points aren’t easy, and that’s why SI dove into this topic, with arguments and explanations and module overviews, both broader and deeper than any analyst firm or blogger has done before. Enjoy!

Introductory Posts:
Part 1: Where Do You Start?
Part 2: Where Should You Start?
Part 3: You Start with …
Part 4: e-Procurement, and Here’s Why.

e-Procurement
Part 5: Defining an e-Procurement Baseline
Part 6: There are Barriers to Selecting an e-Procurement Solution (and they are not what you think)
Part 7: Over 70 e-Procurement Companies to Check Out

Interlude 1
Part 8: What Comes Next?

Spend Analysis
Part 9: Time for Spend Analysis
Part 10: What Do You Need for A Spend Analysis Baseline, I
Part 11: What Do You Need for A Spend Analysis Baseline, II
Part 12: Over 40 Spend Analysis Vendors to Check Out

Interlude 2
Part 13: But I Can’t Touch the Sacred Cows!
(including Over 20 SaaS, 10 Legal, and 5 Marketing Spend Management / Analysis Companies to Check Out)
Part 14: Do Not Stop At Spend Analysis!

Supplier Management
Part 15: Supplier Management is a CORNED QUIP Mash
Part 16: Supplier Management A-Side
Part 17: Supplier Management B-Side
Part 18: Supplier Management C-Side
Part 19: Supplier Management D-Side
Part 20: Over 90 Supplier Management Companies to Check Out

Contract Management
Part 21: Time for Contract Management
Part 22: Contract Management is a NAG: Let’s Start with Negotiation
Part 23: Contract Management is a NAG: Let’s Continue with [Contract]Analytics
Part 24: Contract Management is a NAG: Let’s End with [Contract] Governance
Part 25: Over 80 Contract Management Vendors to Check Out

e-Sourcing
Part 26: Time for e-Sourcing
Part 27: Breaking Down the ORA of Sourcing Starting With RFX
Part 28: Breaking Down the ORA of Sourcing Continuing with e-Auctions
Part 29: Breaking Down the ORA of Sourcing Ending with [Strategic Sourcing Decision] Optimization
Part 30: Over 75 e-Sourcing Vendors to Check Out!

Invoice-to-Pay (I2P):
Part 31: Time for Invoice-to-Pay
Part 32: Breaking Down the Invoice-to-Pay Core
Part 33: Over 75 Invoice-to-Pay Companies to Check Out

Orchestration:
Part 34: How Do I Orchestrate Everything?
Part 35: Do I Intake, Manage, or Orchestrate?
Part 36: Over 20 Intake, [Procurement] [Project] Management, and/or Orchestration Companies to Check Out
Part 37: Investigating Intake By Diving In to the Details
Part 38: Prettying Up the Project with Procurement Project Management
Part 39: Deobfuscating the Orchestration and Fitting it All Together

Source-to-Pay+ is Extensive (P20) … And Supplier Management Very Extensive … So Here Are Over 100 Supplier Management Companies to Check Out!

And now the post you’ve all been waiting for! A partial, starting, list of over 100 supplier management companies that may (or may not) meet some, or many, of the core baseline capabilities we outlined in the last four parts of this series (Part 16, Part 17, Part 18 and Part 19) as we discussed the A, B, C, and D sides of Supplier Management today (with more sides emerging, as we still haven’t discussed ESG and Diversity, to name a couple of topics, as those providers are mainly data providers today, which you integrate into your SIM, SCM, SUM, or SRM solution today).

As with our lists of e-Procurement Companies (in Part 7), Spend Analysis Companies (in Part 12), and Sacred Cow Companies that do, or support, customized “spend” analysis on Marketing, Legal, and SaaS (in Part 13), we must again give our disclaimer that this list is in no-way complete (as no analyst is aware of every company), is only valid as of the date of posting (as companies sometimes go out of business and acquisitions happen all of the time in our space), and does NOT include any companies that just (or primarily) do ESG data collection (or carbon calculators), diversity data enrichment, or other emerging areas of supplier management not in the ten (10) areas we’ve covered so far (for which there are actual solutions that do more than just supplier record data enrichment) in our expository on the CORNED QUIP mash of Supplier Management.

Furthermore, as we’ve said before, not all vendors are equal, and we’d venture to say NONE of the following are equal. The companies below are of all sizes (very small to very large, relative to vendor sizes in our space), cover the baseline differently (in terms of percentage of features offered, the various degrees of depth in the feature implementations, and differing levels of customization for a vertical), offer different additional features, have different types of service offerings (backed up by different expertise), focus on different company sizes, and focus on different technology ecosystems (such as plugging into other platforms/ecosystems, serving as the core platform for certain functions or data, offering a plug-and-play module for a larger ecosystem, focussing on the dominant technology ecosystem(s) in one or more verticals), etc.

Do your research, and reach out to an expert for help if you need it in compiling a starting short list of relevant, comparable, vendors for your organization and its specific needs. For many of these vendors, good starting points might be found in the Sourcing Innovation archives, Spend Matters Pro, and Gartner Cool Vendor write-ups if any of these sources has a write-up on the vendor.

Finally, a second reminder that inclusion on this list DOES NOT imply Sourcing Innovation is recommending the vendor.

COMPANY LINKEDIN
Employees		 HQ (Country)
State		 C O R N E D Q U I P
Achilles 757 United Kingdom N I
Advanced 2769 United Kingdom R U I P
apexanalytix 411 North Carolina, USA D U I
Aravo 117 California, USA C R U I P
Arcus (Trade Interchange) 27 United Kingdom C I P
Avetta 833 Utah, USA C R N I
Axiscope 13 France C R Q U I
Basware 1575 Finland N I
Bedrock 78 Florida, USA R I
Beroe 660 North Carolina, USA O D U I
Brooklyn Solutions 24 United Kingdom C R U I
Canopy 14 United Kingdom C R U I
Claritum 7 United Kingdom I P
CMX1 75 California, USA C R Q I P
Corcentric 601 New Jersey, USA R I
Coupa 3687 California, USA R N U I
Delta eSourcing 206 United Kingdom I
Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) 5569 Florida, USA C U I
eBidToPay ?? Germany R Q I
Ecovadis 1418 France C U I
eCratum 12 Germany N I
ECSourcing (Simfoni) 11 New York, USA C R I
Everstream Analytics 183 California, USA O U I
FullStep 130 Spain U I P
GateKeeper 101 United Kingdom C U I
GEP 4803 New Jersey, USA R I P
GHX 1394 Colorado, USA C N I
Globality 178 C R D I
GraphiteConnect 62 Utah, USA R E U I
GRMS 29 California, USA U I
Hellios Information 74 United Kingdom N I
HICX 117 United Kingdom C R I
Ignite Procurement 65 Norway R U I P
Informatica 5992 California, USA I
IntegrityNext 61 Germany C R U I
Intenda 109 South Africa I
Interos 254 Virginia, USA C O D U I
Ion Wave 22 Missouri, USA R I
IS Networld 1007 Texas, USA C N I
ISPnext 59 Netherlands U I
Ivalua 900 California, USA C R U I P
Jaggaer 1313 North Carolina, USA R N U I
K2 Sourcing 10 Wisconsin, USA I
Khareed 5 Pakistan I P
Kodiak Hub 40 Sweden R U I P
LexisNexis 10348 New York, USA U I
LGX Corp ?? North Carolina, USA I
LiveSource (Blume Global) 8 Georgia, USA R E Q I P
LUPR 5 New Jersey, USA R U I P
Market Dojo 34 United Kingdom R I
MarketPlanet 72 Poland R I P
Matchory 12 Germany D I
MCO (My Compliance Office) 188 New York, USA C U I
Medius (Wax Digital) 568 Sweden R I
Mercell 462 Norway R I P
MeRLIN (Rheinbrucke) 172 Germany R I
Meshworks 18 Ohio, USA R Q I
MFG 468 Georgia, USA D I
Newtron 54 Germany R N Q U I
Oalia 24 France I
Oboloo 6 United Kingdom C I P
Onventis 147 Germany R N D I P
Open Windows Software 29 Australia C R I P
OpusCapita 474 Finland N I
PratisPro ?? Turkey I P
Proactis 566 United Kingdom R N I
ProcessUnity 143 Massachusetts, USA R U I
Procurence 9 Poland C R E Q U I
ProcurePort 8 Indiana, USA R I
ProcureWare ?? Washington, USA R I
Prokuria 8 Romania I P
Promena 18 Turkey R D I
Prospeum 6 Germany I P
QAD Allocation ?? California, USA C R Q I P
QMSC 15 Texas, USA Q I
Raindrop 29 California, USA R I
Resilinc 299 California, USA O U I
Ready Contracts 243 Australia R I P
RizePoint 62 Utah, USA C Q I
SAP Ariba 3009 California, USA R N D U I P
ScoutRFP 44 California, USA I P
SourceDogg 31 Ireland R I
Sourcing Force 4 Ontario, Canada C R I P
Sphera (riskmethods) 125 Germany U I
ScanMarket (Unit4) 61 Denmark C R U I P
Scoutbee 102 Germany D U I
SourceMap 95 New York, USA O R E U I
Suppeco 10 United Kingdom R I P
Supplhi 12 Italy C O R D U I
supplier.io 92 Illinois, USA O R D I
SupplierSoft ?? California, USA C R Q U I P
SupplyOn 239 Germany C R E Q U I P
Supply Risk Solutions 5 California, USA O U I
Synertrade 185 Germany R U I P
State of Flux 62 United Kingdom R E U I P
Tealbook 143 Ontario, Canada O D I
Trade Interchange 27 United Kingdom I P
Transparency-One 23 Massachusetts, USA C O N U I P
Trust Your Supplier 15 North Carolina, USA C U I
Vendorful 15 New York, USA C R U I P
Vizibl 49 United Kingdom R E I
VORTAL 195 Portugal R I
Zumen 66 California, USA R I P
Zycus 1540 New Jersey, USA R N U I P

Continue to Part 21 where we continue our review of Source-to-Pay.

SIM? Is It Old News or a Shiny New Pair of Shoes? Part III

As per our last two posts, SIM (Supplier Information Management) is a very mature and stable technology with a large number of software vendors not only providing the tools and best practices to manage supplier life-cycles, but to manage risk, compliance, receivables, and even spend repositories for spend management. And now that every suite vendor has built, or acquired it, the technology is a commodity in the Supply Management Space, and an acquisition of the typical implementation is not likely to get baby that new pair of shoes anytime soon. Especially since most of these platforms use static data models, fixed workflows, and have little support for supply chain visibility beyond tier 1.

More specifically, as per our last post, what is needed is a SIM tool that allows for a truly dynamic data model, adaptable workflow, and a supply chain organization map that could truly bring a new wave of value to a modern Supply Management organization.

And while many of the classic platforms do not have this capability, as well as many of the best-of-breed platforms, some of the newer, and more innovative, platforms are going down this path.

For example, Ivalua, one of the few suite providers built from the ground up on a single code-base, has spent years building a powerful workflow engine that underlies their entire platform and that can be configured to support just about any supplier on-boarding process you can imagine — as well as integrate just about any data source you want to augment the profiles through its end-user data source integration capability.

Then we have SourceMap, which allows you to map your supply chain down to the source raw material, collect data up and down the chain, and dynamically alter it as raw material providers entered the chain or dropped off. And you can visualize it, create risk models that work on propagated data up and down the chain, and even estimate the impact of a delay or disruption.

And, more importantly, we have HICX, the little vendor that could, did, and keeps on trucking. Fully dynamic, adaptable data model that can even be configured into your own workflows and allow you to hang sub-tier supplier information off of supplier nodes. A powerful UI which can be heavily customized, and more innovations coming soon.

In other words, while classic SIM is old-tech and indistinguishable between about two dozen providers, modern SIM is beginning to undergo a resurgence, and when we finally get open networks, centralized, validated data, and community intelligence, we’ll see a new level of value ooze from these solutions.

So choose wisely, and your solution may just grow with you (instead of taking you back to 2009 when we had a feeling things would get better, but didn’t).