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We’ve been running a series on patents in procurement solutions in general, and Ariba’s stash of IP goodies in particular (check in on Spend Matters to read them). This week’s Ask the Expert, run by Thomas Kase, VP Research at Spend Matters is more of his layman’s perspective on Ariba’s cache of patents, what they cover, and who might be in violation. Plus and PRO members, this one's for you! Click on through to register.

对于许多P2P服务提供商(除了那些robust spend analysis modules that extend beyond GL and invoice-centric analysis), analytics has been a bolted-on afterthought. It’s included in the solution as a standard set of reports, or it’s an inexpensive – yet often somewhat useful – add-on buried in the price sheet. Regardless, analytics are historically of secondary concern and certainly not a selling point to users, who are more interested in the process, workflow, processing, routing, validation, matching, integration and other components of the e-invoicing and eProcurement applications. Analytics? Just give me some reports.

One area that deserves additional consideration is GEP’s req-to-pay environment, which for many customers, could round out the rest of the integrated suite or stand alone in its own right. In recent years, through organic development and its acquisition of Enporium, GEP gained (and integrated) P2P capabilities including greater catalog management/search capabilities (with cross-catalog search and the ability to support both punch-out and hosted catalogs, more advanced order tracking/routing, invoice reconciliation, etc.)

One area that deserves additional consideration is GEP’s req-to-pay environment, which for many customers, could round out the rest of the integrated suite or stand alone in its own right. In recent years, through organic development and its acquisition of Enporium, GEP gained (and integrated) P2P capabilities including greater catalog management/search capabilities (with cross-catalog search and the ability to support both punch-out and hosted catalogs, more advanced order tracking/routing, invoice reconciliation, etc.)

In the first installment in this series, we explored the rather unique structure, capabilities and philosophy of GEP. GEP is a specialist BPO, consulting, managed services and software provider (not necessarily in that order, mind you!) serving the global procurement market. As we continue, we’ll consider GEP’s overall software solution capability as well, and in the concluding post, the characteristics of organizations most likely to benefit from their integrated approach to software and services delivery.

In the first installment in this series, we explored the rather unique structure, capabilities and philosophy of GEP. GEP is a specialist BPO, consulting, managed services and […]

Authored by Jason Busch and Pierre Mitchell The four primary leads here on the Spend Matters research team have been busy attending and speaking at […]

Take for instance the fact that the rise of truly integrated end-to-end solutions is finally here. These are providers like Ivalua, b-pack and Zycus, whose sourcing, supplier management, contract management and related modules (and in certain cases, P2P) are built on a single data model and are fully integrated. There is a strong case for these integrated suites in certain situations, especially for procurement organizations that are looking to structure and manage centralized processes and data in a decentralized transactional and sourcing environment across the source-to-pay process flow.

Spend Matters knows Hiperos primarily as a supplier performance management (SPM) provider, but at BB&T, Hiperos is used not only for SPM but in a more broad and comprehensive vendor master data management (MDM) use case in the sense that their solution is the source of truth for all vendor data at BBT. SAP is being rolled out broadly on the backend, and SAP’s A/P module pulls from Hiperos as the trusted vendor file reference data. To provide full visibility into supplier activities, BB&T has also moved all contracts from Ariba into Hiperos – which wasn’t easy, but they claim the results have been worth it.

We recently reached out to sourcing solution software providers with a round of questions to understand how they position themselves in the marketplace: how do they deliver value to clients, where are their differentiators, etc. – so we can deliver the highest quality shortlists possible to readers like you. Today we're offering an insider's look into our internal sausage-making process in the spirit of full transparency for our PRO audience – sharing the RFP spreadsheet we sent to the solution providers a few months ago.

There are obvious reasons why competitors should be interested, of course, but we could argue that customers need to keep an eye on solution providers as well. It’s not just about looking out for financial problems or potential bankruptcy even, but it is worth knowing where key suppliers might be looking to invest, cut costs, or change focus. Today, we’re looking at Basware, who recently announced record growth for their network.

When AG Lafley (ex-CEO of P&G) spawned the famous “Connect & Develop” program with the goal of shifting the majority of P&G innovation activity from within the corporate R&D department to outside of P&G, he was essentially betting on the power of supply markets. If there’s another department that should philosophically agree with this principle, it should be procurement – especially if it is trying to help the enterprise safely tap innovative supply lines rather than just being a PO pusher or deal negotiator. The good news is that procurement has a rich ecosystem (albeit fragmented) of solutions/services providers to help the department do its job more effectively and efficiently.