Emptoris' Empower (Take Two)
In my chat with Avner and his team on Wednesday, I picked up a number of interesting tidbits that speak to the successes Emptoris is having as a result of some of the strategic directions the vendor went down -- which I would argue have little to do with the product itself -- in the past. For one, building a close relationship with IBM -- on the consulting, BPO, and customer fronts -- was smart indeed. You can learn more about how IBM is using Emptoris internally by clicking on this internal IBM site. Needless to say, it sounds like a massive implementation.
In addition, Emptoris invested significantly in building close links with SAP. In a survey they conducted with SAP customers, they found that 86% of SAP customers like working with SAP partners. For other vendors in the Spend Management world -- especially those targeting discrete manufacturers where SAP is especially strong, and who often spend a lot of procurement and operations technology -- this is a great learning. A SAP certified partnership can take IT out of the way as a stumbling block to selling and implementing a third party technology -- especially in SaaS situations. Consider that while Emptoris prefers to host the application for their customers, they are running native on the NetWeaver stack -- at least the app server. This should put even the most stalwart SAP IT shops at ease. Smart strategy. Smart marketing.
While not as formal a program, Emptoris has also invested in building -- and marketing -- its integration into Oracle. Given that Oracle has, in Emptoris' fighting words, "lost its way in supply management," this has helped the vendor poach Oracle customers who are looking for alternative solutions, given that Oracle is discontinuing development on some of its historic procurement applications. The fact that Emptoris can claim solid integration into existing Oracle applications is helping, in this regard.
The final point I will leave you with from Empower is Emptoris' drive to promote its Overdrive program -- a major theme of the event. You can read about Overdrive in a previous post, but it suffices to say the program is relatively unique in the market, designed to increase adoption and usage along a set of benchmarks, measurements, and program and change management. The net result is that Overdrive should, in theory, increase a customer's overall impact and bottom line procurement results. Right now, there are 12 Emptoris resources dedicated to Overdrive (including the benchmarking and adoption sub-programs). These resources primarily come from a management -- versus a procurement -- consulting background.
As I opined previously, Overdrive appears to be a "combination of Hackett-"lite" benchmarking, SAP/i2 value engineering, Big-5-esqe program management and SIG-like networking and support." As an example, one benchmark Emptoris shared was that companies that move to monthly -- or even more frequent -- refreshes for spend visibility while also improving the granularity of their spend taxonomy perform better overall, saving more and driving results to the bottom line. Stay tuned as I write more about Overdrive in the future. Like Emptoris' SAP relationship, Overdrive is a smart strategy. And as important -- as with their SAP approach -- they know how to market it.
- Jason Busch
In addition, Emptoris invested significantly in building close links with SAP. In a survey they conducted with SAP customers, they found that 86% of SAP customers like working with SAP partners. For other vendors in the Spend Management world -- especially those targeting discrete manufacturers where SAP is especially strong, and who often spend a lot of procurement and operations technology -- this is a great learning. A SAP certified partnership can take IT out of the way as a stumbling block to selling and implementing a third party technology -- especially in SaaS situations. Consider that while Emptoris prefers to host the application for their customers, they are running native on the NetWeaver stack -- at least the app server. This should put even the most stalwart SAP IT shops at ease. Smart strategy. Smart marketing.
While not as formal a program, Emptoris has also invested in building -- and marketing -- its integration into Oracle. Given that Oracle has, in Emptoris' fighting words, "lost its way in supply management," this has helped the vendor poach Oracle customers who are looking for alternative solutions, given that Oracle is discontinuing development on some of its historic procurement applications. The fact that Emptoris can claim solid integration into existing Oracle applications is helping, in this regard.
The final point I will leave you with from Empower is Emptoris' drive to promote its Overdrive program -- a major theme of the event. You can read about Overdrive in a previous post, but it suffices to say the program is relatively unique in the market, designed to increase adoption and usage along a set of benchmarks, measurements, and program and change management. The net result is that Overdrive should, in theory, increase a customer's overall impact and bottom line procurement results. Right now, there are 12 Emptoris resources dedicated to Overdrive (including the benchmarking and adoption sub-programs). These resources primarily come from a management -- versus a procurement -- consulting background.
As I opined previously, Overdrive appears to be a "combination of Hackett-"lite" benchmarking, SAP/i2 value engineering, Big-5-esqe program management and SIG-like networking and support." As an example, one benchmark Emptoris shared was that companies that move to monthly -- or even more frequent -- refreshes for spend visibility while also improving the granularity of their spend taxonomy perform better overall, saving more and driving results to the bottom line. Stay tuned as I write more about Overdrive in the future. Like Emptoris' SAP relationship, Overdrive is a smart strategy. And as important -- as with their SAP approach -- they know how to market it.
- Jason Busch
Am I wrong or at least right to be skeptical???
o The huge margins of the past are not sustainable. There are excellent, attractively-priced alternatives these days, and time is running out on the old business model.
o IBM and Accenture are fickle partners. Once upon a time, Frictionless sat exactly where Emptoris sits today. That business could vanish in an eye blink, just as it did for Frictionless.
o At the end of the day, it's about product performance and total value to the customer. More attention had better be paid to product, which is hardly best in class, except maybe in contract management.
More interesting is the significant difference in strategic growth plans now more visible between Emptoris and Procuri, as I attend who are in much better positions to prosper than the likes of Ariba. Prior to this year Procuri has been fearful of linking themselves in any way to a Big Integrator for what I'm guessing are the 'we want to be the Salesforce' of the our space. Now realizing that the only way to close bigger deals and contest the 'we have supply category expertise' in doing so they've gone out and signed up AT Kearney. Nice move but more suspicious move in part because of ATK's history with vendors, sounds like a customer farming upsell expedition more than a strategic growth move as they don't have the pulling (i.e. pulling Procuri into new deals) as does Accenture and IBM. Somewhere above GA I think there are 'please let MSFT buy us' prayers floating in the clouds.
Emptoris smells smart to me, not that I'm the biggest fan of their tactics, team, product suite or general aroma. If I was betting, and I am, I'd put my money in MA and not GA - wannabe venture capitalist; but Accenture and IBM will bring almighty rev$ to Burlington both behind the firewall and on demand - thanks to SAP / Netweaver and fill in your own definition of how they attach to Oracle. Call it what you want On Demand / SaaS, it is the future of software and both IBM and Accenture no it and Emptoris will capitalize on it the way Ariba use to dream, if Avner understand the Art of Execution as he should.
Maybe a bit late to respond, but.....
Emptoris' Overdrive program isn't unique in the market. Frictionless has had these programs in place for years:
http://www.frictionless.com/customers/customercomm...
Imitiation is the sincerest form of flattery? Stay tunded for how these evolve with the additional resources SAP brings to bear.