Spend Visibility Gets Legal: Emptoris vs. BIQ
Earlier today, Emptoris announced a suit against the founders of BIQ for "copyright infringement, theft and unauthorized disclosure of trade secrets, breach of contract and unfair and deceptive acts." I am sure the fact that BIQ is getting traction in the market is one of the reasons Emptoris is taking action (I cannot confirm this, but I have heard rumors that BIQ is succeeding in capturing business from the customers of other providers).
The legal track is really an all or nothing approach for Emptoris. If Emptoris fails in court, BIQ will gain a tremendous marketing advantage given the fact they are being sued by someone who clearly feels threatened because of the traction a competitor is receiving in the market (not to mention the prospects that BIQ could file a countersuit against Emptoris for defamation, business interference, etc.) But if Emptoris wins, however, then it clearly is a "winner take all" type of situation given BIQ's small size.
Above all, I hope that lawsuits like this do not stifle innovation in the Spend Management market. But as the case develops, you can be certain Spend Matters will cover it, as it most certainly is news -- and blog -- worthy. At this point, until the facts are proved out in court, I would encourage all companies looking at possible spend visibility and analytics solutions to keep both Emptoris and BIQ on their short list (in addition to Ariba, Zycus, SAS, Verticalnet and Procuri, among others). And because BIQ is an installed application, companies that license it are at less risk than if it were hosted. Still, you should be sure to consult your attorney for their perspective on the licensing agreement to make sure you are protected in case Emptoris wins in court.
- Jason Busch
The legal track is really an all or nothing approach for Emptoris. If Emptoris fails in court, BIQ will gain a tremendous marketing advantage given the fact they are being sued by someone who clearly feels threatened because of the traction a competitor is receiving in the market (not to mention the prospects that BIQ could file a countersuit against Emptoris for defamation, business interference, etc.) But if Emptoris wins, however, then it clearly is a "winner take all" type of situation given BIQ's small size.
Above all, I hope that lawsuits like this do not stifle innovation in the Spend Management market. But as the case develops, you can be certain Spend Matters will cover it, as it most certainly is news -- and blog -- worthy. At this point, until the facts are proved out in court, I would encourage all companies looking at possible spend visibility and analytics solutions to keep both Emptoris and BIQ on their short list (in addition to Ariba, Zycus, SAS, Verticalnet and Procuri, among others). And because BIQ is an installed application, companies that license it are at less risk than if it were hosted. Still, you should be sure to consult your attorney for their perspective on the licensing agreement to make sure you are protected in case Emptoris wins in court.
- Jason Busch
However, Emptoris did invent optimization. No, that was invented in the 1970s.
But Emptoris did invent combinatorial optimization for competitive bidding events, right?! er, no, that was Sears in the early 90's for freight.
What do I know is this (I sound like Glen Beck!): Emptoris DIDN'T invent the practice of suing anyone who evenly remotely irritated its CEO. But is that what happens as evidenced by this? Well, I won't say because I'd like to keep my bells intact if you know what I mean!
What I will say is that if Eric did steal IP or violate his non-compete, then shame on him! That said, non-competes and the stated IP-theft elements are usually pretty hard to enforce, but we'll see how it plays out in the court of legal opinion and public opinion alike.
It's one of the most cool product available for people to avoid spending money in excess of several hundreds of dollars before getting to see those magic granular spend reports. no costly DW, classification and analytics.
just plug and start playing, this is what the sourcing guys always wanted.
I am sure people who claim to be the big daddy's in spend visibility, analysis world see a potential threat in BiQ.
I hope Emptoris spins its wheels and spends lots of money. I know that another important leg of their PR strategy is to post here...anon and overtly...so I am sure we will see some spin.
I think this is clearly indicative of what they are like to deal with in the market and what customers can expect as well. A tiger don't change its stripes....GO ERIC...GO ERIC!