Aberdeen Beefs up on Spend Management Talent

Earlier in the week, I learned that Aberdeen is bringing on a heavy hitter to head up their global procurement and supply management research group in the coming weeks. The new head of the practice will be Vance Checketts, who will have full P&L responsibility for the research area. For Aberdeen, Vance will be a critical investment, as the firm needs to prove to the market that it can keep top talent in the ranks, given the significant number of exits in the past year. But if Aberdeen can make it work, they'll be poised to continue as one of the top research houses covering the Spend Management market. Perhaps they should put an RFID tag on Vance to keep track of his moments and make sure he sticks around!

Enough of the humor and backdrop. For those who don't know Vance, you'll be in for an excellent surprise when it comes to his background and experience -- not to mention his stature in the industry. Vance comes from both the start-up and ERP world -- at Oracle he worked with Dave Stephens and Kevin Miller for years -- and knows the procurement technology market inside and out, according to his former colleagues. I'm very excited that Vance is joining Abedeen, and look forward to his research contributions and thought leadership in the area. This is a big win for Aberdeen, and the market as a whole, which should benefit from Vance's coverage and practice leadership. It also ups the ante with firms like Forrester and Gartner who still lag Aberdeen and AMR Research in their coverage and interest in the sector.

- Jason Busch