Comparing User and Partner Bases at Customer Events: Procuri and Emptoris

October 11, 2007 2:56 PM | Categories: Spend Management

Earlier this week, I had the chance to attend both Procuri's and Emptoris' user conferences. One thing that struck me most about Emptoris' event relative to Procuri's was not just the number of more senior executives (CPOs and VPs of Procurement) in attendance, but the relative youth of many of the procurement and supply chain managers/directors who attended the Emptoris conference. Clearly, many Emptoris customers are hiring younger MBA and consultant types relative to typical procurement managers at other events I've attended of late. The other item that struck me most when comparing both conferences was how Procuri did a much better job with their partner ecosystem and event sponsors -- who were integral to the festivities, but did not overly influence the content. It's ironic that Emptoris, despite its close ties to Accenture and IBM, did not put more an an emphasis on its partners at the event.

- Jason Busch

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ITS ALL ABOUT ADOPTION!!!!!!!!!
Let me repeat myself....ITS ALL ABOUT ADOPTION.

I guess its nice that there were a lot of newby CPO's with nice titles at Emportis' conference but its a USER's CONFERENCE!

I would rather have 10 in the trenches sourcing managers who are networking and sharing ideas about how to drive deeper into spend and get more out of their investments than one high level exec. That's where Emptoris does not get it.

I learned a lot in Atlanta and got some excellent ideas from some people who have been using TotalSource for while and I also got some great idea's from the many new faces that were there.

Oh yeah...met a lot of CPO's as well so maybe you were not hanging out at the right places.

# Posted By Waz There | 10/11/07 2:17 PM

Emptoris did a good job at having a significant number of senior execs -- many of the biggest names in the business -- as well as well over a hundred up and comers sharing thoughts and practices (I think in total it was just shy of 300 at the Emptoris event). Procuri did a good job as well (and certainly had some very senior talent attend as well) -- I'm not knocking who attended or the event itself, just making an observation. Both were class acts.

# Posted By Jason Busch | 10/11/07 2:59 PM

Jason,
Next Level Purchasing is new to the exhibiting world but, as a sponsor of Empower, thought that Procuri did a decent job of trying to make sponsorship worthwhile. I'd be interested in reading your thoughts on what Procuri did right and how Emptoris may have come up a little short - it would help providers learn what they can do better and help exhibitors know what to expect.

# Posted By Charles Dominick, SPSM | 10/12/07 5:54 AM

Thanks for the insight and discussion you spurred regarding the importance of involving partners and driving adoption at a user conference. I would like to address a perspective brought up in this post regarding adoption. I could not agree more with Waz There regarding the importance of driving user adoption as a center piece of any user conference. Without adoption, the impact of any supply and contract management program is limited. At Emptoris, we recognized this long ago. In fact, the Emptoris 2006 User Conference focused solely on this topic. (See the links below to commentary on that event). What’s more, the topic of adoption continues to be a major focus for companies attending this year’s event. Companies like Boeing, Shell, Wolters Kluwer, Cardinal Health, Syngenta, United Healthcare, Allstate, CIGNA, GlaxoSmithKline, and many more, volunteered to lead sessions covering various aspects of this – including best practices to drive adoption for contract management, spend analysis, and sourcing - at this year’s event. Needless to say having been there, too, the discussions were well received by the attendees.

http://www.spendmatters.com/index.cfm/2006/10/6/Em...

http://www.spendmatters.com/index.cfm/2006/7/26/Cr...

Kevin Potts
Vice President of Marketing
Emptoris, Inc.

# Posted By Kevin Potts | 10/12/07 12:27 PM

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