A few months back, Source One, a consultancy, introduced free reverse auction software on their Why Abe Platform. The best part about the software is well, it's free (in practice, its functional depth is quite limited). Still, I believe that basic applications like this have the potential to put pricing pressure on the lowest end of the "paid" e-sourcing market (i.e., vendors like HedgeHog). Not one to rest on its laurels, Source One also just rolled out basic contract management capability as well. This feels smart to me -- and it's in-line with the strategy of at least one traditional vendor who told me that they planned to provide basic contract management capability along with the rest of their offerings as a free ad-on because it is such a logical extension of sourcing capabilities. Will Source One's free Contract Management catch on? I’m betting it will.

- Jason Busch