Services Procurement Matters

Earlier in the summer, I had the chance to catch up with the folks in charge of the former eLance product at Click Commerce as well Fieldglass, another Chicago-based vendor in the sector (note to Spend Management providers: you have an unfair advantage on getting Spend Matters coverage if you're based in Chicago). I've been woefully negligent in writing up these discussions, but I wanted to let everyone know that it's something that I plan on doing this month. What reminded me of the importance of tackling services procurement more seriously on Spend Matters were recent stories I've heard from various sources about lost savings and opportunity in the services Spend Management arena. I personally believe the challenge here is that too few organizations that invest in services procurement realize a full lifecycle investment is needed -- not just better sourcing, requisitioning, or management as standalone objectives. Click and Fieldglass are two of the remaining vendors who have got a good understanding of what it takes to drive services Spend Management success. And I look forward to sharing their approaches on these pages soon.

- Jason Busch