BasWare Expands its Portfolio -- What Does it Mean?

BasWare, which built its Spend Management name largely on the payment side in Europe, recently announced it is expanding its footprint into the sourcing, contracts and collaboration space. I will withhold judgment on the new modules until I see them with my own eyes, but at this point, I still believe there are a couple of points worth noting. First, the fact that BasWare made the build rather than buy decision shows that for basic applications, development cycles are becoming far shorter and less risky. In other words, expect others to make similar "build" decisions in the future as well. Second, I question why a top downstream provider would seek to move upstream into more mature market segments (in my view, EIPP, especially, is just a huge opportunity waiting to happen). Perhaps it is because customers in Europe, especially, are increasingly looking for an integrated solution and SAP shops are increasingly willing to consider other options. Curious to get other opinions on the subject. Has anyone seen the products yet?

- Jason Busch