It's Alive -- SAP SRM 7.0 in Depth (Part 4)
There's also some flexibility in surveying, such as the ability to include category-dependent or specific questions. As suppliers change profile information or fill-out surveys, procurement organizations can specify automated updating and alerting. It's all very 2005, but hey, it's better than nothing -- which was basically what SAP had before within SRM in this area.
An important feature that is slightly less ho-hum -- yet still undifferentiated -- is integrated supplier performance management capabilities based on the underlying survey capabilities described above. Companies can use these capabilities within SRM 7.0 throughout the supplier lifecycle, from initial on-boarding and ramp-up through to ongoing monitoring and development activities. They can then roll-this up across users, sites, etc.
One place where SAP SRM still falls short without third-party partnerships is supplier enablement and content management. Despite the advances MDM has made over the years, I still suspect many companies will opt for third-party enablement and content management tools, repositories and search including offerings from jCatalog and Vinimaya (Ariba, despite positioning their own supplier network approach to enablement into the SAP installed-base, appears to have gotten only limited traction at best in this area).
Last year, I spoke to one technology consulting firm that advised an organization in the process of migrating from Ariba to SAP SRM 5.0 only to find that they were forced to hire a number of temporary workers to manage all of the paper that was generated from invoices and other information that had previously flowed electronically through the Ariba Supplier Network (ironically, they could have remained on the network if they desired on a temporary or permanent basis, despite the SAP migration). SAP does not possess a suitable document and invoice management capability that it developed itself, but it does resell a solution from Open Text.
Overall, Spend Matters believes that SAP comes up short in SRM 7.0 without additional partnerships or bolt-on capabilities when it comes to addressing the need to better manage supplier information, supplier performance, supplier enablement, supplier content, invoice automation and additional information/physical paper relative to other best of breed providers in the market. Granted, these should not be grounds for dismissing SRM 7.0 outright, but unlike many of the other areas of the application that now stand on their own as more than sufficient, companies considering SAP SRM 7.0 should look to third-party options to supplement the capabilities that SAP offers in these areas.
In addition, we do not believe there is any advantage to working with selected SAP partners in some of these areas over other best of breed solutions that are not necessarily on the SAP price sheet (yet might offer superior capabilities based on your specific needs). That is, unless you want your SAP rep to have enough money to upgrade to a Cayenne or Boxster S from the base model after closing the deal with you.
Interest piqued in SRM 7.0 but looking to discover what else you need to do to gain greater control over your spend and to generate savings in less than 10% of the time of a typical ERP deployment? Read our latest Spend Matters Perspective: Beyond Requisitioning: Getting Past the Downstream Limitations of ERP Procurement Applications -- Identifying Savings and Working Capital Management Opportunities that SAP SRM, Oracle and other ERP Providers Alone Do Not Enable
- Jason Busch
Thanks for your comment. I am sure in theory that tight integration is possible but the operative word that you use is "can" vs. "do". Many -- and nearly all -- of the more advanced companies that have deployed SRM capabilities opt to supplement SAP's capabilities in the content management area with third party tools. As it pertains to invoice automation, there are multiple solutions in the market that integrate tightly with SAP, and I would strongly encourage users to see for themselves whether an official SAP partner or a third-party solution (or a combination of third-party solutions) can get them the automation and working capital management visibility and flexibility they need. For some the VIM capability may be enough, but I suspect if prospects for the solution knew what they were missing out on with other capabilities, they would actively evaluate all of the options available to them.
Thanks again for chiming in.
Despite this, too many companies have experienced pain from not stepping back and understanding their goals regarding supplier enablement and content management before implementing the ERP vendor’s toolsets. When companies take the time to assess the type of goods and services they procure and how they want to procure them, they can truly avoid this pain. There are a number of solutions on the market, including jCatalog, that support the supplier facing side of an SRM rollout. Since these providers focus solely on supplier enablement and content issues, their solutions are more effective in getting catalogs up and running to help drive the expected use and capture more of the the spend
At jCatalog, we are glad that SAP SRM 7.0 has been released. Since our technology is being used by more than 40 SAP customers already, the improvements you mentioned in the core product will drive even more demand for supplier enablement and content management solutions.
Since you mentioned a number of technologies in your post, I wanted to point out that jCatalog is unique in its ability to support more complex deployments. jCatalog is ideally suited for companies that are currently managing multiple catalogs from suppliers throughout the world and must address the varying needs of regional, national and local suppliers. The real power and benefit of jCatalog is seen when those companies also address more spend categories, including internal and external services, using jCatalog forms-based ordering, kitting, and product configuration capabilities. In these complex settings, jCatalog simplifies supplier enablement by leveraging best-in-class technology. This makes content operations fast and scalable to thousands of suppliers and millions of products. Your readers can learn more at www.jcatalog.com.