Spend Matters' research crank keeps on turning at a faster and faster clip. Today, we're excited to announce what we believe is one of our more thoughtful analyses looking at the P2P and eProcurement market: Surround Strategies to Get More From Existing ERP, eProcurement and P2P Investments. In this paper, we suggest that companies of all sizes are increasingly looking to deploy surround strategies to get more from existing ERP, eProcurement and P2P investments. While one could argue the era of "rip and replace" hasn't yet hit procurement technology -- this sector is too young for it, really -- there's an increasingly popular roadmap that companies are following which focuses on how to get more from existing or planned deployments by augmenting their current investments (e.g., ERP and Ariba Buyer/P2P).

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Spend Matters welcomes a guest point from Nick Drewe, Co-Founder of Market Dojo, a Bristol-based e-Sourcing solution start-up.

As a new entrant into the already crowded space of e-sourcing during a major economic downturn, it certainly makes for interesting times. After persevering though our first year, we can see many factors actually in our favour (and of course many against, but let's focus on the positives).

First, procurement continues to gain visibility within organisations, as we know that an efficient procurement strategy can mean the difference between profitability and receivership. Having been both an engineer and a buyer, it is pleasing to see these professions gaining more traction at a board room level, although still maybe not as much as we'd have liked.

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I got an email a few weeks ago from a sourcing director at a major company who had read a paper we wrote weighing the pros and cons of reverse auctions and more sophisticated negotiation formats, including sourcing optimization. He wanted to connect to discuss our analysis further. Finally, after going back and forth and trying to find a time to talk, we caught up for a few minutes. I was planning to give him my sales pitch for sourcing optimization and why auctions should only be used (if at all) in very specific supply and commodity market situations. But rather than launch into this near religious sermon on sourcing tools, he caught me off guard with what he was after.

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Even though I've spent far too many words extolling the potential of more advanced e-sourcing scenarios and possibilities (e.g., sourcing optimization, complex multi-round bidding), the software-enabled sourcing basics still dominate the conversation and focus of most procurement organizations today. That is, for those who have moved beyond the real basics (i.e., Excel alone). Yet it's high time for us to explore the sourcing fundamentals in more detail. Earlier this summer, I had the chance to virtually sit down with Charles Dominick of Next Level Purchasing to answer a number of questions about the basics of e-sourcing. Charles recently posted a note calling attention to some of the highlights from the discussion. The full podcast is available on the Next Level Purchasing site: via this link. It's a packed 30 minutes of content for those wanting to come up to speed.

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While we were both at Procuri, Steve and I were often in the office around 6 in the morning, taking turns brewing the first batch of java. That was a few years ago. After Procuri was acquired by Ariba, Steve took a few years away from supply chain technology solutions, but he hasn't stayed away from the game. Over the past two years, he has spent a good deal of time honing his skills on cloud technology -- in particular, Amazon web services -- as well as taking his golf handicap down to the single digits! Earlier this year, CombineNet engaged him to provide product and architecture consulting, and the mutual fit for both sides led him to joining the company to head the technology side. I recently had the chance to catch up with Steve about e-sourcing and some of his plans at CombineNet.

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In the first installment of this series, I shared a significant quantity of information and findings to come out of a recent CombineNet study of nearly 50 companies using its self-service advanced sourcing/optimization capability across over 500 different sourcing events in the past few quarters. Even though the sample size probably represents <1% of the actual number of sourcing events taking place through self-service platforms in this period, it's fascinating (and valuable) for a number of reasons:

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Earlier this week, CombineNet released the highlights of a recent study on sourcing events using their self-service technology including the types of flexible/expressive bidding fields procurement organizations are using across different event types and categories. The findings are, perhaps, the first data-driven samples we have to suggest how companies are adopting advanced sourcing and optimization tools such as CombineNet alongside traditional e-sourcing and reverse auction approaches. Last week, I had the chance to talk to CombineNet -- in full disclosure, it was on a conference call after a second Old Style at Wrigley while watching the Cubs destroy Prince Fielder and the rest of the Brewers -- about the study before it was announced. During our conversation, I learned the sample size of their analysis was based on data from 47 companies representing some 500+ events in the past few quarters ("most in 2011").

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Click here for Part 1 of this post, authored by Thomas Kase. Today's post is a collaboration between Jason and Thomas.

One thing that stands out in using Rearden's new Ketera E-sourcing tool is the ability to hide or embrace (albeit in a relative manner) complexity in creating an RFP or tender structure. Consider that when scoring bids, it's easy to breeze over different section elements or profile criteria. Or you can enter (through an elegant interface that's super easy to use without training) an approach that creates flexibility around weighting different attribute elements in either a sum (total) manner based on the relative important of each question or on an equal-weight basis. Moreover, help-boxes and related information pop up to signal changes in your RFP structure to fully explain the results of a given click or action (e.g., explaining to the uninitiated what the "weighted average" option does). Yes, many other solutions have this capability already (we know of over a dozen). But Rearden's execution is one of the best to date for this type of feature; guiding inexperienced users through the process and masking all elements of complexity if required.

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Today we welcome the first technology review by Spend Matters tool curmudgeon, Thomas Kase. For those who don't know Thomas, he has a long and infamous history, including winning national level Olympic pistol shooting competitions (and such) in Sweden before he ever discovered this sourcing and supply chain thing. He has a modified, soon-to-be race-ready '70s Mercedes SL with so much torque, the only suitable transmission is a 3-speed factory automatic used in their race cars of the era. We hired him hoping his knowledge of sourcing and supplier management would be as good as his shooting -- and driving!

Thomas recently had the chance to spend an hour demoing Rearden Commerce's new e-sourcing tool. For those who don't know Rearden, they acquired Ketera last year, and the latest sourcing toolkit represents the next release of a Ketera solution. But it's one that flexes its muscles in a range of new ways. Previous iterations were too support-intensive, too complex/complicated despite only basic underlying functional capability. The new solution is clearly user-friendly. In our view, after playing around with the interface and walking through the nuances of RFX creation and analysis, there is no excuse for buyers to not execute or suppliers to not participate in online sourcing activities.

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