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Avetta: A Risk Management Solution Difficult to Put in a Box — Year-End Tech Review

12/15/2016 By

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This post is part of our 2016 Year-End Procurement Tech Review, in which we offer procurement practitioners a bird’s-eye view of some key vendors and their solutions in select categories. This is the last week of this series, and today we’re highlighting a company in the supplier risk management field.

Avetta, which recently rebranded from its original name, PICS Auditing, has grown considerably since its founding over a decade ago. But while now the company can enable organizations to tackle broader supplier management and risk management initiatives, at its core it still solves a problem that many companies in industries relying heavily on contractors have: proper contractor vetting, credentialing and enablement.

Key Facts

  • Founded: 2003
  • Headquartered in Irvine, California, with offices in eight countries (Australia, Brazil, Canada, Singapore, South Africa, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and the United States)
  • Senior team well-versed in contractor verification and management issues
  • Steady year-over-year growth for over a decade (34% CAGR)
  • Serves customers in utilities, construction, transportation, oil and gas, and facilities management, where workers have to be individually vetted
  • Both “razor” and “razor blade” revenue model where the system is mostly supplier funded
  • Provides referral and reseller partnership options

Background & Overview

Despite its low profile in the procurement world, Avetta is better known in certain markets, especially industries that rely heavily on field work and contractors. Its traction in these market segments may not capture the attention of more generic procurement technology providers, but the SaaS applications vendor has seen year-over-year growth in the 30% range over the last 15 years.

Avetta combines elements of supplier onboarding, supplier management, contractor management, supply risk management and third-party data aggregation in a unique solution purpose built to support industry use cases. Avetta now has more than 300 clients (most of them larger Global 2000 firms) that collectively use more than 50,000 suppliers in 100 countries in a network graph with more than 250,000 active connections at any one time.

The solution allows a company to vet and certify both providers and individual employees, as well as specify exactly what contractors are certified to do, what clearances they have, what sites they can work on and even tag what supervision is necessary. While there is competition in the market for what we might term “fractal supplier management” requirements, Avetta is one of the more established solution providers in the market. It also brings deep industry-specific expertise built on many years of listening to customer requirements.

Competitors include:

Commentary & Summary

Avetta is a difficult provider to put into a box or to directly compare with most other procurement and supplier management solution providers. Combining a comprehensive solution that is purpose-built to support both supplier and contractor-level information gathering, compliance and risk management in targeted industries with a supplier network model, Avetta stands out from alternatives in the market that deliver either broader-based supplier management or individual contractor, safety and compliance management capabilities.

For a more comprehensive analysis and guide for procurement organizations looking to understand whether they should consider adding the provider to their shortlists for consideration, please head over to the Spend Matters Almanac.