Claritum: Vendor Analysis (Part 1) — Background & Solution Overview

Procure-to-pay (P2P) technology providers do not always fit cleanly inside a single box or comparative two-by-two matrix. The solution requirements that support shopping, tactical sourcing, transactional buying, invoicing and related supplier management activities can vary materially based on the underlying type of organization and categories they are designed to support. Procurement organizations can extend generic P2P solutions like Ariba and Coupa to many industries and categories. But specialist vendors can still differentiate in certain areas, even building a business case to sit alongside big name P2P solutions for the same customer.

Claritum is one such specialist. The firm launched in 2002 with an initial focus on supporting transactional procurement needs for print and marketing services. Over time, it built from this foundation to focus its P2P solution efforts on supporting complex purchases and low-volume spend areas that fall directly in the center of a Kraljic matrix rather than fitting nicely into one of the four quadrants — not to mention enabling spend that traditionally goes “unmanaged,” at least from an end-to-end definitional perspective.

This Spend Matters PRO Vendor Snapshot explores Claritum and its unique approach to transactional procurement, including strengths and weaknesses in the P2P technology market, providing facts and expert analysis to help procurement organizations decide if they should shortlist the vendor. Part 1 of our analysis provides a company and detailed solution overview and a SWOT analysis, as well as a summary recommended fit suggestion for what types of organizations should consider Claritum. The remaining parts of this multipart series will offer a user selection guide, user interface (UI/UX) analysis, competitive alternatives and evaluation and selection considerations.