Scout RFP: Vendor Analysis (Part 3) — Competitive and Summary Analysis

The e-sourcing market might have met its Coupa in the form of Scout RFP. But whether Scout can add core functionality and related modules quickly enough to build out its own view of what a next-generation upstream suite needs to look like, as quickly as Coupa has in the P2P area, remains to be seen. There’s also the broader question of how Scout RFP could differentiate through tightly-coupled API, platform or “app” based partnerships in areas such as market intelligence, supply market directories, supplier management, contract lifecycle management, commodity management, analytics, e-procurement, e-invoicing and related areas. In such a fragmented and competitive market, following in Coupa’s growth footsteps won’t be easy. And successfully pulling off a “triple, triple, double, double, double” while maintaining near 100% SaaS renewal rates is a long shot, even for the best cloud products companies.

This third and final installment of this Spend Matters Vendor Snapshot covering Scout RFP provides an objective SWOT analysis of Scout and offers a competitive segmentation analysis and comparison. It also includes recommended shortlist candidates as alternative vendors to Scout RFP and offers provider selection guidance. Finally, it provides summary analysis and recommendations for companies consider Scout RFP as a potential vendor. Previous installments provide an in-depth look at Scout RFP as a firm and its specific solutions (PART 1) and a detailed analysis of solution strengths and weaknesses and a review of the product’s user experience (PART 2).