Afternoon Coffee: Spend Matters Debuts E-Procurement SolutionMap℠, Amazon Business Partners with Visa to Provide Line-Item Detail

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In case you missed it, Spend Matters launched its first SolutionMap Monday, offering six persona-based breakdowns of the e-procurement market. SolutionMap provides an essential tool for procurement executives and their teams to assess and understand vendor capability on an ongoing basis.

"No two procurement organizations are the same, and often selecting the right vendor doesn't come down to technological capability alone," said Spend Matters Founder Jason Busch. “For SolutionMap, rankings are based equally on demonstrated technology/solution capability as well as on customer input.

Check out the six free graphics for yourself, and take a deep dive into our Spend Matters PRO Vendor Summary Report when you’re ready!

Amazon Teams Up with Visa

Amazon Business announced Tuesday it has teamed up with Visa to provide line-item detail on customer purchases, according to a press release. The enhanced transaction data provides corporate card administrators with greater visibility and control over their organization’s spend.

“This added functionality will help us eliminate the manual, time-consuming process of reconciling and recording our business purchases,” said Terry Lastinger, assistant director of purchasing, Tulsa Community College. “Resources that were historically dedicated to the reconciliation process will now be reallocated thanks to Amazon Business, allowing us to focus on other areas of our procurement operations.”

India Considers New Duties

An Indian government body has recommended imposing duties on some steel products imported from China, Japan and Russia, Reuters reports. India’s steel imports have declined considerably in the past year due to several protection measures implemented by the government.

Lumber Prices

And finally, a commodities update: An expected new duty on timber imports from Canada pushed lumber prices to a 12-year high Monday. As the Wall Street Journal writes, the Trump administration’s calls to narrow trade deficits has intensified an already decadeslong dispute in the lumber industry.