From Watch to Know in 2018: How OpusCapita Helps Companies Tackle Complexity on the Buy and Sell Sides

Each year, some companies on the Spend Matters 50 Providers to Know and 50 Providers to Watch lists push themselves beyond simply a standout performance. They earn the recognition that they are not only bringing innovation into procurement organizations but also leading the charge to change the way we do business for the better. These are the providers who shifted from Watch to Know in 2018.

To learn more about these providers, we reached out to the four such cases in our 2018 50/50 lists, asking how they’ve changed over the years and what differentiates them from the competition. Today’s Q&A features Adam Tamburello, product marketing manager at OpusCapita, a provider of source-to-pay (S2P) solutions.

Spend Matters: In case our readers aren’t fully familiar, can you give us a one-sentence summary of what your company does?

Adam Tamburello: OpusCapita enables organizations to sell, buy and pay quickly and securely, with a real-time view of their business.

SM: How has your company changed since it was first named a Provider to Watch? What is the biggest lesson have you learned?

AT: Since being named a Provider to Watch, OpusCapita has divested a portion of its business relating primarily to scanning and printing paper invoices. This divestment was in line with a multiyear strategy to focus on the cloud-based solutions for source-to-pay, cash management and product information management.

SM: What are your two or three best features or services that make you a Provider to Know?

AT: OpusCapita is a unique provider in the procure-to-pay space for several reasons.

First, OpusCapita is one of the only providers to support not only procurement and accounts payable but also treasury within its standard product set. That second “P” in P2P, payments, is only a part of a larger cash management offering, which also includes in-house banking, liquidity management and global bank connectivity.

Second, similarly to the source-to-pay portfolio supporting buy side customers, OpusCapita has a focus on the sell side of B2B commerce. OpusCapita helps organizations sell more with master data management for products — tools supporting e-commerce with product information management, digital asset management and catalog syndication. Within the sell side, there is also accounts receivable automation, which really brings the whole portfolio full circle with order receiving, invoice sending and payment reconciliation capabilities.

Lastly, OpusCapita somewhat bucks a trend within its peer group by recognizing that many large enterprises have highly complex processes that can’t be oversimplified. The ability to manage this complexity (e.g., as in MRO) gives OpusCapita customers an opportunity to work with a partner rather than simply a vendor.

SM: How are you thinking about your competitive landscape? How are you differentiating yourself from other Providers to Know in the industry and upstarts on the Watch List?

AT: As described, our broad portfolio, including capabilities for the buy side, sell side and pay side, allows our customers to approach their digitalization strategies more comprehensively. Our ability to support stakeholders in sales/marketing (e-commerce), accounts receivable, procurement, accounts payable and treasury sets us apart from many of our peers.

SM: Where do you see the procurement sector going in the next several years, and how is your company helping organizations through that?

AT: For certain, the procurement sector will continue to modernize, but like other sectors, there will be those organizations and ecosystems that will be taking the first steps, and other organizations that are able to take advantage of the latest and greatest due to higher rates of digitalization between the buyer and their suppliers.

We still see supplier engagement, onboarding and collaboration to be one of the fundamental challenges over the next few years, which is why we are investing heavily in the OpusCapita Business Network, as well as in supplier information management/performance management.

We also see the market moving toward a more consumerized B2B experience. Large buyer organizations are looking for established marketplaces where basic categories are prenegotiated and content is immediately available to corporate shoppers. Of course, this does exist in various forms today, but we see more and more acceptance from large buyers of the value of joining a marketplace that has both existing content at market prices and yet can be configured.