Promena: Vendor Analysis (Part 1) — Background and Solution Overview

When asked to name the top locations of technology and startup ecosystems, one could be forgiven for not including Turkey. Globally, cities like London, Berlin, Tel Aviv, Stockholm, Singapore and San Francisco hold much of the technology economy mindshare, and recent political volatility in Turkey has not bolstered the country’s image as a stable place to start a business.

Yet Turkey has a lot going for it these days in terms of technological potential. As of 2017, the most recent year for available data, Turkey’s internet penetration rate was nearly 65%, giving the country Europe’s fifth-largest online population. Use of mobile devices is also relatively high, at 86% of the population. What’s more, Turkey’s demographics skew heavily toward younger generations: more than half of its 82 million inhabitants are under the age of 30, many of whom are enthusiastic about accessing and growing the technology economy in their home country.

And this technological potential is not just recent. In fact, when it comes to procurement technology, Turkey’s representative offering, Promena, has been refining its product for nearly two decades. Started in 2001 as a joint venture between Koç Holding, Turkey’s largest industrial conglomerate, and The Carlyle Group, Promena offers solutions for e-sourcing and e-auctions, spend analysis, supplier management and e-procurement. Now fully owned and operated under the umbrella of Zer, a procurement BPO firm also owned by Koç, Promena today counts more than 100 customers, with more than 11,000 sourcing events and $2 billion worth of transactions flowing through the platform.

This Spend Matters PRO Vendor Introduction offers a candid take on Promena and its capabilities. The brief includes an overview of Promena’s offering, a breakdown of what is comparatively good (and not so good) about the solution and a selection requirements checklist for companies that might consider the provider.