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Announcing Spend Matters Nexus — Where Capital and Strategy Converge

07/02/2019 By

Modules

As I hinted at last week and as you’ll see based on my PRO contribution today, we’re excited to announce the launch of a new research, advisory and networking organization — Spend Matters Nexus.

The Nexus membership program is designed for investors/acquirers (private equity, corporate development, etc.) and solution provider CEOs in the procurement and finance technology/solution ecosystem. Membership offers a new strategic lens to the solution areas covered on Spend Matters.

Nexus was borne out of an increased demand for research subscriptions, due diligence and strategy support with our private equity clients in late 2018 (which has picked up exponentially this year). But recently, our team realized there was a flip side to working with technology acquirers — providing relevant market intelligence and fresh, data-driven analysis for solution provider CEOs, boards and leadership teams.

Spend Matters Nexus will become invaluable for both groups. For private equity firms, investors and corporate development teams, we provide market intelligence, market access, expert advisory and due diligence expertise. For CEOs, boards and leadership teams, the program offers insights spanning strategy, product strategy, corporate development and business development (partnership + channel) initiatives. For all members, there are invitation-only networking opportunities.

And in the end, practitioners — the real tech “buyers” — stand to benefit the most.

Why? When capital allocation and strategy is optimally aligned and executed against, the best products get built (and integrated), the best partnerships are forged and nurtured, the right companies are brought together (for the right reasons) and a continuous flow of improvement and innovation funnels back to customers.

What is Spend Matters Nexus?

To achieve these outcomes, Spend Matters Nexus will, of course, use the deep procurement and finance solutions market knowledge of Spend Matters and our extended network.

The core components of Nexus membership include:

  • Market intelligence research and analysis (focused on strategy, M&A and partnerships and other investor/CEO/board-level topics)*
  • Monthly content digest
  • Quarterly member newsletter
  • Investor and C-level advisory (phone, virtual, workshops)
  • Networking, matchmaking and introductions
  • Small, exclusive member events (invitation only)

Project-based support for strategy, product strategy, due diligence, market sizing/TAM, etc. will also continue to be available through Azul Partners, our parent company.

Our rollout plan for Spend Matters Nexus is a soft launch this summer/fall with a select group of members, and a formal launch in January 2020 based on the input of our charter clients in further tailoring the program to make it most effective for them.

Want to learn more? Drop me a line: jbusch (at) azulpartners (dot) com or reach out via Linkedin.

What’s Next for Spend Matters?

As some of our more astute subscribers have observed, I’ve been one of many team members contributing in the past few years, and on an increasingly reduced basis in recent quarters as the Spend Matters’ bench has grown and taken on increased responsibility and overall oversight for research, software selection, product and marketing strategy, advisory, and content. As the Managing Director for Spend Matters Nexus going forward, I will continue to address topics of relevance for members on a strategic level as a contributor both on Spend Matters PRO and on a deeper and more personalized level with Nexus members.

The core Spend Matters research team could not be in better shape. While we hope to build the analyst organization with another highly strategic team member this year, I believe my colleagues already represent the industry and technology analyst “dream team” for procurement technology and related markets. They’re among the best in the business, even if they’re sometimes prickly (as all good analysts should be).

But not only are the analyst and editorial teams in great shape (and growing), the other groups within Spend Matters are firing on all cylinders. The team includes the following members:

Corporate Strategy + Organizational and Executive Leadership

Lisa Reisman — CEO

Research Leadership and Analysts

Pierre Mitchell — Chief Research Officer
Michael Lamoureux — Research Director, Lead Analyst and Futurist (Strategic Procurement Technologies and Platform Technology)
Xavier Olivera — Research Director (Procure-to-Pay)
Andrew Karpie — Research Director (Services Procurement)
Nick Heinzmann — Associate Analyst
Arturo Rodriguez — SolutionMap Quantitative Data Analyst
Rafael Cortez — SolutionMap Quantitative Data Analyst

SolutionMap Publishing and Operations Leadership

Taras Berezowsky — Production Manager
Dina Cutrone — Peer Review / Customer Survey and RFI Administrator

Editorial Leadership (Site Editors)

JP Morris (Spend Matters)
Nancy Clinton (UK and Europe)
Xavier Olivera (Mexico and Latin America)

Global Marketing Leadership

Carina Kuhl — CMO

Client Leadership and Advocacy

Sheena Smith (Managing Director)
Kevin Mallin (Client Manager)

Global Client Leadership

Jenny Draper — UK and Europe
Xavier Olivera — Mexico and Latin America

Spend Matters also leverages other shared services from the Azul Partners executive and operational teams, including resources that support MetalMiner, a sister site. These team members are not named above but are an integral part of the Azul Partners organization. They will provide support to Spend Matters Nexus as well.

* If you’re curious about what type of research and analysis we’ll be focused on, here are some recent examples: