Intake and Orchestration in procurement: How do the solution providers define its role? – Opstream

Spend Matters chose Intake and Orchestration as its main research theme for this quarter because we believe it is the fastest-growing procurement tech market segment today. If you’d like to understand more about what intake management and orchestration mean for procurement, read our Guide to Intake and Orchestration here.

As part of our research we are conducting analyst-led analysis/thought leadership, solution provider deep-dive analyses, webinars and interviews with both the practitioners who use this technology and the vendors who sell it.

Today’s niche vendor viewpoint providing thoughts on the need for this market segment and how the solution fulfils it comes from:

Mor Cohen-Tal, CTO and Co-Founder of AI orchestration platform Opstream.

What was the gap in the market and the business need that Opstream intended to fulfil?

“When an employee submits a purchase request (for travel, software, hardware, chair, desk, marketing swag, a freelancer or any other spend) the whole process that follows needs to be made smoother and simpler, including the intake process, verification of needs and different stakeholders’ approvals. Ideally a platform will automate vendor onboarding, vendor management, document repository and vendor reminders for renewals and everything the requester needs to track. So Opstream’s enterprise-grade platform was created to allow organizations to streamline the entire purchasing process.

“Its AI Orchestration module easily integrates all third-party tools, learns the organization’s configuration and ingests company policies and relevant compliance and regulatory requirements to craft a personalized process based on the user’s needs. It then abstracts the data from across these systems to create a unified data layer of all the data pertaining to vendors and suppliers, giving customers a single source of truth.

“The platform was created to bring visibility and control over all organizational spend, from beginning to end. This gives customers better purchase management and allows Opstream to learn industry trends and best practices of spend and, over time, learn which companies spend what and on which brands in each category.”

Why does procurement (and business) need this extra layer of tech?

“While some may believe that emails or a build-your-own amalgamation of tools like Google Sheets, Jira or ServiceNow can effectively manage procurement, the reality is that they often fall short in streamlining the process. It’s like using snail mail in a world of emails — technically it works, but it is in no way efficient or scalable.

“We know that procurement encompasses more than just purchasing; it involves managing renewals and vendors. Surprisingly, many companies are unaware of their renewal status, leading to missed opportunities and unnecessary auto-renewing contracts.

“Procurement is not merely a task; it has the potential to supercharge your business. It can either speed things up or slow them down, depending on how you handle it. So by implementing procurement tech, the goal is not to add more layers, but to seamlessly orchestrate the tools you’re already using for effective collaboration.

“Procurement isn’t limited to one department; it involves everyone. Utilizing technology to enhance collaboration across the board creates value, rather than simply reacting to problems. Therefore, settling for systems that just ‘get by’ is not enough. What you truly need is technology that unlocks procurement’s potential — a key to driving your business forward.”

Analyse the vendor

Read our full analysis of Opstream’s solution in this Vendor Analysis, part of our members’ subscription service.

Get help

You can engage Spend Matters to help you find your best-fit solution (including a current assessment of your organization, RFx and selection advisory).

Learn more

To know more about the technology, watch a recording of our webinar, “Demystifying Intake and Orchestration in Procurement.” Our analysts define what Intake and Orchestration technologies are, showcase use cases and explain how investing in these technologies could benefit your business.