Q3 2024 Insider roundup: A deep dive into procurement tech market movements; updated coverage of 16 vendors

Throughout the year our analyst team provides vendor-specific profiles and tech solution analyses as part of Spend Matters Insider content. Our coverage also explores the latest thought leadership topics about procurement and supply, the technology that serves it and comparative analyses based on demos and the scoring of 500+ RFI requirements across 12 source-to-pay (S2P) categories that create our Vendor Ranking data. In this roundup of Q3, we review the Vendor Analyses and other Insider content that the team produced in the previous quarter. We then look ahead to what members can expect in the coming months.

Exploring the world of procurement tech in Q3

Spend Matters Insider coverage in Q3 included more than just our staple Vendor Analyses. Our team keeps tabs on the latest news in the procurement world and explores ideas that will inform that world’s future. A collection of these quick takes, conference insights and solution comparisons is below.

Empowering financial health: Enhancing working capital efficiency and early payment opportunities

Following up on his article ‘Analyst Eye on Unleashing Strategic Impact and Driving Working Capital Optimization,’ Xavier Olivera details the specific roles procurement can play in enhancing the management of working capital and how procurement can transform from a purely cost-savings function to one that grows a company.

Workday to acquire Evisort: M&A rapid analysis

Workday announced its intention to acquire Evisort, a contract lifecycle management provider, for an undisclosed amount. Nikhil Gaur breaks down how the acquisition of Evisort might factor into Workday’s plans and what it could reveal about the CLM market.

Intake and Orchestration – It’s a combination of people and tech

Exploring the theme of Intake management and Orchestration in procurement, we took the opportunity to talk to Mat Schulz, founder of matchat, a procurement accelerator for next-generation practitioners looking to advance their careers. With extensive experience as former VP, Procurement Strategy at Airbase, and former Head of Global Procurement at Forrester, he shared his opinion on what intake and orchestration means for procurement and offers advice to practitioners. 

Drawing the line between intake and orchestration

Intake management and orchestration solutions are fairly new as standalone products. Because they fulfill similar needs, it can be difficult to differentiate the two segments. So, where exactly does intake end, and where does orchestration begin? Our analyst, Nikhil Gaur, differentiates the two processes and draws a line between the comparisons. 

Vendors in focus in Q3

In Q3, Spend Matters published 16 Vendor Analyses as part of our Insider coverage.

Analytics

Rosslyn is a publicly traded spend analytics solution that extracts and transforms data, visualizes it and provides insights via reports.

Spendscape by McKinsey focuses heavily on identifying spend opportunities, not just static analysis, which helps its clients take steps to improve their spend, not just monitor it.

AP Automation

AvidXchange provides a robust suite of AP automation and B2B payment solutions, making it a key player in streamlining accounts payable processes for businesses across industries.

Pivot primarily focuses on intake and orchestration but also offers some P2P capabilities, such as invoice automation, and no-code integrations with other applications, such as Slack and Teams, to promote accessibility for all users. 

CLM

IntelAgree is a contract lifecycle management solution offering end-to-end CLM capabilities. Its name increasingly surfaces in conversations at mid-market firms and large enterprises that are considering a CLM solution. 

TechnoMile offers end-to-end, industry-specific CLM capabilities for government contractors which run on top of CRM systems.

Core

NPI, a longstanding and market-leading IT spend optimization service provider, has begun augmenting its traditional SaaS sourcing service offerings (including consulting and managed services) with its new SaaS intelligence tool, NPI Vantage Pro, an IT Procurement Platform to solve the challenges involved in IT procurement. 

P2P

Airbase stands out in the market by offering a single-source-of-truth solution for spend management needs, including AP automation, expense management, corporate cards and guided procurement.

BlueBean is an innovative request-to-pay platform that streamlines procurement and expense management processes without the need for traditional portals, purchase orders, invoices or expense claims. With it, one can control procurement processes and automate accounting tasks, eliminating the need for traditional expense management

Ivalua is a global P2P suite with deep, broad functionality across procurement and supports both direct and indirect spend with a highly configurable P2P platform that features  advanced optimization and analytics capabilities.

S2C

Ivalua offers a true end-to-end S2C solution without significant weaknesses. With one platform, one code base and one centralized data store, Ivalua ensures a cohesive user experience supported by robust architecture and integration capabilities across various standards and communication protocols.

S2P

Zapro.ai is an all-in-one supplier management platform designed for start-ups. It aims to democratize technology for start-ups by integrating procurement and vendor management capabilities into one intuitive platform.

Onventis is a mid-market–focused suite that is built to support indirect, direct and services spend for European companies that covers the full source-to-pay lifecycle and offers supplemental capabilities, such as an e-procurement shop.

Sourcing

True ValueHub is a costing solution for direct materials that takes a very analytical approach to the process of identifying opportunities based on a material’s characteristics and suppliers’ capabilities. It goes beyond traditional costing approaches through a network/marketplace where suppliers maintain rich information on their cost structures to provide deep and accurate insights and auto-costing that can be used on the buyer side to influence design decisions and on the supplier side to attract and develop business.

SxM

Graphite Connect is a supplier management solution that allows suppliers to manage their profiles securely and share data with multiple buyers within a network to streamline the supplier management process and facilitate efficient communication and value creation.

SupplyHive addresses the challenge of having a clear and complete understanding of suppliers by giving companies the opportunity to structure and execute a clearly defined supplier performance management framework.

Coming up in Q4

Looking beyond Q3 and into Q4, Insider members can expect the steady stream of Vendor Analyses to continue. 

In addition to the regular content, the Spend Matters analyst team will continue to explore Third-Party Risk Management with a series of articles that looks at the types of risk, interviews procurement professionals and details how procurement professionals can mitigate risk.