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Category Analytics and Intelligence Providers: Defining and Exploring a Nascent Market for Procurement Solutions (Part 2 — Direct Materials, Indirect Materials and Cross-Category Specialists) - [PRO Content]
February 11, 2020 | Spend Matters Analyst Team
Accurate intelligence and benchmarks on goods and services are essential to effective sourcing, yet few procurement organizations have comprehensive coverage for all data sources across all categories that they manage. So to help practitioners get a better lay of the category intelligence and analytics landscape, Spend Matters has begun a market scan of technology, data/benchmarking…
Category Analytics and Intelligence Providers: Defining and Exploring a Nascent Market for Procurement Solutions (Part 1 — Introduction) - [PRO Content]
February 10, 2020 | Spend Matters Analyst Team
If data is the new oil, then identifying the reservoirs and shale formations from which to extract prices, benchmarks and other pertinent purchasing information is a critical task for procurement and supply chain organizations. Why? Because the success of any sourcing effort depends on not just identifying the appropriate specifications and suppliers to satisfy a…
How can manufacturers reduce risk in direct procurement? Deploy a secure, end-to-end solution
December 9, 2019 | JP Morris
“They supply for success.” That sums up the BMW supply chain mission statement, said Doug Markle, the CEO of Allocation North America, in a webinar with BMW about how the automaker gets the most out of its manufacturing process. BMW’s high standards and its technology combine to meet its drive for excellence. To create a…
Direct procurement seeks an upgrade over spreadsheets, risky manual processes
October 28, 2019 | JP Morris
Over the last year or so, Spend Matters has written several articles and research briefs about direct procurement and the technology that’s needed to support it, so a closer look and some recent insights from manufacturers seems valuable to see why this technology needs wider adoption and to understand its benefits. The overall view indicates…
Customer reviews for Allocation are in the new SolutionMap Customer Insights report
October 23, 2019 | Spend Matters Team
This week’s SolutionMap Customer Insights report focuses on customer reviews for Allocation, a specialist in technology for direct materials sourcing and supplier management for manufacturers and producers who have complex processes. The applicable SolutionMap categories for this report are Sourcing and Supplier Relationship Management & Risk. SolutionMap Insider members can read about Allocation in our…
Procurence Vendor Introduction (Part 2: Strengths/Weaknesses, SWOT, Selection Checklist and Market Overview) - [PRO Content]
October 16, 2019 | Michael Lamoureux and Nick Heinzmann
In Part 1 of this two-part Spend Matters PRO series, we introduced you to Procurence — a relatively new entrant to the global direct material supplier management space, based out of Warsaw, Poland. It’s a recent entrant to our SolutionMap ranking of vendors, where its scores make it a customer leader in the SRM category.…
Procurence Vendor Introduction (Part 1: Background and SRM Solution Overview) - [PRO Content]
October 15, 2019 | Michael Lamoureux and Nick Heinzmann
Supplier management is one of the most misunderstood terms in the procurement solution space, especially since the exact scope of processes supported by such systems varies by analyst, vendor and customer interpretation. In order to clarify, or at least differentiate, many vendors have begun slicing and dicing the SXM solution space to offer the likes…
Freelancer Management Systems: How Companies Can Find and Retain Independent Contractors via Direct Sourcing
June 20, 2019 | Elaine Morris Roberts, Spend Matters Brand Studio
As technology changes the work landscape, as companies seek more specifically skilled workers and as those workers push for non-traditional work arrangements, companies need to find effective ways to meet those changes. Direct sourcing is emerging as a viable, practical option to fill on-demand and other staffing needs. When used alongside traditional hiring methods, including…
Commodities Roundup: Steel Prices, Sustainable Mining and U.S.-China Tariffs
May 17, 2019 | Fouad Egbaria
For the buyers and category managers out there, especially those of you deep in the weeds of buying and managing commodities, here’s a quick rundown of news and thoughts from particular commodity markets. We scour the landscape for what matters — from price movements to policy decisions. This week: Domestic steel price weakness, sustainable mining,…
SourceDay: Vendor Analysis, Analysis and SWOT - [PRO Content]
April 17, 2019 | Nick Heinzmann and Pierre Mitchell
The broader procurement technology market has always had a tenuous relationship with the direct procurement technology solutions. Old timers may remember SupplyWorks from the early 2000s, but it folded — and the SupplyWorks brand name now belongs to a janitorial/sanitation service provider (we won’t go down the easy joke paths on this one). More recently,…
Direct Spend to See an Increase in Outsourcing: Report
April 2, 2019 | Kyra Senese
A new report from Texas-based research firm Everest Group analyzes the factors contributing to suboptimal direct spend management. The report — “Is It Time to Outsource Direct Spend Categories?” — aims to provide a process for enterprises to begin changing their approach to direct spend management.
Is Direct Materials Procurement a Separate Technology Market in North America? (Part 1: Introducing a Decision Framework)
February 26, 2019 | Jason Busch
Germany, Austria and some adjacent markets have something North America doesn’t — a distinct technology market for direct materials procurement. In Europe, Pool4Tool (now Jaggaer Direct), Allocation Network, SynerTrade, SupplyOn and a range of other solution providers succeeded in creating a distinctive European direct materials procurement solutions market that exists outside the generic source-to-pay realm.…

What should employers do to gain the full value of their independent workers? : Colin Serrel said : As someone whose company makes significant use of contract/independents many of your points are well...

Q&A: ‘Unless procurement takes a different view to management of services spend, it will continue to be difficult to get it right’ : Outsourced Procurement said : Procurement should always be seen as a collaboration. Whether that's with internal departments and s...

Suppliers and Ariba: Prisoners or Not? : K said : Agree!!! Suppliers should not have to pay for access to a customer mandated system. If they want us...

WorkMarket Partners to Offer Full Coverage Workers’ Compensation for Freelancers : Andrew Karpie said : Hi James, This article is from 2017. So not sure of what is the current status at WorkMarket for t...

5 Themes That Excite Me About Procurement & Finance Tech Venture Investing : Peter Smith said : Great stuff Jason. I might add that despite the maturity, there are still some major areas with big ...