Spend Matters released its E-Procurement SolutionMap(SM) in April - The first in a series of groundbreaking persona-based comparative vendor analyses for procurement professionals.
Now it is time to bring on your questions, such as:
What is the ranking and weighing process?
How do the analysts decide whom to include in SolutionMap?
How did you solicit customer input?
What are the requirements to be considered on future iterations of SolutionMap?
SolutionMap is geared towards today's technology buying climate. Instead of 1 “2/2” chart, there are 6 for the E-Procurement SolutionMap, 6 for Invoice-to-Pay (a separate solution area) and 6 for procure-to-pay (P2P) which includes E-Procurement and Invoice-to-Pay -- So, 18 different charts in total, based on different procurement personas to take organizational requirements into account – as well as the vendor’s unique value proposition and solution strategy.
It sounds like a lot, but this is the type of detail that allows organizations to “self-select” for their own needs and persona(s). Also:
Each participating vendor completed an extensive RFI including a mandatory 90-minute live demo — in certain cases, the demonstrations were longer and carried out over multiple sessions
In addition to the analyst rating, SolutionMap includes a customer rating based on real-life experiences with the solution
Finally, SolutionMap is updated quarterly post launch to actively reflect market developments (and more and more vendors participating in the process). In a cloud world, vendors often update their solutions monthly or quarterly — and analyses should reflect this.
Join the Spend Matters Analyst Team for a deep dive into all things SolutionMap!