GEP, the longstanding industry provider of procurement services and solutions, announced last week the launch of “SMART by GEP,” what the company is calling “the first unified sourcing and procurement platform native to cloud, mobile and touch technologies.” The big news from this launch, in our opinion, is that GEP has fully arrived as a competitive provider of supply management solutions, offering a suite that is worthy of consideration by procurement departments around the globe for their technology needs.

Last time, we discussed the company at a high level and commented on a few highlights from the announcement. Today, we’ll look at some of the specific features (some new, some not) in the GEP suite that caught our attention and look at the market implications from this news.

SMART by GEP

The headline in GEP’s announcement is that the enhanced suite, called “SMART by GEP,” is a cloud-based suite with native mobile and touch capabilities; this is worth addressing for several reasons. While there are other cloud-based solution suites, SMART by GEP is one of the first full suites that we’ve seen that really emphasizes inherent mobile functionality in a way that is very progressive and generally different than what other providers have done in regards to mobile. While some other providers have developed mobile “compatibility” for their solutions which basically means that their solutions are usable on smart devices, GEP has re-architected its solutions to function as mobile applications. The difference here is significant, from a technical standpoint, and potentially very meaningful, from a market standpoint, in the near future.

GEP’s technical difference: Over the past couple of years, I’ve spoken frequently about the need for simplification in supply management suites as a way to drive better adoption. It has long been my belief that the business world will move away from desktops and installed software to mobile platforms and smart devices. When this occurs, there will be a corresponding shift from today’s enterprise software world to one more similar to that filled with mobile apps as seen on Android and Apple devices. Consumer websites still exist but, more and more users navigate websites and process content using mobile apps. In supply management, this would mean that instead of only using a web-based eSourcing solution, users will also download an eSourcing app that provides similar results but a very different experience. Think about the transformation in technology that must occur for these the Source-to-Settle processes to be managed by an app. If nothing else, a shift to apps will force providers to brutally simplify their solutions. Every supply management solution provider talks about ease of use. A procurement department using smart devices and procurement apps guarantees it. With this first release, GEP starts the industry down this path by staking a claim to this new space and taking a lead in mobility.

Potential market impact: There’s been a clear shift in the world of personal computing from computers to smart devices – tablets and smart phones. Won’t a similar shift eventually happen in the workplace? Maybe not in 2014, but soon enough – doesn’t it seem inevitable? If you believe it is inevitable, then it should follow that instead of installing or subscribing to enterprise software that is accessed and used on a desktop, procurement departments will seek solutions with strong mobile and presumably, touch capabilities. GEP has placed a solid bet on the inevitability of mobile procurement.

Other features: While the focus of GEP’s announcement is on the new mobile and touch architecture and capabilities, there are other new features in the SMART suite just as there were some very strong components in the previous version. For example, I recently met with the spend manager of a global retailer that has been very pleased with GEP’s performance as a spend analysis provider. She noted that GEP won the deal 2 plus years ago because of the solution’s reporting and analytical capabilities and usability as well as the GEP services team’s depth of experience with retailers. While there are some executives who’d like her to bid out the next contract, she’s fiercely loyal to GEP and actually hopes to get budget and begin using GEP’s eSourcing solution in 2014.

A few interesting features in the SMART suite include:

• Savings tracking – an application that can capture a broad scope of metrics for the department and measure current performance
• GEP Nexus – a small but growing supplier network
• Category workbench and Snap Docs – which both leverage GEP’s extensive services capabilities in pre-packaged templates, documents, best practices, and other deliverables that can drive productivity and results for procurement

With the launch of its SMART suite, GEP has moved beyond simply services to offer a very competitive supply management suite while also staking a claim as a leader in mobility. 2014 shows much promise for this company.

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Tagged in: Contract Lifecycle Management, eProcurement, Mobility, Solution Providers, Sourcing, Spend Analysis, Technology