Earlier this month, I provided a list of 10 providers of supply management solutions and then another list of 10 providers of ePayables solutions to watch in 2010. This next list of solution providers will be less familiar to most, based upon their size, primarily, but not their capabilities. These are burgeoning companies that warrant investigation as you begin to develop your RFIs and RFPs in the specific solution areas where these companies play.
- AssetNation is a provider of capital asset disposition solutions. CEO Dave Dawson and his team have developed a series of solutions designed to help enterprises catalogue and then monetize the capital assets that they have on hand. Redeploying unused assets or disposing of them can drive significant value and impact cash positions by avoiding new investments or gaining cash from sales. One CPO that I have known for many years ran a very successful program with AssetNation with seven-figure returns in 2009.
- Apex Analytix and Dryden are two companies that offer post-payment audit recovery solutions that help enterprises find overpayments and other payment errors by tracking PO and invoice compliance to contracts. Their approaches and associated services are differentiated with Apex (Jim Arnold, President) being a much more mature company (it was acquired last year by a private equity firm) and one that comes at the issue from the A/P side while Dryden (Kevin Johnson, President), a relative upstart, approaches their work with a procurement mindset. Both have also worked for clients on a contingency basis which means that the benefits that they can deliver may not require an up-front investment.
- CVM Solutions is a provider of supplier information management solutions (Executives Mike Angiuano and Jon Bovit refer to this as “enterprise supplier management”) which got its start as an aggregator and provider of supplier diversity information and data enrichment. CVM has since developed a broader set of solutions that helps enterprises centralize the management of their suppliers, including risk, performance, and diversity while continuing to build its supplier data enrichment services.
- HH Print is provider of print management solutions. When my former colleague at Aberdeen Group, Vishal Patel left to join HH Print, I knew two things: first, he would be impossible to replace and second, I would be seeing much more of HH Print in the market. I was right on both counts. HH, with its mature business in Europe, has been making strong inroads in North America and other regions as procurement organizations have become increasingly involved in the sourcing and management of print services.
- Hiperos is a provider of supplier information management solutions (CEO Greg Dickinson describes this as helping manage the “extended enterprise” of suppliers and third-party service providers) that emphasizes risk management in its focus and solutions which help enterprises track and manage the supplier relationship with On-Demand portals focused on supplier information, risk, compliance, sustainability, and performance.
- Ivalua is a provider of supply management solutions that cover the source-to-settle process. I have been getting regular briefings from this Paris-based company that was founded in 2000 for more than three years. The fall of 2009 marked the date that Ivalua formally launched its North American initiative, led by regional CEO Phillip Levy and a solution suite that is currently in place at many of the largest French companies.
- Panjiva is a provider of supplier and global trade information that helps sourcing professionals identify and qualify global suppliers (i.e. suppliers that trade internationally), capture competitive intelligence, collaborate and share information with co-workers and monitor trends that can help identify potential supply risk issues. CEO Josh Green and his team have developed a platform/portal that aggregates and enriches US Customs and other third-party data sources to enable these capabilities.
- Puridiom is a provider of supply management solutions that cover the source-to-settle process. Since 1983, CEO Jesus Ramos and his team have been focused on delivering solutions to automate the procurement process. Over the course of two and a half decades, Puridiom has developed a comprehensive suite of source-to-settle solutions and associated services directly and through partnership that make it a true one-stop shop.
- Rosslyn Analytics is a provider of spend analysis solutions that is based in the U.K. and led by founder and CEO Charles Clark. Rosslyn has packaged two basic offerings – one for the small enterprise that comes with an enticing hook to try and another, more traditional offering geared to large enterprises
- StarCite is a provider of strategic meetings management solutions including an online marketplace that services and connects meetings planners and meetings vendors. CEO Greg Dukat and Vice President of Enterprise Strategy, Kevin Iwamoto and the rest of the team have been investing significant resources in educating travel and procurement leaders on the opportunities within the strategic meetings category.
I have been and will continue to watch these companies as they continue to advance. Each offers a unique approach, focus, and/or roadmap that I personally find interesting and each has a size that enables flexibility in how it develops and delivers its solutions. You will note that I have included the names of at least one executive from each of the 10 (well, technically 11) solution providers on the list. I have done so because the leaders of smaller firms, by their nature, tend to be much more accessible and generally hands on. If you are in discovery-mode, I am certain that each will be responsive to your inquiry.
