Earlier this year, we initiated the first of our planned 20 for 2020 series’ as an echo to the 10 for 2010 series that we used to launch this site. That first 2020 series focused on the key themes and ideas that Chief Procurement Officers should have on their agenda this decade. This second series focuses on “Key Providers in 2020” which you can think of as (borrowing from Supply and Demand Chain Executive and countless others), the 20 “Solution Providers to Know” this decade. We lead off the series with Corcentric.
Key Provider in the 2020s – Corcentric
Corcentric is a global provider of source-to-pay and financial automation (order-to-cash and fleet) solutions. It focuses on companies with annual revenues between $500 million and $10 billion (although there are exceptions) and has more than 2,000 customers using its solutions in 35 distinct countries. Corcentric supports those customers from 15 global offices (U.S. and Europe) and more than 500 employees. In certain parts of the supply management world, Corcentric is at once both a familiar provider name to end-users and a new one, with a longstanding place in each part of the supply management (or source-to-settle) solutions market. Before talking about the company today and why Corcentric is a key provider to know in the 2020s, it is worth reverse-engineering the company to provide some context and familiarity.
Some of its Parts
The company was founded in 1996 as AmeriQuest and entered the fleet solution market. While the company still has prominent offerings in the Order-to-Cash and fleet solutions market, we’ll focus on the Source-to-Pay solutions that matter most to our readers. In 2002, the company entered the accounts payable (“AP”) automation market with its acquisition of Corcentric. This was followed later by the acquisition of Cor360. Over the ensuing years, the Corcentric solution advanced and matured such that by 2018, it had supported more than $48 billion in AP transactions and by 2019, it was rated a leading solution provider by Ardent Partners in its 2019 ePayables Technology Advisor. Here is an excerpt:
Ardent Partners’ evaluation and analysis have ranked Corcentric and its solutions as “Leaders” in the 2019 ePayables Technology Advisor. It is notable for its comprehensive Invoice-to-Pay capabilities and a proven ability to support AP customers. Corcentric has particular strengths in the mid-market, however, its robust feature set dovetails well with other segments.
In 2018, it acquired Source One, the longstanding procurement and strategic sourcing consultancy, and followed this up with the acquisition of Determine in 2019 (read our analysis of that deal). Determine was originally founded as Selectica in 1996, but rebranded as Determine in late 2015 after a major company and solution transformation that included the acquisitions of France-based P2P solution provider, b-pack, and US-based strategic sourcing specialist, Iasta. Along the way, the company also rebranded itself as Corcentric.
The Whole (Source-to-Pay Offering)
Today, within the source-to-pay arena Corcentric focuses on delivering (1) strategic advisory services, (2) automated source-to-pay solutions, and (3) managed services. It has 300+ customers in the S2P space and reports that it had a compounded annual growth rate of 27% between 2017 and 2019. By linking the three main pieces – Corcentric AP, Determine, and Source One – the company is now able to deliver a complete source-to-pay solution. This includes Spend Analysis, eSourcing, Contracts, eProcurement, Supplier Management, and ePayables (including ePayments via virtual card) capabilities that are complemented by robust strategic consulting services and managed services, which includes a broad GPO offering focused on fleet spend management that also includes other categories like MRO and facilities.
The work to accelerate the continued development and full integration of the Corcentric Cor360 AP solution with the Determine solution suite on its DCP platform has accelerated at Corcentric, buoyed by a larger team and budget and strong product leadership. The company also had the opportunity to close out some of the work that was needed to address the Determine suite at the time of acquisition.
The services team continues to deliver a wide array of services to procurement teams, including strategic sourcing work that covers direct and indirect spend, and broad procurement advisory services that includes organizational design, training, recruiting, technology strategy, as well as process and governance. Corcentric’s managed services offering specializes in traditional tactical procurement work like supplier on-boarding and also includes work in AP like exception management.
With the blend of services and a complete S2P platform in place, the company is now attacking the immediate and clear opportunity that exists for it to expand the company’s footprint within current customers. This includes bringing more technology to its consulting customers, selling more consulting and applications to its current S2P customers, and selling both its S2P solutions and services to its order-to-cash and fleet customers.
Greater than the Sum of its Parts – 2020 and Beyond
The discussion of solution roadmaps and vision with different solution providers sometimes becomes more aspirational than actual. That is not the case with Corcentric. With a recent injection of $80 million in new funding from Bregal Sagemount (link to our coverage of the announcement), Corcentric is now both well-positioned and well-funded to continue to grow in the space.
With strong product management and marketing teams in place, this group finally has the funding to realize its vision. The work starts with enhancing the current solution suite capabilities and the scalability of its platform. This will result in the delivery of a unified solution to new customers and those that upgrade/migrate. The work to expand/enhance its current offering also includes an effort to reimagine the user experience while also building in new collaboration capabilities, the expansion of pre-built 3rd party integrations, and a deeper push into supply chain finance and B2B ePayments. The company is also leveraging the decades of experience of its Source One team to expand its sourcing and analytics.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) had been an area of focus and development for several years by Determine’s product team, and Corcentric has recently created a new Business Innovation Lab that pulls together internal data science, product, and integration expertise and seeks to match that with customer and third-party collaboration. The current scope of the AI projects is expansive and focuses on multiple AI and analytics-based value drivers. As noted, the recent capital raise provides the team with the resources it needs to execute its vision and ensure that the company is greater than the sum of its parts. Now it has to execute.
Its strong, decades-long connection with sourcing, procurement, and AP customers has Corcentric well-positioned in the market. And, with its new blend of a broad technology suite and comprehensive services, to more-broadly support this constituency, Corcentric is one of Ardent Partners’ Key Providers in 2020s.
RELATED RESEARCH
Corcentric Receives $80M in Funding
Ardent Analysis: Corcentric to Acquire Determine, Offer Full Source-to-Settle Solution Suite
The Corcentric Brand Unification: Setting a Strategy for Future Growth
Selectica Rebrands as Determine, Plans to Consolidate Solutions onto One Platform
Corcentric – Recent Coverage on CPO Rising
Determine: Enhancing P2P and More
