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. Today, we continue the series with Zycus.
Key Provider in the 2020s – Zycus
Zycus is longstanding leader in the supply management solutions that entered the market many years ago with a cutting-edge spend analysis solution. Over the next decade, Zycus then built a strong solution suite by taking a linear or sequential process path to its product development – rolling out eSourcing, then Contracts, then Supplier Management, and finally P2P. While Zycus built its brand in strategic sourcing, it continues to make nice strides downstream with a competitive P2P offering, particularly after the release of its new “DewDrops” interface (its ePayables solution will be included in our upcoming ePayables Technology Advisor report).
Zycus is a privately-held (with no equity investors) company with 11 global offices and more than 350 customers that can be found in all regions of the world and in all industries. Zycus strongly believes that its ownership structure is an inherent advantage that enables it to focus its resources on its products and its customers and the company states that it invests 40% of its resources on product R&D, including an aggressive focus on AI (artificial intelligence).
Full Suite Approach
Zycus was an early proponent of the importance of “ease of use” to drive value for its customers and has sought to embed this “feature” across its full suite. The organic development of its full suite over the years (Note: the company did acquire an eSourcing tool that has been rearchitected) has resulted in leading strategic sourcing suite and an advancing P2P suite that is starting to gain real traction at the large enterprise level. Despite its leadership in the strategic sourcing arena, the company has made the interesting decision to only pursue multi-application and suite deals, viewing the opportunity to pursue single applications RFPs as too high. Nonetheless, Zycus continues to grow its new customer list and expand its reach into its existing customers.
And while, it continues to push across the full source-to-pay process, its strong roots in spend analysis, sourcing, and data management remain very compelling including its ability to help sourcing teams identify, manage and track more savings projects and its move to more real-time spend monitoring with event-based triggers and alerts. Earlier this year, the company launched iLogix, its advanced sourcing optimization solution for transportation, logistics, and complex categories like packaging. This solution which was developed over a number of years in close partnership with customers and is now generally available. The Zycus team also notes that it has Direct Materials sourcing (BOM) on its 2021 product roadmap.
Across the full suite, recent enhancements have been made to the user experience with the release of “DewDrops” earlier this year. This new release improved overall usability by reducing clicks, presenting more summary information, and smarter prompts for suggested user actions, among other capabilities. The new release also focused on improving the consistency in the user experience as they navigate and manage workflows and documents within each application and across the full suite. Consumerization and mobility are also prominent in the new release.
Building on an AI Heritage
Zycus’ focus on ease of use continues via its focus on AI. In fact, the Zycus leaders believe that AI is the next frontier in usability. And, to that end, Zycus is currently investing significant resources to advance its “Merlin” AI suite, which integrates bots across its full solution suite, but it likes to remind people that AI is part of its long heritage, having included AI as component of the first patent it filed in 2002. The company has a dedicated product team focused on developing a wide array of AI-driven bots that plug into every application. Some bots, like the Merlin AutoClass and Merlin Voice and Merlin Eye are designed to assist users in managing their activities (like Guided Buying and smarter embedded help) are the Merlin Assist BOTS, while the Merlin Power BOTS are designed to enhance and augment user capabilities. Zycus has developed an impressive series of BOTS that were designed to help users in specific job roles drive more value. Whether it is a risk team looking to “de-risk” its contracts, an AP team improving its invoice receipt efficiency, or a spend analyst trying to identify spend anomalies, Zycus has a pre-built BOT to attack that challenge. The BOTS work within the Zycus suite, while many are accessed with an incremental charge.
From its early days as a spend analysis specialist to strategic sourcing leader to full suite innovator, Zycus has continued to take a product and customer first approach to its solutions. An early proponent of the importance of “ease of use,” the company is now fully-invested in developing advanced AI capabilities that can power its customers to new levels. Zycus is one of Ardent Partners’ Key Providers in the 2020s.
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