We are happy to announce the official launch of Ardent Partners’ 2024 Strategic Sourcing Technology Advisor report.
This is a report designed to guide sourcing and procurement teams through the sometimes difficult challenge of selecting the best solution based upon their unique requirements and budget. For this report, our team analyzed and evaluated the leading strategic sourcing suites in the market today. Ardent’s definition of a “Strategic Sourcing Suite” includes Spend Analysis, eSourcing, Contracts, and Supplier Management applications/capabilities. If you are in the market for a suite or one or more of these solutions, this report is for you.
To complete this report, our team leveraged decades of experience developing, using, and evaluating these solutions and evaluated the market’s top strategic sourcing suite providers in two key areas:
- Solution Strength (the ability to support the full scope of strategic sourcing activities, as defined by Ardent Partners’ Strategic Sourcing Framework discussed below) measured along the X-axis.
- Provider Strength (which includes factors such as execution ability, client success, ownership, references, and product vision) measured along the Y-axis.
The eight providers and their distinct solutions included in this report are:
- Corcentric
- Coupa
- GEP
- Ivalua
- JAGGAER
- Market Dojo
- SAP
- Workday
Participating companies were asked to complete a robust RFI questionnaire covering all aspects of their solution. Areas of focus included the four core modules of a strategic sourcing suite (see the Strategic Sourcing Framework below), general technical capabilities, reporting & analytics, and solution roadmap. Ardent Partners conducted in-depth customer interviews with each of the participating solution providers. Ardent’s analyst team also participated in detailed briefings and solution demonstrations to gain a complete company overview as well as an in-depth understanding of specific solution capabilities.
The Strategic Sourcing Framework
Considering the speed and complexity of the modern business environment, and the leverage that relatively small sourcing teams can wield with automated sourcing processes, Ardent Partners’ definition for strategic sourcing is “the business process that leverages process automation tools to quickly identify, evaluate, negotiate, implement, and adjust the optimal mix of goods and services that best support the constantly evolving objectives of the enterprise.” Using this broad definition should help sourcing teams counter the hazards and threats they can be subjected to in the modern business environment and focus on developing the speed and agility to meet market challenges now and in the future.
Ardent Partners believes that there are “four pillars” that should serve as the foundation for any strategic sourcing program. These are the primary sub-process areas that drive all sourcing activity — spend analysis, sourcing, contract management, and supplier management. By themselves, each pillar can play a critical role in helping a team properly source a business requirement. And yet, when all are logically combined and leveraged in total, the whole is radically greater than the sum of its parts. Ardent Partners research has shown that the returns on an incremental investment made to extend and/or automate the strategic sourcing process from one pillar to the next can yield significant and long-lasting returns. Automating and integrating these four areas creates a reinforced structure that serves global sourcing and procurement organizations significantly better than if they tried managing each process manually and/or in an ad-hoc manner.
Strategic Sourcing solution suites (see Figure 1) have been available for more than two decades and are a well-established set of solutions supporting many of the key processes that drive value for a procurement organization across the full strategic sourcing process. The core modules of a Strategic Sourcing Suite are:
- Spend Analysis
- eSourcing
- Contract Management
- Supplier Management
Figure 1: Strategic Sourcing Suite Components
Sourcing professionals know that having a clear and detailed view into a category of spend enabled by automated spend analysis makes sourcing that category significantly easier and positively impacts results. eSourcing applications automate the supplier negotiation process and are among the most powerful supply management solutions available today. Price discovery, process efficiencies, bid evaluation analysis and optimization, and improved stakeholder visibility are among the benefits that eSourcing users typically report.
Automated contract management tools allow enterprises to leverage existing contract templates, standardize (“boilerplate”) language, insert applicable clauses, apply electronic signatures, and leverage straight-through processing for faster, more efficient, and more accurate execution. Decision-makers can review, edit, and sign contracts on mobile devices, with signed contracts securely stored in the cloud on central, digital, and searchable repositories for easy review.
Supplier management solutions support the collection and management of critical supplier information and supplier performance as well as supplier collaboration. Additionally, it supports the detection, management, and mitigation of supplier risk and associated regulatory reporting.
Leading procurement departments understand that suppliers should be viewed as a source of knowledge and expertise that can be leveraged for competitive advantage and mutual gain. Automating supplier relationships across the areas of information, performance, and risk management can increasingly impact enterprise operations and overall performance in the months and years ahead.
Access the Report Today
This report contains inputs on usability, solution functionality, completeness of offering, innovation, customer reviews, company presence, and ability to execute, as well as company focus and future solution strategy. It details the key considerations needed to properly evaluate and select a strategic sourcing solution and guides enterprise teams to make smart technology investments.
The full report is now available for purchase on the Ardent Partners website!
