CHICAGO, June 27, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Spend Matters on Thursday is releasing its Q2 2019 company rankings for SolutionMap, the definitive procurement technology benchmark rankings used for evaluating procurement software companies across 12 technology areas.
This release marks the first major “revamp” since SolutionMap’s 2017 launch, emphasizing greater granularity spanning both functional depth and technology vendor “platform” capability. It also leverages 1,000+ user/peer reviews, which factor into the transparent vendor ratings.
SolutionMap is updated and published quarterly. Since launching two years ago, more than 80 SolutionMap ratings reports have been published. 65,000+ procurement professionals have consulted the free rankings, subscription research and data to drive selection decisions.
Technology Mapped to Business Needs
A platform-level understanding allows potential technology users to discern the level of integration between product modules and suites, overall interoperability with ERP and broader technologies, as well as the quality and effectiveness of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI). In total, the Q2 2019 SolutionMap considers well over 1,000 different functional and platform components across source-to-pay and services procurement modules and suites.
Spend Matters Chief Research Officer Pierre Mitchell explains: “Beyond feature/function, we look at the platform elements to see what’s real and what’s not. Some users look for configurability, others don’t. We reflect buyer needs against, for instance, the application of AI, user experience, low-code platforms. With SolutionMap, procurement professionals have this information at their fingertips even if they are not technology experts themselves.”
Spend Matters designed the platform-level comparison capability to eliminate asymmetry between sellers and buyers of procurement technology. According to Mitchell, “SolutionMap enables ‘apples-to-apples’ comparisons between solutions that may look like varying fruits and vegetables to even advanced procurement, finance and supply chain organizations. We have done the hard work of abstracting demonstrated functional and platform capability for organizations that are non-technical in orientation.”
The Great Equalizer Between Technology Buyers and Sellers
“The latest SolutionMap release and methodology is the great equalizer between buyers and sellers of procurement technology solutions,” says Spend Matters Founder Jason Busch. “It is the only ratings methodology that is fully transparent, considers equal parts technology analyst and customer scoring (individually and separately), and allows business users to create a one-to-one map based on their requirements to what technology vendors can provide based on demonstrated, generally available capability.”
“But this time around, SolutionMap is significantly deeper,” Busch notes, “not requiring even IT support for regular business users to pick the very best solution for their needs.”
To illustrate the objective scoring format, here is a sample common configurability, globalization platform requirement for Source-to-Pay (S2P):
| Multi-Lingual | How extensive are the multi-lingual support capabilities? | 0 - not currently supported / not applicable 1. flat file menu mappings for a small set of languages; 2. dynamic mappings of menu options and help text based on standard translations and regional linguistic variances and support for over a dozen languages; 3. override features that allow a buyer to override mappings on documents / menu options being shared with a supplier and over twenty languages supported; 4. Includes capability beyond which is previously addressed and beyond peers |
SolutionMap enables procurement practitioners to create a flexible procurement roadmap and technology architecture.
“We can do scenario modeling of vendor capabilities and play out different scenarios such as off-the-shelf technology options versus different levels of customization, bundled vendors versus a traditional suite offering, running relative newcomers against established vendors,” Mitchell says. “And we can provide counsel on creating a more flexible architecture and roadmap based on the current and future needs of a procurement organization.”
A Proven Methodology
The SolutionMap procurement technology benchmark rankings are based on equal parts objective technology capability ranking (done by analysts) and customer feedback scores with set weightings. Our analyst team spends thousands of hours reviewing and validating technology features and capabilities based on SolutionMap RFI scoring and detailed technology demonstrations.
SolutionMap is used by procurement organizations to swiftly identify a vendor shortlist during the tech selection process. It ranks 12 categories of procurement technology:
- E-Procurement
- Invoice-to-Pay (I2P)
- Procure-to-Pay (P2P)
- Source-to-Pay (S2P), a suite view which includes all P2P and strategic procurement technologies’ categories
- Sourcing
- Spend and Procurement Analytics
- Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM)
- Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) and Risk
- Strategic Procurement Technologies, a suite view that includes Sourcing, Analytics, CLM and SRM
- Contingent workforce solutions, which includes Contract Services/Statement of Work (SOW), Temp Staffing, and direct sourcing of Independent Contract Workers (ICW)
In addition, instead of providing a single view of the benchmarking data, the free version of SolutionMap is built on “buying personas” that provide multiple ranking graphics for each module based on key buyer requirements.
You can visit spendmatters.com/solutionmap to view the free ranking charts by RFI category and buying persona or to learn more about the methodology.
Also available are subscription research (Spend Matters PRO and SolutionMap Insider), rapid procurement technology selection, and benchmarking intelligence services for buyers, sellers and technology investors.
About Spend Matters — Solution Intelligence for Procurement
Spend Matters is the leading solution-intelligence source for procurement and supply chain professionals. Combining deep technology analysis and tailored advisory services with daily news coverage and subscription research, Spend Matters is trusted by CPOs, consultants, investors and solution providers alike as their procurement technology intelligence partner. Spend Matters is owned and managed by Azul Partners Inc.
Press Contact:
Matt Liguori, Marketing Engagement Manager, Azul Partners Inc.
mliguori@spendmatters.com
Tel. +1.630.991.8060