On Demand theme continued

April 3rd, 2006 at 07:12am David Bush - Iasta

“On Demand” May be the New Wave …but that’s all the more reason to choose an “Old School” provider!

By now, we’ve all read the 2005 Aberdeen Group report that found “With continued pressures to improve performance and reduce costs, sourcing, procurement, and supply management initiatives and automation investments are now not only a priority but a necessity for mid-market companies…more than half of mid-market companies plan to invest in on-demand solutions and services to improve supply management operations.” [Strategic Sourcing in the Mid-Market Benchmark: The Echo Boom in Supply Management, Aberdeen Group, December 2005]

We’ve also seen the leap to the forefront in the marketing and use of this delivery model, as evidenced even by the latest issue of Purchasing Magazine and the article “On-Demand brings spend control to the masses“, David Hannon, March 2, 2006.

This article, like many others, focuses on the benefits of “On-Demand” solutions that include lower up front costs, rapid installation times, and reduced return-on-investment timeframes while glazing over the potential drawbacks which include, according to the article, a “lack of customization”, “unannounced updates”, and a “less then benchmarkable process”.

However, what the article fails to tell you is that these “drawbacks” do not exist in industry leading products, including Iasta’s SmartSource Suite, that were designed from the ground up to be true “On-Demand” solutions and that the only real danger of using a true “On-Demand” solution is diving in without a sourcing strategy - but since the same danger exists with using a standalone solution - it is not a drawback of the solution, but of a sourcing process in general.

A mature solution will offer a significant degree of flexibility both in terms of supported processes, RFx components and templates, auction formats, and decision optimization options, and in terms of secure view customization for administrators, purchasers, and suppliers.

A company with a mature solution will have a mature update process and will not roll out new releases without proper planning, advance notice, and detailed migration plans, nor will they roll out partially tested bug fixes that fix one issue only to introduce new issues in another part of the product.

Moreover, mature “On-Demand” solutions will have project management, process tracking, and benchmarking metrics built in. You will know by the end of the first event how the e-process stacks up to your traditional non e-process, where the improvements are, and where the savings are … usually with just the click of the button.

In summary, it’s fun to ride the “New Wave” of “On Demand”, but make sure your board is built by an “Old School” provider, or it might split at the seams.

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Entry Filed under: General, Technology / SaaS, e-Sourcing Marketplace