Although I try to refrain from discussing Iasta or the Iasta solutions in this forum (as we have an entire website for that), I was pleased to notice that when reviewing Gartner’s 10 Strategic Technologies for 2008 (as reviewed in CRM Today), we’re already there with respect to at least four of the technologies and planning to be there with respect to five more in 2008. Furthermore, meeting these technology requirements has almost nothing to do with the specific sourcing functionality of the Iasta solution, and I can address all the points in general terms!

Here are the technologies where I think we’re already there:

• Web Platform & WOA
  We’ve been on-demand SaaS since day one – even before WOA was a common term.
• Green IT
  We’re a true multi-tenant SaaS application, which means we only need to have as many servers running as we need at any given time. Furthermore, our extensive use of virtualization technology in our new data centers means that we can bring new servers on-line quickly when they’re needed, and consolidate processes on a small pool of servers during non-peak periods (over weekends or holidays) to put unneeded servers to sleep until they’re needed again.
• Social Software
  Oh, baby! That’s us. As far as we know, this was the first vendor initiated blog on the ‘net dedicated to informing sourcing professionals everywhere about e-Sourcing and best practices and the first to pick up a daily publication schedule. We were the first vendors to launch a wiki for the global sourcing community as a whole, and not just our own user base, with the sole intention of educating and improving sourcing professionals
  everywhere. And even though we’re as unsure as everyone else about what comes next in enterprise Web 2.0 social software, you can be sure that when we figure it out, we’ll be there.
• Unified Communications
  We’re already there in one regard, as evidenced by our seamless 24/5 support capabilities, and early adopters of IP telephony (as you can even skype me). However, once we move to bigger offices at the end of the year, you can be sure our new communications infrastructure will be up with the times.

Here are the technologies we’re working on:

• Real World Web
  Our e-Sourcing application is available in real-time and is used in real-time every day by real people on real projects all over the world. How do you make it more real-world than that? We have the answer – it’s called Live Event 2.0. We have already released the full version of Smart Optimization and now we are developing our new Live Event platform that will integrate true real-time optimization and cost modeling in auctions in what we believe will be a whole new way.
• Virtualization 2.0
  Although it’s hard to tell what the differences are between Virtualization 1.0, 2.0, and where we are, we have already started researching the technologies – software and hardware – that we will be bringing into our next major data center upgrade in 2009. Although we believe we’re already leading edge, especially on the software side, we recognize that there have been some great recent advancements in hardware as well and we are actively researching how we can make use of these technologies to serve our customers better and operate more green.
• Computing Fabric
  Right now, we see this as just another aspect of Virtualization 2.0 and will definitely evaluate how this type of technology can improve our service while reducing our environmental footprint. Green is good for us – as it helps us keep our costs – and yours – down.
• Business Process Modeling
  We’ve been making good use of this methodology over the past two years in the transformation of our support operations, and have recently been applying it to all other areas of our business – including product design and marketing – in efforts to ensure our entire business continues to operate in one unified manner on one central vision as we continue to double in client-base and size year-over-year.
• Metadata Management
  We recognize the importance of a central data store to make supplier management and project creation even easier than it already is in our application, and in conjunction with our Supplier Management module (slated for release early next year), we have started the initial planning process on this module as well.

And here are our plans for the rest of the top 10:

• Mashup & Composite Apps
  I’ll admit that this is one area we don’t really have a good handle on. The reality is that we have a seamlessly integrated suite built from the ground up on one common platform – a claim that very few vendors in the space can make (as most of our competitors have acquired anywhere between one and all of the modules they now offer for sale). We’re not sure how mash-ups could improve our service and performance, but it is on our radar and we are open to suggestions and comments.

I’d say that gives us a 9/10! However, this grade is just for fun, the real Gartner analysis for sourcing is being developed right now. I speak of the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Strategic Sourcing Applications. Now that the team is led by a prominent and well respected thought leader like Debbie Wilson, I expect this to be a great analysis of industry functionality. Unfortunately, Iasta will not qualify for the minimum revenue threshold that Gartner has established, so we will not be able to see our brightly shining star in the quadrant. However, I will be able to print it off and make a Sharpie dot in the upper right corner . I suppose we could make a 50%, across the board price hike, and make the list, but that’s not really our M.O.

It is amazing how much the landscape has changed since the last quadrant in 2004, which really is not that long ago, but in the procurement applications market, things change by the Quadrant… I mean Quarter.