2007 - Polls are now closed
1 comment January 2nd, 2008 David Bush - Iasta
Ever since October, things have been off the hook here. Of course, we have had our normal growth trajectory over the course of 2007, but Q4 blew out the doors. From a profile standpoint we have added:
- 15 new software clients
- 3 additional verbal commitments
- 3 Fortune 100
- 6 Fortune 500
- 2 Fortune 1000
- 2 mid market
The remaining companies are foreign owned and have Global 1000 classifications. These are truly fantastic growth numbers for a company like Iasta, that is a fraction of the size of most of its competitors.
This leads me to wonder what happened to cause this spike, my assessment is:
- Sourcing is red hot. This is true and a rising tide lifts all boats, we are definitely part of top echelon of sourcing providers and evidenced by the companies that now call inbound regularly, as opposed to the other way around in years past.
- Momentum. We have worked hard for the last few years at scaling our operation for stronger growth and support. At this point, we simply have a very large pipeline and are involved in more evaluations. If we are invited to an open evaluation, we are in the final 3 over 70% of the time, and those are odds that I will take. We have also become quite skilled at sniffing out price discoveries, meant to drive down Ariba’s pricing, which we decline to participate and save our resources.
- Year-end. There are certainly some companies that have money left in the budget and need to use it, we have benefited from this a few times this year. I will add though, that this scenario is coming to us and we are not going out looking for it. To quote a couple of the new clients, we have been “rewarded” for our patience and general helpfulness.
- Procuri acquisition. I have no doubt that this industry change has benefited us directly. Procuri has been eliminated from multiple active deals where clients may have been down to 2 or 3 vendors. We have also had numerous inquiries about our services from nervous Procuri users that do not want to move to the Ariba platform. Procuri was always our most similar profile competitor and the changes have really poured gas on the growth fire. Take it for what its worth, but I believe this is the biggest factor.
All things considered, it was a really great year here. I spent the 2nd half of 2007 restructuring our sales, marketing, alliance and general business development strategies to pounce on the opportunities that have been afforded to us.
I am not writing a crystal ball post this year, as I think I proved to be a pretty good prognosticator last year and am happy to share my thoughts on 2008, privately with those who care to ask. I will leave with this one, however. There is already a huge void in e-Sourcing left behind by Procuri’s exit from the market. Iasta is the company best prepared to fill this vacuum and will do so.
Entry Filed under: General, e-Sourcing Marketplace
