Comments on: Could eSourcing soon change forever?

By: Alan Buxton

Alan Buxton — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 10:17:49 +0000

If the recent consolidation (e.g. Bravo/Verticalnet, Ariba/Procuri, ???/Ariba, ???/Emptoris) continues, then that would signal a significant maturation of the e-sourcing marketplace. From past experience (Ariba/Freemarkets) the acquiree disappeared off the scene completely. Both of these tend to support your points 1 and 4.

My view is that e-sourcing as we know it today is pretty mature, so I wouldn’t be surprised by continued consolidation (as you say in point 2).

But I also believe that e-sourcing as we know it today owes too much to traditional ERP concepts and approaches, as I wrote here: http://alanbuxton.wordpress.com/2007/12/21/erp-brp-and-e-sourcing/

So I wouldn’t be surprised for some more market consolidation of the tedious old players followed by some new breakthroughs. But isn’t this how things happen in other markets as well?

By: Jason Busch

Jason Busch — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 20:06:41 +0000

David,

Personally, I can’t see it. Accenture/IBM stand to make far more off of helping companies get returns from SAP’s (and Oracle’s, for that matter) next generation procurement platforms than monkeying around with sourcing software. But who knows. I will happily eat crow if I’m wrong.

By: Eric Strovink

Eric Strovink — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 16:07:58 +0000

Why buy the cow when the milk is free, or practically free? The discounts and services concessions demanded by large consulting/BPO firms often drive e-sourcing margins to the bone.

However, as you say, it has happened before, so it could happen again.