Every procurement technology acquisition project I\u2019ve been involved with has, to some degree or other, relied on a cross-functional supplier selection team. While everyone would like to think that everyone on the team has an equal voice, let\u2019s face it\u2026there is usually someone who has more influence than others.<\/p>\n
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Sometimes, this influential person is the head of procurement. Sometimes, it\u2019s the head of finance. Sometimes, it\u2019s the head of IT.<\/p>\n
And technology providers are usually pretty keen on figuring out who that influential person is. I believe that the smarter ones develop their sales and marketing strategy around that influential role.<\/p>\n
Rewind back to a few years ago. Ariba used the term \u201cSpend Management\u201d while Procuri used the term \u201cSupply Management.\u201d<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t believe this was a casual decision made on preference between two synonyms. I believe that Ariba was seeking to appeal to CFO\u2019s \u2013 who are intensely interested in managing spend \u2013 as decision-makers. I believe that Procuri was targeting procurement VP\u2019s \u2013 who are intensely interested in managing supply.<\/p>\n
Of course, Ariba bought out Procuri and retired the Procuri brand in the process. And new buzzwords came along.<\/p>\n
Today, a lot of tech companies are putting a lot of marketing effort behind the \u201ccloud computing\u201d theme. Case in point, on their non-text-intensive home page, Ariba mentions the word \u201ccloud\u201d at least a half-dozen times, features clouds as the dominant imagery, and calls their solution the \u201cAriba Commerce Cloud.\u201d On Coupa\u2019s home page, they mention \u201ccloud\u201d almost as much, titled their newsletter \u201cCloud Cents,\u201d and call their solution \u201cCoupa Cloud Spend Management.\u201d<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s see\u2026whose nerve does cloud computing strike? It\u2019s probably not the CFO or Procurement VP, many of whom struggle to understand how cloud computing is any different from SaaS and don\u2019t really give a crap because they are more interested in results than the buzzword du jour<\/em>.<\/p>\n No, cloud computing gets the IT folks all hot \u2018n bothered. So, does this shift in marketing mean that these providers are seeing the CIO becoming that \u201cmost influential team member\u201d when procurement technology is selected? Will the CIO be the driver of procurement technology investments in 2011? Does Ariba and Coupa\u2019s shift to the cloud marketing theme give Emptoris any kind of advantage with its more straightforward marketing pitch? Is Coupa simply trying to woo Ariba into an M&A situation rather than trying to target a specific decision-making role on the client side?<\/p>\n Time will tell. That is unless you beat time to the punch and use the comment link below to share your observations!<\/p>\n Recommended Reading<\/strong><\/p>\n In Procurement, Integrity Should Be The Price Of Admission<\/a> Every procurement technology acquisition project I\u2019ve been involved with has, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":4065,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-procurement"],"yoast_head":"\n
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