Global Enabled Supply And Demand Chain Series: Sourcing

Overview: Sourcing is a market that suffers from the lack of a discernable leader, offers applications that are simplistic in the midst of a very complex business process and bidding event functionality that is similar between products. Until the hype generated during the overblown Internet bubble died down, along with the excitement of the reverse auction, software providers were hard pressed to create broad functionality in their offerings with strategic e-sourcing. However, the next few months should mark a change in this trend. The potential for the e-sourcing providers in the coming year looks exciting, but challenges still lay ahead. As this software market's potential has emerged over the last few years, software and services providers rushed in, but none with a complete footprint to support the cross-commodity requirements of large, diversified and complex corporations, suggests AMR Research. Within a large number of future requirements in functionality, AMR Research lists bill of material (BOM)-based sourcing, category management, commodity team collaboration, cost savings tracking, internal performance management, process management, program management, specification management, supplier discovery and qualification, supplier outreach and training, and supplier performance management as some of the top requirements for e-sourcing application functionality. The e-sourcing market may be populated with dozens of providers, but each one often has a very different functional footprint and value proposition for its potential clients.

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Format: HTML | Date: Mar 2003 | Pages: 1