Supply Excellence — Research Wrap Up: Supply Management Gets SaaSy

Research Wrap Up: Supply Management Gets SaaSy

November 10th, 2006 · by Tim Minahan · No Comments · On Demand/SaaS, events, supply management

Over the past few weeks I have been investigating the Top 5 Supply Strategies identified by the nearly 300 supply management and business executives attending Procuri Empower 2006. The conference survey also revealed that supply managent executives prefer to adopt sourcing, contract, and supplier management solutions in an On Demand or Software as a Service (SaaS) mode, which deliver application functionality as a shared, subscription-based Web-based service, eliminating the need to install or maintain costly software or hardware.

Supply management execs also reported that accessing supply management solutions in an SaaS mode provides faster time-to-deployment, lower up front costs, and lower total lifecycle costs than installed software. Other SaaS benefits noted by respondents included more frequent functional upgrades, better support services, and lower risks.

Empower 2006 study findings echo those cited in recent studies from research houses, IDC, Triple Tree and Aberdeen Group. Triple Tree calls “On Demand Supply Management one of the best but least known ROI stories in the technology industry.”

Aberdeen’s recent On Demand Supply Management Benchmark study found that On Demand users are able to drive 28% more spend under management within the first year of deployment than those using installed software. According to the report, for a $1 billion company, the faster time-to-value afforded by SaaS can yield an additional $2 million in hard dollar supply cost savings in year one above and beyond what could be accomplished with installed supply management software. Access the complete study findings here.

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