http://www.forrester.com/ Forrester is an independent technology research company that provides pragmatic and forward-thinking advice about technology's impact on business. en-us 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 120 http://www.forrester.com/imagesV2/affiliates/logos/forrester.gif http://www.forrester.com/ http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=40694&src=RSS_TopicGroupFeed Increasingly, manufacturers and retailers must compete in a dynamic collaborative environment in which today's collaborator is tomorrow's competitor. To benchmark the state of industry collaboration, Forrester partnered with Consumer Goods Technology and RIS News for the second annual report on the state of manufacturer and retailer collaboration. The resulting data and analyses — based on a survey of 80 manufacturers and 89 retailers — cover key topics and trends, including demand planning and forecasting, collaborative product development, trade promotion management, marketing collaboration, supply chain execution, and foundational technologies like RFID and global data synchronization. Information & Knowledge Management Marketing & Advertising Packaged Applications Consumer Packaged Goods eBusiness/eCommerce Manufacturing Retail Transportation & Logistics Tue, 19 Dec 2006 05:00:00 GMT "Nikki Baird" <resourcecenter@forrester.com> http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=40694&src=RSS_TopicGroupFeed http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=39511&src=RSS_TopicGroupFeed SAP acquired eSourcing specialist Frictionless Commerce on May 17, 2006, filling a hole in its supplier relationship management suite. Forrester had expected such a move for some time. Our Forrester Wave&trade; evaluations of supplier relationship management (SRM) and spend management products such as eProcurement, eSourcing, and contract life-cycle management had shown SAP to be lagging behind leading competitors. The Frictionless acquisition does significantly improve SAP's product offering in sourcing. However, it still leaves other gaps in SAP's SRM suite, such as contract management, spend analysis, sourcing bid optimization, and supplier enablement. We expect SAP to close those gaps through a combination of: 1) internal software development (building); 2) one more acquisition (buying); and 3) partnerships with independent software vendors (ISVs). Packaged Applications Sourcing & Procurement eBusiness/eCommerce Fri, 19 May 2006 04:00:00 GMT "Andrew Bartels" <resourcecenter@forrester.com> http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=39511&src=RSS_TopicGroupFeed http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=38518&src=RSS_TopicGroupFeed Founded in 2000, Upside Software focuses more on ease of adoption and deployment rather than having the most leading-edge features. As a result, Upside Software offers a very good contract life-cycle management (CLM) product, which scores just behind diCarta in the strength of its current offering. It is strong across the board, with very good scores for contract optimization, contract fulfillment tracking, and contract approval and good scores for contract creation, contract repository, contract negotiation, and types of contracts supported. Its integration features are better than average, and it has attractive hosting options for either single-instance hosting or shared-instance ASP-type hosting, with average globalization support and a good technology platform. Upside Software receives top scores for its strategic position, which was very good thanks to good product strategies, good corporate strategies, and good financial resources. All of these factors have contributed to Upside Software's large and growing client base. Packaged Applications Sourcing & Procurement eBusiness/eCommerce Fri, 10 Mar 2006 05:00:00 GMT "Andrew Bartels" <resourcecenter@forrester.com> http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=38518&src=RSS_TopicGroupFeed http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=38501&src=RSS_TopicGroupFeed Like Ariba, Emptoris built its contract life-cycle management (CLM) product as a part of a larger buy-side solution suite, and its clients have used it mostly for buy-side contract management. However, Emptoris is also positioning the product as one that can be used for other types of contracts. Its CLM product is relatively new and less widely used than Ariba's, with only 15 clients using it so far. It scores in the lower third of the vendors evaluated here on the strength of its current offering. It receives top marks for its contract fulfillment tracking and good scores for buy-side contract support and contract optimization. Its contract creation tools and contract negotiation capabilities are average or above average, but its contract repository, contract approval support, and support for sell-side, intellectual property, and other contracts are below average. It has very good globalization features, but average technology options and below-average integration tools. It supports single-instance hosting, and partners such as IBM, Accenture, and IBX offer shared-instance hosting. Strategically, Emptoris is in the middle of the pack, with good financial resources but average product and corporate strategies. Packaged Applications Sourcing & Procurement eBusiness/eCommerce Fri, 10 Mar 2006 05:00:00 GMT "Andrew Bartels" <resourcecenter@forrester.com> http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=38501&src=RSS_TopicGroupFeed http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=38512&src=RSS_TopicGroupFeed As one of the pioneers in the contract life-cycle management (CLM) market, by 2003 I-many had built a client base of over 200 pharmaceutical and life science companies that used its product for managing sell-side contracts. It has shifted its focus to buy-side and enterprisewide contracts in the past two years. Its product is generally very good in terms of current offering, with top scores in support for sell-side contracts, contract approval, and contract fulfillment tracking; very good scores for contract creation, contract repository, and support for buy-side contracts; and good scores in contract optimization and contract negotiation support. I-many's integration, single-instance hosting, and globalization features were good, but it does not offer the option of shared-instance hosting, and its technology options and features are average. Strategically, it has good product and corporate strategies, but it is hampered by a shaky revenue and profit position. It has several hundred clients, although growth in recent years has been relatively modest. Packaged Applications Sourcing & Procurement eBusiness/eCommerce Fri, 10 Mar 2006 05:00:00 GMT "Andrew Bartels" <resourcecenter@forrester.com> http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=38512&src=RSS_TopicGroupFeed http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=38499&src=RSS_TopicGroupFeed Having offered contract management and contract creation tools as part of its enterprise spend management suite for several years, Ariba has been principally used for buy-side contracts. But in the past year, Ariba has started positioning its contract tools for other types of contracts as well, following the lead of clients that were already using the product for this purpose. Its contract management product is a very good one overall, ranking second in current offering. It has top scores for buy-side contract support and contract fulfillment tracking and second-best scores for contract negotiation and contract approval. Ariba is weaker in its support for sell-side and intellectual property contracts. In terms of features, it has good scores for integration, single-instance hosted options, and globalization. Its shared-instance (or "on-demand") hosted option is new, and would score higher if it had more clients. Ariba's product and corporate strategies are very competitive, and the company has good financial resources to pursue its strategy. It has over 100 clients using its product for buy-side contract management and 15 to 20 using it for other types of contracts. Packaged Applications Sourcing & Procurement eBusiness/eCommerce Fri, 10 Mar 2006 05:00:00 GMT "Andrew Bartels" <resourcecenter@forrester.com> http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=38499&src=RSS_TopicGroupFeed http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=38514&src=RSS_TopicGroupFeed An established player in contract life-cycle management (CLM) with its Service Contracts product, Oracle is also a new entrant to the market with the Sales Contracts and Procurement Contracts products that it introduced in 2004. Our evaluation of all three products places Oracle fifth in the strength of its current offering, a notch below Nextance. Functional strengths include support for services contracts, support for sell-side contracts (second-best), contract optimization (second-best, with two others), contract negotiation (third-best, tied with Upside Software), and contract repository (third-best). Oracle's contract creation, contract approval, and contract fulfillment tracking tools are average. Its integration, globalization, and scalability features are strong, but its technology and hosted offering options are more limited, even though the programming language, database, and single-instance hosted offerings that it does support are good. Strategically, it is very well-positioned, with a competitive product strategy, a good corporate strategy, and excellent financial resources to support its strategy. Packaged Applications Sourcing & Procurement eBusiness/eCommerce Fri, 10 Mar 2006 05:00:00 GMT "Andrew Bartels" <resourcecenter@forrester.com> http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=38514&src=RSS_TopicGroupFeed http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=38505&src=RSS_TopicGroupFeed Having launched its product in late 2004, Hummingbird is a new entrant in the contract life-cycle management (CLM) market. However, its enterprise content management tools have been used by its clients to create contracts for several years, and Hummingbird has been able to acquire over 20 clients for its new CLM product in just a year. That product is a new one, though, and its current offering scores lower than those of more established competitors. It has good scores for contract repository, contract optimization, and contract negotiation, but its scores are average for contract creation, contract types supported, and contract approval. In terms of features, it scores very well for globalization and technology options and has a good score for integration, but it does not offer any hosted options. Strategically, it scores well, with good scores for product strategy and financial resources and an average score for corporate strategy. We would expect Hummingbird's current offering scores to rise in the future as it moves toward the next release of its product. Packaged Applications Sourcing & Procurement eBusiness/eCommerce Fri, 10 Mar 2006 05:00:00 GMT "Andrew Bartels" <resourcecenter@forrester.com> http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=38505&src=RSS_TopicGroupFeed http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=38011&src=RSS_TopicGroupFeed To assess the state of the contract life-cycle management market and see how the vendors stack up against each other, Forrester evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of 10 leading contract life-cycle management vendors across 98 criteria. The result: the specialist vendors like diCarta, I-many, and Upside Software that helped create the category are still the Leaders in terms of features and functions, but they have been joined by Ariba. Nextance continues to have a strong current offering, but faces competition from new entrants like Hummingbird, Procuri, Oracle, and Selectica, who are catching up and have strong competitive positions. Included in this report is an interactive vendor comparison tool that provides detailed product evaluations and customizable rankings. Packaged Applications Sourcing & Procurement eBusiness/eCommerce Fri, 10 Mar 2006 05:00:00 GMT "Andrew Bartels" <resourcecenter@forrester.com> http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=38011&src=RSS_TopicGroupFeed http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=38515&src=RSS_TopicGroupFeed A sourcing suite vendor, Procuri has recently added contract life-cycle management (CLM) to its portfolio. Unlike Ariba and Emptoris, however, Procuri acquired an existing CLM vendor, Contract Management Solutions, Inc. (CMSI), which had an established product that was being used for both buy-side and sell-side contracts. Prior to the acquisition, CMSI had built up a client base of over 100 clients that had acquired its product primarily for department-level contracts based on the product's low entry price, although many clients had then used it more widely. Consistent with its history, the Procuri CLM product scores are average in this group, with average to good functions. It offers a good contract repository and very good contract optimization tools. Its contract creation tools, contract approval, support for different types of contracts, and contract fulfillment tracking are above average, but contract negotiation is below average. Functions for integration, globalization, hosting options, and technology are also below average. Strategically, Procuri has good financial resources, but its product and corporate strategies for CLM are average or lower. Packaged Applications Sourcing & Procurement eBusiness/eCommerce Fri, 10 Mar 2006 05:00:00 GMT "Andrew Bartels" <resourcecenter@forrester.com> http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=38515&src=RSS_TopicGroupFeed http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=38516&src=RSS_TopicGroupFeed A new player in the contract life-cycle management (CLM) market, Selectica entered the field by acquiring Determine Software in May 2005 after its effort to acquire I-many was voted down by its shareholders. Selectica has had only half a year to revamp the Determine product offering, and its scores suggest that this is still a work in progress. Selectica's current CLM product scores in the middle in most functional areas, with good scores in contract repository and above-average or average scores in other functions. Its feature scores are better, with good scores for hosted shared-instance options and technology, above-average scores for integration, and average scores for globalization. Selectica's product strategy is good, but its corporate strategy is weak and its financial resources to support its strategy are hampered by continuing declines in revenues and persistent losses. Packaged Applications Sourcing & Procurement eBusiness/eCommerce Fri, 10 Mar 2006 05:00:00 GMT "Andrew Bartels" <resourcecenter@forrester.com> http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=38516&src=RSS_TopicGroupFeed http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=38500&src=RSS_TopicGroupFeed From its start in 1998, diCarta has been a leading vendor in contract life-cycle management (CLM), and its focus on providing the leading product comes across in our evaluation. It receives the highest scores for current offering, and one of the top scores for strategy. In terms of product functions, diCarta scores very well on contract creation, contract repository, contract negotiation, contract types supported, and contract optimization. Its scores for contract approval and contract fulfillment tracking are good, but not top-notch. diCarta also has top scores for features such as integration and hosted options. The company is well-positioned strategically, with good or very good product and corporate strategies and sufficient financial resources to be successful. Packaged Applications Sourcing & Procurement eBusiness/eCommerce Fri, 10 Mar 2006 05:00:00 GMT "Andrew Bartels" <resourcecenter@forrester.com> http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=38500&src=RSS_TopicGroupFeed http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=38513&src=RSS_TopicGroupFeed Nextance offers a very capable contract life-cycle management (CLM) product, which is in a virtual tie with Ariba and Upside Software and ranks behind diCarta. It has top scores in several functional areas, including contract repository, contract approval, and support for intellectual property contracts. It has the second-highest score for contract creation, and it also has good scores for contract fulfillment tracking. Contract negotiation and contract optimization functions are more average. Its integration and globalization features are average, and its hosted options are very limited; this offering is primarily software for deployment behind the corporate firewall. Nextance's technology features, on the other hand, are very strong, with an innovative use of an XML database as its contract repository and strengths in scalability, customization, and security. Strategically, Nextance is a mix of strengths and weaknesses, with good scores for planned enhancements, technology partners, and corporate focus, but with average financial resources and an average pricing strategy. Packaged Applications Sourcing & Procurement eBusiness/eCommerce Fri, 10 Mar 2006 05:00:00 GMT "Andrew Bartels" <resourcecenter@forrester.com> http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=38513&src=RSS_TopicGroupFeed http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=37630&src=RSS_TopicGroupFeed New technologies are allowing consumer products (CP) manufacturers and retailers to work together more extensively. To benchmark the state of industry collaboration, Forrester partnered with Consumer Goods Technology and RIS News. The resulting data and analysis — based on a survey of 120 manufacturers and 89 retailers — cover key topics including transportation management, collaborative demand planning, trade promotion management, co-marketing, collaborative product development, RFID, and global data synchronization. Information & Knowledge Management Marketing & Advertising Packaged Applications Consumer Packaged Goods eBusiness/eCommerce Manufacturing Retail Transportation & Logistics Mon, 21 Nov 2005 05:00:00 GMT "Christine Spivey Overby" <resourcecenter@forrester.com> http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=37630&src=RSS_TopicGroupFeed http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=37942&src=RSS_TopicGroupFeed Measured purely on strength of functions, Emptoris is the top eSourcing suite vendor. With an edge over its closest competitor, Ariba, in key functions like spend analysis, supplier assessment, and optimized bid decisions, Emptoris got top scores in spend analysis, supplier discovery (tied with Ariba), supplier assessment (tied with Frictionless), RFx/reverse auctions, sourcing decision, and sourcing activity management (tied with Ariba). It ranks lower in features like integration (where its tools are in the middle of the pack) and hosted options (where it only offers hosting of licensed software and does not provide either fully-managed hosted sourcing or self-service shared-instance hosting). However, it gets top marks for its globalization features. Packaged Applications Sourcing & Procurement eBusiness/eCommerce Thu, 17 Nov 2005 05:00:00 GMT "Andrew Bartels" <resourcecenter@forrester.com> http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=37942&src=RSS_TopicGroupFeed http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=37948&src=RSS_TopicGroupFeed Perfect Commerce provides a good balance of functionality and price. Its current offering scored in the middle of the pack, on par with PeopleSoft and SAP and slightly behind Oracle and Global eProcure. Its strengths include good modules for spend analysis, supplier assessment, and RFx and reverse auctions. However, supplier discovery and sourcing decision tools are average, and sourcing activity management is below average. It has good integration tools, but hosting options are limited — it only offers a shared-instance application service provider (ASP) hosting — and globalization needs work. Still, its relatively low price and adequate functions make it an attractive option for sub-Global 2000 companies with relatively straightforward sourcing needs. Perfect has also done well financially, thanks to revenues from its eProcurement product and supplier network, making Perfect a relatively safe choice. Packaged Applications Sourcing & Procurement eBusiness/eCommerce Thu, 17 Nov 2005 05:00:00 GMT "Andrew Bartels" <resourcecenter@forrester.com> http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=37948&src=RSS_TopicGroupFeed http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=37944&src=RSS_TopicGroupFeed Despite being a small vendor, Global eProcure offers a competitive product at an attractive price. Its current offering score came in sixth place, ahead of PeopleSoft, Perfect, and SAP, but slightly behind Oracle. Its strengths include good but not outstanding modules for spend analysis, supplier assessment, supplier discovery, and RFx/reverse auctions; its weaknesses include sourcing decision tools and sourcing activity management. Although it has weak integration tools, it provides several hosting options — both single-instance and shared-instance ASP hosting — and while its globalization support isn't best in class, it's not bad. Its relatively low price and adequate functions make it an attractive option for sub-Global 2000 companies with relatively straightforward sourcing needs. Though small, Global eProcure has been profitable for several years with growing revenues, which make it a relatively safe choice. Packaged Applications Sourcing & Procurement eBusiness/eCommerce Thu, 17 Nov 2005 05:00:00 GMT "Andrew Bartels" <resourcecenter@forrester.com> http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=37944&src=RSS_TopicGroupFeed http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=37940&src=RSS_TopicGroupFeed eSourcing and spend analysis solutions help companies identify and negotiate savings on the goods and services that they buy from suppliers. While demand for fully managed sourcing services pioneered by FreeMarkets has been shrinking, demand is strong for both hosted self-service sourcing and licensed software. As a result, the market is still crowded, with two to three dozen different offerings available if vertical and geographic eMarkets are included. To cut through the clutter, Forrester evaluated top eSourcing solution vendors across 127 criteria. The result: Emptoris and Ariba are the clear leaders in current offering, with broader SRM suite vendors like Oracle and SAP starting to close in on the second-tier vendors like Frictionless Commerce, Perfect Commerce, Procuri, SynerTrade, and Verticalnet. While lower-cost vendors like Global eProcure and Iasta lack the functionality of the top vendors, their low cost gives them an edge at the bottom. Included in this report is an interactive vendor comparison tool that provides detailed product evaluations and customizable rankings. Packaged Applications Sourcing & Procurement eBusiness/eCommerce Thu, 17 Nov 2005 05:00:00 GMT "Andrew Bartels" <resourcecenter@forrester.com> http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=37940&src=RSS_TopicGroupFeed http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=37946&src=RSS_TopicGroupFeed Still lagging behind the leaders in key functions like spend analysis and sourcing activity management, Oracle is not yet a top-tier eSourcing suite vendor in terms of functionality. But the company received very good scores in supplier discovery (just behind the leader) and supplier assessment (tied with Emptoris and Frictionless), and received good scores in RFx/reverse auctions and sourcing decision. It also ranks high in features like integration and globalization, though it is middle-of-the-pack in hosted options (where it only offers hosting of licensed software). Oracle may not be a top-tier vendor yet, but it is investing in new capabilities to close the gap with the leaders, and it has the resources and focus to grow its presence in this market. Packaged Applications Sourcing & Procurement eBusiness/eCommerce Thu, 17 Nov 2005 05:00:00 GMT "Andrew Bartels" <resourcecenter@forrester.com> http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=37946&src=RSS_TopicGroupFeed http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=37945&src=RSS_TopicGroupFeed Based in the Midwest and offering a basic eSourcing product at a very low price, Iasta is a very small (20 people) eSourcing vendor. Its current offering scored lowest of all of the vendors reviewed, in large part because it does not offer its own spend analysis, supplier discovery, or supplier assessment products. Instead, it resells Ketera Technologies' spend analysis service and Open Ratings' supplier discovery and supplier assessment services. Of the functions Iasta itself provides, RFx and reverse auctions scored best; spend activity management is average; and sourcing decisions are weak. Iasta is only offered as a hosted, shared-instance service, so like other ASPs, it scored low on integration tools and on several hosting options. While by no means best in class, its very low price, basic functions, and ASP offering position it well in the US SMB market. Despite its small size, it has been profitable for several years with growing revenues. Packaged Applications Sourcing & Procurement eBusiness/eCommerce Thu, 17 Nov 2005 05:00:00 GMT "Andrew Bartels" <resourcecenter@forrester.com> http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=37945&src=RSS_TopicGroupFeed