The market for vendor management systems (VMS) and platforms and overall contingent and non-contingent services procurement enablement continues to reach new levels of interest (but not necessarily overall adoption, which I’ll get to in a minute). Earlier this morning, Fieldglass announced very solid customer acquisition growth in 2010 through the end of July, with “more than 30 new companies” signing on to use their VMS. This announcement further reinforces growth I’m seeing in the general market with Fieldglass competitors, many of whom are having strong years as well. In no particular order, here are a few anecdotal observations on how this market is evolving I think are worth considering:
- Procurement organizations continue to appear to be taking greater control over contingent and non-contingent spending and are turning to VMS solutions to help drive and automate their own programs (almost always in tandem with MSPs, but not in all cases). However, those running services procurement within procurement organizations come, in many cases, from an HR or other departmental background (not procurement), despite their reporting structure…
