
Is Business Intelligence the Answer to Supplier and Supply Chain Management?
Over on Supply Chain Management Review, an article by two Wipro consultants suggests that business intelligence (BI) software, such as the kind acquired by SAP and Oracle in recent years, is key to building supply chain visibility. The two argue that…

Spend Radar’s Beacon Expands (Part 2)
One of the questions asked by some of Spend Radar’s channel partners (and customers ) when first hearing of the tool is simple: does the world really need another spend-classification and -analysis product? Aren’t there enough already? The answer to this is not as simple as it might seem.

Rosslyn Analytics’ New Twist on Spend Visibility (Part 1)
While I plan, over the holiday break, to find as many ways as possible to ignore
numbers, charts, graphics, and useful and creative
quantitative displays of visual information in general, there was a time earlier in the month when, although ove…

Spend Radar’s Beacon Expands (Part 1)
A few weeks back, over the best Korean fried chicken in Chicago, if not the world, I
had the chance to catch up with Brian Daniels and Rod True of Spend Radar. In full disclosure,
Spend Radar is not only a sponsor of Spend Matters, but Brian is…

One Vote in Favor of Group Purchasing Organizations for Simple Categories
In the debate over group purchasing organizations (GPOs), I’m still
not entirely convinced that they represent a good investment outside
of a handful of select spend areas — at least for most companies.
After all, the payoff for doing sourc…
Aravo’s Tim Albinson Responds to Spend Matters
Editor’s note: Aravo’s Tim Albinson asked if he could have the chance to issue a formal response to this post from earlier today. After I agreed to turn over the virtual pen, he sent me this.
Jason,
Thanks for the great write-up — you do an ex…

Aravo’s $27 Million Funding Round: A Few Thoughts on Its Market Implications
Earlier this morning, Aravo announced a $27 million funding round led by Cisco. While you can read the details of the funding round in the above-linked Spend Matters column — along with some thoughts from the transaction’s lead engineer, Aravo’s CEO…
Beyond Spend Visibility — Zycus Takes a Broader Solution Path (Part 2)
In the first post in this series yesterday, I examined some of the factors driving Zycus’ impressive growth numbers, drilling specifically into their recent traction with both legacy (e.g., spend classification) and new (e.g., spend analysis, sourcin…
Beyond Spend Visibility — Zycus Takes a Broader Solution Path (Part 1)
Earlier this fall, I had the chance to get a regular business and solutions update from Zycus. Then, a few weeks later, I caught up with the Zycus team along with one of their customers in Chicago. Zycus’ reference customer, from a well-known medica…