Why ‘Best of Breed’‹ tools are the IKEA of procurement‹ solutions

We were recently asked what well-known consumer brand would we use to describe ourselves. After considering our range of services and our values, specifically our focus of delivering on-demand solutions to procurement through SaaS (Software-As-A-Service). We came to the conclusion of IKEA, and here’s why:

Modular

As with IKEA, the ‘best of Breed’ Solutions are modular. You can pick the best solutions from a wide range of options and easily plug them together to give a proficient ecosystem of procurement tools.

Easy to use

As most of these tools are on-demand and inexpensive, it is simply not feasible for a software company to stay in business if their tools are not easy to use. The adoption has to be quick and bring about a return, or the solution will just as easily be turned off again.

Rapid ROI

Most companies have pain points that they want to solve. It may be project management, supplier compliance, or savings. We have seen that ‘Best of Breed’ solutions can bring solutions to these pain points in less than a month and even days. It is not unusual for us to receive a call from a company wanting to run an auction that week. The savings are normally used to run more tenders. Or we have had companies who have set up a streamlined onboarding process for 1000’s of suppliers in under 6 weeks.

Good value

Careful design coupled simple user onboarding and ease of use ultimately means less support is needed and the product can be affordable. If customers are to come back, the software must be affordable and the results have to speak for themselves.

On-demand

You can just browse the ‘One-stop shop’ (AKA: the internet) of Best of Breed applications out there and choose what you want and buy it. Many of these solutions can be paid for with a credit card. We had a Tier One automotive manufacturer run an auction on a five-year contract of non-metallic fasteners, and save $50m. The auction only cost them £500.

Reliable

Again, coupled with the licensing model, people won’t come back if the solutions aren’t reliable. Gone are the days of many locally installed instances {on premise} with different version numbers and attributed issues. A true SaaS application is a single instance, multi-tenanted solution meaning it has one version online, that is always kept up to date and available for all.

Modern

Best of Breed software companies are dynamic, agile, and built on the latest technologies. Simply put they would not survive any other way. Customer requests can be implemented in months, not years and the reaction speed ensures the best solution is available for clients.

Functional

IKEA solutions are great. You rarely walk through their stores and come out with less than you bargained for. They provide the solutions you really need and they do the job. The whole premise of Saas, Best of Breed, On-demand solutions is that they have evolved to do specific tasks and bring revolution to the procurement industry.