- 02
- APR
- 2011
PIU Insider: Consolidation and spend management providers - D&B buys Supplierforce
Author: Ben Ngobi - Categories: Working Capital
Dun & Bradstreet (D&B), the world's leading provider of global business information, tools and insight, will today announce an expansion of its product and service offering by purchasing the end-to-end supplier management software-as-a-service platform, Supplierforce.
An insider press release issued to the PIU claims that the purchase will compliment D&Bs procurement and financial management offerings through the ability to deliver a "single solution that seamlessly integrates supplier information management (SIM), risk performance and typical areas of sourcing and contract management into a single view of suppliers is internationally unique".
These benefits will be realisable through the online collaboration of customers and their suppliers, already possible through the Supplierforce service offering; starting with information management and extending to sourcing/tender management, contract, performance and risk management, the release affirms.
Gareth Jones, European president for D&B, and Declan Kearney, founder and CEO, are clearly happy about the deal. In Jones's view, the "Supplierforce platform is the perfect complement to D&B's existing Supply Management offering". Kearney believes that being part of the "D&B family, Supplierforce will have access to world-class data, significantly enhanced risk and information management capabilities, technology development and sales and marketing teams needed to make a real impact in the market".
In my view, the purchase of Supplierforce represents a continuing transformation towards consolidation in the spend management domain. PIU spend analysis research identified a range of vendors claiming to provide better spend management solutions, but the market has reached critical mass. There are simply too many spend management providers and their survival will be dependent on how unique and value adding their systems are compared to rivals - not to mention their profitability.
Does the move towards the existence of only a few vendors represent reduction in choice and therefore capabilities? Will consolidation increase spend management software prices charged by the remaining few dominant providers, or is this simply the best way forward?
