Plano, TX — April 24, 2003 — A.T. Kearney's Procurement Solutions unit has unveiled the latest version of its e-sourcing suite, a re-engineered solution that will become available later this year.
The new eSourcing Suite 5.0i, a Web-based application based on technology from erstwhile Kearney offshoot eBreviate, enables sharing of data across supply management modules and includes improved functionality, enterprise integration and customization features to support varying negotiation strategies and customer look-and-feel requirements, according to the solution provider.
The solution's technologies allow transfer of data through the Spend Management, Sourcing Team Tools, Request for Proposal (RFP), Auction and Deal Management modules, which can be purchased as a suite or independently.
The suite can also be integrated with external applications to allow for such requirements as bulk loading of line-item spend information or smaller daily requests, such as supplier contact information. Templates and imports allow faster set up and better event management, the solution provider said.
The common security architecture in the suite allows for single sign-on capability, a single area for permissions management, a single place to tie into customer enterprise security managers such as LDAP (for user authentication) and different permission levels by product tailored to user roles.
Buyer-level customization features permit colors and fonts to be changed to match corporate standards, while I18N internationalization standards allow for implementing multiple languages and currencies.
Kearney is highlighting the suite's so-called "multi-round dynamic negotiations" functionality, which allows multiple responses to an RFP based on buyer feedback and is intended to maximize collaboration with suppliers. A template-driven interface facilitates fast auction builds, and supplier weighting capabilities can allow the solution to automatically improve or penalize a supplier's bid based on predetermined factors.
In addition, the solution provides for diversity spend reporting and tracking by supplier, either primary or secondary, or diversity classifications, such as minority-, women- and veteran-owned businesses. And the solution allows companies to partition spend as direct or indirect while retaining ability to analyze integrated spend by supplier and across organization and location dimensions.
Finally, user-defined business rules in the solution support spend data cleansing, allowing for spend codification and process repeatability.
The eBreviate eSourcing Suite 5.0i is slated for general availability in the third quarter 2003.
