Pittsburgh February 21, 2003 e-Sourcing survivor Moai Technologies this week launched the latest version of its sourcing management tool, beefing up the solution's collaboration, negotiation and analysis capabilities.
Version 4.6 of Moai's CompleteSource is the solution's third major upgrade in the past 12 months, according to the solution provider, which said that it is continuing to add features in response to customers' needs in an ever-changing marketplace.
"Moai consulted with existing customers and prospects in developing CompleteSource 4.6 to ensure it would provide the functionality they desired, streamlining the sourcing process for both buyers and suppliers," said Ravi Ghai, Moai's vice president of marketing. "With this release, suppliers are able to be more responsive and competitive throughout the bidding process, and buyers are better able to determine which supplier meets their needs on an individual [request-for-quote/-information] basis."
Specific upgrades in 4.6 include improved sourcing collaboration, with a flexible role infrastructure that allows a company to imbed its proprietary sourcing process directly into the workflow. Roles and responsibilities can be established for individuals as administrators, buyers, suppliers and project administrators. In addition, sourcing project and RFx leaders can designate other users as contributors to a specific RFx.
Moai has also tried to simplify the creation of complex cost models by providing tools to build total acquisition cost (TAC) models, which can then be published to the supplier community as desired. The buyer controls which parameters such as price x quantity, taxes, inventory costs, switching costs, quality and reliability are designated as part of the TAC. Buyer parameters for a given supplier may also be entered and revised prior to opening an offering. In addition, TAC information is used to rank suppliers during an offering and to determine the winner.
"CompleteSource 4.6 provides the flexibility needed to create cost models for RFx's on a case-by-case basis," said Ghai. "Users may alter cost parameters for an RFx to ensure they will choose the supplier that best meets their needs for that specific project."
With the new version's streamlined negotiation capabilities, negotiation at a line-item level enables the buyer to provide negotiation feedback to the bidder. Feedback is displayed directly on the bid form, allowing the bidder to respond more quickly, Moai says.
Buyers can use a "one-click" feature to export detailed bid data, including all lines and all bidders, to Microsoft Excel or .csv formats for review. "What if" analysis can be done by changing values in cells, with values recalculated and a new winning bidder indicated. Overall, Moai says that the new version offers increased compatibility with Excel, including new capabilities for import/export that enable buyers and suppliers to generate complex RFx's offline. Data also is available for use with third-party reporting tools.
User interface upgrades include draft bid and save functionality, improved message center functionality and simplified workflows, according to Moai, which says it plans to simplify the user interface for suppliers in future releases.
CompleteSource is available for Sun Solaris/Oracle and Windows 2000/Microsoft SQL Server platforms.
Enhancements planned for the next release target the areas of reporting, optimization, multi-language support and online e-learning training modules.
For more information on the current state of the e-sourcing market, see the Global Enabled Supply and Demand Chain Series article on sourcing in the February/March 2003 issue of iSource Business.
Version 4.6 of Moai's CompleteSource is the solution's third major upgrade in the past 12 months, according to the solution provider, which said that it is continuing to add features in response to customers' needs in an ever-changing marketplace.
"Moai consulted with existing customers and prospects in developing CompleteSource 4.6 to ensure it would provide the functionality they desired, streamlining the sourcing process for both buyers and suppliers," said Ravi Ghai, Moai's vice president of marketing. "With this release, suppliers are able to be more responsive and competitive throughout the bidding process, and buyers are better able to determine which supplier meets their needs on an individual [request-for-quote/-information] basis."
Specific upgrades in 4.6 include improved sourcing collaboration, with a flexible role infrastructure that allows a company to imbed its proprietary sourcing process directly into the workflow. Roles and responsibilities can be established for individuals as administrators, buyers, suppliers and project administrators. In addition, sourcing project and RFx leaders can designate other users as contributors to a specific RFx.
Moai has also tried to simplify the creation of complex cost models by providing tools to build total acquisition cost (TAC) models, which can then be published to the supplier community as desired. The buyer controls which parameters such as price x quantity, taxes, inventory costs, switching costs, quality and reliability are designated as part of the TAC. Buyer parameters for a given supplier may also be entered and revised prior to opening an offering. In addition, TAC information is used to rank suppliers during an offering and to determine the winner.
"CompleteSource 4.6 provides the flexibility needed to create cost models for RFx's on a case-by-case basis," said Ghai. "Users may alter cost parameters for an RFx to ensure they will choose the supplier that best meets their needs for that specific project."
With the new version's streamlined negotiation capabilities, negotiation at a line-item level enables the buyer to provide negotiation feedback to the bidder. Feedback is displayed directly on the bid form, allowing the bidder to respond more quickly, Moai says.
Buyers can use a "one-click" feature to export detailed bid data, including all lines and all bidders, to Microsoft Excel or .csv formats for review. "What if" analysis can be done by changing values in cells, with values recalculated and a new winning bidder indicated. Overall, Moai says that the new version offers increased compatibility with Excel, including new capabilities for import/export that enable buyers and suppliers to generate complex RFx's offline. Data also is available for use with third-party reporting tools.
User interface upgrades include draft bid and save functionality, improved message center functionality and simplified workflows, according to Moai, which says it plans to simplify the user interface for suppliers in future releases.
CompleteSource is available for Sun Solaris/Oracle and Windows 2000/Microsoft SQL Server platforms.
Enhancements planned for the next release target the areas of reporting, optimization, multi-language support and online e-learning training modules.
For more information on the current state of the e-sourcing market, see the Global Enabled Supply and Demand Chain Series article on sourcing in the February/March 2003 issue of iSource Business.
