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David Morel

2011 Sourcing Feature Survey Results…

Posted by David Morel on Jul 23, 2010 9:28:39 PM

2011 Sourcing Feature Survey Results…

 

I wanted to thank all that have responded to the 2011 Sourcing Feature Survey.  The responses had some surprises and some that I knew would be right near the top.  I also appreciate all the comments supplied with the responses.  Having both your scores and comments really helps to give some depth to the responses.

 

I have filtered the initial list from 25 down to the top 10 based upon the survey responses.  I would like to hear from the Ariba Sourcing community which of these ten need to be ranked the highest and why you feel that way.  I am thinking some customer’s use case might influence others and really push the really most important issues to the top!

 

To keep everyone focused, I plan to post five of the top 10 for the initial discussions.  I will add the 2nd five in a week or so.

 

The First Five Features:

  • Expand Event      Limits(Items/Suppliers/Terms)        
    • Buyers       want to run larger and larger events, and have the ability to optimize on       such is a must. The ability to have more line items/terms and suppliers       is desired.
  • Messaging Improvements - package 02     
    • 1.       Include “To” columns
    • 2.       Sorting on all columns
    • 3.       Show all event messages to the Event Owner, not just the ones I       sent/received
    • 4.       Ability to turn off the suppliers’ email from the “reply field” in the       sent email to keep from corresponding outside the event
  • % completion on RFI's/surveys
    • Ability       for the buyer to see a % completion figure for each of the respondents       that have indicated they intend to participate.
  • Grading and Scoring Improvements -      Package 02  
    • 1.       Grading Page Pivot UI/Performance Improvements
    • 2.       Ungraded Questions Filter - allow for a filter on the Grading Page to       show only ungraded questions
    • 3.       Offline Grading via Excel/Word - at minimum, allow for a very usable       print version of the Grading Page, so it can be distributed to external       graders to record their grades, and have them entered manually.  The ideal solution would be a way for       grades to be collected offline and then imported into the system.
  • Improve Supplier Response Team  
    • Add       the ability to create a Supplier Response Team after the event has been       published.

 

 

Second Five Features…

  • RFx Print Feature Enhancements    
    • Ability       for the buyer to generate the RFx print for all suppliers in that       responded and download them.  Also,       for the supplier to be able to generate theirs no matter the event       status.  Currently, the event has       to be in Pending Selection.
  • OK Processor for outgoing emails
    • Currently,       we provide a message if a message to a supplier that fails to reach the       supplier because of a bad email address.        This would provide the ability to tell if an outgoing email has       arrived successfully at the destination site.
  • Messaging Improvements - package 01
    • 1.       Show a replied to message as “replied to” for all the buyers
    • 2.       Ability to Export all messages
    • 3.       Search in Message Board on both headers and content
    • 4.       Add a message filter for all messages from participants and related       responses
    • 5.       “Question” and “Question Answered” tick
  • Messaging Improvements - package 03
    • 1.       Ability to message what was updated during a RTE
    • 2.       Team members receiving messages when events change status
    • 3.       Ability to resend event invitation from within event
    • 4.       Ability to control which messages are going via email or popup       notification
  • Grading and Scoring Improvements -      Package 01  
    • 1.       Ability to display an Event Scorecard
    • 2.       Show a rank for participants based upon Score
    • 3.       Multiple Scoring Scenarios/Scorecards per event"
  • Grading and Scoring Improvements -      Package 03  
    • 1.       Grading Excel Report/Export - provide a nice report that summarizes the       grading and scores for the event
    • 2.       Grading of Autoscore Values

 

 

If you have an opinion on these features and want to influence their final prioritization, start a discussion in the Sourcing Community and let us all know what you think!

 

Thank you!

 

David Morel

Senior Solution Manager

 

 

Updated: Added the second top 5 features. (8/4/2010)

968 Views Tags: sourcing, 10s3, feature_survey


Comments (15)
Jul 27, 2010 1:47 PM Madison Goodwin Madison Goodwin    says:

"Grading & Scoring Improvements - Package 02" is the most important of all enhancements for HP.  We often run global events with large business stakeholder teams involved in supplier evaluation.  We believe offline grading, especially with an import/ export function, as well as the other features in this package, such as the ungraded questions filter, would improve our user experience substantially and drive adoption of the grading functionality in general.  Usage of scoring/ grading in the system would provide big pay-offs in terms of cycle time reduction, stakeholder collaboration, knowledge management, etc.

Jul 27, 2010 1:56 PM Madison Goodwin Madison Goodwin    says:

Expand Event Limits (Items/Suppliers/Terms) is also in our top 5 wishlist.  We often have to issue multiple RFx's when we have a large (100+) supply base, which happens a lot in the indirect space, in particular for categories such as contract labor, legal services, etc.  Then we have to do work-arounds to get these supplier responses evaluated across multiple events, and are certainly posed with challenges if it looks like we want to run an auction with >100 suppliers.  From an item and terms perspective, we often have to structure things sub-optimally in order to stay below the thresholds.  Would be interested in hearing from others who have handled similar challenges.
Jul 27, 2010 2:23 PM David Morel David Morel    says in response to Madison Goodwin:

Madison,

 

I am not sure I even want to know the answer to this, but how many suppliers would be enough to make this worthwile for you?

Jul 27, 2010 2:52 PM Madison Goodwin Madison Goodwin    says in response to David Morel:

I would say 200 suppliers would cover about 80% of our projects where we exceed 100, and 300 suppliers would cover >95%.  Not so bad, right?! ;-)
Jul 28, 2010 11:55 AM David Morel David Morel    says in response to Madison Goodwin:

Now, you do know you can run an event now with 200 suppliers in the CD environment, via the Spreadsheet Event type.

 

200 suppliers is a big jump!  Shortly, we expect to allow CD customers to have an event with 150 suppliers, that iwll help some, no?
Jul 28, 2010 12:01 PM David Morel David Morel    says in response to Madison Goodwin:

Madison brings up a good point, about the problems with running multiple events.  What if we were able to take multiple events and combined them into a special aggregation event after the individual events had run.  This aggregation event would be for reporting, optimization and awarding.  Would that help in the situation?  Others, let me know your thoughts!

 

Also, I would like to recommend a strategy for the types of events that you mentioned.  Have you tried running events broken up by say regions.  This could be 5 events with different line items and suppliers associated with the line items in each of the regions.  Then aggregate those regions into Super Regions and run as say 2 events with those items and only those suppliers that could bid on all the items.  Then, lastly, run the same event with a winner take all, if that was possible.  This way you are running the event multiple ways and can award the way that is best for your company.  We have done such with a lot of spends like you describe and it is quite effective.
Jul 29, 2010 1:53 PM Scott Meiser Scott Meiser    says:

I think the grading functionality is the key item on this list.  However, instead of just changing the grading functionality we have to think about how grading is done and give the functionality to the user the way they need to see it.  The grading user could be anyone in an organization and they tend to be a casual user - they may participate in the occassional tender or place the occasional requisition.  If a casual end-user cannot pick-up the tool when engaged on an ad-hoc basis and feel comfortable they may not come back.  That matters because, like it or not, in most organizations Procurement is still selling our customers on Procurement involvement.

 

At Ariba Live 2010,  We heard a great deal about making B2B commerce more like B2C - like Amazon, like eBay, and so forth.  That goes beyond the macro level transactional and organizational enablement strategies and hits end-user usability like eBay's rate this seller/rate this buyer or (shhh) Ariba's own Discovery product(!).

 

How about, instead of Amazon and eBay we go for Geico..."so easy a caveman can do it"?

Jul 29, 2010 2:48 PM Madison Goodwin Madison Goodwin    says in response to David Morel:

"Now, you do know you can run an event now with 200 suppliers in the CD environment, via the Spreadsheet Event type.

 

200 suppliers is a big jump!  Shortly, we expect to allow CD customers to have an event with 150 suppliers, that iwll help some, no?"

 

-->Yes, 150 suppliers will certainly help.  We have tried the spreadsheet format but were not able to successfully launch an event in that format.

 

Have any other customers used the spreadsheet format?
Jul 29, 2010 2:51 PM Madison Goodwin Madison Goodwin    says in response to David Morel:

"What if we were able to take multiple events and combined them into a special aggregation event after the individual events had run.  This aggregation event would be for reporting, optimization and awarding.  Would that help in the situation?"

--> Yes, an aggregation would certainly help for reporting, optimization, scoring, awarding, etc.  But, another key consideration is the message board.  When a project is split into multiple events due to the supplier size limitations, we have to ensure that all suppliers across all 3 events (for example) receive the full Q&A from each event.  Management of multiple events is certainly tricky.
Jul 30, 2010 8:03 AM David Morel David Morel    says in response to Scott Meiser:

Scott, love your take on the Grading and Scoring, apologies to all Cro-magnums in the audience! I have a unique idea of doing just what you are talking about with regards to Grading!  I am working with a team to flesh out the idea to see if it is even feasible.  Stay Tuned!
Jul 30, 2010 8:15 AM Scott Meiser Scott Meiser    says in response to David Morel:

Reed Elsevier would be happy to commit some resources to a design idea or feedback workshops.  Just let me know.
Jul 30, 2010 11:56 AM David Morel David Morel    says in response to Scott Meiser:

Thanks Scott, I appreciate that and your team would be one of the first I would call for such knowing your interest in improving such functionality.

Jul 30, 2010 11:57 AM David Morel David Morel    says in response to Madison Goodwin:

Madison,

 

What issues have you had with the Spreadsheet event?  Have you reported such with Support?  GSO runs events with that template quite often.

Jul 30, 2010 11:58 AM David Morel David Morel    says in response to Madison Goodwin:

Agreed, having the messageboard in one place should be done, but all of this would be post event, not helping in the managerial issues.

Aug 4, 2010 8:10 AM David Morel David Morel    says in response to David Morel:

Added the 2nd Top Five Features...check them out and please provide your comments!

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