There doesn’t seem to be a month go by without a new solution coming onto the market offering eSourcing software as part of their offering. Knowing which solution is suited to your business and level of procurement maturity is a minefield.
We’re starting to seeing two increasing trends:
- Solutions which focusing on a specific industry vertical.
- A rapidly developing market niche for solutions serving non-enterprise customers with a more user-friendly interface. Along with this, the software is increasingly quick and easy to implement and often does not require any external consultancy.
In this article, we’re going to focus predominantly on the second trend.
Which eSourcing solutions are best suited to mid-market businesses?
What do they offer, and what differentiates each of them?
This is not sponsored content
No provider has paid us to be part of this list. Ask yourself when reading other similar articles whether this is also true of them…
11 of the best eSourcing software for the Mid-Market
In putting this together, we deliberately tried to stay away from digital procurement tools in the eSourcing space which are focusing on specific verticals such as manufacturing companies or services spend.
All of these, as far as our research shows, are agnostic when it comes to the type of spend which can be sourced through the platforms.
If you’ve used any of these yourself, we would love to get your feedback on what you think. We plan to refresh the article a couple of times a year, as solutions are constantly adding features and new solutions come onto the market.
All of these solutions we have listed are easily within reach for businesses
What is considered a mid-market business?
For the sake of this article, we would consider any business above $50 million and below $1 billion in annual revenue to be a mid-market business.
Below $50 million we define as a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME). The European Union takes a very similar definition.
SMEs are unlikely to see an ROI on procurement software unless it’s a lower-priced software with relatively basic functionality.
Mid-market businesses, on the other hand, could invest in this software and easily see a quick return if they have the right change management and procurement talent in place.
Above $1 billion businesses are typically a target of established, enterprise source-to-pay and source-to-contract suites. I’m referring here to the likes of as SAP Ariba, GEP and Coupa procurement software.
1. DeepStream
DeepStream Technologies is a rapidly growing source-to-contract software based in London, providing an e-sourcing and contract management platform. They place a high focus on providing a great user experience and easy onboarding for suppliers.
CEO Jack Macfarlane was a guest on The Procuretech Podcast back on Series 2 in November 2021.
Their product eliminates the need for manual email communication by automating the complete workflow.
They are adding features continuously and roll out updates twice a month based on user feedback.
DeepStream provides 24/7 live support and their platform has full ISO 27001-certified security.
We’re also a partner of DeepStream here at Procurement Software. We love their UI/UX and can help you arrange a demo here.
2. Market Dojo
Market Dojo is a medium-sized UK software business, which started out as an e-sourcing platform . They now offer seven products, with the core offering of Market Dojo centred around the e-sourcing platform that streamlines the whole sourcing process, including RFQs, surveying, and auctioning.
MarketDojo’s CTO Nic Martin was a guest on The Procuretech Podcast back on Series 2 in November 2021.
- Category Dojo is a category spend insight solution that uses self-reporting to evaluate sourcing opportunities;
- Contract Dojo is a contract management tool that allows for the storage, management, and analysis of contracts;
- Innovation Dojo assists supplier collaboration by sharing and evaluating ideas;
- SIM Dojo ensures fast and effective supplier onboarding through workflow automation;
- SRM Dojo is a supplier management platform, and;
- Quick Quotes is Market Dojo’s tail spend management solution that also allows centralised data.
3. ProcurePort
ProcurePort is a well-established, mid-sized US enterprise providing a full stack eSourcing software platform.
Its platform allows for reverse auctions, automated RFP-RFI-RFQ, PR, and P2P processes, contract management, as well as spend analysis. Furthermore, ProcurePort offers custom auction SaaS solutions.
ProcurePort also offers specialist done-for-you services for managed reverse auctions and spend analysis.
4. Penny
Penny is a startup based in Saudi Arabia, offering a cloud-based Source-To-Pay solution.
It serves the needs of purchasing managers, procurement professionals and senior buyers.
It enables users to allocate, manage and monitor budgets. Aiming to streamline procurement requests and approvals, while providing accurate reports and data analysis.
Penny creates a single, consolidated central hub for all your procurement data. This makes it easy to access and ready for further analysis or audit.
Penny also enables users to create vendor catalogues, providing an easy user experience for teams, modelled after e-commerce. This aims to provide accurate ordering that minimises purchasing mistakes.
The platform is modular, so users can pick and choose only the functions their business needs.
Penny’s goal is to consolidate all of your organisation’s spending needs into a single, intelligent system.
5. Krinati
Krinati offers an eSourcing software solution that leverages knowledge management and team collaboration.
It automates the entire sourcing cycle, improves compliance and transparency, reduces cycle times, enhances teamwork, and promises a near-immediate return on investment.
With inputs from consulting organisations, procurement leaders, and suppliers, Krinati’s sourcing, contract management, and supplier management solutions aid businesses to ‘source with control’ through greater compliance and reduced risk.
Kritani develops products for eSourcing, contract management, and supplier management, as well as consulting services.
Kritani’s eSourcing products allow you to build questionnaires, pricing sheets, and auctions, ensuring a high level of compliance and transparency. Contract management features enable you to maintain a contract repository which can track expiry dates and contract obligations to help minimise risk.
Meanwhile, supplier management offers the ability to approve and reject supplier categories within supplier profiles and to provide dynamic feedback to sourcing teams.
6. Promena
Founded in 2001, Promena is based in Turkey and offers an end-to-end digital procurement solution. Its primary focus, however, is as an eSourcing software platform.
The Promena platform brings together a number of products. These include SRM, Quick RFQ, Auction Management and e-procurement.
Promena’s Request Management enables you to quickly create purchase requisitions. Eliminating the need for training, it features a user-friendly interface and flexible request management module.
Catalogue Management allows you to enjoy the e-commerce experience for your corporate supplies as you create requests faster and easier. Its granularity enables you to create different catalogues and identify them with various organizational units, budgets, or categories.
Purchase Order Management can digitise all your order processes across different categories – from creating a request form to an order form. This standardises your business processes and minimises errors.
With Promena, you can carry out requests, approvals and order management from one place to boost your procurement experience.
7. Curtis Fitch
Curtis Fitch is a software company, providing a variety of software solutions and services, including eSourcing module as part of their suite.
CF Suite, Curtis Fitch’s procurement software, offers a complete sourcing and contract-management solution. It takes care of the full eProcurement lifecycle. It combines four specialist procurement platforms: CF Insight, CF Source, CF Contracts, and CF Analytics.
These tools are designed to be used in tandem with each other, with the full suite enabling you to handle your entire supplier contract lifecycle all in one place:
You can:
- Build store and control contracts safely and securely
- Source products with an easy-to-use eSourcing platform
- Find suppliers with a supplier-questionnaire program
- Access, monitor and analyse all your procurement data in one place – getting quick answers to a range of supply-chain questions.
Curtis Fitch holds ISO 27001:2013 certification for Information Security Management, as certified by the globally recognised BSI.
8. MySupply
MySupply is a small but growing German eSourcing software startup offering an automated sourcing platform.
It features a game theory algorithm to fully automate negotiations. In addition, the platform also takes care of supplier research and offers comparisons by streamlining the process and visualising data.
It also comes as a plugin for SAP Ariba. The solution therefore also be completely integrated with customers who are using SAP Ariba as their base Source-to-Pay or Source-to-Contract platform.
9. Archlet
Archlet is a growing Swiss-based eSourcing software company, and an official spinoff company from the elite Swiss university ETH Zürich. They define themselves as a user-first experience that believes in informed and easy-to-use software solutions for modern business.
Co-Founders Tim Grunow and Lukas Wawrla were guests on The Procuretech Podcast back in November 2021.
Archlet’s software can be used as a standalone or in conjunction with other suites. It claims a ‘guided approach to sourcing optimization, AI-based algorithms and an intuitive user interface’. Archlet automatically validates data and highlights errors. It also works in the other direction, analysing optimal prices and highlighting biggest opportunities. Archlet also offers procurement scenario modelling (IFTTT) and data-guided negotiations.
The platform also allows for the design of custom bid sheets, as well as the use of templates. Finally, Archlet facilitates communication by creating automated feedback for suppliers and communicating information to stakeholders and decision makers.
10. LightSource
LightSource is an eSourcing software for strategic sourcing. It’s designed for both buyers and suppliers, offering tools for everybody in the supply chain ecosystem.
For buyers, LightSource makes it easy to find incredible suppliers, send RFQs, and make the best sourcing decisions while collaborating with your team.
For suppliers, LightSource makes it easy to review an RFQ, respond with quotes quickly to win business, and find new sales and margin-improvement opportunities.
The platform gives you access to the modern B2B network of suppliers and buyers in manufacturing. It aims to put an end to word-of-mouth referrals and endless Googling – replacing these lengthy processes with intelligent supplier recommendations.
LightSource enables you to collaborate with your teammates on strategic sourcing projects and collect quotes with ease. You can compare bids using insights automatically extracted from your normal day-to-day work, combined with vast publicly available resources.
Their “savings engine” helps manage BOMs, and cost-targets, and identifies new savings opportunities to create win-wins for buyers and suppliers.
11. Cotiss
Cotiss is an eSourcing solution from New Zealand that is tailored to small and mid-sized procurement teams. With a focus on ease of use, Cotiss’ solution is a wider procurement suite based on employs guided processes for best practices. It uses an intuitive modern design to provide users with a pain-free, customer-focused experience.
What sets Cotiss apart is its robust contract repository and supplier relationship management (SRM) features. Additionally, Cotiss offers a range of other features such as streamlined procurement planning, customisable workflows, compliance support, and sourcing & evaluation tools that include list creation, insights & analytics, and tender evaluation.
Cotiss also provides contract and risk management features, such as master templates, simplified awarding, and customisable risk settings. With Cotiss, users can rest assured that they have access to a full-suite procurement solution that prioritises ease of use and helps streamline their procurement processes.
Which is the best eSourcing software for you?
Start with the end in mind!
What do you want to get from it and what are your must-haves?
If it’s eAuction capability, then DeepStream, Promena, MarketDojo, Krinati and Archlet will be your go-to solutions
Maybe you want UI/UX and ease of implementation over everything else? Then DeepStream, Cotiss, MarketDojo and Archlet all definitely fit the bill.
What about procurement software with additional features beyond eSourcing? The best options are going to be Krinati, Promena, Penny and ProcurePort.
When it comes to pricing, all of them will be dependent upon your specifics. Whether it’s level of customisation, number of users or whether you’re able to buy different features as a modular structure.
If you’d like to have a chat about how we can help you source the best software for your requirements, then schedule an intro call. It would be great to learn more about what you’re looking for!
