Emptoris

Emptoris is all that I know. I have never used another system. I think that it has all the tools that I would need to work in a procurement/sourcing function.

Emptoris is more useful if multiple modules are used simultaneously. For example, we can connect spend analysis and contracts management to generate smart reports and business insights. RFXs can be tied back to contract management and notifications sent out accordingly which helps in efficient vendor management.

It is a great overall product ... might be lacking a bit for complex optimizations compared to other newer solutions e.g. Keelvar.

Emptoris is well suited for any organization which has a high volume of contracts to manage.

I think for whatever the tool was lacking, IBM could come up with a solution rather quickly.

How experienced is your organization on eSourcing? The more experienced, the better the fit. How much are you willing to invest? Emptoris is not known for being the least expensive alternative. Are you looking for eSourcing only or integrated solutions? Although it can stay as a stand alone, Emptoris' higher value is the later.

Is best suited for RFP/RFQ process. How is the customization option, or are there any? Contracts/sub-contracts, OAs, MSAs, WSAs connected well? Sync with SAP functionality?

If you have a highly bureaucratic organization that is heavily focused on procurement, Emptoris can provide some value. It seemed to be very good at linking the contract information to procurement for better spend control. If you are trying to implement a standalone contract management solution that allows you to easily create contracts and store them in a central location, this isn't the tool for you. There doesn't appear to be a simplified implementation. In general, when a SaaS solution has a complicated and expensive implementation, I am very skeptical. This does not show that the vendor is trying to move customers forward on a single code base. If that many things need to be done during implementation, you are starting to customize the solution for every customer. This hurts the vendor's ability to scale and make improvements in the future.

Obviously cost is a factor, not only upfront costs but upgrades. What other software does the program integrate with? What is the workflow process for approvals? Is there a built in functionality to support regulatory requirements? Can the dashboard be customized?

Any company who needs more monitoring and has frequent contract language changes due to negotiations with parties can utilize the Emptoris Contracts software to a greater extent. Key Business Questions that are answered on Emptoris:

• More clause language.
• Multiple language support
• Maintenance of the contracts during the life cycle.
• Bringing Legacy contracts into new system and its maintenance.
• Monitoring the contract and important remainders based on contract.
• Complex contract approval process due to the business complexity.
• User roles and responsibilities - Privileges.
• Version comparison difficulties.

Many more..

There are good amount of features on Emptoris that can be used, which improves the business process cycle times.

Emptoris is well suited for inserting custom criteria to see how contracts can be grouped together. How will you use your contract management software? Is it important that it can be used over a variety of platforms? Will it need to be customized quite a bit? Would you prefer something that can be accessed through a web-app?

It is well suited for creating project budgets and managing the work done on the projects.

It is well suited for contract management. I would ask if it can become a truly paperless system by allowing all credentialing materials to be loaded into Emptoris and sent to the next step.

It is suitable if you are able to have a best practice area in the tool, where you can go and look at common questions in the industry.