For a Product Marketing Professional, receiving a final report from industry analysts is a pivotal milestone. It’s the moment where all our hard work is validated, and we gain invaluable insights into our market standing. This critical feedback not only highlights our strengths but also guides our strategic direction moving forward.
With that said, we are delighted that Ivalua is named a leader in the latest report from Forrester regarding Supplier Value Management Platforms. These report findings are the result of extensive effort and serve as a crucial tool to ensure we’re delivering the right features for our customers, staying ahead of market trends, and identifying key innovation opportunities.
Referencing the latest Forrester report on Supplier Value Management Platforms for Q3 2024, I’ll discuss how the research captures significant market changes since Forrester’s last evaluation in 2022, provide a comprehensive overview of their evaluation process, and highlight the key results and observations that support our market strategy.
Background
The Forrester Wave™: Supplier Value Management Platforms (SVM), Q3 2024 (released in September 2024) analyzed 33 critical criteria and identified the top 9 technology providers that stand out based on their robust offerings and forward-looking strategies.
This report is meant to assist buyers who are considering their options in the technology marketplace, with a focus on addressing the needs of the Chief Procurement Officer. Following The Forrester Wave™ Methodology, Forrester evaluates participants using a consistent and transparent process across all solution providers.
The Forrester Wave™ reports are always informative and are valuable tools in assessing solutions of all types. Their research is widely respected and trusted for providing in-depth, objective insights into the capabilities of different vendors.
What makes the Supplier Value Management report different is that Forrester is one of the few analysts that takes a comprehensive look across the entire Source-to-Pay segment instead of smaller parts of the process.
In fact, this recent report follows up their inaugural 2022 SVM Wave where they took the lead in introducing a holistic S2P evaluation approach.
This shift by Forrester seemed to be prophetic as other analysts made a similar move in their evaluations, and the SVM market saw significant growth in 2023 providing tangible proof of the changes in the market.
Pace of Innovation
If nothing else, The Forrester Wave™ speaks volumes about the pace of innovation. The leaders are focused upon SVM / Source-to-Pay solutions as the core of their business, recognizing the criticality of these solutions to a customer’s success.
This focus has allowed them to innovate for these functions and continuously deliver added value. Legacy providers primarily focused on ERP functionalities have seen a decline in the rankings.
This raises the question of whether best-in-class organizations will continue to rely on ERPs as a core component of their technology stacks, tightly integrated with Supplier Value Management (SVM) solutions.
As a result, the ability of leading SVM platforms to seamlessly integrate with ERP systems becomes increasingly critical for maintaining a competitive edge.
Additional Perspectives on the Report
Against this backdrop, there are several insights that can be gleaned from this latest report:
1. Shift from Tools to Interactive Experiences
Customers continue to look to solutions to provide an interactive experience that will facilitate adoption and achieve rapid value. The demand for real-time insights has replaced traditional spend analysis.
Organizations want to provide their business users and internal customers with a large set of data that can be combined within the solution into complex analyses. In addition, they want guided experiences to ensure ease of use and compliance.
At Ivalua, we agree with this analysis and have embraced this by developing a single database with a built-in analytics solution that can access all data within the solution. Further, our advanced AI powered assistant, embedded step-by-step training tools, and multiple collaboration channels empower and inform users and suppliers.
2. Supplier Management Continues to be Foundational
Supplier relationships and data remain the cornerstone of Supplier Value Management (SVM) processes. Due diligence and risk assessments are no longer a discreet activity, but part of an ongoing process that continuously monitors changes and informs decision-making.
As environmental, social, and governance (ESG) requirements take center stage, the volume and complexity of this data have increased significantly. The criticality and volume of this information require solutions that can integrate various third-party sources of specialty data and connect with other solutions within the customer’s IT ecosystem to combine and contextualize data.
Leading solutions can efficiently assimilate all this data and contextualize it with a customer’s procurement data to immediately inform processes. These solutions also provide an efficient and convenient platform to collaborate with suppliers to mitigate risks or highlight opportunities.
At Ivalua, our Supplier Management solutions offer a comprehensive 360-degree view of supplier information and activity, facilitating improvements and co-innovation across the SVM process. This includes gathering ESG data to inform decisions and offering advanced integration features with multiple ERPs, positioning us as the “golden supplier record” for the organization.
3. Gen AI and Automation Accelerate the Shift to Strategic Management
AI is no longer on the horizon; it is here and pervasive among SVM platforms. This should not be a surprise as AI has been one of the most hyped innovations for several years. But the depth of AI across leading SVM solutions is striking.
Leaders have embedded Generative AI deep into their solutions and across many processes. The use cases vary from support in contract redlining to scenario optimization. CPOs can count on these solutions to provide options to enhance efficiency, ensure compliance, and uncover valuable insights.
At Ivalua, this aligns with our approach to AI, which is designed to be flexible and adaptable across new processes and use cases on demand. With our no-code configuration, customers can build and deploy new AI applications and use cases within hours, delivering continuous value and agility to their operations.
Final Thoughts
This report marks the latest step in the bold market prediction Forrester started with the inaugural SVM Wave in 2022. A market focused on complete integrated processes, scalable systems that fit seamlessly within an IT ecosystem, and a drive for continuous innovation. At Ivalua, we are honored to achieve a leadership position and embrace these market expectations .
You can view the entire report here: The Forrester Wave™: Supplier Value Management Platforms (SVM), Q3 2024 (released in September 2024).
