Before public cloud computing services like AWS emerged, large companies had data centers built for peak load. They had big real estate footprints, lots of servers and software, and a large IT department because these data centers were difficult to use. Smaller companies might have a server closet. These were wildly underutilized and carried high fixed expenses. AWS introduced elastic computing. Scale your need for resources up and down dynamically, delivered with a simple user experience. Pay for what you use when you use it. Run everything in the cloud, or only run some things in the cloud. Turn high fixed expenses into low variable expenses. Focus on higher value-added functions.

Our epiphany? We realized that Big Procurement technology systems were like the data center. They carried expensive fixed costs. They are difficult to use. They are bloated with features nobody puts to work. The data closet was the equivalent of using email and spreadsheets to manage spending . We decided to build a system based on the same philosophy as the public cloud: elasticity. Users get an unlimited number of seats to access a baseline set of sourcing tools, data, and community for free. This enables internal and external collaboration around structured data and easy-to-access market intelligence. When you’re ready to execute a procurement event, pay for executing the RFP. Then go back to the free features. Suppliers see a faster, easier sales cycle with highly qualified leads delivered to them in fair reverse auctions like RFPs and RFQs. Interestingly, people are using it for all kinds of things including innovation challenges to source innovation and operational due diligence in financial services.