Six weeks ago The Forrester Wave™: eProcurement, Q2, 2017 was published.  (Okay, I’m late.)  And if there is one thing my readers seem to enjoy, it is a free Forrester Wave or Gartner Magic Quadrant.

Sorry, No Forrester Wave Image Here

If you are looking for the “money shot”–the wave diagram itself– you will not find it here. I’m not publishing the eProcurement wave diagram so as not to annoy the Forrester copyright folks. The good news is that you can download a copy of the full report courtesy of Coupa Software here.

The Big Winner:  Coupa

The big winner of this Forrester Wave is Coupa.  Coupa ranked highest on both dimensions of the Forrester wave:  current solution and strategy.  Also named as leaders, but behind Coupa on one dimension and/or the other were:  Basware, SAP Ariba, Zycus, and GEP.  Ivalua, Tradeshift and several others follow these leaders quite closely as “strong performers”.

The Pitched Battle for #3

In the marketplace for eProcurement, SAP Ariba and Coupa are the clear #1 and #2.  The battle for #3 is a ferocious arms race:

• Basware has bought Verian
• Jaggaer, listed in the Forrester Wave as a “strong performer”, has bought POOL4TOOL (since the Forrester Wave was published.)  (This merger also represents the combining of two of my favorite names in eProcurement!)
• After the Forrester Wave was published, Proactis, a public e-procurement provider in the UK acquired Perfect Commerce. Perfect Commerce ranked as a strong performer in the wave.
• Ivalua, another strong performer, announced it has raised $70 million in minority investment from PE-firm KKR.
• Tradeshift, debuting in this Forrester Wave as a strong performer, acquired IBX.
• Zycus and Birchstreet have hired top-notch people from the industry to grow their solutions.
• TCS, the only competitor the report I have not mentioned until now, is supported by a giant consultancy with nearly $18 billion in revenue.

Please also note the Forrester analysis did not  include several more competitors who are investing in the market:  Determine, Wax Digital, Aquiire, among others.

Seeking Comparable Market Cap

Ariba sold to SAP for $4.5 billion.  Coupa sports a market cap of $1.6 billion.  The next highest market cap among this group is likely Basware whose market cap is about $650 million.  (Tradeshift reportedly last raised capital in the private market at a valuation near this same amount).  You can see why the fight for #3 is so ferocious.