Marketplace Content Strategy

By Scott Walls

Marketplace Content Strategies align the creation, management, and usage of marketplace purchasable content with the overall procurement business strategy.  Having a well defined marketplace content strategy allows both the providers of content (sourcing function) and consumers of content (requesters) to understand the value of the marketplace and use it appropriately.

Here are the three steps required to create an Marketplace Content Strategy:

Step 1 – Understanding Marketplace Data Elements or “Content Structures”

First, the group designing the marketplace must understand the content structures available to them.  Content Structures are the marketplace term for the data elements being used within an organizational marketplace to represent purchasable content (items, forms, catalogs, contracts, suppliers, procuring orgs, content consumers, and content providers).  Content structures vary based on the organization’s business requirements.  Each organization needs to ensure the content structures required to represent their business are available (on-contract/off-contract, requisitionable/non-requisitionable, sub-org security, sorting classes, product priorities, etc.).  In addition, the Shared Marketplace Model allows for multiple versions of the same content structure (i.e. Microsoft being vendor 123 in one ERP/SRM application and vendor 123 in a second ERP/SRM application).  Hence, the organization needs to understand how those values in multiple worlds are linked correctly within the marketplace.  For a more detailed explanation of marketplace content structures, click here.

 

Step 2 – Define Marketplace Content Structure Rules

Second, the design group will need to create the content structure rules.  Content structure rules transform a collection of data elements into an intuitive, functioning marketplace.  They define what type of content will be in the marketplace (contracted content, requisitionable content, etc.), how that content will be organized (under contracts, organized by supplier), how it will be presented to the requester upon search (recycled appears first in a search, all items in one results box), and how ALL requesters (even the most inexperienced) will understand what to do with the content when located.  When designing the marketplace, it is not enough to simply say contracts and suppliers will exist in the marketplace.  There should be well defined rules telling market participants what content, contracts suppliers, etc.  These are content structure rules.  For a more detailed explanation of marketplace content structure rules, click here.

 

Step 3 – Create Measurable Content Objectives

Lastly, the design group will need to create measurable content objectives.  Measurable content objectives indicate the extent to which marketplace content is supporting the overall business procurement strategy.  Content objectives can be organized around 5 basic criteria (this can differ by engagement); scope, adoption, breadth, depth, and payback.  Each criteria must have a definition (i.e. the scope of the market is all spend on contract regardless of whether or not it is initiated using a requisition) and an evaluation criteria (total number of contract-related order lines purchased / number of contract-related order lines originating from the marketplace).

Additionally, content objectives can exist at the macro level (marketplace as a whole) or the micro level (for a given sub-org or by sourcing group).  For example, if a firm wants to evaluate the payback numbers (revenue generation) for its content, it may want them market-wide, but also at a level similar to how their employees are organized.  The latter would be helpful in evaluating one group of sourcing agents against another group.

To obtain understand more about or discuss what an appropriate Marketplace Content Strategies might look like in your organization, email Scott Walls at scottwalls@srm-plus.com.

 

 

About SRM Plus

SRM+ is a boutique procurement business consulting firm.  We provide procuring organizations with the strategic and tactical consulting services required to dramatically reduce operational expenses, create revenue streams (1 million per every 200 million in spend), and decrease their Cost Of Goods Purchased (COGP).  Whether defining a strategy, creating measurable objectives, designing / deploying solutions, or creating a continual improvement framework, SRM+ wants to turn your cost centers into cash centers.  Visit us at www.srm-plus.com.