Background
Both SRM Plus.org & SRM Plus.com were founded by Scott Walls. Scott is a global PeopleSoft procurement (FMS/SRM) specialist with over 15 years experience delivering medium and large solutions for 15+ clients, in 7+ industries, throughout 10+ countries (click here for Scott’s details).
In early 2007, while working with Oracle/NYU on an PeopleSoft SRM application feasibility study, Oracle asked Scott to be part of a team focused on creating SOA tools designed to increase the value of Oracle/PeopleSoft’s SRM applications. Scott was specifically responsible for designing and developing a simplified set of requisition pages which can be easily integrated with an external content repository such as the Oracle Exchange.
By mid 2007, as part of those same efforts, Scott was introduced to Deborah Wilson at Gartner Group. Ms. Wilson exposed Scott to a wider range of third-party “managed services” (a combination of applications and services performing functions such as content management and eSettlement management). These managed services were also focused on increasing the value of traditional SRM applications (SAP, Oracle, and PeopleSoft). Many of these managed service offerings had been around a while, but had begun to mature significantly; specifically in their integration with SRM applications. Managed services were now providing big ROI wins for forward thinking procurement organizations. At this point however, all tools, applications, and services were being deployed in relative isolation; there was little to no real discussion of a coordinated deployment and deep integration into procurement business and reporting processes.
In early 2008, Scott was asked to help the State of Georgia as it deployed multiple PeopleSoft SRM applications in combination with multiple third-party tools, applications, and services. Scott worked with Georgia as it designed, developed, and deployed an engagement-specific mixture of third-party tools, applications, and services and deeply integrated them into the existing business and reporting processes. The results have been dramatic increases in procurement ROI as Georgia seeks to reshape its procurement operations as self-funded. While confidential, the initial results have been favorable. The net impact on both OpEx (operational expense) reduction and revenue generation have been positive and timely given the current state of the US economy. Georgia’s Trans-Organizational Souring Function looks to be a big success.
Both the coordination of traditional SRM and Supply Integration Solutions at the State of Georgia and elsewhere, highlights a paradigm that gets little promotion, but is adding big value; The Total Supply Integration Paradigm. The purpose of SRM+ is to use its web-based community to promote supply integration, supply integration solutions, an the Total Supply Integration Paradigm.
