Zycus

Type	Private
Industry	Internet Software & Services
Founded	1998
Headquarters	New Jersey, US
Number of locations	NewJersey, Chicago, Atlanta, London, Melbourne, Netherlands, India
Area served	World Wide
Key people	Aatish Dedhia, CEO
Products	Complete Source-to-Pay suite of procurement performance solutions
Number of employees	650+
Website	http://www.zycus.com

Zycus is a global procurement suite provider, which designs and develops software solutions in the procurement domain.^[1]

History

Zycus was founded in 1998 by Mr. Aatish Dedhia.^[2] Dedhia had worked previously at Intel Corporation in the U.S. where he was part of the core design team on the Pentium-II processor and introduced Internet and Intranet technologies within the Pentium-II group for improving group work and knowledge management.^[2]

In 2002, Zycus introduced AutoClass,^[3] which performs automatic classification using artificial intelligence^[2] (AI) rather than rigid mapping algorithms to code and classify products for representation in business-to-business e-commerce catalogs. Zycus tied this auto-classification engine to the Universal Standard Products and Services Classification product coding system (known alternatively as the United Nations Standard Products and Services Code or UNSPSC).^[3] In 2003, they expanded the application of this technology to corporate spend analysis, mining corporate transaction records to generate information for use in support of strategic sourcing, supply-base reduction, supplier negotiations and corporate spend-reduction endeavors.^[4]

The firm continued to refine auto-classification and spend analysis technologies as well as artificial intelligence ^[5] and to build additional solutions for procurement such as electronic sourcing,^[6][7] contract management,^[8] supplier performance and information management,^[9] financial savings management^[10] and procure-to-pay (P2P).^[11][12]

In 2012, the firm applied AI-powered auto-classification to the execution of procurement transactions,^[13] classifying spend transactions as they occur^[14] and guiding employees to choose preferred or standard items and services and to make lowest-cost spend decisions (guided buying).^[13]

Zycus's competitors include Ariba, SAP, Bravosolution, MultiQuote, Oracle, Procurify, GEP, Rosslyn Analytics, Ivalua, Tradeshift, Coupa, and Emptoris.

Products

Zycus’ SaaS based cloud source-to-pay suite is an industry leading ^[15] suite that provides automation solutions for strategic & operational aspects of the procurement domain, consisting of:

• Spend Analysis – Offers spend visibility into organization wide spend. The module consists of: AutoClass - Patented Artificial Intelligence based automated mechanism for spend classification. iAnalyze identifies savings opportunities through taxonomy classification and analysis of spend data. iCost Compares and tracks cost of matrix, against the market price
• Sourcing – Offers eSourcing for simple and complex categories with fact-driven decision making
• Contract Management – Allows contract creation & provides visibility into contracts lifecycle. The module consists of: Repository - Centralized contracts storage warehouse. Authoring - Allows creation and negotiation of compliant contracts
• Supplier Management – Tracks supplier performance and stores supplier information in a centralized location. It includes two modules. iSupplier, allows maintaining supplier information and supplier on-boarding. iPerform allows tracking, measurement and management of supplier performance
• Supplier Network – Centralized supply base of all suppliers in an organization
• Financial Savings Management – Tracks savings across business divisions
• Project Management – Enables creating, maintaining, tracking procurement projects across the organization
• Request Management – Centralized solution to raise, approve and process requests

Zycus also provides Procure-to-pay suite that integrates with other module and includes

• Procurement - The eProcurement module provides catalog management, purchase order management & requisition handling with "guided buying" assistance
• Invoicing – The eInvoicing module enables invoice payment management, electronic invoices, workflow matching and automated discounting

Customers

As of February 2016, Zycus website included references to the following customers. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Amerigas, Cargill, Carlson, Celgene, Coca-Cola, Colgate-Palmolive, Curtiss Wright, Energizer, General Electric, GSK, ING Bank, KCA Deutag, University of Missouri, Nestle, Pon Holdings, Rio Tinto, Rockwell Automation, St. Barbara Limited, Sunoco, Weatherford, Wells Fargo.

Awards & Recognition

2015: Placed again in the Gartner ‘Leaders Quadrant’ in the Magic Quadrant for Strategic Sourcing Application Suites ^[16]

2013: Placed in the ‘Leaders Quadrant’ in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Strategic Sourcing Application Suites.^[17]

2010: Named among the 10 for 2010: Solution Providers to Watch in 2010 by CPO Rising.^[18]

2008: Red Herring 100 Asia.^[19]

2007: Named by Sigaria, the governor of the European Leaders Network, as specialist and underwriter for the company’s Spend Management Knowledge Group.^[20]

References

1. "Zycus Inc.". Bloomberg BusinessWeek. Retrieved 29 April 2013.
2. Mascarenhas, Anil. "LeaderSpeak". India InfoOnline Ltc. Retrieved 29 April 2013.
3. Staff (May 1, 2002). "Zycus Unveils AutoClass E-Commerce Content Classifier". Information Today, Inc.
4. Staff (October 30, 2003). "Zycus Tool Automates Data Analysis". Supply Management.
5. Rae, David. "Technology Review - Zycus Actionable Analytics v4.0". Procurement Leaders, Sigaria Ltc. Retrieved 29 April 2013.
6. Busch, Jason. "Comparing SAP and Ariba for Sourcing (Part 1)". Spend Matters/Azul Partners, Inc. Retrieved 22 May 2013.
7. Busch, Jason. "20 Ways the Falling Euro May Impact Sourcing, Procurement and Supply Chain Strategies (Part 3)". Spend Matters, Azul Partners, Inc. Retrieved 29 April 2013.
8. Busch, Jason. "Is it Time to Redefine How Procurement Looks at Contract Management Software?". Spend Matters, Azul Partners, Inc. Retrieved 29 April 2013.
9. Busch, Jason. "Zycus Building Up the Solutions Arsenal Behind the Scenes (Part 5)". Retrieved 29 April 2013.
10. Busch, Jason. "Live From Zycus’ Analyst Day — Dispatch Two". Spend Matters, Azul Partners, Inc. Retrieved 29 April 2013.
11. Busch, Jason. "Zycus Horizon: Expanding the Suite in Spend Analysis, Sourcing, and P2P (Part 1)". Spend Matters, Azul Partners, Inc. Retrieved 29 April 2013.
12. Avery, Susan. "Procure-to-Pay Addresses Compliance Gap". My Purchasing Center. Retrieved 2 May 2013.
13. Busch, Jason. "P2P and eProcurement: Don’t Assume Folks Will Find What They’re Looking For (Part 3)". Spend Matters, Azul Partners, Inc. Retrieved 29 April 2013.
14. Mitchell, Pierre. ""Guided Buying": The Future of P2P". Spend Matters, Azul Partners, Inc. Retrieved 29 April 2013.
15. Deborah, Wilson. "Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Strategic Sourcing Application Suites". Gartner, Inc. Retrieved 4 February 2015. *Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
16. Deborah, Wilson. "Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Strategic Sourcing Application Suites". Gartner, Inc. Retrieved 4 February 2015. *Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
17. Deborah, Wilson. "Gartner Magic Quadrant for Strategic Sourcing Application Suites". Gartner, Inc. Retrieved 1 July 2013.
18. Bartolini, Andrew. "10 for 2010: Solution Providers to Watch in 2010". CPO Rising, Ardent Partners, Ltc. Retrieved 29 April 2013.
19. Staff. "Red Herring 100 Asia". Red Herring, Inc. Retrieved 29 April 2013.
20. Staff. "European Leaders Network Announce Zycus as New Spend Management Group Specialist". Procurement Leaders, Sigaria Ltc.