Contract Life-Cycle Management Attracts New Entrants

CIOs and their business partners are increasingly looking for Contract Life-cycle Management (CLM) solutions for all of their businesses' contracts, even if they deploy them in stages for buy-side contracts first and later for sell-side contracts. The result? A fast-growing (21% CAGR from 2003 to 2008), fragmented (with at least 16 vendors that one is aware of), and dynamic (with new entrants and acquisitions of existing vendors) market. Specialist vendors like I-many, Nextance, Selectica, and Upside Software (along with smaller vendors like CMA Contiki, Ecteon, Omniware, and Symfact) still have a near-majority share, but buy-side or ePurchasing vendors like Ariba, Emptoris, and Procuri are major presences. Oracle is the largest single vendor, although with just an 18% share, and has now been joined by SAP.