In 2007, Balu Sharma unveiled his answer to a fragmented landscape of supplier relationship management tools. Sharma founded SaaS-based SupplierSoft with a plan to give manufacturers one master system for product quality management, purchase order automation, invoice and payment visibility, and environmental compliance.
Since the company’s launch, its SupplierSoft Platform, with modules for Product Compliance Management, Supplier Audits Management, and Supplier Risk and Qualification Management, has attracted the investment dollars of some marquee manufacturers, including semiconductor equipment maker KLA-Tencor and high-tech standout Novatel Wireless.
Meant to replace a sometimes dizzying array of spreadsheets and e-mails for tracking supplier activities, the SupplierSoft offering is built on Salesforce.com’s Force.com platform and delivered as a Web-based solution that customers pay for by yearly or month-to-month subscriptions.
Novatel called on the start-up to help manage its relationships with two contract manufacturers in Asia, where all of Novatel’s 3G data modems are produced. As a global company, says Jose Alatorre, senior director of quality and post-sales at Novatel, “different regulations,” including REACH, RoHS, and others, “impact us, and we have to demonstrate compliance with these.”