Content area
Full text
CEO Spinner says the company can play neutral role in access to diverse digital exchanges
AS THE CEO of Extensity, Bob Spinner has been at the core of the revolution in procurement practices that has changed the way companies such as Cisco, America Online, and NEC manage their purchasing departments.
In an interview with InfoWorld Editor in Chief Michael Vizard, Spinner talked about the role he sees Extensity playing as a neutral point of access to diverse digital exchanges.
Extensity started out as a basic purchasing application for travel. How has the company evolved?
We were founded in 1996 and started off in the travel area with expense reporting and travel planning. We then added a wide set of employee-based applications, such as time sheets and purchase requisitions. In addition to supporting all these high-touch applications, we extended that model to provide access to relevant content and e-commerce. And that's been a really unique positioning for Extensity. What that means is an employee planning a trip can book a ticket online and make a hotel reservation, or an employee creating a purchase request can then gain access to an online marketplace.
What kind of architecture are these applications built on?
We run on a very thin client, so we can run on all sorts of devices. On top of that, our applications integrate with other content; we provide business intelligence across multiple processes so you can see what you've billed a client and how much expense you have to offset that billing. You can also take a look at your specific vendors from multiple online marketplaces to see how much you spend with them.
So are you aggregating con tent from multiple portals within your applications?
I'd say that's fair. The only thing I don't want to minimize is there's so much benefit in the applications we provide, which then naturally extend themselves to other content. We're not just kind of a focal point where you go to get other places. People do most of their day-to-- day processing in Extensity, and then we'll...