Scale: Digital Procurement for Connected Companies
In 2010, as a budding digital company, my business partners and I were eager to showcase our capabilities in building complex applications for both private and public organizations. We were confident that we could compete and win government tenders. However, the experience of bidding for these jobs revealed a harsh reality: public procurement was manual, cumbersome, and overwhelmingly paper-intensive. For small businesses like ours, this process was not only frustrating but often discouraging.
Identifying the Problem
It took years before we successfully won a government contract. During this time, we realized that many small businesses, particularly those run by young entrepreneurs, avoided public procurement entirely. They perceived it as overly complex, time-consuming, and occasionally reliant on “connections” to secure contracts. This exclusion was detrimental, as these small businesses are often more nimble, innovative, and cost-effective than their larger counterparts. We saw a huge untapped potential—unlocking opportunities for these businesses could stimulate entire economies.
The Vision for Scale
Motivated by our expertise in technology and a desire to create change, we embarked on a mission to simplify procurement for small businesses. The goal was to provide a platform that would streamline the necessary documentation processes and enable businesses to focus on preparing strong technical proposals for bids. We believed that reducing barriers for small businesses would foster inclusivity, innovation, and economic growth.
With the support of IDEO.org’s Human-Centered Design principles, we prototyped and launched the first version of Scale within months. The platform was built on a Laravel framework with an API-driven architecture and a cloud-based infrastructure on AWS. Our team embraced agile product development, leveraging Atlassian tools like Confluence for product definitions, JIRA for sprint management, and Bitbucket for CI/CD.
Through word of mouth and minimal marketing, we quickly onboarded over 3,000 suppliers, a milestone validated by becoming finalists in the prestigious MIT Solve competition.
Early Challenges and Learnings
Despite the initial success, we faced a critical challenge: while our user base grew steadily, subscription revenues lagged. Our users loved the platform’s efficiency in merging and managing documents for bids, but they still had to download these documents and physically deliver them to buyers. The onset of the global pandemic further highlighted the inefficiencies of this model, as movement restrictions compounded the issues of manual delivery.
Pivoting to a Marketplace Model
To address these challenges, we turned to our users for feedback. From over 60 procurement officers and finance managers, we learned that existing procurement tools were:
- Siloed: Often disconnected from key procurement processes like payments and reporting.
- Manual: Relied heavily on email for communication, leading to poor continuity and tracking.
- Expensive: Accessible primarily to large corporations using Oracle, SAP, or Microsoft Dynamics, which were often ill-suited to their unique needs.
This insight marked a turning point. Procurement is inherently a marketplace—a dynamic interaction between buyers and sellers. Our platform needed to evolve from a supplier-focused tool to a full-fledged marketplace.
With the support of Techstars accelerator, we refined our business model and rebuilt Scale into its second iteration. The new version included a buyer platform, allowing suppliers to submit bids directly to buyers. This marketplace approach not only bridged the gap between buyers and sellers but also improved procurement efficiency across the board.
Results and Impact
Today, Scale serves:
- Over 7,000 suppliers digitally managing their bids and business documentation. They also get vetting on Scale
- 30 corporate buyers to manage suppliers, contracts, bids and auditable reports.
- Seamless integration with ERPs for procurement professionals.
- Allows Single Sign on with Google and Microsoft
As CTO, I have ensured the platform adheres to the AWS Well-Architected Framework through rigorous reviews with AWS partners like Silicon Overdrive. This has been achieved while maintaining a lean and effective team.
Conclusion
The journey of building and evolving Scale has been one of resilience, innovation, and learning. We started with a vision to simplify procurement for small businesses and have grown into a robust marketplace connecting buyers and sellers. Our platform continues to empower small businesses, driving economic growth and inclusivity in procurement.
For me, this experience is a testament to the power of listening to users, embracing change, and leveraging technology to solve real-world problems.
