16
modules, each a category rather than a capability
A module list is a table of contents, not a scope. Two systems that both say ‘procurement’ can differ by an order of magnitude in what the word covers. A short guide to reading the list the way an implementer does.
Stackmark documents sixteen modules and records, for each system, which of them the vendor offers. The counts are useful for narrowing a field. They are useless for choosing between the last three systems on a shortlist, and it is worth being clear about why.
‘Inventory management’ can mean a stock quantity on an item record, or lot and serial tracking with landed cost and cycle counting across bonded warehouses. Both vendors are telling the truth when they tick the box. The buyer’s job is to find out which truth.
The module pages on this site carry demonstration questions for exactly that purpose. They are written to be asked in order, because the later ones assume the earlier answers.
Ask which modules were built by the vendor, which were bought, and which are somebody else’s product with the vendor’s logo on the login page.
Do not write ‘procurement’. Write the three things procurement has to do in your business that it does not do today, and the two it must keep doing. A requirement stated as an outcome cannot be satisfied by a tick.
4 / 35
profiled systems document an AI module
Four of the systems Stackmark profiles document an AI module. In demonstrations the layer looks finished. In contracts it is often a roadmap. Here is how to tell the two apart before the shortlist is set.
11
systems sold only as multi-tenant cloud
Eleven profiled systems are sold only as multi-tenant cloud. That changes which questions matter: upgrade cadence and tenant isolation move to the top, and infrastructure sizing drops off the list entirely.
0
vendors publishing a list price for a real configuration
No vendor profiled publishes a list price for the configuration a buyer will actually run. A directory that prints one anyway is guessing. Here is what Stackmark records instead, and how the cost model turns it into a range.