Scout RFP's (Scout) new breed of cloud-based sourcing has transformed the way Splunk conducts its strategic sourcing. Leveraging Scout's platform, Splunk has enabled self-service competitive sourcing to keep pace with rapid growth. Scout's collaborative interface enables Splunk's sourcing team to engage better with more vendors in a line of business and handle more sourcing needs. The results are compelling: after just seven months, Splunk is on track to save a significant percentage per contract award via competitive, cloud-based bidding.

'At a fast-growing company like Splunk, sourcing needs to be one step ahead of business needs. Scout RFP has helped to streamline our process so that we proactively seize sourcing opportunities and better collaborate with the business,' said Splunk's Director of Travel and Procurement, Rendi Miller. 'Scout is helping us deliver essential resources to the business faster, at a lower cost. The platform automates our process so that we can manage more spend, giving us more bandwidth for strategic projects.'

Building on its successful partnership, Scout has joined forces with Splunk to host Silicon Valley Sourcing Leaders' (SVS Leaders) inaugural meeting at Splunk's headquarters in San Francisco, CA on July 28th (Learn more here).

Scout CEO Alex Yakubovich said, 'In an effort to share successful practices and advance the sourcing community, Rendi will be launching Silicon Valley Sourcing Leaders, a professional group for fellow innovators in the space. We are inspired by SVS Leaders' resolution to advance the sourcing profession and look forward to partnering with the new group to drive the industry forward.'

Leveraging a $9M Series A round of funding from its lead investor, New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Scout has gained traction over the past two years with major clients across verticals including software, manufacturing, healthcare, and retail. Scout will continue to support its clients' strategic sourcing initiatives.

'As the leading investor, we saw a rare opening in the market for Scout RFP to become the de facto platform for strategic supplier sourcing,' said Scout's board member and NEA Partner Chetan Puttagunta. 'Scout's intuitive product, agile development, devotion to customers and rapidly growing user base made us quick to seize the opportunity. We are extremely excited to partner with Scout to deliver a best-of-breed sourcing solution to the market.'

About Scout RFP

Scout RFP is a new breed, cloud-based strategic sourcing solution that allows organizations to make more informed purchasing decisions, faster. Leading brands like Splunk, Jo-Ann Stores, Intuit, VSP, and Cerner Corporation trust Scout's automated sourcing and auction platform to deliver greater value through collaborative business engagement. Over 80 brands and 10,000 active users across 45 countries have chosen Scout's simple, effective interface to streamline supplier selection and centralize data. Scout is headquartered in San Francisco, and funded by New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and GV (formerly Google Ventures). To learn more, please visit scoutrfp.com, follow us on Twitter @scoutrfp or LinkedIn.

About NEA

New Enterprise Associates, Inc. (NEA) is a global venture capital firm focused on helping entrepreneurs build transformational businesses across multiple stages, sectors and geographies. With nearly $17 billion in cumulative committed capital since the firm's founding in 1977, NEA invests in technology and healthcare companies at all stages in a company's lifecycle, from seed stage through IPO. The firm's long track record of successful investing includes more than 200 portfolio company IPOs and more than 320 acquisitions since its founding in 1977. In the U.S., NEA has offices in Menlo Park, CA; Boston, MA; New York, NY; Chicago, IL; and the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. In addition, New Enterprise Associates (India) Pvt. Ltd. has offices in Bangalore and Mumbai, India and New Enterprise Associates (Beijing), Ltd. has offices in Beijing and Shanghai, China. For additional information, visit www.nea.com.