Five minutes with Richard Hahn, Salion CEO

An emerging IT company is offering to help suppliers get smarter about their purchasing process. Salion, based in Austin, Texas, will soon be rolling out its "revenue acquisition" process. Its goals are (1) Have its customers up and running in 60 days; (2) deliver a solution that pays for itself within the first 90 days of use; and (3) work with its customers to deliver at least $1 million in benefits within the first year. An excerpt of Al's interview with Salion CEO Richard Hahn follows: (For a complete transcript, go to www.ai-online.com.)

Q: What does your technology do?

A: Our software helps suppliers be more strategic in selecting the business opportunities they pursue. We give them a tool that helps their buyers make smart decisions as quickly as possible.

Q: How does the technology work?

A: It works as a "triage." When a RFQ comes in, the system is able to analyze historical trends and separate quote opportunities into three categories: (1) no brainer, go for it (2) no brainer, don't go for it, or (3) needs more study. The system can study the RFQ and tell the purchasing team very quickly that it wins that business 85 percent of the time, and that it's some of the company's higher gross margin. It may also tell the team that they're 0-for-12 in quoting on that business, and that the last 11 times have just been a market test And if it's somewhere in the middle, maybe it goes to someone else for more analysis. If you could do just those three things very quickly, that would be very cool.

Q: Your relationship with Covisint - they could be a competitor, they could be an alliance partner. Where do you see your place?

A: Well, as soon as they're able to figure out what they are, we'll be able to have a position on that. From our standpoint, Covisint has a very real mission and objective: It's a buyer application. I think it would serve everyone well if they would just admit it and go about their business - I think having that kind of buyer-centric set of applications is a good thing. Just don't say you're everyone's friend when you're not. If that (admission) were to occur, then it would allow the supplier community to then, with one or a few voices, say, "OK, here's how we're going to deal with that effectively." What we're all about is helping the supplier-side of the equation deal with the environment as it is.