A Vendor Presence Bridge maps the vendors you care about (competitors, complements, or any company you track) onto the buyers you sell to. Each row is one buyer paired with one vendor, with the evidence Starbridge found for that relationship: purchase orders, contracts, web results, or a combination of them.Starbridge collects purchase orders and contracts through custom FOIA requests across tens of thousands of government and educational institutions. Web results widen coverage where public records are thin, like private institutions.
Vendor presence is most powerful when it runs centrally. Running it at the Market level checks every buyer in your market in one pass, feeds your account scores, and shares the results with your team on buyer pages and the Buyers views. See Account enrichment and scoring.
When creating a new bridge, choose Vendor Presence as the bridge type. The whole setup is one form: name the bridge with the pencil icon at the top, then work through the three cards.
The create form: define your buyers, add the vendors to track, then set the evidence configuration.
1
Choose your buyers
Under “Buyer Filters”, there are three ways to define which buyers appear in your bridge: select a pre-configured buyer list or territory under “Buyer lists”, define buyers directly using structured attributes (geography, buyer type, size, classification) under “Buyer filters”, or pick individual buyers by name under “Select buyers”. Once set, the card summarizes your selection by buyer type.For a full walkthrough of buyer lists, including dynamic lists, CSV imports, and CRM sync, see the How to Create a Buyer List guide.
2
Add the vendors you want to track
Click “Add vendor”. In the “New vendor” modal, “Vendor name” is the only required field. Two optional fields tune how each vendor is matched:
“Expand search with alternative names” widens the search. Add rebrands, acquired names, or DBAs (press Enter after each) and Starbridge treats them as the same vendor, so evidence under Anthology still counts toward Blackboard.
“Only return evidence that mentions these products” narrows it. Add product names (e.g. Banner, Colleague, Canvas) and the bridge keeps only evidence that mentions them. The vendor still has to match first; products filter that evidence down.
Click “Save” and repeat for each vendor. The “Vendor presence” card lists every vendor with its alternative names and products.
If a vendor rebranded or was acquired in the last few years, add both names. Buyer paperwork usually lags the rebrand.
Adding Blackboard with Anthology as an alternative name, so evidence under either name counts.
3
Configure the evidence
Under “Evidence configuration”, three settings control what counts as evidence:
“Include PO’s and contracts from” sets the lookback window, from “Past 1 year” to “Past 4 years” (default “Past 3 years”). Match it to your market’s contract cycles: a short window keeps results current, a longer one adds coverage where contracts run long.
“Search scope” sets the sources. “Starbridge only” searches our purchase order and contract records and uses no credits. “Starbridge + web data” adds web results on top of those records for 1 credit per buyer searched.
“Data coverage and confidence” sets how gaps are handled. “Use only confirmed data” shows only vendor data explicitly found in Starbridge’s purchase order and contract records. “Use confirmed & inferred data” fills gaps with high-confidence estimates derived from purchase order and contract signals.
Need a contract or purchase order we don’t have yet? Starbridge can run targeted FOIA campaigns for specific buyers or markets. See How do FOIA requests work? and How do credits work?.
Search scope controls whether web results are added on top of purchase order and contract records.
4
Create the bridge
The footer shows the credit cost of your current configuration for each buyer searched. “Create bridge” stays disabled until you have defined a buyer list and added at least one vendor.
Each row is one buyer paired with one vendor from your list, and every pair gets a row whether or not Starbridge found a relationship. A False row is a finding too: it shows you where a vendor has no known footprint, so you see coverage across your whole TAM, not just the confirmed matches. Results are grouped by buyer, with one row per tracked vendor.Alongside the standard buyer columns, a Vendor Presence Bridge includes by default:
Vendor Presence. Whether Starbridge found the relationship: True or False.
Vendor Presence Summary. What the relationship is, with the purchase specifics behind it.
ACV. The annual contract value behind the relationship.
Contract End Date. When the current contract ends, the anchor for renewal timing.
Contract Term. The contract’s start and end dates.
Sources. The purchase orders, contracts, or web results behind the match.
When inferred data is enabled, rows flag whether values are confirmed or inferred, so you can decide how much confidence you need before acting.
A Vendor Presence Bridge grouped by buyer, one row per buyer and vendor pair, including pairs where no relationship was found.
