Monday 8th March is International Women’s Day. It aims to celebrate the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. Last week, several acquisitions occurred. Precisely was reacquired by Clearlake with help from TA Associates for $3.5 billion.
Sapphire Systems bought InCloud Solutions, and Priority acquired its partner Edea. Infor unveiled several customer successes, including Stellar Value Chain Solutions and STAY. QuickBooks made several announcements around its UK virtual conference with a DocuSign connector and new business accounts through Modulr. Several funding rounds were announced last week, including Countingup and Athennian.
The previous roundup is found here.
Pick of the week
This week, at Microsoft Ignite, it announced a flurry of announcement for Dynamics 365, adding to the industry clouds it announced last week. New capabilities include:
- Real-time customer-led journey orchestration capabilities in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Marketing
- More insights from ecosystem-wide data in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights
- Real-time survey capabilities in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Voice
It also previewed a new application Microsoft Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management. Probably the most important announcement saw a powerful integration between Microsoft Teams and Dynamics 365.
Microsoft also announced updates to help people work remotely. Enhancements to Teams include the ability to create interactive webinars for up to 1,000 people. The solution is also capable of extending to up to 20,000 for view-only broadcasts. Teams Connect enables users to share channels both within and outside the organization. Microsoft also unveiled Microsoft PowerPoint Live in Microsoft Teams. As video conferencing becomes the norm, Microsoft has also expanded support for more devices adding the new Dell Video conferencing monitor, the Poly 21, the new P15 video bar, and the new Cam 130 by Aver.
Ignite also saw Microsoft unveil new Power platform capabilities. The announcements included:
- Microsoft Power Automate Desktop is now available for all Windows 10 users at no cost, providing an RPA solution to automate tasks across any application.
- Microsoft Power Fx: A low code, open-source programming language across the Power Platform.
- New and enhanced governance, security, and administration capabilities enable IT professionals to safely manage and scale the growth of low-code solutions within the organization.
- Power BI Premium per user will be generally available on April 2nd for $20 per user per month. There is a new autoscale option with pay-as-you-go and improved utilization metrics.
- Power Virtual Agents have new AI capabilities that enable bots to learn and improve over time automatically.
Acquisition
Access Group announced two acquisitions this week. Acteol a leading CRM software and contracted marketing managed services to the UK hospitality, leisure, travel, and gaming sectors. It also acquired My School Portal parent engagement software for the independent education sector.
SAP completed the acquisition of Signavio this week.
Visma has acquired TIMEmSYSTEM, a Danish time management, and planning vendor.
Appointment
Cornerstone OnDemand Inc has made several internal appointments as its leadership team evolves. Heidi Spirgi has transitioned from Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer to Chief Strategy and Growth Officer. Theresa Damato has been named Cornerstone’s Chief Marketing Officer. She was most recently the CMO of Saba. Vincent Belliveau, Chief Executive of EMEA, was appointed Chief International Officer.
Domo has appointed Vita Shannon as vice president of partnerships and ecosystem. She joins from KPMG. Shelley Morrison joined from Accenture Interactive as Domo’s vice president of demand center.
Informatica has appointed John Schweitzer as Chief Revenue Officer, Schweitzer joins from Software AG.
FP has announced Scott Matthews’ appointment as CEO of MRP, its predictive intelligence for sales and marketing business. Matthews succeeds Kevin Cunningham, co-founder of MRP, who is stepping down after 13 years as CEO.
Symphony SummitAI appointed Ryan van Biljon as Vice President of Sales for the Americas. He has previously led revenue teams at Apple, Dell, and Xerox and spearheaded the growth of service desk startup Samanage to its $350 million acquisition.
Business
Lightyear, one of the fastest-growing AP software platforms, and AccountsIQ, Financial Management Software (FMS) for mid-market SMEs, have partnered to produce a complete business automation and management solution.
Arcoro announced a partnership with RedHammer, a leading provider of outsourced accounting solutions for the construction industry. The combination will enable construction companies to leverage the HR and Financial solutions in combination.
Celonis has appointed Ezio Russo as Italian Country Manager and opened its first office in the country to expand in the country.
Datto announced a distribution agreement with NEXTGEN Asia to help grow its Managed Service Provider (MSP) channel in Southeast Asia.
DSI launched FieldInventory.com to support the company’s supply chain solution for non-traditional environments. Hitachi Construction Machinery Zambia also selected DSI ScanWorkX® initially to work with Microsoft AX, but it will retain the solution as it migrates to Dynamics 365.
Intact is to recruit for 40 new positions in Ireland and the UK in 2021. Justin Lawless, CEO, Intact, said: “At Intact, we don’t just develop software, we develop our people too. We’re excited to be recruiting new talent at a time when the economy is facing significant challenges.”
Monday.com has opened its first data centre in Frankfurt, Germany, opening up its EU region.
Procore updated its Form S-1/A with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to move closer to an IPO. It still has to determine the number of shares it will sell and the price.
Rimini Street announced its fiscal Q4 and 2020 full results. Quarterly revenue of $87.8 million, up 15.4% year over year. Fiscal year revenue of $326.8 million, up 16.3% year over year. Fiscal year operating cash flow of $42.1 million, up 107% year over year. It had 2,487 active clients on December 31, 2020, up 20.6% year over year.
SAP announced its intention to become carbon-neutral in its operations by the end of 2023. This is two years earlier than planned, and the information was included in the SAP’s Integrated Report 2020.
ServiceMax published a business update noting the newly launched ServiceMax’s new Asset 360 solution is gaining traction. New customers include Cared, Numed, and Medical MicroInstruments (MMI SpA).
Customer
Monmouthshire Building Society is rolling out Blue Prism’s turnkey cloud platform and plans to automate up to 170 processes through the intelligent automation solution.
Hairdressing Supplies Lincoln has selected Brightpearl solutions to create a digital operations platform, including inventory management.
Demandbase celebrated the success of five customers that have deployed Demandbase One, its new ABM platform, which combined Engagio and Demandbase solutions. The five were Coupa, Silkroad Technology, Dialpad, OneLogin, and SmartRecruiters.
Eurotec-Group selected DSI Cloud Inventory integrated to Oracle NetSuite to automate and streamline warehouse operations.
Cimcorp, one of the world’s leading providers of automation systems for the tire industry, has become a pioneer customer for IFS Cloud, the solution IFS will launch on Wednesday.
Camatic Seating, a global manufacturer of stadium, cinema, and theatre seats has selected Infor’s cloud ERP software Infor LN to power its new, complex manufacturing facility in Selangor, Malaysia.
Zoom Video Communications, Inc has improved its channel order process using Nintex RPA, with the help of Pacific BPA, a Nintex Premier Partner.
Kent County Council, UK is to switch support for its Oracle E-Business Suite 12.1 application and Oracle Database software to Rimini Street.
SBM Management Services, a soft-services provider with more than 10,000 employees worldwide, has selected UKG Pro to handle its complex business needs.
Opolis, a US-based digital employment cooperative offering employee benefits and shared services for its members, has chosen Xero as its preferred cloud accounting solution provider.
Product
Accelo launched two new reports, a Planned vs Actual Report and a Missing Time Report.
Nexthink has achieved Citrix Ready verified status for Nexthink Experience. The Nexthink Experience platform is now certified to work with Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops.
Salesforce introduced Rebate Management which automates incentive programs for distributor networks.
Research
The Nintex Workplace 2021 Study looks at productivity across different regions in the US during the pandemic. Based on 1,000 respondents, 70% said that employees were more productive than expected during the pandemic. The report is broken down by regions with:
- Northwest 80% (Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and California)
- Southwest 74% (Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma)
- Midwest 67% (North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio)
- Northeast 65% (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland)
- Southeast 61%(West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Florida)
Xero published findings that sought to identify the traits and trigger points that lead Australians to become self-employed. The research revealed that the tipping point to business ownership is often a combination of becoming fully convinced of the opportunity, the lure of financial independence, and dissatisfaction with their current work situation.
