Last week, research by Sage looked at the impact of the pandemic on small and mid-sized businesses in the US. There were other reports from Qualtrics, Salesforce, SDWorx, and SmartSheet. FinancialForce unveiled its Spring 2021 release. Other releases include the expansion of Journeys for Oracle HCM and a first major update by Fluence Technologies.
Pick of the week
Tony Zorc, Founder, and CEO of Accounting Seed is the author of a newly published book entitled “Iconoclasm: A Survival Guide in the Post-Pandemic Economy” and published by ForbesBooks. It is available on Amazon US, UK, Aus. In the book, Zorc shares his Iconoclast Formula, including Challenge, Design, and Execute. He hopes to inspire others to follow his three-step strategy:
- Challenge the norm.
- Design a better way.
- Execute a plan for the betterment of themselves and society.
Zorc commented: “The Iconoclast Formula is about moving forward and thinking critically on how we can make our current situations better in a way that hasn’t been done before. The formula is meant to give society a blueprint for making change where it really matters. It’s how I brought needed change to the world of accounting, and it’s what I hope to inspire us to do for our collective society now.
“As we navigate a future that may seem bleak, we must recognize the opportunities in front of us — opportunities that iconoclasts are poised to see and take advantage of. The only way we recover is if we recognize and 100% believe a new way of living is upon us.”
Acquisition
insightsoftware has acquired Izenda, an application-based intelligence provider that brings critical data insights to end-users. Insightsoftware did not disclose terms.
Cegid, the specialist in business management solutions, plans to strengthen its position in the Payroll and Human Resources Management market with the proposed acquisition of Talentsoft, one of the key players in Cloud Talent Management solutions.
Tipalti acquired Approve.com, a leading cloud procurement solutions provider. Tipalti did not disclose terms, but the deal will close in Q2 2021.
Appointment
Access Group has appointed Lauren Colbeck as head of Product at the newly formed Access Legal. She joins from Peppermint Technology, where she was Head of Product for the last three years.
BlueConic appointed Katherine Boardman as Senior Vice President of People and Talent.
Bullhorn promoted Matt Fischer to President and Chief Operating Officer and appointed David Whitley as New Chief Technology Officer.
Infor has promoted Becky Xie to vice president and managing director for Greater China and Korea.
Planful promoted Rowan Tonkin to Chief Marketing Officer and Melissa Dreuth to Chief of Staff to the CEO and Chief People Officer.
SOFTONE has appointed Panos Martinis as Chief Executive Officer. Antonis Kyriazis will transition to Executive Chair of the SOFTONE Board.
ThoughtSpot appointed Pam Holmberg as Head of People to scale its Global Team.
Business
ActiveCampaign Q1 business update revealed the company grew by 100 employees to more than 850. New appointments included Anjali Gurnani, VP of Tech & Product Operations; John Lamphiere, RVP of EMEA; and Tatiana Piloto, RVP of LATAM.
Ascentis has partnered with USI Insurance Services to empower USI’s clients with an integrated HCM solution.
Celonis announced its Execution Management Without Limits program, a massive expansion of Celonis for Consulting that opens access to Celonis process mining and execution management technology to worldwide consulting firms and system integrators.
CIPHR, a leading UK provider of SaaS HCM solutions, announced a new partnership with fastPAYE, which offers a flexible wage app for a new, ethical way for employees to access some of their already earned money before payday.
Datto published a Forrester Total Economic Impact report. It concluded that MSPs using Datto’s integrated Unified Continuity, Autotask PSA, and Datto RMM solutions may realize approximately $792,000 in benefits. This includes improved productivity on work orders by 50% and 90% reduced productivity losses resulting from downtime incidents.
During its annual conference Ellucian Live, the company revealed that more than 500 Higher Education Institutions are now live on Ellucian Cloud. Two third of institutions have deployed to the cloud solution since the pandemic’s start. Ellucian has also expanded its partnership with Syntellis Performance Solutions to resell the complete Axiom Higher Education Suite.
Experian has partnered with Infosum to enable marketers to access Experian audience data on US consumers through InfoSum.
MIE Solutions announced a new partnership with Elmo Solutions and the addition of Agni Link as an add-on to MIE Trak Pro for CAD transcription.
MHR has partnered with Grosvenor Technology and will integrate iTrent Flkxitime and Paid Time modules with the physical modules sold by Grosvenor Technology.
Oracle announced that ServiceNow now supports Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). ServiceNow is integrating ITOM Visibility with OCI so customers can assess inventory and analyze usage of cloud resources within their OCI tenancy.
Pipedrive has joined the new Asana Partners program as a Technology partner. The company is also growing quickly in Japan, achieving more than 80% average annual recurring revenue growth rates, and is on track to exceed 100% in 2021.
Planful gave a business update for its Q1, revealing a 47% quarter-over-quarter increase in net new customer acquisition.
Priority has signed a technology agreement with Excelando, a leading Israeli BI and Solutions provider. Excelando has developed a new and exclusive BI solution based on Microsoft Power BI for Priority ERP customers.
QAD announced that it has signed a partnership agreement with CERAMTECH Consultaria, designating CERAMTECH as a channel partner in Brazil.
Ramco is partnering with EXSYN Aviation Solutions, which provides an Aircraft Data platform. They will offer joint implementation services of Ramco Aviation M&E MRO Suite V5.8.
SAP announced the formation of a strategic partnership to support digital transformation in the financial services industry. Early adopter partners include Berlin Hyp, AOK Systems GMBH, Google, .msg, Microsoft, and EY. SAP also revealed preliminary figures for its Q1 ending March 31st, 2021, with IFRS Cloud Revenue Up 7%. It will announce the full detail on 22nd April. SAP will also expand its global job skills-building program, People to Work by SAP,
SAP.iO launched a new accelerator program for agribusiness in Paris. The winning startups include: Agrora, Clarifruit, Connecting Food, GrainChain Inc, HeavyConnect, Milk Moovement, ProcSea, and Sencrop.
Sigma has completed a comprehensive TruSight Assessment, the Industry Standard established by leading Financial Services companies.
SYSPRO, the ERP vendor, has rebranded and changed its tagline to ‘Say Yes to Next.’ The intent is to reflect the changes felt by manufacturers and distributors across the globe.
UKG now has 250 technology and services partners helping organizations worldwide deliver more engaging and connected workplace experiences. The newly launched UKG Marketplace supports the ecosystem.
Customer
Bankhaus von der Heydt is using the Appian Low-code Automation Platform to launch and manage new financial products and services faster and accelerate their new institutional client onboarding time.
Spark, New Zealand’s largest telecommunications and digital services company, will leverage the Calabrio cloud-based workforce management (WFM) solution as part of its Unified Front Line initiative.
Lipper International, a provider of exceptional items for the kitchen, home, and office, has upgraded to the latest version of DSI Cloud Inventory, an innovative mobile-first, cloud-based inventory management platform.
LMK Business Solutions, a prestigious stockist of brands of office, IT, and PPE supplies, has selected ECI’s Horizon ERP software.
DB Schenker, the global logistics provider, has extended its investment in Infor technology. It is implementing Infor Nexus Purchase Order Management and Infor Nexus Control Center. It will provide a more accurate end-to-end predictive estimated time of arrival (ETA) capability for customers. With the help of Progressive TSL, Dana Petroleum has gone live on the latest version of Infor SunSystems.
Braun Melsungen AG, a leading healthcare solutions provider, selected MuleSoft to create a single view of each patient and improve operational efficiencies.
NetSuite revealed that St Andrews Links Trust implemented NetSuite, supported by Eureka Solutions, and went live in March 2020.
iQor has selected the NICE Workforce Management (WFM) cloud-based suite to help teams augment customer experience across its global service locations.
Oracle and SailGP, sailing’s premier racing league, have expanded their successful data analytics platform leading into the second season.
Singapore Post Limited (SingPost) has chosen Qualtrics CustomerXM to identify and implement the organisational actions to improve customer experience in a post-COVID-19 world.
schuh has selected Salesforce to launch a new, company-wide loyalty program. Built on the Salesforce Customer 360 Platform, Loyalty Management will help schuh create a personalised and customer-centric loyalty program.
Passport Brand Design, a California-based branding agency, selected ScreenDragon’s project management tool.
Redburn, Europe’s largest independent equity research and execution firm, has selected Tier1 Financial Solutions, a leading provider of client relationship management (“CRM”) solutions, to elevate its client relationship capabilities and help scale its business.
Eclipse Advantage, a leader in workforce solutions serving the supply chain and light industrial markets in the U.S. and Canada, is migrating to UKG Dimensions.
GBS, a UK-based higher education provider, has selected Unit4’s complete product suite, including ERPx.
Product
ADP has added ADP DEI Dashboard and Organizational Benchmarks Dashboard to its ADP Data Cloud. The new DEI Dashboard lets companies see the makeup of their workforce and identify whether any groups are underrepresented.
The latest version of BMC Helix includes new AI-driven IT Operations (AIOps) and AI-driven Service Management (AISM) capabilities.
At Celosphere, Celonis launched a new set of execution apps and platform enhancements geared to eliminate billions of dollars in corporate inefficiencies. Celonis also announced a deeper collaboration with Microsoft. Joint customers can deploy the Celonis Execution Management System (EMS) on Microsoft Azure. There is also a deeper integration to the Power Platform.
Concord revealed what its Summer 2021 release will contain. It includes a new Word mode, homepage shortcuts, and a new document builder.
Cyara announced Call Explorer, a new feature on the Cyara Platform that provides enterprises with an easy-to-use, web-based user interface (UI) to manually dial and test interactive voice response (IVR) calls.
Ellucian launched Ellucian Experience, a cloud-based, fully extensible user experience platform. Available now in the U.S., Canada, Latin America, and the Caribbean, the Ellucian Experience simplifies everyday tasks and access to essential information through a single application framework and personalized dashboard, linking people, processes, and applications.
Informatica unveiled what it believes is the industry’s first Intelligent Data Management Cloud. It is designed to help businesses truly innovate with their data on any platform, cloud, multi-cloud, and multi-hybrid and for all users across the enterprise, beyond just IT. IDMC is available on Google Cloud and AWS with integration to Microsoft Azure.
The latest version of Kofax AP Agility includes pre-built ERP Connectors including SAP S/4HANA, AP Document Intelligence, exception and approval workflows, and a choice of cloud deployment options.
Qualtrics launched DesignXM and Experience Design studio, two innovations that will equip everyone at a company—from market and UX researchers to marketing and product leaders—to design the new products, services, and experiences their customers want now and next. It also announced the new XM operating system, or XM/OS, the only operating system for experience management. XM/OS consists of XM Directory, iQ, and xFlow.
RoboMQ has achieved certification of its ServiceNow connectors on its no-code, UX-based API, and data integration platform. The connector is available on the ServiceNow store.
FinSS Global to introduce in Australia the CDR Compliance solution powered by SaltEdge.
Research
A new Qualtrics study reveals that more than 50% of workers believe they have been more productive working remotely, and 35% of employees feel more connected with co-workers than they did before the pandemic. The study entitled “The Future of Work in 2021: Perspectives on the Next Normal” also found:
- 73% of all employees say they want to work remotely at least 1-2 days a week
- 53% said a long-term remote work policy would make them consider staying at their company longer
- 10% said they would probably quit their job if they were forced back into the office full time
- People want to continue post-pandemic experience innovations including outdoor seating for restaurants, curbside grocery pick-up, and pre-ordered shopping.
Sage published a report written by IDG entitled “Global distributors transform to adapt, survive and thrive.” The report highlights the three things distributors are changing to meet emerging challenges, including:
- Improving customer service and experience (39%)
- Implementing cloud-based apps (37%)
- Improving e-commerce capabilities (36%)
The report also highlights the growing importance of the circular economy. 75% of distributors worldwide have adopted a circular economy strategy.
Salesforce published its 2021 Q1 Global Shopping Index. Online spending in the US grew 117% year over year. Global Digital revenue grew by 58% globally in Q1, driven by a combination of overall online traffic growth (27%) and an increase in the amount of money spent by shoppers per site visit (31%). The statistics make interesting reading. Rob Garf, VP, and GM, Retail at Salesforce, commented: “Retailers were forced to be scrappy last year as they reacted to an influx of new digital shoppers and embraced new tactics like curbside pick-up to help keep consumers safe. The growth in digital commerce over the first quarter is a signal that retailers will need to continue to scale their investments in digital while refocusing the in-store experience. Ultimately, stores must offer a balance of contactless and immersive experiences to cater to the differing needs of consumers.”
SDWorx revealed that one in four companies made people redundant during the pandemic. More than half of companies across Europe felt the pandemic has a negative impact. The figures were: France (52%), Austria (55%), Switzerland (54%), the United Kingdom (53%), and Ireland (56%). On average, 17% have prospered. The research showed some interesting national differences. In Germany, most weathered the storm. Compared to Eire, 26% (the highest) prospered, but at 56% was also the hardest hit.
Smartsheet published a report entitled “Get Ahead of Change by Empowering Employees with New Operational Cultures and Tooling Strategies.” by Chris March of 451 Research. It was based on a survey of 1,000 full-time employees from the US, the UK, Germany, and Australia. Key findings included:
- Organizations that support a culture of feeling connected to work continue to excel
- Driven by the past year’s increase in remote work, businesses focus on technology that supports productivity through connectedness and collaboration
- Budgets are growing, yet decision-making processes and purchasing cycles are shrinking in 2021.
The Workforce Institute at UKG reveals that as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic from a survey of 4000 UK Workers.
- 87% of U.K. workers have accelerated their digital transformation projects
- 86% are enjoying the benefits of these new technologies
- 38% are fearful that their organisation will go back to the “old way” of doing things post-pandemic.
