After a quiet week, lots of results were out this week with SAP, Unit4, Planview and IFS giving business updates. SAP also revealed that it is to invest €250 million into the UK over the coming years. IFS acquired the CX platform Customerville.
In fintech, FloQast is also doing well as the $110 million funding round underlines. Within financial software, partnerships abounded with BlackLine teaming up with Kyriba and Planful partnering with Trintech Adra. NetSuite also unveiled new features for its next release, 2021.2.
Enterprise Times also published an interview with the CEO of TMI Systems, the company behind Verto.
Content of the week
A study by Snaplogic found that 81% of employees believe Artificial Intelligence (AI) improves their overall performance at work. As a result, more than 68% are calling on their employers to deploy more AI-based technology to help them execute their daily work better and faster. Does this put paid to the myth that employees fear AI? It seems as though once deployed, the majority of employees want more automation.
Craig Stewart, CTO at SnapLogic, commented: “In recent years, there was concern among office workers that AI would drive job losses, but employee opinions seem to have changed. The more they’ve been exposed to AI and see it in action, the more they’ve realized how much it can assist them with their daily work.
“As AI is increasingly used to make better decisions and rack up productivity gains, they’ve gone from tentatively accepting to fully embracing AI. The fact that they are now calling on their leaders to accelerate AI technology adoption in the enterprise is a real sea-change.”
Acquisition and Funding
Bill.com has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Invoice2go in a stock and cash transaction valued at approximately $625 million.
Bullhorn has acquired Sirenum, a shift scheduling and workforce management solutions provider for enterprise staffing companies on Salesforce.
insightsoftware has acquired CALUMO, a leading provider of Business Intelligence and CPM solutions for enterprise-wide budgeting and planning, business analytics, and reporting. The deal expands insightsoftware’s position in budgeting and planning, specifically in the Asia Pacific region.
IRIS Software Group has acquired Doc.It, the industry-leading document management software provider for CPA firms across North America.
Rimini Street has closed on the previously announced $90 million five-year senior secured credit facility. Fifth Bank will now provide $30 million and Capital One $60 million.
Appointment
Jim Bork has joined MineralTree as Chief Sales Officer.
Seismic has appointed Linda Ho as Chief People Officer.
Teradata has appointed Andrey Alekseenko as Vice President Teradata Nordics, Russia, Poland, Czech Republic.
Equitable HR Practices Expert Sarah Morgan Joins The Workforce Institute at UKG Board of Advisors.
Business
Adobe announced the Adobe Analytics curriculum for education, a global program that supports the future workforce with in-demand data science skills. As part of the next generation of the Adobe Education Exchange, college instructors and students can use Adobe Analytics for free and access the course curriculum with hands-on activities.
Billtrust has launched a new Global Partner Program. It will provide enhanced resources and tools, including a partner portal, co-branded demand generation assets and training.
BlueConic has completed the Service Organization Control (SOC) 2 Type 2 audit for its customer data platform.
Blue Prism has teamed up with Coursera for RPA and Intelligent Automation Training. Coursera’s more than 82 million learners will now have access to the Blue Prism Foundation Course.
Pink Elephant EMEA is to become a partner of Freshworks Inc and will resell Freshworks ITSM solution.
Kofax and platinum partner Coforce of Ede, Netherlands, are partnering to help digitally transform the education sector. Coforce is also working with iPM Partners on this solution to ultimately help educational institutions implement Robotic Process Automation (RPA) software.
Newgen Software revealed its Q1 FY 22 results. Revenue was up 21% year on year to RS159.2 cr.
Rockwell Automation has partnered with Kezzler AS, a cloud-based product digitization and traceability platform. The intent is to help manufacturers capture the journey of their products from raw material sources to point-of-sale or beyond using cloud-based supply chain solutions that focus on product traceability.
Sage has expanded the Sage Partner Cloud, adding two new strategic hosting providers, Cloud at Work and Swizznet, and extended availability to Sage construction and real estate customers. Available in North America, it will soon launch in the UK on the Microsoft Azure platform. The program includes Sage 100, Sage 300, and now both Sage 100 Contractor and Sage 300 Construction and Real Estate (CRE).
SAP announced its Q2 results for the period ending June 30, 2021. Cloud revenues were up 11% to €2,275 million. Total revenue was down by 1% to €6,669 million. Christian Klein, CEO of SAP, commented: “We’re seeing strong adoption of our cloud portfolio as customers select SAP for their business transformation. Our strategy is working; This is the third straight quarter of strong execution, and we continue to deliver unparalleled customer value through the strength of our platform and applications.”
SAP has joined the Open Manufacturing Platform (OMP) initiative, a LINUX Foundation project. The OMP brings together business leaders and technologists from manufacturing companies, technology-solution providers and systems integrators. The intent is to drive innovation across the manufacturing community and value chain.
SolarWinds has completed the process of separating out its managed service provider business into a standalone, separately-traded public company named N-able, Inc.
Tableau has partnered with the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE, created by the government of India’s Ministry of Education). In partnership with educators, Tableau data analytics skills will be brought to all students attending one of AICTE’s 10,500 associated institutions. With AICTE, Tableau has conducted virtual workshops for over 200 educators. Thus enabling their peers in the AICTE associated institutions to bring Tableau to the classrooms.
VI has partnered with Logtimiz to open a V1 Centre of Excellence in France to sell to and support French-speaking customers directly.
Xero has launched the first-of-its-kind Xero Responsible Data Use Advisory Council, comprised of experts and thought leaders across the globe dedicated to educating and empowering small business owners on responsible data use.
Customer
Alvaria, the combination of Aspect Software and Noble Systems, is deploying its contact centre platform at the City of Greater Bendigo, Victoria, Australia.
Seven Generations Education Institute (SGEI) has selected Ellucian Colleague SaaS to modernize its technology operations. SGEI is a new Ellucian customer.
The diversified holding company DMC Global Inc has selected Esker’s solution to automate its accounts payable (AP) processes.
Rebel Hospitality, a rapidly-growing hospitality management company that specializes in independent and lifestyle hotel properties, has selected Infor Hospitality to provide hospitality management solutions for its growing property base.
LBS Builders Merchants, one of the UK’s leading independent builders’ merchants, will rollout Intact iQ merchant ERP solution across its 32-branch network over the coming months.
Oracle NetSuite has revealed how its ERP solution has helped hello Products, the fast-growing oral care brand in the US, over the past three years. The company leveraged NetSuite to thrive during the pandemic as its business model rapidly evolved.
Magnum, a leading food retailer in Kazakhstan, has turned to Qlik and is using Qlik Sense to increase operational efficiencies across the business.
The City of Greater Geelong has chosen Nintex Promapp to support the council’s digital transformation and modernisation efforts.
Kelvion, one of the leading manufacturers of heat exchangers, has replaced a combination of Tagetik and Excel with OneStream’s CPM software. It will use the OneStream platform to streamline financial planning, consolidation and reporting.
Southeast Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SeABank) has transformed its business with products from the Oracle Financial Services Performance and Balance Sheet Management Suite. Telenor selected Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management, including Oracle Converged Charging, to lay the groundwork for 5G and provide seamless charging and billing interactions for its 175 million subscribers across Malaysia, Thailand and Pakistan.
IMRIS, a global leader in intraoperative imaging technologies, has adopted QAD Adaptive ERP with the Adaptive User Experience to replace its legacy QAD Mobile Field Service system.
Lunar Bank, the fast-growing Nordics Bank with more than 300,000 customers, has selected Unit4 ERPx to support its international expansion.
Product
Accelo has revealed that its next update will add filters to Timesheet Overview, and there is a new feature that enables users to prioritise tasks. It is also working on fixing several outstanding bugs with the next release.
Acumatica held its first in-person event of the year. At the Acumatica summit, it announced new integrations to Adobe Document Cloud and Microsoft Teams. With more than 8,000 customers worldwide, the summit brought together more than 2,500 customers, partners, media, and analyst attendees.
Asana app for Zoom is now available in the Zoom App Marketplace. The tool enables users to create a Zoom meeting from an Asana task and create Asana tasks during the meeting. After the meeting concludes users can add recordings and transcripts to searchable Asana tasks.
Connectwise launched two new products at IT Nation Explore. BrightGauge Essentials delivers out-of-the-box dashboards to give smaller TSP partners immediate insight into the health of their business. ConnectWise Manage Billing Reconciliation enables Manage partners to efficiently reconcile vendor bills. The intent is to save time, reduce invoice errors, and build customer trust.
The “Capture for “later” feature on FreeAgent mobile app now scans uploaded receipt images and automatically extracts the key info: receipt date and amount.
QAD Adaptive ERP has achieved Veracode Verified Standard Status with its continued participation in Veracode Verified, a program that validates a company’s secure software development processes.
Sage announced VAT eFiling for Sage Business Cloud Accountants Edition. It is available to all South African accountants.
Scratchpad announced the immediate availability of a unified workspace between calendar, sales notes, and Salesforce.
Sisense announced the Sisense Extense Framework. It will deliver AI-driven analytic experiences directly within the applications users are working in without needing to leave their workflow. Infusion applications built on the Extense Framework enable the connection to applications including Slack, Salesforce, Google Sheets, Google Slides and Google Chrome.
SugarCRM today announced the expansion of its powerful SugarPredict AI capabilities with the addition of sentiment analysis. It is designed to supercharge every sales and service interaction with the power of knowing each customer and prospect’s emotional state and intent.
Vena has released Vena for SaaS, a pre-configured solution built to help SaaS companies power business-wide planning through every growth stage. It combines best practices for FP&A and corporate performance management (CPM) with the Vena Growth Engine. It also celebrated its 1000th customer.
Workato has made available a Back-To-Office Accelerator that it deployed for itself. It solves three pain points :
- Track employees and keep them safe
- Motivate employees to return to the office
- Keep us compliant with federal and regional safety guidelines over time
Research
Ceridian published the 2021 Future of Work Report: AI Fueling Talent Acquisition as War for Talent Heats Up Post-Pandemic. Key findings include:
- The majority (53%) of executives say they will increase the size of their team within the organization in the next 12 months. 35% will leverage gig workers to do so.
- 71% agree they will hire more remote employees in the next two years. 63% said that they will hire outside of their country.
- 62% agree that freelance or gig workers will substantially replace full-time employees within the next five years.
ManageEngine published The 2021 Digital Readiness Survey. It found that 67% of US executives have increased their use of business analytics. Only 47% of executives outside the U.S. have increased their use. The report also looked at the use of Artificial Intelligence. 76% of US respondents say their confidence in its use has increased.
Rajesh Ganesan, vice president at ManageEngine, commented, “The COVID-19 pandemic forced businesses to adopt—and adapt to—new digital technologies overnight. These findings indicate that, as a result, organizations and their leaders have recognized the value of these technologies and have embraced the promises they are offering even amidst global business challenges.”
TeamPay published a report entitled “Beyond the Balance Sheet: The Top Challenges Facing Finance Teams”. Based on a survey by Kelton Global of 500 corporate finance professionals, the key findings included:
- On average, companies lose $84,980 per year on purchases that are made outside of policy. 13% admit their companies lose more than $200,000 per year on out-of-policy spending.
- The average loss for larger companies with between 1,000 and 5,000 employees rises to $113,250 per year.
- 36% of respondents state that they aren’t confident that the month-end close is accurate.
- 86% want to automate existing spend management processes for better visibility and control over all non-payroll spend.
