Several industry conferences were held last week. At its annual Insights conference, Epicor laid out its vision for a connected Data Supply Chain. Other ERP conferences included SAP and Exact. At Sapphire, Icertis announced a new integration of Icertis Contract Intelligence (ICI) and SAP S/4HANA (Buy Side).
The Oostwegel Collection, a Dutch hotel group, became the first business to go live on all five of the Infor hospitality suite of solutions. Unit4 announced a strategic partnership with Phase 3, a leading provider of professional and managed services for HR, Payroll, and Finance technologies.
Pick of the week
At Sapphire, SAP and partners made several announcements. SAP revealed the next step in its long-standing partnership with Microsoft. It will use the latest enterprise-ready generative AI innovation to help solve customers’ most fundamental business challenges. It will integrate SAP SuccessFactors solutions with Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot in Viva Learning and Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI Service to access powerful language models that analyze and generate natural language.
SAP announced an update to the SAP Sustainability Footprint Management solution, a single solution that calculates and manages the full range of corporate, value chain and product-level emissions.
Announcements also included responsible AI built into business solutions, ledger-based accounting for carbon tracking and industry-specific networks to bolster supply chain resilience. With these advances, SAP is helping customers transform their business models in the cloud, put sustainability at the center of their operations and boost agility to succeed amid ongoing change.
Christian Klein, CEO and member of the Executive Board of SAP SE, commented, “In a world of geopolitical tensions, product and skills shortages and new regulations, our customers continue turning to SAP for the solutions they need to solve their most pressing challenges. The innovations we’re announcing at SAP Sapphire build on our heritage of responsibly developed technology and decades of industry and process expertise to ensure our customers’ success today and in the future.”
SAP also announced an update of its mid-term financial Ambition 2025 and a new share repurchase program with a volume of up to €5 billion. For 2025, SAP expects cloud revenue of more than €21.5bn and total revenue of more than €37.5bn.
Appointments
Esker announced several promotions and appointments. Claire Valencony was promoted to Deputy Chief Operating Officer. Nicolas Mougin, Worldwide Consulting and Support Director and Ari Widlansky, newly appointed Worldwide Director for Revenue Growth and Strategic Alliances, have joined Esker’s Board of Directors.
Business
The Access Group today hosted the official opening of new offices in Timisoara, Romania, as it continues its worldwide growth and commitment to building innovative solutions for its customers.
At Exact Live, Paul Ramakers, CEO of Exact and Joep Hoeks, Chief Product Officer (CPO), delivered a keynote about the market developments affecting small and medium-sized enterprises and how Exact software is helping customers to overcome the challenges.
To mark Intact Software’s 30th year of business, Intact has donated €30,000 to various charities.
TechnologyOne announced strong momentum for its SaaS+ solutions since its launch, with 15 customers on board, including the London Business School and more than 20 others in the pipeline. Ed Chung, TechnologyOne’s Chief Executive Officer, commented, “SaaS+ will change the ERP industry, delivering on the long-time promise of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) technology and making enterprise transformations truly a service for the first time. It’s a truly transformative solution designed with customers, not consultants, in mind.”
Customer
With strategic support from Accenture.TCL Industries Holding will transform its business with Blue Yonder’s supply planning solution, Delta Plus, manufacturer and distributor of a complete range of personal protective equipment (PPE) to equip people from head to toe, has chosen the Infor CloudSuite enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution to optimize its management processes.
Lynam has deployed Paperless Parts to streamline its quoting process, leveraging the integration to its MieTrak Pro ERP system. Harbinger Engineering has deployed Paperless Parts: the leading quoting and estimating software for custom manufacturers.
South Kesteven District Council in Lincolnshire, UK, has selected Unit4 Financials and FP&A to meet the Council’s financial management needs, with high volume transactional activities and complex forecasting requirements.
Financial Reports
Ramco
Ramco announced Q4 and full-year results for its financial year 2022-23. For Q4, revenues were USD 16.68 million; for the year ending March 31st 2023, revenues were USD 62.48 million. Both were down. The net loss after tax for the year stood at USD 25.97m.
There were some positive signs, though:
- Order bookings stood at USD 90.05m, growing 39% Y-o-Y, with Global Payroll and HR leading the pack
- Signed 19 “million-dollar-plus” deals during the year
- Increased cloud-based revenue mix to 55% of revenue, up from 49%
P.R. Venketrama Raja, Chairman of Ramco Systems, said, “Our investments in technology and innovation continue to yield results. The thrust we have on developing sustainable solutions, bundled with latest technology, has been creating value for our customers. While we continue to build a healthier order book, we will remain focused on delighting our customers, a key differentiator for Ramco.”
Sandesh Bilagi, COO of Ramco Systems, said, “We are entering FY 2024 with greater optimism on the back of strong order bookings and revenue visibility, improved operational efficiencies, and better resource utilization. Our continued focus on enhancing our core tenets while leveraging transformative technology has helped us create a strong foundation for sustained revenue and profitability.”
Sage
Sage published first-half results with ARR up 12% to £2,100 million and total revenues up 10% to £1,087 million. Steve Hare, Chief Executive Officer, commented, “Sage performed strongly in the first half, accelerating revenue growth, increasing profitability and making further progress against our strategic priorities. Our investments in technology and in sales and marketing are continuing to drive results, as small and mid-sized businesses increasingly choose Sage as a valued partner to transform the way they work.
“Our purpose is to knock down barriers so everyone can thrive. We are committed to delivering innovative, AI-powered services that make our customers’ lives easier and their organisations more productive and resilient. Sage’s global platform, centred on our expanding digital network, is enabling us to leverage our scale and collective expertise to maximise the significant opportunities we see across our markets.
“Small and mid-sized businesses are continuing to digitise, despite the macroeconomic uncertainty, and through our trusted technology and human approach Sage is well positioned to support them. I am confident that our proven strategy will enable us to deliver further efficient growth.”
Product
Microsoft announced a suite of new AI solutions and improvements to Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit that are designed to transform the nonprofit industry and how fundraisers engage with donors, manage campaigns and optimize operations. In addition, the company announced a limited private preview for nonprofits to experience a new AI-powered fundraising propensity model.
MYOB has launched an update to MYOB Advanced Construction Edition. The update will make it easier for Queensland-based construction businesses to comply with the mandatory trust account framework being rolled out by the state government.
Xero updates include support for Hubdoc’s bank statement extraction feature supporting statements from Bank of America. (CA, US). Users can now edit their short-term cash flow projection to include or exclude BAS and PAYG W amounts (AUS).
Simpro
Simpro premium 23.24 includes several minor updates, including adding CO alarm fields to gas safe certificates and allowing test readings to be added to Gas Appliance asset types for UK and Ireland markets.
