Over the last two weeks, news included the announcement that Precisely had achieved Amazon Web Services (AWS) Data and Analytics Competency status. Infosys announced a 5-year collaboration with LKQ Europe. Expensify launched a budgeting tool to help admins manage corporate spending.
Salesforce reached a definitive agreement to acquire Spiff, a sales commission and commission tracker solution. SimSpace secured $45 million in funding from L2 Point Management. Mediaocean announced the promotion of Nicole Brown to Chief Human Resources Officer. SoftwareAG is to sell webmethods and StreamSets to IBM for over 2 billion euros
Enterprise Times also published a podcast with CloudBees Chief Strategy Officer Sacha Labourey at CloudBees DevOps World, London. The conversation took a close look a CI/CD.
Pick of the week
Klippa published an intriguing blog that looks at the environmental impact of AI. At the same time, the authors acknowledge the positive impact that AI can have on the environment. They also note that it has a negative impact. Key learnings include:
- The training of an average AI model produces as much CO2 as driving 62.6 cars for a year.
- The training of the GPT-3 model has consumed 700.000 litres of water.
- AI has the potential to solve a lot of climate problems, like deforestation.
- With the help of AI, organizations in multiple industries already make their operations more efficient and reduce their carbon footprint.
- AI is becoming more sustainable with new technologies supported by the Green AI movement.
The blog explores the negative and positive impacts that AI can have. Klippa also reveals the impact that its organisation has and how it is mitigating it with assistance from its consultancy arm, DataNorth.
Acquisitions
Accenture has signed an agreement to acquire Customer Management IT and SirfinPA, a pair of jointly-owned Italian technology consultancies supporting the public sector and specializing in justice and public safety.
Accenture has agreed to acquire the business of media and marketing technology company Jixie. Jixie’s intelligent digital marketing platform and team will be integrated into Accenture to strengthen its marketing transformation capabilities and resources through Accenture Song—the firm’s tech-powered creative group—helping Indonesian clients deliver more personalized experiences to enhance customer engagement for sustainable business growth.
Adobe and Figma announced that they have entered into a mutual agreement to terminate their previously announced merger agreement. The deal was originally announced on September 15, 2022, under which Adobe would have acquired Figma for a mix of cash and stock consideration.
Alteryx, Inc., announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Clearlake Capital Group, L.P. (together with certain of its affiliates, “Clearlake”) and Insight Partners (“Insight”), two global private equity firms, in a transaction valued at $4.4 billion, including debt. Upon completion of the transaction, Alteryx will become a privately held company.
Globant announced the acquisition of Iteris Holding Ltda., a Brazilian business and technology consultancy focused on delivering digital transformation. This acquisition enhances Globant’s current operations in Brazil by adding top local digital capabilities and an impressive client roster.
NICE announced the closing of the acquisition of LiveVox (NASDAQ: LVOX). The combination of NICE’s market-leading platform, CXone, with LiveVox’s unique AI-driven proactive outreach capabilities will create the market’s only interaction-centric platform, the fundamental cornerstone to deliver superior AI-driven CX.
Protime, an SD Worx subsidiary and Belgian time recording and work organization, has bought its Spanish counterpart. In its home country, SoftMachine has around 450 local and international customers, mainly medium-sized companies. This acquisition is part of Protime’s ambition to become the European market leader in personnel management solutions.
Qlik announced the acquisition of Mozaic Data (Mozaic), an innovative AI-driven data management technology.
ServiceNow announced it has signed an agreement to acquire task mining company UltimateSuite to enhance process mining and intelligent automation across the Now Platform.
Volaris Group Inc. acquired Delacon, a leading provider of Call Tracking, Call Management and Speech Analytics solutions.
Appointments
Xactly announced that Arnab Mishra has been named the company’s Chief Executive Officer. Mishra joined Xactly in 2017 and most recently served as Chief Operating Officer.
Business
Calabrio has introduced AI-Powered Interaction Analytics on public cloud infrastructure within the Middle East region. This offering is intricately designed to cater to the specific requirements of Middle East contact centres, incorporating local language support, Arabic call transcriptions, and a dedicated public cloud instance in the UAE.
Digital Workforce and Robocorp announced the extension of their partnership. The new three-year agreement focuses on collaboration in various automation and data migration projects, among others, within healthcare process automation and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) projects in the US.
Medius has signed channel partner agreements with several firms in the UK including The Access Group, Acuity Solutions, Anthesis, Escone Solutions, and Kamarin Computers, part of The HBP Group.
nCino announced an expanded partnership with Salesforce to accelerate the delivery of best-in-class cloud solutions to the financial services industry.
NTT Global Data Centers Japan, a subsidiary of NTT DATA Group Corporation, and TEPCO Power Grid, Inc. have agreed to establish a new company to jointly develop and operate data centres in the Inzai-Shiroi area of Greater Tokyo, Japan.
Deloitte, a leader in Digital Finance Transformation services, announced a strategic partnership with business planning platform Pigment.
Sodexo confirmed it will put to a shareholder vote the Pluxee spin-off at a dedicated Shareholders Meeting on January 30, 2024, after which Pluxee will be listed on Euronext Paris by February 1, 2024, subject to prospectus approval, Euronext admission decision and market conditions.
Trinet introduced its redesigned website. It combines the full force of its all-in-one HR capabilities into one modernized, engaging and user-friendly site. The launch of this new site is a key component of TriNet’s continued promise to businesses to provide incredible HR products and services that can scale and evolve with their needs.
Customer
McDonald’s Corporation and Accenture announced an expansion of their strategic partnership to help execute McDonald’s strategy to leverage the latest edge technology and apply generative AI solutions across its restaurants worldwide to improve operations as well as customer and crew experience. Through this work, McDonald’s also will enhance the digital capabilities of its employees.
Strathclyde Business School, a key department within the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland, has chosen Creatio to enhance their relationship management and attain strategic objectives.
Redstamp, a leading provider of specialized automation equipment for innovative distribution and manufacturing, has streamlined its operations with DronaHQ.
o9 Solutions, a leading enterprise AI software platform provider for transforming planning and decision-making, announced that it will support Barilla in the digital transformation of its supply chain planning capabilities.
Qualtrics partnered with Dow, a renowned 125-year-old materials science company, to launch a digital transformation that has generated $300 million in value and a 20% improvement in Dow’s customer satisfaction scores.
WOWorks, the holding company of better-for-you restaurant brands, including Saladworks, Frutta Bowls, Garbanzo Mediterranean Fresh, The Simple Greek, Barberitos Southwestern Grille and Cantina, and Zoup! Eatery has selected SOCi as its platform of record to transform digital marketing guest relations for its restaurant brands.
Financial Reports
Accenture
Accenture reported its Q1 fiscal 2024 results.
- Revenues of $16.2 billion, an increase of 3% in U.S. dollars and 1% in local currency
- GAAP operating margin of 15.8%, compared to 16.5% in the first quarter of fiscal 2023; adjusted1 operating margin of 16.7%, an expansion of 20 basis points
- New bookings of $18.4 billion, an increase of 14% in U.S. dollars and 12% in local currency
The company confirmed the business outlook for fiscal 2024. It continues to expect revenue growth of 2% to 5% in local currency; GAAP EPS of $11.41 to $11.76, a 6% to 9% increase; and adjusted EPS of $11.97 to $12.32, a 3% to 6% increase.
Julie Sweet, chair and CEO of Accenture, said, “I am pleased that we delivered on our commitments this quarter while strategically investing at scale for future growth. Our deep and trusted client relationships are again reflected in the 30 clients with quarterly bookings of more than $100 million.
“And we continue to lead our industry in Gen AI – the great accelerator of reinvention – with over $450 million in new bookings. I am incredibly grateful to the 743,000 people of Accenture, who are steadfastly dedicated to helping our clients achieve their ambition to grow and thrive in the years ahead.”
Product
Domo announced the availability of its data experience platform in the Microsoft Azure Marketplace, an online store providing applications and services for use on Azure.
Experian Marketing Services UK&I, a division of the world’s leading global information services company, has launched Consumer Sync. This is a new digital linkage solution that enables clients to match first-party data to relevant offline and online IDs without the traditional reliance on cookies.
Medius announced the first AI workmate for the accounts payable industry, Medius “Agent”. Available now in beta, it will release the product in 2024.
NICE announced the launch of the 2023 CXone Fall Release, expanding AI and automation and increasing openness across the CXone platform. CXone is the industry’s leading interaction centric platform, enabling organizations to effectively manage all interactions – attended and unattended.
Simpro announced version 5.5 of SimTrac, which introduces an improved map view in Simtrac to prevent overlapping pins.
UserGems announced the updates it has delivered in the last quarter. They include the integration between UserGems and Salesloft, becoming a Salesloft Rhythm partner, and an improved integration with Slack,
Zoho introduced a Global Holidays List feature in its calendar for Zoho Forms. It means that customers can add local holidays to ensure forms can be adjusted as appropriate.
