Last week, Zoho launched the Zakya brand. This is a new solution for SME retailers that includes POS and an end-to-end retail platform. Precisely announced that Etam Group had selected Automate Studio to power data migrations for its accounts payable teams within SAP. ELCOM Systems announced that an NHS procurement collaborative has adopted its spend management platform to achieve savings of an estimated £15 million.
Agiloft revealed more features for its latest release, including a new Google Docs App. Salesforce announced the beta availability of Einstein Copilot, a new, customisable, generative AI-powered conversational assistant for every Salesforce application. Sage announced Copilots for Sage for Small Business and Sage for Accountants. Infosys launched its Responsible AI Suite. This is a part of Infosys Topaz, an AI-first set of services, solutions, and platforms using generative AI.
InPost has partnered with Aldi, adding 22 parcel locker locations to its network in a trial. Appian partnered with Symphony to address the challenge of automating compliance in the financial markets. Fintech payments firm Volt obtained an EMI licence from FCA. NTT Data and Schneider Electric have announced a strategic partnership. They also introduced a new one that combines Edge, Private 5G, IOT, and Modular Data Centres.
Workday announced it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire HiredScore. Linarc appointed Tony Craythorne as its new Chief Revenue Officer (CRO). Workday also revealed how Philips, a global leader in HR, leverages Workday HCM. And, more recently, Workday Adaptive Planning to empower its workforce.
In a study with WCC, Icertis found that legal professionals are receptive to using AI, but organisations may not be as ready. Research last week also included findings from a Slack survey that suggests workers are embracing AI. Zakya revealed that retailers in India want to adopt POS software to automate their processes by 2029. Viakoo released findings from its 2024 IoT Security Crisis: By the Numbers.
ASUS
ASUS announced two graphics cards for the gaming market: the TUF Gaming AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE and ASUS Dual AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE.
The TUF Gaming card has 5120 stream processors and clocks up to 2052 MHz (or 2391 MHz in OC mode). It supports higher resolutions due to the 16GB of GDDR6 VRAM on a 256-bit bus.
ASUS also announced the latest ASUS MH series. Clinical displays have been listed as Class 1 devices by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). These models include the 32-inch 8-megapixel MH3281A, the 27-inch 4-megapixel MH2741A, and the 23.8-inch MH2441A. All three displays are designed for radiology, as well as Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) use.
ASUS also announced ExpertBook B3 Flip (B3402FVA). A refreshed model of the powerful and versatile convertible laptop designed for both hybrid working and learning. B3 Flip is equipped with a 360° any-position hinge for total display flexibility, a world-facing camera for a new perspective, and a fast-charging garaged stylus for simple, intuitive input. It includes several convenient health protection features. Including ASUS Antibacterial Guard and a TÜV Rheinland-certified display for everyday eye care.
Bentley
Bentley Systems announced its Q4 and full-year 2023 results. It also revealed its outlook for 2024. For the fourth quarter revenue rose 3%, 7.3% in constant currency. Subscription revenues rose 3% and 7.4% in constant currency. ARR rose 5% to $ 1,174.8 million as of December 31, 2023.
For the full year 2023, total revenues were $1,228.4 million, up 8% or 11.9% on a constant currency basis. Subscription revenues were $1,080.3 million, up 5% or 12.5% on a constant currency basis.
CEO Greg Bentley said, “Our financial results for 23Q4 and the full year underscore the sustained combination of auspicious infrastructure engineering markets and the strength of our operations. I enthusiastically congratulate COO Nicholas Cumins and our teams for delivering another year of unsurpassed performance, resourcefully reaching fully 100% of our new business target while also clearing our established hurdle of 100 basis points in annual operating margin improvement.
“Most notably, we achieved ARR growth (year‑over‑year constant currency business performance, including programmatic acquisitions) of 12.5%, and excluding China, as our purposeful transitions from direct subscriptions there gain traction, we achieved a high-water mark of 13.5%.
“Our financial outlook for 2024 reflects our confidence in sustaining consistent organic growth with comparable annual improvement in operating margin (including stock‑based compensation). Our investment programs will prioritize outright acquisitions in asset analytics, where our breakthrough offerings for communications towers (OpenTower) and for roadway conditions (Blyncsy) are proving that AI now enables ‘instant-on’ infrastructure digital twins at scale. I believe that asset analytics cloud services, monetized per asset, can significantly increase our total addressable market and digital twin growth.”
BICS
BICS announced that Guillaume Boutin will act as interim Chief Executive Officer following the departure of Matteo Gatta. Boutin has been Chairman of the Board since 2019 and is also CEO of Proximus. The firm will now start to look for a long-term successor.
Forter
Forter has achieved AWS Advanced Technology Partner status and now has a listing on the AWS Marketplace. Michael Reitblat, CEO and Co-Founder of Forter, commented, “We are thrilled to become an ISV Accelerator partner listed on AWS Marketplace. This collaboration expands our reach globally, bringing identity intelligence to more of the world’s leading enterprises. By filtering out fraud, businesses can focus on growing customer lifetime value, reducing chargebacks and maximizing conversions.”
FourKites
FourKites published its global Premier Carrier List (PCL). The list recognizes the growing community of brokers, carriers and 3PLs who are achieving the highest standards of visibility-related operational excellence across all modes of transport.
FourKites noted that carriers that qualified for the list are showing an 11% month-over-month increase in shipment volume in H2 2023 compared to the network average. The list has grown by 7% (21% in Europe).
Jason Eversole, VP of Professional Services Solutions at FourKites, commented, “We may now be looking at the bottom of the freight market. As carriers and brokers emerge from a difficult market looking toward the future, it’s important to note that shippers have also evolved and changed their expectations during this time.
“Over the past 18 months, shippers have been in a strong position and demanded visibility. Many carriers adapted to meet those expectations in tracking quality and service to survive, and visibility became more important than ever. As the market recovers, carriers that deliver value by providing visibility will be best-positioned to win business with high-quality shippers and grow.”
Infosys
Infosys and PROG Holdings have announced an agreement that will see Infosys digital services assist the fintech in its cloud- and AI-focused technology modernization and innovation efforts. PROG Holdings is the fintech holding company for Progressive Leasing, Vive Financial, Four Technologies, and Build.
PROG Holdings selected Infosys because of its ability to provide global access to top talent and technology infrastructure. This supports and augments the innovation and efforts of PROG Holding’s internal technology teams.
Steve Michaels, President and CEO of PROG Holdings, said, “We look forward to working with Infosys to develop and enhance key systems that positively impact the speed to market, agility, and scalability of key PROG Holdings technologies and platforms. We expect our collaboration with Infosys will reduce friction for both our customers and retail partners, further solidifying PROG Holdings’ position atop the virtual lease-to-own industry we helped create twenty-five years ago.”
MAKIP
MAKIP has announced that yet another fashion brand has selected Unisize to power its website. Tombow, is a fashion site dedicated to uniforms for school and medical care as well as clothing for older people. It has adopted Unisize to help shoppers select the optimal size for customers.
Newgen Software
Newgen has revealed that Lactalis India has implemented Newgen’s Invoice Processing Solution, built on NewgenONE — a low-code platform. With the new software, Lactalis will centralise its invoice processing and standardise practices across the firm.
What is novel about this implementation is that Lactalis has introduced gamification to help motivate and improve the performance of business users. The business leaders will also have access to real-time metrics for vendor payments. Enabling intelligent user allocation, automatic case routing, and the utilization of straight-through processing of transactions for faster turnaround time.
Ms. Odete Maria Guedes Ribeiro, CFO at Lactalis India, commented, “In 2014, we made our entry into the Indian market through the acquisition of Thirumala Milk Products Pvt. Ltd — a South-Indian dairy production company. Subsequently, we expanded our presence by acquiring the other leading dairy companies in India, including Anik Industries and Prabhat Dairy, in 2016 and 2019. As our operation continued growing, we needed to be more efficient.
“Our existing invoice-handling process lacked digitization and centralized management of documents, drastically impacting our workforce productivity and operational efficiencies. With Newgen’s low-code-based digital transformation platform, we have successfully eliminated manual intervention in the invoice management process. We are now closer to achieving our goal of end-to-end digitization and process standardization.”
A new enterprise mobility framework
Newgen Software launched a new version of its mobility framework, Enterprise Mobility Framework 6.0. The new version has several new or updated features, including:
- Custom UI control support to create unique and visually appealing interfaces
- Silent Update feature updates the application without requiring manual intervention
- Silent push notifications provide an efficient communication channel for sending data to the app without interrupting the user experience
- Data Sync Feature has been used to enable time-based sync functionality for efficient data synchronization
- Integration of voice-based form-filling
- Seamless integration with Google Analytics
- Security for the REST service module has been elevated by providing JWT support for data exchange
Virender Jeet, CEO of Newgen Software, commented, “With a low-code process automation platform and enterprise mobility framework, we empower organizations to move beyond traditional disconnected mobile apps and transactional processes and become more streamlined, collaborative, and customer-centric. Using a smart, mobile-based solution, this framework helps build and leverage enterprise apps across different verticals and perform day-to-day activities.”
Unit4
Unit4 announced that Moody’s Investors Service (Moody’s) had changed Unit4 Group Holding B.V.’s outlook rating to positive from stable. Matt Bagley, Chief Financial Officer, Unit4, said, “We are pleased to have had our outlook changed to positive from stable by Moody’s. 2023 was a pivotal year which saw the company growing both revenue and profitability, as customers look to transform their businesses and move to the Cloud. Recurring revenue now represents 79% of the company’s revenue, improving the predictability of EBITDA and cash flow.”
Panasonic Connect
Lifesize Plans has selected Panasonic and Dublin-based AV specialists, Think, to install 11 PT-RTZ990 1-Chip DLP projectors across its showroom. Enabling people to view their home through 1:1 scale building plans taken from architect drawings before it is built.
Lifesize Plans has used Panasonic’s Geometry Manager Pro software to adjust the multiple projections. With edge blending of up to 100 images, colour matching, and digital image enlargement (up to x10 zoom). Which enables plans to be seamlessly projected across the 60,000 ft2 showroom floor.
Emma O’Donoghue, Director Lifesize Plans, commented, “We test drive cars before we buy them, and a home is a much bigger investment. By projecting architectural plans on a life-size scale, we create immersive experiences where people walk through their homes before they build them. To make this a reality we needed the best visual quality delivered by Panasonic projectors.”
Rimini Street
Results for Rimini Street
Rimini Street announced results for the 2023 fourth quarter and fiscal year ended December 31, 2023. Key figures included for the fourth quarter:
- Revenue rose 3.2% year over year to $112.1 million
- ARR grew 2.9% year over year to $432.3 million
- Active clients increase by 0.6% to 3,038
For the full year:
- Revenue was $431.5 million for 2023, an increase of 5.3% compared to $409.7 million for 2022
- Gross margin was 62.3% for 2023 compared to 62.8% for 2022
- Operating income was $43.8 million for 2023 compared to $8.1 million for 2022
- Revenue retention fell by 2% to 90% for the 12 months trailing 31st December 2023
The company announced that MYOB, Pacific Textiles and Santec have all expanded their relationship or switched to Rimini Street during the fourth quarter. On the future outlook Rimini Street made the following statement, “The Company is continuing to suspend guidance until there is more clarity around impacts from current litigation activity before the US Federal courts in the Company’s ongoing litigation with Oracle.”
Rimini Custom
Rimini Street launched Rimini Custom. A new service wrapper that enables enterprises to leverage Rimini Street support across their software architecture. The solution combines Rimini Support, Rimini Manage, and other Rimini services. Previously only available for a limited set of vendors, product lines and releases.
Craig Mackereth, Global Vice President of global support delivery at Rimini Street, commented, “Our unmatched ability to continually grow our capabilities and help clients manage complex enterprise software platforms has distinguished us as the leading independent support provider for enterprises navigating change.
“With significant investments in support infrastructure, methodology, and resourcing, Rimini Street is able to effectively scale our award-winning support and maintain our high level of quality and service commitment to our clients for a much wider scope of enterprise software products and releases.”
Workday
A new healthcare customer for Workday
Rhode Island’s largest health system, Lifespan Corp., selected Workday Financial Management, Workday Human Capital Management (HCM), Workday Supply Chain Management (SCM) for Healthcare, and Workday Adaptive Planning to accelerate its digital transformation efforts.
Peter Markell, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Lifespan, commented, “Workday will help transform our business processes — from automating manual tasks to providing engaging experiences for employees and clinicians — which will greatly support our mission of delivering health with care. With an integrated view into financial, workforce, and electronic medical record data, we will be able to make faster, more informed business decisions and adapt quickly to changing industry demands.”
Workday Finance powers up many customers in Q4
Workday announced that in the fourth fiscal quarter that ended January 31, 2024. It won several notable customers for Workday Financial Management and Workday Human Capital Management (HCM). During the quarter, Baptist Health System, Inc., Boyd Gaming Corporation, Memorial Healthcare System, Portland Community College, Randstad, Rush University System for Health, The College of William & Mary, UMass Memorial Health Care, and Wellstar Health System Inc. selected or went live on both solutions.
There were other wins as well. With Cone Health, HonorHealth, HHS, UHS of Delaware, Inc., and VXI Global Solutions, LLC selected Workday Financial Management, Workday HCM, and Workday Adaptive Planning. Ally Financial, Intermountain Health, Inc., Huntington Bank, and Vista Equity Partners Management, LLC also added Workday Financial Management to their existing use of Workday.
Terrance Wampler, Group General Manager, office of the CFO, Workday, said, “Workday solutions for the office of the CFO help customers streamline financial processes, remove inefficiencies, and surface more meaningful insights from their data. When our customers combine these powerful solutions with Workday HCM, they gain enterprise-wide visibility into their data across finance and HR, driving agility and accelerating decision-making. And with Workday AI embedded into the core of the Workday platform, organizations can streamline operations across their entire business.”
Workday results
Workday announced results for the fiscal 2024 fourth quarter and full year ended January 31, 2024. The key figures for the fourth quarter included:
- Total Revenues of $1.9 Billion, Up 17% Year Over Year
- Subscription Revenues of $1.8 Billion, Up 18% Year Over Year
- Operating income was $79 million, or 4.1% of revenues, compared to an operating loss of $89 million, or negative 5.4% of revenues, in the same period last year
Results for the full Fiscal year 2024 included:
- Total Revenues of $7.3 Billion, Up 17% Year Over Year
- Subscription Revenues of $6.6 Billion, Up 19% Year Over Year
- Operating income was $183 million, or 2.5% of revenues, compared to an operating loss of $222 million, or negative 3.6% of revenues, in fiscal 2023
- Operating Cash Flows of $2.1 Billion, Up 30% Year Over Year
- The total subscription revenue backlog was $20.9 billion, up 27% from the same period last year
Carl Eschenbach, CEO of Workday, said, “Workday’s results this quarter are a testament to the strength of our value proposition and the durability of our business. We’re seeing continued momentum with full platform customer wins and expansions within our base, strengthening international performance, growth of our partner ecosystem, and the seamless execution of nearly 19,000 Workmates across the globe — all setting us up for an incredible fiscal year 2025.”
Zoho
Zoho Sign has partnered with licensed Electronic Certification Service Providers (E-CSPs), such as Tendaworld. That are accredited by the Communications Authority of Kenya to offer local legal validity. The partnership enables Kenyan users to digitally execute their contracts and agreements with confidence. This development will also encourage government agencies, businesses, and individuals across Kenya to adopt digital signatures and transactions.
Digital signatures are legally valid in Kenya under the Kenya Information and Communications Act, No. 2 of 1998 (KICA). Zoho Sign is legal in Kenya and complies with various international digital signature laws.
