Last week Celebrus completed a successful AGM, and also announced two new deals with global airlines. Zoho held Zoholics Johannesburg, announcing upskilling initiatives and celebrating its growth in South Africa. Sridhar Vembu, Co-Founder and CEO of Zoho, announced that Zoho will create a Research and Development centre in Eastern Uttar Pradesh.
RocketLane announced an enhancement to the resource request feature within its PSA solution. Adobe launches Adobe Journey Optimiser (AJO) B2B Edition. Opkit has launched a solution that will automate many of the time-consuming calls that medical practices must complete. Acquia has announced Multi-Experience Operations, an enhancement to the Acquia Cloud Platform.
FourKites published its Premier Carrier list for H1 2024. Coveo and Optimizely have announced a strategic partnership to enable companies to bring AI-powered search and relevance across sites.
Mazuma, the UK’s leading online accountancy firm for small and micro-businesses, has announced that Gary Turner has joined its Board of Directors. Thredd, the global next-generation payments platform, has appointed Brian Kieley as Chief Client Officer.
VinciWorks has published a short whitepaper entitled, “What can technology do for Compliance?” Regula, a developer of forensic devices and identity verification solutions, has released new findings from its study, The New Imperative: Digital IDs. A study commissioned by ZeroBounce reveals countries most advanced in AI.
Richard Godfrey, Co-Founder and CEO of Rocketmakers unveils the challenges around hiring a CTO for a startup and why outsourcing might be the best approach.
11:11 Systems
11:11 Systems announced the availability of 11:11 Managed Connectivity for AWS Direct Connect. Available in the AWS Marketplace, it provides fully managed, last-mile connectivity solutions. These solve bandwidth, latency and security issues for cloud customers. Managed last-mile coupled with direct connectivity to AWS Direct Connect — either through a dedicated connection or virtual overlay — allows customers to optimise network traffic to and from Amazon Web Services (AWS) safely and securely.
Justin Giardina, CTO of 11:11 Systems, commented, “As more geographically distributed organisations take advantage of AWS, the last-mile connection becomes the critical link to an organisation’s ecosystem. By working with AWS, we offer customers a turnkey, fully managed, carrier-agnostic solution that can quickly address critical connectivity complications through flexible on-ramp options, such as circuits and SD-WAN.”
Bentley Systems
Q2 Results
Bentley Systems announced its Q2 2024 results.
- Total revenues were $330.3 million, up 11.3% or 11.9% on a constant currency basis, year-over-year.
- Subscription revenues were $297.4 million, up 14.7% or 15.3% on a constant currency basis, year-over-year.
- ARR was $1,215.9 million as of 30th June 2024, compared to $1,105.9 million as of 30th June 2023. Representing a constant currency ARR growth rate of 11%.
- Net dollar retention was 108%, down 2% year-over-year.
Executive Chair Greg Bentley said, “We are pleased to report broadly favorable operating results for 24Q2. Our confidence in sustaining commendable performance is reinforced by the enduring — and if anything, broadening — vitality of our infrastructure engineering end markets, met with BSY’s competitive advantages and reliably efficient execution. But to me, the long-term potential of initiatives being explored and developed under our new generation of executive leadership seems even more auspicious!”
CEO Nicholas Cumins said, “Our performance in 24Q2 and the first half provides a solid foundation for the full year, with very positive end-market and operational momentum. Our year-over-year ARR growth of 11% on a constant currency basis (11.5% excluding China) is consistent with the previous quarter. Public Works / Utilities and North America remained the main growth drivers, and we continued to add new small and medium-sized accounts at a rapid pace, reflecting healthy market conditions.
PennDOT deal
Bentley Systems has been selected as part of a multi-award Request for Proposal by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) for state-wide civil design solutions. The contract award extends Bentley’s long-standing relationship with PennDOT to advance project delivery. PennDOT has transitioned to Bentley’s OpenRoads 3D design software and ProjectWise for CADD data management to support roadway, bridge, drainage, traffic, and geotechnical engineering.
Kelly Barber, P.E., Chief of the Engineering Automation and Services Division, PennDOT, said, “As the Department moves toward being platform inclusive, we are looking forward to the opportunities advancing technologies will bring to the Department and our business partners, now and into the future.”
Infor
Endries
Infor published a short video revealing how Endries is using Infor solutions to support its supply chain solutions business. It has implemented Infor AI for part matching. It has significantly enhanced productivity and accuracy across sales, procurement, operations, and inventory departments, benefiting over 500 users. The AI technology eliminates the need for specialised skills by interpreting various abbreviations and prioritising them. Thereby generating shorter and more precise lists of part matches. Accessible via an intranet widget, AI parts matching now delivers the following advantages:
- 50-65% faster parts matching
- 1,000 bulk part matching results in seconds
- Increases customer win rates by 30%
- 7,500+ hours saved annually
- 100% database parts merging project completion rates
- Less than 90 days to value with Infor Augmented Intelligence Service (AIS)
Todd Fischer, VP and CIO at Endries International, said, “Our customers are getting more demanding, we are excited about that. Why? Because it’s a differentiator for Endries, and it makes Edires much stronger in the marketplace and gives us a sticky customer. Customers don’t want to leave us if we can continue to meet their needs and the Infor tools do that for us.”
Gellert Group Global
Infor published a short video revealing how the Global Gellert Group, one of the largest and most established food importers in the US, has leveraged Infor software. It has powered further growth by providing a digital backbone to the firm. Infor has helped with demand forecasting and ultimately reducing costs that the firm has been able to pass on to customers.
Andy Gellert, President of the Gellert Global Group said, “Infor has been a great partner, helping us with our team and making sure we have the right food at the right time.”
iplicit
iplicit revealed that the organisers of the Edinburgh Festival are using the iplicit accounting platform to manage the finances of the annual festival. The organisation moved to iplicit from Sage 200, taking full advantage of the fully cloud-based solution.
Andrew Brownlie, Head of Finance for the International Festival, commented, “We can pull that information out early enough now to be usable. Otherwise, when everyone’s so frantic trying to deliver the festival, getting them to pay any attention to it is difficult.
“At the point when you’re spending most of the money, that’s when you most need accurate, up-to-date financial reporting, which is what iplicit now gives us. Budget holders can see their expenditure live in the system.”
Full details for the implementation and its results are available in a full case study.
Percipient
Percipient announced that Trigon Hotels, a Cork-based hospitality group, has migrated from Sage 50 to Sage Intacct with support from Percipient.
Julie Daly, Finance Manager, Trigon Hotels, commented, “From the outset, Percipient demonstrated a good understanding of Trigon’s business and our role and goals in driving digital transformation within the finance department. This, combined with the team’s extensive experience in the hospitality industry, meant that we had absolute confidence in the software and that Percipient was the right consultancy for our project.”
RSystems
RSystems held its AGM last week where several key measures were passed. It approved the audited standalone results for the six months ending 30th June. It confirms the appointment of M/s. DPV & Associates LLP, Company Secretaries as Secretarial Auditor for the financial year ending on 31st December 2024.
Finally it also approved the incorporation of a subsidiary in the United Mexican States, with the name and style, RSystems Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V.. The announcement suggests that the company may soon open an office in Mexico and aim to grow its presence in the country.
TSIA
TSIA published several articles last week, including:
- The Impact of Field Service Engineers in Renewal. (Registration Required) This Quick Poll insight looked at the participation of field service engineers in cross-sell/upsell initiatives. It found that 77% of organisations actively involve them. The insight looks at how organisations expect engineers to support these initiatives and also how they support them with training.
- The current State of AI Usage in Renewals (subscription required) reveals insights from TSIA’s 2024 Customer Growth and Renewal Data and Technology Capabilities for Renewals.
TSIS has also started a new survey:
- KPIs and Best Practices for Measuring Managed Services Survey (Registration Required) aim to identify which leading-edge performance metrics managed services organisations are tracking and how organisations are performing on those metrics. The survey is available until 30th September.
Zoho
Zebra printers integration
Zoho has announced an integration between the Zoho Backstage Organiser iOS App and Zebra printers. It enables the onsite printing of event attendee badges from a mobile device using either Bluetooth or a WIFI connection. For event organisers, it delivers greater flexibility and control when hosting events.
Zoho Meetings breakout rooms
Zoho Meetings has introduced breakout rooms. These virtual spaces allow attendees of larger events to immediately separate into smaller rooms for discussions before joining the larger meetings. Zoho highlights several potential use cases for these rooms, including:
- Small group discussions: Breakout rooms are ideal for dividing participants into smaller groups to discuss specific topics or agenda items in more depth.
- Team building activities: Team members can engage in interactive games and icebreaker activities to strengthen bonds and boost morale.
- Student group work: In virtual classrooms, breakout rooms facilitate student group work, discussions, and collaborative learning activities.
- Networking events: In online conferences, breakout rooms provide networking opportunities by grouping participants based on common interests or objectives.
- Feedback and review sessions: Breakout rooms provide an efficient way to conduct feedback or review sessions, especially in larger meetings.
