Several announcements made articles last week. First up are the product announcements.
Alation has launched Alation Anywhere for Google Chrome. The new extension will enable Alation users to search, preview, and retrieve critical metadata from Alation without leaving their browsers.
Creatio announced the general availability of Creatio 8.2, codenamed Energy. The release includes a range of innovations for its no-code and CRM platform.
Intuit has announced that QuickBooks customers and their accountants can sign up for early access to Intuit Assist for QuickBooks.
Rocketlane has launched the next generation of its Customer Portal functionality, Customer Portal version 2.0.
Company Announcements
Celebrus sees profits soar after publishing a trading update for the six months to 30 September 2024.
IFS announced a strong set of results for its third quarter, ending 30th September 2024.
Melio, a leading accounts payable and receivable platform for small and medium businesses, announced a Series E funding round led by Fiserv Inc., the mobile payments giant.
Monta has announced its first US office and a new partnership in the US with Emobi.
Zoho has added another distribution agreement, a strategic partnership with SiS Distribution (Thailand) Public Company Limited (SiS).
Appointments
Five9 appointed Ajay Awatramani as its first Chief Product Officer (CPO).
Pipefy has announced that Henrique Setton was appointed to the role of COO.
Research and Interviews last week
Karthik Rau, CEO and Pete Pedersen, Global Head of Communications at Contentful, revealed five tips about creating a content supply chain for your enterprise.
iplicit, the rapidly growing UK Accounting Software provider, has published research that identifies the perceived barriers that finance leaders see from changing their accounting systems.
Research published by TeamViewer suggests 74% of UK decision makers believe AI will lead to the greatest productivity boom in a century.
Unit4 has published an IDC Infobrief, “The Path to AI Everywhere: Exploring the Human Challenges”. It is well put together and worth a read.
Sales for UK SMEs are slowing, according to the Xero Small Business Insights report for the period July – September 2024.
The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and GBK Collective have published a study on adopting Generative AI in the USA. The report “Growing Up: Navigating Gen AI’s Early Years” (registration required) has some surprising results.
Bentley Systems
Blyncsy, a Bentley Systems, Incorporated company, published a comprehensive public map of all interstate highways in the continental United States. Thus showing key roadway assets such as guardrails, speed limit signs, and work zones to support roadway safety and maintenance conditions. This data is now available to all state US Department of Transportation (DOT) agencies. Enabling them to better address safety, maintenance, and repair operations of deteriorating and at-risk roads more efficiently and cost-effectively. Especially during times of natural disasters.
Mark Pittman, Blyncsy CEO and Bentley’s Director of Transportation AI said, “With increasing workloads and smaller budgets, state DOTs need a way to improve roadway safety and operational efficiencies. Today, we’re supporting a national digital infrastructure vision and democratizing roadway data by publishing an open dataset of US highways. To help state DOTs better prepare, maintain, and repair more miles and create safer environments for maintenance crews and drivers, alike.”
Certinia
Certinia published a roundup that detailed what happened in its inaugural International Services Week. This is a brand new global celebration of the essential role services organizations play in today’s economy.
The week included presentations in Chicago, Las Vegas at TSIA World Envision, and London. With firms including Certinia, Salesforce, PwC, and the TSIA participating. At the end of the week, firms held several volunteer and charity events. They included the Susan G. Komen More Than Pink Walk in honour of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Certinia’s EmpowerHER team raised over $9,000 to support critical research and patient services.
Deltek
Deltek published details of the latest updates to Deltek Specpoint. The Office Master Manager allows users to import multiple office masters containing the same section numbers. This provides a centralized method to manage different versions of office master sections, including AIA Master Spec.
Specpoint has enhanced the product selection experience. Thus giving users more control over which product details are applied to the project workspace. The Specpoint product library has more advanced and more flexible filtering capabilities.
The MasterSpec 2024 Third Quarter Update covers 40 Sections. Including 4 new Sections, 33 Sections that have undergone full or selective revisions to technical content, 1 Section updated for specification coordination. Whilst 2 Sections have been withdrawn from the library. In addition to technical content updates, all Sections in this release have received non-technical content revisions for improved functionality and editing capability in Specpoint.
Infor
Freight Forwarders Solutions
Freight Forwarders Solutions (FFS), has successfully implemented Infor CloudSuite Industrial ERP for online transaction processing and reporting in production.
Teddy Salano, Group IT & Systems Manager, commented, “The system response has consistently met our business expectations. Both during the middle of (the) month when we handle normal business volumes and at peak periods such as month-end and year-end.”
How Possible Happens
Infor published a report titled “How Possible Happens: Filling the ‘value void’ with technology-driven productivity”. The report is based on a survey of 3,600 decision-makers from 14 countries and 7 industries. The key findings include:
- 75% of organizations expect to gain a productivity increase of more than 20% in the next three years.
- 80% of organizations agree that success will depend on the use and adoptability of new technologies.
- 78% of organizations expect to increase investments in technology by 20% or more in the coming years.
The authors identified four core attributes of the most productive organisations: processes & systems, agility & future readiness, culture of data and customer focus.
Infosys
Finacle Data and AI Suite
Infosys Finacle, part of EdgeVerve Systems, announced the launch of the Finacle Data and AI Suite. This is a set of solutions to empower banks to infuse AI into their digital operations and accelerate their enterprise AI journey. The suite will offer a comprehensive set of platforms that enable banks to build low-code, predictive as well as generative AI solutions from the ground up with high transparency and explainability.
The Finacle Data and AI Suite is a part of Infosys Topaz – an AI-first set of offerings using generative AI technologies. They are steered by a ‘responsible by design’ approach that ensures strong standards of AI ethics, trust, privacy, security and regulatory compliance. The suite consists of three components.
Sajit Vijayakumar, Chief Business Officer and Global Head of Infosys Finacle said, “AI is transforming banking by redefining the future of customer experience, risk management, and decision-making. By leveraging data at scale, AI empowers banks to anticipate needs, personalize solutions, and drive growth with unprecedented agility.
“We are excited to introduce the Finacle Data and AI Suite as a definitive solution for banks seeking to harness the power of AI. The Finacle Data Platform lays out a robust data foundation, and the Finacle AI Platform abstracts the complexities of AI development, putting power in the hands of banks’ business teams to unlock the true potential of AI.”
Enterprise AI Readiness report
The Infosys Knowledge Institute has published the Enterprise AI Readiness report. The report is based on a survey of over 1,500 respondents across Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States. It is also based on a qualitative survey of 40 interviews.
According to the research, enterprises expect an average increase of 15% in productivity from their current AI projects. With some anticipating up to 40% gains. Yet only 2% of organizations are ready across all five key dimensions: talent, strategy, governance, data, and technology.
The research outlines five steps to close the gaps and reduce apprehensions about AI to accelerate adoption:
- Develop a comprehensive AI strategy
- Establish responsible AI governance
- Upskill the workforce
- Prepare data infrastructure for AI
- Cultivate a culture of tech-powered innovation
Mohammed Rafee Tarafdar, Chief Technology Officer, Infosys, said, “To become enterprise-wide AI-ready and realize the promise of this technology, including gen AI, it is imperative to establish a robust and scalable foundation. Our research and learnings from our AI-first transformation journey has shown that data readiness, enterprise gen AI platform with responsible AI guardrails, and AI talent transformation are key to accelerate and democratize AI development. This must be complemented by an AI foundry and factory model for scaling AI initiatives across the enterprise.”
iplicit
Software reseller 4GL Concepts has signed up as a partner with iplicit. It will offer its accounting solution to clients in the UK, Gibraltar and elsewhere. The business operates in Gibraltar and London but also has customers in Spain and other EU countries. As well as some further afield, including Mauritius and Singapore.
Robin Fitzpatrick, Partner at 4GL Concepts, said, “For the past few years, we’ve been looking at adding a fully web-based product to our portfolio to fill a gap that we were unable to fill with some current solutions. It means that instead of losing these clients, we now have the opportunity to plug that gap and iplicit provided the ideal solution.
“It’s another string to our bow that now enables us to offer a full range of best-in-class cloud and on-premises solutions.”
Jitterbit
Jitterbit has announced the global expansion of its Premier Support program. This provides businesses with enhanced “follow-the-sun” service and expert issue resolution. Keith Trottier, SVP of Global Customer Support and Professional Services at Jitterbit, commented, “Immediate access to expert support is crucial for seamless business operations. Our Premier Support program delivers tailored, high-quality service — when it’s needed most — to quickly resolve issues and minimize disruption.”
First announced in May 2024, Premier Support is available via three tiers. These now support all time zones globally to meet the diverse needs of organizations. Customers can choose from:
- Premier: foundational tier that offers reliable support with new phone access to Jitterbit experts, ensuring timely assistance for core operational issues.
- Premier Plus: enhanced tier that includes all the benefits of Premier, with added 24-7 live agent support for faster response times.
- Premier Enterprise: top-tier service designed for enterprise-level customers, providing live support for all severity levels, with phone access to expert agents 24-7.
KTSL
KTSL has been accepted onto the G-Cloud 14 framework! It means that public sector organisations can purchase KTSL services. Public sector customers can streamline operations using AIOps to enhance IT service management and drive meaningful digital change. All while ensuring compliance with the highest security standards.
Panasonic
The University of Staffordshire has created a state-of-the-art eSports broadcasting course. This was done with the support of Panasonic and its long-term partner, Digital Garage. This will enable the university to run eSports events, accommodate more students onto the course and position itself as a leader in academic eSports broadcasting.
The new 61-seat arena in the University of Staffordshire’s eSports Broadcasting Hub will utilise Panasonic’s state-of-the-art live video production platform, KAIROS. Two AT-KC200 mainframes will be utilised. These are compatible with the SMPTE ST 2110 IP-based transmission standard that is revolutionising the transmission of video and audio signals over IP networks.
Richard Mortimer, Technical Services Manager, University of Staffordshire, commented, “We needed to deliver a course to recruit the next generation of sportscasting students, albeit within budget. Digital Garage gave us the confidence to step out of our comfort zone and invest in high-level Panasonic technology to build industry-leading facilities with commercial viability. We knew that adopting ST 2110 was absolutely the right decision, giving us a competitive advantage in eSports.”
Percipient
Heather-Jayne Corbin, Sage Intacct Consultant at Percipient, shares her highlights of what to expect from Sage Intacct’s fourth and final update for 2024 (R4 2024). The areas she covered in her blog were:
- Accounts Receivable: Reconcile Customer Payments & Credits to AR Sales Invoices
- Accounts Receivable: Enhancements to AR Statements
- Accounts Payable: Reconcile Payments & Credits to AP Purchase Invoices
- Fixed Assets: Override Posting Dates
- Taxes: Override Tax Schedules
- Taxes: Tax Detail Enhancements for Tax Submission
- User Experience: List Enhancements
Planful
Planful revealed how Natural Intelligence has transformed its financial processes with Planful’s intuitive solutions and AI-enhanced insights.
Moshe Peretz, Head of FP&A at Natural Intelligence, identified three criteria for its new FP&A tool. It needed to find something simple and intuitive to support adoption. It needed something that would provide accurate data and would supply a single source of truth, to improve collaboration. Planful’s AI prediction capabilities also caught the eye with its ability to predict errors for users to correct.
He commented, “Once we saw Planful in action it was pretty obvious to me, at least, that I can sell it in my organisation.”
TSIA
After the deluge of TSIA Envision, the publications from TSIA slowed but did not cease entirely. Last week it published:
Charter of Retention Framework. The framework helps organisations develop a strategic charter document. Designed to unite cross-functional teams around a shared commitment to customer success. (Subscription required).
Three-Layer Model for Renewal Management. The research report introduces a “Three Layer Model for Renewal Management” that uses predictive analytics and machine learning to optimize renewal motions. The model consists of customer health scores, predictive analytics, and machine learning propensity models. Each layer reduces the risk of losing a renewal. (Subscription required).
Workday
Workday announced city and county governments across the United States are increasingly turning to Workday – with AI at the core of its platform – to attract and retain a diverse workforce and make more informed, data-driven financial decisions. New Customers Include the City of Cleveland, Ohio; the City of Galveston, Texas; the County of Missoula, Montana; the City of Milwaukee, Wisconsin; City of North Las Vegas, Nevada.
Michael Hofherr, Senior Vice President and Group General Manager for industry, Workday, commented, “State and local governments need a trusted partner to help manage their people and budgets in the face of change. With Workday, public sector customers have realized significant reductions in the time to fill open positions and onboard new employees, which improves the candidate experience, helps attract top talent, reduces costs, supports continued services delivery, and minimizes productivity losses.”
Zoho
Zoho has delivered enhancements to its test automation platform, Zoho QEngine. The enhancements include:
- Zoho QEngine now enables you to run data-driven testing for various use cases for business logic, login portals, data capture forms, user management, and more.
- It is now possible to migrate seamlessly from Postman API to Zoho QEngine. As a comprehensive API testing tool, QEngine enables the creation of multiple API scripts with a visual builder in a single window.
- Dynamic variables allow you to store and utilize data dynamically within a specific test plan.
- Enhancements to user management enable one user to access multiple projects in different roles.
