Last week, Porto hosted the annual Startups & Investment Matching Conference 2026. At the event, João Rui Ferreira, Secretary of State for the Economy, announced the “Tech Foundry Portugal – Deep Tech Edition”. It is a brand new national acceleration programme. What it is looking to do is get products from the laboratory to the market. This initiative targets small teams and startups based in Portugal, not large corporations that hoard intellectual property.
There is also a conference report from Ian Murphy who attended the event. Startup conferences are nothing new. Over the last couple of decades, they have become more and more popular with both investors and startups. Their role is simple: match potential talent with investors who have money to burn.
We also published a conversation with Evan Goldberg, Founder and EVP at Oracle NetSuite, following an interview at SuiteConnect London he talks about vision and the future with UI and AI.
Appointment
The Payments Association has appointed Emma Banymandhub as its next CEO.
WSO2 Founder and CEO Dr Sanjiva Weerawarana is stepping down from the role of CEO. Chief Revenue Officer Devaka Randeniya will become the acting Chief Executive Officer in June.
Business
aconso has signed a partnership agreement with Workday, enabling customers to integrate aconso’s HR document management platform with Workday Human Capital Management.
Gong has announced a business update following the end of its most recent quarter. Gong grew by 55% year-over-year in the last quarter. A year ago, it revealed that growth had hit 50%. Growth has not only been maintained, but it has also been increasing; this means that Gong has increased revenue for the last ten quarters.
Red Hat and Panasonic Connect are to collaborate on redefining the capabilities of ruggedised edge computing. They are to preload Red Hat Device Edge on Panasonic TOUGHBOOK devices, integrating it with Panasonic Connect.
Zoho Corporation has announced an investment of ₹70 crores (around US$7.3 million) in the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC). The investment will assist ONDC with its mission of developing sovereign tech within and for Indian commerce. It is the latest move by Zoho to support retail operations in India.
Customer Stories
IFS Ultimo has announced that EUROGATE is to deploy its AI-powered Enterprise Asset Management solution across its container terminals.
Product
Freshworks revealed its vision for the future and new product innovations at its annual virtual and physical Refresh conference held in New York, “The vision of Service Transformation, Made Real”. That vision sees Freshworks bring together its portfolio of products and AI capabilities into a capability it is calling AI Service Operations.
Research
At Workday Elevate in London, Workday revealed that it has published “The copy/paste economy report,” which explains why task-oriented AI is failing the enterprise. The findings challenge the common belief that employees are disengaged and wary of AI. In reality, 97% of UK employees rate their daily work experience positively. Around 90% feel a strong sense of progress, ownership, and connection to organisational goals.
Xactly has launched a Fleet of Agents and an Intelligence Studio at its annual customer conference, Upside 2026, expanding the capabilities of its Intelligent Revenue Platform. The agents are designed to help revenue teams reduce manual work, move faster across complex processes, and operate with greater consistency across planning, compensation, and revenue operations.
Deel
Arsenal Football Club today announced that Deel, the leading global payroll and HR platform, will become the club’s Official Sleeve Partner from the 2026/27 season in a multi-year agreement.
Deel’s logo will appear on the left sleeve of Arsenal’s home, away, and third kit shirts from the start of the 2026/27 season. In doing so, Deel will be the second global brand to have featured on the sleeve of one of football’s most recognisable shirts.
The agreement deepens the relationship between the two after Deel joined the Arsenal family as the club’s Official HR Platform Partner in December 2025.
Alex Bouaziz, Co-Founder and CEO of Deel, said: “When we partnered with Arsenal last year, we said this was just the beginning. Arsenal and Deel are already working closely together, and the club will be rolling out Deel’s platform across its workforce and HR operations in the coming months.
“Having our name on one of the most iconic shirts in world football is a proud moment for everyone at Deel, and a reflection of a partnership built on shared global ambition. We’re looking forward to next season and everything still to come.”
Deltek
Replicon Q2 2026 Release
The Replicon Q2 2026 release introduces enhancements that simplify global payroll processing, make time-off management more intuitive – helping teams work more efficiently and with greater confidence.
Within the latest release, payroll managers can choose between the US number format (e.g., 1234.56) and the European number format (e.g., 1234,56) – directly within the payroll export file configuration. The delimiter is also configurable, giving teams the flexibility to match exactly what their payroll systems expect.
Replicon introduces flexible date filtering in the Payroll Time Off tab, allowing users to define custom date ranges with ease. Another update allows users to schedule reports for the last day of each month to serve business-specific reporting needs.
To better support DCAA-aligned time entry practices and daily time capture expectations, Replicon now offers the ability to prevent time entries on future dates. There is also a new option that allows users to update their own time zones, based on permission settings.
Clarity Reports
Deltek released the 17th Annual Deltek Clarity Government Contracting Industry Study and the 47th Annual Deltek Clarity Architecture & Engineering Industry Study.
Key findings from the 17th Deltek Clarity Government Contracting Report included:
- Growth is holding, but performance pressure is rising. Revenue gains are increasingly accompanied by margin strain and declining financial indicators.
- AI is everywhere, but governance and measurable outcomes are lagging. The near-universal push to adopt AI is outpacing enterprise readiness, increasing risk and uncertainty.
- Compliance and cybersecurity are becoming revenue gatekeepers. Meeting requirements is increasingly tied to eligibility, audit outcomes, and competitive positioning.
Kevin Plexico, SVP of Information Solutions at Deltek, commented, “Government contractors are entering a new era where speed, compliance, and cost control must align. Our findings show that while firms are rapidly adopting AI and automation, many are still working to translate that investment into measurable outcomes while maintaining control.
“The defining challenge contractors are facing is closing the gap between adoption and execution. Organisations that can better integrate their systems, strengthen data visibility, and embed governance across the project lifecycle will be able to stay competitive in an increasingly complex and regulated environment.”
Key findings from the 47th Deltek Clarity Architecture & Engineering Report
Demand is steady, but delivery capacity is a constraint. Firms are planning for growth, yet capacity and productivity pressures are shaping execution. Additionally, talent and productivity pressures are tightening. Limited workforce growth and high employee turnover are constraining scale, underscoring the need for better visibility into project performance throughout the project so firms can adjust as needed.
AI adoption is accelerating, but measurable impact remains inconsistent. The opportunity for A&E firms is shifting from experimenting broadly to operating with intent: clear use cases, integration, and measurable objectives. When thinking about AI, firms are looking for better data, faster decisions, and improved predictability, but some core processes remain manual.
Digital transformation urgency is rising, alongside cyber risk. Firms recognise the competitive stakes but still face practical barriers to operationalising new technology.
Megan Miller, Senior Director, A&E Industry Insights Lead at Deltek, said, “In the A&E industry, firms are still optimistic, but the focus has shifted from growth to cost control and improving margins. Firms are facing increased constraints around talent, capacity, and profitability.
“What we’re seeing is a shift from growth at all costs to more disciplined, performance-driven operations. Leading firms will need to focus on surfacing better data, embedding AI directly into delivery workflows, and bringing discipline to how they manage and measure project performance.”
Epicor
Epicor announced the latest update to Eclipse, Eclipse 2026.1. This release focuses on practical, high-impact enhancements that help you strengthen operational control, improve data accuracy, and streamline day-to-day workflows—while continuing to build on the stability and reliability Eclipse customers depend on.
Improvements include enhancements to warehouse management, cycle count accuracy and new quick ship capabilities. Eclipse significantly expands its embedded shipping capabilities, bringing more advanced functionality directly into the ERP.
Infor
Infor published a blog with details of the latest release of Infor CloudSuite Distribution. The update includes new AI-powered features:
- Infor Industry AI Agents and Infor Agentic Orchestrator
- Generative AI (GenAI) embedded experiences with Infor Birst Visualizer Builder
- Duplicate record detection and Infor Service Management (ISM) process mining
There is now a unified order entry view and configurable cross-docking controls that speed up decisions from the desk to the dock with a 360-degree Order entry view and order cross-docking controls.
The application also supports fully customisable emails and can automatically translate ship-to information such as quotes, invoices and acknowledgements. There are improvements to field service with GenAI image recognition and a new ISM Service Manager Workspace.
Intellistack
New Intellistack Streamline updates help teams automate processes faster, improve workflow session governance, and reduce operational friction across everyday tasks. Updates include:
AI prompts in Intellistack Streamline for the Transform Step now better support calculation-based outputs and code-driven prompts. This helps teams generate more accurate, structured workflow results for advanced automation scenarios.
Intellistack Streamline workflows can now be embedded into public websites or secure customer portals. Launch workflows directly where users already work for a more seamless experience.
Workflow admins can now delete outdated or unnecessary sessions and cancel active sessions in real time. This helps teams keep projects organised, notify impacted users, and recover from workflow issues more efficiently.
Klient
Klient has launched a new feature hub that explores the latest Klient PSA capabilities. The latest release, Release 51.5 Includes enhanced milestone task functionality to support 0-duration milestones, representing point-in-time achievements displayed as a diamond (♦) on the Gantt timeline.
Previously, milestone tasks were constrained to a minimum duration of 1 day, which did not accurately represent milestones that occur at a specific moment rather than spanning a day. Release 51.6 is generally available, and information about what is included will be announced in a webinar on May 28th at 1100 ET.
NetApp
NetApp announced new NetApp data management capabilities optimised for Red Hat OpenShift that enable advanced levels of resilience and scale for virtualised environments, on-premises and in the cloud. The updates improve the speed and predictability of backup, recovery, and day-to-day operations so customers can migrate, scale, and manage virtual machine (VM) and container environments to enable innovation and agility with greater confidence.
Dallas Olson, Chief Commercial Officer at NetApp, commented, “When IT teams are faced with slow scanning and backup processes, they’re unable to meet recovery point and recovery time objectives. NetApp’s latest innovations with Red Hat enable predictable backup and recovery behavior even as the VM environment grows.
“Customers can now migrate, operate, and protect large‑scale VM and container environments on Red Hat OpenShift with greater speed, predictability, and operational confidence.”
NetSuite
NetSuite announced a series of AI-powered innovations to help organisations in Brazil increase efficiency and accelerate growth. In addition, the next generation of NetSuite, NetSuite Next, will be available in preview to help organisations further automate and accelerate business processes, improve visibility and decision-making, and achieve faster outcomes.
Gustavo Moussalli, Senior Vice President of Latin America, Oracle NetSuite, said, “NetSuite’s depth and breadth support every stage of business growth from the first invoice to multi-national operations. The latest updates will enable customers in Brazil to take advantage of powerful AI innovations to streamline compliance processes, boost efficiency, accelerate decision-making, and drive business expansion.
“Furthermore, NetSuite Next Preview gives customers an early look at new functionality and innovations that can help them unlock more value from the suite.”
While many of the announcements were common to other regions, there were some specific to the Brazil region. These included updates to revenue management to support NFS-e invoiced, with Some Brazil-specific tax changes and banking integration improvements.
Panther
Panther announced the latest release of its workforce management platform. The release includes improvements across candidate management, invoicing, timesheets, reporting, availability and API integrations. These updates sharpen accuracy, simplify day-to-day workflows and give users more flexibility across the platform.
People 2.0
People 2.0 announced a strategic partnership with Curately.ai, an agentic AI-powered talent platform. The partnership brings together Curately’s advanced sourcing and candidate engagement technology with People2.0’s employer of record (EOR) and agent of record (AOR) services. Thus, helping staffing firms and enterprises find qualified talent faster while ensuring compliant engagement across jurisdictions.
Craig Cohen, Chief Revenue Officer at People2.0, said, “This partnership reflects our commitment to bringing innovative solutions to talent suppliers and enterprises. Curately’s conversational AI and direct sourcing capabilities help our partners build stronger talent pipelines, and People2.0 ensures those candidates are engaged compliantly across any jurisdiction.
“Together, we’re delivering better outcomes: faster placements, lower costs, and improved candidate experiences.”
Sparq
Sparq, the AI-Native engineering partner built to re-engineer the operating systems where margin is won or lost, today announced the appointment of Barry Newton as Chief Sales Officer (CSO). Newton joins Sparq’s executive leadership team as the company continues to scale its capabilities in response to growing enterprise demand for operational systems built for AI-era execution.
Thomson Reuters
Thomson Reuters announced a new Model Context Protocol (MCP) integration with Anthropic that connects Claude directly to CoCounsel Legal. Legal professionals can now move seamlessly between general-purpose AI and citation-grounded legal work, from either working environment.
As MCP integrations proliferate across the legal market, Thomson Reuters is bringing something distinct: fiduciary-grade AI, our standard for accuracy, accountability and trust.
David Wong, Chief Product Officer, Thomson Reuters, said, “Thomson Reuters is building CoCounsel Legal to be the fiduciary-grade system at the center of how legal work gets done, connected to the tools lawyers use and built to the standard their work demands.
“Today’s integration with Claude is one example of how those connections will continue to grow as we move toward general availability for the next generation of CoCounsel Legal, expected this summer.”
Workday
Sana Self-Service Agent
Workday announced that the Sana Self-Service Agent from Workday is now available in Microsoft 365 Copilot. The new integration enables employees and managers to get answers to HR and finance questions and complete everyday tasks directly inside Microsoft 365, without switching apps. At the same time, organisations maintain the security, compliance, and control they expect from Workday.
Joel Hellermark, Sana’s General Manager, Workday, said, “People shouldn’t have to jump between systems just to get a simple HR or finance answer. With our Self‑Service Agent in Microsoft 365 Copilot, Workday quietly does the hard work in the background, so answers simply appear where people already are.”
Solopreneurship Accelerator Program
Workday announced the launch of the Workday Foundation Solopreneurship Accelerator Program, a new AI-focused initiative designed to support the next generation of small businesses. Delivered in partnership with Anthropic and Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC). The Accelerator will combine philanthropy with the power of AI to support solo entrepreneurs across select communities in the United States.
The Accelerator will serve an initial cohort of 15 aspiring solopreneurs focused on building and scaling small businesses, providing each with a $10,000 grant from the Workday Foundation to cover business expenses.
In addition to funding, participants will have access to a limited number of Anthropic’s Claude AI credits free of charge, an AI skills entrepreneurship curriculum designed and delivered by LISC, and coaching through LISC’s network of Business Development Organisations (BDOs).
Carrie Varoquiers, Chief Impact Officer at Workday, said, “Small businesses are the lifeblood of our communities, and AI holds incredible potential to open the doors of opportunity. We are proud to partner with Anthropic and LISC to support community members who are starting and scaling small businesses.”
Sales Director appointment
Workday has appointed Sagar Mehta as Sales Director, strengthening its leadership team in India. He brings extensive experience in customer experience, CRM, digital transformation, and enterprise technology, with a strong track record of helping organisations scale through technology-led transformation.
