Announcement from the Publisher

I am pleased to announce that next week CPO Rising will officially start publishing articles on a daily basis (weekdays, that is). This is something we’ve been wanting to do for some time (to be honest, it is something I’ve wanted to do since the launch of this site) and so, now we are ready. I believe that we can expand our publishing on CPO Rising without any trade-off in quality. Now, we will simply provide more of what we consider to be a high-quality, original research content and analysis written by me and the Ardent Partners team.

One of the things moving to a daily schedule will do is allow us to expand our coverage of the technology landscape and the solution providers within it. A large, albeit less visible, part of the work that Ardent does is focused on this landscape, so publishing articles like today’s “Technology Round-up,” the first of a new and ongoing series is very much aligned with our ongoing research and advisory business. Accordingly, if they are doing so already, solution providers are encouraged to engage us for briefings and with press releases by emailing me and/or the email address “editor @ this site dot com” Stories and briefings of interest will be considered for publication.

Finally, I’d be remiss, if I failed to introduce everyone to the man who’s going to make daily publishing a reality – Matthew York, Ardent Partners’ newest employee. Matt York is an experienced analyst, having worked in this arena for many years, and we’re excited to welcome him to the team. Matt will wear several hats at Ardent, the most visible of which will be that of Editor of this site. Welcome Matt!

And now, some of the latest news and views in our first, Technology Round-up!

Nipendo and Integrate Financial Announce Supply Chain Finance Partnership

Nipendo, the provider of a cloud-based P2P-focused platform and Integrate Financial, a new, non-bank finance and technology company announced a partnership to provide supply chain finance solutions to trading partners that leverage Nipendo’s platform.

In the next few months, the partners plan to introduce a financing mechanism for US and Canadian suppliers on the Nipendo platform to gain early payment on their invoices. Integrate Financial’s CEO Zalman Vitenson says that his firm will focus its underwriting on the transactional data available within the Nipendo platform instead of on traditional third-party credit ratings, which he believes will enable his company to offer faster and more efficiently-priced financing to suppliers. Later in the year, the companies plan to link Integrate Financial’s financing to Nipendo’s dynamic discounting solution so that buyers can leverage third-party capital to pay suppliers early and share in the discount benefit.

Ardent Partners believes that we are on the cusp of the emergence of a new market for supply chain finance (SCF). Nipendo, with its network of trading partners that are enabled with visibility and efficient invoice processing capabilities, is exactly the type of technology platform that we believe will help enable significant growth in the SCF space over the next few years. And, with more than 20,000 suppliers on its platform and a solid customer list that includes several multinational, Nipendo finds itself squarely in one of the industry’s hottest supply management market segments and is primed for growth. Continue here for Ardent’s full coverage of this announcement.

Ariba Announces Plan to Move its Network to the SAP HANA Program

On Tuesday, April 29, Ariba, an SAP company, and provider of one of the most prominent business networks announced that it plans to move its network to SAP HANA, the company’s in-memory platform. The SAP HANA in-memory platform was designed to speed up the analysis and management of SAP system data by providing real-time analytical and transaction processing capabilities. Migration will reportedly occur later this year, most likely in Q4. Ariba plans to demonstrate the new speed and capabilities at SAPPHIRE® NOW in Orlando, Florida in early June.

The announcement builds upon Ariba’s recent migration of its Spend Visibility solution to HANA, which Ariba reports has allowed for that solution’s data loads run up to 30 times faster and driven a strong uptick in new users and custom reports. The move will also pave the way for SAP to leverage the Ariba network in support of other SAP solutions that are on HANA (or are planned to be), like Supplier InfoNet and Success Factors, as well as its ERP and other business process solutions like Direct Materials Management.

For the buyers and suppliers using Ariba’s network today, the move to SAP HANA will enable the co-location of transactional information, communication that supports those transactions, and the ability to quickly analyze and make decisions based upon that, all within one central location. Continue here for Ardent’s full coverage of this announcement.

Proactis to Acquire Intesource for $3.9 million

On Tuesday, April 29, UK-based Proactis announced its plan to acquire US-based Intesource in a deal totaling $3.9 million (of which Proactis will fund roughly $2.9 million new funding; approximately $1 million in cash will be taken from Intesource’s coffers by the sellers at deal closing) and to be completed in six weeks. Known for its Procure-to-Pay (P2P) systems, Proactis hopes to expand its presence in the US market and synergize its resources with Intesource, a small, but established provider of cloud-based sourcing solutions and managed services. The deal will place Proactis more directly into the strategic sourcing market (particularly in the retail industry which represents the large majority of Intesource’s 25 customers) and provide an opportunity for it  to build upon Intesource’s expertise in sourcing. Opportunities may exist to cross-sell each others solutions/services into the other’s customer base.

Executives from Proactis and Intesource as well as several Intesource customers interviewed this week all herald the proposed deal. The majority of Intesource’s 32 employees are expected to remain with the company and continue their work with their existing customers. Intesoure’s 2013 revenues totaled slightly more than $5 million, with an operating profit of $610,000.  Proactis estimates that following the acquisition, Intesource annual revenues will total more than $4.5 million. By comparison, Proactis’ 2013 revenue was 8.04 million GBP or almost $13.6 million.

Completion of the deal is subject to the approval of various stakeholders on both sides and confirmation from US regulatory bodies.  All parties are optimistic that the acquisition will be completed by mid-May.

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Tagged in: Networks, P2P, Solution Providers, Sourcing, Tech Round-Up, Technology