Technology Round-Up – January 28, 2016

Posted by Ardent Partners Analyst Team on January 28th, 2016
Stored in Articles, Process, Solution Providers, Technology

DocuSign Announces Winter ’16 Release for DTM Platform

Recently, DocuSign, the San Francisco-based provider of cloud-based digital transaction management (DTM) and electronic signature (eSignature) solutions, announced its Winter ’16 Release that brings compliance and user-interface enhancements to the life sciences industries. DocuSign upgraded its DTM and eSignature capabilities to make them compliant with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Title 21 CFR Part II, which governs the trustworthiness and reliability of electronic records and signatures. Many clinical research organizations, medical device manufacturers, and pharmaceutical companies must comply with this regulation, and as such, stand to benefit from DocuSign’s upgrades. These include enhancements to DocuSign’s REST and SOAP Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) in the Part II Module. Other enhancements include improving user experience when sending and signing documents regulated by Part II laws. 

DocuSign users not in the life sciences industries will also see upgrades to the Print Driver, which will now allow users to “print” contracts into DocuSign and save them the time and hassle of converting files over. Another upgrade is Correct Functionality, which will allows users to edit documents and fields within documents that are being processed. DocuSign incorporated user feedback and has deployed “Subject Line Merge Fields,” which allows users to search for completed documents within the subject line of the DocuSign DTM platform. A final added feature allows users to conduct due diligence activities within the DocuSign platform using a built in Dunn & Bradstreet tool. The “Verify with D&B” tool provides for fast checking, flagging, and monitoring of compliance and financial risks within their customers and supplier base.

ThomasNet Deploys Corporate Edition of its Supplier Discovery Platform

On January 11, ThomasNetthe New York-based provider of cloud-based supplier discovery and eSourcing solutions, announced the release of ThomasNet.com Corproate Edition, a publicly-available edition of the supplier discovery tool that the company had deployed for Wal-Mart in 2015. The Corporate Edition allows users to find, contact, and vet over 700,000 suppliers, including OEM and maintence, repair, and operations (MRO) suppliers, with ThomasNet staff helping users follow up with non-responsive suppliers. Specifically, the Corporate Edition allows users to upload approved supplier lists to the platform and share supplier shortlists with their teammates. The platform allows users to reach out to multiple supplies via a single RFx, and ThomasNet staff will even follow up with suppliers to determine if they are interested in doing business with the user and his/her company.

SEMYOU Deploys Contract Management App for the Cloud

Last month, California-based SEMYOU, which develops and deploys cloud-based business software applications, announced the release of sem.Contract, their cloud-based contract management application. sem.Contract provides users with a number of handy contract management tools, such as version control and the ability to archive contracts; the ability to track vendor compliance to contract clauses and regulations; the ability to monitor contract usage internally and externally; and even the ability to link contracts to invoicing. The cloud-based application allows users to set one-time or repetitive reminders for important contract events, like milestones or expiration dates. And because it is cloud-based, users can access the application at anytime and anywhere.

MitraTech Offers Contract Management Tool Dubbed GettingContractsDone

Also last month, MitraTech, an Austin, Texas-based provider of Enterprise Legal Management (ELM) solutions for legal departments, announced the release of a contract management tool dubbed GettingContractsDone (GCD), which is meant to fulfill the contract management needs of small-to-mid-sized businesses (SMBs).GCD features include self-service web form, which allows users to populate fillable PDF forms without having to log into GCD, but that integrate with the contract they are trying to support. The platform also integrates with Microsoft Office applications, such as Outlook and Word, and allows users to export data to Excel. GCD provides version tracking history, which centralizes where contracts are located and facilitates version control. The platform also provides robust search capabilities, allowing users to search for specific terms found in a particular contract and its related documents. Users can view alerts set to mark important milestones, like contract completion and expiration. And color-coded tabs provide for an easily navigable and user-friendly experience.

Bristlecone Launches Cloud-Based Supply Chain Business Analytics Tool

Bristlecone users got an early Christmas gift last year: the release of NEO, the company’s newest cloud-based supply chain business analytics tool for procurement and supply management departments. The California-based provider of analytics, procurement, and supply chain consulting services has issued the first release of NEO with Spend Analytics and Financial Supply Chain Analytics capabilities as part of its “as-a-service” subscription. Together, users can cleanse, categorize, enrich, analyze, and visualize spend and financial data to gain visibility into past and current spend, category/supplier segmentation, and supplier risk management. NEO comes with adapters that enable users to integrate the tool with enterprise data streams, such as those from ERP tools. It is mobile-ready and modular, meaning that it will support added functionality as they come online.

Exari Helps Companies Make a Business Case for Contract Management

Late last year, Exari, the Boston-based provider of contract management solutions in the cloud, announced the release of an online self assessment tool that allows companies to build business cases for the adoption of contract management tools. The interview-driven self assessment allows companies to account for such factors as costs, revenue opportunity, and risk within its operations, and helps interdisciplinary teams articulate an estimated return on investment for contract management tools, including increased visibility into contract status and compliance, crisis visibility, contract risk analytics, P&L, and balance sheet information.

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