CPO Rising’s Technology Round-Up returns today with another assortment of supply management technology news and updates from the past month to share with our community. If you are a sourcing, procurement, or spend management solution provider and you have news to share with us, please drop us a note at editor at cporising dot com. Thanks, and enjoy!

Announcing Omnia Partners — A New Shared Services Organization

Yesterday, Ardent Partners learned that three group purchasing organizations (GPOs) — the National Intergovernmental Purchasing Alliance (National IPA), Prime Advantage, and Corporate United (“CU”) — have merged into a single shared services and supply chain optimization entity called Omnia Partners (and backed by TA Associates). As one organization, Omnia Partners will combine its market coverage of education, government, mid-market manufacturing organizations, and Fortune 1000 organizations, to provide all of their customers with synergies in supplier relationships, services, and infrastructure. The deals commenced at the beginning of August and will look to close by the end of the month.

Ardent Partners had the pleasure of speaking with Doug Blossey, President and Chief Operating Officer at Corporate United, about the merger and the road ahead. According to Doug, “The three acquired GPOs don’t have any overlapping markets, Omnia’s looking for the best and brightest GPOs in different segments to consolidate a value proposition against multiple industries and markets.” The idea to create one entity out of three subsidiaries rose out of the goal of consolidating brands, leveraging shared resources, increasing scale, and ultimately offering their existing customers greater access to more services under Omnia. Doug says that Corporate United has 400+ members today and is seeking to double that number by 2022. Doug believes that the backing of CU’s well-funded buyer will help Corporate United scale operations faster.

Omnia will continue to consider further strategic acquisitions as they look to increase scale for its customers and expand into other verticals and supply markets.

SourceDay Enhances Cloud-Based PO Management Platform

Just this week, SourceDay, an Austin, Texas-based provider of automated purchase order (PO) management solutions for the cloud, informed us that it has incorporated user feedback into solution updates to increase visibility into vendor performance. Updates to its cloud/web-based system include: Advanced ship notification, which notifies users when their vendors ship goods or commodities; Split lines, which allows vendors to divide their POs to reflect two separate delivery dates for goods; Automatic spend approvals, which allows managers to approve spend thresholds for buyers, particular at manufacturers and distributors; and Vendor scorecard, which gives users a scorecard for their suppliers based on a number of criteria, like quality, delivery, and cost.

Determine Announces First Quarter 2018 Financial Performance Results

Last week, Determine, Inc. (NASDAQ: DTRM), the Indiana-based provider of contract management and source-to-settle solutions for the cloud, announced financial results for the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2018. Overall, and metric by metric, Determine seems to be off to a good start in 2018, although the company continues to report net losses. According to Determine CEO Patrick Stakenas, the company has all the resources it needs in place and is now focused on customer growth for the year ahead. Highlights from Q1 FY 2018 include:

• $7.0 million in revenue, up 7.6% from Q1 2017
• $5.3 million in recurring revenue, up 4.6% from Q1 2017
• $1.7 million in non-recurring revenue, up 18.5% from Q1 2017
• $3.685 million in gross profits, up 8.9% from Q1 2017
• $2.1 million GAAP net loss, down 9% from Q1 2017

Bottomline Reports Q4 and Fiscal Year 2017 Financial Performance Results

Also last week, Bottomline Technologies, the cloud-based business payment, invoice, and digital banking solution provider, announced financial performance results for the fourth quarter and Fiscal Year 2017. Bottomline President and CEO, Rob Eberle, attributes the growth in quarterly and full-year revenues to the growth of their subscription plans. Some of the highlights include:

• Fourth quarter 2017 total revenues were $93.5 million, up 6% from the fourth quarter of 2016
• Of these, subscription and transaction revenues were $58.37 million, up 17% from the fourth quarter of 2016
• Fiscal year 2017 revenues were $349.4 million, up 2% from 2016
• Of these, subscription and transaction revenues were $223 million, up 14% from 2016

Kinaxis Reports Q2 FY 2017 Financial Performance Results

Also last week, Kinaxis, the Ottawa, Canada-based provider of supply chain management (SCM) and sales and operations planning (S&OP) solutions, announced financial performance results for the second quarter of its fiscal year 2017. Highlights include:

• Total revenues of $32.9 million, up 14% from 2Q 2016
• Subscription-based revenues of $24.2 million, up 21% from 2Q 2016
• Gross profits $22.9 million, which was 70% of its total revenue and up 14% from 2Q 2016
• Net profit of $5.6 million
• Adjusted EBITDA of $9.6 million, or 29% of its total revenue

Dun & Bradstreet Looks to Use Blockchain to Distribute Content

Recently, Dun & Bradstreet (D&B), the New Jersey-based provider of third-party credit, market intelligence, and risk information, announced that it has begun testing blockchain technology to distribute its content to subscribers in a fast and secure manner. Users with an existing D-U-N-S number can use it to access D&B’s market intelligence and risk information in D&B’s databases, as well as basic corporate information embedded within “smart contracts” that are also found in D&B’s blockchain database. Users can also use the blockchain ledger to validate the existence and reputation of a company of interest — say, one with which the user may want to conduct business but has no prior relationship. Sourcing and procurement teams could leverage D&B resources via the blockchain to securely and confidently engage in supplier discovery and B2B commerce.

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