CPO Rising’s Technology Round-Up returns today with 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!

LevaData Launches Cognitive Sourcing Maturity Model Assessment Tool for Sourcing Teams

Last week, LevaData, a California-based provider of cognitive or “smart” analytics technologies for procurement and sourcing, announced that it has launched a new self-assessment and auditing tool called “Cognitive Sourcing Maturity Model Assessment.” The tool is meant to help sourcing and procurement leaders understand if they are ready (and if so, how ready) for digital transformation and if it makes sense to invest in cognitive sourcing tools. To do so, the assessment tool looks inward to examine an organization’s structure, processes, sub-processes, technology infrastructure, sourcing negotiations, and other facets in a 360 degree analysis to assess where along a maturity curve an enterprise sourcing team sits. The tool rates them at five different levels — 1) Ad hoc, 2) Reactive, 3) Anticipating, 4) Learning and Orchestrating, and 5) Continuous. From there, sourcing and procurement leaders can make informed decisions as to the next steps they ought to take on the road towards digital transformation.

EcoVadis and RapidRatings Partner on a Blended Supplier Financial Health and Third-Party Risk Assessment Tool

Last week, EcoVadis, a Paris and New York-based provider of supply chain sustainability and ethical sourcing rating services, and RapidRatings, a New York-based provider of financial health analytics, announced that they have partnered in an effort to blend their two key market offerings. The idea is to provide customers of both vendors with a risk assessment solution that more holistically captures and measures under-served kinds of risks, like financial health, reputational, sustainability, and ethical sourcing concerns. After all, enterprise sourcing and procurement teams need to be concerned not just with traditional risks, like cost, compliance, and performance, but also how financially healthy a supplier is, whether their supply chain would be considered ethical or sustainable, what their reputation is, or what they’re doing to improve the environment or labor market. Details were scant on how EcoVadis and RapidRatings plan to go to market with such a product — like what kind of platform they’ll leverage, what the tool will look like and feature, and how and when it’ll be rolled out to the market. Ardent’s analyst team will stay on this story, so stay tuned.

Tradeshift Announces Strong 2Q 2018 Financial Performance Results

Also last week, Tradeshift, the California-based provider of cloud-based business networks, announced financial performance results for the second quarter of fiscal year 2018. The company had a pretty good second quarter by multiple measures — from new bookings to new customers to its biggest deal closed in company history. Financial performance results come on the heals of a big year for Tradeshift in which it secured an additional $250 million in funding, went to market with TradeShift Pay, and began its own foray into Blockchain, Specific highlights include:

• a 315% year-over-year increase in new bookings
• a 350% year-over-year increase in gross merchandise volume
• winning 38 net-new customers
• closing an $18.6 million deal, it’s largest deal to date

Jaggaer Highlights an Eventful 1H 2018

In other news, JAGGAER, the North Carolina-based source-to-settle solutions provider formerly known as SciQuest, announced strong financial performance results for the first half of 2018. In a statement released by the company, officials described Jaggaer’s performance as the best first half-year performance in its history, citing strong “global revenue, new customer orders, and expansion of existing business.” Company officials highlighted several big wins and milestones for the first half of the year, like:

• adding 82 new customers from US, EMEA and APAC, representing multiple industries
• the launch of Harrier JA 18.1, a category spend management solution
• the release if its full source-to-settle solution suite to European, Middle Eastern, Asian Markets
• the release of an enhanced routing optimization tool for the transportation industry
• partnering with iTizziMO on application integration, and being ISO 37001 compliant
• releasing Project Based Procurement, a new solution designed to manage large Capex projects, and
• the development of an intelligent eProcurement tool

If the first half of the year is any indicator of what’s to come in the second half, we’re in for one heck of a ride.

BirchStreet Systems Appoints New CEO, Replacing Longtime Chief Executive

Just a couple of days ago, BirchStreet Systems, a California-based provider of procure-to-pay (P2P) solutions in the cloud that caters to the hospitality and gaming industries, announced that it has promoted Stephen Markle from Chief Operating Officer to Chief Executive Officer. He replaces Sushil K. Garg, who founded the company 16 years ago and served as BirchStreet’s first and formerly only CEO. Steve will bring more than 20 years of business, technology, and industry experience, including more than 12 years at Ariba, to bear in leading the company to scale higher and continuously innovate for its customer base. In the meantime, Sushil will remain with the company as Chairman of its Board of Directors but will take a step back and work more closely with customers to drive innovation into BirchStreet’s cloud-based P2P solution.

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