CPO Rising’s Technology Round-Up returns today with another assortment of procurement and supply management solution-provider 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!
Jaggaer and Pool4Tool Merge, Combine Direct and Indirect Spend Management Solutions
Late last week, Jaggaer, the North Carolina-based source-to-settle solutions provider formerly known as SciQuest, announced that it has merged with Pool4Tool, the Vienna, Austria-based provider of eProcurement solutions, in a move to combine their direct and indirect spend management systems and cross-sell in new or emerging markets. As a result of the merger, Jaggaer now markets itself as the eProcurement solution provider with a global reach that offers end-to-end, direct and indirect spend management capabilities. Jaggaer will also be able to leverage Pool4Tool’s large and legacy presence in the European, Middle Eastern, and Asian markets, including Pool’s data centers, customer support centers, and provide expanded services to Pool’s 300-plus clients across multiple industry verticals.
As of now, Jaggaer and Pool4Tool will each retain their legacy naming and branding; but company officials tell us that Pool4Tool will eventually become Jaggaer Europe. In the meantime, Pool4Tool Founder and CEO, Thomas Dieringer, and COO Michael Rösch will stay on and continue to lead the company from its Vienna headquarters while Jaggaer CEO, Robert Bonavito, will remain in his position. There is clear value in this merger for each company and its customers. It allows Jaggaer and Pool4Tool to maintain their home markets and customers and leverage those of each other to go to market with an expanded set of solution offerings. For example, Jaggaer officials say that they will be able to bolster their direct material management capability in North America as a result of the merger, while Pool4Tool will be able to offer an expanded source-to-settle solution offering to its customers. As a result of the merger, both companies will be able to target a larger share of the direct and indirect spend management solutions market.
Jaggaer to Offer Next-Gen, Industry-Specific Solution Suites
In other Jaggaer news, the company announced late last month that it will launch a series of next-generation, industry specific solution suites, include suites for manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, retail, consumer packaged goods (CPG), and life sciences/pharma. According to company officials, the move to offer tailored solution suites reflects a cross-industry desire to implement specialized suites rather than customize stock solution suites. Furthermore, Jaggaer already provides specialty suites for higher education and life sciences materials management, and they are looking to aggressively expand the number of industry-specific suites throughout 2017.
BuyerQuest to Integrate ConnXus’ Supplier Diversity, Management Applications
Last month, BuyerQuest, the Ohio-based provider of eProcurement and procure-to-pay (P2P) business solutions, announced that it has partnered with fellow “buckeye” ConnXus, an Ohio-based provider of supplier discovery, diversity, and management systems for the cloud. ConnXus will integrate its supplier diversity and supplier management applications to BuyerQuest’s cloud-based, “cognitive” buying applications, like its eProcurement, MarketPlace, and P2P offerings, via an application performance interface (API). As a result of this integration, BuyerQuest customers will be able to scale their supplier collaboration, diversity, and management efforts using complementary cloud-based applications that integrate well.
IntegrityNext Launches as an Open Supply Chain Compliance Platform
Last month, Munich, Germany-based IntegrityNext announced its launch as an open supply chain compliance platform meant to serve the unique needs of international businesses and or those in regulated industries. Founded by CEO, Martin Berr-Sorokin, IntegrityNext features a cloud-based compliance and sustainability dashboard that incorporates pre-built supplier assessments, social media analysis, and daily brand listening capabilities to provide users with regular reporting on their own companies, their suppliers, and their suppliers’ suppliers. Procurement, supply chain, and supply management users will be able to determine whether they or their suppliers are in compliance to any number of national and international grade agreements, if they are practicing good corporate citizenship, if their practices are sustainable, or if they are placed on a “blacklist.” IntegrityNext’s solution is optimized for desktop and mobile devices, and is featured via a freemium model.
Tamr Gets a Shot in the Arm from GE Ventures
In a blog post last month by Tamr’s CEO, Andy Palmer, he announced that the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based provider of procurement data management and analytics solutions will receive investment from GE Ventures, which also happens to be one of their clients. The undisclosed sum will be used to fund Tamr’s product development and go-to-market strategies, and will be managed and led by GE Venture’s Managing Director, Lisa Coca. A big part of GE Venture’s decision to invest in one of their solution providers is that Tamr has delivered a hundred million dollar ROI over the past three years. Based on GE Venture’s first-hand experience with Tamr, company officials believe that Tamr will deliver for other companies, as well.
ThinkSmart Announces Integrated Smart Contract Management Solution
Earlier last month, ThinkSmart, a San Francisco-based provider of contract management and digital transaction management (DTM) solutions, announced the integration of its Smart Contract Management Solution onto its Automation Platform (TAP). The integration will add dynamic contract and document creation and management to TAP. Users will be able to create editable, savable contracts and documents based on automated workflow rules, a centralized clause and language repository, conditional clause and language capabilities (meaning some appear or disappear depending on the dynamic workflow), and integration/compatibility with other eSignature solution providers. Users can even create documents from PDF uploads rather than strict creation through TAP.
EcoVadis Announces Winners of Inaugural Sustainability Leadership Awards
Late last month, EcoVadis, the Paris-based provider of supply chain sustainability and ethical sourcing rating services for global supply chains, announced the winners of its first Sustainability Leadership Awards. The awards recognize EcoVadis Sustainable Procurement Solution users that over the past year scored highest on their sustainability scorecards and ratings. Winners of this year’s award program include Coca-Cola European Partners, Michelin, SNCF procurement teams, and 12 other multi-national corporations that rated as industry leaders in sustainable procurement practices.
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