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!
The Carlyle Group Announces Investment in ZeroChaos
Last week, The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG), a Washington, DC-based private equity and alternative asset management firm, announced that it will invest an undisclosed sum with ZeroChaos, an Orlando, FL-based provider of total workforce management solutions. The investment is expected to be completed sometime in the third quarter of 2017. As a result, ZeroChaos’s current investor, Snow Phipps Group, will terminate its relationship with ZeroChaos, which has been in place since 2010. ZeroChaos’s CEO, Michael Werlbun, and its COO, Matthew Levine, will remain at the company and be joined by the former President of Cognizant, Gordon Coburn, as the new Executive Chairman of the Board. Werblun hopes to benefit from The Carlyle Group’s “global network and deep industry knowledge,” to boost the company’s growth and product innovation.
Accenture and riskmethods Partner for New Agile Risk Management Solution
Also last week, riskmethods, a Boston-based provider of automated and integrated supply chain risk intelligence and management solutions for the cloud, informed us that it has partnered with Accenture, one of the world’s largest auditing, management consulting, and technology integration firms, to develop a new supply chain risk intelligence and management solution. This new solution will likely leverage the power of advanced algorithms, automation, Big Data, and other “intelligent” innovations sweeping technology markets today. And in keeping with their current solutions, risk methods and Accenture will likely announce a solution that will be cloud-based, quickly deployed, and user friendly that pairs with process methodologies meant to convert data into risk “mitigation action plans and execution accountability.” Look for their new solution to be available in late Q3 or early Q4 of this year.
ProcurePort Combines eSourcing with P2P for a Source-to-Pay Solution
Earlier this month, Indianapolis-based ProcurePort, which provides cloud-based spend analysis, eSourcing, and eProcurement solutions, announced that it has combined its eSourcing and procure-to-pay (P2P) solutions to link upstream sourcing and downstream procurement activities for a “one stream” source-to-pay (S2P) Platform. ProcurePort’s S2P Platform will automate many facets of the sourcing, procurement, invoicing, and payment processes — from bid solicitations, to supplier, catalog, contract, and inventory management, to requisitioning, to invoice receipt and ultimately to payment processing. The S2P Platform prioritizes efficiency, ease of use, and boasts a high and quick return on investment.
Bristlecone Launches an AI Bot for Supply Chain Monitoring
Also earlier this month, Bristlecone, the California-based provider of analytics, procurement, and supply chain consulting services, announced that it has gotten into the AI and robotics game with the release of an artificially-intelligent robot intended to remotely monitor and inspect factories, warehouses, and other nodes in a company’s supply chain. The robot, named “Hari,” is built using commercial, off-the-shelf (COTS) technology and blends the usual suspects of cognitive computing: analytics, automation, Big Data, Blockchain, the Internet of Things (IoT), machine learning, natural language processing, and Robotic Process Automation (RPA). The result is a tangible, three-dimensional monitoring system that connects the digital supply chain with the physical one to drive greater oversight, compliance, and fidelity while decreasing risk and noncompliance across global supply chains.
JAGGAER Boasts Customer Gains for H1 2017
And in other news, JAGGAER, the North Carolina-based source-to-settle solutions provider (formerly SciQuest) recently announced that it has driven record customer growth in the first half of 2017. According to Jaggaer officials, the company increased its customer base by 60% and now tops 600 in the US, UK, EU, and Asia. Jaggaer also increased its customer up-sells by more than 35% to include extension into full-suite adoption. Jaggaer’s customer wins follow its decision to rebrand from SciQuest in February 2017.
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