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!

Jaggaer to Acquire BravoSolution, Launches Impala 17.3

Exciting news out of North Carolina yesterday. JAGGAER, the source-to-settle solutions provider formerly known as SciQuest, informed us that it plans to acquire BravoSolution, the Chicago-based strategic sourcing solutions provider, from its owner, Italmobiliare S.p.A. Terms of the deal were not disclosed to us, but if completed, it would merge two supply management technology players, their infrastructure, customers, and offerings and disrupt the solutions market. Combined, Jaggaer would have offices on five continents supporting 1,850 customers and connecting them with 3.7 million suppliers across 70 countries.

The two companies both have end-to-end source-to-settle solution suites and, combined under Jaggaer’s brand, will look to consolidate itself as a worldwide specialist serving industry verticals, like manufacturing, consumer products, oil & gas, and many others. As a result of the Bravo acquisition, Jaggaer officials are touting the company as “the largest independent, vertically focused spend management solutions company in the world.” Ardent Partners looks forward to following this story and analyzing the full and potential impact of the deal as we learn more about it.

Jaggaer also announced earlier this month that it released version 17.3 of Impala, its source-to-settle solution suite. Based on customer feedback, Jaggaer improved several aspects of its suite with “smart” innovations and functionality. Enhancements include Multi-Business Unit (MBU) management capability, Multi-Stage Optimization (MSO) for its Advanced Sourcing Optimizer (ASO) tool, and artificial intelligence (AI)-based workflows. MBU enables centralized and decentralized procurement departments, alike, to scale up or down their processes and documents depending on the scale needed. MSO/ASO allows sourcing teams to import specific bidding data depending on the project and provide them with the necessary visibility and control. And AI-enabled workflows provide users with “smarter” (rule-based) workflows that increase efficiency, reduce barriers, and improve performance.

AvidXchange Acquires Ariett, Pursues Cloud-Based P2P Status

AvidXchange, a North Carolina-based accounts payable (AP) and payment automation technology provider, recently announced that it has acquired Ariett, a Massachusetts-based AP, payments, and procurement solutions provider for an undisclosed sum. Avid will look to integrate their combined offerings to offer customers, including Ariett’s more than 2,900 customers, with a cloud-based, automated procure-to-pay (P2P) solution that serves mid-market enterprises. Ariett will bring a host of procurement and payment-processing features to Avid, including expense forecasting, budget checking, spend management, requisition approval, purchase order management, contract tracking, currency management, and other functionality. The two companies will provide their combined offerings under a unified platform. Ariett will not only retain its Pembroke-based office and employees, it will also look to hire more personnel as Avid and Ariett look to scale to meet demand in the mid-market.

Determine Announces Second Quarter 2018 Financial Performance Results

Determine, Inc. (NASDAQ: DTRM), the Indiana-based provider of contract management and source-to-settle solutions for the cloud, recently announced financial results for the second quarter of Fiscal Year 2018. Year-over-year revenues continue to increase, although they are down from 1Q 2018; and Determine continues to post a net loss. However, Determine CEO, Patrick Stakenas, struck an upbeat tone when delivering the results, touting the company’s drive to get 100% of its 2Q bookings on the Determine Cloud Platform. He also indicated that Determine would allocate capital resources raised during 1Q towards lead generation and growing the company’s global sales footprint. Highlights from 2Q FY 2018 include:

• $6.9 million in revenue, a 4.6% year-over-year increase
• $5.455 million in recurring revenue, a 7.8% year-over-year increase
• $1.343 million in non-recurring revenue, a 6.7% year-over-year decrease
• $3.432 million in gross profits, a 6.9% year-over-year increase
• $2.671 million GAAP net loss, down from a $3.207 million GAAP net loss from 2Q 2017

DCR Workforce and nextSource Partner on Smart Track VMS Integration

Earlier this month, DCR Workforce, a Florida-based Managed Service Provider (MSP) and Vendor Management Systems (VMS) solution developer, announced a partnership with New York-based MSP provider, nextSource to bolster DCR’s Smart Track VMS solution. Like its partnership with Allegis Global Solutions (click to read about it), DCR Workforce will integrate nextSource’s MSP solution onto its Smart Track VMS solution to provide users with a unified services platform for clients to manage contingent labor, freelancers, and statement of work (SOW) projects globally. This ought to improve the user interface (UI) and overall user experience (UX) of managing a global contingent workforce that needs to be compliant across multiple regulatory environments.

Apttus and Carahsoft Partner on Public Sector Contract Management Push

Also earlier this month, Apttus, the California-based provider of quote-to-cash, contract, and supplier management solutions, announced that it has entered into a reseller agreement with Carahsoft Technology Corporation, a government IT solutions provider that specializes in Salesforce solution integration and serves the U.S. Government. Under its reseller agreement with Apttus, Carahsoft will be able to provide federal, state, and local government customers with Apttus’s suite of Salesforce-enabled IT solutions, particularly its contract management solution. Apttus’s solution ought to digitize and automate many previously manual, paper-based tasks within the end-to-end contract lifecycle; leverage institutional data and knowledge through machine learning capabilities; and drive visibility into internal and external contract activities.

Verify Launches New Supplier Performance Management Website

And finally, Verify, a California-based supplier performance management (SPM) solutions provider, announced that it has updated its website to better support its customers; and it has changed its domain name to reflect the scope of the services it provides them. Verify reports that it has more than 400 global customers in the aerospace and defense (A&D) and other high-tech industries. It provides them with supply chain intelligence and performance analytics capabilities that enable them to fairly measure their suppliers’ performance, as well as identify pain points and quality issues early enough to mitigate them before they become full-fledged supply risks.

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