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!

Procurement Innovation, Industry 4.0 Technologies to Feature Prominently at CPO Rising 2018 Summit

Big Data has fueled the growth of technology and procurement innovation in the last decade — particularly in the last five years, as the “Industry 4.0” paradigm has led to “Procurement 4.0” (aka, digital / procurement transformation). As a result, algorithm-based tools, like advanced (Big Data) analytics, Blockchain distributed digital ledgers, machine learning, natural language processing, and virtual assistants, are making quick work of labor- and time-intensive tasks, like complex search and analysis, while augmented reality, connected devices, and robotic process automation are making the world smaller and more manageable. And the truly exciting part is that supply management solution providers have begun integrating these innovations within their front-line product offerings.

Industry 4.0, procurement innovation, and procurement transformation are all topics that will feature prominently at CPO Rising 2018 in Boston this November 7 & 8. Hear from some of procurement’s top executives on how they harness innovation to take their teams to the next level of performance, and then talk to some progressive solution providers that are working to innovate and integrate their solutions to empower procurement practitioners to rise above the status quo. Join us this fall — register here (and take advantage of early-bird pricing while you still can)!

DocuSign to Acquire Contract Management Solutions Provider, SpringCM

Last week, DocuSign, a San Francisco-based provider of cloud-based eSignature and Digital Transaction Management solutions, announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Chicago-based SpringCM, a provider of cloud-based document management and contract lifecycle management solutions. DocuSign has agreed to pay $220 million in cash for SpringCM. DocuSign looks to merge SpringCM’s document and specifically contract lifecycle management capabilities, such as document generation, redlining, and “end-to-end agreement workflow” onto its own platform in order to provide these capabilities to customers in a “native” fashion. DocuSign had already partnered with SpringCM to provide customers with these capabilities, and they are simplifying and stratifying the relationship between the two. DocuSign expects to close the deal sometime in the third quarter of 2018.

Determine Launches Determine Cloud Platform, Release 18.3

Also last week, Determine, Inc. (NASDAQ: DTRM), the Indiana-based provider of contract management and source-to-settle solutions for the cloud, announced that it has just released the newest version of the Determine Cloud Platform, Release 18.3. This version is said to add many features and functionalities in an effort to increase configurability and user flexibility and enhance the user experience. Release 18.3 adds innovation and improvements across the Determine Cloud platform – from upstream sourcing, contract management, and supplier management, to downstream procurement and invoicing. Examples of application enhancements include:

• Platform-Wide/Determine Core: enhanced security at login, a new project management module, configurable widget colors, and a document view that enables previewing without downloading
• Sourcing: the ability to extend from a sourcing event and award directly into a configurable contract agreement
• Supplier Management: onboarding validations for suppliers’ Value-Added Tax (VAT) and Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) information, and the ability to view PDF summaries of supplier contracts
• Contract Management: provides users with a digital contract repository that is also integrated with a spend monitoring tool, enabling procurement to proactively monitor and manage spending against contracts
• Procurement: users can now use Determine catalog management and Easycart as a “portal” to punch out through a third-party procurement solution; and they can use a federated search capability that consolidates all items (from internal catalogs to supplier “punch out” catalogs)
• Invoice Management: enhancements made to invoicing, like the ability to create and assign rules for supplier invoices (like routing exceptions to the most relevant person to reconcile them), a move to non-PO invoicing, and digital linkages between invoices, POs, requisitions, etc.).

SAP Ariba Announces Second Quarter 2018 Company Highlights

Last week was apparently a big tech news week. On July 31, SAP Ariba, the Palo Alto-based provider of the Ariba Network and source-to-settle solutions platform, announced company highlights from the second quarter of 2018, which ended June 30. For starters, company officials tell us that there are now more than 3.4 million companies using the Ariba Network to connect to their supply chains. Likewise, the company has added more than 120,000 new suppliers to the Network, where they have been looking to connect buying organizations within the new SAP Ariba Discovery platform. As a result, transaction volumes on the Ariba Network now top $2.1 trillion across all company sizes and in many different industry verticals.

Beeline Announces Strategic Partnership with CXC Global

And just a couple of days ago, Vendor Management System (VMS) provider, Beeline, announced a new strategic partnership with CXC Global, a global contractor management solutions provider. The partnership will take the best of both worlds — Beeline’s cloud-based VMS solution and CXC Global’s “global” contingent workforce management compliance solutions — and put them within arms reach of clients of both parties to drive compliance throughout the global talent pool. The partnership is only the most recent one Beeline has forged, having announced just last week that it has partnered with New Mountain Capital in what some analysts are also calling an acquisition.

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