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!
Breaking News: Coupa Purchases P2P Solutions Provider, Aquiire
Yesterday morning, Coupa Software (NASDAQ: COUP), a San Francisco-based spend management solutions provider, informed us that it has purchased Cincinnati-based Aquiire, the real-time procure-to-pay (P2P) and supplier management solution provider formerly known as Vinimaya for an undisclosed sum. Ardent Partners analysts took a briefing with the Coupa team late yesterday and will provide a more thorough overview and in-depth analysis shortly. But at a very high level, purchasing Aquiire will boost Coupa’s ability to provide business users with real-time, cached, or localized catalog search in a B2B buying environment that more closely resembles Amazon or Google. It will round out Coupa’s eProcurement and payment remittance capabilities and enhance the user experience in doing so. Stay tuned for further details and analysis, here.
Jaggaer Releases Q3 2018 Performance Results, Adds New Features to S2P Platform
Late last week, JAGGAER, the North Carolina-based provider of source-to-settle solutions, released financial and operational performance results for the third fiscal quarter of 2018. Company officials touted the results as emblematic of a record year for the global spend management company, in which they have boosted revenues, added customers, and expanded across industry verticals. Specific highlights include:
- More than 50% increase in bookings compared to Q3 2017, and 200% compared to Q3 2016;
- Added 55 new customers, including many household names, across nearly a dozen industry verticals;
- Partnered with MasterCard (read our coverage here), Velocity Partners and Science Exchange.
A day earlier, Jaggaer officials informed us that they are in the process of enhancing Jaggaer’s source-to-pay solution in a release they call 18.3 Puma. New features include pattern tracking and analysis (presumably with the aid of machine learning algorithms) that after a few transactions will enable the platform to pre-populate fields for users and ultimately enhance order placing capabilities. Other additions include the capability to split, validate, and recalculate funds, and then check them against budgets using account codes and strings. The new release is scheduled for sometime in November.
Kelly Services Makes Equity Investment in Business Talent Group
Late last month, Kelly Services (Nasdaq: KELYA, KELYB), the Michigan-based global temporary staffing solutions provider, announced that it made an equity investment in New York-based online talent marketplace, Business Talent Group (BTG) of an undisclosed sum, making it a minority stakeholder. The investment was made as part of Series C funding to assist BTG in the further development of its “enterprise-wide, on-demand talent offerings” on its very own platform. Company officials also state that the investment will broaden BTG clients’ access to more and more unique candidates at a time when the “Future of Work” and its reported talent shortage of 35-40 million workers are top of mind for many organizations. Indeed, the “Gig Economy” and the so-called “War for Talent” make and will continue to make for a very competitive labor market. BTG intends, with Kelly Services’ financial backing, to equip its customers with the tools and resources needed to win that “war.”
Learning Technologies Group to Spin Off PeopleFluent’s Workforce Compliance and Diversity Division
Also late last month, Learning Technologies Group (LTG), an integrated talent management and learning software solutions provider and the parent company of PeopleFluent, an HCM and VMS solutions provider, announced that it will spin off PeopleFluent’s Workforce Compliance and Diversity Division as a separate business unit. The new entity, Affirmity, will remain an LTG company and will launch in November 2018. Co-Managing Directors, Jeffery D. Lewis and Bruce Kile, will lead Affirmity, which will focus on providing workforce inclusion, diversity, compliance, and affirmative action services and solutions to LTG’s clients, with a focus on data-driven solutions and insights.
iTradeNetwork Releases Advanced Traceability Platform, iTracefresh
In other news, iTradeNetwork, a California-based provider of supply chain management and tracking solutions, announced the release of what it is calling a next-generation traceability platform for the global food and beverage industry, iTracefresh. The on-demand solution gives businesses and their customers the ability to track and trace food and beverage products as they make their way through supply chains, which can assist during product recalls, drive consumer engagement and awareness of product origin, among other things.
The web-based solution is composed of four different ways to track and trace products: 1) Label, which allows for case-level trace and communication, 2) Item, which captures individual product information and avails it to the consumer, 3) Load, which provides visibility into harvesting and packaging operations and inbound inventory, and 4) Transit, which enables end-to-end supply chain traceability via Produce Traceability Initiative-palletized ship notices. iTracefresh is a refresh of prior web-based traceability tools that according to company officials, now offers an enhanced user interface and ultimately a better user experience.
DHL Releases Mobile App for Supply Chain Risk Management
At its fourth-annual Risk and Resilience Conference in Bonn last month, DHL, the Germany-based logistics and postal services company, unveiled a new mobile app for its supply chain risk intelligence and management platform, Resilience360. The mobile app will now bring the power of Resilience360 to users at anytime and anyplace and enable them to monitor, respond to, and manage or mitigate supply or supply chain risks in near-real time. The app and the platform leverage layers of advanced, Big Data analytics, machine learning, and predictive analysis to provide users with 24/7 situational awareness regarding their supply chains, products en route, and global events that occur in parallel with their shipment. DHL leverages its global shipping network to be able to provide users with a linked and synced infrastructure to monitor risk and be proactive and even predictive in managing it.
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