CPO Rising’s Technology Round-Up returns today with an 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 are continually innovating the way that procurement and supply chain leaders and practitioners drive value, we’d love to hear from you. Please drop us a note at editor at cporising dot com. Thanks, and enjoy!
Ardent Analysis: Medius Acquires Wax Digital
Last week, the Ardent Partners analyst team learned that Medius, a provider of cloud-based accounts payable (AP) invoice automation, with headquarters in Sweden, announced that it has acquired Wax Digital, a UK-based provider of cloud-based source-to-settle business solutions for an undisclosed sum. Details of the deal were not readily disclosed, but it appears that the two companies will combine resources — including their combined 350 personnel and respective products — under the Medius brand to provide a unified, cloud-based source-to-settle solution for both customer sets.
As a result of the acquisition, Medius will be able to go to market with a complete suite of cloud-based, modular supply management tools, ranging from upstream strategic sourcing (spend analysis, eSourcing, contract management, and supplier management) to downstream procure-to-pay (eProcurement and AP automation/ePayables). Medius/Wax Digital customers will have the option to add on applications and modules rather than migrate to a traditional suite providers or niche, best-of-breed solution providers.
Ivalua Announces New Direct Spend, Third-Party Risk Management Capabilities
Earlier this month, our friends at Ivalua, the Redwood City, California and Paris, France-based provider of strategic sourcing and procure-to-pay solutions, made a couple of product announcements. First, on November 7, it announced the addition of new direct spend management capabilities to its platform meant to drive collaboration and visibility into the sourcing process, principally: an enhanced Bill of Materials (BOM) Lifecycle Manager, Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP), and New Product Introduction (NPI) capabilities.
- BOM Lifecycle Manager — this tool enhances visibility into Bills of Material across categories, and enables different category and product managers to see common components sourced and purchased for different products. Ultimately, this can drive greater visibility into supply risks (e.g., not enough parts in inventory, too much capital tied up in inventory, sourcing the same part from different/multiple suppliers, etc.).
- APQP — a new tool intended to enable category and program managers in manufacturing companies to better ensure that suppliers can meet internal product quality standards by auditing, identifying, documenting, and mitigating supplier risks.
- NPI — this is essentially an internal collaboration tool meant to bring multiple product stakeholders together to plan, execute, and track milestones for a new product launch.
Second, on November 12, Ivalua announced the release of an enhanced third-party risk management capability, Risk Center, as part of a broader product update. Ivalua’s Risk Center is a module of Ivalua’s Supplier Management solution. It combines internal data (e.g, spend analysis, contract information, compliance data, supplier performance assessments, and risk assessments) with third-party risk intelligence sources into a dynamic dashboard. Risk Center incorporates information from EcoVadis, risk methods, and Global Risk Management Solutions, to provide users with a wide range of current supplier intelligence, ranging from sustainability ratings/scores, to negative media reporting/brand reputation risk, to supply chain risk assessments, to supplier financial health/risk scores and assessments, to sanctions lists. User are able to view internal and external supplier risk data and intelligence on one dashboard, enabling them to make informed decisions based on current data.
Jaggaer Unleashes Jaggaer ONE 19.3 Solution Updates
Earlier this month, JAGGAER, the North Carolina-based provider of source-to-settle solutions, announced the release of Jaggaer ONE 19.3, boasting a host of updates to its category and financial management solutions, source-to-contract solutions, and its digital/virtual assistant.For Financial Management, Jaggaer added new budgeting features and controls, a new virtual p-card option, a new workflow for processing goods receipts, and compliance support for global eInvoicing. For Global Procurement Support, Jaggaer added support for international supplier legal structures, approved payment methods, plus new configuration capabilities for additional units of measure and currency exchange rates.
Jaggaer added spend and demand forecast templates to its Category Management tool. It also added the ability to use supplier performance and supplier scorecard data when evaluating suppliers during sourcing events; it added while its Supplier Management and Sourcing capabilities received. Jaggaer’s contract management module provides users with a guided feature that directs users to the most appropriate template, as well as “clause lockdown” and eSignatures. Jaggaer also updated its Jaggaer Smart Assistant with voice-recognition software, providing users with touchless interfacing with the digital/virtual assistant.
Tradeshift Announces Third-Quarter Financial Performance Results
Earlier this month, Tradeshift, the San Francisco-based provider of B2B marketplaces and supply chain payment solutions, released financial performance results for the third quarter of Fiscal Year 2019. Company leaders released year-over-year percentage growth comparisons. These include: 78% growth in bookings, 107% growth in revenue, and 88 new customers since Q3 2018. Other highlights from the year include: company growth in North America, Latin America, Central Europe, and Southeast Asia; and inking more than a hundred contracts with customers, including 64 Tradeshift Go deals.
Tradeshift Announces a Pair of Partnerships with SiS-id, Wax Digital
In other Tradeshift news, the Bay-area provider announced this month a couple of interesting partnerships with SiS-id and Wax Digital — two very different companies offering two very different solutions. First, on November 13, Tradeshift announced its partnership with SiS-id, a community of CFOs that have combined their bank identities to counter payment fraud at a shared cost, to help Tradeshift customers combat payment fraud. Tradeshift has integrated SiS-id’s Blockchain-based app in its appstore and is now available to any Tradeshift customer. The app features a Blockchain-based platform, supplier enrollment engine, advanced analytics, AI-based algorithms, and a risk scoring tool for users. It works by pooling self-provided supplier banking information, like account numbers, on the Blockchain, using AI-based algorithms to scan the data to correctly match the intended supplier with the corresponding bank account, validate the transaction, and assign a risk score to each transactions. Users are also indemnified should any transaction turn out to be fraudulent.
A day later, Tradeshift announced a partnership with Wax Digital, a UK-based provider of cloud-based source-to-settle business solutions, in which Tradeshift has integrated Wax Digital’s web3 software suite into the Tradeshift appstore. Tradeshift had been looking for partners to build out its upstream (sourcing and contract management) capabilities, and found Wax’s offering to be ideal. Tradeshift customers will be able to access Wax’s solutions and still be able to use their legacy systems for sourcing and contract management. No word on how Wax Digital’s acquisition by Medius will affect this partnership.
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