CPO Rising’s Technology Round-Up Series returns today with fresh supply management technology news and updates covering a few recent major announcements. 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 info at cporising dot com. Thanks, and enjoy!
Kofax Changes Name to Tungsten Automation
IRVINE, Calif. — It was announced that Kofax has changed its name to Tungsten Automation. The company cited the transformation as a reflection of its evolution from a pioneer in document capture to a global provider of intelligent, AI-powered workflow automation solutions.
According to Reynolds Bish, CEO of Tungsten Automation, “Tungsten Automation represents a pivotal moment in our journey as we continue to expand our portfolio of solutions and bring the latest technological innovations to meet the ever-changing needs of our customers,” he said
“This change highlights the depth and breadth of our trusted workflow automation solutions, a culture of innovation, and continued commitment to staying ahead of the curve in helping our customers improve their efficiency and reduce costs with intelligent automation solutions they can trust,” Reynolds added.
The company stated that this new identity better augments its leading Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) capabilities, adding enhanced value to its portfolio of solutions, particularly in the areas of traditional invoice processing, e-invoicing, and automating accounts payable processes, serverless print management, and document productivity.
Read the full announcement here.
Ivalua Announces Winners of Inaugural Generative AI Innovation Cup
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — Ivalua, a global leader in spend management, announced the winners of its inaugural Generative AI Innovation Cup. The company stated that the competition was open to all partners and employees, attracting over 100 participants from 25 teams. Within a tight timeframe of 48 hours, the teams were tasked with creating innovative, practical, and functioning use cases leveraging the Generative AI capabilities within Ivalua’s source-to-pay (S2P) platform.
The company stated that teams leveraged the AskIVA generative AI service and the intuitive no-code configuration tools and framework to create a diverse range of use cases. All use cases had to be functioning and will be demonstrated at the upcoming Ivalua NOW conferences and made available to customers in the next platform release. Submissions were evaluated by a panel consisting of procurement leaders from Ivalua’s customer base and Ivalua executives. The winning innovations are:
1st Place: Fluxym & Ivalua: Smart Configuration Assistant: This team created an assistant that can take specifications and automatically generate the necessary configurations, suggest optimizations for existing workflows and write supporting documentation, greatly accelerating project timelines.
2nd Place: Cyrias & Ivalua: ChatWatch: This team created an intelligent messaging monitor and assistant that can summarize missed messages/conversations from colleagues or suppliers, provide assistance to respond/translate and also identify suspicious or fraudulent activity and compliance issues by analyzing chat messages.
3rd Place (Tie): OJC & Ivalua: Exploring Sourcing Opportunities: This team created a capability to instantly search the internet and discover potential suppliers to invite to a sourcing event, based on user-defined criteria, and automatically launch supplier onboarding activities.
3rd Place (Tie): Ivalua: Interactive User Assistant: This team built even further intelligence into IVA, allowing users of the Ivalua Platform to interact with the content of any screen and leverage internet data for enrichment or assistance.
According to Pascal Bensoussan, chief product officer at Ivalua, “I am thrilled that 25 teams got to experience first-hand the power of Generative AI to solve concrete business problems in such a short period of time, and I am looking forward to seeing the best ones integrated into the standard Ivalua platform or offered as add-on packages.”
Read the full announcement here.
Fairmarkit Announces New Partnership, Integration with ServiceNow
BOSTON — Fairmarkit, a market-leading autonomous sourcing solution, announced a new partnership and integration with ServiceNow, a leading digital workflow company, to help enterprise procurement teams increase spend under management, source goods and services efficiently, and operationalize DEI and ESG initiatives with an automated quoting process.
The company stated that with Fairmarkit’s automation, AI, and GenAI capabilities embedded within ServiceNow’s source-to-pay operations solution, enterprise buyers and end users can automatically create, send, and award quotations from within the ServiceNow interface, streamlining processes and decreasing turnaround time for competitive quoting.
According to Kirsten Loegering, vice president of product management – finance & supply chain workflows at ServiceNow, “From enterprise end users to seasoned procurement professionals, automated quoting with Fairmarkit will simplify the intake-to-award process, while also increasing opportunities for costs savings and efficiency gains,” she said.
“Establishing this partnership with the market-leading sourcing solution opens the door for enterprises to bring more spend under management, enables end users to competitively quote with little effort, and paves the way for more value and less manual work,” Loegering added.
Read the full announcement here.
Medius to Release First AI Workmate for the Accounts Payable Industry
JACKSONVILLE, Florida — Medius announced its upcoming release of Agent, the first artificial intelligence workmate for the accounts payable space.
The company stated that Agent is the third AI solution in the Medius family. The solution is designed to help people that approve invoices by delivering useful information about an invoice such as the approval path, discounting opportunities, and links to the last five invoices from the vendor.
Pre-defined prompts for popular invoice processing queries deliver shortcuts to intelligent, contextual support that helps users to make quick, confident, and accurate invoice approvals. And if pre-defined prompts don’t suffice, approvers can enter free text questions and Agent has the intelligence to deliver highly accurate and informed responses.
According to Karim Jouini, chief product and technology officer at Medius, “Should I approve this invoice? How can I change this configuration setting? What is this payment for? Approvers, administrators, and suppliers are sick of the time it takes to process invoices or to receive responses to simple queries,” he said.
“Using AI as the first responder, AP teams can instead focus on high value work and be brought in on the most challenging of requests, all while reducing the risk of fraud. For vendors, the technology means quick and accurate answers, and less time chasing emails or dealing with frustrating supplier portals. For our customers, the technology means time saved, and a highly secure AP process,” Jouini added.
Read the full announcement here.
Thomson Reuters Corporation Acquires Majority Interest in Pagero
TORONTO — Thomson Reuters Corporation, a global content and technology company, announced the acquisition of approximately 53.81% of the shares from key shareholders in the Pagero Group AB, a global leader in e-invoicing and indirect tax solutions, making Thomson Reuters the majority shareholder in Pagero.
The company stated that Thomson Reuters’ majority ownership of Pagero will enhance the strategic partnership announced in February 2023, accelerating the companies’ joint vision for a connected suite of global indirect tax, reporting, and e-invoicing capabilities. As many countries move towards legislating for real-time digital tax regulation, the e-invoicing compliance capabilities of Pagero complement and expand Thomson Reuters’ ONESOURCE indirect tax offerings, providing enhanced compliance and workflow automation benefits to customers.
According to Steve Hasker, president and CEO for Thomson Reuters, “Since the announcement of our initial offer for Pagero on 11 January, following constructive discussions with Bengt Nilsson, Summa Equity, and other key shareholders of Pagero, we are pleased to have reached an agreement for them to sell their shares to Thomson Reuters – making us the majority shareholder in Pagero at 53.81 percent,” he said.
“This validates Thomson Reuters as the best home for Pagero and supports our shared vision to provide customers with automated, secure, and compliant tax solutions.”
In related news, Vertex, Inc., a global provider of indirect tax solutions, had announced in December 2023 its public tender offer for 100% of the shares of Pagero Group AB, but withdrew following a thorough review and the acquisition by Thomson Reuters.
Read the full announcement here.
