Conferences continued this week with FinancialForce hosting FFX. Enterprise Times also published articles about Trust ’21, Precisely’s major conference, including research that looked at the challenges of the Chief Data Officer.
Sustainability was a hot topic, with both Sage and Oracle making announcements. Enterprise Times also published a blog looking at Corporate decarbonisation. Product announcements include ReMind, by FloQast, EngageOne Communication from Precisely and Dynamics Skills from HCM.
Enterprise Times also revealed insights from Anjan Kundavaram, Chief Product Officer at Precisely, in a comprehensive interview.
Pick of the week
Mandy Anger, the new Director of Product Development here at Accelo, revealed the latest Accelo updates in a blog. The updates include:
- Customer Lists: A range of column and filter additions, including Contact columns for all other lists, task columns and retainer columns. Anger lists eight new lists with another four due soon
- Timesheet Summary exports are now faster and capable of exporting larger volumes of data
- Quote templates now have more flexibility with the ability to switch sections of text.
- Document scanning on iOS mobiles is now available.
- Material markup in bulk is now available within projects, enables the bulk update of the margin field within a project
Anger also mentions that future updates will include creating priority levels for tasks with special icons to help you prioritize day-to-day work and more filter functionality. Anger closed the blog saying: “I am excited to be part of the Accelo family, and we look forward to hearing how these updates work for you in our community.”
Acquisitions and Funding
Epicor has completed the acquisition of KBMax, the vendor with a 3D design CPQ and eCommerce solution.
Upland Software Inc has acquired Panviva Pty Ltd, a cloud-based enterprise knowledge management solution, for $19.8 million in cash.
Rockwell Automation to expand industrial cloud software offering with the acquisition of Plex systems for $2.22 billion in cash.
Visma has acquired the majority stake of Keez, a fast-growing provider of accounting and invoicing for small businesses in Romania. The move supports Visma’s strategic expansion in Central Europe.
Appointments
Automation Anywhere has appointed Dmitri Chen as Executive Vice President of Sales for the company’s APJ region.
Brillio has appointed Vishal Chhibbar as Chief Financial Officer.
ConnectWise has appointed Raffael Marty as senior vice president of product management for cybersecurity.
Fenergo has appointed Stella Clarke as Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer and Alan Molloy as Chief Product Officer. The changes come after the acquisition by Astorg and Bridgepoint.
Ivanti appointed Daniel Spicer as Vice President of Security. Spicer has previously held security leadership roles at Stroz Friedberg, The University of Texas, and The United Space Alliance.
TriNet has appointed Lisa Reeves as Chief Product Officer. Reeves most recently served as Chief Product Officer for Zenefits.
Business
Accounting Seed has revealed how the former Sage partner EMPAUA is embracing its new partnership across DACH and UKI. EMPAUA also partners with Datev bringing VAT compliance and regulation requirements to the platform. Tony Zorc, ForbesBooks author and CEO of the first accounting platform, Accounting Seed, has hit one on the Amazon Bestseller List with his recent book, Iconoclasm: A Survival Guide in the Post-Pandemic Economy (“Iconoclasm”).
Billtrust will be added as a member of the Russell 2000® Index effective after the US market opens on June 28, 2021, as part of the Russell US index 2021 annual reconstitution.
Cloud Inventory, a cloud-based inventory management solution for manufacturing, warehousing, and field inventory, has launched a new website: www.ManufacturingMaterials.com. It contains case studies and information relating to its product portfolio.
Intuit has launched the Intuit Prosperity Accelerator: AI. The new five-month program supports eight startups initially that leverage AI to advance the financial prosperity of consumers and businesses in North America.
N-able launched the N-able MSP Super Elite partner program to complement the N-able MSP Elite partner designation. The initial cohort of nearly 200 partners represents the top one per cent of its MSP community.
Nexthink has joined the ServiceNow Service Graph Connector Program with the release of the Nexthink Service Graph connector.
OneStream Software has entered into a brand ambassador sponsorship with seven-time Grand Slam doubles winner Jamie Murray and 2020 LPGA Tour champion, Sophia Popov.
Oracle expanded its commitment to sustainability by pledging to power its global operations, both its facilities and its cloud, with 100% renewable energy by 2025. Oracle’s European Cloud regions are already powered with 100% renewable energy, and Oracle has 51 offices worldwide using 100% renewable energy.
Oracle also announced a new Oracle Support Rewards program to help customers speed migrations to the cloud while reducing their software license support costs. Customers can reduce their Oracle technology license support bill by up to 33 cents for every dollar spent on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. The discount is based on OCI spend and reduces the bill by 25 cents for every dollar spent on OCI.
Priority has signed a technology partnership agreement with Compass BI. Compass BI, powered by Microsoft Power BI, is integrated into the Priority ERP solution.
Salesforce has created its global advisory board to give guidance as its international growth continues. The new board spans both the Americas and EMEA and adds two new EMEA members and ten from North America. Salesforce has also expanded its partnership with AWS adding new intelligent applications and introducing initiatives to unify the developer experience across the two platforms
SAP announced that 100 startup solutions accelerated by SAP.iO are now available on SAP Store, the digital marketplace for SAP and partner offerings.
SD Worx is establishing a strategic partnership with the Vlerick Business School. SDWorx will help build a platform through which external parties can also offer their services. The platform will be accessible from January 2022 and will be the first of its kind in Europe.
Showpad is looking to hire up to 250 employees by the end of the year after annual growth of 58% for its sales enablement platform. It will also open an Australian division as it looks to expand its footprint into APAC.
UiPath has completed the SOC 2 Type 2 System and Organization Controls (SOC 2) examination for UiPath Automation Cloud under attestation standards established by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).
Customer
Tilbury Douglas has chosen the Asite Common Data Environment (CDE), part of the Asite Project Portfolio Management (PPM) product family, to support the delivery of its construction projects across the UK.
Oshki-Pimache-O-Win: The Wenjack Education Institute will modernize its technology operations with Ellucian SaaS solutions.
Drydocks World has launched a digital transformation program powered by IFS applications.
John Soules Foods’ has gone live on Infor Global Human Resources (HR), including payroll. Finnish grain, malting and food manufacturing company Polttimo has implemented Infor CloudSuite Food & Beverage in five European countries.
Eastern Gateway Community College, Navarro College, and William Carey University have all chosen Oracle Student Financial Planning to simplify their financial aid processes for their students and staff. German sports retailer SportScheck is leveraging Oracle Retail’s latest Xstore Point-of-Service technology.
Elgin Power and Separation Solutions centralize and modernize its financial processes using the Planful FP&A solution.
ELEVATE Build has chosen Procore as its construction management platform.
IATA, the commercial airline trade association, has strengthened its operational scalability and reduced costs by switching to Rimini Street for integrated support and application management services for its SAP applications.
Gousto, the meal kit company, has selected Sisense to unlock insights from its data and help drive further growth.
TigerGraph and Intech have signed a multi-year deal with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), the Australian government’s principal revenue collection agency.
Fortem, the property solutions provider, has digitised its repairs and maintenance service delivery with Totalmobile Mobilise solution.
Colorvision International, a digital-imaging organisation, providing souvenir photography for attractions worldwide, is strengthening its people operations and creating meaningful experiences and efficiencies with UKG Ready.
The Global Center on Adaptation (GCA), an international non-profit organization, has selected Unit4 ERP.
Product
ActiveCollab has launched a new version of its mobile application. Available on iOS and Android, users can browse through projects, filter and sort them out, and access completed projects.
Boomi has added a fully managed data catalogue and preparation as a service to the AtomSphere platform and a DataOps professional services offering.
Breathe has launched Rota, Time & Attendance, a simple and intuitive shift-scheduling tool that we’ve designed specifically for SMEs.
Cetec unveiled the latest version of its ERP. Cetec ERP 3.11 will be available on July 14 2021. It includes two new features, several updates and bug fixes. The BOM Quote Worksheet has had a UI revamp, and there is now a pieces per hour option for time estimates.
A new Freshbooks connector for Microsoft Outlook is available on Microsoft AppSource.
Salesforce has introduced the next generation of Salesforce Platform. It includes a powerful set of low-code development tools that empower everyone within an organization, regardless of technical skill or role, to create and ship apps on a single platform.
Martello launched a free version of its TOPdesk Event Management add-on, Martello iQ for TOPdesk.
Trinet has launched TriNet Financial Services Preferred, a new top-tier version of its HR solution that addresses the critical HR needs of firms in the financial services industry.
Trintech announced the latest release of CadencyDirect. CadencyDirect is now certified as part of the ServiceNow Built on Now™ program. Teresa Mackintosh, CEO of Trintech, commented, “Accounting is the language of business and that information is not only critical to the Office of Finance, but to the entire enterprise. With the latest release of CadencyDirect, key stakeholders across the business will now have the visibility and transparency into key financial data and how it relates to the entire organization all within the Now Platform.”
Research
Research carried out by Longitude and sponsored by Appian found 63% of financial services organisations in the Australia-Pacific-Japan (APJ) region report that investments in automation have helped them gain a significant competitive edge in the market. The study unveiled five benefits of automation for organisations in APJ.
- Rapid access to a real-time, end-to-end view of all customer journeys, processes, activities and associated data – 83%
- Faster customer onboarding processes – 83%
- Easy access to all necessary data from a single interface – 80%
- Less time spent by employees on repetitive, manual processing tasks – 75%
- Quick and simple upgrades and changes to systems and processes – 73%.
Research by ConnectWise has found that 92% of organizations would consider using or moving to a new IT service provider if they offered the “right” solution. They would also be willing to pay 34% more for the right service provider. Top of mind for SMB organisation is security. The survey identified four key threats:
- The difficulty of managing cybersecurity in an environment of competing priorities
- The added complexity of remote work in 2020 was well recognized
- Poor communication between organizations and their managed IT service providers about cybersecurity needs
- Poor cybersecurity skillsets within the organization
The full report, Cybersecurity in an Era of Competing Priorities: The State of SMB Cybersecurity in 2021, is available for download here.
A new Oracle Hospitality survey shows 24% of respondents in the US and Canada plan to travel immediately, 31% in the next one to three months, and 21% by the end of the year. Most will travel domestically, and 77% noted a COVID-19 vaccination is very or somewhat important in giving them the peace of mind to travel.
A study by Qualtrics found that 53% of managers and directors and 51% of executives plan to look for a new job in the next 12 months, with nearly half of the U.S. workforce planning to do the same. The study explores the reasons why these numbers are so high and how companies might address them.
A study by SD Worx of 5,000 employers from Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom has looked at the state of recruiting, onboarding and retention.
Research from The Workforce Institute at UKG says four in five employees (86%) feel colleagues aren’t heard equally. Organisations should address this, with UKG stating organizations are much more likely to perform well financially (88%) when their employees feel heard, engaged, and a sense of belonging.
Xero released its UK and New Zealand Small Business Index for May 2021. In New Zealand, there are improvements for both sales (up 6.2%) and jobs (up 4.7%) figures for Kiwi small businesses. In the UK, the Index was unchanged at 86 points. Sales grew 2.5% year over year while jobs fell 2.8% year over year in May.
