Editor’s Note: Ardent Partners is excited to announce the launch of its 2015 “State of ePayables” market research survey, available here. All participants of this landmark research survey will receive a complimentary copy of the resulting research report in late May. (While the survey is comprehensive, participants can expect to spend only 15 minutes of their time answering the questions.)
Now that May is upon us, the time for professional conferences has truly arrived as well. Last month, the Ardent team attended Concur Fusion and AribaLIVE within a week of each other; this time around, Ardent analysts attended the Institute for Supply Management’s 2015 conference and SAP’s SAPPHIRE 2015—both this week! There sure is something about spring when it comes to user conferences and professional organizations holding their annual meet-and-greets.
The accounts payable world was not nearly as exciting as jetting about the country—and the world—attending events, but there were a few big events this past week. Kofax announced a new version of its Kapow™ platform, while Bottomline Technologies named an industry veteran as its new CFO, and Tradeshift created and staffed a new executive leadership role. Read on to find out more!
Kofax Kapow 9.5 Adds Analytics and Simulation Capabilities
Kofax announced last week that it had updated its Kapow™ information integration and automation software. The new version, Kapow 9.5, adds analytics capabilities—including dashboards—that offer insight into processes, information, and performance. The latest update to the Kapow platform also allows for simulated testing environments that developers can use before projects go live. Kapow 9.5 automates the collection and integration of data from multiple sources, including websites, and pushes it all to business applications without any coding needed.
In the age of big data, having quick access to the enterprise data necessary to perform job duties is critical. Accounts payable, treasury, and procurement all can benefit tremendously from not needing to draw on IT resources in order to put necessary data into the shape needed for business analysis. To read more about the updates to Kofax Kapow, visit http://www.marketwatch.com/story/kofax-kapow-95-adds-analytics-and-simulation-capabilities-2015-04-30.
Hubwoo Announces Q1 2015 Revenues
Hubwoo (Euronext: HBW), the Paris-based business network, announced revenues for its first fiscal quarter of 2015 last week. Total revenue for Q1 2015 was €6.7 million, a slight decline of 2% when compared to Q1 2014. Services revenue grew by 30% against Q1 2014, to €1.5 million, while SaaS revenue declined 8% to €5.3 million versus the year-ago quarter. The high uptick in Services revenue came about because of client implementations that happened on signatures received in the second half of 2014. Read more at http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hubwoo-announces-q1-2015-revenues-300075311.html.
Bottomline Technologies Names Rick Booth Chief Financial Officer
Bottomline Technologies (Nasdaq: EPAY) announced last week that it had named industry-veteran Rick Booth as its new Chief Financial Officer. Booth joins the payments technology provider from Sapient, a $1.4 billion revenue company, where he led accounting, treasury, and shared-services teams as the CFO’s second in command. The 46-year-old Booth has 20 years of experience in providing financial guidance to enterprise software firms, including a stint at Nuance Communications where he led the company’s healthcare division.
As B2B payments take on more strategic importance in the enterprise, solution providers such as Bottomline are seeing their market expand. The suite of digital banking, payment, and fraud prevention solutions that Bottomline and others provide are even more important in an age when ePayments are slowly capturing more of the overall payments ecosystem away from paper checks. To read the complete announcement, please visit http://www.marketwatch.com/story/bottomline-technologies-names-rick-booth-chief-financial-officer-2015-04-30.
Tradeshift Appoints Jigish Avalani to New Position of President and COO
Business network platform Tradeshift announced this week that Jigish Avalani, a former Concur executive, has been appointed to the new dual role of President and Chief Operating Officer. Avalani, who was senior vice president and general manager at Concur prior to that company’s 2014 acquisition by SAP, will now be responsible for Tradeshift’s day-to-day operations as well as driving the expansion of the company’s platform. Avalani will report directly to co-founder and CEO Christian Lanng in his new role.
Business networks such as Tradeshift look to be an increasingly critical part of enterprise operations going forward. Supply chains are tightening and enterprises are forced to react more quickly than in years past. Strong technology partners such as Tradeshift aim to streamline the flow of communication between buyers and suppliers, which can only help business results. For more details, read the full announcement at http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150505005423/en/Tradeshift-Appoints-Jigish-Avalani-Position-President-COO#.VUtRPflVikp.
Iron Mountain to Buy Recall for $2 Billion After Raising Bid
Bloomberg News reported early last week that Iron Mountain (NYSE: IRM) is set to purchase competitor Recall Holdings for $2 billion (A$2.5 billion), which Recall agreed to after rebuffing an offer Iron Mountain made in 2014. The purchase price values recall at A$7.86 per share, a 31% premium over the closing price on April 28. Recall rejected Iron Mountain’s $1.8 billion bid last year, saying it undervalued Recall when taking into account the savings generated by the combination.
The acquisition eliminates a competitor for Iron Mountain, as well as strengthening its foothold in Australia. Data storage and information security are critical lines of business in the new business world, where business documents are more likely to be digital rather than paper files. The combination provides significant cost savings for both companies, and Iron Mountain saw an uptick in its stock price after the news. Read the full story at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-28/iron-mountain-to-buy-recall-for-2-billion-after-raising-offer.
Archive Systems Announces New myFileBRIDGE Self-Service Portal
Document management provider Archive Systems announced the myFileBRIDGE product at its annual user conference last week. The new product allows individual users to fill out electronic forms related to standard human resources requests, such as time off and benefits, without having to request the documents from the HR team directly. The new product is part of Archive’s FileBRIDGE platform, and works with that solution’s document management capabilities.
Eliminating paper from enterprise processes can cut down significantly on costs and increase process efficiencies overall. Trimming the paper from anything—whether HR or accounts payable—eases the transition to a time when all enterprise documents are digital. Read the full announcement at http://www.archivesystems.com/company/press-releases/39/archive-systems-announces-new-myfilebridge-self-service-portal for more details.
MasterCard Business Network 2.0: For U.S. Business Owners, It’s About Time…And Money
MasterCard (NYSE: MA) announced this week an update to its business network, MasterCard Business Netwoek 2.0, based on feedback from hundreds of small and mid-sized enterprises. The business network is designed to help minimize costs, streamline interactions with new and existing customers, and allow small-business owners to easily swap between the many hats they are forced to wear. MasterCard Business Network 2.0 combines accounting, data management, and marketing applications such as Sage and Xpenditure, in solution so that business owners do not need to swap between applications when they need to perform new functions.
While not a “business network” necessarily in the way that Ardent defines it, the MasterCard product fulfills a key need among small and mid-sized businesses for streamlined operations. This too is a critical function for financial operations specifically and enterprise operations more generally. Read the full announcement at http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150504005129/en/MasterCard-Business-Network-2.0-U.S.-Business-Owners#.VUtRUflVikq.
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