AvidXchange recently announced that the first product integration of its November, 2017 acquisition of Ariett is now complete. Ardent Partners’ ePayables team (Bob Cohen and Philip Bartolini), recently caught up with Henry Ijams, VP Product Management at AvidXchange, to discuss AvidXchange’s acquisition of Ariett, post-merger integration and plans for the future, The following is a write-up on that discussion.
Avid + Ariett = Full P2P Solution
AvidXchange, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, is a provider of invoice automation and payment processes for mid-market companies. Founded in 2000, the company has established itself as a significant player in the ePayables space, with a particular strength in serving the mid-market (enterprises ranging from $75-$250 million in revenue). Henry Ijams, VP Product Management at AvidXchange, explained that Avid saw the evolution of the Procure-to-Pay (P2P) market at the large enterprise level (there has been a strong trend for organizations to select P2P suites instead of combining disparate systems) and anticipated the mid-market would soon follow. The executive team realized that a plan was needed for Avid to be able to offer comprehensive coverage of the full P2P process.
Roughly eighteen months ago, AvidXchange established a partnership with Ariett, a Massachusetts-based Procure-to-Pay solution provider that targeted mid-market enterprises, particularly those using Microsoft Dynamics GP on the back end (Ariett also pursued Netsuite and Intacct). At the time, Ariett’s leadership team saw the same full P2P functionality trend taking hold. Ariett did have invoice recognition and OCR capture capabilities, but were themselves looking for a payments engine, and a group to partner with. Avid was initially drawn to Ariett because of the strong eProcurement component it had developed for the mid-market. The partnership ended up being a win-win for both groups, and eventually led to Avid’s acquisition of Ariett in November of 2017. Another reason the acquisition made sense from a business perspective was because of Ariett’s presence in the Microsoft Dynamics GP ERP space. Ijams said that it would probably have taken two and a half years for Avid to develop its own P2P functionality (Avid did already have electronic requisitioning functionality for procurement on the front-end) and the acquisition just made too much sense to pass up.
The “AvidXchange Purchase to Pay” Solution
Just a few weeks ago, Avid announced its first accounting system integration for its new spend management platform called “AvidXchange Purchase to Pay.” The new solution is a complete, end-to-end offering available for customers using Microsoft Dynamics GP and Intacct. The offering integrates Avid’s payment automation solution with Ariett’s extended purchasing functionality. Avid, with its deep payment automation capabilities was quickly able to connect its payments solutions with Ariett’s host of procurement and payment-processing features. These features include expense forecasting, budget checking, spend management, requisition approval, purchase order management, contract tracking, and currency management. Avid can now offer mid-market enterprises a fully functional cloud-based solution that covers the entirety of P2P. With the initial integration complete, Ijams said the next order of business will be to provide a unified interface that brings the two platforms together.
Final Thoughts
Sensing an unfulfilled need in the mid-market, Avid’s acquisition of Ariett made a lot sense. The acquisition enables Avid to offer full P2P functionality to enterprises whose options were previously somewhat limited. Early indications have been positive for Avid as they have been able to achieve new sales and upsells to each of their installed customer-bases. As the need for P2P grows in the mid-market, AvidXchange’s Purchase to Pay solution appears well positioned to meet the demands of the marketplace.
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