Acumatica & IFS Join Cloud ERP Forces Under EQT Ownership

Yesterday morning, Acumatica announced that it had been acquired by a UK private equity fund called EQT Partners. The deal comes with a partnership with a Swedish ERP software provider Industrial & Financial Systems (IFS). According to Acumatica CEO Jon Roskill, the goal of the partnership is to form a ‘powerhouse’ of ERP companies that will eventually generate $1 billion a year in revenues and compete with the most prominent players in the ERP business. All of us at Aqurus are so excited about this announcement and want to make sure you have access to the best articles written on the subject. Here are a few summaries of the top three articles we’ve found to give you a more comprehensive understanding of this new development for Acumatica.

Before we get into the articles, here is a little background information on the two other key players in this announcement:

• Industrial & Financial Systems (IFS) – Develops and delivers enterprise software for customers around the world who manufacture and distribute goods, maintain assets and manage service-focused operations.
• EQT Partners – A leading investment firm with $45 billion of assets under management. EQT funds have portfolio companies in Europe, Asia and the US with total sales of more than EUR 19 billion and approximately 127,000 employees.

“Combined with the proficiencies of IFS, Acumatica is positioned to expand into new markets and offer true global support for our rapidly expanding international customers.”

— Jon Roskill, CEO, Acumatica

EQT Acquires Acumatica & Connects it with Existing IFS Investment

The new global entity, of a united Acumatica and IFS, is ultimately designed to meet a growing range of customer requirements. Acumatica and IFS both understand that businesses of every size and in every industry are becoming increasingly global. With this reality, both ERP software providers must give customers a network of resources that will support business operations wherever they, their partners and customers are. To achieve this, the two companies will tap into one other’s ISV, reseller and systems integrator communities. Both CEOs have also stated that they intend to combine technical resources and roadmaps and implement best practices across services and support to enable mutually beneficial growth. Both companies are also currently adopting Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Machine Learning (ML) features into their technology stacks and expect to achieve mutual success in that area.

>> Read Full Article

“IFS can bolster Acumatica’s ability to globalize and expand in key industries, while Acumatica can support IFS with increased functionality in business intelligence, analytics and extensive experience of providing a true born-in-the-cloud ERP software-as-a-service offering.”

— Mickey North Rizza, Program Vice President Enterprise Applications, IDC

The “Marriage” of Acumatica & IFS

Cloud computing is on the rise, and cloud computing companies are busy finding ways to maintain a customer base in the rapidly changing marketplace. Two cloud companies, Acumatica and IFS, are navigating this season in the industry by strategically conjoining, connecting and coalescing. The coming together of IFS and Acumatica under the EQT Partners umbrella is said to be a ‘structured investment’ to ensure that both companies have a stake in each other’s success. EQT explains that a ‘structured investment’ means that both firms will tap into one another’s Independent Software Vendor (ISV), reseller and systems integrator communities. Unlike most cases wherein two organizations join forces, Acumatica and IFS plan to continue to operate under their distinct original identities. The hope is that their combined forces will allow them to compete more directly with ERP software providers like SAP, Oracle, Microsoft, Sage and more.

>> Read Full Article

“IFS and Acumatica can benefit from one another’s resources, capabilities and strategies, but still enjoy full autonomy and rapid growth trajectories while avoiding disruptions to business operations or brand equity. Acumatica’s cloud-native architecture and operations are absolutely cutting edge, as is its commitment to partners and customers. I ultimately see this as two allies to cover the market from end to end, with combined strength to take market share.”

— Darren Roos, CEO, IFS

A Discussion with CEO of IFS on their Acumatica Partnership

Here, Enterprise Times discusses the deal of EQT acquiring Acumatica and building a partnership with IFS, with IFS CEO Darren Roos.

• Who initiated the deal? According to Roos, he and his team initially brought Acumatica as an idea to EQT. He states that he and the IFS team saw a “tremendous amount of synergy with Acumatica as a business.”
• Is this an acquisition by IFS? No, while EQT is buying Acumatica and Roos is joining the board, the two companies are not merging. The parties involved think that comparing the union of the two to marriage rather than an acquisition is more accurate.
• What will success look like? According to Roos, “If we can accelerate the IFS growth as a stand-alone business. If we can help to accelerate Acumatica’s growth and help to harden their offering. By improving their global support, moving some of their development to Sri Lanka to accelerate their development. A faster growing Acumatica and a faster growing IFS are what I would love to see in 12 months from now.”

With all of this in mind, we are hopeful for what this partnership has in store. The combined organization may well be stronger than the sum of its parts.

>> Read Full Article

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