Advanced has today acquired Science Warehouse, a British developer of Cloud-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) procurement solutions, for the enterprise value of £16 million. The acquisition will see the IT software and services leader accelerate its cloud-first business strategy and strengthen its enterprise resource planning (ERP) proposition in an area that is seeing high demand. Leading analysts such as Gartner and Forrester claim the eProcurement sector will see growth of 10% and the area of spend management to grow by 19%.
Science Warehouse is an established provider of spend management and eMarketplace systems to over 80 customers in multiple sectors including commercial, government, higher education, NHS and social housing. Founded in 2000, its Cloud-based technology drives efficiencies through the source-to-settle process for Buyers and Suppliers. Some of its flagship customers include Francis Crick, Worcestershire Acute NHS Trust, University of York, University of Leeds and in Australia, University of Queensland.
Nick Wilson, Managing Director – Public Sector, Health & Care – Advanced, adds: “Public sector budgets are subject to incredible scrutiny and hence nearly all organisations rely on e-Procurement systems for spend efficiencies, compliance and adherence to corporate policy. This addition to our portfolio offers significant value to our customers and will help us build upon the continued momentum we are currently achieving in local government and NHS trusts, as well as to other industry sectors.”
Just seven months ago, Advanced announced acquisition acceleration plans designed to bolster its existing Cloud portfolio made up of 500 existing customers and 22,000 users, which includes its successful SaaS management information solution, Progresso, designed specifically for the education sector. The acquisition of Hudman, a fast-growing British company in the SaaS ERP sector, was its first acquisition. It has since rebranded and relaunched this as Advanced Business Cloud Essentials, targeting small-to-medium sized enterprises. It also announced CloudDonor, a donor relationship management system for charities and CloudMembership, a membership management system.
A Cloud survey recently carried out by Advanced showed nearly one in two UK organisations are adopting a Cloud-first strategy to their technology investment and capitalising on the significant benefits offered by Cloud-based solutions in the process. Cloud technology remains the right choice for many organisations to boost productivity, business intelligence and innovation.
Gordon Wilson, CEO at Advanced, comments: “The Cloud is increasingly seen as the fuel for digital transformation projects, which is why accelerating our Cloud capabilities is at the heart of our business vision. Online marketplaces are fast becoming integral to how buyers run their operations successfully, which we identified as a valuable piece within our ecosystem of innovative Cloud solutions and with market growth predictions of up to 19%, a critical part of our ambitious plans.”
The Science Warehouse solutions integrate with Advanced’s existing financial management solutions and other ERP offerings to deliver modular, scalable solutions for companies of any size.