BOSS INSIGHTS
July 2017 - In This Issue...
Does your M&A Strategy Pack a Punch or Have you Counted Yourself Out Already?
3 Essential Principles When Selling Your Business for the Highest Price - Vincent Ehrström
Editorial 
Welcome to the July issue of Boss Insights (formerly Boss News), where we feature a round-up of Software Tech news in bite-sized chunks for easy absorption.
In this edition of Boss Insights we are delighted to feature an interview with our own John Symon, SVP, International Markets. John recently attended the AIIM Forum, where he sat down with the DM Collaborators to discuss his view of the DM sector, how it is evolving and how software tech businesses can capitalise on the broadening scope of opportunities this offers them, to add value, whilst also growing in value themselves. Read the interview here
Also in this issue, we feature an article from Vincent Ehrström, our SVP, France. Vincent talks about the three essential principles to remember when preparing to sell your business for sale at the highest price. Vincent offers some practical advice and suggests careful consideration is given to three pertinent questions. Read the article
In his monthly blog, M&A Whispers, Mark Edwards, CEO, examines how the evolution and maturing of the Software Tech sector has precipitated increasingly aggressive competition for market share. This in turn, has lead to an increased desire among companies to grow via acquisition rather than organically. Read Mark's blog: "Does your M&A Strategy Pack a Punch - or Have you Already Counted Yourself Out?"
A note for your diaries: we are hosting a webinar on Tuesday 29th August, "5 Steps to Prepare Your Company for Maximum Sale Value". Your presenters are Boss Equity CEO, MArk Edwards and SVP, France, Vincent Ehrström. If you are contempating your exit in the next few months or years and would like some pointers on how to acheive maximum sale value for your business, please sign up to attend
We hope you find this month’s edition of Boss Insights both stimulating and informative. Please feel free to share your comments with us.
To your continued growth & success.
Kind regards,
Isabel Ross-Edwards - Editor
irossedwards@bossequity.com
Boss M&A Whispers
Keyhole Vision Leading to Keyhole Strategy?
Mark Edwards, CEO at Boss Equity, challenges readers on whether they truly know the size of their niche. He observes that, for those who don't, this lack of insight could prove significant in the future.
Read more »
Retirement or Company Growth Plan?
In this blog, Mark Edwards, addresses some of the issues that arise when running a family business. Do you look to accession or do you sell? Whichever route you choose, the best tip is to start planning your exit early.
Read more »
The "Magic Sauce" in M&A
Mark Edwards, CEO at Document Boss, discusses how to build and safeguard the value in your business. First, you need to make an objective assessment of your business - it's strengths and weaknesses. You then need to focus on building strength and value into your business, making it stable with recurring revenues.
Read more »
Don't Ride Your Business Up and Over the Top
Timing is critical when selling your business. In this blog, Mark Edwards, CEO at Boss Equity, explains the consequences of mistiming the sale the sale of your business. Read more »
Perspectives
The Missing DM Business Link - Long Term Vision?
SVP, International Markets, John Symon is interviewed by DM Collaborators at the AIIM Forum and gives his perspectives on the state of the DMmarket today and what businesses need to do to to take advantage of the current digital and tech-rich landscape to build value and accelerate long term growth
Read more »
M&A Whispers Blog: Does Your M&A Strategy Pack a Punch? - Or Have You Counted Yourself Out Already?
Mark Edwards examines the important elements to consider when creating your M&A strategy, concluding, that if you are serious about making M&A part of your growth plan, then you need to make it happen - not simply sit passively awaiting a knock on the door and expecting floods of lucrative propositions to land on your desk.
Read more »
Webinar: Tuesday 29th August - 5pm BST (6pm Paris Time)
In this webinar, hosts, Mark Edwards, CEO at Boss Equity and Vincent Ehrström, SVP, France, discuss the 5 most important elements you need to have in place to ensure you achieve maximum value at sale.
Read more »
3 Essential Principles When Selling Your Business for the HIghest Price
Vincent Ehrström, SVP, France, offers pragmatic advice on how to approach the sale of your business. Amonst other sound advice, Vincent suggests that you don't prepare your business as if for a beauty pageant, for all to admire. Instead, focus your attention on the select group who are seriously interested in acquiring and can see the value in your offering.
Read more »
Previously Featured Articles
Identity Access Management - A Key Component for Governance, Risk & Compliance
SVP, International Markets, John Symon, gives an overview of the growing and critical importance to industry of Identity Access Management. Read more »
ECM - Death or Resurrection?
SVP, International Markets, John Symon considers the evolution of the ECM sector and examines whether, in the light of the constantly changing face of tech and the enterprise, it has finally breathed its last.
Read more »
BPO & the Future of Digital Transformation
On a recent trip to the CeBit conference in Hannover, Geert Kruiter, SVP, Europe, noted that the majority of conversations were geared to "Digital Transformation". Here, Geert examines the topic on most vendors' lips and asks industry veteran, Bernard Poll, CEO of BPO company, Orone for his insights.
Read more »
News
Infogix Buys Data Clairvoyance – a Data Strategy Consultancy
Naperville, IL – July 18, 2017 – Infogix, Inc., a data and analytics software provider, has announced it has acquired Data Clairvoyance, a data strategy consultancy, which helps organizations adopt new approaches and methodologies to maximize the value of their data. Its deep experience and proven frameworks will further support Infogix as a complete “one-stop” provider of solutions for all big data needs, from management to implementation. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Read more »
Cisco acquires network security startup Observable Networks
13th July 2017 - Cisco has made another acquisition in the enterprise security space — underscoring the ongoing market demand for security services amid a growing threat of cyber breaches and malicious hacking among businesses that are moving to cloud-based infrastructures. The IT giant has announced it has acquired Observable Networks, a company based in St. Louis that provides real-time network behavior monitoring to help IT teams detect anomalies that might be related to security breaches, focusing particularly on cloud deployments. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
Read more »
EQT VII acquires health technology company Certara for USD 850 million
Princeton, NJ and New York, NY, July 11, 2017 – The EQT VII fund (“EQT VII”) has announced that it has agreed to acquire Certara, a provider of technology-driven, decision support solutions for drug development, for an enterprise value of USD 850 million. The Company is being acquired from Arsenal Capital Partners. As part of the transaction, Arsenal Capital Partners will retain a minority ownership stake in Certara, with the Company’s current management team, led by Edmundo Muniz, MD, PhD, continuing to lead the organization, building on a multi-year track record of both organic growth and strategic acquisitions.
Read more »
T2 Systems Buys ParkingSoft
Indianapolis, IN, July 17, 2017 — T2 Systems, a provider of the industry’s most comprehensive suite of parking solutions, has announced it has acquired ParkingSoft., a provider of cloud-based software enabled PARCS (Parking Access Revenue Control Systems), valet and events products with state-of-the-art features such as barcode and LPR. Based in Atlanta, ParkingSoft brought to market the first software as a service (SaaS) barcode-only PARCS system, which greatly enhances a parking owner's ability to monitor, manage and maintain their PARCS equipment - resulting in lower operating effort with industry-leading flexibility via open APIs.
Read more »
Google acquires Bengaluru-based AI Start-Up Halli Labs
July 12th 2017 - Halli, which means 'village' in Kannada, announced the news in a blog, which was later conformed by Google. "Welcome @Pankaj and the team at @halli_labs to Google. Looking forward to building some cool stuff together," tweeted Google's Vice President, Product Managment, Caesar Sengupta. Founded by Pankaj Gupta, the start-up is focused on building deep learning and machine learning systems.
Read more »
Ephesoft Secures $15M Series A Funding from Mercato Partners
Laguna Hills, CA - July 11, 2017 - Ephesoft Inc, a developer of document capture and analytics solutions that extract meaning from unstructured content, has announced that it has completed a $15 million Series A financing round. Mercato Partners, a trusted growth capital partner, is the exclusive investor in this round. The investment will be used to accelerate Ephesoft’s product development while expanding operations, market presence and sales channels. Joe Kaiser of Mercato Partners will join the Ephesoft Board of Directors as part of the investment.
Read more »
Graphcore to collect $30 million in latest funding round
Bristol, UK – Graphcore have announced their Series B $30 million funding round and are being backed by some eminent AI pioneers. Namelty, Demis Hassabis (DeepMind), Greg Brockman (OpenAI), Ilya Sutskever (OpenAI), Pieter Abbeel (UC Berkeley/OpenAI), Scott Gray (OpenAI) and Zoubin Ghahramani (University of Cambridge, Chief Scientist at Uber). Graphcore have been working closely with innovators in machine learning research to hone development of their Intelligence Processing Unit (IPU), a completely new kind of processor, designed specifically for machine intelligence, since they founded Graphcore three years ago.
Read more »
TIBCO Bolsters Microservices Leadership with nanoscale.io Acquisition
Palo Alto, California - 06 July, 2017 - TIBCO Software Inc., an integration, API management, and analytics company, has announced it has acquired nanoscale.io a provider of innovative microservices technology and tooling. The acquisition extends and enhances TIBCO’s leadership in the development of microservices and APIs that connect and integrate the enterprise, and bolster its Connected Intelligence platform offerings.
Read more »
Equiniti Group plc acquires Nostrum Group
Thu 06 Jul 2017 - Equiniti Group plc, the FTSE listed FinTech and regulatory services business, has announced the acquisition of the Nostrum Group Limited. Nostrum is a fast growing, award winning provider of end-to-end loan management technology that helps banks, finance companies and retail brands provide innovative credit solutions to their customers. They deliver services that support the whole lifecycle of lenders’ operations from front-end lead generation and application processing through to customer servicing.
Read more »
SEI Expands Its Footprint in Family Office Services Arena With Acquisition of Archway Technology Partners
OAKS, Pa., July 5, 2017 – SEI has announced it has acquired Archway Technology Partners, LLC, a provider of operating technologies and services to the family office industry and the institutions who service that market. “This announcement represents a modest shift in SEI’s long-held belief in purely organic growth. We believe there is value in growing through carefully considered strategic acquisitions that add to our expanding geographic footprint, market reach, platform functionality and expertise,” said Alfred P. West, Jr., Chairman and CEO of SEI.
Read more »
Square 9® and ecoprintQ Announce New Strategic Alliance in Latin America
NEW HAVEN, CONN., June 30, 2017 – Square 9® Softworks, developers of enterprise content management (ECM) solutions, has announced its partnership with ecoprintQ, a document output management and a certified PaperCut Authorized Solution Center, servicing North and South America. With this partnership, ecoprintQ will expand their solutions portfolio to include document capture automation, business process management (BPM) and ECM, helping their customers to further optimize paper-based processes.
Read more »
