Basware: The Finnish Procure-to-Pay Giant — Year-End Tech Review

This post is part of our 2016 Year-End Procurement Tech Review, in which we offer procurement practitioners a bird’s-eye view of some key vendors and their solutions in select categories. This is the last week of this series, and today we’re highlighting a company in the procure-to-pay (P2P) field.

Basware is one of the largest technology providers in the global procurement and accounts payable technology market. Its solutions span the entire procure-to-pay process, from requisition through payment and post-transaction analysis, and includes the Basware Commerce Network (BCN), which has over 100 million annualized transactions. The network is growing, and Basware expects to process 250 million transactions annually within three years.

Quick Facts

• Founded: 1985
• Headquartered in Espoo, Finland, with additional offices in Australia, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Sweden, U.K. and the U.S.
• Number of employees (range): more than 1,000
• Total annual revenue: $157 million
• Percentage of revenue from procurement/supply: 100%
• Serves customers from all continents
• Customers include Celgene, Kaplan, Bilfinger Real Estate, Panasonic, TH Real Estate, Brambles, Suez, NHS, Van Gansewinkel, Toyota, Accor Hotels, Colliers International and Penguin Random House
• Industries served include automotive, public sector and healthcare
• Available modules: Basware Purchase-to-Pay (Invoice, Match, Purchase, Marketplace) and Basware Network 16.10; Travel and Expense Management 3.9
• Other app integration: over 250 ERPs and financial (back end) systems

Background & Overview

Founded in 1985 in Espoo, Finland, as Baltic Accounting Systems to deliver enterprise finance software solutions, Basware has grown from a small country player to a global platform that does over €143.4 million annually (2015) with its client base of over 2,500 international P2P customers that collectively do business with over 1 million companies in over 100 countries.

Basware’s P2P platform, which includes Spend Analytics (with limited support for stand-alone spend analysis outside of what is transacted in the system), the Basware Commerce Network, Supplier Financing, T&E, and deep AP/Finance support, is one of the most extensive P2P solutions on the market from a finance and procurement perspective.

The company faces significant competition from multiple segments of the procure-to-pay market. Its competitors include:

• SAP Ariba
• Coupa
• Determine
• GEP
• Ivalua
• Oracle
• Tradeshift
• SynerTrade
• Transcepta
• Tungsten
• Zycus

Commentary & Summary

Basware is a natural shortlist candidate for finance organizations that want to seize the initiative in driving AP automation, e-invoicing, supplier network, payment and treasury management and analytics capabilities. Increasingly, it will become a shortlist candidate for procurement organizations looking to drive e-procurement and broader P2P initiatives as well. However, Basware faces significant competition from multiple market segments and lacks the type of consultant/SI partnerships, channel marketing and brand awareness that have enabled Coupa to become as frequent a competitor as Ariba in deal opportunities.

We believe that Basware’s near-term future success in North America will depend on building brand awareness within procurement organizations, tactical demand generation (to drive opportunities) and a credible systems integrator, channel and partner ecosystem to reinforce its position in the market and bring it indirectly into opportunities. Short of success in all three areas, we think that Basware, despite its solution capabilities, will face increasing competitive headwinds in the global P2P market.

For a more comprehensive analysis and guide for procurement organizations looking to understand whether they should consider adding the provider to their shortlists for consideration, please head over to the Spend Matters Almanac.