Procurement Software Provider Xeeva Gets Another Patent to ‘Enrich’ Spend Data

Xeeva, a provider of sourcing and procurement software, received another patent related to data management that uses artificial intelligence, the Michigan-based company said in a recent announcement.

“The patent incorporates functionality for rapidly enriching data records to improve both quality and consistency,” the announcement said.

With the increased digitalization of all businesses and the added use of connected  devices like the internet of things (IoT), more data is produced than ever, and businesses are having to find solutions that can make sense of it all.

The patent document that was issued Jan. 8, 2019, describes the development as having techniques related “to managing ‘bad’ or ‘imperfect’ data being imported into a database. … A lifecycle technology solution helps receive data from a variety of different sources … of known and/or unknown formats, standardize it, fit it to a known taxonomy through model-assisted classification, store it to a database … and allow it to be queried for a variety of different usages.”

Based in the Detroit area and founded in 2014, Xeeva says its Virtual Data Manager is an artificial intelligence-driven platform that “enriches” spend data.

“By being able to cleanse, classify, enrich and deduplicate spend data, Xeeva’s software allows procurement teams to make educated decisions with confidence that positively impact the bottom line,” it said.

In 2017, it received patents for data management and catalog management, the announcement said.

Xeeva was mentioned in a Spend Matters PRO story (subscription) in the fall about the e-procurement market landscape after Coupa bought Aquiire. The story detailed the type of AI solutions that Xeeva and others are exploring:

“Artificial intelligence (AI) led procure-to-pay capabilities focused not just on making recommendations to business users, but potentially even eliminating users (e.g., buyers) and/or eliminating the need for broader functionality based on decision guidance entirely. This is the model Xeeva, among other providers, is pursuing.”