Analytics specialist Suplari is acquired by Microsoft

The business analytics provider Suplari has been acquired by Microsoft to give more data insights into supplier spend, according to Microsoft this morning.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Microsoft plans to use Suplari’s Spend Intelligence Cloud solution to beef up its Dynamics 365 offering.

Suplari CEO Nikesh Parekh wrote today that the Spend Intelligence Cloud would stay in the market with no changes for current customers.

“We are excited for the new road ahead with Microsoft,” Parekh said in the press release. “I am ecstatic to report that 100% of our team is continuing to work together to extend Suplari’s Spend Intelligence Cloud at Microsoft. Customers can continue to expect the same great product experience from Suplari going forward as part of Microsoft. Given Microsoft’s AI, cloud and data investments, customers can expect that Suplari will continue to deliver more AI-driven, predictive & prescriptive insights, and integrated workflows for finance, procurement, & supply chain teams.”

Microsoft also gave more details for its rationale to buy Suplari.

“For most companies, their financial data is locked in silos, making in-depth analysis difficult,” writes Microsoft’s Frank, Weigel, Vice President, Dynamics 365 Insights Product Group, in a blog post today. “With many companies facing rising costs and deteriorating margins, access to actionable insights for finance and procurement leaders is critical. They want to be able to bring down costs and manage their spend. For most companies, supplier spend represents a significant percentage of their revenue, yet most do not feel they are managing it strategically.”

Weigel said Suplari’s solution can “enable companies to proactively manage supplier spend by transforming data from multiple sources, such as contracts, purchase orders, invoices, expenses and supplier risk, into valuable insight.”

Suplari is ranked in Spend Matters’ SolutionMap evaluation of procurement technology. It participates in the Spend and Procurement Analytics category.

Spend Matters has covered Suplari for years:

• Afternoon Coffee: Suplari launches new Spend Intelligence Cloud
• Suplari: Vendor Analysis (Part 1) — Background, Solution Overview, Selection Checklist [PRO]
• Suplari: Vendor Analysis (Part 2) — Strengths and Weaknesses [PRO]
• Suplari: Vendor Analysis (Part 3) — SWOT, Competitors, Selection Guide, Analysis [PRO]
• (Guest post from Suplari’s CEO) Companies need to adopt spend agility to survive and thrive post-COVID

Read Spend Matters’ PRO analyst coverage of the deal here. 

Spend Matters Founder Jason Busch says in that PRO analysis:

“Acquiring Suplari as a single foray into procurement makes less sense for Microsoft compared with treating this as an initial step, in which we can expect to see additional inorganic and organic investment in the quarters to come …”