Rapid analysis: Why Microsoft would acquire AI-based spend analytics provider Suplari

Microsoft announced that it has acquired Suplari, a spend analytics provider, to bolster its Dynamics 365 offering via Suplari’s out-of-the-box insights capabilities. But why is this an important acquisition? Our analysts weigh in on the functional angle and implications for the broader procurement technology market.

In detailing the acquisition, Microsoft emphasized its desire to help customers gain valuable insights from data. It referenced three primary benefits of Suplari’s platform in conjunction with Dynamics 365: “making comprehensive enterprise spend data and insights accessible to all; unlocking new financial insights to help with strategic procurement decisions; getting up and running with predictive insights in weeks, not months.”

Spend Matters Founder Jason Busch sees the deal as a good fit for Microsoft.

“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,” Busch said of the acquisition. “While Microsoft is materially behind SAP, Oracle and Workday in procurement, this will place it ahead of SMB- and middle market-only ERPs. Spend and finance analytics is a logical place to begin, and Suplari is a bite-size choice that has elements that should make it particularly suited to the Dynamics 365 customer set.”

This Spend Matters PRO Rapid Analysis research brief overviews the Suplari solution, based on our rigorous quantitative and qualitative analyses we have performed on the vendor over the past year. It also includes key functional strengths and weaknesses and customer satisfaction insights (including commentary from a CPO that is currently a client of Suplari). We also offer our take on the larger reasoning behind the deal for Microsoft, as well as an analysis of the transaction from a market perspective.

To learn more about Suplari’s spend analytics capabilities, we recommend reading our three-part PRO Vendor Analysis on the provider and consulting our Spring 2021 Spend and Procurement Analytics SolutionMap results.