Scanmarket buys Symfact: M&A analysis of the sourcing firm’s acquisition of a contract lifecycle management solution (CLM)

In late October, the sourcing veteran Scanmarket announced it had acquired Symfact, a contract lifecycle management (CLM) technology provider. Symfact has over 175 clients, including a number of large and middle-market European enterprises. As we have noted in past coverage: “The Symfact platform comprises a core CLM application and several adjacent offerings focused on the legal aspects of contract management. The system runs on an ASP/C# core and an XML-based configuration engine, which enables a high degree of configurability for application layout and unique data object definitions. Symfact supports on-premise and single-instance hosted deployments, but not multi-tenant models.”

So, what does Symfact bring to Scanmarket, which is owned by the investment firm Verdane, from a functional perspective compared to sourcing and CLM peers, and what are the potential integration opportunities and challenges to watch out for in this combination? And how does Symfact fit into Verdane’s playbook for creating enterprise value (and what might be next on the list of tuck-in acquisitions)?

Read on, as we provide a rapid analysis of the transaction, including a SWOT for Symfact in the CLM market and detailed integration considerations between the platforms based on our deep SolutionMap data on both platforms (for companies going through a sourcing or contract lifecycle management tech selection, you can also use Spend Matters TechMatch℠ to see how Scanmarket and Symfact map to your business requirements compared to alternatives).

But before diving into Symfact and what it brings to Scanmarket, we should note that Scanmarket also acquired a small spend analytics provider earlier this year from its HQ country Denmark: MIA Data. Spend Matters has never encountered MIA Data nor have we been briefed on the solution, so we can’t comment on its strengths, weaknesses and fit. However, we do look forward to covering it in due course and seeing it folded into the Scanmarket portfolio.

Let’s now delve into Symfact.