Mass Movers – Centive, Deploy, Kronos and Iron Mountain
Over the past week, three Massachusetts-based companies have announced important developments which can serve as measuring-sticks for the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and managed services markets.
On October 31, Iron Mountain announced its intention to acquire Stratify, a leading provider of electronic discovery services for the legal industry and Fortune 500 legal departments. This announcement came on the heels of the Iron Mountain’s recent analyst briefing focused on its growing digital services business. THINKstrategies views these digital services as part of the broader managed services sector.
Iron Mountain has become a major player in the traditional physical records management in part because of its aggressive acquisition efforts. It has also established a solid foothold in the digital services market as a result of previous acquisitions of Connected and LiveVault. The addition of Stratify gives Iron Mountain a stronger eDiscovery capability to respond to escalating regulatory and industry compliance requirements. It is also a further indication of Iron Mountain’s conviction that digital/managed services are going to be an increasingly important component of its corporate strategy and portfolio.
Two other Massachusetts-based companies made news on October 31 with Kronos announcing its acquisition of Deploy Solutions. This was a classic transaction between an established legacy application vendor and rising on-demand SaaS provider. Deploy provides SaaS solutions that help organizations increase and improve the quality of their applicant flow while reducing their software implementation and management costs. The acquisition enables Kronos to expand its portfolio and accelerate its entry into the SaaS market.
On November 5, ADP’s Employer Services Division announced the launch of an automated Sales Incentive Compensation Management (ICM) solution powered by Centive’s on-demand Compel capabilities. ADP National Account Services is a major provider of payroll, benefits administration and human resources services. Its adoption of Centive’s on-demand ICM platform is an endorsement of SaaS and Centive. This isn’t the first time ADP has shown an interest in the SaaS movement, and in many people’s view ADP is the best example of the intersection between business and software services. Over the past 18 months, ADP has made two SaaS-related acquisitions of Employease and VirtualEdge to broaden its suite of services. The Centive alliance clearly demonstrates ADP’s determination to leverage SaaS solutions to satisfy a wider array of its customers’ needs.
It is also important to note that in each of these transactions, the SaaS solutions in play can meet the needs of both enterprise and small-/mid-size businesses (SMBs). This is further proof that the SaaS movement is gaining acceptance among organizations of all sizes, and astute vendors are aggressively moving to deliver on-demand solutions to their customers to satisfy their changing requirements.
It is also gratifying to see the Massachusetts technology community responding to these trends and embracing the SaaS movement. The latest announcements follow a series of recent IPOs of MA-based SaaS providers—Salary.com, Constant Contact and Athena Health. While Silicon Valley is still driving the SaaS market, MA-based companies can now feel confident that they are offering competitive on-demand solutions.