SAP’s thin skin (Vinnie Mirchandani/Deal Architect)
Come On, Comcast… You’ve Gotta Be Better Than This
(TechCrunch)
SAP’s thin skin (Vinnie Mirchandani/Deal Architect)
Come On, Comcast… You’ve Gotta Be Better Than This
(TechCrunch)
Updating Philadelphia's "Young Companies to Watch"
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Tom Paine
I've updated Philly Tech News' "Young Companies to Watch" by removing Octagon Research Solutions after the completion of its acquisition by Accenture, which I wrote about here: (Accenture completes acquisition of Octagon Research Solutions; will be "fully integrated"). Although I don't know how much Accenture paid for it, Octagon was at the top of my list based on a rough estimate of potential market value.
To replace Octagon, I've added SkillSurvey of Wayne. Founded in 2001, SkillSurvey has been a pioneer in automating web-based reference-checking in the employment application process. According to a Bloomberg article earlier this year, the company said last year’s revenue was $9.5 million and this year's should be more than $14 million. SkillSurvey has raised $5.7 million from investors including Milestone Venture Partners and Inflection Point Ventures. It is probably a good M&A candidate giving the consolidation going on now in the talent management space.
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phillytechnews twitter feed 10/3/2012
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Posted: 04 Oct 2012 08:03 AM PDT
phillytechnews: Daily Links 10/3/2012: Redbox to begin ticket sales in Philly, partnering with Comcast-Spectacor's New Era Tickets http://t.co/gyEWAGvC
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Posted: 04 Oct 2012 07:40 AM PDT
phillytechnews: RT @arcangelfund: ARC founding partner @DJFresch welcoming a full house at @EarlyStageEast in Philly http://t.co/jiS4QIXt |
Accenture completes acquisition of Octagon Research Solutions; will be "fully integrated"
Tom Paine
Accenture said last week it had completed its acquisition of Wayne-based Octagon Research Solutions, which was announced in the beginning of August. Octagon, founded in 1999, provides clinical and regulatory information management solutions and software for the pharmaceutical industry. Existing top management, including co-founders James C. Walker (Chairman & CEO) and Kirk Gallion (President) will remain in place, David Boath, North American managing director for Accenture’s Life Sciences industry group, told me in a phone interview. Octagon will report to Boath, who is based in the Philadelphia area, which is a key location for Accenture Life Sciences.
Boath says Octagon will be "fully integrated" with Accenture. That will happen in two ways. First, Accenture is placing more emphasis on acquiring or building proprietary technology tools to complement its consulting and business process outsourcing practices. It has a group named Accenture Software, which develops industry-focused software-based solutions. Accenture Software will work with Octagon on integrating its technology with that of Accenture's. Secondly, Octagon's focus on managing the regulatory filing process will complement Accenture's work in helping clients manage other stages of the pharma R&D process. Boath sees the regulatory submission process as being a major bottleneck for its clients in bringing new products to market, and Octagon's tools help to speed that process.
Perhaps the key tool is ViewPoint, Octagon’s global enterprise submission process management solution. It helps manage the R&D submission process across the enterprise, and provides project management and workflow measurement tools that help measure progress and time utilization. ViewPoint can be used in conjunction with Octagon's Submission Stewardship Program(SSP), through which management of the submission process is outsourced to Octagon team members.
Accenture has partnered on projects with Octagon for several years, so the two companies know each other well. In the past,much of Octagon's work has been for pharmacuetical firms considered below the "Tier 1" level, since smaller firms have been the likeliest to outsource more of their processes. But Boath's vision is that with Octagon's technology and expertise married with Accenture's vast resources, the combined companies will be able to penetrate more "Tier 1" enterprises.
Accenture said at the time it announced the acquisition that Octagon had around 380 employees. Octagon had announced in June 2011 that it would add about 100 employees to its staffing level of around 300 at that time. Octagon reported revenue of $37.5 million to the Inc. 5000 for 2009; Boath wouldn't say what revenue is now except to say "its grown substantiallly" since then. I was able to identify $19.3 million in VC funds that went into Octagon, the majority probably from Edison Ventures, but I don't know whether this was the total sum invested in the company. Boath declined to say how much Accenture paid for Octagon, and that is something a company of its size probably does not have to disclose in filings.
The role of technology in the regulatory submission process has mushroomed with the FDA's implemention of the electronic Common Technical Document (eCTD) standard format for submitting information to the agency. There are several other companies in the Phily area that compete with or supply some services similar to Octagon's. They include NextDocs, the King of Prussia-based company that OpenView Venture Partners invested $10.3 million in last year: Horsham-based Liquent, acquired from Thomson Reuters in 2010 by Marlin Equity, and Philadelphia-based GlobalSubmit.
Accenture, which grew out of Anderson Consulting, is an enormous firm with close to $30 billion in annual revenue and almost 250,000 employees. Boath couldn't break out how much the Life Sciences industry group contributes in revenue, but did say that the group had about 10,000 employees globally.
Related: Breaking down some numbers in the Accenture/Octagon Research deal
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Daily Links 10/5/2012: Comcast Files Tennis Brief; Says FCC misapplied the law and ignored evidence
Microsoft, Jive Head Gartner's First Social Software Quadrant (eWeek)
Blockbuster Hits Rewind on Plan to Return as Netflix Killer (Bloomberg)
Comcast Files Tennis Brief
Says FCC misapplied the law and ignored evidence (Broadcasting & Cable)
FCC Exclusivity Ban Sunset Draws Interested Stares (Multichannel News)
Docsis 3.1 to Be Revealed at Cable-Tec Expo
(Light Reading Cable)
DuPont Standardizes on Bentley OpenPlant Based on Results of Rigorous Six Sigma Evaluation Process (Business Wire)
Andesa Services Announces Client Portal for its ADASTAR Q+ Plan Administration System (Business Wire)
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phillytechnews twitter feed 10/2/2012
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Posted: 02 Oct 2012 02:22 PM PDT
phillytechnews: Highlights last week on Philly Tech News (9/24/2012 to 9/30/2012) http://t.co/PQmVcgZV
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Posted: 02 Oct 2012 01:39 PM PDT
phillytechnews: Ellison sounding very nice on CNBC today; no pot shots at SAP (yet)
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Posted: 02 Oct 2012 12:35 PM PDT
phillytechnews: phillytechnews twitter feed 9/30 to 10/1 2012 http://t.co/6HHzisw8
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Posted: 02 Oct 2012 10:52 AM PDT
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Daily Links 10/4/2012: Sunoco's Philadelphia legacy; SAP CTO rebuts Ellison's HANA comments
Sunoco leaves a legacy of spin-offs in Philadelphia area (Philadelphia Inquirer)
Including SunGard Data Systems.
Informatica Warning Hits QLIK, TIBX, SPLK, Others (Forbes)
Replay of last quarter. QlikTech down 9% so far today.
SAP's Creepy New Retail Software Uses Big Data To Make You Buy More Stuff (ReadWriteWeb)
Setting The Record Straight - SAP HANA v. Exadata X3 ( Vishal Sikka/Experience SAP HANA)
That multi-tenancy discussion revisited (Curt Monash/DBMS2)
Ariba and SAP: Integration, Planning and Solution Roadmaps (Part 1) (Spend Matters)
Sprint Said to Eye MetroPCS Bid to Rival T-Mobile Offer (Bloomberg)
A bird’s eye view of a combined T-Mobile-MetroPCS(Gigaom)
Dish Network: FCC too slow on wireless approval (Washington Post: Post Tech)
Is Fisker, as Romney suggests, a loser? (Wilmington News Journal: First State Politics)
Digi Integrates ThingWorx Application into the Industry’s Leading Internet of Things Cloud – The iDigi Device Cloud (Business Wire)
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Lockheed, Obama Administration in middle of political storm over layoff notice issue
Tom Paine
The US Department of Labor's guidance to defense contractors not to issue layoff warning notices (under the WARN Act) to employees who might be effected by sequestration has raised a political furor, and Lockheed Martin is in the middle of it.
Lockheed had said in June it was considering sending the notices to all of its 123,000 employees, which would go out shortly before election day. But on Friday the Office of Management and Budget said the contracting federal agencies would cover “employee compensation costs for [Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification] WARN Act liability as determined by a court”. Subsequently, Lockheed announced on Monday it would not be issuing notices as planned in early November.
Lockheed has tens of thousands of employees in Virginia, a key swing state, according to one estimate. Lockheed also has some 9200 employees in the Philadelphia area, according to the Philadelphia Business Journal. They are located primarily in King of Prussia, Newtown, and South Jersey.
Republicans assert that the Administration is skirting the requirements of the WARN Act for political expediency.
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Daily Links 10/3/2012: Redbox to begin ticket sales in Philly, partnering with Comcast-Spectacor's New Era Tickets
Redbox to expand into event ticket sales at kiosks (Chicago Tribune)
Starting in Philadelphia this month; partnering with Comcast-Spectacor's New Era Tickets.
Civic engagement startup ElectNext helps you decide on the issues (VentureBeat)
T-Mobile, Metro PCS announce merger (Washington Post: Post Tech)
Can you say MetroPCS iPhone? T-Mobile sure can (Gigaom)
Ellison hawks Oracle's cloud stack, calls out Salesforce.com
Oracle offers customers an integrated, more modern architecture than the competition, Ellison says (Computerworld)
Meet Comcast's IP-Only Set-Top (Light Reading Cable)
BizEquity Announces New Independence Platform
First and leading cloud-based business valuation service announces new version of its patent-pending Valuation as a Service product (Business Wire)
Fall 2012 Hack Days (Monetate Engineering Blog)
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Highlights last week on Philly Tech News (9/24/2012 to 9/30/2012)
Follow @phillytechnews
The US Department of Justice completed its review of SAP's $4.5 billion acquisition of
Ariba, SAP and Ariba announced on Friday. SAP subsequently said it had closed the deal on Monday, October 1.
I wrote about the launch of Blue Kangaroo, a deal search and recommendation site with an office in King of Prussia. The site had been in beta for a year under the name ChoozOn.
Quewey, a business Q&A site that pivoted in August to arranging social gatherings for
individuals with common professional interests, indicated on Twitter and craigslist that it was moving out of its Rittenhouse Square offices at the end of September and was selling off furniture.
The Wall Street Journal Journal revealed its 50 "Next Big Thing" startups. There were no Philly area companies included, but First Round Capital placed four of its portfolio companies on it. Also, Josh Kopelman announced First Round Capital's "Dorm Room Fund", which will dedicate $500,000 to fund ventures by college students in the Philly area, with investments eventually to be chosen by student committees.
Highmark will be taking over responsibility for managing most of Indepedence Blue Cross' information technology.
And I "reintroduced" Philly Tech News' Philly Tech Search Engine, which now covers 1600 sites.
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