18 January 2022 – The Sage Group plc (FTSE: SGE), the leader in accounting, finance, HR and payroll technology for small and medium-sized businesses, today announced that it has completed the acquisition of Brightpearl, a cloud-native, multi-channel retail operating system for retailers and wholesalers. With the acquisition of Brightpearl, based in Bristol, UK, and Austin, TX, Sage is building on its significant technology investments for growth, as well as supporting CFOs as they digitize their operations.
The acquisition extends Sage Intacct’s value proposition, supporting customers in product-centric e-commerce organizations. Making it easy for customers to transact after clicking the buy button, Brightpearl supports merchants with a complete retail solution that allows them to benefit from:
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Reduced complexity as they can offer the same level of customer service across multiple channels and countries
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A single source of order, financial, customer, and inventory availability data to make timely decisions and optimize margins with accurate demand forecasts
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Automation for growing businesses to improve their bottom line by eliminating manual errors and unplanned costs
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The flexibility to change or adopt new B2B/DTC/B2B business models without swapping the technology stack
This will enable Sage to offer its customers end-to-end retail financial management, inventory planning, sales and order management, purchasing and supplier management, CRM, fulfillment , warehousing and logistics management.
“We have made great strides in providing the technology businesses need to digitally transform their organizations today and tomorrow. For Sage Intacct customers, the value of being part of the Sage digital network is truly felt through to the artificial intelligence technology we’ve put in their toolbox to help them streamline their work and save them valuable time – while providing their customers with even better service.” said Dan Miller, executive vice president, Sage Intacct “The acquisition of Brightpearl allows us to double down on our vertical strategy to bring these benefits to retail e-commerce organizations, expanding our ability to grow the role technology plays in leading global enterprises.”
Sage is onboarding early adopters to an integrated solution between Sage Intacct and Brightpearl. The solution will be widely available later this year.
“We have been both a Brightpearl and Sage Intacct customer for a few years now and are thrilled to see the two brands coming together.” Said Maria Gunter, CFO, BASE – materials sourcing and manufacturing experts “Clients will find benefits in combining the power of Brightpearl’s e-commerce automation on the front-end with the best accounting features of Sage Intacct on the back-end to both streamline business processes and provide reporting. the most robust financial and management analyzes available – we can’t wait to see what the future holds.”
Sage plans to continue offering Brightpearl as a marketplace solution, giving merchants the choice of accounting modules or accounting platforms. This gives businesses a single vendor to work with, as well as access to a broader portfolio of additional Sage solutions to meet their needs.
Mickey North Rizza, Vice President of IDC, said: “Brands selling online are no longer limited to traditional store opening hours. Instead, sales can take place around the clock, opening up the business to ever more customers who can shop whenever they want. For merchants, linking the point of sale to the back office will not only support them with inventory visibility, but will also address the currency risks of cross-border trade as well as unforeseen VAT and customer rights. This is a win-win situation for merchants and their customers.”
In addition, Sage’s recent technology advancements for Sage Intacct customers include a continued focus on growing its team of data scientists and AI engineers to expand the machine learning infrastructure, investing in solutions innovations such as the general ledger outlier detection tool, Sage Intelligent Time, and a new predictive absence management tool. Sage Intacct also recently extended its reach with Sage Intacct CRE, a solution to support clients in construction and real estate.
About sage
Sage exists to break down barriers so everyone can thrive, starting with the millions of small and medium-sized businesses served by us, our partners and accountants. Clients trust our finance, HR and payroll software to keep work and money flowing. By digitizing business processes and relationships with customers, suppliers, employees, banks and governments, our digital network connects SMEs, removing friction and delivering insights. Breaking down barriers also means using our time, technology and experience to tackle digital inequality, economic inequality and the climate crisis.
About Brightpearl
Based in Bristol (UK) and Austin, Texas (USA), Brightpearl provides a retail operating system (ROS) for retailers and wholesalers. Its mission is clear: to automate the back office so merchants can focus their time and money on growing the business. Brightpearl’s ROS includes financial management, inventory and order management, purchasing and supplier management, CRM, fulfillment, warehouse and logistics. Moreover, the system has powerful connectors to major e-commerce platforms including Magento, BigCommerce, and Shopify. Brightpearl’s platform handles over 10 million transactions and $5 billion in business annually.
