Proactis Takeover Shrinks eProcurement Market

Corporate spend management firm Proactis is shrinking the eProcurement space with a takeover.

The company is reportedly set to acquire eProcurement services firm Millstream Associates for nearly $19.5 million, reports said Thursday (Nov. 10).

“The acquisition broadens both the product offering and the customer base on the buy side of the procurement process, whilst also bringing scale of operation on the strategically important supply side of the procurement process,” stated Rod Jones, Proactis chief executive. “Millstream is a clear complementary fit to the group and provides some potential upside with cross-selling opportunities into both the Proactis and Millstream customer bases.”

The deal is part of Proactis’ broader M&A strategy to fuel expansion, the firm added.

Earlier this year, Proactis released a new report on eProcurement technology and spend management and concluded that there are several areas of the procure-to-pay process experiencing a high level of automation — most notably, spend analysis, invoice receipt and processing and purchase-to-pay. But researchers at the company also found that contract management and supplier sourcing are some points that remain quite manual.

Further, the company also highlighted the varying degrees of automation businesses have implemented into their eProcurement process.

“Virtually every organization we talk with still has ‘coverage’ gaps in how they are applying spend control and eProcurement technology,” Proactis concluded.

The eProcurement industry has seen a wave of mergers and acquisitions in recent months. In October, Vendorin, a B2B technology firm, was bought by procure-to-pay player Juvo Technologies. Last year, OpenInvoice’s procure-to-pay offerings became the takeover target of Oildex in a bid to streamline its oil procurement services.