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The ODP Corporation, a B2B business services and products provider that is the parent company of Office Depot, on Thursday announced the acquisition of BuyerQuest Holdings Inc., a software provider known for its e-procurement and procure-to-pay (P2P) offerings.
In a press release announcing the acquisition, ODP said the deal will accelerate the company’s technology development while aiming to provide a cohesive platform integrating e-commerce, P2P and supply chain platforms to improve how businesses buy and sell.
For nine years, BuyerQuest has worked to deliver a streamlined e-commerce experience to procurement organizations around the world. The software allows customers to increase user adoption, drive contract compliance and save money in their buying processes.
Spend Matters and CIPS
Procurement needs to focus on and improve its supply chain data specifically data quality, according to Robert Handfield, a distinguished professor of supply chain at North Carolina State University.
Handfield was the latest guest on the Spend Friends video podcast series. Spend Friends is a monthly talk hosted by Bill Michels, the VP of Operations Americas at the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS) USA, and Pierre Mitchell, Spend Matters’ Chief Research Officer. Its goal is to focus on all procurement matters under the sun, like spend management, supply chain and other topics.
Handfield joined Michels and Mitchell for the third episode to discuss supply chain data what’s gone right and what’s gone wrong in the industry.
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The Labor Department reported on Thursday that first-time claims for unemployment insurance totaled 779,000 last week, which registered less than expected, according to CNBC.
This reading was the lowest since Nov. 28 as the US economy continues the slow recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. The total represented a drop of 33,000 from the previous week’s count of 812,000. In more encouraging news, continuing claims continue to lower, falling 193,000 from the previous reporting of 4.6 million, the article said.
Meanwhile, the Associated Press reported on Friday that US employers added only 49,000 nonfarm jobs in January a lukewarm gain that shows the pandemic still holds a tight grip on the economy. The unemployment rate for January registered 6.3%.
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TripActions, an artificial intelligence-enabled booking and management platform, announced it raised $155 million in an investment led by Andreessen Horowitz, according to VentureBeat. This latest investment brought TripActions’ valuation to $5 billion.
The TripActions platform is made specifically to offer enterprises real-time data, automated reporting and insights into business travel and expenses. This investment comes at a time when businesses across the spectrum embrace new ways of functioning, with things like remote work taking center stage. Corporate travel has been decimated by the coronavirus pandemic, the article said, raising some questions about the viability of platforms such as TripActions.