SAP has thrown down the gauntlet in the disclosure management space by announcing its intention to acquire a readymade application from Cundus AG. comprising cundus Financial Statement Factory and cundus informationCollector. The acquisition puts SAP in the frame with Oracle, Tagetik and IBM (Clarity Systems) in this highly competitive area of group financial reporting systems (see earlier FSN article).
The heightened interest in disclosure management reflects the fact that companies and their finance departments are under greater pressure to comply with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and requirements to file financial and business information using extensible business reporting language (XBRL). For many enterprises, manual processes still dominate their financial close cycles, leading to data accuracy issues, compliance risks and a lack of control. In addition, collaboration is difficult and manual processes must be repeated during each reporting period.
Commenting on the deal, Jon Kondo, CEO of Host Analytics, a cloud based provider told FSN, “The SAP acquisition which comes on the heels of IBM’s acquisition of Clarity, further validates the growing importance for software to help finance executives close the books, report results, analyze the data and make better decisions.”
SAP says it has experienced strong demand for its portfolio of financial close solutions, and the acquisition of disclosure management functionality enables SAP to deliver another key element of its enterprise performance management (EPM) vision and roadmap.
In common with other software vendors competing in this space the product will be separately priced, and support other (non-SAP) environments. SAP, which like Oracle has substantial ERP assets says that the new solution will support customers as part of a complete end-to-end financial close solution with integration for the SAP ERP Financials and SAP BusinessObjects EPM solutions.
Cundus will continue to operate as an independent company delivering strategic business intelligence (BI) consulting services in Germany and other European markets, including consulting services for the acquired disclosure management solutions. SAP will provide additional details about future plans after the acquisition of assets from cundus is completed, which SAP anticipates will occur by the end of 2010. Terms and purchase price of this acquisition are not publicly disclosed.
