Press releasesAcxias and Argonaute merge to create France's leading SAP Ariba solutions provider

PRESS RELEASE OF JULY 16, 2020

Acxias, digital purchasing, and IT consulting and services company Argonaute announce their merger to create the French leader in studies, projects and third-party application maintenance (TMA) of the SAP Ariba solution.
By strengthening the teams and combining the know-how of the two companies, this merger will enable the group to consolidate its position and continue its development on solid foundations. As a result of this operation, more than two out of three companies in France using SAP Ariba now rely on Acxias for their implementation or optimization project.
SAP Ariba is the leading digital solution in the areas of purchasing, procurement and accounting suppliers (procure-to-pay).

Reactions

Bertrand Gabriel, Acxias: "A full year of collaboration between Argonaute and Acxias demonstrated the complementary skills and experiences of the two teams, as well as the potential synergies that can be implemented. Continuing this partnership, the merger positions Acxias as the reference integrator partner of the SAP Ariba solution in France and allows it to offer its customers, companies that have acquired the solution or already users, the most complete and cutting-edge expertise. »

Benoît Kersalé, Acxias: "This merger positions Acxias as a leader covering all the services needed for the success of a procurement, procurement and finance digitalization project, including to drive supplier integration into the ecosystem."

Pascal Bourcet, SAP Ariba and SAP Fieldglass Director, SAP France: "I am delighted with this merger, which validates the potential and our development dynamics in the French market. The relevance of this new package strengthens our ecosystem in the ability to deliver value-added advice as well as the implementation of our solutions with tangible results, able to effectively support purchasing transformation projects. »

Emeric Deblicker, Head of Channel, SAP France: "I welcome this rapprochement that strengthens our partner ecosystem around our Ariba solutions. Optimizing supplier relationships and controlling supply chains is a priority for our customers and we are pleased to be able to work with specialized partners such as Acxias to position and implement our SAP Ariba solution. »

Strategy

Partners since May 2019, Acxias and Argonaute have wanted to take another step to make the most of the complementarity of their teams and their skills. By joining forces, they intend to respond more effectively to the growing market demand for expertise around SAP Ariba and associated tools.

Founded in Metz in 2007, before moving to Paris in 2010, Acxias supports companies at all stages of their digital purchasing project, from the study of need and profitability to the administration of the solution, through its implementation and deployment. Acxias has been a partner of SAP since 2016. It is one of its only specialized partners on SAP Ariba in France and provides companies equipped with the solution with a cumulative expertise of more than one hundred years of experience acquired by its team on multiple projects since the early 2000s.
In partnership with SAP, Acxias is also deploying packaged offerings specifically tailored to ETIs and SMEs, and developing innovative solutions that interact with SAP Ariba: automated purchasing application, robotization (RPA) and artificial intelligence, Business Intelligence solutions and Digital Adoption (DAP) tools, etc.
In 2019, the company achieved a 50% growth in sales thanks in particular to the first effects of synergies with Argonaute, for a workforce of about twenty employees.

Created more recently, at the beginning of 2017 in Villeneuve-d'Ascq, Argonaute works with companies using SAP Cloud solutions (Ariba, Fieldglass, Customer Experience, SuccessFactors, Concur), in support of mastery of work and management in the control of the project. His expertise also covers business intelligence(decision analysis), particularly around Qlik and Tableau Software solutions.

Intervening with large groups as well as ETI and large SMEs, the two companies have demonstrated their ability to accompany multiple projects to optimize organizations and digitize purchases of companies from all sectors: automotive, metallurgy, services, transport, agri-food, luxury...
Among the project references led by the "new" Acxias and SAP Ariba include ArcelorMittal, Auchan, Axa, Burger King, CMA CGM, Eurovia, L'Oréal, Nexans, Safran, Saint-Gobain PAM, STMicroelectronics.

Organization

Acxias, which now employs around 30 people, has adopted an organisation in four areas:
The Source-to-contract Pole (S2C, SAP Ariba Upstream solutions)
The Procure-to-pay (P2P, SAP Ariba Downstream solutions)
The XMA Pole (eXpertise TMA) - Ariba Cross-Cutting Centre of Expertise (training centre, expert audits, etc.)
The Integration and Innovations Cluster
Benoît Kersalé, CEO and founder of Argonaute and new associate director of Acxias, is in charge of the P2P division. The management team also includes Yu Cai (XMA Pole - CXP), guillaume Vassaux (Integration And Innovations), partners, as well as Isabelle Crahay, senior consultant in charge of the S2C division.
Bertrand Gabriel, the long-time founder of Acxias, is the company's chairman, in charge of development and director of strategic receivables.

Expertise and offers

In the new configuration, Acxias' know-how focuses on five main areas of expertise (Purchasing, Ariba, Technology and Innovation, Project Management, Change Management) and comes in a dozen offers.
Offers dedicated to SAP Ariba: studies and audits, implementation, integration, deployment and support
Solutions (decision analysis, packaged solutions for ETIs) and innovations (RPA/Robotic process automation, Artificial Intelligence, DAP/Digital adoption platforms)
Supplier support offers to optimize their use of the Ariba Network, the world's largest B2B network with more than 4.5 million interconnected companies
Training: SAP Ariba modules, solution administration, digitalization of purchases, etc.

Perspectives

With its new dimension, with more than 20 SAP Ariba specialist consultants in France and expertise on each of the modules, Acxias aims to be the preferred partner of companies equipped with the solution to accelerate and succeed their project both from a technical and integration point of view and deployment, including to accompany its clients internationally like the projects with Eurovia in Canada. , SIG in Switzerland or STMicroelectronics in Asia. The merger also enhances the company's attractiveness to experienced SAP Ariba consultants and those who wish to specialize in SAP's Cloud Procurement and Supply Chain solutions.
For the 2020 financial year, Acxias expects sales to increase by more than 35%, driven by more than 90% of SAP Ariba offerings.

Contacts:
Bertrand Gabriel / Benoît Kersalé
01 84 17 63 31
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