Published on the 26/11/2020 | Written by Heather Wright

Access’ Workplace grows to embrace wider range of ERP and business software…

Kiwi inventory management software provider Unleashed Software has been snapped up by business software vendor Access Group as the UK company seeks to expand its foothold in the growing ERP market.

The acquisition adds inventory and supply chain management capability to  last year’s buy up of financial accounting, payroll and asset management software provider Attaché, creating a solid base for cross-selling solutions across the group’s expanded customer base, which is now over 27,000 globally.

The solutions will likely be integrated onto Access’ ‘Workspace’ platform, creating a credible competitor for the conceptually similar Workday.

Unleashed, founded in 2009 and providing entry-level cloud-based inventory management software for the manufacturing, wholesale and distribution markets, has more than 4,000 customers across Australia and New Zealand, the UK, US and EMEA.

Gareth Berry (pictured), Unleashed chief executive, says the deal, which is currently completing regulatory approvals, sees the Unleashed story continue ‘but in an enhanced way’.

“The addition of Unleashed gives us a significant opportunity to increase our presence and potential across these sectors.”

“Joining Access gives Unleashed a new level of expertise in the provision of integrated software solutions, an acceleration of our product development and gives our customers the opportunity to explore a wider range of ERP and business management solutions from a single vendor.”

Unleashed will become part of Access’ ERP business.

Brendan Flattery, Access ERP managing director, says the addition of Unleashed will ‘significantly’ advance Access’ solutions in the manufacturing, wholesale and distribution markets in the UK.

“Our ERP business supports customers across online retail, warehousing, distribution, construction and manufacturing in the UK, EU, Australia, New Zealand and the US with end-to-end ERP,” Flattery says.

“With the global ERP market expected to reach US$49.5 billion in the next five years, the addition of Unleashed into the Access portfolio gives us a significant opportunity to increase our presence and potential across these sectors.”

It’s a deal which will add additional revenues of NZ$18.5 million (£9.6 million) to Access’ existing revenues, which hit £315 million in FY20.

“With the acquisition of Unleashed… Access ERP establishes itself as a leading provider of ERP solutions, with revenues exceeding £83 million,” Access says.

Unleashed founder Greg Murphy says he started the company when he recognised there was a need for more sophisticated process management and intelligent data in the wholesale, distribution and manufacturing sector around the management of supply, production, inventory and sales.

Access Group acquired Australian financial management and payroll software supplier Attaché almost a year ago to the day. That deal was the company’s first wholly overseas software business acquisition.

At the time, Access flagged its intentions for the A/NZ market, noting that the Australian market was forecast to see software spend grow from $16 billion in 2019 to $21 billion by 2022 and saying that Attaché would provide the foundation for Access to launch into the Australasian market.

Financial details for the deal were not disclosed.