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Afternoon Coffee brings you the latest in procurement and supply chain news.

Afternoon Coffee brings you the latest in procurement and supply chain news.

Catch up on the latest headlines in this edition of Afternoon Coffee, a resource for procurement and supply chain news. Happy 4th of July weekend to you all!

The consulting firm Kearney captured a snapshot of the coronavirus disruption this fall while conducting its 2020 survey for the Kearney Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Confidence Index. The United States tops the list for the eighth straight year, according to the recent report. Click to see where Germany and the UK rank among the top 25 nations.

The scandal of the missing $2 billion has led to the German payments firm Wirecard filing for insolvency and it has had a ripple effect — like calls for investigations. In other news, Icertis has tips for improving your contract resiliency after the coronavirus crisis has exposed gaps in contract management. Also, the India-China border conflict could affect U.S. supply chains. Finally, check out Spend Matters proposed new format for our three-part PRO Vendor Analysis posts to more quickly deliver more actionable information about procurement technology vendors. Afternoon Coffee brings you the latest in procurement and supply chain news.

VNDLY, a workforce management technology solution and VMS provider, announced it had entered into partnership with Okta, a provider of single sign-on and provisioning technology. The company also announced that it received investment from Okta Ventures, Okta’s $50 million investment fund. 

Spend Matters’ Research Director of Labor and Services Solutions, Andrew Karpie, commented: “As organizations’ workforces will become increasingly agile, remote and mobile, the importance of identity management and sign-on security is non-negotiable. And this partnership also suggests the leaning of VNDLY to not just be an enterprise application, but to be an enabler of enterprises’ digital transformation and a connection into a broader, low-friction digital services ecosystem.”

Afternoon Coffee is bringing you just the headlines this week for a quick jolt of news. Riskmethods, the specialists for supply risk management, was featured in an article about AI-powered companies doing well in the coronavirus-disruption era. And the firm also reported strong growth numbers. Read more about Medius, Taulia and Wirecard. And catch up on the week's Spend Matters news.

Coupa, the suite provider of business spend management solutions, has acquired BELLIN, a treasury management provider, in a deal that is part of effort by Coupa to build out bank connectivity for B2B payments, offer treasury depth of capabilities, and create accounts payable and procurement synergies. And it’s part of an industry trend to improve payments capabilities in source-to-pay and procure-to-pay solutions.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Coupa said in an interview that BELLIN, a two-decade-old German firm, has strengths that lie in control over cash and liquidity as well as forecasting. Coupa said customers want to see where their cash is at any one time, and that suppliers would like to know where payments are in the approval process — much like the convenience that consumers have with tracking packages to their home.

Coupa, a suite provider for business spend management solutions, announced its first quarter fiscal results, and it beat estimates for earnings and revenues, according to a Yahoo! Finance article. In other news, Andrew Karpie, Spend Matters’ lead contingent workforce analyst, talks about new ways of digitally assembling talent for your organization in the third and final #LunchAndLearn joint video series by Spend Matters and procurement consultants at Everest Group. Also, the coronavirus disruption could lead to the closing of as many as 25,000 retail stores. Afternoon Coffee brings you the latest in procurement and supply chain news.

“It now looks like the jobs report has been inaccurate for the last two months," according to Forbes.com, which along with other reports indicate last week's 13.3% unemployment rate is likely around 16.1%. In other news, procure-to-pay experts at Basware and Spend Matters Analyst Magnus Bergfors are having a webinar this week on tech selection strategy tips. Find out the details and how to register. Afternoon Coffee brings you the latest in procurement and supply chain news.

A blockchain expert and digital standards overseer learned this about digital transformation and the coronavirus disruption: "It is possible to go digital in an emergency. It was messy ... but it happened, and that changed a lot of people’s minds." In other news, millions of people got jobs in May, beating expectations that the lockdown would worsen the unemployment rate. Afternoon Coffee brings you the latest in procurement and supply chain news.

After being shut down for the coronavirus crisis, U.S. factories are struggling to restart, the Wall Street Journal reports. Also, federal jobless numbers come in worse than forecast. In industry news, Keelvar, an advanced AI-driven e-sourcing software provider, received $18 million in funding. "Keelvar has significant potential. And it's great to see them get a substantial round in this environment,” said Jason Busch, Spend Matters’ Founder and author of our Nexus content. Afternoon Coffee: A jolt of news about procurement and supply chains.