The Sage Group plc (FTSE: SGE), the leader in accounting, financial, HR and payroll technology for small and mid-sized businesses, today announces that it has completed the acquisition of Brightpearl, a cloud-native multichannel retail operating system for retailers and wholesalers. With the acquisition of Brightpearl, based in Bristol, UK, and Austin, Texas, Sage builds on its significant technology investments for growth, as well as its support for CFOs as they digitalise their operations.

The acquisition extends the Sage Intacct value proposition, supporting customers in product-centric eCommerce organisations. Facilitating customer operations after the ‘buy’ button has been clicked, Brightpearl supports merchants with a complete retail eCommerce solution that enables them to benefit from:

• Reduced complexity as they can offer the same level of customer service across multiple channels & countries
• A single source of data across orders, finance, customers, and stock availability to support timely decision making and optimise margins with accurate demand forecasting
• Automation for growing businesses to improve their bottom line by removing manual error and unforeseen costs
• The flexibility to change or adopt new business models B2B/DTC/B2B without swapping out the technology stack

This will enable Sage to offer customers end-to-end retail financial management, inventory planning, sales and order management, purchasing, and supplier management, CRM, fulfilment, warehousing, and logistics management.

“We have made great strides in providing the technology businesses need to digitally transform their organisations today and for tomorrow. For Sage Intacct customers, the value of being part of the Sage digital network is truly coming to bear through the AI technology we have put in their toolkit to help them streamline their work and save them valuable time – whilst providing their customers with an even better service.” said Dan Miller, EVP, Sage Intacct “The acquisition of Brightpearl sees us doubling down on our vertical strategy to bring these benefits to retail eCommerce organisations, expanding our ability to increase the role technology plays in the world’s leading businesses.”

Sage is in the process of onboarding early adopter customers to an integrated solution between Sage Intacct and Brightpearl. The solution will be broadly available later this year.

“We have been both a Brightpearl and Sage Intacct customer for a few years now and are excited to see the coming together of these two brands.” Said Maria Gunter, CFO, BASE - experts in materials procurement and manufacturing “Customers will find benefit in combining the power of Brightpearl’s e-commerce automation on the front-end with Sage Intacct’s best in class accounting features on the back-end to both streamline business processes and provide the most robust financial reporting and managerial analysis available - we look forward to seeing what the future holds.”

Sage plans to continue to offer Brightpearl as a market solution, providing merchants with the choice of accounting modules or accounting platforms. This provides businesses with a single vendor to work with, as well as access to a broader portfolio of additional Sage solutions to meet their needs.

Mickey North Rizza, Vice President, IDC said: “Brands that sell online are no longer limited to traditional store hours. Instead, sales can happen around the clock, opening the business to ever more customers that can shop when it suits them. For merchants, linking the point of sale to the back office will not only support them with visibility of inventory but will also address currency risks from cross-border trade as well as unforeseen VAT and customers duties. This is a win-win for merchants and their customers.”

In addition, Sage’s recent technology advancements for Sage Intacct customers include a continued focus on growing its team of data scientists and AI engineers to expand the Machine Learning infrastructure, investing in innovative solutions such as the AI-driven General Ledger Outlier Detection tool, Sage Intelligent Time, and a new predictive absence management tool. Sage Intacct has also recently expanded its reach with Sage Intacct CRE, a solution to support customers in the construction and real estate space.