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Fieldglass, the leading technology provider for procuring and managing contingent labor and services, announced its acquisition by German enterprise software corporation SAP for an undisclosed amount Wednesday.
The announcement comes just after Fieldglass began introducing its cloud-based Vendor Management System in Germany and other parts of Europe and Asia last year. The VMS solution will come in handy for SAP as they meet the growing demand among employers to manage flexible workforces (a $3.3 trillion, high-growth market according to industry analyst estimates). The acquisition gives SAP the ability to compete with Oracle and IBM by delivering a platform for companies to manage their entire workforces.
“In certain countries like Germany and Japan, there are unique, complex regulations around using contingent labor; to help facilitate our growth in these areas, we’ve been adding new functionality and features that enable organizations to easily adopt our technology to meet these requirements,” Fieldglass CEO Jai Shekhawat said in May 2013. “For all of our customers, we continue to develop new ways to make our product as easy as possible to use.”
Since launching in Chicago in 1999, Fieldglass has worked its way through a “long road to becoming cashflow positive,” Shekhawat said. The company was valued at over $220 million in 2010.
Although Fieldglass provides SaaS solutions for over 5 million users and over 200 customers including GlaxoSmithKline and Johnson & Johnson, the numbers aren't the only admirable thing about the company: the 350-person team also has been repeatedly recognized as a top local company and for its innovative software.
“We have called Chicago home for more than a dozen years now, and are very proud to be seen as representative of our city’s technology growth,” Shekhawat said.
