Latest news with #SaaS
News.com.au
5 hours ago
- Business
- News.com.au
Government contracts are golden, and these ASX tech stocks are raking it in
TechnologyOne becomes Canberra's digital backbone 'Buy Australian Plan' aims to make it easier to land a public sector contract ASX tech stocks with signed government deals The third largest technology stock on the ASX, Technology One (ASX:TNE), is becoming the go-to IT backbone for governments across Australia. In its half-year deck released to the market last week, TNE reported that more than half (53%) of its revenue came from governments. With more than 230 departments and agencies already on board, the company has indeed stitched itself deep into the public sector. Recent wins include a major contract with the Australian Energy Regulator, and a $5.6 million deal with the ACT government to overhaul its development application system. So why do governments keep signing up? Well, because TechOne offers a no-fuss, fixed-fee SaaS+ model that delivers software, upgrades and support in one clean annual bill. No cost blowouts, no army of consultants, just results. Headquartered in Brisbane, TNE builds enterprise software that helps governments, councils and universities run their finances, payroll, HR, and procurement. Think of the company as the digital plumbing that keeps public services humming. In its presentation deck, TNE also said it was planning to double in size every five years. Buy Australian Plan For tech companies – especially the smaller caps – a government contract is a bit like landing a Fortune 500 client, only with steadier legs. It might not always be fast or flashy, but the revenue tends to stick around, and payment's generally reliable. A government contract could provide a stable, long-term, and recurring income for a tech company. Sure, it might take a while to get through the red tape, but once you're in, you've got a customer who doesn't ghost you when markets wobble (well, not usually anyway). Now the Australian government wants to make those contracts more accessible. Under the new 'Buy Australian Plan', Canberra is putting its money where its mouth is, using its huge buying power to back local operators, not offshore giants. The plan is all about making it easier for small businesses, First Nations companies and regional outfits to land government work without getting buried in red tape. That means clearer rules, simpler tenders, faster payments and shutting the door on tax dodgers. There's also a new Procurement Capability Branch under the plan, which will help Aussie businesses go toe-to-toe for contracts. Tech/biotechs with government deals Several ASX-listed tech and biotech names have either locked in government contracts or are being officially linked to key programs. Here are some notable examples: Macquarie Technology Group (ASX:MAQ) MAQ is one company the Aussie government seriously trusts. Around 42% of federal government agencies reportedly use MAQ's services through its Macquarie Government division. The company's Australian data centres are all Certified Strategic, meaning they're cleared to handle top-secret workloads and built to meet the toughest security standards in the country. DroneShield (ASX:DRO) DroneShield has been securing notable contracts with the Australian Defence Force (ADF) and other government agencies. In 2023, the company was awarded a $10 million Electronic Warfare contract by the Australian government, following the successful completion of a prior $3.8 million contract. Additionally, DroneShield received a $9.9 million two-year research and development contract from a Department of Defence within the Five Eyes alliance. In 2025, the company scored a $32.2 million deal via a local reseller tied to a global defence giant, with all gear heading to a major Asia-Pacific military force. Harvest Technology Group (ASX:HTG) Back in mid-2023, Harvest landed its first defence contract with a Five Eyes customer for its Nodestream technology. Nodestream helps stream high-quality video and data even in super low-bandwidth or remote environments. This tech could be used for critical defence applications involving surveillance and remote communications. It was a big step for HTG, marking the start of a potentially long-term relationship. Fast forward to early 2024, and HTG announced a follow-up – not just one, but two more orders from the same customer. The company also had other wins, including orders from the European Union Defence Force and new UK-based offshore contractors, plus a successful drone trial with Japan's Self-Defence Force. WhiteHawk (ASX:WHK) In early 2025, WhiteHawk was selected as the exclusive cyber risk partner on the US General Services Administration's SCRIPTS program. This is a 10-year, US$920 million contract vehicle focused on supply chain risk management across federal agencies. Teaming up with Knexus Research, Babel Street, and Dun & Bradstreet, WhiteHawk will provide AI-driven cyber analytics to help US agencies detect and mitigate supply chain vulnerabilities. In Australia, WhiteHawk is gradually expanding its footprint. In July 2024, the company secured a cybersecurity contract with Tabcorp. Micro-X (ASX:MX1) In February, Micro-X scored a $6 million contract extension from the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to keep building its self-screening airport checkpoints. It's part of a bigger deal worth up to US$14 million, and this next stage funds two more units and a full round of testing over the next 16 months. If things go well, DHS could tip in another $7.5 million to take the system all the way to live airport trials with real passengers. Micro-X was also awarded up to US$16.4 million by the US Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) to develop a world-first portable full-body CT scanner. The project leverages Micro-X's proprietary Nano Electronic X-ray (NEX) technology to create a lightweight CT scanner, approximately 225 kilograms, significantly lighter than conventional models exceeding 2000 kilograms. HiTech Group Australia (ASX:HIT) HiTech isn't your average recruiter, the company's been in the game over 30 years, quietly supplying top-shelf IT talent to more than 43 federal government departments across Australia. From Defence to Home Affairs, HIT is trusted to scout for and deliver security-cleared tech brains. As a DISP-accredited outfit, the company has practically got the keys to Canberra's back office, helping plug skill gaps in everything from IT and finance to project support. Audeara (ASX:AUA) While not holding direct government contracts per se, Audeara's headphones are officially approved as assistive listening devices under the NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme), DVA (Department of Veterans' Affairs), and the Hearing Services Program. This means the Australian government might help cover the cost if your hearing needs a boost. NDIS participants can claim them as low-cost assistive tech, DVA veterans can get them through the rehab appliance scheme, and under HSP, they're listed as fully subsidised alternatives. At Stockhead we tell it like it is. While Audeara and Harvest Technology are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.
Forbes
8 hours ago
- Business
- Forbes
Embedded Fintech Meets AI: Vertical SaaS Platforms To Vertical Agents
The convergence of embedded fintech, artificial intelligence, and vertical SaaS platforms is transforming software from passive tools into proactive business partners. This shift enables platforms to anticipate user needs, optimize outcomes, and reshape strategies across sectors such as healthcare, logistics, education, and entertainment. Embedded financial services manage payments, loans, payroll, and accounting directly within software platforms, while AI enhances this foundation through predictive automation and real-time decision-making. Merging both allows SaaS products to become proactive solutions, powered in part by an accounting API that interprets financial data, triggers workflows, and provides actionable insights. These capabilities aren't just enhancing operational speed; they're redefining business logic itself. Companies are no longer simply hosting software; they're deploying intelligent systems that serve as revenue operators, compliance assistants, and growth strategists. The combination is particularly powerful in vertical SaaS, where products are built around specific workflows. When embedded finance and AI align within a tightly scoped use case like managing cash flow for independent restaurants or automating compliance for e-commerce sellers, the result is software that feels more like a partner than a product. Vertical SaaS platforms, designed for specific industries, have traditionally excelled at niche solutions. Today, their competitive advantage increasingly hinges on deeply embedded financial functionalities. Embedding payments, accounting, and lending streamlines operations and enhances user retention. According to A16Z, embedding financial services can boost SaaS revenue by two to five times per customer. Companies like Toast and Square have integrated financial services into their software platforms, simplifying operations for restaurants and barbershops, improving cash flow, accelerating payments, and reducing external dependencies. These integrations don't just enhance experience, they expand the platform's total addressable market by allowing it to participate in financial transactions. Take ServiceTitan, a field service management platform. By embedding financing options and payment processing directly into its interface, it has made it easier for home services companies to close jobs faster and get paid sooner, a critical value in a high-cash-flow, low-margin industry. Embedded fintech lays the groundwork, but it's artificial intelligence (AI) that truly brings modern SaaS platforms to life. Today's software solutions do more than just present data - they proactively recommend actions, optimize workflows, and autonomously execute tasks. By automating decision-making within embedded fintech, AI dramatically amplifies its effectiveness. Consequently, advanced SaaS platforms are evolving into vertical agents - autonomous software systems that independently manage and perform business tasks. This concept signifies a shift from passive, data-driven tools to dynamic platforms capable of real-time decision-making and action. Take, for example, the intersection of enterprise resource planning and accounting software. Platforms like CloseCore enable accounting teams to detect and resolve reconciliation variances with ease. These discrepancies may arise from uncleared cash transactions, missing invoices, bill credits, or inventory adjustments. By integrating general ledger data across multiple periods, the platform employs AI to identify related transactions and uncover the root causes of these variances. This level of analysis, executed at scale, would be nearly impossible for human accounting teams to achieve manually. 'AI is breaking down the walls between accounting and FP&A. The ability to generate various transactional data views and analyze them with AI on demand not only serves as a rigorous quality check for the latest reporting period but also surfaces critical variances for management reporting,' explains Andrew Li, CEO of CloseCore. AI's potential far exceeds basic automation. It is increasingly central to strategic initiatives such as revenue forecasting, anomaly detection, and customer segmentation. These advanced capabilities provide SaaS companies with a significant competitive edge - not just delivering tools but actionable insights and work products that drive business outcomes. Vertical agents surpass the limitations of traditional software by actively shaping operational decisions instead of merely monitoring data. Functioning like virtual employees, they take on responsibilities across finance, operations, and customer service, redefining how businesses operate. High-quality data forms the backbone of effective financial automation, especially within back-office operations such as reconciliation and compliance. Embedded accounting APIs are instrumental in achieving this by delivering real-time financial data, simplifying reconciliation processes, and providing actionable insights directly within platforms. One company addressing this growing demand is Open Ledger, an embedded accounting platform designed to power real-time financial automation. Its sophisticated ledger engine processes raw data from banks, card networks, and payment processors, performs continuous reconciliation, and offers prebuilt endpoints for accrual and cash-basis reporting, anomaly detection, and compliance with IFRS and GAAP. The company reports that its early adopters have achieved a 70% reduction in the time required to develop finance-related features, while simultaneously doubling payment attach rates. This increased efficiency stems from Open Ledger's AI-friendly, JSON-based, event-sourced data model, which enables large language models (LLMs) to instantly query, forecast, and act on financial events in real time. A prime example of this in action is Habitat Financial, a SaaS platform for music publishers. Habitat Financial utilizes Open Ledger's embedded accounting API to manage royalties and monitor expenses in real time. In industries like music, where royalty reconciliation has traditionally been a slow, months-long process, tools like these offer a much-needed solution, allowing businesses to centralize financial data and automate essential workflows with greater speed and accuracy. The precision and agility provided by embedded accounting tools not only improve operational efficiency but also minimize risk. Platforms that incorporate specialized accounting APIs can automate compliance processes and extract valuable insights at scale. By continuously updating in-platform financial intelligence, these tools help mitigate compliance errors, avoid missed payments, and eliminate financial blind spots. Pryce Yebesi, co-founder of Open Ledger, underscores the game-changing potential of embedded accounting: "Accounting data is much more than just a record-keeping tool; it serves as the foundation for intelligent business decisions. Embedding accounting features turns SaaS platforms into proactive financial partners.' The fusion of embedded fintech and AI is redefining what software can achieve. Modern vertical SaaS platforms are now expected to go beyond managing daily tasks - they must proactively guide, execute, and evolve alongside the businesses they serve. Today's CEOs are prioritizing software frameworks that emulate the responsibilities of CFOs, operational managers, and financial controllers, seamlessly integrating these functions into their products. This shift has heightened expectations: business leaders now seek smart automations that are both strategic and operational, empowering them to make data-driven decisions with confidence real time. Early movers in embedded accounting and intelligent AI enabled automation are providing forward-thinking business leaders with a powerful competitive advantage and a distinctive value proposition, enabling them to achieve both capital efficiency and sustainable growth.
Tahawul Tech
11 hours ago
- Business
- Tahawul Tech
The Museum of the Future Archives
Commvault, a global enterprise leader in data management across on-premises, cloud, and SaaS environments, today announces its Connections on the Road event in Dubai will take place at the Museum of the Future on 11 May 2023.
Yahoo
14 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Synder Unveils AI Dashboards: Natural Language Reports for Real-Time Retail & SaaS Financial Insights
SAN FRANCISCO, May 28, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Synder, the leading accounting automation platform for multi-channel retail, ecommerce and SaaS businesses and accounting professionals, today announced the launch AI Dashboards, an intelligent reporting feature that enables finance teams to analyze their sales, taxes, fees, and revenue across platforms like Shopify, Amazon, Etsy, Stripe, PayPal, Square, using natural language prompts. Built on Synder's powerful register-based infrastructure, the AI Dashboards bring intuitive, query-based analysis to users who want fast, high-level insights without digging through spreadsheets or static reports. The feature allows users to ask questions like "What were my Amazon fees last quarter?" or "Show me total sales by region" and instantly receive visual or numeric outputs, like charts, tables, or summaries, based on real-time data. "AI Dashboards bring a new level of simplicity to complex financial data. We're empowering teams to surface business-critical insights without needing to write reports or formulas," said Michael Astreiko, CEO at Synder. "Now, you can skip the manual slicing and filtering, and instead, just ask. Whether it's product performance, fee breakdowns, or tax insights, your data responds like a conversation. With one prompt, you get the story behind your numbers." The feature is particularly valuable for fast-scaling retail, ecommerce and SaaS teams operating across multiple platforms and need quick, actionable insights to drive decisions. It's also ideal for accounting professionals who want to spend less time building reports and more time advising clients. Unlike conventional reporting tools relying on static templates or manual exports, AI Dashboards interpret the user's intent and translate it into dynamic accounting queries, automatically adapting to platform-specific data structures and accounting setups. The current release of AI Dashboards is available in beta at no additional cost to all Synder users on Summary Sync. Synder plans to refine the AI Dashboards based on usage patterns and customer feedback. Future enhancements may include support for transaction-level sync, advanced filtering logic, and tighter integration with Synder's Business Insights module. About Synder Synder is an all-in-one accounting automation platform providing retail, ecommerce and SaaS businesses with AI-driven infrastructure to streamline their finances by syncing data from 30+ platforms into QuickBooks, Xero, NetSuite, Sage Intacct, and custom ERPs. Synder is trusted by 5,000+ businesses and 200+ accounting firms to eliminate manual data entry, accelerate reconciliation, automate financial reporting, and maintain GAAP-compliant records across multi-channel operations. Learn more at Media Contact:Anna Misiuro415-539-2507395692@ View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Synder Sign in to access your portfolio
Channel Post MEA
21 hours ago
- Business
- Channel Post MEA
Westcon-Comstor Announces Record Annual Sales Of US $5.24 Billion
The gross sales figure for the year ended 28 February 2025 (FY25) represents a 3.3% year-on-year increase (FY24: $5.08bn). Gross profit jumped 9.4% to $441 million (FY24: $403m), with strong and consistent growth in profitability in each of Westcon-Comstor's three operating regions: Europe, Middle East and Africa (MEA) and Asia-Pacific (APAC). Gross margin rose to 22.4% (FY24: 18.2%) on revenue of $1.97bn. Adjusted EBITDA increased by nearly 25% to $149.9m (FY24: $120.2m), with a further improvement in adjusted EBITDA margin to 7.6% (FY24: 5.4%). Gross sales from cybersecurity increased 19.3% year-on-year and accounted for more than half (51%) of Westcon-Comstor's gross sales in FY25. Growth was fuelled by an expansion of collaborations with cybersecurity vendors and the success of the distributor's value-added offerings for partners and vendors, spanning data, enablement and education. Hardware now accounts for just a third (32%) of gross sales as Westcon-Comstor accelerates its transition away from traditional hardware towards recurring revenues based on annual subscriptions and cloud-based Software as a Service (SaaS) models. Gross sales from software increased 22.2% to $2.33bn (FY24: $1.91bn), with software making up 44% of gross sales (FY24: 38%). Recurring sales, for example from software and services, now represent 66% of gross sales (FY24: 60%), as Westcon-Comstor embraces solution lifecycle selling and moves to a recurring revenue model in line with the transformation journey being pursued by its partners and vendors. FY25 also saw the distributor deepen relationships with core vendors across cybersecurity, networking and cloud, with a focus on delivering even greater value by increasing distribution-led sales. This group of nine vendors accounted for 80% of gross sales during the year at $4.20bn, with year-on-year growth of 4.9% outstripping overall gross sales growth. 'I'm thrilled to mark another year of exceptional financial and operational performance, with strong progress against our core strategic objectives and a continued relentless focus on delivering partner success,' said David Grant, CEO at Westcon-Comstor. 'Distribution is evolving and we're proud to be at the forefront of this change, enabling partners and vendors to grow through our suite of value-added services and market-leading programmes. In a changing world, we are proud to be a future-ready business that combines best-in-class data and digital platforms with deep relationships, leading market shifts and anticipating change to empower our partners and vendors to stay ahead of the curve. I'd like to pay tribute to our 3,700-plus employees around the world for their dedication and creativity. Without our people and the ambitious culture they embody, results like this wouldn't be possible.' 'FY25 was a year of strong progress for Westcon-Comstor in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region,' said Rakesh Parbhoo, Executive Vice President, Middle East and Africa at Westcon-Comstor. 'Locally we saw an increase in profitability as our data-driven strategy and unique range of value-added services continued to bear fruit. With talented people across the region, a strong vendor portfolio and expertise in high-growth technology domains, we can look ahead with confidence to FY26 and the longer-term future.' 'With strong fundamentals and positive performance across key metrics, FY25 saw us maintain the growth trajectory that has characterised our business for the best part of a decade,' said Callum McGregor, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer at Westcon-Comstor. 'Despite the challenging backdrop of geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainty, FY26 offers opportunities for further growth thanks to our healthy sales pipeline, track record of innovation and strong relationships with partners and vendors.' 0 0
