Software
Formstack | December 11, 2023
Formstack, a PSG and Silversmith-backed software-as-a-service (SaaS) company that provides a versatile, no-code suite to create and orchestrate workflow with custom forms, documents, and eSignatures, today announced the acquisition of Chicago-based forms provider, Formsite. This acquisition aligns with Formstack's mission to empower users with practical solutions to everyday work problems and bolsters its position as a leader in the data capture and forms market.
Over the past few years, Formstack has expanded its data capture capabilities to include document creation and management, electronic signature capture, and visual workflow building, enabling users to tap into powerful, end-to-end workflow automation. The combined capability is delivered as part of a powerful suite of tools that allows users to put their data to work for them in any number of ways and deliver relevant information to key systems via countless integrations with third party tools. Over 20,000 organizations, including Advent Health, Virgin Galactic, and Netflix rely on the Formstack suite of products to collect and manage data.
With this acquisition, existing Formsite customers will gain access to Formstack’s differentiated capabilities and advanced workflow automation. It will also enable Formstack to reach a wider audience and offer a broader range of solutions, ultimately strengthening its position in the market and improving its ability to meet the evolving needs of businesses and organizations.
“Formstack has a history of helping customers capture data and put it to work,” said Rob Lawrence, Chief Operating Officer of Formstack. “This acquisition strengthens our position as a leader in the data collection market and will also enable Formsite users to tap into all of our additional offerings and derive even more value from their current deployments of Formsite. We are excited to welcome these new customers and the Formsite team to the Formstack community, and introduce them to our world class service and product offerings.”
Founded in 1998, Formsite was started by Randy Vroman as a way to help a colleague create their own Internet survey without assistance from others. Over 25 years, Formsite’s data capture capability has evolved to allow customers to build online forms and surveys without the need for programming knowledge. With over 10,000 customers, Formsite has grown organically without any external investors, stockholders, or pressure to compromise their mission to provide a world-class online forms and surveys platform.
“We’re incredibly excited about the value this acquisition will deliver to Formsite customers,” said Randy Vroman, CEO of Formsite. “Formstack has built an incredible suite of workflow automation tools that will allow our customers to put their data to work in new and interesting ways. Our customers can expect the same great product experience and responsive customer service they have come to expect from Formsite and will experience complete continuity with no disruption to their current data capture solutions.”
Over the next few months, the teams will be working on deeper integrations between the two offerings and the Formsite team will be stepping into new roles at Formstack.
About Formstack
Backed by PSG Equity and Silversmith Capital Partners, Formstack is a versatile no-code suite that simplifies data management and makes building automated workflows accessible to everyone. Designed for both non-technical users and developers, Formstack offers drag-and-drop functionality, open API, and seamless integrations to streamline data collection, document generation, eSignature, and more. Formstack additionally offers a native Salesforce form solution to streamline how Salesforce users capture and update records. Whether you're a small business or a large enterprise, Formstack provides a single, customizable solution for all your data collection and workflow needs. Launched in 2006, Formstack is trusted by over 20,000 organizations worldwide—including Advent Health, Virgin Galactic, and Netflix —to digitize what matters, automate workflows, and fix processes. To learn more, visit www.formstack.com.
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Future Tech
Lynx Software Technologies | December 12, 2023
Lynx Software Technologies (Lynx), a leader in the development of foundational, open architecture software solutions for the Mission Critical Edge, today announced the acquisition of Timesys Corporation (Timesys), a provider of development tools, cybersecurity solutions, and differentiated software engineering services for open-source embedded and edge software applications.
For over 20 years, Timesys has been an industry leader, helping customers build, secure, test, and maintain Linux-based and other open-source edge and embedded software solutions. Over 200 clients across aerospace, defense, industrial, medical, and enterprise end-markets rely on Timesys’ Linux expertise and developer productivity and security solutions to ensure on-time and on-budget delivery of reliable, secure, open-source software products. Central to this has been Timesys’ value-added developer productivity and cybersecurity solutions, including software composition analysis (“SCA”) tools that enable the production and management of software bill of materials (“SBOM”) and managed service offerings tied to Linux distribution and open-source software lifecycle management.
“Lynx’s mission is to improve the economics of designing, deploying, and servicing high-assurance edge software solutions,” commented Tim Reed, Chief Executive Officer of Lynx. “Increasingly, our customers leverage Linux-based solutions alongside safety-critical software within mixed-criticality systems. The addition of Timesys’ development and cybersecurity tools and its Linux engineering services enable Lynx to support our customers more effectively across a full spectrum of complex edge and embedded software needs. I’m thrilled to welcome the Timesys team to the Lynx family.”
The combination of Lynx and Timesys creates a scaled software solution provider focused on Mission Critical Edge and embedded software applications for customers with the most demanding reliability, security, and interoperability needs. With the addition of products and services offered by Timesys, the LYNX MOSA.ic platform will be able to deliver incremental value, functionality, and security to mixed-criticality systems requiring the real-time software determinism of Lynx’s core IP and the flexibility of the Linux open-source platform. All products currently offered by Lynx and Timesys will remain available and supported.
“Lynx’s products are built on a foundation of openness, efficiency, and flexibility, which aligns strongly with our core focus on open-source software ecosystems,” said Atul Bansal, Chief Executive Officer of Timesys. “The Timesys team is excited to join the Lynx platform and leverage the Lynx’s scaled corporate infrastructure, go-to-market resources, and technical expertise while providing our expertise in Linux-based software solutions to further the differentiation of our combined portfolio of offerings.”
CEO ally, Inc. acted as exclusive M&A advisor to Timesys.
About Lynx Software Technologies
Lynx Software Technologies, an OceanSound Partners portfolio company, is on a mission to improve the economics of developing, deploying, and maintaining high-assurance Mission Critical Edge platforms with modular software solutions based on open standards. Our proven technology leadership, extensive system certification expertise, and commitment to open standards have consistently saved our customers millions of dollars in development costs while delivering desired system performance, security, and reliability on schedule. Lynx is committed to enabling customers to build and manage orchestrated, cloud-connected platforms that harness a broad array of modern technologies and unique design methodologies to enable accurate, deterministic decisions at the Mission Critical Edge without compromising safety or cybersecurity requirements. For more information, visit www.lynx.com.
About Timesys
Timesys is a pioneer and industry leader in open-source software security solutions, development tools, and engineering services and consulting, spanning the embedded software market. With Timesys’ expertise, customers are able to reduce development costs and accelerate time-to-market for edge devices and IoT systems and applications using embedded Linux, Android, FreeRTOS, Zephyr, and other open-source solutions. For more information, visit www.timesys.com.
About OceanSound Partners
OceanSound Partners is a New York-based private equity firm that pursues control investments in technology and technology-enabled services companies serving government and enterprise end markets. OceanSound employs a partnership approach, working closely with founders, entrepreneurs, and executives of middle market businesses to drive transformational growth. For more information, visit www.oceansoundpartners.com.
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Software
BMC Software | November 06, 2023
BMC Software's new AIOps capabilities in BMC Helix Operations Management use AI for quick IT issue resolution.
The solution boosts IT operations in hybrid, multi-cloud environments, enhancing visibility and service performance.
New features like service blueprints, causal AI-powered explainability, and AIOps situation fingerprinting expedite incident resolution and risk recovery.
BMC Software, a global leader in IT solutions, announces new AIOps capabilities for its BMC Helix Operations Management solution using the BMC HelixGPT capability. The solution uses advanced AI to find problems' root causes more quickly. It changes the way IT works by adding dynamic service modeling, situation explainability, and deep container auto-detection to better understand containerized environments.
As businesses grapple with complex hybrid, multi-cloud environments and increasing data volume and complexity, the need for advanced AI and machine learning to drive visibility, observability, and optimum business service performance is paramount.
Nancy Gohring, research director for IDC's Enterprise System Management, Observability and AIOps program, emphasized the importance of modernizing IT operations in line with the adoption of hybrid and cloud-native technologies. AIOps capabilities that leverage AI to pinpoint problem causes, guide users to the correct response, and predict potential future issues are key to ensuring service delivery aligns with business outcomes.
The BMC Helix Operations Management solution combines advanced causal AI to identify issue root causes, predictive AI for proactive problem identification and resolution, and generative AI for automating event summaries and best action recommendations for complex problems. These innovations enable IT operations to deliver higher service availability and resilience to businesses, driving efficient operational performance with greater tool silo visibility and superior AI-driven insights for significantly improved problem identification and repair times.
The new BMC Helix Operations Management innovations include out-of-the-box service blueprints, situation explainability powered by causal AI, and AIOps situation fingerprinting powered by AI, GPT, and NLP. These features ensure accurate service models in ever-changing IT environments, swift incident resolution, and faster recovery from service outages and other potential risks.
While the new AIOps capabilities in BMC's Helix Operations Management solution offer a host of benefits, they also present potential challenges. The complexity of AI systems can lead to difficulties in understanding and controlling their operations, which could pose challenges in troubleshooting and rectifying issues. Additionally, the heavy reliance on AI might reduce the level of human oversight in IT operations, which could be risky in certain scenarios. The effectiveness of the solution is also heavily dependent on the quality and quantity of data it receives, which might not always be optimal in real-world scenarios.
On the brighter side, the benefits of this solution are substantial. The use of advanced AI capabilities allows for swift identification and resolution of IT issues, greatly improving operational efficiency. The solution's ability to enhance IT operations in complex hybrid, multi-cloud environments is a significant advantage, as it provides much-needed visibility and service performance. The new features, including out-of-the-box service blueprints, causal AI-powered explainability, and AIOps situation fingerprinting, ensure swift incident resolution and faster recovery from potential risks. These innovations lead to higher service availability and resilience, which are crucial for businesses in today's digital age. Overall, despite some potential challenges, the BMC Helix Operations Management solution's new AIOps capabilities present a promising advancement in the field of IT operations management.
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