Dedagroup bets on artificial intelligence: agreement signed for stake in ORS

Trento, August 3, 2021 – Dedagroup S.p.A. — an aggregating hub of Italian outstanding companies in the Software and Solutions as a Service market, operating in more than 50 countries with over 4,000 customers — in line with the growth strategy outlined in the 2020-2023 strategic plan, has signed an agreement to acquire a stake in ORS S.r.l. ("ORS") with an initial 20% share. This is a highly strategic agreement since ORS is a leading company in the development of software platforms for optimizing and automating business processes thanks to AI algorithms developed in over 20 years of research. Founded in 1996 in Roddi (Cuneo) and grown rapidly at international level, with this transaction ORS is sealing an industrial partnership with a leading player in the country’s digitalization — which, in turn also operates overseas — laying the foundations for an important growth phase. Dedagroup, on the other hand, true to its own strategy of integration that aims to support the development of the industry’s best entrepreneurial initiatives, involving them in its mission, by incorporating ORS technologies is expanding its own range of both in-house and As-a-Service software solutions for the digitalization and “intelligent” and optimized management of value chains in the sectors already served, such as Banking & Finance, Treasury & Financial Software, Energy, Fashion, Retail & Manufacturing, and Digital Business.

The transaction, the sixth carried out by the Group in just 12 months, will allow Dedagroup to integrate the cross-industry ORS solutions for the optimization and automation of Business Process Management, thanks to the Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Big Data Analytics algorithms. Combined with the experience and expertise gained within the Intelligence Machine of Dedagroup Business Solutions, which boasts 30 years’ experience in traditional Business Intelligence and Data Management, and the latest skills on the issues of Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Visual Recognition (through advanced Deep Learning techniques), this will enable solutions and platforms to be brought to the market that are able to support companies in making their internal processes more efficient and enable new functionalities for their customers with significant economic impacts. Dedagroup thus completes its offer of skills, experience and comprehensive solutions regarding the issue of data collection, analysis and enhancement.

To date, ORS customers have recouped a total of more than €1 billion in cash flow thanks to optimized savings and margins. This result was achieved thanks to the innovative modular Platform ORS Syncronos™, the Digital Twin for the Simulation, Optimisation, Synchronisation (SOS) of every business decision and process. This real business simulator is based on the ability to insert a layer of Artificial Intelligence in over 200 key decision-making processes. The mathematical and digital mapping of the entire value chain guarantees significant support when planning and optimizing short- and long-term strategic and operational decisions. The ORS decision modelling Platform is integrated with all the business systems, from SAP to the old AS/400 systems, and automates cross-industry processes: replenishment of stores, global distribution of products and services, intelligent asset management, factory scheduling, etc.

“When I’m choosing who to invest in, I look to the technological solutions and the quality of the entrepreneurs. In Pierluigi Riva and Fabio Zoffi, I found an excellent capacity for vision and strategic execution that projects ORS far beyond the already important technological results. Thanks to the synergies that we will be able to put in place with Dedagroup and the subsidiaries operating in ORS’s specialist sectors, we will be able to speed up development further by expanding the pool of entities that will be able to benefit from the concrete advantages generated by the ORS Syncronos Platform,” stated Marco Podini, Executive Chairman of Dedagroup S.p.A. “We will offer banks and financial institutions, as well as public and private enterprises in all the sectors, the opportunity to analyze, understand and transform data into new and extremely effective business decisions and predictive operational models, able to generate significant savings while improving margins and return on investment. Dedagroup is thus aiming to create an AI ecosystem that can count on the strong skills and experience throughout the end-to-end data supply chain: from its origin, to transformation in the various business applications, up to the synthesis, forecasting and decision-making systems. All these aspects are always crucial, but even more relevant for the pandemic period that has not only required a rethinking of many organizations and hence of their processes, but also the priority need to generate economic efficiency in order to address market difficulties.”  

"From purchasing, to production, logistics, marketing and retail or the optimal allocation of financial portfolios, our algorithms support management with “extended intelligence”: millions of optimal decisions on all business processes in just a few seconds,” explains ORS Chairman, Fabio Zoffi.

“We are thrilled to have found in Dedagroup a strong strategic partner well-known and trusted in the market space in which ORS operates with its software. The experience with our customers, for example Luxottica, Bulgari, Hera, BNP Paribas, and with our international partners, such as Hexaware, demonstrates that we can increase a company’s profit quickly,” reports ORS CEO, Markus Steck.  

“The modular ORS Platform can be used in any sector and organization,” emphasizes the founder & CTO, Pierluigi Riva. “With ultra-fast implementations and customizations, we offer decision and process optimization modules that can then be easily interconnected just like “Lego bricks”, for example to optimize purchasing and working capital, sales or marketing. All the ORS Platform modules always take account of the interdependencies and interactions between processes thanks to AI algorithms, in order to eliminate the typical conflicts between departments and business divisions."

PwC Deals has supported Dedagroup as its exclusive financial advisor, also assisting the Group in the financial, commercial and employment law due diligence activities. The Valli Mancuso Legal Firm has supervised the legal aspects of the transaction.