Dive Brief:

• Finance software vendor OneStream announced Tuesday that it’s expanding the array of tools available on its platform to include third-party applications — part of an ambitious new project known as “Solution Exchange.”

• The platform can now be used to download applications created by OneStream partners — available via a “PartnerPlace” portal — along with the company’s own “Marketplace” portfolio of tools. The move furthers the Birmingham, Mich.-based company’s goal of building the equivalent of an “App Store” for CFOs.

• “Our CEO Tom Shea has spoken about the design of the OneStream platform and initially the MarketPlace being inspired by the iPhone and App Store concept,” Jason Fitzgerald, senior vice president of special engineering at OneStream, told CFO Dive. “We proved the success of this with the MarketPlace of downloadable solutions over the past few years and are now expanding on that with the introduction of the PartnerPlace as part of the Solution Exchange.” 

Dive Insight:

Solution Exchange, which is being showcased this week at a OneStream conference near Washington D.C., is intended to accelerate the development and delivery of new corporate performance management tools, Shea said in a press release.

The effort “will also enable OneStream to offer more tailored options for customers to expand the platform in new functional and industry-specific areas while leveraging OneStream’s core platform enablers such as data management, built-in financial intelligence, analytic services and AutoAI,” he said.

The expanded platform also includes an “OpenPlace” portal where interested third parties can collaborate on the development of applications.

OneStream, which was founded in 2012, provides an expandable, artificial intelligence-powered platform designed to simplify functions such as financial planning, reporting, and analytics. The fast-growing software company, which is backed by private equity investors KKR, D1 Capital Partners, and IGSB, has more than 1,200 customers, 230 partners that offer implementation services to platform users, and over 1,300 employees, according to the release.

The new initiative comes on the heels of the company announcing that its annual revenue increased 45% year-over-year in the first quarter ending March 31. This followed a January announcement that its annual revenue grew 50% in the the fourth quarter year-over-year, surpassing $300 million. At the time, the company said it increased its customer base by more than 25% last year, adding Comcast, DirecTV, Flexjet, Stellantis, Tucson Electric, and the U.S. Department of State, among others.

The value of the global corporate performance management software market reached about $8.9 billion in 2022 and is projected to rise to about $22.6 billion by 2028, according to MarketWatch. Besides OneStream, the industry’s top players include Oracle, SAP, IBM, and Workday.

A small number of companies are partnering with OneStream in the initial launch of Solution Exchange including software implementation firms Spaulding Ridge, Black Diamond Advisory, Finit, and Strategic IQ. Additional partners are expected to be added to the exchange over time.

“The possibilities are wide open,” Emil Fernandez, a managing partner at Spaulding Ridge, said in an interview. “I would imagine that, in a few years, there might be hundreds of partner applications” available to platform users.

A Spaulding Ridge application known as “Dynamic Cash Flow” is used to automate cash flow calculations. “We built this application for our customers, but for the first time, we’re making it available to the larger OneStream community,” Fernandez said. Companies must meet a rigorous set of requirements to get added to PartnerPlace, he said.

PartnerPlace will provide “value-added solutions developed, maintained and supported” by OneStream’s partner community, according to the release. The tools will be more readily available to OneStream customers through the exchange and will be priced and licensed for download, it said. 

Companies that publish applications via PartnerPlace must enter a revenue sharing arrangement with OneStream, the terms of which were not disclosed.