Over the years, Ion has faced criticism over the extent of the support and marketing it provided for the treasury systems it had purchased.

"What has happened in the past is that there have been systems that, once they were acquired, were no longer part of the market anymore," said Bob Stark, vice president of strategy at Kyriba, another provider of treasury management solutions. "That's not great for the companies in the space, that's not great for the clients."

Craig Jeffery, managing partner at Atlanta-based consultancy Strategic Treasurer, said that while there was definitely an initial period where users of the products Ion had acquired felt they weren't getting enough support or frequent enough updates, "over the last one to two years, Ion seemed to be making much more progress and effort in that direction to provide more support, to sell the products actively."

Still, he characterized the Reval deal as a positive development for customers of the three systems that will be grouped with Reval.

"This seems to me to be a pretty significant step, not only to acquire Reval but to provide that type of discipline and attention for some of those other products," Jeffery said. "It seems like the entire management structure on the Reval side will take a leadership position for Treasura, City Financials, and IT2, working with the stakeholders. So the practices of product development, customer management and care, and sales will fall under a very mature organization."

Customers will "either have a clear road map to move to Reval or more robust support for some of the products," he added.

Enrico Camerinelli, a senior analyst at research firm Aite Group, said that in the past, Ion focused mostly on product development. The Reval deal indicates that Ion has concluded that its sales and marketing strategies for its treasury management products weren't optimal, he said.

"I think they have realized they cannot build using Reval or IT2 or City Financials as bricks of Lego, but they have to sell them separately, and to do that, they need a skill set Ion does not have," Camerinelli said.

Started in 1999

Ion's acquisition of Reval is expected to close in coming weeks. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Reval got its start in 1999 providing financial risk management and hedge accounting software. It added cash management functionality in 2011 when it acquired an Austrian company, ecofinance. Reval's software-as-a-service (SaaS) product is used by more than 650 companies, just over half of them located in North America.

Jeffery said the deal was good news for Reval customers. The firm had been relying on venture capital funding, and it was time to move on, he said.

"The deal puts them in the arms of an organization with a very strong balance sheet and a longer-term perspective, which is appropriate for them," Jeffery said. "They don't necessarily have to fight to get additional funding; they can continue to invest and grow."

Reval's Okochi, pictured at left, said the deal will give Reval "a much bigger global stage," noting that Ion has more than 30 offices around the world, while Reval currently has 13.

For Reval's customers, the acquisition doesn't alter anything, Okochi said. "Reval will continue to do what it's doing: Focus on SaaS, focus on risk."

Once the transaction closes, Okochi said he plans to get to know the management teams and customers of the three other products he will oversee. "Probably most important is meet the clients that use those products to understand how they view the positioning of those products in the marketplace and then work to ensure we have crisp, airtight marketing and positioning communicated to the marketplace so the next client that walks in the door will be able to understand the choices for treasury and risk management," he said.

Market Concentration

Camerinelli said that the market for global treasury systems, those that keep up with local and regional regulatory requirements around the world, is becoming concentrated; he estimated that once its acquisition of Reval closes, Ion's various products could represent as much as 40% of that market.

But Camerinelli noted there are also many treasury systems marketed regionally or in just one country.

Jeffery sees acquisitions being offset by new entrants. "Even though there's consolidation, there continue to be new players coming in, coming up, that are meeting the needs and providing capabilities that the organizations need," he said.

Jeffery cited, for example, the recent entrance into the North American market of TreasuryXpress, which began in Europe.

The Reval deal is occurring amid strong demand for treasury systems. Jeffery cited Strategic Treasurer survey data showing that more than a third of businesses both this year (37%) and last year (36%) said they planned to increase their spending significantly on treasury technology.

"These are really elevated levels of spend, and that's giving rise to some new players coming in and to the desire for consolidation in the market," he said.