SOFIAH NICHOLE SALIVIO

News Editor

Unit4 has launched Data Hub for its ERPx platform, a service designed to simplify access to ERP data for analytics tools.

Data Hub acts as an extraction layer within Unit4 ERPx, removing the need for customers to build and maintain their own connections between ERP systems and business intelligence platforms. It delivers finance, project and HR data directly to tools including Power BI, Microsoft Fabric, Snowflake and BigQuery, as well as platforms that support the Delta Sharing protocol.

The launch targets a familiar problem for finance and analytics teams that rely on ERP data for reporting and planning. In many organisations, staff still export data manually, reformat it, and load it into reporting tools, a process that can introduce errors and break when underlying data structures change.

Another common route is to use application programming interfaces, but that can create other constraints. API-based extraction can be limited by rate caps, pagination rules and payload restrictions, making it harder to move larger or more complex datasets reliably.

Integration issues

One area Unit4 highlighted is the effect of software updates on reporting pipelines. Data Hub is maintained alongside each ERPx release so data connections stay intact through platform changes, reducing the need for customers to rework integrations after updates.

The service also operates on a separate data layer from the core transaction-processing environment, allowing analytical workloads to run without affecting operational users in the ERP system.

For customers, the pitch is less about creating new dashboards than reducing the work needed to keep existing reporting environments current. Automated refreshes can be set on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, depending on subscription, and the service uses incremental loading so only changed records are transferred.

That structure could appeal to multi-entity finance teams that need regular access to general ledger and budget data for management reporting. The service can also support broader enterprise analytics and data science work that depends on bulk access to historical ERP data.

Jennifer Sherman, Chief Product Officer at Unit4, framed the product as part of a wider shift in how organisations use internal data.

“In the automation era, an organisation’s data is its competitive advantage,” said Jennifer Sherman, Chief Product Officer at Unit4. “Unit4 is proud to be in a position to help our clients take advantage of their wealth of knowledge and insights. Data Hub makes the extraction and management of data connectivity Unit4’s challenge, not yours, so you can devote time to what really matters to your organisation.”

Customer use

Unit4 included a customer example from Butlins, where the service has been used to feed reporting models without manual spreadsheet work. The example points to a practical use case for the product: replacing Excel-based processes that sit between ERP systems and reporting tools.

“Data Hub was easy to set up and provided us with the tools to feed the data into our reporting models,” said Chris Dixon, Finance Systems Manager at Butlins. “This improved our productivity as we no longer had to download data from the system into Excel to feed manually into our reporting models. All the reporting objects we need to report against are available in the tool.”

The emphasis on open data-sharing standards is also notable. By using Delta Sharing, customers can move between analytics vendors without rebuilding the underlying connection to ERP data, which may matter to organisations trying to avoid dependence on a single reporting stack.

The product arrives as software suppliers seek to make operational data easier to analyse across finance, HR and project functions. For ERP vendors, that increasingly means not just storing transactional data, but ensuring it can move cleanly into external analytics environments without large internal integration projects.

Unit4’s approach suggests it sees data access and maintenance as a barrier to wider use of ERP information, particularly in organisations where reporting teams depend on IT support or fragile export routines. By shifting that maintenance burden into the ERP platform itself, Unit4 aims to make reporting pipelines more stable and less labour-intensive for customers.

If it works as intended, the service addresses one of the less visible but more persistent problems in business software: getting the right data out of core systems consistently enough for teams to trust the numbers they use every day.

Tracksuit has acquired Sydney startup Hall, adding AI visibility measurement to its brand tracking product.

The deal brings Hall’s technology and team into Tracksuit, including founder Kai Forsyth, who has joined as principal product manager and will lead product direction for AI visibility. Customers will be able to track how their brands appear across AI platforms, compare that visibility with rivals, and monitor changes over time.

The move reflects a wider shift in marketing as AI tools become another way consumers discover and assess brands. Companies have long tracked awareness and perception among people, but the rise of AI search and recommendation systems has created a new challenge: understanding whether brands are being surfaced at all, and whether that portrayal is accurate.

Tracksuit frames the acquisition as an extension of its existing measurement work. Its platform is used by more than 1,000 consumer brands across 25 markets, including the US, Canada, the UK, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

AI tracking

Hall focused on measuring how brands appear inside AI platforms. Integrated into Tracksuit’s broader product, that capability is intended to give marketers a view across both human perception and machine-generated visibility.

Tracksuit argues these now represent two separate audiences that can shape brand health. One is made up of consumers responding directly to advertising, products and reputation. The other consists of AI systems that summarise, recommend and rank brands in ways that may influence buying decisions before a consumer reaches a company’s own channels.

Forsyth said Hall’s work suggested short-term fixes mattered less than broader brand investment.

“Building Hall showed us that short-term tactics can spike a brand’s AI visibility, but what actually moves the needle is the brand-building work that makes people already know and trust you,” said Kai Forsyth, founder of Hall and principal product manager at Tracksuit.

“Doing that inside a platform that already has human data on tens of thousands of brands gives marketers a more accurate read on where their brand actually stands and where it’s headed,” Forsyth said.

Connor Archbold, Tracksuit’s chief executive officer and co-founder, said the company sees AI as a new setting in which brand perception develops.

“Brand has always lived in people’s minds. Increasingly, it also lives inside AI,” Archbold said. “The way great brands are built hasn’t changed, but the places they’re experienced have. Our job is to help marketers understand both. Acquiring Hall allows us to combine human perception with AI visibility, giving marketers a more complete understanding of their brand. Together with our new executive leadership team, we’re building the company that is defining the next generation of brand tracking.”

Leadership team

Alongside the acquisition, Tracksuit has completed its executive leadership team as it expands internationally. Over the past six months, the company has added senior leaders through a mix of external hires and internal promotions.

The team now includes Tom Mansfield as chief marketing officer, Dan Fleming as chief operating officer, Anne Dröge as chief product officer, Cara Fonseca-Ensor as chief technology officer, Hamish Mathieson as chief revenue officer and Samantha Gadd as chief people officer, alongside Archbold as chief executive officer.

The appointments suggest Tracksuit is preparing for broader expansion as it widens the scope of its products. For the company, the acquisition of Hall sits alongside the management build-out as part of the same push to grow beyond traditional brand tracking.

Mansfield linked that strategy to the growing importance of brand in a market shaped by AI tools.

“In an AI-enabled world, brand has become one of the last remaining defensible assets for marketers. Tracksuit’s north star is to bring brand data into every boardroom with the world’s most accessible and marketer-friendly brand tracker,” said Tom Mansfield, chief marketing officer at Tracksuit. “I’m excited to help take that story to more marketers around the world, strengthen our category leadership, and build the global brand that matches the ambition of the business.”

Founded in 2021, Tracksuit provides ongoing brand health measurement designed to show not only how a brand is perceived at a given moment, but how that perception changes as channels for discovery and evaluation evolve.

The addition of Hall signals a bet that AI platforms will become a standard part of that picture, requiring the same kind of continuous measurement marketers already expect for consumer awareness and sentiment.

Five locations in Oxfordshire already benefit from the wide array of freshly baked pastries, savoury and sweet treats, bread and coffee served up at Gail’s, and one more is about to join the list.

With a rapid expansion ongoing and more than 180 Gail’s shops across the UK, the upmarket chain bakery has set its sites on the untapped potential of a new site in Oxfordshire.

An announcement advertising new jobs at the site revealed that a Gail’s Bakery will be opening soon at Oxford’s Westgate Shopping Centre.

READ MORE: Historic British shoe chain closes one of its Oxfordshire stores

A new Gail’s Bakery also opened at Banbury Gateway Retail Park earlier this month.

Speaking ahead of the Banbury stores opening Gail’s Operational Manager Bobby Holmes said:”We’re so excited to be opening our doors.

“From freshly baked sourdough and artisan breads to buttery pastries, handcrafted sandwiches, cakes and expertly brewed coffee, everything is prepared with care and baked fresh.

Advertising the job of head baker at the new eatery statement said: “We are looking for Head Bakers who have a passion to join the GAIL’s family and for training and developing others.

“You should be motivated by taking charge and want to be a positive role model.

“With no day being the same, you must be organised and clear talking to maximise your teams’ potential and to deliver our fresh food, bread and cakes to high standards whilst maintaining food safety standards.”