Today is a big day for SAP and its customer base—at the SAP conference in New York the world-leading vendor has announced general availability of SAP Business Suite powered by SAP’s newest technical platform, SAP HANA.

What does it mean for businesses and other organizations that are potential and current clients of SAP? To bypass the technical details and terminology, the HANA platform is capable of capturing and analyzing data on a single in-memory platform with a data operation speed exceeding that of all known existing business solutions by tens of thousands times. This allows users to, for instance, perform business transactions that usually take hours in seconds, or practically in real time. For example, financial close, receivables management, or analysis of massive sales data segments can be done in moments. Read the rest of this entry »

I am glad I was among the analysts invited to the traditional December analyst roadshow, which takes place in the beautiful city of Boston, by the event organizer, Judith Rothrock, the energetic and vibrant president of JRocket Marketing. In this event, several software vendors announce their latest software offerings and convene with analysts for friendly and informal discussions. The 2012 event hosted two ambitious business software vendors—the UNIT4 and SYSPRO. Both companies are well represented in North America and have significant operations and major offices on the continent. And, of course, they used this analyst-gathering event to announce new and important aspects of their business (they are presented below in alphabetical order). Read the rest of this entry »

TEC is pleased to announce that Coda Financials software by UNIT4 has been TEC certified and is now available for online evaluation in the TEC Accounting and Financial Packages Evaluation Center. As usual, the vendor performed an in-depth demonstration of software capabilities following a demo script suggested by TEC research analysts. So we had a good opportunity to see the system in real time, assessing its performance with requested tasks and its workflow capabilities, in addition to trying out the system’s navigation, and selected features and functions.

Netherlands-based UNIT4 is well-known as a global ERP and other business software vendor; in fact it is in the top ten mid-market ERP vendors worldwide. Its customer base is also impressive—the group has more than 6,000 clients with over 2 million users, and there have been more than 10,000 global deployments of UNIT4’s software applications.

The company has been pioneering and successfully leveraging its solution within a unique market niche of software that offers the capability of accommodating any business-related changes easier, faster, and, consequently, at a much lower cost compared to other solutions offered by competitors in the space. As such it targets a segment of the market that’s referred to as “Businesses Living IN Change” (BLINC). The change-friendly design runs through all of UNIT4’s applications. Read the rest of this entry »

Deacom, an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution developer, announced yesterday that its client Synalloy has decided to expand its Deacom ERP system to another division. Being a holding company, Synalloy operates five separate business units mainly related to the production of steel, alloys metal, plastic pipes manufacturing, and some specific chemical solutions. One of the business divisions has been a client of Deacom for years, and I would guess that the division has a great deal of experience both with the software and with the vendor. Read the rest of this entry »

US-based retail hardware and software giant NCR has agreed to pay approximately $650 million to acquire Retalix, a retail technology company.

NCR management is using many elliptical phrases about “strengthening strategy,” “commitment to delivering solutions,” and “improving business processes and enabling experiences,” but there were no clearly stated reasons for the deal. Read the rest of this entry »

Being an enterprise resource planning (ERP) analyst, I spend lots of time watching demos provided by different ERP vendors during certification programs or other events of this nature. At those hours-long live software demonstrations we are able to see how various software systems are designed and how they execute their main intended objective—making an entire business more efficient. With respect to ERP systems, usability and positive end user experience are extremely important for achieving this goal. Read the rest of this entry »

In order to better understand the current state of the accounting and financial software market and determine the major trends and issues organizations are experiencing with regards to accounting and financial applications, TEC recently conducted a poll, asking end-user respondents to answer five questions about their current accounting and financial software systems and the criteria that is important for them to consider when purchasing future systems. Read the rest of this entry »

Trimble Navigation is primarily known for its advanced positioning solutions and hardware, such as GPS receivers and rangefinders. The company has been developing and producing those products for years; however, a key segment of the business is linked to engineering and construction. Read the rest of this entry »

Today Oracle unveiled some of the details of its new contract with Finish Line, Inc.—one of the leading US-based retailers of sports footware, apparel, and accessories. This retail chain will acquire a whole range of Oracle Retail software solutions, including Oracle Retail Merchandising, Planning, and Stores. Read the rest of this entry »

As follows from its name, Bearings International is a distributor of a wide range of imported bearings and power transmission equipment. The company is located in South Africa and has more than 50 branches and other subsidiaries. The company has been using a number of UNIX-based legacy software applications that have been modified several times but eventually have come to the end of their tether. Thus, a modern, flexible, and technologically advanced system was required to support the growing business and help to explore new opportunities. Read the rest of this entry »

The Bentley Group is one of Canada’s largest luggage and bags retailers, with stores located in practically every mall across the country. It operates more than 400 retail stores and has a central distribution center, and it has selected Oracle Retail solutions for its operations. Read the rest of this entry »

The company is called Feruni Ceramiche and it’s in the business of manufacturing and distributing ceramic and porcelain tiles across the globe. Although it started as an outsourcing facility 11 years ago, it is now a leading supplier of ceramic products in many of the world’s markets and a participant in multiple construction projects around the world.

The company has demonstrated double-digit growth year over year, and currently operates six manufacturing and distribution sites. No wonder that this quickly evolving business required a modern and adequate ERP software package to support the company’s existing and future needs.

What grabbed my attention is how seriously and carefully the company’s management attacked the software selection problem. Read the rest of this entry »

Dürr Dental AG, a Germany-based family-owned manufacturer of a wide range of dental equipment, tools, and hygiene products, has conducted an ERP selection project that resulted in opting for the latest version 8 of IFS Applications ERP software. Read the rest of this entry »

UNIT4 is known for providing its software applications to a wide range of not-for-profit and non-governmental organizations, and a signed contract with one of the largest US-based environmental organization is another step in this direction. Read the rest of this entry »

TEC is preparing a new Financial Packages Buyer’s Guide, and we’d like to hear your thoughts on cloud-based finance and accounting software. Your responses to the questions below will help us keep the guide focused on the needs of real-world accountants, financial managers, IT specialists, and other professionals. Read the rest of this entry »