Edgewater Fullscope and Sable Systems have entered into a strategic partnership to integrate and market their products. Both companies feature Microsoft Dynamics AX ERP. This would be a prime example of Microsoft Dynamics partners bolstering their global reach and vertical focus. Microsoft has recently espoused a partner program that progressively rewards and provides incentives for partners that pick their battles and state clearly which industries and regions they plan to tackle (specialize in) and with which Microsoft Dynamics products. (In some cases, partners have developed their own add-on solutions.) While this program might appear as unfair and tough on partners with lesser wherewithal, it helps define partner specialization and avoid detrimental intra-ecosystem competition for the same deals. Edgewater and Sable are complementing each other well, both functionally and regionally.

TEC blog post (Aug 2010): Microsoft Dynamics AX: The Chosen One Among Microsoft Dynamics ERP Equals? – Part 2�
TEC overview: Microsoft Dynamics AX

Dell is partnering with India-headquartered Ramco Systems to deliver Ramco’s well-rounded ERP solution on cloud to help businesses, particularly from the midmarket, achieve operational efficiencies and generate greater revenue. The solution offers functionalities spanning corporate functions, including production planning, finance, procurement, HR, and analytics. The cloud ERP offering includes productized services designed to achieve quick time-to-market.

Given that the who’s who of cloud ERP vendors are typically centered in North America and Europe, the high profile of Dell’s alliances is a nice boost for Ramco. Also, it is not likely that, say, NetSuite, Plex Online, or SAP Business ByDesign could provide Dell with as strong an infrastructure in India and the Middle East as Ramco can

TEC profile: Ramco Systems

FinancialForce Accounting Summer ’12 is launched just in time for the Dreamforce 2012 conference. FinancialForce Accounting has been extended to work with Salesforce Service Cloud (previously it worked with Salesforce Sales Cloud only). This integration is expected to eliminate the proverbial gap between customer service and finance functions and to turn the customer service center (call center) from a cost center to a profit center. Why? Because customer service departments are absorbing ever-more customer interactions, creating the need for a broader, deeper view of customers. Read the rest of this entry »

Dassault Systèmes touts Perfect Shelf as a game-changing industry solution experience for consumer packaged goods (CPG) manufacturers and retail companies. It seems to be a rebranding of the 3DVIA Store offering. Read the rest of this entry »

It would be an understatement to say that Deltek, the leading global provider of enterprise software and information solutions for professional services firms and government contractors, has had an interesting journey since it was founded in 1983 by the deLaski duo of father and son. In 2005, the original founders sold their majority ownership and gave up day-to-day involvement in the company, and Deltek was recapitalized by a private equity organization called New Mountain Capital based in New York, NY. The software company went public again in November 2007. Read the rest of this entry »

The IFS agreement with Saab demonstrates that IFS isn’t just a midmarket vendor. IFS has promoted its ability to support the midmarket so well that many enterprise level companies overlook IFS Applications when replacing their legacy systems. That said, the vendor has made a number of enhancements over the past few releases that improve its capabilities to support large, global companies, which is also why we are seeing more IFS press releases referring to multibillion dollar IFS customers (e.g., Technip, Saab, Brightpoint, Babcock, Linamar, etc.).

I think a lot of it has to do with companies today demanding faster time to value.  Read the rest of this entry »

The point of The Millennial Report is not so much to compare Gen Y to Gen X or other groups as it is to help retailers understand the mindset and shopping patterns of a hot consumer age-group. Read the rest of this entry »

Reportedly, for some time the demand planning solution from the incumbent Demand Solutions was doing an adequate job at Wayfair, including in terms of attribute-based forecasting for retail items that come in multiple variations. But as the number of stock-keeping units (SKUs) increased and lifecycles shrank, the challenge became to forecast a wide variety of heterogeneous demand behaviors (black, white, and shades of grey inbetween), such as at different stages of the product lifecycle (i.e., new product introduction [NPI], mature product, end of life [EOL]). If the process is manually intensive, imagine how unmanageable it becomes for an Internet retailer like Wayfair, who carries more than a million items. Read the rest of this entry »

The Brewer Company, a leading manufacturer of roofing and pavement maintenance materials, opted for SYSPRO ERP to help the move the company forward. The concise press release does not give any indication how thorough the ERP selection process was here. Read the rest of this entry »

ARINC reportedly considered several different manufacturing execution system (MES) options, including “standalone” product offerings specifically designed for maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO)-type environments. The company also considered custom solutions, as well as upgrades to its existing legacy systems. In the end, however, the company found that Deltek Costpoint MES met its needs better than any other product offering that they considered. Read the rest of this entry »

Retalix’ acquisition of Cornell Mayo Associates is symptomatic of the current trend of acquisition and consolidation in the retail marketplace (just look at RedPrairie’s four recent acquisitions in this area). This is a fast-changing marketplace, with retailers looking for broader solutions and less interested in multiple point solutions. Predicting how this merger will go is tricky, but in general I think it has to be a good move for Retalix. Retalix continues to execute on its strategy to expand into adjacent retail segments.

Cornell Mayo enhances the company’s position in the department store retail segment, and complements Retalix’s strongholds in the high-volume, high-complexity retail market (e.g., convenience stores, fast food restaurants, gas stations, and supermarkets). It will be interesting to watch for any cross-sales opportunities between Cornell Mayo’s point-of-sale (POS) and back-office apps and Retalix’ software tools for pricing, cashier balancing, sales trend reporting, labor scheduling, inventory management, accounting, and loyalty program management. As far as I know, the combination still lacks retail store task management and e-commerce solutions.

Profile: Retalix
Compare Retalix with other point-of-sale systems!

The agreement between Mahindra Satyam and IFS reportedly covers all territories, so it is truly a global alliance. The solution focus will be on both product/project and asset lifecycle support, so it will cover a broad range of solutions, supporting processes from design/engineering, via build/make, install/construct, and through operations and maintenance, which is a differentiator for IFS since the vendor can support the full lifecycle with one integrated solution. Read the rest of this entry »

Epicor’s offering of a true multi-tenant cloud enterprise resource planning (ERP) system isn’t that new. As a matter of fact, the entry level Epicor ERP Express Edition for the lower end of the market has been generally available (GA) since 2010. The edition has thus far won about 200 customers—job shops and small manufacturers and distributors. Still, the “cloud ERP” and “software-as-a-service (SaaS) ERP” monikers have more often been associated with NetSuite, Plex Online, and SAP Business ByDesign.

In early September 2012, Epicor further expanded its cloud reach, announcing that now midmarket manufacturers, distributors, and service organizations have Epicor ERP available in a multi-tenant SaaS deployment model as well. The newly announced Epicor ERP Standard Edition has the same code base as the Express edition (and all other Epicor ERP editions for that matter). Read the rest of this entry »

Part 1 of this blog series introduced VAI (Vormittag Associates Inc.) — an award winning software developer and an IBM Premier Business Partner. For more information, also see VAI’s profile in TEC’s Directory here.

The article described both the vendor’s genesis since its founding in 1978 and its current state of affairs. Part 2 will feature my recent conversation with VAI’s top management team.

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These days, amid the austerity, cuts, and general malaise, it is refreshing to hear about the whopping annual growth of a manufacturing-oriented enterprise resource planning (ERP) software vendor. Sure, one can discount the magnitude of this upbeat news—this particular vendor is still budding, if you compare it to SAP, Oracle, or Infor—but I welcome this it(and so should any ERP vendor). More impressively, the vendor in case, xTuple, has also been tirelessly delivering new features for customers, and all the tinkering in the lab isn’t keeping it from ringing the cash register.

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