SYSPRO has recently been selected to drive rapid growth, replace seven currently used disparate software systems, and provide a single source for real-time operational data at Precision Fluorocarbon Inc. (PFI).  The Tomball, Texas-based manufacturer specializes in compression-molded polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), thermally formed PTFE diaphragms, and custom machined plastic components. PFI, a privately held corporation, was founded in 1989 with the primary focus on custom made-to-order PTFE machined products, primarily for the oil field. The organization then diversified into other industries and today serves the medical device industry, OEM pump and valve manufacturers, the semiconductor industry, and many other industries requiring complex machined components.

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We’re pleased to announce the launch of TEC’s second buyer’s guide of 2013: ERP for Process Manufacturing.

In this buyer’s guide, TEC ERP analysts Aleksey Osintsev and Ted Rohm take an in-depth look at the state of the process manufacturing industry, the challenges facing process manufacturers, and how vendors are responding.

The guide delves into trends like integrated business intelligence (BI), in-memory analytics, mobility, and social media that are becoming increasingly popular as ERP vendors opt for cloud delivery and subscription-based pricing models.

Also included is a special supplement for food and beverage companies, who face unique challenges, including more stringent food safety requirements and more health conscious consumers.

And like all of our buyer’s guides, this one features software comparison charts, thought leadership from industry experts, customer success stories, and a comprehensive vendor directory.

Process manufacturing is changing fast these days. We hope you’ll find this guide helpful, whether you’re researching new ERP solutions for your company or just looking to keep up to date.

Download the 2013 TEC ERP Buyer’s Guide for Process Manufacturing.

Coming Up: Our next 2013 buyer’s guide—supply chain management—is due out in August. Stay tuned.

SYSPRO recently announced that Freedom Smokeless, a manufacturer of e-cigarettes, has selected SYSPRO ERP software to facilitate growth. According to the California-based company, SYSPRO ERP will be a cloud enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation in the company’s new factory, where the software will manage manufacturing and facilitate bar code scanning, inventory controls, and product traceability.

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After the recent analyst roadshow where we were able to see some previews of what’s coming in 2013, SYSPRO started the new year with a bang. Namely, the vendor has announced that Grato Holdings, a manufacturer of custom homeopathic remedies, nutritional supplements, and herbal products, has chosen SYSPRO Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software to facilitate company growth and enhance operational efficiencies and customer relations.

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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 »

With UNIT4’s announcement that it will launch 35 role-based and fast-deployment BI apps via a pay-for-use subscription model, as well as SYSPRO’s announcement of its new Business Software App Store, the idea of consumerization of software comes to mind, again … Read the rest of this entry »

SOFWARE SELECTIONS AND IMPLEMENTATIONS

D&K Engineering selects Aras Enterprise PLM software
Industry tags: PLM, complex electromechanical products and equipment
“This was a head-to-head win over Oracle’s incumbent Agile PLM solution. Aras was reportedly selected as a replacement for its openness (interconnectivity) and flexibility. Free and open source PLM software is becoming increasingly more popular over proprietary PLM alternatives.”—P.J. Jakovljevic, Principal TEC Analyst

• Aras Corporation profile
• TEC Blog post (June 6, 2012): CAD-centric PLM, ERP-centric PLM, and Organic PLM: What’s Right for You?

Chinese supermarket chain selects Oracle Retail Management software
Industry tags: Wholesale and Retail Trade
“After evaluating SAP and Oracle software offerings for retail, fast-growing Chinese retail chain Better Life opted for the Oracle product suite, for its 184 supermarkets across southern China. Reportedly, among the key deciding factors were deep retail functionality, embedded industry best practices, scalability, and references from leading world-class retailers.”—Aleksey Osintsev, TEC Analyst

• Oracle profile

IMCO Engineering & Construction selects IFS Applications
Industry tags: Construction
“Based in Kuwait and Qatar, IMCO will implement IFS Applications, primarily to support its day-to-day operations across the Middle East. Requirements were naturally for multicountry and multicurrency support, project management and contract management, human resources, and local payroll functionality. Construction and project management-focused business are among IFS’s target vertical markets, and it’s no surprise that the vendor won the 1.7 million (USD) contract. And having certified the software, I am personally not surprised, as IFS Applications presents a very dynamic and powerful offering to the market.”—Aleksey Osintsev, TEC Analyst

• IFS Applications profile

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SOFTWARE SELECTIONS & IMPLEMENTATIONS

Girl Scouts of the USA selects NetSuite ERP
Industry tags: Non-profit organizations
“Shifting software systems to the cloud is a current trend for organizations of many types, especially for non-manufacturing and service management organizations. Girl Scouts of the USA is a great example of such a move. Dispersed across the country, the organization needs to provide system access to all its councils, and support warehousing and e-commerce functionality to run its online store. Cloud ERP software allows organizations to quickly adopt such technology without incurring high upfront expenses.”—Aleksey Osintsev, TEC Research Analyst

• NetSuite ERP profile

Midsize pharmaceutical company Pernix Therapeutics Holding Inc. selects CDC’s Ross ERP
Industry tags: Pharmaceutical and Botanical Products, Life and Natural Sciences
“Pernix has wound up its ERP product selection with Ross ERP of CDC Software. The company’s key expectations for the new software include facilitating business growth, improving efficiency and compliance, reducing costs, and mitigating risks. Certain data quality validation processes are also slated for improvement, and traceability will be increased. Ross ERP is a software designed for such types of businesses, and is certainly capable of supporting process manufacturing specifics. See my recent Certification Report for more details on Ross ERP.”—Aleksey Osintsev, TEC Research Analyst

• Ross ERP profile
• Ross ERP vs. Infor, IFS, Lawson…

Northern Victoria Irrigation Renewal Project (NVIRP) selects Agresso ERP
Industry tags: Construction
“NVIRP is a state-owned entity that plans, designs, and delivers irrigation renewal projects for Australia’s Northern Victoria Region. It is a large multi-directional infrastructure project that required management via modern ERP software. NVIRP performed a deep and thorough software selection process, resulted in its selection of Agresso ERP as its core supporting software. The system’s flexibility, transparency, and ability to respond rapidly to changing requirements were the central points of the software selection that allowed Unit4 to win versus tier-one vendors.”—Aleksey Osintsev, TEC Research Analyst

• Agresso ERP profile
• NVIRP backgrounder

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Not as well known as the JRocket Marketing Grape Escape but still highly effective (and entertaining), the analyst road show organized by Judith Rothrock every year in December brings together C-level executives from SYSPRO and UNIT4 and analysts from the most important firms in the field, including Technology Evaluation Centers.

I had briefings with both SYSPRO and UNIT4. They highlighted some of their accomplishments for 2011, and made some interesting announcements. Here’s a summary of the conversations I had with the two vendors: Read the rest of this entry »

Although this year Judith Rothrock could not attend herself, she’s the driving force behind the annual JRocket Marketing Grape Escape^® industry analyst event, now in its 11th year. As always, this year’s Grape Escape was a well-organized event hosting some key industry players. It afforded me and my colleague Gabriel Gheorghiu another opportunity to meet the software vendors who are JRocket Marketing’s clients and obtain the latest news and updates straight from the source.

Here’s the skinny on three of the vendors that gave informal presentations. Read the rest of this entry »

Part 1 of this blog series analyzed Epicor and SYSPRO, the two renowned enterprise resource planning (ERP) mid-market incumbents that heavily harness Microsoft’s platform tools. To that end, the business productivity tools that were illustrated in my recent blog post on what 2010 might have meant to Microsoft’s business solutions (which reflected on the highly publicized mid-2010 launch of Microsoft Office 2010, SharePoint Server 2010, and Visio 2010) were illustrated in context of Epicor and SYSPRO’s technology environments.

Part 2 will analyze how Epicor and SYSPRO are addressing other enterprise applications capabilities and market trends. What role might Microsoft’s tools play (or not play) in these regards? 

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My recent blog post on what 2010 might have meant to Microsoft’s business solutions reflected on the highly publicized mid-2010 launch of Microsoft Office 2010, SharePoint Server 2010, and Visio 2010. For the hundreds of thousands of people around the world who use some combination of one or more of Microsoft Dynamics ERP products, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Microsoft Office, and Microsoft SharePoint Server to run their businesses, that announcement has provided opportunities for increased business productivity.

The article then analyzed the current state of affairs at Microsoft Dynamics, which also included some recent wins over mature SAP, Oracle, and Sage product instances. But what about Epicor and SYSPRO, the two prominent enterprise resource planning (ERP) mid-market incumbents that also heavily harness Microsoft’s technologies? Well, while Microsoft Dynamics doesn’t particularly enjoy losing deals to these vendors, the Microsoft parent still ultimately wins, given that these independent software vendors (ISVs) are two of the most loyal Microsoft technology promoters. 

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I attended Judith Rothrock’s 2010 Analyst Roadshow event in Boston last week, and was startled by a few news items from ERP vendors UNIT4 and SYSPRO. Here’s my take:

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Part 1 of this blog series talked about the historical background of the JRocket Marketing Grape Escape(TM) event. Grape Escape has become a June fixture over past several years, after the high traveling season to major vendors’ events subsides and before everyone takes their summer vacations. It is a signature event that showcases the intimate analyst relationships (AR) and event expertise that JRocket Marketing’s president and founder Judith Rothrock delivers to her software vendors’ client base by giving them exposure to a selected group of industry analysts.

Part 1 also analyzed the news announcements by Jeremy Roche, CEO of FinancialForce.com, followed by the testimony from its customer Wi-Fi Alliance. Part 2 analyzed the Grape Escape 2010 news announcements from Meridian Systems CEO John Bodrozic and SYSPRO US CEO Brian Stein, followed by these vendors’ customers (Walt Disney and Lee Spring, respectively).

Part 3 analyzed major news coming from UNIT4’s Agresso product line, as presented by Shelley Zapp, CEO of UNIT4 North America, and followed by the company’s higher education customer, Augsburg College.

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Part 1 of this blog series talked about the historical background of the JRocket Marketing Grape Escape(TM) event. Grape Escape has become a June fixture over past several years, right after the high traveling season to major vendors’ events subsides and before everyone takes their summer vacations. It is a signature event that showcases the intimate analyst relationships (AR) and event expertise that JRocket Marketing’s president and founder Judith Rothrock delivers to her software vendors’ client base by giving them exposure to a selected group of industry analysts.

Part 1 also analyzed the news announcements by Jeremy Roche, CEO of FinancialForce.com, followed by the testimony from its customer Wi-Fi Alliance. Part 2 analyzed the Grape Escape 2010 news announcements from Meridian Systems CEO John Bodrozic and SYSPRO US CEO Brian Stein, followed by these vendors’ customers (Walt Disney and Lee Spring, respectively).

Part 3 will analyze major news coming from UNIT4’s Agresso product line.

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