Accredo
Accredo undertook extensive development of its business software product range with a major new release and the addition of two new modules to its suite in 2005. With enhancements including a tuned SQL engine for faster reporting performance and improvements to the Job Costing module to further strengthen management controls, this release has been well received by existing users and new users alike.

Accredo says 2006 will see the completion of a comprehensive development environment across its range, extending the software’s ability to address the unique requirements of every business without compromising upgradeability.

Greentree
Greentree passed a significant milestone when it broke the 500-site barrier in Australia and New Zealand in 2005, and the company now reports that is getting close to 600 customers in Australasia. In December the company was named – along with Google – as one of 25 ‘rising stars’ in the computer industry by a leading Australian IT magazine.

According to Greentree this accolade was prompted partly by the company’s high winrate, currently running at 12 to 15 new sites a month, which equals the local sales performance of the industry’s giants.

Throughout last year Greentree saw much consolidation activity among its sales partners at the reseller level, which the company says has had the positive effect of giving many resellers the necessary ‘critical mass’ to operate effectively in today’s technology market.

Greentree also abandoned annual product releases in favour of a policy of continuous development, which its says has dramatically cut the lead time before new features appear in the package. Greentree says it will stick with broadly the same strategy in 2006.

Lawson (formally Intentia)
Notable developments for Lawson in 2005 included a major upgrade of its enterprise application suite, with the launch of IAS 5.2 - which is designed to dramatically reduce costs of adoption or upgrade from previous versions.

Lawson also introduced a number of new applications and functional enhancements including the new Stock Build Optimiser, a Theory of Constraints-based manufacturing solution, and enhancements to its enterprise performance management solution, Opportunity Analyser.

Wins across Australia and New Zealand for Lawson in 2005 included ANZCO, Summit-Quinphos, McLeods Accessories (part of Repco), Moran Furniture, AGCO, Unomedical and Patties Foods.

Intentia also announced merger plans with US based company Lawson Software. The merged company will continue to serve all existing industries and maintain both sets of core applications. According to Intentia, the only difference for customers will be a company that has twice the scale and resources to meet their needs.

Lawson says it will continue to actively develop and promote its product offering in 2006.

Microsoft Business Solutions
Microsoft Business Solutions (MBS) ended last year on a high note with a 14% growth in license revenue and 24% growth in enhancement revenue during the quarter ending on 31 December.

This year will see MBS release a number of new ERP products which will be integrated in the Microsoft family which will be rebranded, including Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Microsoft Dynamics GP (formerly Great Plains), and Microsoft Dynamics AX (formerly Axapta) etc.

According to Microsoft, continued investments in the next generation of solutions, broader geographical coverage, and plans for facilitating its partners to provide customised vertical solutions are expected to result in continued performance improvement over the prior year.

Pronto
Pronto made a number of inroads into the New Zealand martketplace in 2005, with Ramset NZ, a leading supplier to the construction industry, included among its wins. Ramset plans to roll out Pronto to all of its branches this year. Last year Pronto released XI Version 4, which the company says added more functionality to its already highly acclaimed ERP System, and Version 5, which is due for release in 2006, will continue the process of constant innovation.

Oracle
Oracle was on the acquisitions trail once again in 2005, investing in companies such as retail applications specialist Retek, and, most recently, CRM giant Siebel. In its applications business Oracle followed up the earlier acquisition of PeopleSoft and JD Edwards by announcing plans to build Oracle Fusion, which will enable customers to take advantage of the best features and usability traits of the Oracle, PeopleSoft and JD Edwards applications products.

According to Oracle, the company has reached the half way mark in the development of Fusion, which is due for completion in 2008. Locally, the company is reporting resurgence in the JD Edwards brand, particularly in the manufacturing arena with new wins such as Skellerup. Other companies such as SPEL and Auckland Airport are on the JD Edwards upgrade path.

Quanta Systems
Quanta Systems released a major new version of its Quanta Retail, Distribution and Financial software in 2005. Working with its base of around 50 New Zealand clients and another 20 overseas, Quanta has produced a fully Windows-compatible version, while the same software can also run on Unix or Linux platforms.

Medium-sized importers, distributors and multi-store retailers remain the company’s primary focus, with a number of well-known industry names among its client list. Quanta announced a number of new sales in New Zealand in 2005, highlighted by Nest, NIWA and Elders, as well as significant progress in the Australian market. The company predicts further growth in 2006, and expects trends in the distribution industry to focus its R&D attention on warehousing functionality in the coming year.

SAP
In 2005 SAP continued to gain significant market share globally and in the ERP category the company now claims it is more than three times larger than the nearest competitor. According to SAP, last year saw a particularly dramatic increase in the use of SAP by small and medium sized enterprises.

SAP says its Business One solution, which is specifically designed for small companies, was very well received globally and the company added dozens of customers locally. To complement mySAP ERP the company delivered and implemented comprehensive Best Practices reference solutions for over 30 industries.

These reference solutions are designed to enable rapid implementation and allow customers to operate ‘Best Run Businesses’ delivering superior results to the bottom line. In 2006 SAP says it will continue to deliver enhancements to the solutions offered which can be implemented more rapidly, offer lower cost of ownership and greater flexibility to support innovation.

Strategis
Strategis completed the first implementation of its Strategix OneOffice CRM and Workspace software in 2005. The implementation at Soanar Electronics covered Australia, NZ, Singapore and India. Strategis says the introduction of the dashboard, alert and context sensitive systems all introduced a high return in productivity for Soanar, which was already an established user of the Strategix distribution and accounting suite.

Strategis says Strategix OneOffice has been strengthened in the past year with several new patented technologies and context sensitive dashboards, and the package is proving popular with distribution, wholesale, import and export companies of all sizes. This year will see the introduction of desktop innovation, both within OneOffice and as a stand alone product, and ongoing improvements in task management, workflow, customer portals and third party interface integration.

Making an ERP investment decision this year? 

Check out the 2006 iStart ERP Buyers Guide and the ERP Research Pavilion for exhibits, case studies, white papers and downloads from a range of New Zealand’s leading ERP vendors.

April 2006