Softworx (formerly Baan SA) says there will be "healthy competition" between the different divisions of Enterprise Outsourcing Holdings (EOH), one of which will offer the new iBaan products while the other will provide JD Edwards (JDE) offerings.
[VIDEO] Speaking to ITWeb at the media launch for the new iBaan products in Sandton on Friday, Softworx MD Gary Lawrence said the possible conflict of interests in parent company EOH offering iBaan products as well as JDE products will ensure "healthy competition".
EOH purchased Softworx late last year in a cash buy-out and Softworx is now a wholly owned subsidiary of the group. EOH has an application service provider outsourcing agreement with the local division of JDE.
[VIDEO] Lawrence said two entirely different divisions of JSE-listed EOH will work with the two competing implementations.
The new Web-enabled offering from Baan was launched to the media on Friday under the branding of iBaan, a day after it was shown to existing Softworx clients the previous day.
[VIDEO] Lawrence said the latest offering has been well received by Softworx clients operating predominantly in the manufacturing and construction industries.
He noted that iBaan will assist first-tier companies to transition from the old economy to the new.
While admitting that Baan has suffered at the hands of analysts and the media, Lawrence said that Baan's profitability under the new management of Invensys in the third quarter has made the market sit up and take notice.
He noted that there is a long road ahead for the company's marketing department if the organisation is to overcome the negative perception the industry has toward Baan after its poor performance in previous years.
At the time of Baan's slip from favour, markets speculated widely that enterprise resource planning (ERP) was dead. However, Sijmon van den Berg, Baan's MD for the Benelux region, noted that 60% of Baan's global revenue comes from ERP, while 40% is derived from offerings that have "moved beyond ERP" such as iBaan.
[VIDEO] British company Invensys acquired Baan in August 2000 and predicted a return to profitability for the embattled company by later this year.
Baan has exceeded this target, with figures for the third quarter to December showing sales growth increasing by 37% to $100 million and licence revenues trebling to $32 million, effectively putting the company back in the black.
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