Acta must surely count among the world`s greatest software success stories. Founded in 1998, it has garnered more than 200 clients worldwide - including such luminaries as Nortel Networks, Siemens, IBM, Xerox, Hewlett Packard, Alcatel, Hitachi, Shell, Lockheed Martin, Bosch Power Tools, Bayer Pharmaceuticals, and South Africa`s own Iscor.
"This has led to a 350% compound annual growth rate financially - probably unparalleled in modern business," said Stuart Rees, Senior Account Executive at Acta. Rees pointed out that it was remarkable that Acta had only produced its first ETL (extraction, transformation and loading) tool for packaged applications in 1998.
"This was followed by Acta`s first packaged ERP integration the same year, and the first packaged analytic warehouse became available in 1999," he said.
Acta`s trump card - the market`s first packaged commerce caches - was developed last year along with the first packaged commerce server integration and the company`s first data platform - despite its youth, Acta has managed to capture the world`s top-end client base.
"All over the world, analysts have been unanimous in their praise for Acta," Rees continued. "Gartner has named Acta a visionary in the market, while the Hurwitz Group said Acta satisfies more requirements - for both packaging of pre-built components and for ERP data - than any other software vendor in the market."
The Meta Group said Acta`s eCache could supplement or often replace traditional data integration tools, while Forrester said Acta providing message-brokering technology focused on ERP with the cache of extracted data greatly speeding up transaction times.
"Extended enterprises today face some great challenges which Acta has been designed to meet," said Altus Viljoen, product manager for ACTA at GBI. "When facing suppliers, the enterprise has to deal with issues such as strategically sourcing direct materials and streamlining supply chain efficiencies."
"Internally focused, the enterprise must drive revenue and control costs while optimising operational efficiencies, and when dealing with customers, leveraging customer relationships and the potential of e-commerce are paramount," Viljoen said.
Corporate data is the key to understanding and interpreting a host of modern business issues, including supply chain collaboration; e-procurement; analytics; sell-side e-commerce and CRM. In each of these, components such as inventory levels, forecasts, capacity, receipts, vendor history, sales and purchase orders, purchase history, billing status and warranties all have the potential to become information quagmires unless managed efficiently. "Answering questions about finance such as profitability by product, customer and headcount; and how spending is affecting end-of-year plans is paramount," said Viljoen."In the sales and marketing field, companies need to know how their best selling items differ by channel and customer; and how to attract and retain valuable customers."
Manufacturers and distributors want to reduce stock but avoid the "out-of-stock" nightmare; they want to know if they are using their plant capacity efficiently and how to optimise demand planning and raw material operational issues.
"Staff involved in the purchasing and inventory side of the business need to know if their vendors are delivering in line with contracted service levels; what purchasing advantages there are to be gained through marketplaces; and how to streamline the procurement cycle." These issues also apply equally to the e-commerce terrain. "The Acta data platform forms the central pillar linking all of these business applications," continued Viljoen. "eCache and ActaWorks link to partner systems, ERP, legacy and other systems and almost all external data sources. This is the Acta solution at its best."
Viljoen pointed out that the required foundation for an enterprise data platform consists of four main elements: platform management; intelligent caching; realtime services; and batch services. "Platform management entails the team development environment; enterprise administration and meta data management and reporting. Intelligent caching includes brokered access to cached data and transactional systems and intelligent data access rules. "Realtime services must mean realtime queries and updates; scalable performance and sophisticated XML handling, while batch services will include the broadest coverage of relational DBMS, legacy DBMS and applications.
"The Acta eCaches provide all this - and more - as packaged data ready for rapid deployment, the immediate and fastest path to business analysis," Viljoen said. "The speed provided by Acta`s configuration is the key to the company`s success."
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