While Jan Baan embarks on yet another software adventure, his original legacy continues to thrive, albeit with a different name and face. Now part of software giant Infor, Baan has survived two acquisitions and, according to Softworx - an EOH company and Infor reseller - Baan lives on within more than a 120 customers across sub-Saharan Africa, with new customers joining the family all the time.
Infor acquired Baan through its acquisition of SSA Global in August 2006 and immediately affirmed its commitment to the product with a roadmap and product enhancements. “This did two things for Baan customers,” says Jane Thomson, MD, Softworx, “It enabled them to stay with the solution they were accustomed to while enjoying further enhancements, or they could opt to upgrade when ready.”
A good example, says Thomson, is Weir Minerals Africa, which has been a Baan customer for 12 years and has recently extended its use with a successful implementation in its newly acquired Alrode facility.
Infor ERP Baan IV provides Weir Minerals with core manufacturing and planning functionality on a scalable, multi-language, open-systems platform. It also provides flexible business operations support across all operations, including finance.
Thomson says the solution, the newer Baan version of which is branded Infor ERP Ln, is anchored in Infor's “enrich, extend, and evolve” product strategy and Infor Open SOA (services-oriented architecture). “Infor ERP Baan and Infor ERP Ln customers can expect Infor to make an ongoing investment in the business-specific capabilities they need to meet their diverse and ever-changing business challenges.” Examples of this ongoing investment, according to Thomson, will be further enrichment to the financial modules and inclusion of CRM functionality in future releases.
Infor ERP Baan and Infor ERP Ln help make-to-stock, assemble-to-order, make-to-order, and engineer-to-order companies lower their total cost of technology ownership. In support of its legacy products, Infor has ensured that all previous Baan releases have been back-ported and are fully compliant with Infor's new SOA strategy, which enables them to take advantage of the new architecture and components.
“Softworx has a 20-year history with Baan and, through our excellent relationship with Infor, remains committed to supporting our Baan customers and extending the solutions into new customers as well,” says Thomson.
The way forward, according to Thomson, is more exciting than ever: “Infor has developed a fast-start implementation approach that allows customers to use pre-defined templates and best practices already configured into the system. This allows customers to implement their systems in less than half the time of other ERP solutions, thus gaining much needed benefits quickly.”
For more information, visit www.esoftworx.co.za or http://www.infor.com.
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Softworx
Softworx is a successful South African business applications company that prides itself in being able to deliver world-class products to its extensive customer base, which includes a number of Fortune 500 companies. In addition, Softworx supports clients in industries ranging from manufacturing, retail, distribution and financial, to supporting various government entities. The company is dedicated to marketing, implementing and providing support for its range of complementary software products to medium and large enterprises that require effective solutions to optimise their business processes.
Softworx has positioned itself as a leading provider of business applications in South Africa, specialising in end-to-end business solutions. The company prides itself on being able to deliver true value to its customers through the implementation of business solutions based on a powerful combination of leading edge products and consultancy. As a wholly owned subsidiary of EOH, Softworx has increased the number of services and products that can be offered to its customers from within the group.
Infor
At Infor, we work with a core belief. We believe in the customer. We believe that the customer is seeking a better, more collaborative relationship with its business software provider. And a new breed of business software: created for evolution, not revolution. Software that's simple to buy, easy to deploy and convenient to manage. Our 70 000 customers in more than 100 countries and 8 000+ employees stand with us. We look forward to your sharing in the results of our belief. There is a better way. For additional information, visit http://www.infor.com.
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