Easirun enters agreement with German company to launch solution for office equipment market

Easirun Software has concluded a partnership agreement with Elon, one of Germany`s largest Navision solution providers that will enable it to develop a localised version of Bison, an integrated management solution for the office equipment industry.

The agreement is part of Elon`s strategy to expand beyond its existing markets in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy and Turkey. It will capitalise on the synergy that exists between the two companies, and in particular, the benefits that will accrue from their respective expertise in the Navision environment. Elon is one of over 100 Navision Solution Centers in Germany and has been consistently ranked in the top five in recent years. Formerly a subsidiary of Kodak, Elon entered into a management buyout from Kodak in 1992 and recently merged with ACI, another German-based Navision Solution Center.

Markus Stecher, managing director, Elon, said: "Easirun`s track record with Navision is very impressive. It has enjoyed considerable success in implementing Navision solutions and has invested significant resources in the Navision environment. We are very positive and optimistic about our agreement with Easirun."

Easirun is a subsidiary of the UCS Group, an investment holding company for a group of information technology (IT) businesses focussed on the provision of software, software development and turnkey IT-enabled business solutions. Easirun is also the largest distributor of Cobol compilers, runtime systems, training and ongoing maintenance and support.

Doug Arnold, Navision sales consultant, Easirun, said: "Bison is a very successful product in Germany and was developed using Navision. The standard Navision financials have already been localised for South Africa and we have an existing support base in place for Navision. The launch of Bison, which we expect to take place by September 2000, will not require any code translation - we only have to make screen changes from German to English."

Bison incorporates the full suite of Navision Financial Modules together with its own specialist and Management and Equipment Management.

"Navision is the ideal enterprise business solution for medium-sized organisations with special business requirements. Navision can be implemented, deployed and customised faster than any other comparable enterprise business solution," he said.