Navision appoints first worldwide IBM iSeries NSC

Navision South Africa has appointed Cape-based Blueline Technologies as the world`s first Navision Solution Centre (NSC) on the IBM i-Series range of products.

A company of IBM Integration Specialists, Blueline provides professional integration and consulting services in the AS400 I-Series computing environment. "While Blueline is not an industry-specific company, the main focus by virtue of our current assignments is based in the media, insurance and education market sectors," explains CEO Devan Naidoo. "We provide a variety of services, including systems engineering and design, programming, project management and applications support services to companies within these sectors."

Naidoo says the partnership with Navision is the realisation of a key strategic goal for Blueline to be able to provide a cost-effective ERP offering for the thousands of i-Series customers in South Africa.

"The market is absolutely primed for a state-of-the-art ERP application such as Navision Attain," he declares. "Customers who have invested in the IBM AS/400 have become accustomed to its easy-to-manage hardware and operating system, as well as its high level of staff and user productivity. Now, with Navision Attain, the strength of the i-Series hardware platform has been significantly magnified and customers have an attractive and inexpensive alternative to legacy applications for the AS/400 environment."

"Customers do not want to engage in lengthy, protracted ERP implementations with undefined costs," he continues. "Instead, they are demanding rapid and efficient implementation cycles and a quick return on investment. Navision`s unique business and implemetation methodology ensures that these needs and expectations are easily met." "The IBM iSeries offers a complete line of scalable, easy-to-manage integrated solutions that range from developer tools and management tools, to solutions focused on a specific business problem," says Navision South African managing director Keith Mullan. "iSeries solutions also deliver leading total cost of ownership, extreme availability of data and applications, IT staffing productivity and user productivity."

"The incorporation of Navision Attain into the IBM iSeries means that companies will no longer need to go to the expense of investing in a new system," he continues. "Additionally, IBM will not only be able to retain their existing market share in their product, but will also be able to grow it further, both in South Africa and throughout the US. As a NSC, Blueline personnel are trained, certified and equipped with the essential tools and processes to ensure that all customers` needs are analysed and that a solution is deployed that matches their way of doing business."

"As an international company with a business structure and development environment geared to keep pace with a world in motion, we place our NSCs in high regard. We work closely together with them to offer fast, flexible and versatile business solutions that respond to rapidly changing demands, while growing with the company," Mullan concludes.