NEC Corporation (NEC), one of the world's largest IT companies, has announced an exclusive partnership with South African e-business and enterprise software developer and implementer Solit, to market, distribute and support its recently launched NEC FlexProcess R4.0 ERP suite for process manufacturing in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA).
"The recognition granted to us by a company like NEC confirms that our international expansion strategy has delivered high dividends," says Louis Nortje, Solit MD. "Outside NEC, Solit has one of the largest complements of FlexProcess ERP consultants worldwide and we have already identified potential implementation partners in a number of European countries.
"We have also developed a number of add-on e-business-enabling solutions integrated to FlexProcess. These are based on our internally developed Tilos portfolio of e-components. Our proven success in the EMEA region, the add-on capability of our Tilos software and our solid understanding of the process industry, make Solit an ideal partner for NEC in this region."
Japanese-based NEC acquired the rights to Protean from Invensys, a UK company, after the initial announcement to take Protean into maintenance mode, which decision was subsequently reversed. NEC has committed a team of more than 100 software engineers to ensure ongoing development for the open systems platform, and has a long track record with Protean as its engineers have been involved in system development with Marcam, the original developer of Protean, since 1995.
NEC was responsible for the development of the Financials Module according to Marcam specifications and has more than 200 reference sites in Japan, and in Japanese companies in other parts of the world.
"The potential market for FlexProcess is vast," says Nortje. "While process manufacturers make up a third of manufacturers worldwide, they account for well over half the value of manufactured product. This underscores the need for a proven and readily scalable, open, process-dedicated software solution."
Process manufacturing is capital-intensive and has many special characteristics. The industry has distinct and unique planning and costing needs, quality assurance requirements and inventory management procedures.
Many routine process manufacturing functions are inordinately difficult to manage using an ERP system designed to bolt and weld components together. Not least among the special characteristics of process manufacturing is the need to account for recyclable inputs, track inputs that lose their individual identity as the process is undertaken, apply potency correction and track by-products and co-products.
"There is also the increasingly important need to meet stringent regulatory standards for quality control and recall in respect of food, beverage and pharmaceutical processing," adds Nortje. "NEC's FlexProcess is enhanced with the combined resources of alliance partners, customers and the development laboratories."
Solit is a privately owned company, which has created manufacturing-specific e-business enabling solutions in the business intelligence, HR and payroll and collaborative commerce functional areas. These help unlock the full potential of existing ERP and other execution systems, in order to maximise manufacturers' return on investment.
Solit has official representation in EMEA in France, the UK, Netherlands, South Africa and Dubai. Its existing European customers include Rockwood Pigments, ICI Chlor Chemicals, Sun Chemical Corporation, MacFarlan Smith, Kappa Container Board and many more.
"The NEC-Solit alliance is a win-win for everyone, and most of all for process customers who will benefit from two experienced and process-focused companies continuing to meet this dynamic market's requirements," concludes Nortje.
* Protean is a trademark of Wonderware Corporation and not a part of this product. Any appearance of the name or trademark Protean in connection with this product is purely incidental and is not to be construed as an associated with Wonderware Corporation, Baan Corporation or Invensys PLC.
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