Scala in the lead as Web services race gains momentum

Scala Business Solutions, represented in Africa and the Indian Ocean Islands by Scala Africa, is leading the race to market with Web services. During the company's latest Corporate Client Council (CCC) meeting in Naples, Italy in mid-November, key customers said that the company has a two-year technology lead over its rivals in Web services, emerging Internet-based technologies that help automate the flow of information within and between companies and their business partners.

"From what I saw demonstrated at the CCC meeting, I believe that Scala has a two-year lead in Web services technology within the mid-market space," says Cheryl Danson, Head of Global Supply Chain IT Solutions for JohnsonDiversey, a global industrial cleaning company and new Scala customer.

"Having the possibility to integrate with other systems and applications is becoming a key issue when selecting an ERP vendor. Scala software clearly has richness of functionality, and its ease of connecting with other systems will definitely be an advantage to an organisation of our size."

In an introductory presentation, Tobias Diener, Head of IT for Georg Fischer Piping Systems - a key Scala customer since 1994 - said: "Scala was one of our first IT suppliers that was able to help us connect our local ERP systems to our data warehouse by a real-time link. Our company is gaining strength and flexibility through integrating all our IT systems on a worldwide scale. Scala has built a solution that focuses on our - the customer's - needs to help us improve not only our IT structure but also our business processes. Scala Business Solutions is a strong and important partner of our piping systems group."

Three years ago, Scala began the complete re-architecture of its product line to meet the growing need by its customers to roll-out new goods and services faster through quicker and less costly integration of their different business management systems. "Lack of application integration is one of the biggest pain factors for global companies today," says Shamik Sinha, CEO of Scala Africa.

Sinha explains that the solution to this challenge is software based on a wholly new architecture, which is web services-ready to enable true application integration. "Scala offers all this with iScala 2.1, and not just a set of XML interfaces that are bolted on top of legacy products like many other vendors offer," he says.

According to Sinha, approximately 110 Scala sites in over 30 countries already benefit from the type of connectivity solutions they need for true collaborative commerce. This ability is built into iScala 2.1, Scala's next-generation ERP system. Sinha says iScala 2.1 was completely architected from the ground up in anticipation of the growing needs of customers for application integration and connectivity. "If our customers need to integrate with other ERP products - SAP, for instance - they can easily do that. And they can also see a better return on their investments in customer relationship management and supply chain management if they have more integration points with their ERP system," says Sinha.

With focused research and development activities, Scala plans to issue one major new software release each year as part of its iScala Collaborative ERP product line. The next release, planned for early 2003, will soon be available to key customers for beta testing.

"While Web services don't represent the next computing revolution, they will soon become a crucial tool for business," says Sinha. "Scala's approach to connectivity and Web services through developing packaged business solutions provides our customers with real benefits they can see right now. Our customers don't need to make big investments - they can implement their systems step-by-step, focus on visible early wins and continue installing new solutions as and when they need them."