Software Futures, a wholly owned subsidiary of JSE Securities Exchange-listed MGX, has added ammunition to its Microsoft development arsenal with its appointment as a Microsoft Great Plains Partner, enabling it to use and resell Microsoft Great Plains Dynamics and eEnterprise.
The Microsoft Great Plains platform will allow faster solution development because it offers standards-based, reusable and packaged component building blocks that can be rapidly modified.
"Software Futures is targeting a segment of the market where we know we can add value," says Franca Cardillo, director of channel services at Microsoft Great Plains Business Solutions MEA. "The company already focuses on Microsoft within the organisation and certainly we believe the collaboration will provide the total business solution we seek to offer."
FutureWorks is the Microsoft development division within Software Futures and provides solutions principally to the financial and insurance markets. Its core competency is in the application of Visual Basic 6, SQL 2000, Windows 2000, COM+, NET, SOAP, XML, Sharepoint and Biztalk.
"Before Microsoft Great Plains, we developed custom applications from scratch whereas this partnership appointment will allow us to perform customisation, improving the speed at which we deliver solutions, reduce the cost while still delivering on specification," says Paul Brito, Microsoft Great Plains business unit manager at FutureWorks.
Microsoft Great Plains provides business applications for small and mid-sized companies that automate financial and operational processes and allow companies to extend specific information and procedures securely via the Web to employees, customers, suppliers and partners.
eEnterprise supports mid-sized enterprises by providing a collaborative environment for information management and sharing across the latest Microsoft technologies. It offers a set of integrated business applications and custom services that integrate business processes for e-commerce, customer relationship or supply chain management.
Dynamics is an Internet-ready accounting and business management solution fully integrated with Microsoft Excel and Visual Basic applications and e-business solutions.
This deal was made possible due to Microsoft's acquisition of Great Plains in April 2001. The acquisition followed a long working history of providing small and medium companies with integrated, extensible business management software solutions for an increasingly interconnected economy.
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MGX is a JSE Securities Exchange-listed, new economy company that represents world-class products and services and delivers measurable business outcomes for customers across business-critical areas of the information economy. Recognising that the strategic value of a company lies in its information, the company's focus is on information-rich business solutions that transform each client's unique business information into competitive advantage. MGX comprises six business value domains: MGX Enterprise Solutions, MGX Storage Solutions, MGX Consulting, Software Futures, MGX Business Continuity Solutions and MGX Content Management.
With strong operational and strategic synergies, the business units create and implement solutions for business users across all sectors and industries. MGX has operations in SA, Botswana, Australia, the UK and the US. During its five-year history as a listed company it has delivered consistent growth to shareholders. For more information on the company, visit www.mgxgroup.com http://www.mgxgroup.com.
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