Johannesburg, 22 Feb 2001
South African companies looking to implement or upgrade their enterprise systems should evaluate the ability of their chosen solutions supplier to evolve from traditional ERP to the collaboration(c)-commerce - driven ERP II.
That`s the view of Paul Whalley, general manager of the South African operation of IFS, the worlds` fastest growing vendor of component based enterprise solutions.
"Companies need solutions that extend beyond the enterprise, but, according to the Gartner Group, the transformation will be difficult for traditional ERP vendors especially those with proprietary, closed architectures and inflexible functionality.
"In fact, in a recent report, Gartner expects less than 40% of current ERP vendors to be in a position to provide full ERP II by 2003," he says. Companies, particularly discrete manufacturers, are moving to c-commerce models. They need to implement effective and responsive supply chain processes to effect fast order-to-delivery cycles and just-in-time manufacturing. They are also looking to enhance their customer relationship management (CRM).
"All these new processes need deeper application functionality and architectures that, as Gartner says, `embrace openness and componentisation`. It`s all integral to ERP II," says Whalley.
According to Gartner reports on the ERP II market at large enterprise and mid-market discrete manufacturers, IFS is one of only three major enterprise solutions vendors currently with the vision and ability to execute ERP II. JD Edwards and Oracle were the others.
`I believe our approach to components and object-orientation sets us apart from our competitors. We were the first to launch component-based business systems and this has given us a substantial lead in this market. We`re delivering, where others are still developing."
IFS was formed in the early 80`s and started using the technology in 1994. The first component based version of IFS Applications was implemented in 1996. Today, IFS Applications 2001 is the third generation of systems based on component technology.
"We`re now rolling out c-commerce solutions. This month (February 2001) we`ll be unveiling our Peer-to-Peer Solution, which ties together all of a company`s distributed systems, as well as those of collaborative business partners, and routes messages to the appropriate system and desktop. "We`re also launching an application and infrastructure to support consortia and private trading exchanges," he says.
IFS Applications today consists of more than 50 standardised business modules that can be assembled and installed as required or in a number of pre-defined combinations optimised for certain business processes or vertical industries. Commenting on the company`s development efforts and the inherent flexibility of the components-based system, AMR Research describes IFS as a "leader in providing process and transactional support to e-business collaboration to the mid-market."
IFS license revenue grew more than 50% from the first three quarters of 2000, prompting AMR to say: "... this is quite an accomplishment in the Enterprise Application market - a vendor growing more than 50% for more than two years straight in a low growth market."
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