Jan Baan's Cordys and JSE-listed UCS have partnered to embed the Dutch company's ERP platform into its software applications.
As part of the agreement, Cordys will market UCS' retail technology overseas.
Baan, who is currently visiting SA, says he and UCS CEO John Bright signed the deal yesterday and it is the first of its kind for both companies.
“I am looking at generating around R500 million in revenue from the deal per year. Cordys has invested EUR250 million [about R2.6 billion] into our solutions, while UCS has invested R250 million into theirs,” says Bright.
Bright says the deal is part of his company's plans to market its solutions globally, as it continues to build its expertise in rolling out software solutions for the retail sector.
He adds the deal will see UCS subsidiary UCS Software Manufacturing, which is UCS Group's software applications factory, embed the Cordys technology and use the computing cloud or licence as a software-as-a-service platform.
Bright says UCS has not yet set any definite revenue targets for the deal.
In with the new
“We have been consolidating our expertise in the retail sector. As the world becomes one large global marketplace, then we find we have to specialise more and more in order to carve out our niche,” he explains.
Cordys is the latest venture by Baan into the ERP space, having originally made his name and fortune through Baan ERP in the late 1990s. That company no longer exists in name, although its solutions are still used by many large enterprises and was originally seen as a major rival to SAP.
“ERP is no longer the way for enterprises to go. It is now using the cloud as a platform to roll out software and services and also to use the underlying logic of business process management to ensure timely information flow and business flexibility,” Baan states.
He says the problem with traditional ERP systems is that the customisation and implementation of the systems is 90% of the cost, with the price of the software modules actually only taking up a small fraction of the cost.
“Cordys' philosophy is that of 'composition'. The end-user brings together a lot of modules and uses these to 'compose' a solution, rather than waiting for the IT department to do so,” notes Baan.
He says the idea of a composition of various software elements to create a solution has been employed by Cordys itself as it only has 450 full-time staff, compared to the 2 500 Baan ERP had during its heyday.
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