ERP Software

Microsoft Dynamics AX 4 release details

The staff at Microsoft has been busy at the annual convergence event held in Dallas; they have just previewed Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0 which will be released in June.

Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0 will integrate with SQL Server so users can perform business intelligence (BI) analysis of any data within the application; and SharePoint-based portal technology, which supports their new roles-based user interfaces.

Look and feel will be outlook 2003 and supposed to have a beefed up web services architecture.

There will be wizard tools to help for upgrades and quick setup for new implementations.

Microsoft Dynamics AX 4 info

Oracle Middleware on course

Oracle has announced that 26,000 customers are now using Oracle middleware which will help the transition to Oracle Fusion. They have been hacking away since 2001 and claim to be the fastest growing middleware players.

Project Fusion is Oracle's plan to create an integrated suite of the best components of all the ERP (enterprise resource planning) applications it has acquired over the past year. These won't be just mixed and matched components cherry-picked from the PeopleSoft, J.D. Edwards or Siebel Systems product lines. They will be replications of the best features and technologies from those products reproduced in entirely new applications developed in Java all will have lifetime warranties?

Oracle has certified these packages to work with Fusion Middleware

Oracle eBusiness Suite,

PeopleSoft

J.D. Edwards

Retek retail software

Sage buys Visma

Sage plans to buy Visma a Norwegian financial software and services company focusing on the SMB market for £334 million.

Visma turnover last year was £166m with a profit of £22 million

Visma has an install base of 130,000 with 1600 staff supporting their customers Visma specializes in

Finance

Accounting

Logistics

CRM

E-business applications.

They also have a financial services outsourcing division which must be up against stiff competition from the Indian financial services outsourcing giants.

If I had Visma software in my company I would be asking are they going to cut R&D, sell me a roadmap that migrates me on to sage. If you look at the two companies there is near perfect duplication on software functionality both comapnies focus on  SME financial software. 

Sage has decided they want to be player in the ERP market what with just purchasing USA  based Verus Financial Management in January.

SSA Financial Results

For the quarter ended January 31 SSA reported total revenues of $187.9 million, a 6% increase from last year. License revenues in the fiscal second quarter increased 11% to $56.8 million, and represented 30% of total revenue, What is interesting is SSA’s growth has come from non ERP sales growth going from 18% to 26% this has come from sales at Ephipany, Boniva Software and in the last couple of weeks Provia Software has just been bought for $20 million which shows SSA’s strategy of growth by acquisition is working for them but who is buying SSA LN and LX moving forward that is the roadmap for most of their customers to move to. SSA is looking to have 50% of revenue will come from non ERP sales in the next three years. Meanwhile, SSA Global's balance sheet remains strong. Cash and cash equivalents as of the end of the second quarter $136 million and net cash provided by operating activities for the quarter totaled $49.5 million.

Microsoft dynamics pricing change

Microsoft is moving to a per user pricing for their ERP systems currently they work on a module basis.

Specific pricing has not been released, but there will be a partner conference in July which should be a good time to sort out the changes in their pricing.

Existing customers will have the option to stay with their current pricing structure or look at the per user pricing ,talk is that customers who have maxed out on the modules from Microsoft’s ERP products will pay less than customers who have taken the core modules?