Sage North America recently announced that they are renaming many of their software products in order to increase awareness of the Sage brand. Although one of the largest software companies in the world, they found that when they did surveys, the individual software product names Sage sold were more recognizable than the general Sage brand. Like almost all of the other major mid-market ERP software vendors, Sage has acquired a number of software products over the past 15 years, but each solution has remained somewhat autonomous.
This move in North America now more closely parallels the Sage naming conventions in Europe. The goal of the changes is really twofold: 1) They want to increase awareness of the Sage name, and 2) They want to show scalability and where each product fits in the market – The lower the number, the less complex and geared to smaller companies – the higher the number the more sophisticated and focused on larger companies. They are also increasing integration of their general ERP products to their niche and stand-alone CRM, Fixed Assets, HR and Payroll solutions.
The following is a high-level guide to the new names for some of their major products:
Peachtree = Sage 50 US Edition (with various industry specific templates)
Simply Accounting = Sage 50 Canadian Edition (with various industry specific templates)
MAS 90 = Sage 100 Standard ERP
MAS 200 = Sage 100 Advanced ERP
Master Builder = Sage 100 Contractor
Accpac = Sage 300 ERP
Timberline = Sage 300 Construction and Real Estate
MAS 500 = Sage 500 ERP
Sage ERP X3 = Sage ERP X3
FAS = Sage Fixed Assets
The complete list can be found here: http://www.sagenorthamerica.com/Company/Brand/Sage-Product-Name-Grid
The bottom line is that until these new names become more recognized in the market, if you are considering a Sage solution you should be very careful to identify the specific product you are looking at. While it is helpful to see scalability of the software solutions more clearly with the 50, 100, 300, and 500 levels, the name changes make the products appear to be the same, when in reality they are completely different products with different code bases. In fact, some completely different products now have the same name. (Peachtree and Simply Accounting are both now known as Sage 50 and there is another Sage 50 software product in Europe). So make sure that you clearly understand which product you are talking about with the Sage salesperson or Sage Partner that you are working with.
A couple of weeks ago, SAP announced the acquisition of SuccessFactors – a Talent Management/HR software solution. There has been a lot of commentary regarding the high price that SAP paid for this company on the heels of Oracle’s acquisition of RightNow. Clearly these large traditional ERP/database vendors (SAP and Oracle) are doing everything they can to move quickly to the SaaS/Cloud market and the fastest way to do that is to acquire an established company.
While the acquisition of SuccessFactors looks like a good play for investors, we look at things from a practical end user standpoint. The main question is, what will SAP do with this product? Our take is that in the short run, there will not be much change with regard to current SuccessFactors customers. However, in the medium run, we would imagine that a standard interface will be made to the SAP R/3 product offering a cloud talent management solution to SAP’s existing customer base. In the long run, SuccessFactors could become part of a suite of cloud products offered by SAP.
It is important to note that SAP has built a cloud ERP product called Business By Design (BBD). However, at this time, BBD is really geared to the lower end of the market and does not scale up to the level of companies that would have a separate Talent Management solution like SuccessFactors, so an interface between these products does not make sense at this time. At this time, SAP’s current cloud software portfolio includes a high end Talent Management solution and a low end ERP product. This means that SAP will likely make other Cloud software acquisitions over the coming months.
This will be the last post to the Software Evaluation Blog for 2011. We wish everyone a great holiday season and look forward to providing more software vendor insight in 2012!
Over the past year, we have seen a substantial increase in interest for Cloud based ERP software solutions with our software selection clients. While Cloud based solutions for CRM and HR/Payroll have had a lot of momentum for many years, Cloud based ERP has seen slower acceptance, particularly for the mid-market to larger enterprises. This has resulted in the majority of Cloud ERP software installations implemented in smaller companies over the past few years. That is changing now as larger companies are evaluating Cloud ERP solutions for their enterprises.
However, it is important to note that Cloud based ERP systems such as Netsuite, Intacct, and SAP Business By Design are still maturing. They have much of the base functionality now, but some of the more sophisticated requirements, especially with regard to multi-company/multi-national environments, or specific functionality required by markets such as manufacturing and projects, are still being built. Cloud vendors are ramping up their functionality quickly and every release (typically about every 6 months) brings more robust functionality. Netsuite, for example, has increased multi-company functional depth with the release of Oneworld a couple of years ago and then acquired manufacturing functionality from Rootstock. SAP’s Business by Design has built-in multi-company capability. Workday has followed the PeopleSoft model and released a high-end financial solution after focusing exclusively on the HR/Payroll market for the past few years. Still, these systems do not have all of the advanced functionality or breadth of capabilities right now if you compare them with on-premises software solutions.
From the other side, the traditional on-premises software vendors like Microsoft, Oracle, Sage, and Infor, have mature functionality but are working to modify their technology to offer a Cloud solution. As a step in that direction, the traditional ERP vendors offer a “hosted” model that allows customers to outsource their servers and maintenance to a 3rd Party. But for most of these vendors there is still a lot of work to do to get to a pure multi-tenant Cloud solution. This development is definitely underway as evidenced by the new pricing model and enhancements built into Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 that clearly point to a future Cloud solution.
The bottom line is that for right now if you are considering a Cloud ERP software solution, you have to make some choices. You can get the technology of a pure cloud solution that may lack some functionality (depending on your requirements), or you can have a more functionally robust software solution that has not quite moved their technology to the Cloud. In either case, over the next few years, these two sides will move to their respective goals and you will see a wide variety of fully functional Cloud technology ERP solutions on the market.
Workday is a cloud based Human Capital Management (HCM) and financial/ERP software solution that has a lot of momentum in the market right now. Founded in 2005, they have grown rapidly and now have over 600 employees. They currently have 200 HCM installations and 12+ financial/ERP installations.
But in order to really understand this product, you need to understand it’s history and close relation to Peoplesoft. After Peoplesoft was acquired in a hostile takeover by Oracle a few years ago, Dave Duffield (the founder of Peoplesoft) left Oracle and started Workday. He wanted no part of Oracle and saw this as an opportunity to start fresh with a new solution based on the up and coming cloud environment. With a new software offering, he would have no legacy install base to maintain and could develop the product on the latest technology. In fact, many Peoplesoft veterans now work for Workday.
Workday is following exactly the same model that Peoplesoft used 20 years ago in the early 90’s. The strategy is to provide a Human Resources (Human Capital Management) software solution and then move into the financial/ERP software space. Basically this product is a PeopleSoft sequel!
Workday is built on an open source technology stack that includes Linux, MySQL database, Java, and Tomcat. Because they are fairly new, they are still building out functionality – especially on the financial/ERP side. As a cloud solution, they promise (and this is included in the contract) that they will be up and running 99.5% of the time. Workday requires a 3 year minimum contract commitment and a typical implementation cost is 1.25 times the annual cloud subscription cost.
Like Peoplesoft, Workday focuses on larger companies with a stated target of at least 1500 employees. They are focusing on going after companies that have a traditional HCM or ERP software solution that would like to move to the cloud.
We are watching Workday closely with our software evaluation clients and it will be interesting to see if they will be able to start taking market share away from the larger traditional vendors such as SAP and Oracle. Much of their short term success will depend on the general market adoption of cloud based solutions. On the HCM side, outsourced solutions have been offered for many years, making cloud based software very viable. Workday should be able to make inroads into that market quickly. On the other hand, companies have been slower to adopt the cloud model for ERP and there are fewer true cloud based solutions. While this makes for a more difficult sell in the short run, this also offers an excellent opportunity for Workday to penetrate the ERP market when (and if) the market turns toward the cloud model for ERP.
Solver BI 360 is a Budgeting and Business Intelligence tool for the mid to enterprise software market. Focused mostly on the Microsoft Dynamics suite of products, the solution leverages pre-built connections with the Dynamics AX, GP, NAV, SL and CRM and offers reporting, budgeting, and dashboarding. While the majority of Solver’s focus is the MS Dynamics product line, BI360 can also be implemented as a standalone budgeting tool suitable for integration with other financial systems.
Here are a few facts about Solver:
• Formed in 1996, privately held.
• Headquartered in Los Angeles, CA, with 60 employees and 800 customers.
• Microsoft centric tool; would be a viable replacement for MS Forecaster (formerly FrX) which is being sunsetted.
• Pre-built API’s to various Dynamics applications.
• Excel add-in, with workflow capabilities.
• Built-in Data Warehouse for reporting and storage of budget data.
• Typically sold through the Microsoft Partner channel.
• Solver was the Microsoft partner of the year in 2009.
Because the solution comes with out-of-the-box integrations to Dynamics as well as pre-built report templates, companies that use the Dynamics product family will benefit from the architecture of this tool and be able to leverage the BI capabilities of the software. The reporting and budgeting modules are based on Microsoft Excel and the dashboard module is based on Microsoft Silverlight; this means that users that are already familiar with Microsoft Office (particularly Excel) can quickly learn how to use the tool. The data warehouse is built on the Microsoft SQL Server platform, and is the main store for both financial and expenditure data to facilitate modeling, budgeting, reporting and dashboards. The system allows drill-down to the data contained within the data warehouse as well as data stores outside the warehouse.
In addition to its packaged applications, Solver also delivers customized BI solutions based on Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Services, SharePoint, SQL Server and related Microsoft technologies. The company works with over 200 Microsoft partners worldwide to deliver localized and vertical industry solutions to their customers. Companies who are currently using, or are considering Microsoft Dynamics ERP solutions should seriously consider BI360 as a supplement to the base budgeting functions provided by the financial system. This is especially true in multi-company environments that use a distributed budget model requiring corporate consolidations.
SAGE is a major ERP global player and one of the largest ERP vendors in the world. While it is a major player, SAGE has struggled with marketing their products and brand and is not as well known in the US. They have also struggled with product direction and focus as they have many different products both in the US and Europe. The SAGE software products are mostly sold through a Value Added Reseller channel, although they do sell direct depending on the product and situation. In the past they have taken more of a regional approach – with certain products focused on the North American market and other products in Europe. They are squarely focused on the mid to lower market for software solutions.
SAGE has acquired many software solutions over the years – including State of the Art in the US in 1998 (MAS 90 and MAS 500). Here is a partial listing of the products that SAGE sells in the US. You will probably recognize the names and may be surprised that they are owned by SAGE:
X3 (Formerly Adonix) – ERP
Accpac – ERP
MAS 90 – ERP
MAS 500 – ERP
Timberline – Construction/Property Management
MIP – Non-Profit
Peachtree – Small Office Accounting
ABRA – HR
BEST FAS – Fixed Assets
Saleslogix – CRM
Many others…
One product that has reached a couple of Short List’s recently in our software selection projects is the SAGE X3 product. This is a multi-national manufacturing focused software solution and is the former Adonix product that was acquired by SAGE in 2005. Adonix was originally developed in France and offers a robust accounting/manufacturing solution. It is interesting to note that the CEO of SAGE is Guy Berruyer who led the French SAGE operation. They also recently installed Pascal Houillon as the CEO of SAGE North America – who also came from the French operation. We think these moves point to a future emphasis on the X3 product at SAGE, and may even lead to X3 becoming the flagship product for SAGE on a worldwide basis.
At the GFOA show in San Antonio last week we got an update on Microsoft Dynamics AX for the public sector. In 2007, Microsoft and Tyler announced a partnership that they would jointly develop a Public Sector software solution based on the Dynamics AX ERP software product. Microsoft chose Tyler because they own 3 ERP software solutions that focus on the government sector (Munis, Eden, Incode). The new AX 2012 software is scheduled for release this summer (2011).
Dynamics AX for Public Sector has a single implementation in process – City of Redmond, WA – which is fitting because Microsoft is based in Redmond. Go-live for the project is scheduled to be July 5, 2011. Right now they are only offering financials and do not have a wide functional footprint for the public sector. While they did say they would eventually expand the footprint for the government sector, they did not disclose the functionality they would develop next.
It is interesting to note that they have been working with Tyler for about 4 years now and are just now finishing up financials. While the government sector has many unique requirements, Dynamics AX has a strong base financial capability with dimensional charts of accounts that are very powerful that has been used for many years in the private sector. It will be interesting to see how the capabilities that are so useful in the private sector will be leveraged in the public sector.
Is this product ready for prime time for governments? Not yet, especially because governments in general tend to be very conservative. But as the functionality expands and a few more cities decide to implement a newer software product, the Dynamics AX product will be a player in the government sector.
With the economy starting to look a little brighter, look for more acquisitions, unsolicited acquisition offers, and, potentially, some heated bidding wars.
For example, in 2010 Lawson Software acquired Enwisen, a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) human resources solution provider and Healthvision Solutions, a solutions provider to the hospital and healthcare markets. Then in March 2011, Lawson itself received an unsolicited bid from privately held software company, Infor and Golden Gate Capital. Lawson’s board retained Barclays Capital, Inc. to assist in evaluating the proposal, as well as other strategic alternatives. Another interesting twist is that billionaire investor Carl Icahn has been acquiring Lawson stock and now owns about one-tenth of Lawson.
The good news for Lawson is that its fiscal 3rd quarter net income rose sharply. Acquiring Lawson would be an excellent strategic move for Infor because it would fill an Infor gap for a strong enterprise financial and HR/Payroll solution, particularly for the government, utilities, healthcare and financial services markets. While it continues its discussions with Infor and Golden Gate, Lawson is also in a strong position to entertain other bids.
I suspect that other companies may be going after Lawson (if they haven’t already done so), too, for a variety of reasons. In addition to Infor, it seems that Lawson would be a likely acquisition candidate for companies such as IBM (to maintain control of one of only a handful of Tier 1/2 solutions that support DB2), Microsoft, Oracle and SAP.
Serenic Navigator is a Non-Profit/Public Sector focused ERP and HR/Payroll software solution that was built in 1999 as an Independent Software Vendor (ISV) solution on the Microsoft Dynamics NAV platform. By building the software on top of NAV, Serenic is able to take advantage of all of the features and new functionality provided by Microsoft while developing enhancements specifically for the non-profit and government industries. Serenic sells the software directly and has a network of qualified NAV VARs that resell and implement Serenic so there are many implementation options available to you.
There are more than 350 organizations that are using Serenic Navigator. (One of SoftResources’ notable clients that selected Serenic was the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee 2010.) While their focus is on both government and non-profit entities, the non-profit space is where they excel, and they have limited government implementations.
Serenic is especially strong with grant accounting requirements and they have recently developed a budgeting tool geared specifically for non-profits and grant accounting. Because the NAV product has good multi-national functionality, Serenic is starting to leverage that capability to drive expansion internationally and has set up sales offices overseas.
In December 2010 Serenic announced a Cloud/Hosted offering for the software. It will be interesting to see how non-profits accept the hosting model as the cloud gains more acceptance in the ERP space.
Serenic is a public company and at the end of January 2011 released their quarterly numbers showing they swung to a loss. They cited the fact that many non-profit organizations are pushing off purchases of new ERP software because of the economy. Also, because they are a Canadian company, they have had some currency losses as the majority of their installations are in the US.
Serenic is a major player in the mid-market non-profit area and should be considered by these organizations. We met up with Lisa Ramsey of Serenic at the GFOA 2010 show in June last year. Watch the video to get an overview of Serenic and some of the things they are working on.
Springbrook software is focused on the municipal government market and has been in business for 25 years with 400 customers in 33 states. They offer a fairly complete ERP functional footprint for municipalities including financials, utility billing, HR/Payroll, Permits, Land Management, etc. They are focused on the mid-market space with clients ranging in size from 10,000 in population on up to 200,000 in population, but the majority of their implementations are in the 10,000 – 100,000 population range. (In fact, they recently announced they signed up Texarkana, Texas – a city with a population of 38,000)
Springbrook has about 100 people in their company which is a good number for a niche focused software solution. They have more of a family feel than some of the larger vendors which works well in the mid-market municipal space. Also, while there has been a lot of consolidation in the municipal ERP market with Tyler, Sungard, Infor, and others buying up a number of municipal focused ERP software solutions, Springbrook has remained independent and organically grown which allows them to focus on serving their customers. For cities of that general size that are looking for ERP solutions, Springbrook should definitely be on the long list of software solutions to consider.
Check out the interview below that we had with Scott Stickel at the GFOA 2010 conference in Atlanta last June. We discuss an overview of the software solution and some of the key things to consider as you evaluate Springbrook for your city.
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