Although its alliance appetence is not abbreviating by any means, SSA All-around seems to be assuming signs of added application and even restraint, rather than jumping the gun to indiscriminately accretion bazaar share. Once acutely insatiable, SSA All-around now admits that advance by accretion is no best as aboveboard and bargain as it acclimated to be in the aboriginal 2000s, due to the added costs of install abject acquisition. Namely, while the bell-ringer has paid on boilerplate $37,000 (USD) per chump for its 13,000 acquired customers, afresh Oracle allegedly paid about $2 actor for anniversary acquired Retek customer. Thus, while acquisitions at the appropriate amount will continue, SSA All-around is alive its focus appear accouterment connected solutions rather than accepting associate action ability planning (ERP) products.
This is Allotment Three of the six-part alternation The Action Applications "Arms Race" To Be Amount Three.
This commodity continues a allusive assay of SSA All-around and Infor, two contenders in the angry advancing antagonism to be amount three (after SAP and Oracle) in the apple of ERP vendors. See The Action Applications "Arms Race" To Be Amount Three for accomplishments advice and a altercation of bell-ringer similarities, forth with Contributing to the Rejuvenation of Legacy Systems in the Action Ability Planning Field. The added arch adversary is Lawson Software. For a abundant altercation of Lawson, see пїЅNew' Lawson Software's Transatlantic Connected Action Ability Planning Intentions.
By its own admission, until 2003, SSA All-around was alone a accumulating of ERP products, with a admiration to consolidate. At that time, its alone accustomed ERP artefact extensions were the anchored Cognos business intelligence (BI) nuggets, the acquired Warehouse BOSS solution, and a accumulating of aimless third-party articles (such as Applix for chump accord administration [CRM], Logility for accumulation alternation planning [SCP], and Digital Union/Verticalnet for sourcing and procurement). Acquisitions were focused on ERP as able-bodied as on the associated analysis and development (R&D) investment. This accompaniment of diplomacy is in adverse to today's about complete SSA All-around band-aid brand and accumulation of converged solutions accepting anticipated and appear artefact roadmaps. Also, the acquisitions accept become rather added strategic, arranged as they are with counterbalanced development investment, and deliveries on promises of connected support.
Although abounding ability still accede SSA Global's acquisitions to be opportunistic, the bell-ringer has continued instituted a alleged "4M approach" basal the appraisal of accretion candidates:
* Motivation—is the applicant motivated?
* Money—will there be acceptable payback?
* Method—does the applicant accept the appropriate people?
* Match—does the accretion fit SSA Global's "big picture"?
The vendor's ambition is to ensure that it keeps barter for life. In adjustment to do that, it accept to bottle the customers' investments while continuing to bear a abiding artefact action of convergence, modernization, and vertical focus, all in a anticipated and incremental manner. The concise strategy, on the added hand, is to enhance the amount of accepted applications in carrying the functionality (with a constant bounce of releases) that barter accept been allurement for, by carrying affiliation to addendum articles like CRM and accumulation alternation administration (SCM), and by carrying first-rate support.
In the abatement of 2005, SSA All-around completed the accretion of E.piphany, Inc. (also accepted as Epiphany), an avant-garde but financially long-struggling all-around CRM solutions provider. As a aftereffect of the merger, Epiphany now operates as a wholly endemic cardinal CRM analysis of SSA Global; shares of Epiphany accepted banal accept been delisted from NASDAQ, and deregistered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Unlike abounding beforehand SSA All-around acquisitions, Epiphany absolutely cannot be categorized as accouterment an anachronous product. In fact, the active CRM vendor, which now prefers to bead the dot from its official name, was acclaimed for aggravating to put the e (the cyberbanking business moniker) into CRM, and was a big name during the dot-com era. Its CRM analytics were (and arguably still are) an important allotment of e-commerce and e-business development. To a assertive degree, it succeeded in architecture a business on applications accompanying to business automation, alarm centermost management, real-time chump analytics, and real-time interaction. These applications (the Alternation Advisor, Insight Advisor, and Lead Advisor modules) ailing at $125 actor (USD) in anniversary revenues in 2001, with Vodafone, Nestle, Gap Inc., Citibank, Virgin Holidays, HBOS, and Barclays all signing up as users. However, revenues accept back collapsed sharply, afterpiece to the $70 actor (USD) mark.
Epiphany's articles accept been broadly implemented a part of business-to-consumer (B2C) companies that accept ample numbers of absolute customers, such as wireless carriers, biking and busline services, banks and added banking casework firms, telecommunications, utilities, and retailers. The bolt with these customers, however, is that they tend to advance their applications portfolios over assorted providers, authoritative Epiphany's revenues abundant beneath absorbing than its chump list. In fact, Epiphany has never apparent a accumulation in any budgetary year back it went accessible in 1999. Thus, in August 2005, afterwards 7 years of after losses, including a whopping $2.6 billion (USD) hit in 2001, the avant-garde CRM provider fell into the accoutrements of SSA Global, for a absolutely hasty $329 actor (USD) in stock. This was all the added hasty accustomed that the aggregation had revenues of about $75 actor (USD) and losses of $16 actor (USD) in the antecedent 12 months (although a cogent banknote position of about $160 actor [USD] would accept been a acceptable cause for SSA Global).
In answer the merger, the two parties cited two above synergies amid them. First of all, out of 450 Epiphany customers, there was reportedly a cogent 20 percent of aggregate barter in the manufacturing, finance, and casework industries, with assertive cross-selling opportunities attributable to the commutual attributes of the products. Epiphany abounding a above gap in the SSA portfolio, with account to entering and outbound business automation and analytics (see Why Are CRM and Analytics Intrinsically Connected?), sales force automation (SFA), online solutions, and e-commerce. Some business automation appearance are absolutely top-notch, such as collaborative clarification (identifying cross-selling attack opportunities based on accomplished purchases), real-time abstracts mining and controlling (using changeless and activating chump attributes while the chump is browsing online), and predictive analytics capabilities (see Predictive Analytics; the Future of Business Intelligence). Although SSA All-around had some CRM capabilities with Baan (via the accretion of Aurum and consecutive centralized developments), these were inconsistent and lacked sophistication, so that the chump appeal and apperception allotment for the SSA CRM apartment accept consistently been actual low. On the added hand, SSA CRM's built-in strengths lie in sales configuration, adjustment management, and acreage account functionality, which are not areas that Epiphany covers. Once the affiliation is complete (some time in 2007 at the earliest), the SSA CRM alms should be added ample and ambrosial than accepted built-in offerings for users of Baan or the Applix add-on on the business planning and ascendancy (BPCS) side.
The aggregate of Epiphany and SSA All-around may be a win-win bearings for both camps of customers, as apparent by contempo added drive in the bazaar place. Namely, afresh dehydration the acumen of abandoned bribery installed ERP bases, SSA All-around can still avowal (although not to the amount of its accumulation alternation beheading [SCE] team) thirty new CRM barter in the endure twelve months, and fourteen in the endure four months abandoned (since the acquisition). Most of these barter came from the vertical segments, namely, banking casework (for example, Charles Schwab, Banco De Brasil, Credit Social des Fonctionnaires [CSF], Golden 1 Credit Union, and American Express Merchant Services); allowance (Linea Directa, Hartford, Pacificare, Well Point, and Dahlberg Assurance Brokers); telecommunications and utilities (Essent Cablecom, Telefonica, and Energies De Portugal); retail (Specsavers Opticals, Family Christian Stores, Bombay Company, Etam, and Macys.com); and chump electronics (Sony Computer Entertainment and Yodabashi Camera). Often, these new barter came at the amount of angry and admired competitors such as Siebel/Oracle, Amdocs, Unica, and Sigma Dynamics.
The bell-ringer pledges to abide to accomplish cogent investments in adjustment to aggrandize the SSA CRM band-aid suite, via centralized development, acquisition, and partnering. SSA Business Adaptation 7.0, slated for 2006, will advance the bazaar in agreement of across and abyss of business automation functionality, with its accessible enhancements:
* goal-based adjudication and activating adjudication logic, for maximizing acquirement and margins
* meta-learning, to optimize action messaging with real-time analytics
* adult controlling strategies by chump articulation (with the adeptness to test, learn, and fine-tune these strategies)
* real-time miner enhancements (the adeptness to apprentice by chump group, channel, or time period, and to use assorted real-time miners on a individual action for avant-garde learning)
* the adeptness to use statistical models in real-time decisions
* multi-row chump profiles
* aphorism sets, all-around rules, faster aphorism definition
* User interface (UI) and advertisement interface enhancements
Furthermore, all planned SSA Sales, SSA Service, and SSA Business releases above the 7.0 adaptation will bear new or added CRM capabilities, including seamless affiliation with ERP offerings
| Segment | Characteristics | Key Business Needs | Key Solutions |
Financial Services Insurance and Communications |
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Retail Travel and Leisure Hospitality |
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Consumer Electronics Consumer Packaged Goods Food and Beverage |
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| General Manufacturing (Discrete and Process) |
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While the Epiphany may partly adjust with SSA Global's accustomed business archetypal of mining its installed chump abject by bringing new CRM functionality (such as business analytics and alarm centermost applications), added install bases, and decidedly a CRM apperception allotment to the SSA All-around portfolio, the August 2005 accretion of Boniva Software, Inc., a animal basic administering (HCM) start-up, was a authentic technology buy, back there were hardly any accepted barter there. Boniva's J2EE-based cardinal aptitude administering portfolio of e-learning, agent recruitment, abilities management, and achievement administering applications has already been chip into the SSA HCM solution. The apartment should now accredit companies to automate amount processes such as animal assets (HR) administration, benefits, and payroll, but should aswell action capabilities such as self-service, analytics, and workflow, in adjustment to bigger affix managers and advisers in absolute time. Built on accessible standards (including J2EE and adaptable markup accent [XML]), SSA HCM can be deployed on assorted platforms, including the UNIX, iSeries, and Microsoft Windows operating systems.
Provia
In aboriginal March 2006, SSA All-around appear the accretion of Provia Software, Inc., a Grand Rapids, Michigan (US)-based mid-market provider of order-to-delivery SCE solutions, such as the ViaWare barn administering arrangement (WMS); the FourSite adjustment administering arrangement (OMS) and announcement band-aid for third-party acumen (3PL) providers; activity administering solutions and backyard administering systems (YMS); afterimage and analytics solutions; busline administering systems (TMS); baby bindle shipment (SPS) systems; radio abundance identification (RFID) systems; and scheduling solutions, all afresh enabled as Web services, and chip aural the ViaWare apartment (see Provia Tackles RFID in a Twofold Manner).
Despite our antecedent consequence that SSA All-around was thereby bottleneck its SCE band-aid portfolio, the accretion of Provia should accommodate the bell-ringer with a small-to-medium bazaar SCE band-aid which affords a added cost-effective access for distribution-intensive companies. Provia's band-aid complements SSA Global's absolute accumulation alternation administering offerings, which ambition larger, high-volume administration accomplishment customers, admitting the absolute SSA All-around WarehouseBOSS mid-market band-aid charcoal for IBM iSeries customers. By abacus Provia, SSA All-around now believes that it can action SCE solutions for any aggregation accumulation alternation (no amount what the admeasurement of the company), in abounding added vertical industries and geographies.
However, affair charcoal that the two companies accept appropriately far not had abundant of a accepted bazaar focus. Namely, while SSA All-around is aggressive against business-to-business (B2B) applications (primarily in the branch of manufacturing), Epiphany has abundantly focused on the above B2C markets in account industries. These install bases by itself accept abstracted anatomic and abutment requirements, and alone time will acquaint breadth added outlets will arise already the actual cross-selling opportunities are mined. SSA All-around contends that manufacturers too should be absorbed in extensive barter anon via business campaigns (with the advice of analytics), as apparent by contempo success of business automation specialists such as Unica and SAS (see Should Uniqueness Vouch For Business Automation Niche Players?). Also, back SSA All-around had a ample business in account industries even after Epiphany (for example, with KPN as a customer), there may in fact be added of a accepted bazaar focus than ability arise at aboriginal glance. With Epiphany, 37 percent of the installed abject is now in the casework sector; conversely, a cogent allotment of Epiphany's chump abject was in the accomplishment sector.
But the additional synergy—shared acceptance of technology based on accessible standards and service-oriented architectonics (SOA)—might be even added compelling. Namely, while Epiphany has connected leveraged J2EE- and SOA-based technologies to carbon its products, SSA Accessible Architectonics explored in Allotment Two of this alternation charcoal in allotment a account of direction, back abounding of its articles will charge abundant retooling to accommodate to the SOA eyes (although beneath will charge retooling as of the third absolution of the artefact in the bounce of 2006).
The bell-ringer will charge developers accomplished in these technologies, and by affairs Epiphany, it has acquired a development alignment which is already at the abode SSA All-around is aiming for. Apparently, the above Epiphany Chump Relationship Backbone (CRB) belvedere has already been formed into SSA Accessible Architectonics (6.0, the aboriginal absolution breadth CRB and Accessible Architectonics converge, is due in the bounce of 2006), and the SSA SCM aggregation has been carrying new warehousing administration capabilities while leveraging the adeptness of its CRM colleagues.
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