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Intelligroup Inc. a consulting, business optimization and outsourcing company, announced that it received a cool $1.5 million contract from Gulf Petrochemical Industries Company, a manufacturer of petrochemical products in the Middle East, to implement the latest version of mySAP ERP 2005 to update and enhance GPIC’s current IT infrastructure.

The mySAP ERP 2005 implementation will be completed over an eight month period of time and include modules for financial accounting, controlling, materials management, quality management, production planning, plant maintenance, sales and distribution, project systems, environment, health and safety and HR. Under terms of the contract, Intelligroup will provide post production support for three months upon completion of the project.

Intelligroup is currently making a big push for business in the Middle East, including recent work in the Saudi International Petrochemical Company (a.k.a. SIPCHEM), the Amiantit Group in Saudi Arabia; Alghanim Industries in Kuwait; the Gulf Institute for Science and Technology in Kuwait; and the Al Batha Group in United Arab Emirates.

Another new partnership has been announced, hear ye, hear ye: Mindshare Technologies and SoundBite Communications to develop and deliver on demand Customer Experience Management (CEM) and Monitoring products has been announced.

According to TMCNet, “As per the partnership, they will work together to offer enterprise organizations with immediate customer feedback via automated voice messages in a hosted environment. This eliminates the need for live agents, as well any expenses associated with needing on-premise hardware or software.”

Put plainly, the solution features a combination of Mindshare’s survey and analytics together with SoundBite’s hosted contact solution to “offer direct feedback using an outbound survey application immediately following contact—and ensuring that best service was received.”

Company PR promises that “Using automated voice messages in a hosted environment allows businesses to reach customers faster without the need for live agents or on-premise hardware and software. As a result, businesses now have a cost-effective survey solution that can be applied to virtually any type of customer service initiative that is supported by a call center.”

Asurion, a provider of specialty insurance, warranty and other marketing services to the wireless telecommunications industry, is leveraging the combined solution to continuously survey and measure customer experience with its roadside assistance service, of which it is reportedly the wireless-based leader.

Mindshare Technologies is a specialist in Customer Experience Management solutions, with clients in over 25 industries, including travel, hospitality, financial services, and retail, with customer sizes ranging from a fifty-unit fine-dining restaurant chain to a 7,000 seat call centers.

Headquartered in Burlington, Mass., SoundBite Communications is a leading provider of fully-hosted on-demand automated customer contact solutions. SoundBite’s calling and messaging solutions, are used in sales, marketing, customer care and collections applications at over 250 organizations use SoundBite’s solutions in the collections, financial services, retail, utilities, telecommunications, insurance, healthcare and media industries. SoundBite numbers show the company delivered over 500 million calls and 200 million messages in 2005.

UAE conglomerate ETA & Star Group has announced the completion of a massive implementation of SAP’s mySAP Business Suite across over 70 companies in a nine-month, US $7 million project. mySAP ERP and mySAP Customer Relationship Management were rolled out across the conglomerate “in a bid to unify its business processes, improve performance across its operations in twelve industries and support its expansion plans.” Now that’s heavy labor.

Arif Rahman, ETA & Star Group director of finance, sounds sold on the deal, reporting to IT Weekly that “Before we were not able to conduct very effective treasury operations. We have over 100 bank accounts and treasury operations were very complex and not real-time. With SAP, everything becomes real-time.”

According to IT Weekly, “The initial SAP rollout included full implementation of all ERP modules at three of ETA’s companies while the financial and human capital management modules were implemented across all 70 companies during a nine-month project carried out by one of SAP’s global implementation service partner, Larsen and Toubro.”

On those expansion plans, Abid Junaid, executive director of ETA Star Property Developers, stated that they’d soon be jumping further from the lands of the UAE: “We are not just expanding internally, we are also looking at overseas expansion. If we have systems in place then rollout will be easier in other regions.”

ERP web-based solutions provider Biber, Inc. has announced a new FirstAlign solution initiative targeting the small- to mid-size laboratory market. No-nonsense christened Small Business ERP Laboratory Software is designed to “bring Fortune 500 capabilities without the fortune price tag.”

The FirstAlign ERP Laboratory Software seeks to provide users with management functionalities allowing them to track all basic information on their clients: With FirstAlign the user is promised the ability to schedule tests, edit contacts, email reports, and track audits. Direct uploading of reports, direct publishing of reports to the customer portal website, and direct email reports right from the system are promised.

FirstAlign, a division of Biber, Inc., is a provider of custom web-based ERP software and laboratory solutions. Biber provides a set of BPO services including call center, telemarketing, data processing, and software development.

ERP web-based solutions provider Biber, Inc. has announced a new FirstAlign solution initiative targeting the small- to mid-size laboratory market. No-nonsense christened Small Business ERP Laboratory Software is designed to “bring Fortune 500 capabilities without the fortune price tag.”

The FirstAlign ERP Laboratory Software seeks to provide users with management functionalities allowing them to track all basic information on their clients: With FirstAlign the user is promised the ability to schedule tests, edit contacts, email reports, and track audits. Direct uploading of reports, direct publishing of reports to the customer portal website, and direct email reports right from the system are promised.

FirstAlign, a division of Biber, Inc., is a provider of custom web-based ERP software and laboratory solutions. Biber provides a set of BPO services including call center, telemarketing, data processing, and software development.

3i Infotech has announced a full-scale plunge into the Saudi Arabia market with its creation of a fully owned subsidiary for the country, 3i Infotech will set up offices in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam to “tap into the Middle East’s largest services and solutions market.”

The company will promote its banking, insurance, other financial and government services solutions, in addition to its Enterprise Resource Planning solution, Orion. As 3i Infotech deputy managing director Hari Padmanabhan explained, “Saudi Arabia is not only making investments in infrastructure initiatives, but is bringing about significant changes in the regulatory environment for the financial markets.”

Farooque Khan is 3i Infotech’s senior vice president in the Europe Middle East Africa region and operating head for Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. Offices will be setup in Riyadh, followed by Jeddah and Dammam.

3i Infotech is a Mumbai-based enterprise solution and service provider founded in 1999. 3i Infotech today serves over 500 customers in more than fifty countries on five continents, in verticals such as BFSI, automotive, chemical, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, and retail and distribution.

Representatives of Encompix have announced that G.H. Tool & Mold has implemented the Encompix ERP system.

Located in Washington, Mo., G.H. Tool & Mold specializes in the design and manufacture of turnkey die cast and trim die projects. The company’s customer consists of automotive, lawn and garden, and other industrial applications; G.H. also supports the aerospace industry with five-axis machining capabilities and mold repair.

G.H. Tool & Mold replace its old unnamed ERP system with Encompix. “We really needed a system built for an engineer-to-order, not make-to-order, environment,” said Pat Dolan, G.H. CFO. “We looked at several systems but, overall, Encompix was the best fit.”

Encompix, a business unit of Made2Manage Systems, has specialized in manufacturing software requirements of engineer-to-order companies since 1992.

Founded in 1986, Made2Manage Systems now has over 2,150 customers for their enterprise resource planning software in over thirty manufacturing sectors, including industrial and commercial machinery; fabricated metals; rubber and plastics; electronics; analytical and measuring equipment; furniture and fixtures; durable goods; and metals; wire and cable.

Enterprise resource planning solutions provider Epicor Software Corporation has gotten a mandate from the world’s leadership of the great game of cricket, the International Cricket Council. Epicor execs made the announcement at the GITEX 2006 convention at the Dubai International Exhibition and Convention Centre. GITEX is billed as the “Middle East’s premier IT expo.”

The ICC’s integrated ERP mandate to Epicor will begin with the implementation of Epicor iScala financial management and iScala Active Planner for enterprise-wide budgeting and forecasting. Epicor officials promised that the implementation would assist the cricket entity in “streamlin[ing] its business processes with end-to-end visibility.”

ICC CFO Faisal Hasnain stated that “Our decision to partner with Epicor comes at a time of a rapid expansion of our activities and the need to have an integrated ERP system to further streamline our business processes, reduce costs and save time.” (Is the ICC really expanding activities? Good on ‘em.)

The ICC was founded on June 15, 1909 by Australia, England and South Africa. These three founding members have since been joined by seven full members, 32 associate members and 55 affiliate members, including such well-known cricket hotbeds as Mexico and Cuba.

The Epicor client portfolio now numbers 350 sites in the Middle East and North Africa. Founded in 1984, Irvine, Calif.-based Epicor Software serves over 20,000 customers in more than 140 countries in thirty-one languages. Epicor delivers end-to-end, industry-specific solutions for manufacturing, distribution, retail, hospitality and services.

From the nether side of the world – it doesn’t matter from where your vantage point comes, as long as you’re outside Oceania, it’s the nether side – Steamships Trading Company Limited, a Papua New Guinea trading company, will implement Pronto Software’s flagship ERP product, Pronto-Xi.

Never heard of Steamships Trading? Well, good old ST is listed on the Australian Stock exchange, and is one of the largest private-sector employers in Papua New Guinea with a workforce of over 2500, and has interests in hotels, shipping, transport, properties, manufacturing and hardware.

Steamships Trading representatives stated that their firm is changing management structure, with a strategic objective of providing each business unit quasi-independent operational while simultaneously capturing the requisite financial information for corporate reporting and governance.

Steamships first became familiar with Pronto-Xi via the implementation at Datec PNG, a joint venture subsidiary. Datec was later considered a pilot for the Steamships project after “further investigation showed that Pronto-Xi is able to meet the company’s strategic objectives.”

The folks at Pronto Software, meanwhile, state that the win “cements [the firm’s] position as Papua New Guinea’s marketing leading ERP vendor.”

News from the big boys today, and that news is that they’re getting bigger.

Oracle figures just released show that Oracle On Demand has surpassed 1.7 million users, representing more than 2,200 customers. And in the first quarter of fiscal year 2007, Oracle On Demand revenue grew by nearly 50 percent.

In this last quarter, Oracle welcomed more than 100 global customers or extended Oracle On Demand with organizations including Administaff Inc., CDI Business Solutions, Compass Holding Group, LLC., Equifax ISS, Fuji Xerox Information Systems, Hanover Compressor Company, Maximus Inc., Minerals Technologies, Inc., Moduslink Corporation, Motorola, SGS Societe Generale de Surveillance and State Farm Insurance.

This recent success of their on-demand solutions allowed Oracle to reiterate its newfound commitment to the party line, quoting statistics that claim Software as a Service will account for 25 percent of all new business software delivered by 2011.

And The Big Company reminds that “Oracle On Demand also continues to integrate applications from ProfitLogic, Retek, and G-Log.”