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Vormittag Associates, Inc., an ERP solution provider specializing in the IBM iSeries, has announced the pre-configuring of its S2K enterprise management software with the Extol International line of business integration software.

In hopes of expediting commonly used business integration functions, certain S2K functions automatically launch views and maps to Extol Integrator. For example, S2K now ships with preconfigured maps between Extol and major trading partners; Extol functionality includes EDI management that integrates with multiple departments and applications throughout the enterprise.

Companies currently using the S2K/EBI product include Dorcy International, Badanco Enterprises, Maple Leaf Farms and Beer Nuts. (Mmmmm, beer nuts!)

Extol International, Inc. is a provider of B2B integration application software for companies seeking to integrate demand-driven supply chains. Extol solutions are available preconfigured to address specific electronic commerce applications including EDI, AS2, XML, and data synchronization.

Vormittag Associates, Inc. is an IBM premier business partner and software developer. Designed for the mid-range market, S2K Enterprise applications include Warehouse Pro, EDI, CRM and e-Business. VAI is headquartered in Ronkonkoma, N.Y.

Gosport (Hmm, is that “Goss port” or “Go sport”?) Borough Council announced its implementation of software from GGP Systems and IT developer Status Computers described as “an innovative call centre system that live-connects to maps and key council information via the web.” Essentially, the system gives call centre staff instant on-screen access to addresses, council records and location maps.

GGP sees its offering as something beyond “a conventional Customer Relationship Management system,” stating that for Gosport GGP and Status seamlessly integrated CRM, GIS, a central NLPG-standard address gazetteer, and key back office systems. Status Computers now lays claim to having developed the first commercial CRM-type system specifically for local authorities.

Gosport is currently integrating back office system such as CAPS used in Planning and Environmental Health, Respond in Leisure Services and another Status-developed system in Waste Management.

Croydon, U.K.-based GGP Systems describes its wares as “a complete solution for the creation, maintenance, management and analysis of geographically enabled information, for example an address, postcode or map reference.”

TMCNet is reporting that Dubai-based CRM/ERP software vendor Focus Softnet recently announced growth of 45 percent year-on-year over fiscal year 2006.

Focus Softnet, a CRM and ERP software vendor based in Dubai with more than 18 offices across 10 countries, has announced growth of 45 percent during fiscal year 2006 over the previous year; growth since the company was founded in 2002 has been over 300 percent.

CEO Ali Hyder is quoted as declaring that "Focus Softnet has seen exceptional growth across markets in the Middle East region with the growth rate being significantly higher in UAE, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.”

A fat new report put together by AMI-Partners has the consultancy and industry news wires proclaiming that both ERP and CRM are increasingly becoming mainstream applications for medium-sized enterprises in America.

The study is entitled “AMI-Partners’ 2006-2007 U.S. Small and Medium Business Applications & Solutions Market Overview” and the sales pitch for the 124-page behemoth promises to answer questions like “What does the U.S. SMB landscape for business applications solutions look like now, and how is it evolving? What are the hottest opportunities for growth…? [W]hat do you need to do to gain market share in a highly fragmented and underserved SMB market?”

Based on AMI’s 2006-2007 U.S. Small and Medium Business end-user surveys, the report supplies in-depth information, broken down by company size and vertical industry for SMB adoption, plans, spending forecasts, drivers and inhibitors, and channels in accounting, ERP, CRM, SaaS, PC OSs, and network operating systems. The report also examines key related trends, including SMB demographics and attitudes; adoption and future plans for internet-related technologies; and IT and business process outsourcing services.

Vendors highlighted in the report include Intuit, Sage, Microsoft, SAP, Salesforce.com, NetSuite, IBM, Google, ADP, and Intacct. Some key statistics presented in the framework of the analysis include:

• Over one-third of survey respondents are currently using ERP/SCM solutions, and another one-quarter are planning to deploy such in the next 12 months.

• Almost 40 percent of medium-sized businesses use CRM solutions today, and almost one-quarter plan to adopt CRM in the next two months.

• Although almost three-quarters of SMBs use business accounting software, just 12 percent of small businesses currently use ERP/SCM software with 11 percent further expecting to do so within the next 12 months.

• 75 percent of those surveyed use an accounting/financials module that is part of an integrated suite.

• U.S. small businesses are “more likely to take a wait-and-see attitude, especially when it comes to ERP/SCM.”

In summation, AMI-Partners analyst Sau Lam says that “This data indicates that U.S. MBs have made the connection between streamlining and automating business processes, and maximizing productivity and value in the market.”

Last week, AMI-Partners released their study on the Voice over Internet Protocol market, entitled “Making the Move to Hosted VoIP or Premise-Based IP-PBX: Different Approaches to SMB VoIP Implementation."

“AMI-Partners’ 2006-2007 U.S. Small and Medium Business Applications & Solutions Market Overview” is available at the Access Markets International website.

New York City-based AMI-Partners specializes in IT, internet, telecommunications and business services strategy, venture capital, and actionable market intelligence, with emphasis on global small- and medium-sized business enterprises.

CDC Software, wholly owned subsidiary of CDC Corporation and a provider of enterprise software applications, announced today that The 401(k) Company has chosen the Pivotal Customer Relationship Management suite. 401(k) cited Pivotal’s industry-specific functionality as key to their decision, in theory allowing “employees to develop deeper insight into their clients’ needs, preferences, and influencers, accompanied by tools that will help automate multi-step processes, track performance, and provide better team collaboration.”

The 401(k) Company will use the Pivotal CRM for Financial Services to do the single client view voodoo things and, among other tasks, will “institute a ‘corporate memory’ to easily understand historical information and improve operational efficiency by streamlining manual processes.”

A subsidiary of Columbus, Ohio-based insurance and financial services giant Nationwide Financial Service, the 401(k) Company is focused on employers’ defined-contribution plans. The 401(k) Companies provide clients with a range of services, including record keeping; plan consulting and compliance; employee communications; trustee services; and interfacing with fund providers to administer plans.

Pivotal Corporation is a software unit of CDC Corporation that boasts of clientele of 1,800 companies all its own, including Farm Credit Services of America, WCI Communities, Premera Blue Cross, Qiagen, ESRI, AvMed Health Plans, Sharp Electronics Corporation, and CMS Cameron McKenna.

CDC Software is a provider of enterprise software applications designed to assist organizations in delivering a superior customer experience. The CDC Software product suite includes Pivotal CRM, c360 CRM, Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform development tools, Ross enterprise resource planning, Ross supply chain management, IMI warehouse management, order management, Platinum China human resource solutions, and business analytics.

CDC Software now boasts more than 5,000 customers worldwide in the manufacturing, financial services, health care, home building, real estate, and wholesale and retail distribution industries. CDC Software is a division of CDC Corporation, a provider of enterprise resource planning and supply chain management software applications in addition to its CRM solutions.

1TouchSoftware Solutions Inc., a provider of fully integrated Enterprise Restaurant Management Systems (a.k.a. eRMS), today announced the expansion of the 1TouchSoftware eRMS to include enhanced integrated customer relationship management capabilities.

Slightly more specifically, 1TouchSoftware has upgraded the 1Touch.pos front-of-the-house module with real-time CRM functions. The features promise to allow generation of customer loyalty statistics, birthday and anniversary dates, meal and beverage preferences, preferred seating and server, and special needs such as allergies, accessibility and diets. Huh.

1TouchSoftware Solutions, Inc. provides integrated enterprise restaurant management product and marketing software. Based on a centrally hosted architecture, the 1TouchSoftware suite of integrated software products includes POS, Enterprise Management, Enterprise Reporting, Customer Relationship Management and Loyalty programs.

I guess the moral of this story is “Sometimes even the toolmaker needs a tool.” In this case, the former is Simmons Machine Tool Corporation and the latter Encompix ERP.

Actually the decision on the part of Simmons was some time in th making. David Simonian, Simmons CFO (say that five times fast), admitted that “We looked at Encompix many years ago, but were not ready to buy at that time.”

Encompix ERP promises to improve data accuracy and give Simmons the coveted power of real-time data.

Founded in 1910, Simmons Machine Tool Corporation specializes in designing and building special machine tools for the wheelset, wheel and axle maintenance workshops of railways, metros, and transits worldwide. Located in Albany, N.Y., Simmons Machine Tool Corporation is a member of the NSH Group, which was created in 2000 by the consolidation of Niles-Simmons, and Hegenscheidt-MFD in Germany.

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

Technology Group International started their work week with the announcement that Verndale Products has selected Enterprise 21 ERP software from the firm. In making the decision, the Verndale folks consulted with the staff of Plante & Moran Management Consulting.

Founded by LaVerne and Marlene Johnson in 1958 in Detroit, Michigan, Verndale manufactures roller processed whole milk powder for chocolate manufacturers across the United States. The decision to purchase an ERP system is reflective of a “a generational change in ownership” currently happening at the company. Verndale general manager Fred Kreger stated that key in the implementation was the need “to transition from a closely held system to a multiple participant system."

Founded in 1990 and headquartered in Toledo, Ohio, Technology Group International specializes in software systems for small- and mid-market manufacturing and distribution companies. TGI’s flagship is its integrated Enterprise Series software suite, which includes Enterprise Resources Planning, Manufacturing Resource Planning, Supply Chain Management , Warehouse Management System, Advanced Planning and Scheduling, Decision Support System, Business Intelligence, Manufacturing Execution System, and eCommerce.

Software evaluation firm Technology Evaluation Centers announces the launch of its ERP for Services online evaluation center. Roll up for the magical ERP tour: TEC recommends service companies visit the new ERP for Services evaluation center, enter their priorities into TEC decision-support engine eBestMatch, and compare ERP solutions.

TEC philosophy revolves around the belief that improper ERP implementation is “primarily a failure in the request for information (RFI) process, by which customers evaluate their shortlisted vendors.” TEC therefore promises its sophisticated tools for evaluating and selecting the right enterprise software solutions, particularly at the critical RFI stage, can help eliminate these kinds of problems.

For TEC’s purposes, Enterprise Resource Planning for Services is defined as an “enterprise-wide, integrated information system that manages the operations, services and resources for service organizations.”

Established in 1993, Technology Evaluation Center touts itself as “the leading on-line source for impartial technology and consulting evaluations.” TEC boasts some twenty-two on-line technology evaluation centers, including those in PPM, ERP, CRM, SCM and BI, offering critique on more than 800 software solutions.

The ERP for Services Evaluation Center is an on-line decision support system featuring research on the leading ERP for Services vendors. The ‘site covers solutions ranging from financials, project accounting, CRM, resource planning, performance management, portfolio management, project management, time management, expense reporting and project billing/costing to workflow, knowledge management, and collaboration.

Now this is an excellently-named bunch. The folks at Xactly Corporation (oh, that’s Xcellent), an automated on-demand sales compensation management solutions provider, are publicizing recent market research findings showing that “sales performance management is a fast-developing category which is likely to be dominated by the leading sales incentive compensation management vendors.”

Gartner Inc. has some compelling words on the subject, as they always seem to do. The market research firm’s “Predicts 2007” series of studies reads, “A sales performance management market will coalesce around best-of-breed vendors largely originating from the sales incentive compensation management market. This is the domain that has developed into a sustainable, discrete market” and “SaaS has become the preferred model for add-on applications on top of an existing ERP/human resource management solution. Significant uptake of SaaS solutions has already occurred in recruitment and employee performance management.”

Xactly founder/president/CEO Christopher W. Cabrera is seeking to draw attention to his claim: “Xactly is the only vendor to offer a true multi-tenant on-demand sales compensation management application with extensive data management and analytics capabilities.”

That application is known as the Xactly Incent on-demand sales compensation management solution; the program is designed for sales and finance executives, compensation analysts, sales operations and sales professionals.