And now the sequel
New CEO Greenough says SSA GT focused on 'customer share'
By Kevin Parker, Editorial Director -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 12/1/2001 12:00:00 AM
Without a hint of irony, Michael Greenough, since May of this year president, CEO, and Chairman of SSA Global Technologies (SSA GT), Chicago, says the bulk of the enterprise software supplier's development efforts are in support of manufacturers resident on the IBM iSeries (formerly known as the AS/400 midrange computer). If only those who formerly had charge of the evolution of Business planning and control system software had believed equally strongly that this was where its strength lay, they might have saved themselves plenty of trouble.
At its recent Global Client Forum, held in Boca Raton, Fla., SSA GT announced major elements of its development plans going forward, and described a company global in scope servicing global customers.
According to Martin Ambrose, vice president, solutions management, the first half of 2000 was spent compiling a strategy for moving BPCS forward into the age of the extended enterprise. A major release—version 8, in June of this year—added vertical and cross-industry functionality and set in place a foundation for Internet-enablement of the system.
At the client forum, SSA GT announced the availability of sell-side, buy-side, and supply chain management extensions to BPCS, as well as for service and sales force management. Also announced were enhancements to its Global Client Care services and support program. The emphasis placed on this aspect of its business is only natural. As Greenough says, "We are as much interested in 'customer share' as we are market share."
Nor is use of the word global a throwaway line. About 60 percent of SSA GT employees, says Greenough, have English as a second language, and its business is near-evenly split in thirds amongst the Americas, Europe, and Asia. The fastest growth is in Asia, and particularly in the Japanese automotive supply and aftermarket—a breakthrough by anyone's measure, given the traditional reluctance of Japanese industry to adopt packaged software applications.
The clear message emanating from Boca Raton was that BPCS was a viable platform for the future, given SSA GT's financial stability, clear product strategy, and focused operations.
Why it matters
One of the biggest issues facing manufacturers in selecting an enterprise software vendor is the long-term viability of the application supplier. Not much could be worse than—after going to the tremendous effort of implementing the information backbone that's supposed to support your company for years to come—finding the system's vendor sold to its main competitor.
The danger is a real one. As enterprise system market growth slowed in the new millennium, consolidation followed, and no one can say that this market winnowing is yet at an end.
Competitors buy each other for different reasons. Their products may be complementary, or they may not. If they're not, then the buyer must choose what product lines to support in ongoing development efforts, justifying its purchase based on services to the installed base acquired and the hope of its migrating to the supported systems at some future time.
That's why the 6,500 customers at 16,000 sites with systems from the former Systems Software Associates (SSA) might count themselves lucky that the vendor wasn't sold to a competitor, but rather, filed Chapter 11 and reconstituted as SSA Global Technologies. There can be little doubt that SSA GT's raison d'être can be anything but servicing the installed base of SSA customers, including extending system functionality.
It wasn't that long ago that SSA was one of the biggest ERP vendors in the world. According to the MSI Software Top 100, the vendor's revenues in calendar years 1997 and 1998 were more than $400 million, and ranked five and six respectively in the listings those two years.
The road back
But by calendar year 1999, revenue had fallen to $316 million. After rising to prominence as a system strong in core manufacturing functionality and running on the IBM AS/400, it is said that SSA floundered in its attempt to move its applications onto other computing platforms and make them "object-oriented." Prospective buyers had to choose between a system that was due to be phased out and an emerging one that reports said wasn't stable. Instead they went elsewhere.
The Chapter 11 filing came in July 2000. Subsequently, a private investor group that includes Cerebrus Capital and Gores Technologies Group purchased most of the company's assets and renamed it. Company revenues in calendar year 2000 were $174 million, according to the MSI Top 100.
At its present size, SSA GT must pick its spots, says Greenough, eschewing extensive development in its Microsoft Windows NT and UNIX lines of BPCS software, except where there is clear and present demand. While it says it's getting input from a full range of its customers, SSA GT remains acutely aware of the importance of about 25 global group accounts—which include such major corporations as Heinz, 3M, and Unilever— to its long-term health and well being.
SSA GT remains focused on the industrial sector, most specifically in the automotive supply, consumer goods—including food & beverage, tobacco, and consumer electronics—pharmaceutical, chemical, and general manufacturing industries.
Servigistics and Click Commerce say merger forms the largest service lifecycle management company
07/06/2009What will it take?
11/01/2002A done deal
08/01/2003
