Agile enough to follow manufacturing market demand
By Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 7/1/2006 6:00:00 AM
Just months after a rousing 2004 user conference, a cautious economic climate and the distractions of Sarbanes-Oxley caused ERP vendor QAD to cut costs and redouble its development efforts.
Since then, as seen in financial results released in May, the company has been broadly successful in doing this, proving once again that there's a niche—and a profitable one—for a $225-million ERP vendor with a strong line of manufacturing-specific applications.
"QAD leverages its differences from the mega-suite ERP vendors by being agile enough to follow changing manufacturing market demand," says Pam Lopker, QAD chairman and president.
One example is the introduction last year of QAD's Shared Services Domain solution, now incorporated in the Global Enterprise Edition of QAD Enterprise Applications. Prompted by requests from QAD's characteristically vocal users, it allows multiple divisions within a single enterprise to maintain different currencies, charts of accounts, manufacturing configurations, and other business options on a single system with a single database.
Some time in fiscal 2007, says Lopker, QAD plans to extend these Shared Services Domain capabilities with an enhanced Distributed Order Management solution. This allows a combination of global integration and local execution, with rule- and role-based order-management tools accommodating various business models.
Web services mark another example of QAD's agility, adds Lopker, who notes that customers want to be able to deploy multiple, best-of-breed applications—yet reduce the need for the costly and time-consuming integration effort involved in getting applications to interact.
Now, starting with its MFG/PRO eB2.1 release, QAD is adopting a service-oriented architecture through the use of Progress Software's OpenEdge and Sonic technology. "This will enable both QAD and its customers to build and integrate applications using Web services," Lopker concludes.
QAD launches Automotive Edition enterprise apps; AIAG partnership for materials management training
08/23/2007Shared expertise: Enterprise partnership seeks to support automakers, med device manufacturers
10/31/2007Outsourcing for success: Managed services partnership lets Italian manufacturer focus on growth
01/29/2008Suites made simpler
12/01/2002
Featured Company
Most Recent Resources
- FICO™ Xpress Optimization Suite Schedules Big Profits For Clients
- Strategic Pricing: Three Steps to Higher Profit Margins
- Driving Innovation Through Lean Product Development Practices
- Demand Planning Maturity Model Strategies for Demand-Driven...
- Simulation-Driven Product Development:Will Form Finally Follow...
