Projected SSA Global IPO says much about enterprise market's future

By Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 5/1/2005 12:00:00 AM MDT

Even as Oracle seeks through acquisitions to grow its enterprise applications business to the size of SAP's, less noticed is the horse race going on one tier below, where vendors are looking to quickly grow to a size ranging from $500 million to $1 billion.

Companies in this tier include enterprise vendors SSA Global and Infor, as well as supply chain vendor Manhattan Associates.

"It's hard to imagine surpassing SAP or Oracle anytime soon," says Cory Eaves, CTO with SSA Global, speaking at National Manufacturing Week 2005 in Chicago. "But we are a viable alternative, and will be one of the five or six [second-tier vendors] left standing."

SSA has two major enterprise system product lines: the first, SSA ERP LX, is descended from BPCS out of the former SSA; the second, SSA ERP LN, is descended from the former Baan.

To ensure resources for further growth, SSA is looking to an initial public offering (IPO). "We've pushed to become a growth company," says Eaves. "We need to get back on track with more acquisitions and extensions to our product line. We think of this as a beginning and not an end."

In fiscal year ending July 31, 2004, SSA Global's total revenues were nearly $638 million, of which 25 percent was derived from software license sales.

In addition to the two ERP systems—both built on the IBM WebSphere platform—the company has "add-on" products for corporate, customer, financial, human capital, and product management.

"We have a great relationship with IBM, especially in the wake of the PeopleSoft acquisition," says Eaves, "and there are many companies that run SAP at corporate, but our systems in the plant."

SSA has been working on the IPO for more than 10 months. There has been much speculation as to what its relative success or failure will say about the viability of the enterprise systems market. As of press time, no firm date for the IPO to become effective had been set.

Talkback

We would love your feedback!

>>MORE

Featured Company

JUST Systems

Manufacturers clearly recognize the strategic value of using product life-cycle management (PLM) solutions to support the collaborative creation and sharing of product-related information across the value chain. They also understand the value of... more
Firepond

At Firepond, we are guided by a clear mission: to help our customers win more business, faster and more cost efficiently. We combine the industry's top talent, the most sophisticated sales automation technology and the most advanced, on-demand... more
Zebra Enterprise Solutions

Zebra Enterprise Solutions, a division of Zebra Technologies Corporation, extends Zebra's reach beyond passive RFID by employing state-of-the-art software and hardware solutions to locate, track, manage, and optimize high-value assets, equipment... more
Cognizant

Cognizant is a leading provider of information technology, consulting and business process outsourcing services. With more than 40 global delivery centers and over 58,000 employees, we combine a unique onsite/offshore delivery model infused by a... more
Adobe

Adobe helps manufacturers better leverage their existing applications to more effectively and securely collaborate about product designs, project plans, costing estimates, pricing, manufacturing processes, repair procedures, and other sensitive... more