Hot bytes
Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 10/1/2003 12:00:00 AM
The until-now fairly obscure chinadotcom announced two acquisitions in the manufacturing software sector in September, within five days of each other. They include process ERP vendor Ross Systems, in a deal valued at approximately $68.9 million; and a controlling interest in supply chain execution vendor IMI. But who is chinadotcom? Briefly, it is an integrated enterprise software and solutions company focused on the Asia market. Technically, the deals involve CDC Software Holdings, the company's software arm, which also will function as a distributor in Asia for applications from IMI and Ross. Clearly, chinadotcom has emerged as both an investor/owner of enterprise software companies, and as an attractive channel into a high-growth region. As J. Patrick Tinley, Ross Systems' chairman and CEO, comments, "The synergies of this business combination will accelerate the introduction of the iRenaissance products into the Greater China region and provide Ross Systems with economies of scale in our software development process that we believe will significantly enhance our competitive position." .... Other recent deals involve sourcing solutions vendor Emptoris, which has picked up Zeborg, a leading spend analytics firm, to accelerate Emptoris' growth in the projected $1.7-billion procurement and sourcing applications market. Emptoris says its users can expect to see expanded sourcing domain expertise and category knowledge, specifically for indirect spending categories.... Enterprise suite vendor SSA Global is back in the news, but this time, it's a partnership, not another acquisition. SSA Global is licensing a product configuration system from Firepond as one of its solution options. .... The Associated Press reported that during the hour before the nation's worst blackout, engineers in the control center of an Ohio utility struggled to figure out why transmission lines were failing. But that blackout wasn't enough to interrupt the regular services of Rockwell Automation's Customer Support Center near Cleveland. A backup generator/uninterrupted power supply and a series of redundant systems ensured Rockwell's tech-support personnel remained available to customers 24/7. The center answered 510 incoming calls after the power went out on Aug. 14, and 2,590 calls on Aug. 15.... Datasweep's expertise in the Asia Pacific market was key to the decision to make the Datasweep Advantage manufacturing execution suite the "cornerstone manufacturing solution" in the Keystone Alliance Program, a bundled offering that includes HP, Intel, and Microsoft solutions and platforms for Asia Pacific. HP will provide systems integration for projects initiated under the alliance, including implementation of all apps in Advantage in Asia Pacific.... Apriso and Matrics are teaming up for turnkey production automation, inventory management, and asset management solutions based on Matrics' RFID technology and Apriso's supply chain solutions. Apriso says it offers the first suite of enterprise apps that can deal with the new business processes and massive amounts of real-time information that a fully realized RFID deployment can generate.
