Archive for the 'Project Costing' Category

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Elliot Cooper, co-founder and CFO of Enprise Group

April 24, 2010

A rare photo of Elliot...

Here is a rare photograph of Elliot Cooper, co-founder and CFO of the Enprise Group.

Elliot and I have worked together in several businesses over the last 15 or so years, firstly at PC Direct, then at Exonet and now at the Enprise Group. He’s a legendary finance man and a great accounting software designer – with a particular interest in Job Costing (or Project Costing). Elliot was very instrumental in the design of both Enprise Job Costing for SAP Business One and prior to that the Exonet ERP system.

With Elliot’s significant input into its design, it’s no wonder that Enprise Job Costing is so strong in the area of General Ledger integration with SAP Business One.

Posted in Enprise Job Costing, ERP, MYOB EXO, Project Costing, SAP Business One, Sap Isv | Leave a Comment »
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SME’s Prefer Local Presence for ERP Sales & Service

April 11, 2010

Having clocked up more than 20 years of working in the ERP industry targeting small to medium enterprises (SMEs), I can now state confidently that there are some truths to this business that will probably never change.

Some of those truths are as follows…

  • Small and medium-sized businesses prefer to buy from and deal with local people, when it comes to ERP and accounting software. They want to eyeball and have face to face access with the people they are dealing with.
  • However, those businesses have no problem with using a centralized help desk function which is accessed by toll-free phone or the Internet – if it is offered in conjunction with localized representation.
  • SME focused resellers and service agents with only one geographic location therefore tend to be very generalist and opportunist about what type of solutions they sell and the customers they sell to. In other words they resist specialization because they only have a limited market of customers in their locality. This is obviously not the case for resellers that have wide regional coverage – as they have a larger accessible market and can afford to build up expertise in particular vertical markets.

For the above reasons, from the perspective of Enprise Software we are now seeing a consolidation of our SAP Business One ERP resellers that sell Enprise Job Costing, evident everywhere, but particularly in North America. The result is fewer reseller organisations, but with a much more spread-out branch structure and centralized customer support functions.

One of our best Enprise Job Costing partners that has been particularly successful in its geographic expansion with centralized support, is Vision-33 which now has regional offices in Irvine CA, Los Angeles CA, San Francisco CA, Salt Lake City UT, Seattle WA, Portland OR, Houston TX, Austin TX, Dallas TX, Fort Lauderdale FL and St Johns NL Canada.

Locally in New Zealand, Enprise New Zealand has been following the same strategy of building up a network of regional sales & implementation offices, with centralized support to claim the mantle of a “Nationwide” presence. Enprise NZ has offices & representation in Auckland, Waikato, Wellington and Christchurch (further regional expansion is planned for this year) . Centralized support is offered through toll-free 0800 numbers and Internet support web site.

I believe this is the best model for SME ERP sales and service. This is evidenced by the stellar sales success currently being enjoyed by both Vision-33 and Enprise New Zealand as they expand their presence in their respective markets. They can specialize in the types of solutions they offer to the market, building up specialized expertise, rather than needing to be all things to all people. It should also be said that specialized expertise and the quantities of scale achieved by these larger organizations leads to more successful outcomes for customers and greater profitability for the reseller…and that must be a good thing.

Posted in Enprise Job Costing, ERP, MYOB EXO, Project Costing, SAP Business One, Sap Isv | Leave a Comment »
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SAP Business One just keeps getting more compelling

April 5, 2010

SAP Business One is today a well-proven and successful ERP platform for SME Businesses around the world. It is now supported in over 80 countries by over 820 VAR Partners and boasts over 500 add-on solutions built by over 300 Solution Partners. As a platform for developing specific vertical-market solutions, Business One has excelled with its Data and User Interface API’s, which enable third-party developers (like Enprise Software) to develop add-on modules that look, interact and reside with Business One as if they were part of the core product itself.

Later this month, the new version 8.8 will be released. This is the version that the SAP Business One partner community has been waiting for since it went into “ramp-up” (final, live testing on selected and restricted customer sites) in August 2009.

Version 8.8 of SAP Business One has an emphasis on the new technology environment, including enhanced connectivity to “Cloud Computing” solutions & Web Services, Embedded Analytics from SAP Business Objects, further improvements to its SDKs, a new “look and feel”, upgrade wizards etc.

At the same time, Enprise is shipping a new version of the popular Enprise Job Costing for SAP Business One which is fully compatible with Business One 8.8 and features new levels of integration with Microsoft Project.

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SAP Business One – Solution Partner Advisory Council (SPAC)

March 25, 2010

SAP Business One Solution Partner Advisory Council (SPAC) in Copenhagen, May 2008.

SAP Business One is a very successful, SME-focused Business Management / ERP software package that is sold through reseller partner channels throughout the world. I think of it as an SME ERP “platform” because it has an excellent set of API’s for third-party developers / ISVs to develop add-on solutions that look and feel as if they are part of the core Business One package.

The fact that SAP Business One is a developer-friendly, global ERP platform for SME businesses has helped it build up a portfolio of over 500 add-on solutions, built by over 300 ISV or “Solution Partners”. My company Enprise Software is one of these Solution Partners. We are based in New Zealand, yet sell our Job Costing solution all around the world, through SAP’s partner channels.

Given that partner-built solutions (both industry vertical and horizontal) are such a big part of the SAP Business One value offering, it was deemed necessary to set up an advisory council of leading Solution Partners to advise on policies and act as a sounding board for SAP Business One executives.

The SAP Business One Solution Partner Advisory Council (SPAC) was formed in December 2005 and was made up from about 12 of the top SAP Business One Solution Partners from around the world at that time. One of the first tasks the council set itself (in conjunction with SAP) was to define the council’s mission statement. The following statement was constructed back then and remains in place today;

“Maximize the success of SAP’s partner community by driving change, innovation, and ownership of the global SME market.”

Since its creation, the SPAC has worked collaboratively with SAP to:

  • Define and prioritize business requirements for product enhancements
  • Develop a collaborative engagement model for SSP’s and VAR’s to more effectively sell SAP and partner solutions
  • Establish effective release policies that enable SAP and its partners to ensure consistent, quality upgrades
  • Modify solution certification processes & criteria to better suit market needs

I was fortunate to be one of the founding members of the SPAC in December 2005 and today I’m honored to be its Chairperson.

Current members of the SPAC are;

SAP executives specifically and regularly involved with the SPAC are;

  • Jim Kofalt
  • Greg Robinson
  • Ralf Mehnert-Meland

If you would like to communicate with the SPAC, please contact me or one of the listed members, or enter a reply to this article.

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Introducing Enprise Software

March 20, 2010

Along with Enprise New Zealand and EMS-Cortex, Enprise Software is a business unit of the Enprise Group, which is based in Avondale, Auckland, New Zealand.

The Enprise Software business was created in early 2004 when Enprise New Zealand came across SAP Business One in a competitive situation when looking at SME ERP solutions for a prospective customer. We were impressed with SAP Business One and the fact that it came from one of the biggest and most respected names in the world ERP market. We also noted that SAP Business One did not include a Job Costing module.

From our previous business experience of developing and marketing an SME ERP Package called Exonet in the Australasian market, we held a strong belief that a Job Costing module would be applicable to between a quarter and a third of all SME ERP sales. The SAP Business One package therefore looked like it held an exciting opportunity for us to develop a SAP Business One Job Costing Module and market it to the world through the global SAP Business One partner channel.

We were impressed with the technical structure of the Business One product because it had Database and User Interface APIs which enabled us to build our Enprise Job Costing module “inside” the SAP Business One Product, using the same user interface and data integration. The result would be that end-users would be potentially unaware that Enprise Job Costing was not in fact part of the original SAP Business One product.

Upon recognizing this opportunity, we wasted no time in hiring Lita Teng, one of the finest software developers we knew and who was also the first programmer I’d hired in my first company Orbit Software. Lita, together with Enprise co-founder Elliot Cooper (who designed much of Exonet’s Job Costing functionality) started working on designing and building Enprise Job Costing for SAP Business One. It was an experienced team working in a product area they knew well. Elliot’s financial background and expertise gave the product a strong General Ledger and Financial Reporting base which has yet to be rivaled by any Job Costing/Product Costing product I’ve seen in this market segment.

We realized that to take Enprise Job Costing to the world, we’d need some significant capital backing, so we signed up with TMT Ventures (a Technology Venture Capital Fund managed by Direct Capital). TMT invested over $2M into the Enprise Group and also contributed the nucleus of another of their investee companies, EMS-Cortex to be rolled into the Enprise Group as one of our three business units.

With new capital on board we immediately restructured our business into the three business units; Enprise Software, Enprise New Zealand and EMS-Cortex. For Enprise Software we hired Ben Bernstone to build up the global sales channel (as he had done for Exonet a number of years earlier) and Enprise co-founder Leanne Graham to lead the business unit (Leanne also had a very strong software sales background).

Over the following years Enprise Software built up a global sales channel of over 100 SAP Business One value-added resellers, predominantly in the English Speaking Countries (USA, Canada, UK, Ireland, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand).

Enprise engaged heavily in SAP’s strategic initiatives and helped to develop and pilot test their Micro-Vertical strategy for SAP Business One. Senior SAP executives from Europe visited Enprise at their Avondale premises to work directly on these strategies. Enprise Software personnel (including myself) also spent (and continue to spend) a significant amount of time travelling around the world to visit and work directly with SAP and SAP Channel partners.

I was one of the founding members of the SAP Business One Solution Partner Advisory Council (SPAC), established in December 2005 in San Francisco. Today I’m honored to be the Chairperson of the SPAC. My involvement in this council has given me much invaluable insight into the inner workings of SAP, their policies and their people. I have also made many valuable contacts and friendships with significant SAP partners around the world.

Today Enprise Software is led by General Manager Jason Langley, is trading profitably and continually increasing it’s reach and success around the world. Enprise is totally operated from Avondale, New Zealand and makes extensive use of the Internet to Sell and Support sales of its products around the world. The Enprise Software team still includes Lita Teng as lead developer, along with Product Manager James Brading, Channel Manager Krystle Rosandich and Support Manager Lianne Plant.

This is an exciting business which has fared well through the recent world economic crisis and is set for great success going forward, especially as markets recover and SME businesses return to investing strongly in the efficiencies of their operations.

Stay tuned for great things from Enprise Software…

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