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…
Mark Loveys 