Here are some lessons learned that can help prepare your workforce for this seemingly easy change in process:

• Evaluate the current information flow. If reviews and signatures are involved (for expense reimbursement or requesting time off), is the purpose to approve/decline the request, or is it actually only to be made aware of the request? You may have the opportunity to remove some bureaucratic tasks, if an electronic notification will suffice. Managing the exceptional problematic request takes less time and effort than routing standard transactions through a gauntlet of approvals and managing delegations during absences.
• Create a naming convention that clearly labels information. Searching through vaguely meaningful menu options is frustrating enough, compared to flipping through a physical folder with labeled sections containing various types of paper, which easily identifies the contents with a glance.
• Understand that paper forms may allow less accountability. Let’s say you have a supervisor who has been slow to process a rate increase for their not-so-favorite hourly employee. It’s easy to hide behind “I sent the form in to HR and Payroll, I’m not sure where it’s at.” The employee then sends HR and Payroll on a hunt to find the form, often cycling back to the supervisor to determine when (and if) the form was actually submitted. Going electronic means the supervisor can track the request and report directly back to the employee, which also requires the supervisor to understand processing cut-off dates and payroll cycles. Both employee and supervisors have a learning curve to understand the new information that is available through an integrated electronic system.
• Anticipate role changes. Administrative assistants, HR, and payroll positions may have a significant portion of their time consumed with the management of paper forms. If the process is streamlined, they may no longer be the “gate keeper” of requests. Retraining in new tasks may be required if a role is significantly impacted. For example, clerks who have previously approved and tracked forms may apply their knowledge about the rules and processes in a role where they support new users in the electronic processes.
• Understand that paperless doesn’t negate the need to track and report. Paper forms often trigger a manual entry into a tracking system (usually designed to produce easy reports). Think about a request for time off and the frequency in which employees want to know their vacation balance. How will this information be made available? Electronic processing allows for increased self-serve, which requires education and training. If employees have been going to a certain person for years and years for answers, you will need to deliberately break the habit of being served up information upon request.

To fully harness the benefits of an ERP system, you must understand and manage the changes involved in transitioning from a paper form system to an ERP-enabled electronic routing of transactions. The organizational change management professionals at Panorama Consulting Group would like to hear from you if have a unique challenge facing your organization during your next business process transition.

Blog entry written by Lena Laakso, Manager of Organizational Change Management at Panorama.

First, when we originally launched the database, SYSPRO quickly became the top-rated vendor in terms of overall rating, with an average score of 9.4 out of 10. Cove, IFS, xTuple, and Infor were all not far behind with averages scores of 9.4, 9.2, 9.1, and 8.9 out of 10, respectively. While the data has shifted slightly, the initial results have stayed fairly constant.

There are a few interesting points about this data. First, the current top ten ERP vendors are all considered Tier II and Tier III solutions; none of the larger Tier I ERP vendors are at the top of the charts (e.g. SAP, Oracle, and Microsoft). An open source ERP provider (xTuple) is even among the top-rated ERP solutions.

Second, Tier II and Tier III ERP vendors were the first ERP providers to obtain the largest number of responses. Could this suggest that customers of these smaller ERP vendors are more engaged and satisfied with their solutions?

Although these are very preliminary results with fairly small sample sizes, it is interesting to see the patterns emerge. This is one of several useful data points that can be used as part of an effective ERP selection and evaluation process. We use a number of other proprietary tools and data points when helping clients choose the right ERP software, but this free online resource provides a good starting point.

What are your thoughts on your current ERP software vendor? Visit our online ERP database and share your ratings for your current software provider.

The introduction of the NetSuite Accountant Program highlights a key benefit of cloud-based financials that is practically unachievable with legacy on-premise accounting software. Cloud-based financials enable accounting firms and their clients to securely collaborate through real-time access to the accounts, allowing them to resolve accounting issues and close the books faster than previously possible. It stands in stark contrast to old, on-premise systems such as Great Plains and Sage, which inhibit collaboration by making remote access challenging and often leaving accounting firms working with information from outdated reports and spreadsheets from their clients.

“NetSuite’s Accountant Program enables me to provide superior customer support to my NetSuite clients throughout the United States and Canada,” said Barry Boese, Certified Management Accountant at Baac Office. “Since NetSuite is web-based, I can view transactions and process month-end entries right from my desk, saving all of us time and money while eliminating most travel time and costs.”

The NetSuite Accountant Program provides accounting firms with the following benefits:

• Securely, easily and remotely support clients who are running NetSuite. By joining the program, the accounting firm’s client that is running NetSuite can provide the firm with secure single-seat access to their NetSuite account at their discretion — at no charge to the firm or the client.
• Receive training and tools to learn NetSuite and navigate the client’s NetSuite-based financials. By joining the program, the accounting firm gets discounts on training classes to hone their NetSuite skills, as well as a NetSuite demonstration account to test transaction and report implications in a non-production environment.
• Learn about the latest NetSuite innovations and get advice from fellow NetSuite users. By joining the program, the accounting firm is updated on the latest innovations from NetSuite, and can gain advice from other NetSuite users through complementary membership in the NetSuite User Group, as well as exclusive access to NetSuite thought leadership and networking events.
• Benefits for referring new business to NetSuite. By joining the program, the accounting firm can receive benefits for referring new business to NetSuite with elective eligibility for a 10% commission on the first year’s license for new referrals that translate to NetSuite customers.

The NetSuite Accountant Program is available immediately to all qualified applicants.

For more information about NetSuite, visit www.netsuite.com.

NOTE: NetSuite and the NetSuite logo are registered service marks of NetSuite Inc.

News Facts

• To help higher education institutions effectively manage extensive and diverse admissions application processes, Oracle has launched a new feature pack as a part of its Continuous Delivery Model for Oracle’s PeopleSoft Enterprise Campus Solutions.
• PeopleSoft Enterprise Campus Solutions 9.0 Feature Pack 3 includes Admission Applications Web Services (AAWS) which enable an online admissions application process with self-service capabilities for prospective students and administrators. AAWS enhance the service-oriented architecture (SOA) of Campus Solutions by providing more configurability and flexibility for higher education institutions.
• This edition follows the release of Oracle’s PeopleSoft Enterprise Campus Solutions 9.0 Feature Pack 2 which enhanced institution relations with both students and prospective students by fully integrating the Campus Solutions suite with PeopleSoft Enterprise CRM 9.1 for Higher Education and providing integration support for Campus Solutions Student Financials with Oracle E-Business Suite Financials.
• The Continuous Delivery Model of Campus Solutions enables higher education institutions to avoid disruptive major upgrades by delivering periodic application Feature Packs that provide new functionality to meet immediate needs.

PeopleSoft Enterprise Campus Solutions 9.0 Feature Pack 3 Details

• Using AAWS, institutions can construct and deploy online applications while taking advantage of the integration and interoperability offered by Web services. Once assigned a unique user name, applicants can enter important information such as personal data, intended academic area of study or residency while being able to save their progress and return any number of times until they have completed their work and are ready to submit. Subsequently, administrators can view, manage application data and track the progress of all active admission applications.
• Considering the variability of admissions applications throughout the world, AAWS provide institutions with the flexibility to select and customize online data entry to fit their needs. By having complete control over the format and composition of the application, institutions can incorporate their unique admissions criteria – down to particular colleges or programs – into the admissions database.
• Because PeopleSoft Enterprise Campus Solutions with Feature Pack 3 has self-service capabilities, it is critical to prevent duplicate data entry, which could occur as so many prospective students have access to the system. Configuration options delivered with AAWS allow for automatic search/match processing every time a user saves or submits an admissions application, significantly reducing the chance of duplicates.
• As a part of the admissions process, institutions typically receive multiple types of information about an applicant from external sources. AAWS are formatted to move multiple data records from any external file into the Campus Solutions database, regardless of the type of system or source, reducing the administrative burden of converting information. For instance, institutions can easily import their applicants’ standardized test scores into the admissions database.

Supporting Quotes

• “After reviewing Admission Applications Web Services as part of Feature Pack 3 for Oracle’s PeopleSoft Enterprise Campus Solutions, I believe using AAWS will enable us to improve our ability to provide online admission applications, streamlining all processes involved,” said Debbie Littlefield, senior assistant dean of admissions, Marquette University.
• “Feature Pack 3 for PeopleSoft Enterprise Campus Solutions will enable higher education institutions to make online application processes much more dynamic and provide applicants with access to the system more quickly,” said Jason McIntyre, business analyst, student business solutions, The Australian National University.
• “Oracle’s Admission Applications Web Services will provide higher education institutions with a very good platform on which to build an applications system, while delivering a good return on our investment in other Oracle and PeopleSoft products and support staff,” said Ian Holmes, senior manager, student records product advisory group and SI-net projects, University of Queensland.
• “In many ways, the application process is the first impression an institution makes on a potential student. It is vital for schools to demonstrate a streamlined process that is easy to use from an applicant standpoint and easy to manage from an institution standpoint. Feature Pack 3 and Admission Applications Web Services provide the flexibility to customize the admissions process to an institution’s needs while delivering the tools to organize an abundance of data efficiently, helping schools recruit the best students possible,” said Mark Armstrong, vice president, Oracle Higher Education.

Supporting Resources

• Oracle in Higher Education
• Release: Oracle Launches New Continuous Delivery Model for PeopleSoft Enterprise Campus Solutions
• Release: Oracle Announces General Availability of PeopleSoft Enterprise CRM for Higher Education 9.1

About Oracle

Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) is the world’s most complete, open, and integrated business software and hardware systems company. For more information about Oracle, visit oracle.com.

About Oracle Applications

Over 65,000 customers worldwide rely on Oracle’s complete, open and integrated enterprise applications to achieve superior results. Oracle provides a secure path for customers to benefit from the latest technology advances that improve the customer software experience and drive better business performance. Oracle Applications Unlimited is Oracle’s commitment to customer choice through continuous investment and innovation in current applications offerings. Oracle’s next-generation Fusion Applications build upon that commitment, and are designed to work with and evolve Oracle’s Applications Unlimited offerings. Oracle’s lifetime support policy helps ensure customers will continue to have a choice in upgrade paths, based on their enterprise needs. For more information on the latest Oracle Applications releases go to www.oracle.com/applications.

Trademarks

Oracle and Java are registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

The Design & Manufacturing Midwest Innovation Briefs Theater will offer informative, concise sessions on the latest, advanced technology. The sessions, which are free to show badge holders, are designed to provide information for the improvement of manufacturing processes and profit margins. Each session will be delivered by “industry experts from the world’s leading OEM suppliers,” in a booth on the show floor.

The SYSPRO presentation is set for 1:45 – 2:15 pm on Tuesday, September 28.

About Design & Manufacturing Midwest

Design & Manufacturing Midwest is produced by Canon Communications, the leading producer of face-to-face, digital, print, and online business acceleration products for the world’s $3 trillion advanced, technology-based manufacturing industry.

About SYSPRO

Since its inception in 1978, SYSPRO has been delivering state-of-the-art business solutions to some of the world’s leading companies. As a global leader in the production of world-class ERP software, the company now caters to the specialized needs of 14,500 licensed companies in more than 60 countries worldwide. SYSPRO is marketed globally through regional territory distribution centers and a global reseller network in the US, Canada, Africa, Asia Pacific, Australia and the UK.

SYSPRO is a fully integrated business software solution that provides complete control over the planning and management of all facets of business including accounting, manufacturing and distribution operations in a variety of industries.

For additional information on SYSPRO, call Stanley Goodrich at 714/437-1000 or visit www.syspro.com.

All company names and products mentioned in this release are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

In a new client case study, Intacct highlights the results Matrix is enjoying from its switch to Intacct cloud financial applications. The full case study is available for download at http://us.intacct.com/pr/matrix. Here is a quick overview of the profile:

Previous Business Challenges Faced by Matrix Absence Management:

• Growing company needed a flexible financial management solution that supported automating financial processes
  Wanted a user-friendly solution that could eliminate the need for duplicate data entry
  Looking to implement a cloud-based solution to minimize demands on small IT team

Results with Intacct:

• Streamlined revenue management and other financial processes; reduced monthly close by one full day each month
• Streamlined billing processes to eliminate duplicate data entry, reduce risk of human error and speed monthly invoicing by 20 percent
• Cloud-based financial management solution doesn’t require deploying and maintaining software; needs no IT staff support

Highlighted Comments from Mike Fredericksen, CFO of Matrix Absence Management:

“We put Intacct and NetSuite head to head, and after an extensive evaluation found that Intacct would offer a better return on investment as it was more flexible, had more features and offered a lower total cost of ownership.”

“We’ve seen process and efficiency gains in more areas than we anticipated. Intacct has been a great asset, and we’re continuing to find ways to leverage the solution to improve our business.”

“Intacct’s cloud financial solution offers us all the features and functionality we need today and the option to add additional capabilities as we grow. It’s the perfect combination of high value and low total cost of ownership.”

For additional information on Intacct solutions for business services companies, please visit http://us.intacct.com/solutions/business_administrative_services.php.

About Intacct

Intacct is the market and technology leader in web-based financial management and accounting applications for businesses and CPA firms. Bringing cloud computing to finance and accounting, Intacct’s award-winning applications are the preferred financial applications for AICPA business solutions. Intacct applications are used by thousands of businesses from startups to public companies and are designed to improve company performance and make finance more productive. The Intacct system includes accounting, contract management, revenue recognition, inventory, purchasing, vendor management, financial consolidation and financial reporting applications, all delivered over the Internet via cloud computing.

Intacct is headquartered in San Jose, California. For more information, please visit www.intacct.com or call 877-437-7765.

The contest begins on October 1, and is open to any tax-exempt organization in North America or a registered Canadian charity. On December 18, the top six organizations—three in each of two categories, Smaller Organization and Larger Organization—with the highest total amount raised using Sage Fundraising Online will be deemed winners. The two Grand Prize winners will each receive a $5,000 grant, with the four other winners receiving grants of $1,000 (Second Prize) or $500 (Third Prize).

“Sage Fundraising Online makes it easy for nonprofits to meet their donors where they already are—online,” said Krista Endsley, senior vice president and general manager for Sage Nonprofit Solutions. “Organizations using the service can empower their supporters to recruit others, advocate for their cause, and raise funds. I know nonprofits will see great results with Sage Fundraising Online, and I look forward to congratulating our first Connect with Sage contest winners.”

For more information about the Connect with Sage grant contest, including rules and eligibility, please visit www.connectwithsage.com or call 800-811-0961. For more information about Sage Fundraising Online and other Sage solutions for not-for-profit organizations, please visit www.sagenonprofit.com or call 800-811-0961.

About Sage Fundraising Online

Sage Fundraising Online is a flexible fundraising and event management service that helps nonprofits and other organizations more effectively use the Internet to increase giving, participation, and overall support. Nonprofits can use the service to create web forms, which can be embedded on an existing webpage or social networking site. Selected as a Top New Product for 2010 by Accounting Today magazine, Sage Fundraising Online allows organizations to create donation and event registration forms and other personalized fundraising campaigns, which can be used by donors and participants to fundraise on those organizations’ behalf. The service either integrates or maps to a number of CRM products in the nonprofit software market, including Sage Fundraising 50 v8.2 or higher and Salesforce.com. Sage Fundraising Online is delivered as a Software as a Service (SaaS) and works with almost any website, software platform, or content publishing system, so organizations get the most out of their current technology.

About Sage Nonprofit Solutions

Sage Nonprofit Solutions has been serving nonprofit and governmental organizations for more than 30 years. Sage currently helps more than 3.1 million small and midsized businesses, including more than 32,000 unique not-for-profit organizations in the U.S. and Canada increase efficiency and more easily manage their operations through the use of technology. From fund accounting, donor and fundraising management, and fixed asset management, to online donation processing, human resources (HR), payroll, and health care, Sage offers a software product or service to meet the organization’s need.

About Sage North America

Sage North America is part of The Sage Group plc, a leading global supplier of business management software and services. Sage North America employs 4,000 people and supports 3.1 million small and midsized business customers. The Sage Group plc, formed in 1981, was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1989 and now employs 13,100 people and supports 6.2 million customers worldwide. For more information, please visit the website at www.sagenorthamerica.com.

© 2010 Sage Software, Inc. All rights reserved. Sage, Sage Software, Sage logos and the Sage product and service names mentioned herein are registered trademarks or trademarks of Sage Software, Inc. or its affiliated entities. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

So when I heard “Canary in a Coal Mine” by The Police on the radio the other day, I instantly thought about ERP projects. The song title refers to the phrase stemming from the fact that coal miners would rely on canaries to warn them of dangerous gas leaks that they may not otherwise detect in time to get out alive. The canary was singing when all was well. When it stopped singing, it was usually because it was dead, warning them to get out of the mine before the fumes killed the miners as well.

ERP projects have a similar potentially unnoticeable dynamic. We’ve all heard about massive ERP failures over the years, but those failures didn’t just happen overnight. Instead, a number of toxic “leaks” built up over time until the projects were doomed.

So what are the warnings that you may have a dead canary or two on your hands? Here are a few signs that your ERP project may be in trouble:

1. You’re not reviewing the project with your executive team on at least a bi-monthly basis. This will spell trouble, because you need involvement from your management team to ensure the project is aligned with their expectations, key decisions are being made in a timely fashion, and resources are being directed appropriately. This problem area is also likely to become a root cause for many of the other warning signs listed below.
2. There is no dedicated project team. It is very difficult for your employees to do their day-to-day jobs and also participate effectively in a project as important as this. Many of our clients hire us to ease workloads off their staff, but there needs to be a small internal core that is dedicated to the project.
3. There is no training scheduled until less than 90 days before go-live. Training is an iterative process and should begin well before go-live. The core team needs to be trained early in the project; superusers should be trained prior to and during conference room pilots and end-users should be trained in multiple ways prior to go-live.
4. Your organizational change management plan only consists of end-user training. Training is important, but it is only one small portion of organizational change management. Organizational design, employee communications, process and organizational gap analysis, and organizational readiness are just some of the key activities too often overlooked during ERP implementations.
5. You have no contingency budget. You don’t know what you don’t know when you budget for the project and things never go exactly as planned. You will find that one part of the software that doesn’t fit your business and needs customized. You will find that one business process that takes a while to get right and causes delays. It is also much easier to ask your Board for money up front rather than after you’ve blown through your budget. Depending on risk and complexity, we often budget up to 15 to 20% of a total budget be set aside for contingency.
6. You don’t have at least three iterations of conference room pilots or integration testing. Most ERP software is flexible and robust out-of-the-box, so defining your business processes and workflows can be challenging. Just as you would’t introduce a new product or manufacturing process without extensive testing, you don’t want to introduce an entirely new business software into your organization without testing and refining.
7. Your budget assumes that software license costs are a majority of your total implementation costs. Software is the relatively easy and low-cost portion of your budget. Even with an accelerated implementation, you have configuration, hardware, internal and external resources, integration, and a number of other budgetary line items that you don’t want to be surprised by later on.
8. You don’t have a strong program management team with at least several dozen implementations collectively under their belt. Every organization has a few people that either implemented software in their previous lives or “have a friend” that did so. However, there is no substitute for a team of experts that have done it a million times.
9. The software techies are running the project. If the business isn’t driving the project, then you’re in trouble. This will lead to software that doesn’t fit the business, employees that resist the software, cost overruns, or all of the above. Hands-on functional and technical expertise is important, but these resources shouldn’t be running the project.
10. You don’t have a business case, performance metrics, or a benefits realization plan. Hopefully you’re not implementing ERP just for the fun of it. Assuming you’re not, then you should have metrics to define how you expect the new system to improve your business, along with a plan of how you are going to measure actual results. It doesn’t stop here, either – since you won’t achieve business benefits on day one, you’ll need a plan to introduce continuous improvements.
11. Your definition of success is: “Just get the damn thing up and running.” It’s easy to fall into this trap after the project has been dragging on for months or years. However, this is a slippery slope. Once you start cutting corners, costs, and time just to get the project done, you are driving up long-term costs and risks.
12. You have very little margin for error to miss customer shipments at go-live. You don’t want to assume that you are going to have problems at go-live, but according to Panorama’s independent research, over 50% of manufacturing software implementations create operational disruptions. If you don’t have much slack in your inventory or lead times, then this can magnify the risks of the project.
13. You will not customize the software, under any circumstances. Unless you are a start-up with absolutely no existing business processes, this is a bigger risk than many will admit. While the line in the sand may be drawn for good reasons, it is not realistic – less than one in four companies implement with little or no customization. In addition, adopting business processes baked into the ERP software can create misfits with your business needs and/or magnify organizational change management challenges. These aren’t necessarily things that can’t be worked through, but most organizations are not prepared to deal with the consequences.

These are a few signs that your project may be in trouble. Just as the canary that stops singing in the coal mine served as an important warning, each warning sign that you head off at the pass will ensure that you have a successful ERP implementation.

What do you think? Take a poll below to share your experience with your most recent ERP implementation.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

VisMobile WMS is a real-time web application that enables shop floor inventory transactions to be run on any handheld device that supports Microsoft® Windows Mobile 6.1. VISIBILITY.net ERP software users will have the ability to use a wireless bar-code scanner to execute various transactions including: warehouse and location transfers, cycle counts, physical inventory, purchase receipts, material request fulfillment, work order moves and paperless Kanban. VisMobile WMS is made easy with on screen prompts, automatically populated data, and preprinted bar codes which eliminate manual data entry.

Lloyd Perna, Visibility’s Director of Product Development, commented; “Visibility works closely with its clients and leverages the latest technology to continually propel the innovation of VISIBILITY software applications. As a Microsoft Gold Certified partner, with the Independent Software Vendor (ISV) competency, we are able to provide superior products and the highest level of service to our clients worldwide.”

About Visibility Corporation

Visibility Corporation is a leading developer and supplier of business software solutions designed for the unique needs of project-based, engineer-to-order and to-order manufacturers. Visibility’s Enterprise Application solutions help small and midsize manufacturers of complex products operate their businesses effectively. Visibility has an extensive customer base throughout North America and Europe and has the strongest representation of ERP among complex manufacturers. VISIBILITY.net is an integrated, in-house ERP solution. It offers comprehensive end-to-end business functionality, integrated reporting, business intelligence and workflow and is cost effectively delivered utilizing the power of the Microsoft.NET development environment. The software can operate using either a Microsoft SQL Server™ or Oracle® database. Conducting business any place, any time is a reality utilizing this highly adaptable and scalable ERP solution.

Trademarks

Visibility is a registered trademark of Visibility Corporation and its affiliates. The names of companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Callidus Quota Management is designed to provide organizations with a solution that ensures sales quotas are allocated quickly and effectively based on market potential and corporate revenue goals. The solution helps allocate, distribute, and approve quotas quickly using configurable quota allocation methods, with built-in adjustment and threshold tools. By effectively automating the workflow processes around quota distribution and adjustments, the solution accelerates new product and fiscal period rollouts, and ensures that mid-period quota changes are rapidly deployed to the points of sales execution.

“It is mission critical for large manufacturing and technology businesses dealing with changing product strategies throughout the year to support a more distributed, self-service process for allocating sales targets,” said Michael Graves, senior vice president, engineering and CTO at Callidus Software. “With Callidus Quota Management, businesses can quickly distribute top-line targets for global allocation to the sales force. Sales targets and coverage are assigned, adjusted, and approved by the field, dramatically reducing organizations’ go-to-market timeline. In addition, comprehensive, real-time visibility into quota performance across the field enables sales managers and regional directors to quickly adjust targets and coverage, based on built-in constraints, to maximize their team’s effectiveness.”

Callidus Software’s award-winning solutions manage the entire sales lifecycle from quota design and deployment, to incentives and rewards, to talent development, while providing visibility into sales operations and financial performance. This gives customers the ability to align their sales force with their key business objectives to consistently and reliably execute on sales targets. The software is used by leading companies in a broad range of verticals including high-tech, telecommunications, banking, insurance, and pharmaceuticals. Since its inception nearly 15 years ago, the company has evolved into the most experienced, proven, and reliable SPM vendor in the marketplace. Callidus Software manages over $50 billion in incentives and compensation for more than two million payees in over 140 countries.

About Callidus Software®

Callidus Software (NASDAQ:CALD) is the market and technology leader in Sales Performance Management (SPM). Callidus customers gain a competitive advantage by maximizing sales cost efficiencies and driving improvements in sales effectiveness. Our award-winning Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications set the standard for performance management of a company’s sales force and channel partners. Over 2 million employees and channel partners have their performance managed by Callidus Software. For more information, please visit www.callidussoftware.com.

©1997-2010 Callidus Software Inc. All rights reserved. Callidus Software, the Callidus Software logo, and TrueComp Manager are trademarks, service marks, or registered trademarks of Callidus Software Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other brand, service or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies or owners.

The InfoWorld Bossies: the Best of Open Source Software awards, honor the best open source software for business. The InfoWorld Test Center works to identify the most promising and cost-effective products available to IT organizations.

InfoWorld described Openbravo ERP by stating “Openbravo is a package that combines finance, sales, purchasing, and inventory modules. A free community edition and an extensive professional version are available through commercial license. Its plug-in architecture offers simple, template-driven setup, and customization without hard coding. The version 3.0 release candidate enhances navigation with quick-launch shortcuts and tabbed panels that allow users to view multiple grids simultaneously. New role-based portal pages and dashboards also contribute to the highly customizable experience.” It concluded by saying “getting started couldn’t be simpler, thanks to a newly streamlined setup process and preconfigured editions on Ubuntu Server and Amazon Cloud.”

Openbravo has continued to exhibit considerable growth with the recent announcement of a new version of Openbravo QuickStart 2, its rapid implementation ERP solution, and achieving over 1.7 million downloads. Furthermore, the developer has seen a major increase in demand for the flexible ERP add-ons that are available through Openbravo Exchange.

Paolo Juvara, CTO of Openbravo, said: “It’s great to be recognized by InfoWorld yet again – it’s such an honor for us at Openbravo and our community. We’ve made it our mission to bring ERP to the masses, and in doing so have developed a product that strives to deliver a superior user experience by combining web-based simplicity with practical features. We want to transform open source ERP, and awards and recognition from respected sources such as InfoWorld fuel our ambition to continue delivering new and innovative solutions for each of our customers and our entire community.”

• Total revenue increased by 7% to €199.3 million (H1 2009: €187.1 million)
• License sales grew 18% to €29.8 million (H1 2009: €25.3 million)
• EBITDA rose by 23% to €35.4 million (H1 2009: €28.8 million)
• Net profit before goodwill increased by 31% to €13.9 million (H1 2009: €10.6 million)
• Strong increase in operating cash flow (+16%) through effective working capital management: + €55.2 million (H1 2009: + €47.7 million)
• Improved cash position by €61.5 million to €76.2 million (H1 2009: + €14.7 million)
• Net debt position reduced to €62.6million (H1 2009: + €146.8 million

Performance exceeded market levels in UNIT4’s five most important markets, namely Benelux, United Kingdom, Norway, Sweden and Spain. Revenue in the Benelux countries rose by 13% of which 32% was license growth. In Sweden, private sector sales were strong and total revenues grew by 15% including a 23% growth in licenses. Norway also increased revenues by 15% including a strong license performance (+12%) in the public sector and a strong SaaS order intake.

In the UK, total revenues were steady, but license sales were strong and saw a 20% increase. Several large public sector orders were signed including one with Save the Children for € 1.6 million. Total revenues in Spain declined (- 6%) due to a significantly reduced consulting team, but license revenue grew considerably by 35%, including two large health care institution orders (>€ 1 million).

The largest European deal in the first half of the year was a €3 million government sector contract signed in Germany in June, but was booked as subscription (>5 year) and therefore does not directly contribute to earnings. In total, revenues in Germany declined by 4%. More new license sales are expected in the second half of the year. Eastern Europe (Hungary and Czech) reported a 10% increase in license growth while France secured few new license sales.

In North America, revenue stabilised primarily due to the fact that in the first half of 2009 some large contracts were secured. Performance in Asia improved significantly, with a sharp increase in revenue from new license sales. Further organic investment is planned in the region. The largest order secured by the Group in H1 was a landmark deal with the Queensland Government Department of Education and Training in Australia (> € 6 m), which will see UNIT4 play a significant role in the transformation of student management across more than 1250 schools in the coming years.

“Due to excellent organic performance, strong new license sales and strategic acquisitions in 2010, the outlook for the year has been revised and is now improved,” said Edwin van Leeuwen, CFO of UNIT4 N.V.

-ends-

For a full version of the UNIT4 H1 financial results announcement, please visit http://www.unit4.com/investors/financialinformation/halfyearresults

This document contains certain future expectations about the financial state of affairs and results of the activities of UNIT4 as well as certain related plans and objectives. Such expectations for the future are naturally associated with risks and uncertainties because they relate to future events, and as such depend on certain circumstances that may not arise in future. Various factors can cause real results and developments to deviate considerably from explicitly or implicitly made statements about future expectations. Such factors may for instance be changes in expenditure by companies in important economies, statutory changes and changes in financial markets, in pension costs, in the salary levels of employees, in future exchange and interest rates, in future takeovers or divestitures and the pace of technological developments. UNIT4 therefore cannot guarantee that the expectations will be realized. UNIT4 also refuses to accept any obligation to update statements made in this document.

About UNIT4

UNIT4 is a global business software and services company aimed at helping dynamic organizations to embrace change simply, quickly and cost effectively in a market sector it calls ‘Businesses Living IN Change’ (BLINC)™. The Group incorporates a number of the world’s leading change embracing software brands including Agresso Business World and CODA financial management software.

Agresso Business World is our flagship ERP suite for mid-sized services intensive organizations. It is widely acknowledged for delivering ongoing, post-implementation changes without the typical external IT costs and services that cost firms huge sums of money each year. This is achieved thanks to its powerful VITA™ architecture which is unmatched in the ERP world.

CODA Financials is our award-winning suite of best-of-class financial management software designed to integrate with your industry- and company-specific applications. CODA’s LINK™ architecture sets it apart from ordinary accounting systems by providing a financial information backbone for companies with fast-changing and mixed application environments. It is a global accounting solution for mid-to large sized organizations, offering a “no compromise” approach to financial modeling, process control and application choice.

UNIT4 is a top six mid-market ERP software player globally and the 2nd largest European ERP supplier. With offices in 15 European countries, as well as 6 countries across North America, Asia Pacific and Africa and sales activities in several other countries, a revenue of €379.4 million was realized in 2009. UNIT4 is headquartered in Sliedrecht, the Netherlands. The company has 3,456 employees (31 December 2009).

UNIT4 is listed on Euronext Amsterdam by NYSE Euronext and is included in the Amsterdam Smallcap Index (AScX). For more information on UNIT4 or any of its operating companies, please visit the website at www.unit4.com.

Lawson presented the winners of the Channel Partner Awards 2010 at its European Sales Kick Off in Berlin, Germany. The winners include:

• Alfa-Beta Solutions, the Netherlands – Global Partner of the year, platinum partner status and in recognition of net new customer deals and leading channel partner performance.
• Encompass Solutions Inc. – Americas Partner of the year, platinum partner status and in recognition of net new customer deals and leading channel partner performance in the Americas.
• Lawson Thailand – Asia Pacific Partner of the year, platinum partner status and in recognition of net new customer deals and strong channel partner performance in Asia-Pacific.
• Accentia, Middle East – In recognition of net new customer deals, achieving platinum partner status.
• Datasys, Italy – Best new channel partner performance in Europe
• Sabre – Best new channel partner performance in Asia Pacific

“Channel partners play a key role in our global corporate strategy. We believe it is important to give our top-performing partners the recognition they deserve and we want to reward not only license revenue contribution, but also excellent service and strong local relationships. I would particularly like to highlight the success of the Global Channel Partner of the Year, Alfa Beta Solutions, based in the Netherlands. Alfa Beta Solutions has been a respected and long standing channel partner of Lawson for several years. Their laser focus on the food & beverage sector has been instrumental in them achieving their success and they are a perfect example of a highly successful industry focused partner. Our key objective for the coming year is to take our channel business to new heights through increased industry focus and provide our customers with increased levels of satisfaction“, said Eric Verniaut, executive vice president of M3 industries, Lawson.

EWA, Inc. is a global company comprised of several wholly owned operating units, each with varying areas of expertise. From providing information security and assurance to supplying communications designers and radar engineers to customers, EWA, Inc. has the experience and highly trained personnel to fulfill its customers’ needs with the highest quality services and products.

After an extensive vendor evaluation, Deltek was chosen over several other ERP providers due to Costpoint’s broad and deep capabilities that are purpose-built for government contractors. Deltek’s solutions met all of EWA, Inc.’s requirements and reporting needs, and Costpoint offered the best return on investment (ROI) compared to the other products considered in the selection process.

To support its complex needs as a global company, EWA, Inc. will utilize a full-range of products within the Deltek Costpoint product family, including Costpoint, Costpoint CRM, Costpoint Human Resource and Benefits, Costpoint Fixed Assets, Deltek Time & Expense and Deltek Employee Self-Service. The solutions will manage EWA, Inc.’s core financial, business development, expense reporting and human resources processes. In addition, EWA, Inc. will use the self-service reporting capabilities within Deltek Performance Management to gain real-time insight into the performance of the business.

“Due to Deltek’s unparalleled reputation serving the government contracting world and our past experience using its GCS Premier solution, Deltek emerged as the clear choice as we went through the evaluation process,” said Gary Kerr, CFO at EWA, Inc. “Deltek did a great job of making the decision easy for us by thoroughly demonstrating Costpoint’s broad and deep government contracting functionality. Ultimately, we were confident that Deltek met our needs far better than any other vendor out there.”

“We are very pleased that Electronic Warfare Associates selected our Costpoint product family to power its operations,” said Kevin Parker, President and CEO of Deltek. “Given EWA’s exacting requirements, Deltek provided the specialized knowledge, experience, and capabilities that the company needed to increase efficiency and accelerate growth. We are proud of our relationship with EWA, and we look forward to working closely with their innovative organization for many years.”

About EWA, Inc.

EWA, Inc. is headquartered in Herndon, Virginia, and employs approximately 600 personnel throughout the U.S. and Canada. The broad-based technology company provides professional services and specialized products to both U.S. and foreign customers, and an ever-broadening range of innovative technology solutions for government, industry and military. Committed to quality and customer support, EWA, Inc. prides itself on overcoming technological challenges, delivering on time for its customers, and providing exceptional service.

About Deltek

Deltek (Nasdaq: PROJ) recently acquired Maconomy to create the leading global provider of enterprise applications software and solutions designed specifically for project-focused businesses. For decades, we have enabled government contractors and professional services firms to automate mission-critical business processes around the engagement, execution and delivery of projects. Over 13,000 customers use our solutions to measure business results, optimize performance, streamline operations and win new business. For more information, visit www.deltek.com.

Deltek also offers govWin, the industry’s only online community dedicated to solving common business problems for government contractors. The govWin network delivers unique and specialized content, offers innovative matching capabilities to establish and manage teaming opportunities, and provides applications to identify, pursue, and win government contracts. Over 10,000 registered members, prime contractors, and small businesses are part of the govWin community. For more information, visit www.govwin.com.

Traceability functionality is the key component required to assist in the meeting of these new standards.  SYSPRO ERP software offers extensive traceability capabilities as well as other functionalities that facilitate the ability of manufacturers to trace products from origin, through the manufacturing process, to their ultimate destination, fully maintaining assurance certification and tracking expiration dates.

SYSPRO optionally allows specific traceable components to be reserved for specific work-orders, as well as providing the flexibility of specifying the parent traceable numbers at the beginning, during or the end of the manufacturing process.

SYSPRO lot traceability and serial tracking functionality afford extensive visibility up or down the chain, as well as providing specific component to parent tracking, thereby providing the means to expedite recalls, should the need arise. In fact, so extensive is the
traceability aspects inherent in SYSPRO software that they extend to Landed Cost Tracking which provides visibility of imported goods and tracks all associated cost, which is another area to which the FDA is applying more stringent regulations.

According to SYSPRO USA President Joey Benadretti, “Safety remains a serious concern, and SYSPRO will continue efforts to enable its software to assist customers by providing users greater visibility and control over quality and tracking in industries such as food, medical devices and pharmaceuticals, where quality and regulatory conformance are particularly crucial.”

About SYSPRO

Since its inception in 1978, SYSPRO has been delivering state-of-the-art business solutions to some of the world’s leading companies.
As a global leader in the production of world-class ERP software, the company now caters to the specialized needs of 14,500 licensed companies in more than 60 countries worldwide.  SYSPRO is marketed globally through regional territory distribution centers and a global reseller network in the US, Canada, Africa, Asia Pacific, Australia and the UK.

SYSPRO is a fully integrated business software solution that provides complete control over the planning and management of all facets of business including accounting, manufacturing and distribution operations in a variety of industries.
For additional information on SYSPRO, call Stanley Goodrich at 714/437-1000 or go to www.syspro.com.

All company names and products mentioned in this release are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

SAP Document Presentment is an innovative solution that fully automates the generation and personalization of documents (e.g., billing statements) and communications from multiple enterprise applications to multiple output types, including print, e-mail, fax and mobile. With SAP Document Presentment, customers can deliver highly targeted communications to their customers, thereby providing an opportunity to cross-sell and up-sell new products and services.

“We have had much success using StreamServe’s document presentment software with our SAP system, and have found that the solutions work perfectly together in helping us to achieve our customer communication needs and improve the customer experience,” said Richard O’Brien, Marketing and Services manager, EDF Energy. “We are thrilled by this agreement, which we view as a natural one. By uniting the strengths of both companies, this offering further simplifies the process of whom the customer contacts regarding the sale, support and maintenance.”

SAP Document Presentment is a fully integrated, cross-vertical solution for document-rich business processes requiring personalized and customer-centric communications in complex and/or high-volume environments. The solution will address business requirements across all industries served by SAP. The combined product is an SAP solution extension, which is a third-party product branded, sold, supported and maintained by SAP. It supports all SAP interfaces for output management and offers additional features for high-volume print and electronic output to complement SAP’s offerings for output services, including the SAP® Billing application, consume-to-cash offerings and the SAP NetWeaver® technology platform.

“Businesses across many industries are aggressively exploring new opportunities to increase customer loyalty, as well as up-sell and cross-sell to their customer base,” said Kevin Ichhpurani, senior vice president, Business Development and Strategic Alliances, Global Ecosystem and Partner Group, SAP AG. “SAP Document Presentment further extends SAP’s capabilities to empower organizations to manage their customer relationships effectively through cost-effective, customized communications. Our agreement with StreamServe is another step in extending our solution offerings through our customer-focused ecosystem.”

StreamServe’s software underwent a rigorous technical testing process to ensure that it met the high levels of quality standards offered by SAP solutions. The agreement between the companies was made after StreamServe’s solution was proven to meet SAP’s strict standards and by demonstrating the ability to integrate with SAP NetWeaver as a standalone solution.

“StreamServe has had a long, successful relationship with SAP in offering enterprise solutions that integrate with SAP NetWeaver to improve customer and business communications through the delivery of highly personalized documents and invoices in either paper or electronic format,” said Dennis Ladd, president and CEO, StreamServe. “Today we have more than 300 customers currently running SAP solutions. This agreement makes it easier for customers to acquire, implement and support the solution, and it will dramatically increase the number of businesses worldwide that will benefit from our integrated solutions.”

About StreamServe
StreamServe is a leading provider of enterprise business communication solutions. Simple to deploy and maintain, the company’s dynamic composition, document process automation and enterprise output management solutions meet the demanding challenges of today’s global businesses for producing and delivering highly customized documents in any format.

StreamServe’s advanced software solutions ease the process of composing and automating business communications, enabling organizations to increase the value and profitability of their business relationships. This is done all while leveraging existing business applications such as ERP, CRM and ECM.

The company was founded in 1997 and is headquartered in Burlington, Mass., with 14 offices worldwide. StreamServe serves more than 5,000 customers in 130 countries, primarily in the financial services, utilities, manufacturing, distribution and telecom sectors. Customers include BMW, CLP Power Hong Kong, AmerisourceBergen, and Siemens Financial. StreamServe’s strategic partners include Adobe Systems, IBM, InfoPrint Solutions Company, Lawson and SAP AG. To learn how StreamServe’s business communications solutions can help drive efficiency and improve costs within your organization, please visit StreamServe online at www.streamserve.com, or join the conversation on StreamShare™, StreamServe’s online community forum: www.streamshare.streamserve.com.

About SAP
SAP is the world’s leading provider of business software(*), offering applications and services that enable companies of all sizes and in more than 25 industries to become best-run businesses. With more than 102,500 customers in over 120 countries, the company is listed on several exchanges, including the Frankfurt stock exchange and NYSE, under the symbol “SAP.” For more information, visit www.sap.com.

(*) SAP defines business software as comprising enterprise resource planning, business intelligence, and related applications.

Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “forecast,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “project,” “predict,” “should” and “will” and similar expressions as they relate to SAP are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. SAP undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. The factors that could affect SAP’s future financial results are discussed more fully in SAP’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including SAP’s most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates.

Copyright © 2010 SAP AG. All rights reserved.
SAP, R/3, mySAP, mySAP.com, xApps, xApp, SAP NetWeaver and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries all over the world. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies. Data contained in this document serve informational purposes only. National product specifications may vary.

Exact has made buying and implementing JobBOSS simple and easy to accommodate the varying levels of technical expertise and experience of companies in the process of selecting and implementing job shop software.

“The world is changing, and shop owners must adapt quickly to take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves in the market,” said Matt Heerey, Exact JobBOSS General Manager. “This new approach to delivering JobBOSS will allow our future customers to determine which offering best meets the needs of both their shop and their budget.”

With three distinct packages, companies can select the JobBOSS offering that fits their business the best:

• JobBOSS Starter Edition is a basic option designed specifically for shops that require a simple way to track jobs from quoting to delivery. JobBOSS Starter Edition can be downloaded directly from Exact and easily installed on a designated workstation without requiring a professional software consultant, helping shop owners bring job control processes into an organized and controlled computerized environment quickly and easily.
• JobBOSS Professional Edition supports prototype and production environments, which includes repeat parts, one time or one off parts and/or mixed-mode manufacturing. This allows shop owners to manage the chaos by quoting to customer-driven requirements without sacrificing the flexibility to make changes on the fly to quantities, routings, materials, production schedule and deliveries.
• JobBOSS Enterprise Edition is designed for companies already familiar with ERP software and who expect complete job control. It offers a growth path into more complete business process management and automation with integrated Customer Relationship Management, Workflow and Document Management, Business Activity Monitoring and Advanced Scheduling. JobBOSS Enterprise Edition can be enhanced with an Advanced Quality configuration for businesses that need integrated quality control in addition to ERP.

With the multi-tiered approach, Exact provides a way for organizations to achieve benefits with JobBOSS at the level that fits their business today with a simple and realistic way to redeploy a different level of the JobBOSS solution as the business grows.

“These solutions not only make it possible for a business to select the capabilities it needs today, but it can also plan to gradually adopt the next level solution as its needs change,” continued Heerey. “Today, job requirements may be predictable, but tomorrow’s market opportunities may require variable pricing, routings and scheduling. With JobBOSS, a shop won’t have to worry that they are overinvesting in technology because they’ll know from the start that we have the solution to support them as their business grows and evolves.”

Exact JobBOSS Showcases New Serialization Module in Version 11.3

Exact JobBOSS version 11.3 has been streamlined to make installation and use even easier than previous versions of JobBOSS. This new release also features a major enhancement to the JobBOSS feature set with the inclusion of a new Serialization module, satisfying a critical need for job shops looking for opportunities in industries that require some level of part serialization, such as the medical device or electronics manufacturing industries.

“The great strength of job shops and contract manufacturers in America has been their ability to survive and adapt to changing conditions,” said Harry Merkin, Exact Americas Vice President of Marketing. “We’ve created the new JobBOSS Serialization module to help smaller manufacturers meet the requirements of new markets and pursue new revenue streams for the business.”

Version 11.3 also includes a completely new integration to QuickBooks, as well as a self-install wizard designed to accelerate the time necessary to start up and quote, schedule and deliver jobs.

Exact. And it all comes together.

We started serving the entrepreneurial world with information technology in 1984. We have grown from a student start-up to a global solution provider and our entrepreneurial roots constantly remind us that adding value for our customers is what we are here for. With approximately 2,200 employees in 40 countries, we serve over 100,000 local and international companies in more than 125 countries and provide our business software solutions in more than 40 languages. We have been listed on the NYSE Euronext Amsterdam since June 1999 and our revenues amounted to € 232.5 million in 2009.

Serving entrepreneurial businesses is at the heart of what we do. We understand their mindsets, how they collaborate within their business community and the structure they need to achieve results. With this knowledge we provide software solutions that support every business activity and give real-time insight into the entire business. This gives our customers the freedom to successfully address challenges and opportunities, creating value for their customers and ultimately for themselves.

For further information about Exact visit www.exact.com.

“We believe being named a Leader in the Forrester Wave is a reflection of the investment in our Microsoft Dynamics ERP industry road map, our support for two-tier ERP implementation scenarios and our Dynamic Business vision,” said Crispin Read, general manager, Microsoft Dynamics ERP. “By delivering on a market vision focused on simplifying the user experience, increasing productivity and delivering continuous innovation for customers, we are able to help them keep pace with the rapid rate of change in today’s complex business environment.”

Results From Forrester Research

According to Forrester, “Microsoft enters the Leader band for the first time based principally on the strength of its strategy, including a top three product and go-to-market strategy as well as market-leading ownership costs.”

The report also states, “Microsoft’s product strategy represents a compelling vision for end-to-end order management. As large and enterprise-sized companies continue to experience difficulty with existing systems, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 will play an increasing role as a key alternative for divisions and subsidiaries looking for lower-cost and more effective alternatives. Microsoft placed third of vendors evaluated for its corporate and go-to-market strategy due to strong customer reference and extended global reach through partnerships.”

Earlier this year, Microsoft announced plans to deliver a connector in the third quarter of 2010 that will accelerate two-tier ERP deployments between Microsoft Dynamics AX and SAP Business Suite.

A number of customers are using Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 to increase productivity and savings including Integrated Silicon Solution Inc. (ISSI), a fabless global manufacturer. ISSI evaluated SAP and Oracle solutions before selecting Microsoft Dynamics AX to integrate global operations, reduce inventory, improve productivity and be more proactive in decision-making.

The Forrester Wave: Order Management Hubs, Q3 2010 (August 2010) report is available here. Those interested in learning more about Microsoft Dynamics ERP should visit this page, follow the Microsoft Dynamics conversation here, and engage with the community.

About Microsoft Dynamics

Microsoft Dynamics is a line of easy-to-use, integrated and adaptable ERP and CRM applications that enable business decision-makers to quickly respond to market shifts, take advantage of new trends, increase their competitive edge and drive business success. Microsoft Dynamics solutions are delivered through a world-class network of reselling partners providing specialized services and additional innovation to help customers excel in their industries.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

You’ve saved the day! You are the new corporate hero and your head is spinning with all the possible accolades you will receive from the CFO, CEO, and anyone else who looks at the financials. Not so fast. Before you rip up that maintenance contract, I’d like you to think long and hard about that decision.

Before you cancel the annual maintenance for your ERP software, there are a few things to consider and contemplate. While the idea sounds good on paper, reality is a whole different story.

Three Things to Consider Before You Cancel Your ERP Software’s Annual Maintenance Contract

1. ERP software companies make their money charging their customers maintenance. This is their cash cow. This is where they’ll fight the hardest. Sure, they’ll give you a huge discount on the list price of the software when they sell it to you, but just try to negotiate the price of maintenance. Good luck getting any discount whatsoever. They simply do not budge on annual maintenance fees.
2. Canceling maintenance may seem like a cost savings, even if you go with a third party provider, but expect the ERP vendor to play hardball with you should you need any upgrades, fixes or regulatory updates. You will no longer have any access to these things and your ERP vendor will not be sympathetic in any way. You’ve affectively chosen to severe all ties with the ERP company and you need to realize your ERP vendor will view it as such.
3. Well, you say, I’ll just go with a 3rd party provider, like YesterdayThen. Sure, they’re cheaper and can provide a lot of services to help you. They have customer support analysts and developers on staff to make modifications and help you with troubleshooting issues. It will save you a substantial amount of money. However, they do not have access to the ERP vendor’s proprietary source code, knowledge base or system architects. Should you find a bug in your ERP system that only the vendor’s developers can fix, you’ll find your ERP vendor no longer cares about fixing it for you. The 3rd party may be able to code a workaround, but if you have more than a handful of these, it gets very difficult to maintain over time. Code becomes out of date and difficult to manage and sometimes it just takes reworking a large chunk of the proprietary code to make it right.

My recommendation comes down to this:

• If you cancel maintenance, do so knowing that you’ll be on your own. You now live on your own little ERP island and your ERP vendor will simply not respond to your requests for help. If this is acceptable to you, then go for it. I would strongly suggest that you do this only if your system is completely stable, you don’t plan to upgrade in the future and you have no regulatory changes to be made. And don’t expect your vendor to welcome you back into the fold once you leave. If they do, expect to see that 18% fee structure become 25% or more.
• If you go with a 3rd party maintenance provider, remember that the ERP vendors pursue, vigorously, any threat they perceive to their maintenance dollars. This means you better find a reputable and forthright 3rd party provider and make sure you follow the rules of your license agreement.

The key to this question is risk. Can you assume all the risks that are associated with having no maintenance and no parachute to fall back on should something happen? You may be the corporate hero when the savings appear, but you will also be the fall guy when your ERP software is unable to ship, invoice, or even run a report.

Take some time to sit for a minute, clean the moss off your server, and think hard about coming up with another option for cutting costs. This one is not nearly as good as it seems.

Blog entry written by Kevin Cahill, an ERP Consultant at Panorama Consulting Group.

“A good customer experience begins with matching a customer with an agent who has the best possibility for delivering a valued conversation,” said Randy Saunders, program director, Cincom Synchrony Customer Experience Management. “RAMP’s sophisticated applied analytics connects the right customer to the right agent. Then, Cincom Synchrony guides that agent to deliver the designed experience for the best performance and outcomes. Success-based call routing using RAMP is a critical first step in delivering a better customer experience and makes a powerful partner with Synchrony.”

Assurant Solutions (NYE – AIZ) has been using RAMP to increase call center profitability and enhance the customer experience in its call centers for more than seven years. Retention revenue grew by 37% and sales revenue by 29% within the first year of implementation. This success contributed to lowering agent attrition by 25%, simply by exploiting the untapped potential of analytics.

While users are already saving millions of dollars a year, RAMP has the potential to improve those savings as the underlying analytic models mature. When combined with Cincom Synchrony’s intelligent agent guidance and unified desktop, the probability for successful outcomes grows significantly.

Representatives from Cincom and Assurant Solutions will be presenting at Contact Centres World Africa 2010 in Johannesburg, South Africa August 23 – 27.

For More Information

To learn more about the IBM Real-Time Analytics Matching Platform for contact centers, visit IBM’s web at http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/29701.wss or Cincom Synchrony at http://WinningConversations.cincom.com or contact your Cincom or IBM representative.

Cincom Synchrony

A Customer Experience Management (CEM) Solution for contact centers, Synchrony guides winning conversations with customers. It leverages the insight you have about each customer in the context of each interaction to deliver optimal customer experiences and organizational outcomes. Synchrony brings your CEM strategy to life in a realistic, operational model that grows your business while improving operational results.

About Cincom

For 41 years, Cincom has helped thousands of clients worldwide by solving complex business problems with its software and services.

Lawson Disaster Recovery is delivered via Lawson Cloud Services, providing proven security for Lawson customers’ data. Cloud delivery also provides flexible capacity, meaning Lawson customers can more readily increase or decrease their Cloud-based infrastructure usage as needed. Through this service, Lawson pulls customer data on an hourly basis into Lawson Disaster Recovery and provides a two-hour restore point in the event of a disaster. This rapid restore point, coupled with the flexibility of Cloud infrastructure, means Lawson customers can be up-and-running on their most critical business functions in 12 hours or less with minimal loss of production data.

“Currently, many organizations risk being down for days and losing significant amounts of data in the event of a disaster, and that can be devastating to their business. Our customers have asked for a reliable, cost-effective business continuity solution when it comes to their most time-sensitive business processes,” said Terry Plath, vice president of Lawson Cloud Services. “By taking advantage of the flexible capacity and rapid scalability of the Cloud, we can quickly restore the customers’ instance of the software along with their production data to minimize down time. This helps minimize the time it takes to get them back on track with their core business processes. Ultimately, this provides greater peace of mind when lost minutes and hours can make a tremendous impact on their business.”

Lawson customer, Scott County, Minn., is the first organization to take advantage of Lawson Disaster Recovery via the Cloud. Since implementing the service, the county has improved recovery time from 48 hours to 12 hours. Lawson and Scott County worked closely together in the development of this product, implementing industry best practices for the way data is backed up and moved to the Lawson Disaster Recovery site. To help ensure readiness, Lawson fully tests recovery at the time of implementation and then conducts annual recovery tests using live production data.

“Our constituents, including county employees, need confidence that we can continue our business operations in the event of a disaster,” said Kevin Ellsworth, chief financial officer for Scott County. “Our testing of Lawson Disaster Recovery has shown a significant reduction in the amount of time it can take us to restore many of our core business processes. We need to be able to make payroll, manage our financials and ensure that we have supplies needed to run efficiently. Extended downtime can cause considerable disruption in our services to residents of the county and our employees, which is not acceptable.”

Ellsworth spoke about the county’s pilot disaster recovery initiative with Lawson during the April 2010 Lawson Conference and User Exchange (CUE). Since that initial project, Lawson has now formalized the offering as a product for its S3 customers. “This product introduction underscores the fact that some of the best innovation in enterprise software comes from the collaboration we have with our customers,” added Plath. “By listening to their needs and working closely with them on innovative ideas, we’re able to deliver new products and services that address issues that directly affect their business. Now with Cloud computing as a reality in enterprise software, we’re able to bring even greater innovation and speed-to-market with new products and services.”

About Lawson Software

Lawson Software provides software and service solutions to customers in healthcare, public sector (United States), service industries, human capital management, equipment service management & rental, fashion, food & beverage, and manufacturing & distribution across 40 countries. Lawson is a global provider of enterprise software, services and support to customers primarily in three sectors: services, trade and manufacturing/distribution. Lawson solutions include Enterprise Performance Management, Human Capital Management, Enterprise Financial Management, Supply Chain Management, Enterprise Resource Planning, Manufacturing Resource Planning, Enterprise Asset Management and industry-tailored applications. Lawson solutions assist customers in simplifying their businesses or organizations by helping them streamline processes, reduce costs and enhance business or operational performance. Lawson is headquartered in St. Paul, Minn., and has offices around the world. Visit Lawson online at www.lawson.com. For Lawson’s listing on the First North exchange in Sweden, Remium AB is acting as the Certified Adviser.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements that contain risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements contain statements of intent, belief or current expectations of Lawson Software and its management. Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future results and involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from the potential results discussed in the forward-looking statements. The company is not obligated to update forward-looking statements based on circumstances or events that occur in the future. Risks and uncertainties that may cause such differences include but are not limited to: uncertainties in the software industry; uncertainties as to when and whether the conditions for the recognition of deferred revenue will be satisfied; increased competition; general economic conditions; the impact of foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations; continuation of the global recession and credit crisis; Lawson’s ability to integrate the Healthvision acquisition successfully; global military conflicts; terrorist attacks; pandemics, and any future events in response to these developments; changes in conditions in the company’s targeted industries and other risk factors listed in the company’s most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Lawson assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking information contained in this press release.

Headquartered in Littleton, Colorado with operations in Cambridge, UK, Novus Biologicals carries more than 170,000 products and makes them widely available to bioscience researchers around the world. Prior to selecting Epicor, Novus Biologicals relied on a legacy information system; however, the company reached a point where they were becoming inefficient in their daily work processes, necessitating the hiring of additional employees to handle the double-entry work required to synchronize information in the system. Epicor ERP was selected to deliver seamless front-to-back office integration so information entered anywhere can be available everywhere — providing Novus Biologicals with the single system of record they required to achieve enterprise-wide visibility of their customers, products and services worldwide.

“Selecting Epicor’s highly scalable and flexible ERP solution was critical to supporting our expansion plans and consolidation strategies,” said Scott Osgood, vice president of IT for Novus Biologicals. “As a result of our substantial product line growth, Novus Biologicals is expanding into new markets and geographies prompting us to invest in a modern enterprise-class system that can support our global business requirements. Epicor will automate tasks, streamline business processes and synchronize backend operations allowing us to focus on strategic activities that will help us facilitate profitable growth.”

With Novus Biologicals’ product line rapidly growing into international markets, staying on top of business became unbearable with their old system. “The opening of our UK office was the tipping point which led us to search for a global business management solution,” added Osgood. Epicor’s global ERP platform provides them with multi-country, currency, and language support, as well as multisite management tools that will centralize, streamline and automate financial processes.

Further, Novus Biologicals expects to decrease inventory carrying costs due to better planning, scheduling and tracking capabilities with Epicor’s extensive range of supply chain management (SCM) tools. “Understanding the position and availability of our products throughout the world allows us to deliver our products and services faster and at a lower cost to our customers,” said Osgood. Additionally, Novus Biologicals is using Epicor Commerce to integrate their Web site and Epicor ERP system to improve the quality of customer interactions by managing demand faster and more efficiently.

“We are excited to provide Novus Biologicals with a flexible business solution that will scale with the company as they grow now and in the future,” said James Norwood, senior vice president, worldwide product marketing for Epicor. “Epicor will allow Novus Biologicals to focus their attention on strategic growth activities by enabling them to be more efficient in the management of their business operations and responsive to the needs of their customers on a global basis.”

About Epicor Software Corporation

Epicor Software is a global leader delivering business software solutions to the manufacturing, distribution, retail, hospitality and services industries. With 20,000 customers in over 150 countries, Epicor provides integrated enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), supply chain management (SCM) and enterprise retail software solutions that enable companies to drive increased efficiency and improve profitability. Founded in 1984, Epicor takes pride in more than 25 years of technology innovation delivering business solutions that provide the scalability and flexibility businesses need to build competitive advantage. Epicor provides a comprehensive range of services with a single point of accountability that promotes rapid return on investment and low total cost of ownership, whether operating business on a local, regional or global scale. The Company’s worldwide headquarters are located in Irvine, California with offices and affiliates around the world. For more information, visit www.epicor.com.

Epicor is a registered trademark of Epicor Software Corporation. Other trademarks referenced are the property of their respective owners. The product and service offerings depicted in this document are produced by Epicor Software Corporation.

After evaluating ten ERP providers, Carto Micro chose Epicor for its visionary technology, robust software architecture, support infrastructure, and the fast return on investment (ROI) that the business solution offers to companies. In the final decision, the stability and short implementation timeframes the Epicor ERP solution offered were also factors.

“Two years ago we started to see potential growth opportunities for our company and we wanted a new ERP solution, better suited to support Carto Micro’s future business requirements. After evaluating ten ERP providers, the decision was made to go with Epicor,” said Juan Augusto Rivas, Engineering and Quality Manager at Carto Micro.

The Guanajuato-based company which manufacturers cardboard boxes and sheets for small to midmarket distributors, expects to more efficiently manage its operations with Epicor. “Epicor ERP gives us a technology solution that integrates all our business information, which will enable us to have a better control over our staffing and material resources,” concluded Rivas.

Epicor ERP provides users with a truly collaborative and dynamic experience in the use of business applications in a platform that is easy to use, personalize and implement, independently of the size of the company, country, industry or access devices.

About Epicor Software Corporation Epicor Software is a global leader delivering business software solutions to the manufacturing, distribution, retail, hospitality and services industries. With 20,000 customers in over 150 countries, Epicor provides integrated enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), supply chain management (SCM) and enterprise retail software solutions that enable companies to drive increased efficiency and improve profitability. Founded in 1984, Epicor takes pride in more than 25 years of technology innovation delivering business solutions that provide the scalability and flexibility businesses need to build competitive advantage. Epicor provides a comprehensive range of services with a single point of accountability that promotes rapid return on investment and low total cost of ownership, whether operating business on a local, regional or global scale. The Company’s worldwide headquarters are located in Irvine, California with offices and affiliates around the world. For more information, visit www.epicor.com.

Epicor is a registered trademark of Epicor Software Corporation. Other trademarks referenced are the property of their respective owners. The product and service offerings depicted in this document are produced by Epicor Software Corporation.

Bexar County, located in south-central Texas, has a population of more than 1,600,000 residents, making it the nineteenth most populous county in the nation. The county is also home to the city of San Antonio, one of the fastest-growing big cities in the United States. The engagement with Bexar County is the third deployment of Lawson products for public sector organizations in Texas in the last year.

“Our current IT system, which has been in place for more than 14 years, could no longer support the complex infrastructure and business operations of a county our size,” said Susan Yeatts, Bexar County auditor. “We chose Lawson because of its in-depth product functionality, robust technological infrastructure and understanding of our needs and challenges. The Lawson system will help us reach a new level of efficiency in evaluating financial decisions and improving procurement processes,” she added.

Specifically, the upgrade to Lawson will bring together core finance, procurement and business applications, including:

• Enterprise Financial Management, which will help the county manage finance and budgeting processes with greater visibility, automate accounting systems and better forecast revenue and expenditures.
• Supply Chain Management, which will help improve supply chain visibility and operational cost control for procurement, resource allocation and capacity planning. In particular, this suite includes specific functionalities for:
  • Strategic Sourcing, which will help the county better manage procurement processes.
  • Contract Management, which will help the county streamline contract creation, monitoring and maintenance processes while providing secure and auditable access to contract related documents from a centralized location.
• Lawson Business Intelligence, which will help improve operational effectiveness and accountability by helping to simplify access to timely, accurate information.

“Moving to a modern, more functional IT system will help Bexar County better serve its growing constituency,” said Brian Murphy, general manager, Public Sector for Lawson. “This significant IT upgrade will help support the county’s strategic business initiatives by helping it better manage business operations and realize cost savings that can be reinvested back into the community.”

About Lawson
Lawson Software provides software and service solutions to customers in healthcare, public sector (United States), service industries, human capital management, equipment service management & rental, fashion, food & beverage, and manufacturing & distribution across 40 countries. Lawson is a global provider of enterprise software, services and support to customers primarily in three sectors: services, trade and manufacturing/distribution. Lawson solutions include Enterprise Performance Management, Human Capital Management, Enterprise Financial Management, Supply Chain Management, Enterprise Resource Planning, Manufacturing Resource Planning, Enterprise Asset Management and industry-tailored applications. Lawson solutions assist customers in simplifying their businesses or organizations by helping them streamline processes, reduce costs and enhance business or operational performance. Lawson is headquartered in St. Paul, Minn., and has offices around the world. Visit Lawson online at www.lawson.com. For Lawson’s listing on the First North exchange in Sweden, Remium AB is acting as the Certified Adviser.

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that contain risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements contain statements of intent, belief or current expectations of Lawson Software and its management. Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future results and involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from the potential results discussed in the forward-looking statements. The company is not obligated to update forward-looking statements based on circumstances or events that occur in the future. Risks and uncertainties that may cause such differences include but are not limited to: uncertainties in the software industry; uncertainties as to when and whether the conditions for the recognition of deferred revenue will be satisfied; increased competition; general economic conditions; the impact of foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations; continuation of the global recession and credit crisis; Lawson’s ability to integrate the Healthvision acquisition successfully; global military conflicts; terrorist attacks; pandemics, and any future events in response to these developments; changes in conditions in the company’s targeted industries and other risk factors listed in the company’s most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Lawson assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking information contained in this press release.

“Since the announcement of my nomination as CEO candidate early July a constructive and intensive handover between Raj Patel and myself has taken place. Those weeks have given me a clear view of Exact as a company, its culture and the highly motivated staff that works there. My decision to make myself available as CEO candidate, initially for one year, has been reconfirmed. Exact is a solid company and I’m looking forward to working with the team towards the next level, focusing on further strengthening our customer relations, organic growth and technological innovation,“ says Mr. Janmaat.

Rolf Deves, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, says in his reaction, “We’re glad that the shareholders have voted for the appointment of Martijn as member of the Board of Managing Directors and as CEO. We are convinced that Martijn is the right person to lead Exact and we wish him success in this new and challenging job.“

An extensive profile of Mr. Janmaat can be found on Exact’s global website (www.exact.com).

Exact. And it all comes together.

We started serving the entrepreneurial world with information technology in 1984. We have grown from a student start-up to a global solution provider and our entrepreneurial roots constantly remind us that adding value for our customers is what we are here for. With approximately 2,200 employees in 40 countries, we serve over 100,000 local and international companies in more than 125 countries and provide our business software solutions in more than 40 languages. We have been listed on the NYSE Euronext Amsterdam since June 1999 and our revenues amounted to € 232.5 million in 2009.

Serving entrepreneurial businesses is at the heart of what we do. We understand their mindsets, how they collaborate within their business community and the structure they need to achieve results. With this knowledge we provide software solutions that support every business activity and give real-time insight into the entire business. This gives our customers the freedom to successfully address challenges and opportunities, creating value for their customers and ultimately for themselves.

For further information about Exact visit www.exact.com.

News Facts

• Retail executives will gather at the upcoming Oracle OpenWorld conference, September 19 – 23, 2010 at Moscone Center in San Francisco, to share new ways to leverage Oracle technology to enable retail business strategies.
• As part of a series of more than 30 sessions, demonstrations and networking events focused on retail trends and applications, executives from AutoNation, Lowe’s, Office Depot, Rent-a-Center, RSR Research, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, multi-channel retailer B2W and Brazilian department store retailer Lojas Renner will present on using Oracle technology, database and applications to support their retail business strategies. Quick service restaurant leaders including Chipotle, Jack in the Box and Wendy’s/Arby’s Group, Inc. will present case studies on using Oracle Applications to help grow their restaurant chains and improve performance.
• Also at Oracle OpenWorld, Oracle Retail Senior Vice President and General Manager Duncan Angove will present a new vision for retail during a general session sponsored by HCL AXON. Retail is among the most IT-intensive and turbulent businesses in the world, and today’s consumer environment provides unprecedented opportunities for retailers to create stronger connections with core customers through innovation.
• The Oracle Retail team will demonstrate the impact of Web 2.0 technology on every aspect of the retail enterprise, from new mobile commerce applications to providing merchants and executives with anytime/anywhere access to business analytics to help make intelligent decisions that impact sales today.
• Retail@Work, a popular showcase of Oracle Retail solutions at work in a real store environment, will return to the Oracle OpenWorld bookstore. Here, retail executives see Oracle Retail applications and technology in action through real and virtual transactions, and talk to Oracle Retail stores solutions experts about the application suite.
• A retail demonstration area and networking lounge will provide attendees an opportunity to see new retail features and functionality, and talk to the product experts behind Oracle’s renowned retail applications.
• Oracle also will host Leaders Circle, an invitation-only program that gives C-level executives an opportunity to meet with Oracle executives.
• Oracle OpenWorld provides a spectrum of content from super users to executives with insight into Oracle’s product and business strategy for the retail industry and to foster discussion on how Oracle can continue to support its customers’ retail business needs across the enterprise.

Supporting Quote

“Oracle OpenWorld San Francisco affords us a unique opportunity to share our vision and discuss the complete hardware and software solutions that enable new retail strategies. We anticipate valuable dialogue with our customers as they meet and exchange ideas,” said Duncan Angove, senior vice president and general manager, Oracle Retail Global Business Unit.

Supporting Resources

• Oracle OpenWorld
• Global CIO: Oracle’s Top Ten Retail Insights a Must-Read for All CIOs
• Join the Oracle Retail community on Facebook
• Insight-Driven Retailing Blog
• Oracle Retail YouTube Channel
• Follow Oracle Retail on Twitter
• Oracle Retail Customer Success
• Oracle in Retail

About Oracle Retail

Oracle is the number one provider of innovative and comprehensive industry software solutions for retailers – enabling organizations to serve their customers better by applying insight into daily business decisions for more profitable results. With software that provides supply chain, operations, merchandising, store systems, and optimization as well as enterprise applications and infrastructure software, Oracle partners with the world’s leading retail companies, including 20 of the 20 top retailers worldwide, to transform the economics of their businesses.

About Oracle
Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) is the world’s most complete, open, and integrated business software and hardware systems company. For more information about Oracle, please visit our Web site at http://www.oracle.com.

Trademarks
Oracle and Java are registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

QuickStart 2 builds on the proven success of its predecessor, delivering standardized, streamlined implementations of a dozen core business process flows including Order to Cash, Procure to Pay, and Bank Statement to Bank Reconciliation. Subscription-based pricing and Cloud deployment give SMBs easy access to the core benefits of ERP–automation and optimization of accounting, sales order processing, inventory, and procurement processes–without the high cost and implementation time lines of legacy systems.

The new offering further reduces implementation time for U.S based companies through new setup wizards, pre-configured content and enhanced capabilities, from setting up a chart of accounts, making and receiving payments, to recording and reporting local sales and federal income tax.

QuickStart 2 also incorporates Openbravo’s new Advanced Payables and Receivables Management module, a complete, purpose built payment management system with an enhanced user experience, that provides clear cash flow visibility and fully automates and audits all payment and bank reconciliation processes.

Manel Sarasa, CEO for Openbravo said: “In today’s economy, businesses need to be fast and financially well-informed. Openbravo QuickStart 2 gives small and mid-sized businesses a solution that is quickly implemented and straightforward to adapt, operate and upgrade. This new offering for American businesses puts cash flow – the lifeblood of any business – at the center, with ready-made financial structures and content to ensure companies have all the critical business information they need at their fingertips.”

QuickStart 2 offers a no-compromises approach to ERP, enabling rapid standard implementation with no limits to extensibility and adaptability. For example, in addition to full customer access to all source code, Openbravo’s advanced modular architecture enables the payment method and reconciliation processes to be tailored with add on modules that provide industry / customer specific functionality. Additionally, the new Easy Extensible Attributes module enables non-technical business analysts and consultants to easily add new tabs and fields to Openbravo application windows.

Eric Kraieski, Vice President for ERP Solutions at Openbravo Gold partner Transitional Data Services (TDS) said: “Openbravo has clearly established itself as the leading provider of web-based open ERP software that is flexible, extensible and adaptable to customer business processes, rather than the other way around. Our clients have been impressed with how quickly Openbravo ERP can be deployed in conventional and cloud environments. Smaller businesses like the all-inclusive aspect and our larger clients really appreciate how easily it integrates with other enterprise application – both legacy and emerging requirements.”

Openbravo QuickStart 2 is available now from Openbravo business partners.

“Business partners are continuing to grow their nonprofit practices using Sage MIP Fund Accounting because the product is solid, backed by a strong parent company, and they receive excellent customer support from an award-winning team,” said Krista Endsley, senior vice president and general manager for Sage Nonprofit Solutions. “Sage MIP Fund Accounting helps improve the daily lives of nonprofit accounting professionals, while also helping organizations demonstrate financial and organizational accountability.”

According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), as much as 5 percent of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2008 came from nonprofits. Sage currently helps more than 32K unique not-for-profit organizations in North America increase efficiency and more easily manage their operations through the use of technology.

For more information about ADSS Global, visit www.adssglobal.net; on JOSEPH EVE, visit www.josepheve.com; about KSBC, visit www.ksbc.com; and on Kerr Consulting, visit www.kerr-consulting.com.

For more information about Sage MIP Fund Accounting and other Sage solutions for not-for-profit organizations, please visit www.sagenonprofit.com.

About Sage MIP Fund Accounting

Available as licensed software or in a remotely hosted environment, Sage MIP Fund Accounting is Sage North America’s software for nonprofit financial management. It is part of a broad portfolio of Sage business management software and services that support accounting, ERP, CRM, human resources and other operations. First introduced in 1982, Sage MIP Fund Accounting has been honored with numerous industry awards, including four consecutive Campbell Awards from Campbell Rinker for exceptional ratings in the Nonprofit Accounting Software Survey, a nationwide survey of accounting software users.

About Sage Nonprofit Solutions

Sage Nonprofit Solutions has been serving nonprofit and governmental organizations for more than 30 years. Sage currently helps more than 3.1 million small and midsized businesses, including more than 32,000 unique not-for-profit organizations in the U.S. and Canada increase efficiency and more easily manage their operations through the use of technology. From fund accounting, donor and fundraising management, and fixed asset management, to online donation processing, human resources (HR), payroll, and health care, Sage offers a software product or service to meet the organization’s need.

About Sage North America

Sage North America is part of The Sage Group plc, a leading global supplier of business management software and services. Sage North America employs 4,000 people and supports 3.1 million small and midsized business customers. The Sage Group plc, formed in 1981, was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1989 and now employs 13,100 people and supports 6.2 million customers worldwide. For more information, please visit the website at www.sagenorthamerica.com.

© 2010 Sage Software, Inc. All rights reserved. Sage, Sage Software, Sage logos and the Sage product and service names mentioned herein are registered trademarks or trademarks of Sage Software, Inc. or its affiliated entities. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

On the flip side, our team at Panorama uses a number of quantitative analyses to compare leading ERP vendors.  According to our independent 2010 ERP Report published earlier this year, vendors vary fairly significantly in their positions in the marketplace, average implementation costs, benefits realized, and a variety of other metrics that measure true results and vendor viability.  One of many key findings from our report is that certain ERP systems have higher rates of being short-listed and selected than others.

In analyzing our data for 1,600 ERP selection and implementation projects across the globe, we found that SAP is the most commonly short-listed ERP system, short-listed by 20% of the companies in our study.  SAP is followed by Microsoft Dynamics (15%), Oracle eBusiness Suite (10%), and Epicor (8%).  The top 10 ERP vendors are outlined in the table below, ranked by their frequency of being short-listed by organizations in our study:

Top 10 Short-Listed ERP Vendors

However, a slightly different pattern emerges when we look at the rate software packages are selected from short-lists.  As outlined in the table below, Peoplesoft is selected at a very high rate when the solution makes a short-list – 67% of the time it is on a company’s short-list.  Peoplesoft is followed by Oracle’s eBusiness Suite (54%), SAP (54%), Infor (39%), and JD Edwards (38%).

Top 7 Selected ERP Vendors

Interpretation of the above data offers a couple of potential hypotheses.  First, the fact that SAP is short-listed so often suggests that it’s strong brand name and leading market position could provide ERP buyers with a strong reason to consider the software.  Second, the fact that Oracle products are selected at a higher rate suggests that the product may offer a stronger functional fit for companies represented in the study.

Although the frequency of short-list or selection may not be a good indicator of how well a particular software package fits an organization’s unique business requirements, it can be a useful quantitative and objective data point in assessing market trends among ERP vendors.

How would you evaluate your ERP vendor? Contribute to our research by participating in our 2010 ERP Benchmark Study or by rating your ERP vendor in our free online ERP database.

Imagine that you go in for surgery and you see the surgeon standing alone at the operating table. He stares blankly at you with scalpel in hand, without a support team, and without obvious signs of preparation. When an executive tells the ERP vendor to simply “go for it!” on an ERP implementation, he becomes the surgeon haphazardly cutting into a patient. In both cases, failure is imminent. In both cases, for success to occur, there is a lot of management and support that must take place in order to aid in obtaining success.

When preparing for surgery, you need to have your vitals checked. You need to fully understand why you need this surgery, what the risks are, what your ultimate prognosis is, and what expectations you can have for recovery. You need to inform your family and friends why you will be out of commission for a while and you will want to make sure that your insurance is in tact and ready to manage all the associated costs. And most important, you’ll probably want an anesthesiologist in the actual operating room to knock you out before the physician opens you up.

In an ERP implementation, the same preparation work needs to occur. You need to have an understanding of why this ERP software is needed and what benefits it is going to bring to the organization. You need everyone in the organization to understand the process and that there may be a few complications along the way, but that these will be far outweighed by the ultimate recovery. You need to have a documented business case and have the total cost of ownership outlined. You need to have your current system backed up, data ready to convert, and a risk mitigation plan in place should something go wrong.

Once the surgery is underway and the surgeon is performing the operation, there must be a support staff to monitor blood pressure, check and administer fluid levels, monitor the arthroscope, and provide the surgeon with all the necessary tools and medical devices. All of this is unfolding as the anesthesiologist closely monitors your progress and makes sure you don’t wake up to complete chaos and utter pain.

During an ERP implementation, the project management team acts as the hospital staff, coordinating and monitoring everything from project timing to budget and risk management. Just as the surgeon cannot have success without hospital staff support and assistance in managing the operation, and the technical implementer cannot have a successful ERP implementation without a clear roadmap and guidance from a strong project management team.

While Panorama is not a team of surgeons, we do consider each ERP implementation as a critical, do or die event. We do everything we can to ensure your internal project team and organization is well informed, well staffed, and capable of executing a successful implementation that provides minimal risks, a full recovery, and most important – success.

Blog entry written by Brian Potts, Manager of Business Development at Panorama Consulting Group.

The integration between Avectra and Intacct reduces errors by eliminating the manual entry and re-keying of data and the need for batch-processing between the two systems – resulting in increased productivity and optimized processes for managing the organization’s finances. With the combination of two industry leading cloud-based systems, association managers have real time visibility into their finances and can better streamline billing processes and more efficiently recognize revenue from membership dues, e-Commerce purchases and other transactions.

“Avectra clients rely on us to deliver solutions that make it easy to manage their technology and deliver superior operational efficiencies so they can focus on managing members and programs rather than worrying about connecting and managing technology,” said Patrick Dorsey, vice president of marketing for Avectra. “Intacct’s powerful financial applications and tight integration with Avectra delivers a best of breed, integrated offering that not only makes the technology easy to manage but delivers superior business value with proven solutions.”

The Avectra and Intacct combination provides complete, end-to-end support for integrated association and financial management, delivering several key benefits:

• Greater Automation: Integrated, automated business processes across Association Management and Finance that helps membership, business unit and finance teams stay connected and coordinated for improved cross-functional visibility and alignment, and better business outcomes.
• Increased Productivity: Reduced errors and increased productivity for the Finance team by eliminating the need for manual re-keying of data between systems
• Automated Billing and Revenue Recognition: Streamlined billing, revenue recognition, and membership renewal processes
• Real Time Business Visibility: Real time financial and operational visibility and consistent insight across Sales, Marketing, and Finance
• Improved Employee Satisfaction: Easy to use, online processes for purchasing, time tracking, and employee expense management

“Cloud computing is particularly attractive to membership associations and Avectra is by far the best system on the market,” said Daniel Druker, SVP of Marketing and Business Development at Intacct. “We are delighted to welcome Avectra into the Intacct family and we are already seeing significant excitement around the combination of Intacct and Avectra from both our clients and our business partners.”

“We are excited about the combined services that Intacct and Avectra provide for member based organizations,” said Robert Green, CPA.CITP, partner at SingerLewak, a leading accounting services and consulting firm in California. “Membership management and the financial aspects associated with that process can be very time intensive and in the past has required a variety of manual processes with lots of duplicate data entry or complex, costly integration with legacy on premise systems. This delivered integration from Avectra and Intacct is going to save member associations a significant amount of time and effort through streamlined processes, and will deliver better financial and operational insight to improve decision making and drive organizational improvements that directly affect the bottom line.”

As part of this new relationship, Avectra has also joined the Intacct-Ready™ Partner Program. Under this program, Intacct partners with leading companies to develop and certify integration between their cloud-based applications and technologies and Intacct’s cloud financial management applications. To achieve Intacct-Ready status, partners support and maintain integration between their systems and Intacct, coordinate service level agreements and customer support procedures, and have a track record of successfully delivering their solutions to end customers.

For more information about Avectra’s membership management software with integrated fundraising solutions or to sign up for a free online demonstration, visit www.avectra.com/livedemo.

Both Avectra and Intacct are participating in the 2010 ASAE Annual Meeting and Exposition on August 21-24 in Los Angeles. Visit booth #417 for information regarding netFORUM and all Avectra solutions. Visit booth #209 for information regarding Intacct’s cloud financial management and accounting applications.

About netFORUM Team & Pro
netFORUM Team & Pro are Avectra’s 100% Web-based association management software solutions. With complete association management functionality, both products are designed and configured to meet association needs without the cost or complexity of customization. Avectra Social Community provides netFORUM Team and Pro customers with social networking tools designed to improve the organization’s business, recruitment efforts, member communications, and results by inspiring conversations with and between members, building long-term loyalty, and forging deeper relationships with their members.

About netFORUM Enterprise
netFORUM Enterprise is Avectra’s hosted, enterprise level association management that delivers advanced association management tools and the ability to be customized to meet the most complex business needs – all while remaining on the upgrade path.

With more than 30 modules designed for complete association management and Avectra’s on demand SaaS (software-as-a-service) model, netFORUM Enterprise is accessible at any time, from anywhere. And customers can rest assured knowing that their data is safe, as all Avectra solutions run in a secure, world-class hosting facility with complete system redundancy, fail-safe power systems and full database backup.

In addition to Avectra’s internal development and implementation resources, the company also boasts a network of implementation and industry solution partners who work with the company’s customers to implement netFORUM Enterprise or extend the system’s functionality. Some of the company’s partners include Agilutions, Core Partners, DSK Solutions, SusQtech, and Real Magnet.

About Avectra
For the last 16 years, Avectra has been translating our customers’ needs into market-leading association management software – whether our customers serve members by the hundreds or hundreds of thousands. Our 100% Web-based technology integrates data with business processes and then automates it, so our customers can engage members, provide access to all of their resources and get more done. Each of our solutions is continually refined by the user community, ensuring that we have the features our customers need to run their businesses and lead their industries. With ongoing, automatic upgrades that won’t disrupt service or incur additional costs, we keep our customers current with the latest technology. Avectra is headquartered in McLean, Va., with a regional office in Chicago.

To explore the netFORUM family of products, please visit www.avectra.com, or call 800-858-8272.

About Intacct
Intacct is the market and technology leader in web-based financial management and accounting applications for businesses and CPA firms. Bringing cloud computing to finance and accounting, Intacct’s award-winning applications are the preferred financial applications for AICPA business solutions. Intacct applications are used by thousands of businesses from startups to public companies and are designed to improve company performance and make finance more productive. The Intacct system includes accounting, contract management, revenue recognition, inventory, purchasing, vendor management, financial consolidation and financial reporting applications, all delivered over the Internet via cloud computing.

Intacct is headquartered in San Jose, California. For more information, please visit www.intacct.com or call 877-437-7765.

Recognizing the strength of Sybase’s existing business model, SAP confirmed that Sybase will be run as a separate, independent unit – and that customer investments in Sybase products will be preserved and supported. Setting the stage for their vision of an unwired enterprise and embracing the evolution of mobile as the new desktop, SAP and Sybase today also unveiled strategic product directions and planned co-innovations in three key areas: enterprise mobility, business analytics and enterprise information management (EIM).

Combined Companies Retain Core Strengths While Leveraging Synergies for Innovation
Outlining the first milestones since the close of the acquisition, SAP and Sybase today announced:

• Within the next nine months, the companies will bring together technologies to deliver a leading mobile platform for business that is based on open standards, runs on all major mobile operating systems, and manages and supports all major device types. With this platform, customers and partners can build new mobile experiences on top of existing applications, such as SAP® Business Suite software. In addition, SAP will showcase mobile experiences for all products, including both SAP Business Suite and SAP® Business ByDesign™, similar to what is available for mobile sales for customer relationship management (CRM) today.
• SAP and Sybase will present the industry’s broadest solution portfolio for EIM by porting, certifying and optimizing SAP Business Suite and other solutions onto Sybase data management servers – bringing customers a greater choice of database platforms for their SAP applications.
• The companies will offer customers a complete and optimized high-performance business analytics infrastructure tapping SAP® BusinessObjects™ business intelligence (BI) solutions on data management servers to deliver end-to-end functionality from discovery (enterprise information management) to storage (calculation and storage engines for transactions, data marts, data warehouse) to consumption (query reporting and analytics, scorecarding, dashboarding, OLAP tools, mobile BI).
• The companies will incorporate SAP’s in-memory computing technology across SAP and Sybase data management offerings, enabling customers to instantaneously access any type of data, anywhere, any place in real time.

SAP Co-CEOs Bill McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe shared their thoughts on today’s announcement: “The combination of SAP and Sybase is a significant game changer in the industry. Less than three months after this bold acquisition was announced, we are highlighting the first joint products that will transform the way people and businesses work. The product roadmap and go-forward strategy we are sharing today positions SAP to be the only company enabled to deliver a full suite of enterprise software and next-generation business intelligence on any device at any time. The coming together of SAP and Sybase is 100 percent a customer-focused move, delivering a value proposition for customers in mobility, analytics and information management that is unmatched and unique.”

“At Sybase, we have been successfully executing our ‘Unwired Enterprise’ strategy over the last eight years to become the market leader in enterprise mobility software,” said John Chen, CEO, Sybase. “Working alongside SAP, we will take mobility to the next level by extending analytics and bringing our technologies to new vertical markets. With SAP’s investment in Sybase’s technologies, we’ll be able to extend our existing solutions to an even broader audience, and more rapidly innovate as the market’s needs continue to evolve.”

Market-Leading Vendors Unwire the Enterprise With End-to-End Mobile Platform
Research firm Gartner predicts that by 2014, there will be a 90 percent mobile penetration rate and 6.5 billion mobile connections.1 This new generation of users demands immediate access to enterprise applications from any location, at any time. The Sybase acquisition allows SAP to bring customers a mobile platform that can support SAP applications and enable partners and customers to develop complementary applications to help them run their business better.

The extension of existing applications and the delivery of new applications will broaden the reach of SAP solutions across mobile platforms and devices and accelerate the pace of mobile innovation for enterprises. SAP and Sybase already have co-innovated and delivered Sybase Mobile Sales for the SAP® Customer Relationship Management (SAP CRM) application and Sybase Mobile Workflow for SAP Business Suite.

The companies will integrate the SAP NetWeaver® Mobile component and SAP® BusinessObjects™ Mobile software with Sybase Unwired Platform to deliver a single mobile development and deployment platform with integrated analytics. New open standards-based technology from SAP that enables easy access to SAP Business Suite will accelerate the mobilization of SAP applications. SAP will also deliver industry-specific mobile applications built on this next-generation mobile platform.

Complementary Technologies Deliver a Complete Business Analytics Stack
With the combination of complementary technologies from the SAP BusinessObjects portfolio and Sybase, the companies now offer a complete and optimized high-performance business analytics infrastructure. SAP BusinessObjects BI solutions are already certified on Sybase IQ 15.0 and Sybase ASE 15.0. Customers can take advantage of complete solutions – from business analytic applications; to reports, scorecards and dashboards; to data integration and data quality; to transactional storage, data marts and data warehousing. SAP and Sybase will also deliver business analytic applications that are optimized for industries such as financial services, consumer products, retail and manufacturing.

SAP in-memory computing technology is the driving force enabling business users to instantaneously access, explore, model and analyze transactional, analytical and Web-based data in real time in a single environment from anywhere, anytime, using any device. SAP and Sybase will incorporate SAP in-memory computing technology across SAP and Sybase data management offerings. SAP has already announced a high-performance analytic appliance as further innovation in the in-memory computing space.

SAP and Sybase Offer the Industry’s Broadest Portfolio for Enterprise Information Management
One of the highest priorities for organizations of any size and across any industry is managing the soaring quantity of data, and harnessing that information to improve their business. The combination of SAP and Sybase EIM offerings provides the industry’s broadest solution portfolio for enterprise information management, including data integration and data quality, master data management, complex event processing (CEP), real-time replication, modeling, application development and database capabilities. Sybase ASE is one of the leading database engines that support transactional and mixed workloads, and will be fully supported by the combined companies. SAP will port, certify and optimize SAP Business Suite, the SAP NetWeaver® Business Warehouse component, SAP® BusinessObjects™ Data Services software and SAP BusinessObjects BI solutions to Sybase ASE — giving customers a greater choice of database platforms for their SAP applications.

Vibrant Ecosystem Benefits From the Combination of Two IT Leaders
With this acquisition, new fields of opportunity are available for the SAP ecosystem. Across all partner types – services, ISVs, hardware and others – partners can participate in the new opportunities that come from the SAP and Sybase strategies around enterprise mobility, business analytics and EIM. SAP has also enabled its ecosystem partners to build and deliver new mobile applications on the mobility platform. Recently, announced on August 9, 2010, a series of Sybase partners launched innovative mobile applications for SAP solutions on the Sybase Unwired Platform. This growing ecosystem is significantly extending the reach of enterprise customers and applications, empowering millions of mobile workers worldwide. This ecosystem is further extended with the opportunity to engage and transact with four billion mobile subscribers, through Sybase’s messaging and mobile commerce services via reach to 900 mobile operators worldwide.

For more insight into how mobility is transforming the way people do business and to learn more about SAP’s strategy for enterprise mobility, see this newly released SAP TV video on mobility. To follow and join the conversation surrounding this announcement, connect via Twitter at #SapSybase.

1 Gartner’s Top Predictions for IT Organizations and Users, 2010 and Beyond: A New Balance, 29 December 2009, ID: G00173482

About Sybase
Sybase, an SAP company, is the industry leader in delivering enterprise and mobile software to manage, analyze and mobilize information. We are recognized globally as a performance leader, proven in the most data-intensive industries and across all major systems, networks and devices. Our information management, analytics and enterprise mobility solutions have powered the world’s most mission-critical systems in financial services, telecommunications, manufacturing and government. For more information, visit http://www.sybase.com. Read Sybase blogs: http://blogs.sybase.com. Follow us on Twitter at @Sybase.

About SAP
SAP is the world’s leading provider of business software(*), offering applications and services that enable companies of all sizes and in more than 25 industries to become best-run businesses. With more than 102,500 customers in over 120 countries, the company is listed on several exchanges, including the Frankfurt stock exchange and NYSE, under the symbol “SAP.” For more information, visit www.sap.com.

(*) SAP defines business software as comprising enterprise resource planning, business intelligence, and related applications.

Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “forecast,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “project,” “predict,” “should” and “will” and similar expressions as they relate to SAP are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. SAP undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. The factors that could affect SAP’s future financial results are discussed more fully in SAP’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including SAP’s most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates.

Copyright © 2010 SAP AG. All rights reserved.
SAP, R/3, mySAP, mySAP.com, xApps, xApp, SAP NetWeaver and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries all over the world. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies. Data contained in this document serve informational purposes only. National product specifications may vary.

“CRM In The Cloud” webinar attendees will learn:

• How the rapid time-to-value of on-demand CRM systems can be combined with the security and control of an on-premise systems to give businesses the best of both worlds;
• What to look for when evaluating CRM systems and how they can help businesses reach more profitable customers and enhance the customer experience offered;
• What evolving CRM systems can provide in terms of information and insights to aid sales and marketing planning, managing and forecasting; and
• The Top 8 Business Considerations for CRM deployments.

About Sage North America

Sage North America is part of The Sage Group plc, a leading global supplier of business management software and services. Sage North America employs 4,000 people and supports 3.1 million small and midsized business customers. The Sage Group plc, formed in 1981, was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1989 and now employs 13,100 people and supports 6.2 million customers worldwide. For more information, please visit the website at www.sagenorthamerica.com.

© 2010 Sage Software, Inc. All rights reserved. Sage, the Sage logos, and the Sage product and service names mentioned herein are registered trademarks or trademarks of Sage Software, Inc., or its affiliated entities. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

These 2010 estimates are supported by the company’s total contracted backlog (TCB) of over $140 million. CDC Software believes that TCB provides improved visibility into revenue performance for future periods.

In addition, the company is providing an update on its share buyback program. Since September 2009, the company, management and certain affiliates of the company have purchased an aggregate total amount of approximately 788,018 shares at an average price of $9.34 per share. Of that total, the company has purchased 737,299 shares and management, including the CEO, has purchased 50,719 shares. The company and its CEO continue to repurchase its shares in the open market through a 10b5-1 trading plan.

“We believe the recent sell-off in CDC Software shares is unwarranted, and in fact, provides an opportunity for long-term investors, and that is why we are demonstrating our commitment through our repurchases,” said Peter Yip, CEO of CDC Software. “We see our third quarter progressing well, with our recent sales traction, and we are very pleased on our strong second half pipeline totaling more than $74 million. In addition, we expect to see an improvement in our operating cash flow in the second half of 2010 compared to the first half of 2010. With our solid financial foundation and our confidence in our long-term prospects and hybrid enterprise software strategy, we believe CDC Software represents a compelling investment opportunity.”

About CDC Software

CDC Software (NASDAQ: CDCS), The Customer-Driven Company™, is a hybrid enterprise software provider of on-premise and cloud deployments. Leveraging a service-oriented architecture (SOA), CDC Software offers multiple delivery options for their solutions including on-premise, hosted, cloud-based Software as a Service (SaaS) or blended-hybrid deployment offerings. CDC Software’s solutions include enterprise resource planning (ERP), manufacturing operations management, enterprise manufacturing intelligence, supply chain management (demand management, order management and warehouse and transportation management), global trade management, e-Commerce, human capital management, customer relationship management (CRM), complaint management and aged care solutions.

CDC Software’s recent acquisitions are part of its “acquire, integrate, innovate and grow” strategy. Fueling the success of this strategy is the company’s global scalable business and technology infrastructure featuring multiple complementary applications and services, domain expertise in vertical markets, cost effective product engineering centers in India and China, a highly collaborative and fast product development process utilizing Agile methodologies, and a worldwide network of direct sales and channel operations. This strategy has helped CDC Software deliver innovative and industry-specific solutions to more than 8,000 customers worldwide within the manufacturing, distribution, transportation, retail, government, real estate, financial services, health care, and not-for-profit industries. For more information, please visit www.cdcsoftware.com.

About CDC Corporation

The CDC family of companies includes CDC Software (NASDAQ: CDCS – News) focused on enterprise software applications and services, CDC Global Services focused on IT consulting services, and outsourced R&D and application development, CDC Games focused on online games, and China.com, Inc. (HKGEM:8006) focused on portals for the greater China markets. For more information about CDC Corporation (NASDAQ: CHINA – News), please visit www.cdccorporation.net.

(a) Adjusted Financial Measures

This press release includes Non-GAAP earnings per share and Non-GAAP revenue, which are not prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (“GAAP”) (collectively, the “Non-GAAP Financial Measures”). We believe that these Non-GAAP Financial Measures are helpful in understanding our past financial performance and our future results. Non-GAAP Financial Measures are not alternatives for measures such as revenue and earnings per share prepared under GAAP. These Non-GAAP Financial Measures may also be different from non-GAAP measures used by other companies. Non-GAAP Financial Measures should not be used as a substitute for, or considered superior to, measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP.

Investors should be aware that these Non-GAAP Financial Measures have inherent limitations, including their variance from certain of the financial measurement principals underlying GAAP, should not be considered as a replacement for GAAP performance measures, and should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements prepared in accordance with GAAP. These supplemental Non-GAAP Financial Measures should not be construed as an inference that the Company’s future results will be unaffected by similar adjustments determined in accordance with GAAP. Please see reconciliations of Non-GAAP Financial Measures to GAAP which are included in our earnings press release for the second quarter ended June 30, 2010.

Special Note Regarding CDC Software Financial Projections and Guidance

The financial estimates and guidance contained herein apply only to CDC Software Corporation, a subsidiary of CDC Corporation. These estimates and guidance amounts do not apply to, and are not indicative of, the expected consolidated financial performance of CDC Corporation, or the expected financial performance of CDC Games Corporation, China.com, Inc. or any of their respective subsidiaries. Investors are cautioned not to place reliance on the financial estimates and guidance set forth herein for purposes of any investment decision with respect to the shares of CDC Corporation, and should read the foregoing in conjunction with the reports and other materials filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission by CDC Corporation and CDC Software Corporation, from time to time.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release includes “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements relating to, among other things, our beliefs and expectations about revenue and earnings per share performance for 2010 and 2011, our beliefs regarding the utility of TCB in estimating revenue performance, our beliefs regarding recent market activity in our shares, our beliefs and expectations for operating cash flow performance and other metric for future periods, and other statements which are not historic fact. These statements are based on management’s current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties and changes in circumstances. There are important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements, including the following: (a) the ability to realize strategic objectives by taking advantage of market opportunities in targeted geographic markets; (b) the ability to make changes in business strategy, development plans and product offerings to respond to the needs of current, new and potential customers, suppliers and strategic partners; (c) the ability to integrate operations or new acquisitions in accordance with the company’s and its subsidiaries’ business strategies; (d) the effects of restructurings and rationalization of operations; (e) the ability to address technological changes and developments including the development and enhancement of products; (f) the ability to develop and market successful products and services; (g) the entry of new competitors and their technological advances; (h) the need to develop, integrate and deploy products and services that meet customer’s requirements; (i) the possibility of development or deployment difficulties or delays; (j) the dependence on customer satisfaction with the company’s and its subsidiaries’ products and services; (k) continued commitment to the deployment of the company’s and its subsidiaries’ products and services, including enterprise software solutions; (l) risks involved in developing software solutions and integrating them with third-party software and services; (m) the continued ability of the company’s enterprise software solutions to address client-specific requirements; and (n) demand for, and market acceptance of, new and existing enterprise software and services and the positioning of the company’s solutions. Further information on risks or other factors that could cause results to differ is detailed in our filings or submissions with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2009, as filed with the SEC on June 2, 2010, and those of our ultimate parent company, CDC Corporation. All forward-looking statements included in this press release are based upon information available to management as of the date of the press release, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward looking statements which speak only as of the date of this press release. The company assumes no obligation to update or alter the forward looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Historical results are not indicative of future performance.

Prior to selecting Epicor, Grevol relied on a homegrown business software solution. However, as the company expanded, the solution was unable to adapt to Grevol’s new requirements, creating significant duplication of data entries, which resulted in additional man hours, increased costs and lower profits. It was clear that Grevol needed a new, scalable ERP solution to support its growth. After a comprehensive selection process of seven ERP suppliers, Grevol chose Epicor ERP.

“We are planning to develop a chain of retail outlets in China, and it is critical that our new ERP partner can support our rapid expansion plans, while possessing an in-depth understanding of our production procedures and our unique manufacturing process,” said Gao Hanuang, chairman and managing director of Grevol. “We chose Epicor’s ERP solution due to its scalability and support of international standards, which allows us to analyze data that can help us foresee business problems before they arise.”

Epicor also offers a single, end-to-end solution that goes beyond traditional ERP, encompassing award-winning financial, inventory and manufacturing management capabilities. This is in addition to an in-depth supply chain management, customer relationship management, business intelligence and enterprise performance management functionality. That, together with the wide range of features, is a key contributing factor to why Grevol selected Epicor over its competition.

With Epicor, Grevol can now reap the benefits of a centralized repository of timely, accurate business data, as well as reduce the activity-overlaps — all of which lower overhead costs and maximize profit margins. “The breadth of functionality of Epicor’s ERP solution and the company’s experience and familiarity with manufacturing won us over,” added Gao Guo Bin, the board secretary of Grevol. “In addition, Epicor ERP is able to simplify complex production procedures, which will help us to avoid duplication, reduce cost and enhance productivity.”

“Companies like Grevol need a partner that understands and supports their business and growth plans,” said Vincent Tang, senior regional director, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South China for Epicor. “Epicor’s solution also offers businesses one of the industry’s lowest total cost of ownership, and through our Signature Methodology and Shared Benefits program, we help customers like Grevol save costs on the investment, maintenance and implementation of their ERP solution, enabling them to expand and grow and see a faster return on investment.”

Grevol will be implementing the solution across its China operations in a phased approach. The implementation is expected to be completed within nine months.

About Epicor Software Corporation

Epicor Software (EPIC) is a global leader delivering business software solutions to the manufacturing, distribution, retail, hospitality and services industries. With 20,000 customers in over 150 countries, Epicor provides integrated enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), supply chain management (SCM) and enterprise retail software solutions that enable companies to drive increased efficiency and improve profitability. Founded in 1984, Epicor takes pride in more than 25 years of technology innovation delivering business solutions that provide the scalability and flexibility businesses need to build competitive advantage. Epicor provides a comprehensive range of services with a single point of accountability that promotes rapid return on investment and low total cost of ownership, whether operating business on a local, regional or global scale. The Company’s worldwide headquarters are located in Irvine, California with offices and affiliates around the world. For more information, visit www.epicor.com.

Epicor is a registered trademark of Epicor Software Corporation. Other trademarks referenced are the property of their respective owners. The product and service offerings depicted in this document are produced by Epicor Software Corporation.

TCB is defined as the total amount of contracted unrecognized SaaS revenue and the total amount of contracted unrecognized term license or rental contracts, plus annualized maintenance figures based on the rolling average of the previous 12 months. CDC Software has secured TCB of approximately $140 million ($99 million for maintenance and $41 million for SaaS) as of July 31, 2010, compared to approximately $100 million as of June 30, 2009.

The seven digit deals include a food manufacturer’s purchase of CDC Factory, an on-premise manufacturing operations management solution, for its entire 16 plant network in the U.S. In addition, the company closed a seven figure sale to an international Fortune 1000 company that bought CDC TradeBeam, a SaaS global trade management solution, which was an up sell opportunity. Just recently, CDC gomembers also closed on a six digit deal with one of the largest non-profit associations in the U.S.

“We are very excited to start our third quarter with these impressive deals for our on-premise and SaaS software solutions,” said Bruce Cameron, president of CDC Software. “We’re pleased with the momentum so far in our third quarter and on our expanding second half 2010 sales pipeline, especially our cross-sell pipeline which has grown more than 500 percent compared to the second half of 2009. We believe our TCB numbers are a good sign of our revenue visibility and we are very encouraged with these numbers and in our performance for the third quarter.”

About CDC Software

CDC Software (NASDAQ: CDCS), The Customer-Driven Company™, is a hybrid enterprise software provider of on-premise and cloud deployments. Leveraging a service-oriented architecture (SOA), CDC Software offers multiple delivery options for their solutions including on-premise, hosted, cloud-based Software as a Service (SaaS) or blended-hybrid deployment offerings. CDC Software’s solutions include enterprise resource planning (ERP), manufacturing operations management, enterprise manufacturing intelligence, supply chain management (demand management, order management and warehouse and transportation management), global trade management, e-Commerce, human capital management, customer relationship management (CRM), complaint management and aged care solutions.

CDC Software’s recent acquisitions are part of its “acquire, integrate, innovate and grow” strategy. Fueling the success of this strategy is the company’s global scalable business and technology infrastructure featuring multiple complementary applications and services, domain expertise in vertical markets, cost effective product engineering centers in India and China, a highly collaborative and fast product development process utilizing Agile methodologies, and a worldwide network of direct sales and channel operations. This strategy has helped CDC Software deliver innovative and industry-specific solutions to more than 8,000 customers worldwide within the manufacturing, distribution, transportation, retail, government, real estate, financial services, health care, and not-for-profit industries. For more information, please visit www.cdcsoftware.com.

About CDC Corporation

The CDC family of companies includes CDC Software (NASDAQ: CDCS – News) focused on enterprise software applications and services, CDC Global Services focused on IT consulting services, and outsourced R&D and application development, CDC Games focused on online games, and China.com, Inc. (HKGEM:8006) focused on portals for the greater China markets. For more information about CDC Corporation (NASDAQ: CHINA – News), please visit www.cdccorporation.net.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release includes “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements relating to, among other things, our expectations regarding momentum in our sales pipeline, our beliefs regarding revenue visibility and TCB, our beliefs and expectations regarding performance for the remainder of the current period and any future periods, and other statements which are not historic fact. These statements are based on management’s current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties and changes in circumstances. There are important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements, including the following: (a) the ability to realize strategic objectives by taking advantage of market opportunities in targeted geographic markets; (b) the ability to make changes in business strategy, development plans and product offerings to respond to the needs of current, new and potential customers, suppliers and strategic partners; (c) the ability to integrate operations or new acquisitions in accordance with the company’s and its subsidiaries’ business strategies; (d) the effects of restructurings and rationalization of operations; (e) the ability to address technological changes and developments including the development and enhancement of products; (f) the ability to develop and market successful products and services; (g) the entry of new competitors and their technological advances; (h) the need to develop, integrate and deploy products and services that meet customer’s requirements; (i) the possibility of development or deployment difficulties or delays; (j) the dependence on customer satisfaction with the company’s and its subsidiaries’ products and services; (k) continued commitment to the deployment of the company’s and its subsidiaries’ products and services, including enterprise software solutions; (l) risks involved in developing software solutions and integrating them with third-party software and services; (m) the continued ability of the company’s enterprise software solutions to address client-specific requirements; and (n) demand for, and market acceptance of, new and existing enterprise software and services and the positioning of the company’s solutions. Further information on risks or other factors that could cause results to differ is detailed in our filings or submissions with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2009 filed with the SEC on June 2, 2010, and those of our ultimate parent company, CDC Corporation. All forward-looking statements included in this press release are based upon information available to management as of the date of the press release, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward looking statements which speak only as of the date of this press release. The company assumes no obligation to update or alter the forward looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Historical results are not indicative of future performance.

“This new SaaS deal will provide services to one of the top retail banks in the world,” said Leslie Stretch, president and CEO of Callidus Software. “The financial services market is extremely demanding. These institutions need to be highly responsive to market feedback and rapidly adjust and deploy new incentive regimes to a broad base, while operating in a heavily regulated environment. The Monaco on-demand suite is taking hold in this market because of its unmatched flexibility and scalability, without compromising on ease of use. The solution will enable the bank to easily model, deploy, and adjust a mix of targeted incentives and rewards which will immediately drive specific revenue and customer growth objectives.”

Callidus Software’s SPM suite, the Monaco release, delivers a 100% multi-tenant, SaaS solution that helps companies harness the power of incentives and rewards to drive sales effectiveness. The solution:

• Enables rapid deployment of commission-based incentive plans, MBOs (management by objectives), and bonuses to drive well-defined, go-to-market strategies
• Delivers a high degree of adaptability to enable real-time adjustments of incentives and payout curves based on market feedback
• Supports automated, real-time sales communications to accelerate new product and fiscal period rollouts
• Consolidates all sales results data in one place, and enables sales operations, finance, sales management, and agents to manage and track selling performance in real time with role-based portal and mobile access

“Once again Monaco is demonstrating the increasing appetite for SaaS SPM solutions in large financial services enterprises,” said Lorna Heynike, senior vice president, marketing at Callidus Software. “Financial services enterprises are focused on executing projects that demonstrate a quick return on investment, while positioning the business to move forward at an accelerated pace as the economy recovers. The Monaco solution is a strategic investment that delivers immediate value through the rapid deployment of incentives that directly drive revenue and grow market share, while helping save money through reduced hardware, software, and IT overhead costs.”

Callidus Software’s SPM suite manages the entire sales and agent lifecycle from on-boarding, to incentives and rewards, to talent development, while providing visibility into sales operations and financial performance. This gives customers the ability to align their sales force and channels with their key business objectives to consistently and reliably execute on sales targets. The software is used by leading companies in a broad range of verticals including high-tech, telecommunications, banking, insurance, and pharmaceuticals. Since its inception nearly 15 years ago, the company has evolved into the most experienced, proven, and reliable SPM vendor in the marketplace. Callidus Software manages over $50 billion in incentives and compensation for more than two million payees in over 140 countries.

About Callidus Software®

Callidus Software (NASDAQ:CALD – News) is the market and technology leader in Sales Performance Management (SPM). Callidus customers gain a competitive advantage by maximizing sales cost efficiencies and driving improvements in sales effectiveness. Our award-winning Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications set the standard for performance management of a company’s sales force and channel partners. Over 2 million employees and channel partners have their performance managed by Callidus Software. For more information, please visit www.callidussoftware.com.

©1997-2010 Callidus Software Inc. All rights reserved. Callidus Software, the Callidus Software logo, and TrueComp Manager are trademarks, service marks, or registered trademarks of Callidus Software Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other brand, service or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies or owners.

This module simplifies and automates the business processes around the management of the cash flow to and from financial accounts, from the receipt and issue of payment, to the reconciliation of those events with bank statements. This module delivers an improved user experience that combines the power of an enterprise grade financial application with the simplicity and ease of a web 2.0 personal accounting service.

This new version strengthens the previous capabilities of the module by adding support for automatic creation of external payment documents and files. Users can leverage this “Payment Execution” to print checks and create payment instructions to a bank, or integrate Openbravo ERP with electronic payment platforms.

Read more about this module.

If you are concerned that a comprehensive assessment of your current enterprise system might put an addition burden on an already tight budget, there is a solution. Just spent ten minutes to complete Panorama’s 2010 ERP Benchmark Survey. Your company will be entered into a drawing to receive a a complimentary, two-week Enterprise Systems & Processes Audit Program. Based on your organization’s needs and project status, the Panorama team will provide an assessment of one of the following three areas and make recommendations based upon their analysis.

• Assess your current IT environment and identify any potential risks.
• Assess your current business processes and the overall coverage of your current software solution.
• Access your organizational change, design and support due to your ERP system.

Regardless of what stage you are in with your ERP project – ERP selection, ERP implementation, or after go-live – you will no doubt benefit from the Enterprise Systems & Processes Audit Program.  Seize the opportunity and take action now!

Blog entry written by Haoyan Sun, Research Analyst at Panorama Consulting Group.

Solutions supported by xTuple Connect include Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) – both legacy networks and more modern XML-based systems; any number of web-based e-commerce solutions; and product lifecycle management (PLM) systems such as Arena.

“xTuple is known for bringing powerful, big-company ERP solutions to growing businesses of all sizes,” stated xTuple CEO Ned Lilly. “xTuple Connect builds on that same philosophy, and delivers a robust, standards-based integration platform that gives power users the tools to connect to any third party business software.”

EDI options range from simple emailing of basic documents (invoices, statements, purchase orders, quotes, sales orders, credit memos) to highly complex XML input and output driven by XSLT style sheets automatically processed in the xTuple ERP system. xTuple Connect includes support for xTuple’s powerful MetaSQL scripting language which can be embedded in standard SQL queries, and EDI profile templates for trading partners in the xTuple system.

The major enhancements around automating import/export in multiple formats (CSV, XML, etc.) were driven by several customers in the food and beverage industry, whose interactions with their trading partners such as large grocery chains are increasingly automated. For example, with deliveries to hundreds of supermarkets generating thousands of EDI invoices each week, Cedarlane Natural Foods had requirements for significant additional automation in its order process.

Daniel Baroco, IT Director for Cedarlane noted, “We worked with xTuple to develop a fully automated solution, allowing us to do away with paper-based methods. The xTuple system receives the standard grocery industry purchase order, creates the demand and the order in the xTuple production system, and automatically invoices the customer electronically, while creating a printed backup for Cedarlane’s own files. xTuple has saved our company significant time and money as well as minimized errors that comes with manual data entry.”

In addition to the multiple integration solutions and automated data transport over email and FTP, xTuple Connect also enables traditional batch processing functionality, such as the scheduling of long-running reports and database maintenance tasks, and setting up and running repeating jobs.

xTuple Connect is included in the xTuple Manufacturing Edition and is available separately as a loadable Package for the PostBooks and Standard Editions on the xChange online app store. Pricing is $1,995. For more information please visit www.xtuple.com/connect .

Training for xTuple Connect is available as part of the Power User class meeting at xTuple’s Norfolk, Virginia offices next week, from August 24-27. For more information on the class, please visit www.xtuple.com/training202.

About xTuple
xTuple business management software gives growing companies control over operations and the tools to power that growth. xTuple integrates all critical functional areas in one system: sales, accounting, and operations– including customer and supplier management, inventory control, manufacturing and distribution.

As a commercial open source company, xTuple works with a global community of over 25,000 professional users. xTuple gives customers the ability to tailor solutions to meet their needs with multi-platform support for Mac, Windows and Linux, and flexible licensing and pricing options. For more information, please visit the company web site at www.xtuple.com or the community web site at www.xtuple.org.

Hunter Amenities is one of the world’s leading formulators and manufacturers of exquisitely crafted and fully customized personal care amenity programs for major hospitality corporations, boutique hotels, spas, and cruise lines, as well as custom personal care products for major retailers. For over 25 years, the company has crusaded to be a partner to their customers’ success through continual improvement of product quality and service performance.

In order to better carry out its mission, Hunter Amenities initiated a search for a cosmetics ERP software system. Software criteria included extensive inventory visibility and total integration of all business processes in one system, in order to eliminate its existing usage of multiple databases and subsequent conflicting report data.

The DEACOM ERP System was selected based on its specialization in the cosmetics and personal care product manufacturing industry. DEACOM seamlessly handles all areas of these manufacturers without costly customization or third-party programs, allowing companies to remove redundant and inaccurate data entry while providing in-depth reporting capabilities from summary reports to transactional details across the enterprise.

“Deacom knocked the ball high in the air in how they handle the business process issues facing companies like ours,” says Rick Belford, MIS Director at Hunter Amenities. “We feel Deacom understands our needs, and more importantly, will accommodate our needs competently.”

To learn more about the DEACOM Integrated Accounting and ERP Software System or to schedule an online demonstration, call 610-971-2278 ext. 15 or visit www.deacom.net.

# # #

About Deacom, Inc.

Headquartered in Wayne, PA, Deacom, Inc. is the producer of DEACOM, a complete accounting and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system for building component and process manufacturers with difficult-to-handle requirements. The DEACOM System seamlessly links all departments within a manufacturing company, providing a comprehensive view of the entire operation. By making complex issues simple, Deacom helps streamline manufacturing business processes to maximize productivity and profitability.

“SAP provides a broad set of BI solutions that help small and midsize companies tackle information overload while offering pricing and packaging that addresses the particular needs of this market,” said Wayne Eckerson, director of TDWI research at The Data Warehousing Institute. “These customers need a solution they can easily customize, implement and manage, while providing immediate value to business users.”

SAP provides a range of on-premise and on-demand BI solutions for data access, retrieval, exploration, management and visualization. All of these products are specifically designed for small and midsize organizations, and are also adopted increasingly by departments and individuals within larger companies.

Gaining an Edge with BI

For home fashion and furnishing retailer Anna’s Linens, BI solutions from SAP have helped in the company’s transition from a regional to a national company. The company is using SAP® BusinessObjects™ Edge BI software, which provides a full suite of exploration, dashboarding, reporting and analysis tools, as well as information management solutions that unify data from multiple sources and help ensure that data is reliable and accurate. It is also using SAP® Crystal solutions, which empower business people to view, create and share interactive dashboards and reports.

“Our management team realized our success depended on visibility into our business to make sure we were on track with our strategic plan,” said Scott Gladstone, chief operating officer, Anna’s Linens. “SAP BusinessObjects Edge BI and SAP Crystal solutions have enabled us to benchmark and measure performance so that the company can see how well we perform against our goals and key initiatives. Now we’ve been able to combine data so managers can better understand KPIs like inventory productivity and gross margin return on investment. Company executives receive the same information in a dashboard format, so they can quickly and easily see a snapshot of the status of the business. With BI solutions from SAP, our management can drill down to see where opportunities exist and analyze what is happening at 260 locations quickly. All of this helps us make better decisions to drive our continued growth.”

For OraSure Technologies, accurate insight and reporting is critical. The public company produces medical devices and diagnostic tests and needed to gain more streamlined access to business intelligence to help drive business decisions.

“As a small but growing company, our main objective was to get data into the hands of users in departments like sales, finance and budgeting, and give them tools so they could analyze data themselves,” said Scott Baker, manager of SAP systems, OraSure Technologies. “SAP provides us with reports, dashboards and the ability to explore data – all of these capabilities are intuitive and easy to use. With SAP BusinessObjects Edge BI, version with data integration, we can unify data from across the company and give people reports and dashboards that reflect one trusted version of the truth. We also love the SAP BusinessObjects Explorer software because it’s so easy to use that people can focus more time on what the data is showing them than how to get the information out of the system. The tool was user-ready essentially out of the box.”

Crystal Clear Reporting

Another organization gaining business value with BI solutions from SAP is the Central Indiana Community Foundation (CICF), a $550 million public foundation that offers consultation on charitable giving, awards grants to effective not-for-profit organizations, and provides community leadership. For CICF, SAP Crystal solutions are instrumental in successfully matching donors with the right non-profits.

“SAP Crystal solutions bring us immediate access to the information we need to best manage charitable donations for central Indiana,” said Julie Cole Mecum, business intelligence specialist, CICF. “SAP BusinessObjects solutions and data marts allow us to drill down on data spread over different databases for granular views, create executive dashboards for more informed decision-making and run reports for approximately 800 charitable funds. With batch reporting, reports that once took us a week to produce are now available in less than one day – and we can make them accessible online in user-friendly formats. All of this has translated into operational savings for CICF which results in more resources for our community.”

SAP recently incorporated the former Crystal Reports® offerings and Xcelsius® software under the SAP brand, underlining the company’s continued investment in both the product line and channels through which these solutions are distributed.

Meeting the Demand for On-Demand BI

Customers such as GENBAND and NC4 are turning to SAP for on-demand add-ons to their existing IT landscapes. The SAP® BusinessObjects™ BI OnDemand solution allows customers to leverage the benefits of software-as-a-service; they can upload spreadsheets or bring together on-premise and on-demand data in the cloud and then explore, report and share that data securely within minutes and without training. Through a connected user-licensing model, SAP is the leading vendor offering the combination of BI on premise and on demand, providing customers with ultimate flexibility in deployment options for end users.

“SAP BusinessObjects BI OnDemand integrates with our existing Salesforce application, allowing us to provide reports based on our CRM data,” said Angie Reese, CRM business analyst, GENBAND. “This integration saves time by automating reporting. Since acquiring Nortel Carrier Voice Over IP business, we have scaled our organization by approximately four times and SAP BusinessObjects BI OnDemand has been a helpful tool for managing a much larger organization.”

“NC4 has been a long-time business partner with SAP, using SAP BusinessObjects BI OnDemand to provide key performance indicators for enhancing situational awareness in conjunction with our E Team incident management solution,” said Eric Kant, E Team product manager, NC4. “From the hurricane recovery command centers to the Vancouver Olympics operations, SAP BusinessObjects BI OnDemand has provided our customers with reports that contain critical information, such as tracking shelter capacities, identifying increases in particular types of resource requests or demonstrating timeliness of incident response. The people using this information are typically government employees, health officials, city police or firefighters whose mission is to ensure public safety and provide support for potential life-saving projects. SAP’s BI solutions make on-demand reports easily accessible without the need for additional IT support, empowering public servants with data they didn’t have access to previously.”

About SAP

SAP is the world’s leading provider of business software(*), offering applications and services that enable companies of all sizes and in more than 25 industries to become best-run businesses. With more than 102,500 customers in over 120 countries, the company is listed on several exchanges, including the Frankfurt stock exchange and NYSE, under the symbol “SAP.” For more information, visit www.sap.com.

(*) SAP defines business software as comprising enterprise resource planning, business intelligence, and related applications.

Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “forecast,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “project,” “predict,” “should” and “will” and similar expressions as they relate to SAP are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. SAP undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. The factors that could affect SAP’s future financial results are discussed more fully in SAP’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including SAP’s most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates.

Copyright © 2010 SAP AG. All rights reserved.

SAP, R/3, mySAP, mySAP.com, xApps, xApp, SAP NetWeaver and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries all over the world. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies. Data contained in this document serve informational purposes only. National product specifications may vary.

UNIT4 interviewed 240 IT and/or Finance Directors in the Netherlands, UK, Belgium, Norway and Sweden about their back-office systems. The findings revealed that more than 50% of municipalities have at least five different systems from different suppliers to manage their back-office operations. This varies from systems for document management (84% of respondents had one of these), HR systems (72%), payroll (70%) and procurement systems (23%) and planning systems (26%), among others.

Survey respondents indicated that their systems need adapting and changing regularly in response to external factors. 60% of the municipalities questioned, indicated they needed to make changes in response to changing legislation and regulations. 37% said the changes were needed due to procedural changes.

A minority (9%) of respondents said they are able to make required changes to their systems without assistance from external consultants. However, 57% believed it is important or very important to be able to make changes autonomously; 64% mentioned complexity of the systems as a major obstacle to change, followed by cost (56% of respondents) and fear of disruption (43%).

“Local governments are the closest to people and the most highly visible government organizations,” says Thom Rubel, Vice President of Research at IDC Government Insights. “The diversity of services and departments is unmatched in nearly any industry. Therefore local governments need post implementation agility more than any other level of government. Yet they are often the least able to effectively realign IT systems to support it.”

“Local government is heavily impacted by constant change whether that’s change to government legislation, organisational restructuring or procedural change,” said Ton Dobbe, Vice President Product Management at UNIT4. “Without systems that can be changed easily to reflect these pressures, municipalities are suffering from inefficiencies and a negative impact on finances resulting in budget overruns; this on top of the huge fees they are paying to external IT consultants. Reality tells us that the longer it takes to make a financial software change – the greater the disruptive impact to the organisation.”

In March, UNIT4 reported that its customers see 50% time savings for ERP system changes versus competitive systems. Comparing the results of two surveys that UNIT4 conducted over 12 months via outside research companies, changes to Agresso Business World take half (or less) of the time required by other ERP system users. Companies reported that they required more than twice as much help from IT professionals to make changes to their ERP systems; specifically, 47% of the respondents required IT professionals to take the leadership role for changes after the system was deployed, versus just 20% with Agresso Business World.

“This agility combined with the cost savings our local government customers report gives them significant advantage and ensures they deliver a better service,” added Ton Dobbe.

UNIT4 is the foremost business software company in Europe providing solutions that transform the delivery of public services and comprehensively support commercial organisations in their ability to adapt and prosper in rapidly changing environments. The VITA architecture that underpins Agresso Business World is designed specifically to accommodate business change and can reduce or eliminate much of the costly IT spend that many executives have come to take for granted.

-ends-

ABOUT UNIT4
UNIT4 is a global business software and services company aimed at helping dynamic organizations to embrace change simply, quickly and cost effectively in a market sector it calls ‘Businesses Living IN Change’ (BLINC)™. The Group incorporates a number of the world’s leading change embracing software brands including Agresso Business World and CODA financial management software.
Agresso Business World is our flagship ERP suite for mid-sized services intensive organizations. It is widely acknowledged for delivering ongoing, post-implementation changes without the typical external IT costs and services that cost firms huge sums of money each year. This is achieved thanks to its powerful VITA™ architecture which is unmatched in the ERP world.

CODA Financials is our award-winning suite of best-of-class financial management software designed to integrate with your industry- and company-specific applications. CODA’s LINK™ architecture sets it apart from ordinary accounting systems by providing a financial information backbone for companies with fast-changing and mixed application environments. It is a global accounting solution for mid-to large sized organizations, offering a “no compromise” approach to financial modeling, process control and application choice.

UNIT4 is a top six mid-market ERP software player globally and the 2nd largest European ERP supplier. With offices in 13 European countries, as well as 6 countries across North America, Asia Pacific and Africa and sales activities in several other countries, a revenue of €379.4 million was realized in 2009. UNIT4 is headquartered in Sliedrecht, the Netherlands. The company has 3,456 employees (31 December 2009).

UNIT4 is listed on Euronext Amsterdam by NYSE Euronext and is included in the Amsterdam Smallcap Index (AScX). For more information on UNIT4 or any of its operating companies, please visit the website at www.unit4.com.

In Boston, SAP co-CEO Bill McDermott, Sybase CEO John Chen and SAP Executive Board Member Vishal Sikka will unveil planned co-innovations in mobility, analytics and information management technologies – and will discuss the future of an unwired enterprise where mobility is the new desktop.

SAP co-CEO Jim Hagemann Snabe will join the proceedings through a link to a concurrent event in Frankfurt, Germany.

SAP Press Conference: Thursday, August 19, 2010
10:00 a.m. – 11:15 a.m. EDT / 4:00 p.m. – 5:15 p.m. CET
The Webcast will be broadcast live at www.sap.com/press
Questions can be submitted to press@sap.com
Join the conversation via Twitter at #SapSybase

Boston Event Details:
Date: Thursday, August 19, 2010
Time: 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. EDT (lunch will be provided)
Location: Fairmont Copley Plaza, 138 St. James Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02116

Frankfurt Event Details:
Date: Thursday, August 19, 2010
Time: 4:00 p.m. – 6:15pm CET (light snacks will be provided)
Location: Room Tokyo, Japan Center, Taunustor 2, D-60311 Frankfurt am Main

How to Register:
If you would like to attend in person, please contact Angela Schuller at angela.schuller@sap.com

Follow SAP on Twitter at @sapnews.

For more information, press only:
Christoph Liedtke, SAP, +49 (6227) 7-50383, christoph.liedtke@sap.com, CET
Jim Dever, SAP, +1 610 661-2161, james.dever@sap.com, EDT
SAP Press Office, +49 (6227) 7-46315, CET; +1 (610) 661-3200, EDT; press@sap.com
Mark Wilson, Sybase, +1 (925) 234-4891, mark.wilson@sybase.com, PDT

For more information, financial community only:
Stefan Gruber, SAP, +49 (6227) 7-44872, investor@sap.com, CET
Martin Cohen, SAP, +1 (212) 653-9619, investor@sap.com, EDT

Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “forecast,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “project,” “predict,” “should” and “will” and similar expressions as they relate to SAP are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. SAP undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. The factors that could affect SAP’s future financial results are discussed more fully in SAP’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including SAP’s most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates.

Copyright © 2010 SAP AG. All rights reserved.
SAP, R/3, mySAP, mySAP.com, xApps, xApp, SAP NetWeaver and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries all over the world. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies. Data contained in this document serve informational purposes only. National product specifications may vary.

“Our new and rapidly expanding business revolves around effectively hiring, rewarding, and retaining top sales and trading professionals who specialize in U.S. government bonds and agency debt,” said Karen Ogden, Chief Administrative Officer at Pierpont Securities. “We selected the Callidus suite because we wanted to start out with best practices instead of error-prone, inflexible manual processes and spreadsheets. Incentive compensation and sales performance analysis is a strategic investment for our business. We need to ensure that we can effectively measure and reward our sales professionals to attract and retain top talent.”

Pierpont Securities will deploy Callidus TrueComp Manager®, Reporting & Analytics, and Communicator modules.

“Callidus continues to build a strong customer presence in the financial services market because we provide the tools that help drive successful specialized selling,” said Lorna Heynike, senior vice president, marketing at Callidus Software. “At its core, the Monaco suite drives sales performance through incentives, helping businesses profitably model and drive new business and account growth. Because the solution stores all sales and financial data in once place, businesses gain mission critical insight into what motivates high selling performance and retention, so they can build sustainable, predictable business growth.”

Callidus Software’s award-winning solutions manage the entire sales and agent lifecycle from on-boarding, to incentives and rewards, to talent development, while providing visibility into sales operations and financial performance. This gives customers the ability to align their sales force and channels with their key business objectives to consistently and reliably execute on sales targets. The software is used by leading companies in a broad range of verticals including high-tech, telecommunications, banking, insurance, and pharmaceuticals. Since its inception nearly 15 years ago, the company has evolved into the most experienced, proven, and reliable SPM vendor in the marketplace. Callidus Software manages over $50 billion in incentives and compensation for more than two million payees in over 140 countries.

About Callidus Software®

Callidus Software (NASDAQ:CALD – News) is the market and technology leader in Sales Performance Management (SPM). Callidus customers gain a competitive advantage by maximizing sales cost efficiencies and driving improvements in sales effectiveness. Our award-winning Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications set the standard for performance management of a company’s sales force and channel partners. Over 2 million employees and channel partners have their performance managed by Callidus Software. For more information, please visit www.callidussoftware.com.

©1997-2010 Callidus Software Inc. All rights reserved. Callidus Software, the Callidus Software logo, and TrueComp Manager are trademarks, service marks, or registered trademarks of Callidus Software Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other brand, service or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies or owners.

One of our recent posts outlined some extreme cases of ERP failures, which had gotten to the point of legal action (see the blog: “An Appetite for Destruction: The ERP Lawsuits Continue…“). While not all ERP challenges are this extreme, it is clear that “mismanaged expectations” is a key driver of ERP failure. In one of our recent polls, 25% of respondents cited “realistic ERP implementation expectations” as the most important requirement to avoiding failure.

The good news is that there are some lessons to keep expectations aligned with reality. It’s important to watch for the pitfalls and landmines that often lead to unrealistic expectations. For example, how many of the following statements sound familiar?

• “We’ll get this implementation done in no time.” Software vendors and consultants are notorious for over-simplifying the implementation process. Most sales reps don’t know (and in some cases, don’t care) what it takes to do an ERP implementation right, but they do know they want to make the sale. So it is naturally in their best interests to downplay the time, costs, and risks associated with the project. Most projects take longer than expected and/or cost more than expected, so make sure you’re not basing your timeline and budget (and career) on overly optimistic and unrealistic estimates. Instead, use benchmarks of what other companies similar to you have actually achieved, such as Panorama’s 2010 ERP Report. A more realistic expectation: ERP implementations are difficult and complex business transformations, so budget time, money, and resources accordingly.
• “We’re not going to customize a thing.” Most companies, including our clients, draw this line in the sand early in the ERP evaluation and selection process. While it is a noble and rational goal, it’s not realistic and it is far from reality. According to our study of 1,600 ERP implementations across the globe, only one in four ERP implementations leverage out-of-the-box ERP software without any customization. In addition, only 6% of respondents in one of our polls indicate that ERP customization is the most important factor to avoiding ERP failure. A more realistic expectation: Customize only when absolutely necessary to preserve your company’s core competencies and competitive advantages.
• “This is going to change our whole business.” And it should, but it’s not going to happen overnight. Realizing actual benefits requires more than expecting them; they also need to be measured with metrics closely aligned with business processes. Our research shows that over half of companies that have implemented ERP software fail to realize at least 30% of the measurable business benefits they expected. Again, it is okay to expect a lot, especially in this arena, but it takes some work to get there. A more realistic expectation: Expect high business benefits, but set targets and put in the legwork required to realize those benefits.

We all want our ERP implementations to go extremely well, deliver high business benefits, and incur the lowest possible time and cost. However, ERP projects are not technical, they are business transformations, so it’s important to treat them as such. Whether you are using traditional on-premise ERP software, Software as a Service (SaaS), or software implementation accelerators, changing your business processes and organization requires a great deal of skill and work.

What are your thoughts? Take our poll below to share your thoughts about the most important ERP implementation factor to avoid project failure for your ERP software initiative.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

If you did a search on accelerated or rapid implementation you would most likely find the following enablers for rapid implementations:

Notice anything missing? It’s interesting the note that these accelerators are technology-focused. Not to say that the above tools/templates are not important, however, there are more important factors that can have a greater impact on accelerating ERP implementations. Let’s explore a few key non-technology factors.

Customer

It’s a known fact that the customer needs to provide the right resources (Business, IT) with deep knowledge and experience with the existing business solution. What I see lacking is guidance to customers regarding what they need to do to prepare for a rapid implementation. If the implementation partner and ERP software vendor is serious about accelerating implementations then they will provide customers with a preparation checklist that enables the ERP implementation partner to “hit the ground running” with the customer.

At a minimum the customer should perform the following:

• Take all required software training before the implementation partner arrives. This activity will enable the customer to effectively and clearly communicate with the Implementation Partner.
• Document your existing business processes. For effective collaboration with the ERP implementation partner the customer needs to educate the implementation partner on their current business solution. A picture is worth a thousand words and accelerates knowledge transfer!

ERP Implementation Partner

Consultants that are successful at accelerating implementations are an elite group. These individuals are business solution experts that are both functional and technical. They have the ability to help the customer make both software and business decisions. At a minimum the consultant should understand how the ERP software supports an entire business process (Order to Cash), not just a specific business function (Expense Reporting).

Decision Making

The ability to make decisions quickly is one of the most overlooked aspects of accelerating implementations. Decisions move implementations forward. Following are the recommended methods you can use to speed up decisions:

Conduct prototyping during the sales cycle to define core requirements, validate software results, and eliminate options. The more questions you can answer during the sales cycle the faster the implementation can move.

Need to have a clearly defined scope. This includes (a) what’s in scope, (b) what’s out of scope, (c) and who is doing what. Just as important to scope definition is to define constraints and assumptions.

For ERP implementations I recommend generating scope statements with the following sections:

1. Packaged ERP software features in scope (product scope). This also includes restrictions on software features in scope (example: only five customer types will be included in the rapid implementation).
2. Packaged ERP software features out of scope (product scope)
3. ERP implementation activities and party responsible (project scope)

A clearly defined scope allows the project team to focus on the activities that have a direct impact on the project objective(s) while filtering out “out of scope” work.

A rapid implementation approach requires full-time dedication from business owners. Business owners will be the key decision-makers and must be empowered to make decisions within hours, not days or weeks.

Methodology and Approach

I have observed two areas that slow down ERP implementations: customizations and evolving business requirements. From my experience my approach has been to minimize these areas by the following:

• Only implement the software functionality that supports the business activity the customer performs today. New business activities typically result in evolving requirements because the customer has no detailed experiences or agreed-upon expectations.
• Take a solutions-driven approach to gathering requirements. Using a traditional requirements-driven approach will result in identifying more gaps (both value and non-value-add).

Summary

Not every project or customer is a candidate for a rapid ERP implementation. Implementation partners and software providers should conduct an assessment to determine the fit for a rapid implementation. One thing you can bet on is that there is no such thing as a STANDARD rapid implementation. Each instance is unique and requires an experienced implementation partner that understands rapid implementations.

Blog entry written by Brett Beaubouef, Senior ERP Selection Consultant at Panorama Consulting Group.

The Cloud Computing World Series Awards are designed to showcase the full cloud computing supply chain, including vendors, suppliers, integrators and end-users to offer a complete view of the industry. Hundreds of entries were received for this year’s awards, with a shortlist of three decided upon for each category by an independent panel of judges, including leading journalists and analysts from the IT community. For more information on the awards, please visit: http://cloudwf.com/awards.

Cloud Computing World Series Award judge, John Chapman, Editorial Director for IT Europa, commented that NetSuite is “a real market leader.”

The criteria for the Best Cloud Application award examined the extent to which an application’s architecture leverages the cloud, eliminating the need to install and run the application on the customer’s own computers, thus alleviating the burden of software maintenance, ongoing operation and support.

“The UK technology industry has once again recognised NetSuite a leading choice for cloud-based business software,” said Steve Sydes, Managing Director for UK and EMEA, NetSuite. “Given the breadth of experience of the judging panel, and the calibre of the other nominees, we’re extremely proud to have won this award. It demonstrates just how well the NetSuite application has grown and evolved over the years to meet the needs of our customers.”

For more information about NetSuite Inc., please visit www.netsuite.com.

NOTE: NetSuite and the NetSuite logo are registered service marks of NetSuite Inc.

Based in Palo Alto, California, EZShield pioneered identity theft protection nearly a decade ago. Today, the company uses its experience and expertise to anticipate all forms of identity-related fraud, providing individuals with affordable and simple products and services that extend beyond credit monitoring to address the entire spectrum of identity fraud sources, including online hacking, mail fraud, credit cards, checks, public records, memberships and more. As EZShield grew, it realized its on-premises accounting software was no longer the right fit and set out to find a more flexible, cloud-based solution.

In addition to wanting a web-accessible solution, EZShield identified several key requirements for its financial management system. Support for multiple business entities and locations was critical. EZShield also needed a solution that would streamline its key financial processes, including financial consolidation, revenue management and employee expense processing. After reviewing several cloud computing-based financial management solutions, EZShield chose Intacct.

“We knew we wanted a cloud financial management solution, and explored a number of different offerings,” said Mike Catanzarita, CFO at EZShield. “It was apparent early on in the review process that Intacct was a very flexible solution, with rich functionality that would keep pace as our business grows and evolves. We also liked the user-friendly interface and it was clear to us that Intacct would help us achieve a lower total cost of ownership and a higher return on investment than its competitors.”

Intacct provides EZShield with a comprehensive financial management system, at a fraction of the cost and complexity of traditional on-premises financial software. Intacct is well suited for a business like EZShield that operates in multiple locations and they were impressed with how easy it is to add additional business entities to the system as the company grows. Intacct will also help EZShield increase accounting department productivity by speeding up their financial consolidation and close processes.

Revenue management is another complex process that bogs down finance departments. Constantly evolving revenue recognition rules and guidelines make compliance difficult and costly, and getting complete visibility into revenue, deferred revenue, and renewals often involves painfully complicated spreadsheets and manual processes. Intacct’s revenue management capabilities will allow EZShield to streamline and automate the revenue management process by leveraging flexible, user-defined revenue recognition templates that automate the generation of revenue recognition schedules within the system. This eliminates spreadsheets and manual data re-entry, and reduces the risk of mistakes.

EZShield is also deploying Intacct’s employee expense and purchasing modules throughout the company. Employees can now quickly and securely create and submit expense reports and purchase requisitions anytime and from anywhere they have an Internet connection. Managers and finance staff can receive automated e-mail notifications that their approval is needed and then log in from anywhere to review and approve submissions, or send back requests for more information. Intacct offers EZShield multiple levels of approvals, detailed audit trails and customizable workflow processes that ensure control and compliance throughout the process.

“Though we have just started using the system, Intacct is already proving to be a tremendous asset. We’re already saving a great deal of time on employee expenses and seeing overall process improvements in many other areas,” commented Catanzarita. “It’s clear Intacct will help us continue to support our growing business in an efficient manner, without needing to constantly add new headcount to the finance department.”

To learn more about Intacct’s cloud financial management applications, please visit http://us.intacct.com/pr/products.

About EZShield
EZShield pioneered identity theft protection nearly a decade ago and today uses its experience and expertise to anticipate all forms of identity-related fraud, providing affordable and simple products and services that help shield your complete identity, on all fronts, all the time. EZShield provides protection services that extend well beyond credit monitoring to address the entire spectrum of identity fraud sources including online hacking, mail fraud, credit cards, checks, public records, memberships and several others. For more information, visit www.ezshield.com.

About Intacct
Intacct is the market and technology leader in web-based financial management and accounting applications for businesses and CPA firms. Bringing cloud computing to finance and accounting, Intacct’s award-winning applications are the preferred financial applications for AICPA business solutions. Intacct applications are used by thousands of businesses from startups to public companies and are designed to improve company performance and make finance more productive. The Intacct system includes accounting, contract management, revenue recognition, inventory, purchasing, vendor management, financial consolidation and financial reporting applications, all delivered over the Internet via cloud computing.

Intacct is headquartered in San Jose, California. For more information, please visit www.intacct.com or call 877-437-7765.

Washington Technology’s Top 100 List is a renowned, independent ranking of leading companies in the federal contracting industry. The Top 100 government contractors pulled in nearly $130 billion in prime contracts last year. Washington Technology ranks these companies based on sales related to IT products and services, systems integration, telecommunications, professional services and engineering services.

“Deltek has long established its supremacy in the U.S. government contracting sector through its industry-leading GCS Premier and Costpoint products that are purpose-built for companies in this highly regulated industry,” said P.J. Jakovljevic, Principal Analyst at Technology Evaluation Centers. “Deltek’s list of government contracting customers is second to none in the industry, and with the software vendor’s proven ability to consistently release new products for this sector, Deltek is poised to continue its market leadership for many years.”

“The presence of such a large and diverse group of Deltek customers on the 2010 Washington Technology Top 100 list demonstrates once again that government contractors consistently turn to Deltek to run their businesses,” said Carolyn Parent, Deltek’s EVP of Worldwide Sales. “We are constantly expanding our capabilities to improve business performance for our government contracting customers, as evidenced by the recent release of new products such as Deltek Mobile Time and the launch of our revolutionary govWin network that empowers government contractors to find teaming partners and win new contracts.”

About Deltek

Deltek® (Nasdaq: PROJ) is the leading provider of enterprise applications software and solutions designed specifically for project-focused businesses. For more than two decades, our software applications have enabled organizations to automate mission-critical business processes around the engagement, execution and delivery of projects. More than 12,000 customers worldwide rely on Deltek to measure business results, optimize performance, streamline operations and win new business. Visit www.deltek.com.

Deltek also offers govWin, the industry’s only online community dedicated to solving common business problems for government contractors. The govWin network delivers unique and specialized content, offers innovative matching capabilities to establish and manage teaming opportunities, and provides applications to identify, pursue, and win government contracts. Over 10,000 registered members, prime contractors, and small businesses are part of the govWin community. For more information, visit www.govwin.com.