Erp Sap

With positive comments still coming in following introduction of Version 2.0 of the Axapta ERP, Damgaard, Inc. maintained its marketing momentum at the Softworld Manufacturing and Supply Chain conference in Chicago.

Damgaard Business Partner Olive LLP is exhibiting at Softworld with Damgaard. Olive LLP is a full service consulting and accounting firm with headquarters in Indianapolis.

Coverage of the introduction of Version 2.0 of Axapta ERP included a page one article in Computer Reseller News. The article reports on the new Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and knowledge management solutions that are the first two of nine "Global Solutions" packages expected to become part of Axapta. Damgaard's Global Solutions are applications written to stringent Axapta specifications by third-party developers and marketed by Damgaard.

Analyst Kneko Burney, manager of markets and opportunities for Cahners In- Stat Group, Scottsdale, Ariz., commented in the article that, "A company like SAP AG has a midmarket solution that can cost roughly $300,000. Damgaard's solution will cost one-third and that is incredibly significant for smaller companies."

Information Week covered the Axapta ERP Version 2.0 announcement and Global Solutions applications in ("Damgaard Integrates Third-Party Apps in Axapta -- Updated business-management product offers more flexibility, lower cost.")

Axapta also received favorable comments from analysts at AMR Research, Boston. An article on the organization's Alert on Enterprise Applications Strategies said that, "AMR Research was impressed with Axapta's thoughtfulness of technical design, especially the component architecture, MorphX object-oriented development toolkit, personalization capability, change management tools, and object management tools. Also, in a typically lower-mid-market strategy, the architecture is Microsoft-centric, utilizing NT, COM/DCOM, IIS, Commerce Server, SQL Server, Office 97, and Back Office."

Vic Muschiano, Director of Consulting, Enterprise Applications, for ARC Advisory Group, Inc., Dedham, Mass., said that Damgaard and the new version of Axapta are worthy of notice.

Damgaard's Global Solutions approach to rapidly developing new applications for Axapta is not only interesting, but it may even be unique. Conceptually, Axapta Version 2.0 appears to have a lot of appeal, and undoubtedly, a good portion of the small and mid-market manufacturers, distributors, and VARs who service that market will have their eyes on Damgaard and the Axapta product offering.

Version 2.0 of the Axapta Integrated Enterprise Solution has strong new e- commerce, project management and warehouse management features assisted by COM, OLAP and three-tier client-server technologies. Axapta ERP provides central information management of finance, trade, logistics, production, projects and human resources. It is designed for small and mid-sized discrete manufacturers and hard goods distributors, and departments and divisions of larger companies. The typical Axapta customer has annual revenue of $5 million to $250 million and between 250 and 2,500 employees. A typical Axapta implementation involves 5 to 250 concurrent users.

One of the significant things about the comments is the recognition that a product like Axapta ERP Version 2.0 that offers great function at a fair price and is easy to customize is probably a better fit for many small and mid-sized North American companies shopping for an ERP package than software from large vendors who are moving down to the mid-market.