Market Impact
The past several years have been tough for SoftBrands, a Minneapolis, Minnesota (US)-based provider of enterprise solutions for the manufacturing and hospitality industries (see SoftBrands' Recovery Softens the AremisSoft Bankruptcy Blow and Fourth Shift's evolution within SoftBrands' DemandStream). However, the worst is certainly past for SoftBrands, and there are some glimmers of hope for a better future.
For a discussion of the Classic Fourth Shift and Fourth Shift Edition for SAP Business One products, see Classic Enterprise Resource Planning Solution Shifts Over. For a discussion of the evolution and DemandStream products, see Extended Enterprise Resource Planning Vendor Shows Its Lean Side. For details on SoftBrands Hospitality, see Vendor Extends the Welcome Mat for Hospitality Industry.
This is Part Five of the five-part SoftBrands' Recovery Softens the AremisSoft Bankruptcy Blow series.
SoftBrands' manufacturing customers are concentrated in the life sciences, machinery, chemical and plastics, automotive, consumer products, and electronics industries. We believe that the life sciences and consumer products sectors represent potential growth markets for SoftBrands in North America. In the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) markets, there is growth potential in Eastern Europe, primarily in the Czech Republic, Poland, and Russia.
When it comes to the Asia Pacific market, the manufacturing sector in China is growing rapidly, and the vendor should be well positioned to capitalize on this growth. In particular, SoftBrands should gain an advantage from the facts that the erstwhile Fourth Shift was the first enterprise resource planning (ERP) vendor to be certified by Chinese authorities, and that, for a long time, the Chinese market lacked the strong local competition found everywhere else. There might also be potential for SoftBrands to gain market share with private Chinese enterprises as a result of the Fourth Shift Edition for SAP Business One offering. However, the vendor will likely need to produce local language versions before it can generate substantial sales of Fourth Shift Edition for SAP Business One in the Asia Pacific market. In addition, localization of value proposition, implementation services, and functionality will be required to adapt the product to the cultural differences found in Chinese companies.
In terms of the hospitality sector, SoftBrands has a hospitality customer base of approximately 2,500 worldwide. Organic growth in hospitality might come from replacing legacy systems with new products such as Medallion, and winning new-name accounts.
Regardless of industry, however, all the above forays should be backed up by substantial progress in developing an indirect channel to supplement the company's direct sales force. SoftBrands currently has direct sales offices in several countries, including in Minneapolis, Minnesota (US); Reading, UK; and Tianjin, China.
Manufacturing sales offices employing about forty direct sales personnel are located in Singapore; Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou, China; Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa; Dublin, Ireland; and Mexico City, Mexico. The vendor's customer service hubs for the manufacturing business are found in Mexico City, Mexico; Blackburn, UK; Mantua, New Jersey (US); and Johannesburg, South Africa. Despite the fact that SoftBrands distributes its manufacturing software and services through a combination of direct sales and resellers, essentially all its revenue is generated through the direct sales offices. The following table summarizes the principal means of distribution for SoftBrands manufacturing products by geograph
SOURCE:
http://www.technologyevaluation.com/research/articles/enterprise-application-provider-may-deepen-market-impact-18438/
The past several years have been tough for SoftBrands, a Minneapolis, Minnesota (US)-based provider of enterprise solutions for the manufacturing and hospitality industries (see SoftBrands' Recovery Softens the AremisSoft Bankruptcy Blow and Fourth Shift's evolution within SoftBrands' DemandStream). However, the worst is certainly past for SoftBrands, and there are some glimmers of hope for a better future.
For a discussion of the Classic Fourth Shift and Fourth Shift Edition for SAP Business One products, see Classic Enterprise Resource Planning Solution Shifts Over. For a discussion of the evolution and DemandStream products, see Extended Enterprise Resource Planning Vendor Shows Its Lean Side. For details on SoftBrands Hospitality, see Vendor Extends the Welcome Mat for Hospitality Industry.
This is Part Five of the five-part SoftBrands' Recovery Softens the AremisSoft Bankruptcy Blow series.
SoftBrands' manufacturing customers are concentrated in the life sciences, machinery, chemical and plastics, automotive, consumer products, and electronics industries. We believe that the life sciences and consumer products sectors represent potential growth markets for SoftBrands in North America. In the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) markets, there is growth potential in Eastern Europe, primarily in the Czech Republic, Poland, and Russia.
When it comes to the Asia Pacific market, the manufacturing sector in China is growing rapidly, and the vendor should be well positioned to capitalize on this growth. In particular, SoftBrands should gain an advantage from the facts that the erstwhile Fourth Shift was the first enterprise resource planning (ERP) vendor to be certified by Chinese authorities, and that, for a long time, the Chinese market lacked the strong local competition found everywhere else. There might also be potential for SoftBrands to gain market share with private Chinese enterprises as a result of the Fourth Shift Edition for SAP Business One offering. However, the vendor will likely need to produce local language versions before it can generate substantial sales of Fourth Shift Edition for SAP Business One in the Asia Pacific market. In addition, localization of value proposition, implementation services, and functionality will be required to adapt the product to the cultural differences found in Chinese companies.
In terms of the hospitality sector, SoftBrands has a hospitality customer base of approximately 2,500 worldwide. Organic growth in hospitality might come from replacing legacy systems with new products such as Medallion, and winning new-name accounts.
Regardless of industry, however, all the above forays should be backed up by substantial progress in developing an indirect channel to supplement the company's direct sales force. SoftBrands currently has direct sales offices in several countries, including in Minneapolis, Minnesota (US); Reading, UK; and Tianjin, China.
Manufacturing sales offices employing about forty direct sales personnel are located in Singapore; Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou, China; Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa; Dublin, Ireland; and Mexico City, Mexico. The vendor's customer service hubs for the manufacturing business are found in Mexico City, Mexico; Blackburn, UK; Mantua, New Jersey (US); and Johannesburg, South Africa. Despite the fact that SoftBrands distributes its manufacturing software and services through a combination of direct sales and resellers, essentially all its revenue is generated through the direct sales offices. The following table summarizes the principal means of distribution for SoftBrands manufacturing products by geograph
SOURCE:
http://www.technologyevaluation.com/research/articles/enterprise-application-provider-may-deepen-market-impact-18438/
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