Event Summary
For
the last several months MAPICS has shown both the signs of significant changes
and the persistence of a number of its historically recognizable invariant tenets
of operation. Following the acquisition of its former competitor, Frontstep,
(see MAPICS
To Leap Forward In A Frontstep Way), MAPICS, Inc. (NASDAQ:
MAPX) became possibly the largest global provider of extended enterprise applications
for solving the challenges of discrete manufacturers.
MAPICS
has never departed from its conservative approach of delivering practical innovations
and bulletproof applications for its customers, nor from its proverbial fiscal
discipline. The Frontstep acquisition has obviously provided MAPICS with a boost
in terms of product choice, having solutions on both leading platforms—Microsoft
and IBM. With MAPICS SyteLine 7, the vendor now boasts a notable application
built on a .NET architecture. However, the loyal AS/400 install base should
rest assured of MAPICS' continued support for the platform. The big news on
the MAPICS ERP for iSeries product side is that version 7.3,
which is slated for December, will feature Double Bytes support, and expanded
Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE)-based client technology.
Other
developments detailed in this note are:
-
MAPICS Field Service and Support (covered in Part
One)
-
A Global Partnership with Systems Union (covered in Part
One)
-
Primus Knowledge Solution Results
-
Certified Partner Program
-
Pacejet Logistics, Inc. is a Certified Partner
- A
Revised Sales Strategy
This
is Part Two of a five-part note.
Part
One began to detail recent events.
Parts
Three and Four will discusses the market impact.
Part
Five will discuss challenges and user recommendations.
Primus Knowledge Solution Results
What
has not changed at MAPICS either is its traditional internal emphasis on providing
top-notch customer satisfaction. To that end, in May, Primus Knowledge
Solutions (NASDAQ: PKSI) announced that MAPICS has reported measurable
return-on-investment (ROI) results from Primus technology after successfully
implementing the Primus eServer knowledge base and Primus
eSupport within its customer support organization and on its support
web site. Since implementing Primus knowledge management software, MAPICS has
reported a 10 percent increase in customer care specialist productivity, 40
percent reuse of documented solutions-reducing call escalations from level one
customer care specialists, 70 percent usage of the knowledge base by customer
care specialists on customers' calls, and rapid acceptance of the self-service
option.
MAPICS solutions are in use today at more than 10,000 customer sites in 70 countries and available in 19 languages. These solutions include professional services and software implemented on the two industry-leading technology platforms—Microsoft and IBM—including extended ERP, customer relationship management (CRM) and supply chain management (SCM). The company claims it had three key business issues to solve when it selected Primus as its knowledge management partner:
-
Capture and easily manage knowledge in the workflow from every MAPICS customer
care specialist
-
Empower MAPICS customer care specialists with the confidence to broaden their
areas of expertise by enabling reuse of documented solutions
-
Create a foundation for MAPICS' self-service strategy by providing customers
and affiliates 24x7 access to the knowledgebase
Certified Partner Program
Further,
in May, MAPICS announced its certified partner program as part
of its enhanced strategic alliance and partner strategy. The program consists
of application, hardware, and technology companies that have worked to develop
offerings that are complementary to core MAPICS solutions. These partners will
continue to offer selected products, interfaces, support, and services directly
to MAPICS customers, while MAPICS and its certified partners will continue developing
solutions that include industry-specific business processes, which leverage
best practices gained from customers' experience. Through partnerships, MAPICS
will attempt to make it possible to build complementary, targeted solutions
and strategically bring them to market more quickly through multiple channels.
The certified partner relationship should provide value to the partners by giving them the ability to stay closely aligned with MAPICS and to differentiate themselves from other vendors looking to sell solutions to MAPICS customers and prospects. Companies will receive assistance from MAPICS including development, support, sales, and marketing—all coordinated by a dedicated program manager within the MAPICS partnering organization. In order to be considered a certified partner, vendors must demonstrate that their applications have an interface to or can integrate with MAPICS solutions on the IBM or Microsoft platforms. There are many companies already enrolled in the MAPICS certified partner program, providing offerings that complement the MAPICS solutions with advanced capabilities in areas such as electronic data interchange (EDI) transactions, document management, payroll, and personnel management.
Pacejet Logistics Is a Certified Partner
The
most recent to join the list was Pacejet Logistics, Inc., a
provider of Web-based logistics resource management (LRM) software applications
and services. Together, MAPICS' ERP solutions and Pacejet's LRM solutions will
enable MAPICS' customers to accelerate and streamline outbound and inbound logistics
and distribution business processes to lower operating costs while improving
customer service. As a MAPICS Certified Partner, Pacejet will provide its Pacejet
Transportation Management application to MAPICS' customers as an integrated
extension to MAPICS' ERP solutions. Pacejet Transportation Management provides
a Web-based solution for full truckload (TL), less-than-truckload (LTL), and
parcel shipping with advanced capabilities such as load consolidation, route
and rate optimization, and Web/EDI tendering that can help MAPICS' customers
run their logistics operations efficiently. Pacejet also offers Pacejet
Distribution and the Pacejet Advanced Commerce
Catalog as part of its complete LRM solutions. Pacejet solutions include
transportation management, distribution, and supply-chain event management (SCEM).
Revised Sales Strategy
Furthermore, while having a broad functional footprint remains important, MAPICS has departed from its traditional practice of "pushing" sales of its plethora of components onto customers. Going forward, it will instead try to solve challenges for its customers and prospects in their quests for becoming world-class manufacturers. In other words, owing to its vast experience and knowledge of challenges and best practices within a specific set of selected industries of focus, MAPICS will try to reverse-engineer the user's objectives into obtaining an optimal set of needed applications to fulfill these. This crusade, which focuses on the customer's needs and tends to obfuscate any impending platform or product brand allegiances, has already been embraced by Frontstep's addition to the MAPICS fold.
As
to further confirm that MAPICS remains a customer-focused organization with
the mantra of helping customers in select verticals become world-class manufacturers,
in March, the vendor announced that it has broadened its relationship with The
Georgia Institute of Technology's Manufacturing Research Center (MARC)
to include leading a series of pilot implementations of a next generation information
exchange framework for electronics manufacturing. MAPICS has been involved with
Georgia Tech's MARC for nearly three years and leads the Framework Implementation
Project (FIP) as the only manufacturing-focused ERP solution provider
involved. The purpose of the FIP program is to design, implement, and test industry
standards that streamline information exchange for electronics assembly and
link all aspects of a manufacturing enterprise in real time.
Georgia
Tech's MARC, with the backing of major equipment manufacturers, electronics
manufacturers, and software and hardware vendors, has established the FIP to
build upon and implement the National Electronics Manufacturing Initiative
(NEMI) Plug and Play Factory Project—an initiative created to standardize
data syntax and semantics in electronics assembly, establishing rules for data
exchange from the factory floor and across the enterprise. The coalition is
implementing and testing a computer aided manufacturing exchange (CAMX), a series
of standards that are based on extensible markup language (XML), and defining
how and what information is exchanged on the factory floor and throughout a
manufacturing organization. These standards, which electronics manufacturers
know as the IPC 2500 series, are used to provide a common language that facilitates
real time, efficient sharing of critical business data among shop floor equipment
and business process applications—reducing costs and decreasing cycle time.
This
concludes Part Two of a five-part note.
Part
One began to detail recent events.
Parts
Three and Four will discusses the market impact.
Part
Five will discuss challenges and user recommendations.