Herndon, VA August 26, 2002 Despite weak IT spending, Baan an enterprise application provider for industrial companies and part of Invensys plc said it has secured 105 new business agreements in North America and 50 in Latin America for its iBaan suite of Internet-enabled solutions for the first half of 2002.
Fueled by recent announcements including iBaan for Product Lifecycle Management, iBaan for Supply Chain Management and iBaan for Customer Relationship Management, Baan said its enterprise software business in North and Latin Americas continues to grow under the Invensys banner. Among new and existing North American customers signing agreements during the period are Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. Inc. (A&P), Flexible Steel Lacing Co. and Bio-Rad Laboratories Inc.
Out of the results for the first half of the year, more than 25 agreements were in the supply chain management area. Gregg Monastiero, vice president of sales, strategic solutions, Baan Americas, said supply chain solutions alone hit a five-year record for sales for the company. He said he believes the success is due to Baan's expansion of product offerings.
In February of this year, Invensys announced its new corporate direction, and Baan was positioned in the newly formed Production Management Division. Since then, Invensys has integrated its three principle software companies Baan, Wonderware and Avantis under the leadership of Laurens van der Tang, the president of Baan, and Joe Cowan, who is chief operating officer of the combined organization. The company said the closer integration is going to accelerate the development of real-time supply chain solutions and provide manufacturers with what they need for decision-making and execution.
In Latin/Central America, companies that chose Baan were Servicios en Tuertos y Terminales, S.A. de C.D in Mexico, J. Macdeo in Brazil and LaEuropea in Mexico. La Europea a wine, liquor and ultramarines distribution with a network of 20 stores and an aggressive plan for expansion selected the iBaan Enterprise solution to help it manage strategic financial and logistics needs within its group companies and stores.
"We are pleased by market response across North and Latin America to Baan's new strategy and to our family of products and solutions," said Susan Heystee, president of Baan Americas. "Customers are turning to Baan for competitive tools that enable them to capture high performance results, improve operations and move with agility through today's complex business environment."
