Exact to Acquire Longview Solutions

September 17, 2007 from Canada IT.com – “Exact Software, one of the world's leading providers of business software solutions and Longview Solutions, a leading provider of Corporate Performance Management (CPM) software solutions, today jointly announced the signing of an agreement for Exact to acquire Longview.”

180 View – The trend continues as ERP vendors extend their system to include Corporate Performance Management. Oracle acquired Hyperion. SAP acquired OutlookSoft. I am waiting for Microsoft to acquire Cognos. In the meantime, Cognos continues to grow with the recent acquisition of Applix.

Exact Software

May 18, 2007 - based on an interview conducted by Michael Burns of 180 Systems – In the recent past, Exact Software focused their marketing efforts on Globe Enterprise (ERP) and e-Synergy (CRM). Their other products including Macola and JobBOSS were not getting much attention. Now Macola is being promoted and enhanced as the solution for discrete manufacturing companies; JobBoss as the solution for Tool & Die and Job Shops and Globe Enterprise for project centric companies.

Exact Software like some of the other ERP vendors has realized that Business Intelligence has become a major requirement for customers. Business Intelligence means turning data into information useful to make decisions. There is a spectrum of tools but top of the list are dashboards and Online Analytical Processing (OLAP). Exact Software now includes some OLAP features out of the box. Power users can get more functionality with additional investment. Another trend is opening up ERP functionality over the internet through portals. Exact Software has built many portals for their clients including employee self service, requisitioning and compliance tools and it’s available at a compelling $100 per user