A Mile Wide and a Mile Deep

"SAP is also targeting utilities companies," says Addie Bourne, vice president of marketing. "We're not looking to be an end-to-end solution provider. We have a major product, a consolidated billing solution, that allows deregulated utilities companies to provide one consolidated bill to their customers, with a lot of bells and whistles. No one else provides this solution."

Similarly, other vendors pair their financial software with other application software to target vertical markets. Computron Software Inc.'s workflow management software, which it also sells as an independent package to be used with any financial software, allows it to target service firms, where workflow is particularly important. Tecsys Inc., formerly known as Concepts Dynamic Inc., has a project financial management capability that can be leveraged to target service firms.

International Strength
Most if not all of the top accounting and ERP vendors have a sizable international presence. A smaller ERP vendor, Netherlands-based Scala Business Solutions NV, nevertheless has physical operations in 52 countries and installations in 90 countries. The company has thrived over the years as an international vendor, but it's done poorly in the United States, largely because the vendor's U.S. distributor was a separate company (as were the distributors in a number of other countries). Under this fragmented arrangement, Scala delivered 15 or 20 different products around the world, as each local partner customized it to its host country.

Now, however, Scala has acquired the U.S. distributor, as well as a number of other local distributors. "It's affected sales fairly dramatically in the U.S.," reports Chris Houle, president of Scala. "Now, we deliver one product that meets all the requirements around the world, and our multinational customers can be working with one company that can coordinate worldwide, rather than multiple companies around the world."

At Prestige Software International, executives are looking forward to the day the vendor spins off from its parent, Computer Associates International, and goes public--hopefully in the near future, "when market conditions are right," says Laura Hills, senior vice president for Prestige. Hills thinks Prestige's product, Masterpiece, will gain more visibility when it is no longer viewed as just another product from megalith CA.

However, CA will still own 50 percent of Prestige after the planned spin-off, and the company gains more than it loses from its association with CA, according to Michael Thompson, analyst with British-based Butler Group. "Their association with CA gives them strength," he says, pointing out that Masterpiece does well in Europe because of CA's international presence. "Prestige does well wherever CA does well." *

John J. Xenakis is technology editor of CFO.

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