MICROSOFT VAR TECTURA GETS $12M FOR ACQUISITIONS: Tectura, a Tempe, Ariz.-based reseller for Microsoft Business Solutions, has received $12 million in financing from venture capital firm Pequot Ventures that it will use to make acquisitions.
Tectura chief executive Terry Petrzelka said that the investment, combined with Microsoft’s commitment to his company, would enable Tectura “to accelerate its national expansion as a dedicated Microsoft channel partner that delivers true business value to companies across the U.S.” The Accounting Today Technology Pacesetter company report lists Tectura as having 180 employees and $36 million in 2003 revenues.
IDC SAYS HIGH-END ERP VENDORS TO CONTINUE MID-MARKET PUSH: International Data Corp. expects that high-end enterprise resource planning software vendors will continue moving downstream to target smaller end users.
“The overall environment is encouraging for ERP vendors, especially those that target the small to midsized business markets and vertical industries with the help of channel partners and add-on technology providers,” IDC researcher Albert Pang said in summarizing a recent IDC study of ERP sales by high-end vendors PeopleSoft, Oracle and SAP AG.
The study projects that ERP application sales will “grow modestly through 2007 at a compound annual growth rate of 3.3 percent, hitting $28 billion by 2007.” It also projected continued development of ERP suites with three features that are critical to smaller end-user businesses: lower prices, easier implementation and quicker tangible returns generation.
EPICOR MOVES TO LINUX: Middle-market ERP software developer Epicor Software Corp. has added support of the Linux operating system to the 6.0 versions of its Vantage and Vista manufacturing solutions.
“Linux has continued to become more mainstream in the business world, through its high reliability and its low cost of ownership,” said Paul Farrell, Epicor senior vice president of product marketing. The company also plans to include Linux support in its upcoming Vantage 6.1 release and its new manufacturing solution code, named Sonoma.
PEACHTREE NOW IN MANUFACTURING/DISTRIBUTION FLAVORS: Best Software plans to release manufacturing and distribution versions of its Peachtree Premium accounting software by the end of November.
Best said that both solutions would offer “robust accounting features, along with additional functionality to meet the unique needs of small manufacturing and distribution companies at an affordable price.” The company noted that about 25 percent of Peachtree users are involved in manufacturing or distribution.
Key features in the manufacturing edition include multi-level bill-of-materials processing with revision tracking, work tickets for detailed tracking of labor and materials, and more than 145 reports, including ones that cover many manufacturing-specific areas. Key distribution product features include the ability for users to extend volume price discounts for each inventory item, and the ability for users to buy and sell inventory in units other than one.
ACCTRAK SUPPORTS XBRL: AccTrak21, the developer of a business management software for small and midsized businesses that is trying to expand in the United States from its roots in the Far East, has made its flagship product, AccTrak 21, able to support the latest version of XBRL, the Internet-based programming code for financial reports.
AccTrak21’s new XBRL feature allows users the choice of loading either a completely new taxonomy, or a previously mapped taxonomy that has been saved. Taxonomies are sets of XBRL tags used for specific situations, such as for one industry. AccTrak21’s other XBRL functionality includes:
● The ability to map a chart of accounts or a combination of accounts to XBRL tags;
● The ability to view and print the XBRL document for editing or modification; and,
● The ability to e-mail XBRL documents as attachments.
-- Compiled by John M. Covaleski
