New name in process ERP heralds rebirth of old favourite in new guise

What was the Protean process industry ERP system, originally form Marcam, then Invensys’ Wonderware and Baan, was last week launched anew in the UK and Europe under an alliance between IT giant NEC and Solit, a £6.5m South African extended ERP implementation services organisation specialising in process. But this is not quite Protean: this is FlexProcess, a development of the original following NEC’s purchase last year of world-wide distribution and development rights from Invensys. The NEC/Solit strategic alliance, under which Solit will sell, further develop and implement the system in EMEA and Sout Africa, is the result of many years working together. Both NEC and Solit have considerable pedigree in process and Protean. NEC partnered with developer Marcam in 1995 and has some 200 sites operational in Japan on the AS/400 Prism and mostly its successor Protean. Similarly, Solit has been working with Protean implementations since the mid ‘90s, when it was a Marcam reseller, and has grown from South Africa into the UK and Europe largely on the back of its work. Solit has, for example, a substantial contract underway with Sun Chemicals in the US and UK on a large enterprise application integration project; and with ICI Packaging Coatings in Hull, building out a Baan Protean system with e-business and its own workflow. There is an impressive reference list. With Invensys/Wonderware’s eyes on Baan and other suites in its portfolio, Protean seems to have been sidelined, and hence this development. Both NEC and Solit say that, with their users depending on it and a growing development market to serve, they needed to pick up the ball and run with it. In fact, Solit’s recently established Warwick UK base, close to the original Marcam offices, is staffed partly by former Wonderware/Marcam employees. Solit has 30 staff already in Europe and access to the balance of its 200 consultants around the world, as well as those in the NEC empire. Looking at the ERP itself, NEC’s developments include the addition of financial modules, a procurement suite and a range of additional functionality and new technology, including XML-enabling for open web inter-operability. Solit is adding modules around the FlexProcess core, including corporate portals, workflow and document management, moving the suite to ERPII – Gartner’s vision of extended ERP. It’s also added business intelligence and CRM (customer relationship management), and is developing HR and payroll suites with localisation due in the coming months. It’s a brave move: Protean/FlexProcess competes with Ross in particular, but also inevitably Baan (unless it pulls out of Protean) and, among others, SAP, JD Edwards and Intentia. Wico Coppoolse, Solit business development director, says: “We have installed many systems on sites that use SAP or JD Edwards just for financials.” Solit says it will be targeting food and beverage, chemicals and pharmaceuticals industries first.