Symix Systems Inc, Columbus, Ohio developer of a suite of manufacturing control, accounting and financial management software, has acquired Burlington, Ontario-based Visual Applications Software Inc on undisclosed terms. The Canadian’s key offering is the FieldPro mid-market field service product, and Symix wants it because it says its customers and prospects wanted improved capabilities to upgrade service and management of their customers. Symix says its integrated management software is for manufacturers with between $20m and $350m and its principal product, Symix SyteLine is designed for discrete manufacturers specializing in configurable products. It plans to pitch FieldPro, which runs under Windows and is designed to automate the field service process from customer calls to assigning technicians, to the monitoring of parts inventory and evaluation of the performance of service contracts, at the same market.
