Baan Company NV, the struggling Dutch enterprise resource planning vendor, has joined the queue of enterprise application builders seeking a sales boost with new web-flavored extensions to its product portfolio, which will also ultimately be available as extensions to the ERP products of rivals, including SAP AG. Its new E-Enterprise suite, which will run against Microsoft’s Site server 3.0 Commerce Edition platform, is claimed to realize Baan’s extended enterprise vision – building an internet-based link between a Baan customer’s ERP systems, and the e-commerce, supply chain and procurement systems of their business partners and customers.
To begin with, the separate E-Enterprise packages, E-Sales, E-Collaboration and E-Procurement will only work with Baan’s own ERP product. However, from 2000, versions compatible with the ERP applications of rival SAP AG will be made available.
Baan says the E-Enterprise approach will cut costs and smooth workflow and supply chain processes. In future, by using the ready-made application integration templates supplied by E-Enterprise products, Baan users will be able to build electronic links lawyers, bankers, suppliers, distributors or any other kind of business partner, much more quickly.
Although the ERP market is going through a difficult time, said Richard Horsman, Baan UK’s industry solutions director, he claimed there is substantial demand for value components like the E-Enterprise products. The e-commerce application market, he claimed, is growing at 100% per annum, as opposed to the 45% growth of the supply chain management sector and the 50% to 60% expansion in customer relationship management products.
Horsman said E-Enterprise prices will start from $41,000 per server, but said that it was difficult to cost the internet range as it would be based on contracts with BaanÆs existing customers. Russell Johns, Technology manager for Baan UK, added that prices would start at $1000 per named user for the e-sales [customer management] technology, but youÆre perhaps going up to $3,000 to $4,000 per named user for the e-collaboration application.
