Workflow solutions vendor InConcert Inc is launching an application of its eponymous toolkit, tailored to the needs of the public sector market. The new offering from the Xerox subsidiary, called InConcert Manila (in reference to the color of the files commonly used in government departments), was developed initially for the UK and German markets, where the pressure to increase efficiency is greatest, according to Ulrich Wenz, general manager for the company’s European operations. He argued that, while those two countries are currently ahead in this area, he predicted a similar efficiency drive in other European countries, as the continent’s integration progresses. Manila, which actually starts to ship on July 1, complements TEOSS, the application InConcert proposes for its other target market, the telecoms sector, where it accompanies the flow of work involved in line provisioning. Wenz champions his company’s segment-specific approach to product development, explaining that, after a couple of years marketing its InConcert toolkit, we decided our customers are not so interested in a workflow toolkit. Instead, they want to build applications for their segment. Thus for its target market, he argued, Manila makes life easier, having a lot of predefined processes, front-end, etc. The logic behind this strategy, he went on, is that for InConcert’s customers, the tailored version represents significant savings on consultancy fees when deploying the product, though other vendors defend the generic toolkit with equal fervor.
