Santa Clara, California-based Selectica Inc takes version 2 of its Java ACE product configuration software to market this month, claiming it is streets ahead of other front office applications in its class such as the Java Funded Trilogy or Calico. A big return on investment is its hook. It’s pitching the software as a web-based extension to ERP enterprise resource planning solutions such as Baan or SAP for $100m-up companies claiming it simplifies the selection of complex goods both internally, by suppliers and customers, eliminating the need for expensive and time-consuming sales order checking processes. It claims customers such as Ascend Communications have been able to cut six month sales training programs to three months using ACE. The technology is a re-written version of the Catalogics Software Corp code it bought in 1996. Catalogics founder and former Xerox Parc luminary Sanjay Mittal is Selectica’s CTO. An Java-based rules engine the company claims is easier to update than other packages processes client configuration requests against product data using ACE and knowledge base APIs. ACE cannot currently handle engineer-to- order jobs such as aircraft or truck configuration but Selectica reckons that’s coming. It’s making a big deal of its multi- threaded architecture and scalability. In addition to the core ACE product, there is a mobile client, a desktop version and a modeling environment. It claims Trilogy’s Java front-end masks a traditional client/server back-end. Hewlett-Packard Co, while it uses Trilogy, is now also offering ACE through its reseller channels. Selectica’s two rounds of venture funding from Draper International and Draper Fisher Jurveston netted $4m – there’s more to come for an expanded sales and marketing effort. It claims Hewlett-Packard Co, IBM Corp, KPMG, Deloitte & Touche and Parallax UK as its system integration partners and five large end users, two of them in production. Average install price is aroun $250,000. The 45-person company – two thirds are engineers – is seeking OEMs but has no deals to date.
