Bruised and battered ERP vendor System Software Associates (SSA) is pinning its hopes for recovery on its new eBPCS software. The Chicago-based firm has had a series of disastrous quarters which have seen its revenues drop by 9%, to nearly $90m in February of this year while losses hit $5.4m. Terry Cork, UK MD of the Chicago-based company, explained that the firm had suffered because of the costs of the three-year development cycle of its new software and the Year 2000 effect – which sees firms scrambling to fix core business systems rather than invest in extensive enterprise systems. Cork expects that the millennium drag factor will start to lessen by the fourth quarter of this year. He claims that SSA has one of the largest installed user bases in the market and further expects to leverage customer demand with the integration of planning and scheduling software from Manuguistics Inc and Technologies with eBPCS – something Cork claims that no other ERP vendors have. Despite the endless speculation about buy outs in the ERP sphere – Cork vehemently denies that SSA is a target for acquisition.
