Ardent Solutions launches manufacturing ERP and CRM as services

Dubbed Ardent 24, the service is said to provide ERP, CRM and supply-chain management, all for a fixed monthly fee, with no capital outlay. Ardent managing director Andrew Watkinson says the announcement comes at a time when businesses are increasingly concerned about financial outlays and long-term commitments, particularly in manufacturing and distribution. "The Ardent 24 initiative is set to give customers greater flexibility, ensuring that they are able to take better control of IT expenditure, while benefitting from a secure, up-to-date and supported IT infrastructure," says Watkinson. As for what you get, Watkinson explains it is the entire existing Microsoft infrastructure, including operating systems, Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft Office applications, as well as any third party integrated applications, all hosted at Ardent's secure data centre on IBM technology. "By failing to stay up to date with technology, or carrying out poor hardware management practices, a company is opening itself up to all types of risk," warns Watkinson. "Not only are security issues a genuine cause for concern, but many companies simply do not attach enough value to how they manage data and what would happen to their business should they lose it. "Our recent research showed that only 57% of SMEs surveyed stated they had a disaster recovery plan in place in case of hardware or software failure."