AremisSoft to tell all in September

September is going to be a busy time for what was Fourth Shift, now AremisSoft Manufacturing, following the take-over by Nasdaq-quoted AremisSoft, completed just a couple of months ago. Siobhan Robinson, marketing executive, says that will be when the company publicly declares its future direction. And she says there will be also be another acquisition of “a company similarly aligned and in our market.” Hints it will sit between the companies in the e-business arena. Till then the firm is keeping cards close to its chest, other than announcing that the closer integration of Preactor finite capacity scheduling software with AremisSoft is being extended to what was Fourth Shift. Other partnerships on the Fourth Shift side, like those with Eden Origin for product configuration and order management, and Ledgersoft and Brittania for financials, Tomorrow Solutions for barcoding and so on, remain intact. However, there are some clues. Robinson points out that Fourth Shift was the larger of the two organisations, with turnover of $60m against AremisSoft’s £30m. “They bought us expecting us to lead them. So although they acquired us, it was effectively a merger and all the managers are from Fourth Shift,” she says. Mike Knight, for example, originally a Fourth shift customer but for th elast four years director of consulting at Fourth Shift, takes over from long-timer John Wolfenden as managing director of AremisSoft Manufacturing. Meanwhile, Barry Crow looks after AremisSoft Evolution – the rest of the emerging AremisSoft company, with software looking after materials, textiles and construction industries. As a point of interest it’s generally accepted that Fourth Shift had been hoisted by its own rather product-rich petard. Says Robinson: “We had got too excited about e-business and add-ons like APS… We were looking to acquire or be acquired.” Meanwhile AremisSoft, formerly LK Global, was suffering from older products from the MTMS ERP days which hadn’t been updated as much as they should. With a good geographical fit, it’s clear the opportunity was too good to be passed up for both contenders. One thing looks certain: existing users of whatever version of AremisSoft/LK or Fourth Shift software will be looked after. As for new users, roll on September.