Preactor growth proves APS software maturity in manufacturing

In addition to adding over 300 more Preactor installations to its global total of more than 7,000 in 58 countries, Preactor says it signed a number of new OEM agreements with mid-market ERP companies, including Sage, Syspro and Divalto in France. For 2007, Preactor CEO Mike Novels says the company is focusing on building on its existing international support through resellers. Novels, who recently won a Visionary CEO award in the US, says: “While we hold a dominant position in the UK market, there is still more to be done in continental Europe. Our product is already translated into all the main European languages and we already have an impressive user base. “But in France for example, we have more than 100 references covering almost every manufacturing sector, more than many of our local rivals there, yet we are convinced more can be done to support our current reseller network.” As for the North American, Asia/Pacific and South African markets, Novels is enthusiastic. “We have invested heavily in terms of time and money over the last five years and this is starting to produce dividends. “Quinn & Associates, our master reseller for North America, is experiencing a huge increase in interest and this is coming through in terms of sales and implementations. Our main challenge there is to get the geographic coverage in such a vast area so we continue to look for resellers. “Both the Asia/Pacific and South African markets have expanded in 2006. Our office in Bangalore, India is starting to produce the benefits we anticipated by providing implementation resources to both end users in its market and other Preactor resellers in other parts of the world.” Meanwhile, Preactor V.10 is due for release next month, with additional features and an integral SQL 2005 database, all running on both Microsoft’s XP and the new Vista platform. According to Novels: “V.10 has been shown to a number of Preactor’s key clients and the feedback has been very encouraging. We will continue to make ground breaking developments in planning and scheduling technology to retain our lead in the marketplace.”