Oracle Buying NetSuite For $9.3 Billion

Oracle is buying ERP and omnichannel software provider NetSuite in a deal valued at around $9.3 billion, both companies announced.

The move reunites NetSuite CEO Zach Nelson with Oracle chairman Larry Ellison, who co-founded San Mateo, CA-based NetSuite in 1998. Ellison stepped down as NetSuite CEO two years ago.

Oracle CEO Mark Hurd said his company and NetSuite's cloud applications are complimentary.

"We intend to invest heavily in both products — engineering and distribution," Hurd said in a statement.

NetSuite — which reported a 30 percent year-over-year Q2 sales increase — provides cloud-based financials including ERP and omnichannel commerce software suites for distributors, manufacturers and retailers. Its software enables businesses to automate operations, streamline process and access real-time data on-demand.

NetSuite has more than 30,000 customers in more than 100 countries.

"NetSuite will benefit from Oracle's global scale and reach to accelerate the availability of our cloud solutions in more industries and more countries," said NetSuite's Nelson. "We are excited to join Oracle and accelerate our pace of innovation."

The transaction is expected to close this year.

DDI System Releases Newest Inform Software Upgrade

Adds user-defined screens, more functions and a fresh new look.

DDI System continues its commitment towards innovation and industry-specific tools with its latest release - Inform Version 21.0.10.32.

This new version provides an even greater feature set - fully integrated as part of DDI’s inform solution. DDI System expands its offerings and adds user defined screens with updated new looks, making inform one of the most advanced and user-friendly ERP solutions available today.

Additional print screen and email notification options provide greater flexibility in providing information to all applicable employees.

Enhanced warranty returns handling allows distributors to define vendor requirements for warranty returns complete with pop up notification and more.

Improved back-order release handling tools and so much more have been added with this latest release.

Thousands of DDI System users nationwide are achieving a higher level of efficiency and increased profitability with inform’s advanced capabilities. DDI continues its tradition of innovation and exceptional values with this free upgrade for DDI System inform subscribers.

Distributors can see the many benefits of the inform software at www.ddisys.com or by calling DDI for a demonstration at 877-599-4334.

ECi Software Solutions Acquired by The Carlyle Group

Global Alternative Asset Manager to Support ECi’s Growth, Commitment to Small and Medium Size Businesses

 

ECi Software Solutions (www.ECiSolutions.com), a leader in industry‐specific business management and e‐commerce software solutions, announced it has been acquired by global alternative asset manager The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG). Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

 

ECi Software Solutions is a leading provider of industry‐specific business management and e‐commerce software for growing and midsize companies in a broad variety of industries, including office products,office furniture, office equipment, lumber/building materials, hardware, manufacturing, retail distribution and many more. ECi combines technological innovation with a dedicated customer focus to deliver fully integrated solutions that fuel the expansion and efficiency of every aspect of customers’ operations.

 

ʺWe are very happy to partner with The Carlyle Group to continue building our leading industry‐specific business and e‐commerce solutions across a variety of important industries,” said Ron Books, President and CEO of ECi Software Solutions. “Carlyle is committed to investing in ECi as we support the entrepreneurial spirit and profitable growth of small and medium size enterprises. I am confident that with Carlyle, we have made the right choice for the future of our employees, our customers, and our business partners.”

 

Charles Rossotti, Carlyle Operating Executive, said, “ECi has developed a proven and effective capacity to provide small and medium size enterprises with technology solutions that make them competitive with much larger businesses. We believe this capacity is a very special asset for the global economy, in which small businesses generate so much innovation and job growth.”

 

Steve Bailey, Carlyle Managing Director, added, “Carlyle’s investment will enable ECi to continue investing in its great people, delivering exceptional customer service, enhancing the functionality and features of its leading solutions, and expanding its global footprint.”

 

Equity for the investment came from Carlyle U.S. Equity Opportunity Fund, which is a Carlyle fund
focused on middle market investments. Carlyle has a long history of successful investments in leading middle market, industry‐specific application software solutions companies, including Compusearch, serving the government sector; Gemcom, serving the mining sector; Primatics, serving the financial services sector; Quorum, serving the energy sector; RMI, serving the rail sector; and SchoolNet, serving the education sector. Other select middle market investments include Dynamic Precision Group, an aerospace component manufacturer; Philadelphia Energy Solutions (formerly Sunoco Refinery); Service King, the third largest collision repair multi‐shop operator in the United States; and Worldstrides, a provider of educational student travel programs.

 

ECi was advised by Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP and Harris Williams & Co., and Carlyle was advised by Latham & Watkins LLP and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.

 

About ECi
The ECi Software Solutions family of companies provides business and e‐commerce solutions, offering onpremise and cloud‐based technologies. For 30+ years, ECi’s companies have served the manufacturing, office equipment, office supplies, contract office furniture, lumber and building materials, hardware and janitorial/sanitation sectors. Privately held, ECi is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, USA, with offices and companies throughout the U.S., Australia, England and the Netherlands. For information, email info@ecisolutions.com, visit www.ECiSolutions.com, or call (800) 959‐3367.
 

ECI

Traci Johnson, SVP Global Corporate Marketing

800‐959‐3367 x23276

tjohnson@ecisolutions.com

 

About The Carlyle Group
The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG) is a global alternative asset manager with approximately $189 billion of assets under management across 118 funds and 100 fund of funds vehicles as of December 31, 2013.  Carlyleʹs purpose is to invest wisely and create value on behalf of its investors, many of whom are public pensions. Carlyle invests across four segments – Corporate Private Equity, Real Assets, Global Market Strategies and Solutions – in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East, North America and South America. Carlyle has expertise in various industries, including: aerospace, defense & government services, consumer & retail, energy, financial services, healthcare, industrial, real estate, technology & business services, telecommunications & media and transportation. The Carlyle Group employs more than 1,500 people in 34 offices across six continents.

The Carlyle Group
Elizabeth Gill
+1-202-729-5385
Elizabeth.gill@carlyle.com

Registration Now Open For UnleashWD 2014

The 2014 Innovation Summit will be in Chicago on Oct. 29-30. UnleashWD is the only innovation summit for the wholesale distribution industry.

The innovation journey continues on a familiar date and with a keynote speaker that will inspire.

The third annual UnleashWD innovation summit will continue its effort to promote innovation and fresh ideas in the wholesale distribution industry on Oct. 29-30 in Chicago. Andrew Berlin, the CEO of Berlin Packaging and the owner of the minor league baseball team the South Bend (Ind.) Silver Hawks, will serve as one of the keynote speakers.

“The UnleashWD community is privileged to have a business leader of Andrew’s stature join us,” Dirk Beveridge, Founder of UnleashWD said. “Andrew is a titan within wholesale distribution, but his talk is going to focus on the lessons he has learned as a baseball team owner. He is a game changer and his speech will be one as well.”

Beveridge founded the UnleashWD innovation summit based on reinventing the values of innovation, thought leadership, company culture and business model design for the wholesale distribution industry. The conference sought to take the best ideas from all of business and to lift and shift them into the wholesale distribution industry. Lift and shift is the UnleashWD concept of applying ideas from outside of wholesale distribution and applying them to the industry.

UnleashWD features a line-up of innovative business leaders from outside of wholesale distribution. They speak during 18-minute presentations, which are followed by lift and shift workshops that place the speakers’ lessons into the context of wholesale distribution.

“We have grown by leaps and bounds over the past two years,” Dirk Beveridge, Founder of UnleashWD said. “We have created a forum to promote change within an industry that desperately needs it. We started something here a couple of years ago, and we are starting to see the results.”

Registration is now open at UnleashWD.com.

Steve Epner Named Chairman of New St. Louis Nonprofit

Brown Smith Wallace Principal and Consulting Group Founder selected to lead Innovate Venture Mentoring Service

ST. LOUIS (December 18, 2013) Steve Epner, CSP, principal and founder of the Brown Smith Wallace consulting group, has been named chairman of the board for the non-profit organization, Innovate Venture Mentoring Service (IVMS). The organization is an offshoot of Innovate St. Louis, a substantial contributor to St. Louis’ growing entrepreneurial culture.
Innovate St. Louis plans to transition the IVMS organization to the new leadership team in the early first quarter of 2014. The new leadership team, headed by Steve Epner, will lead the organization in becoming a free-standing, self-sustaining entity after six years of accomplishments.

“My goal is to create a sustainable organization to continue founding chairman Bill Peck’s vision of supporting early stage business ventures in the region,” said Epner. “We have a lot of work to do, but are fortunate to have a solid foundation. I very much appreciate the board’s confidence in me.”

The new leadership team will work with IVMS’ staff and mentors to accelerate a refresh of IVMS’s programming, operations and funding strategy. IVMS will organize active committees comprised of the many mentors and ventures already part of the IVMS family.

“We are pleased to have Steve lead such an innovative organization and continue to be a part of the local entrepreneurial community,” said Harvey Wallace, managing partner at Brown Smith Wallace. “We are always looking for new ways to engage with startups and reaffirm our firm’s commitment to supporting small businesses and the entrepreneurial spirit.”

About IVMS
IVMS was founded in 2014 as an operating unit of Innovate St. Louis, to assist early stage entrepreneurs in launching high-technology, high-growth businesses. IVMS provides free business planning assistance to entrepreneurs in the form of high-impact mentoring teams, comprised of volunteers who are either experienced entrepreneurs or subject matter experts in their fields. Over the past 6 years, IVMS has assisted over 320 client entrepreneurs, who have launched 220 ventures. To date, these ventures have collectively achieved over a 65% survival rate (over twice the national average), have attracted over $70 million in investment, and have created over 800 jobs in the St. Louis region.


About Brown Smith Wallace
Brown Smith Wallace is the second-largest locally owned full-service CPA and business advisory firm in Missouri with more than 200 employees. The firm was nationally recognized as a “Best of the Best Firm” in 2013, by INSIDE Public Accounting and as an Accounting Today “Best Accounting Firm to Work For” in 2013. Brown Smith Wallace is the only accounting firm in St. Louis to receive either of these designations this year. For more information, visit www.bswllc.com or call 314-983-1200.

VAI Wins 2012 IBM Beacon Award for Outstanding Solution for Midsize Businesses

"Recipients of the 2012 IBM Beacon Award set the standard for business excellence, innovative solutions, ingenuity, and client transformation," said Mark Hennessy, general manager, IBM Global Business Partners and Midmarket. "We congratulate VAI on winning the Beacon Award for Outstanding Solution for Midsize Businesses and demonstrating its ability to provide value by incorporating a truly innovative, end-to-end ERP solution for the mid-sized market.” 

VS2K Enterprise

Industry Solutions for durable goods, food, apparel and pharmaceutical designed for Agility, Business Insight, Mobility and Growth.

• Wholesale Distribution
• Warehouse Management
• Rental 
• e-Commerce
• Sales Force Automation
• Manufacturing
• Retail
• Enterprise Portal
• Service & Repair
• Analytics

Click Here to learn more!

SAP and Microsoft Make App Development and Cloud Management Easier

Microsoft’s broad partner ecosystem is what powers increased value and solutions for customers and their evolving business needs.

One example of this is today’s announcement of SAP and Microsoft’s plans to focus on two key areas: first, to help .NET Framework developers more easily build applications connecting to SAP, and second, to help customers harness the power of the cloud.

As a result of this announcement, developers can expect much more support and integration between the development worlds of SAP and Microsoft. Business processes from SAP software can now be easily consumed and extended by .NET developers, simplifying the overall application development process. This level of access will immediately reduce the number of steps developers must take in order to ensure application integration, and also lead to shorter development cycles and lower costs.

Microsoft and SAP also plan to provide integration between SAP’s landscape management software, Microsoft System Center and Microsoft Windows Server Hyper-V technology, bringing greater agility to cloud management and deployments.

This integration will instill enhanced flexibility, scalability and management in the cloud, all while reducing cost and risk. Through these connected offerings, SAP and Microsoft customers will be able to easily scale their deployments in their own data centers or through private clouds, for example, if they have a workload that needs on-demand scale periodically, such as a paycheck or employee performance review application.

Together, Microsoft and SAP are committed to driving greater levels of innovation and flexibility for application development and cloud deployment – from your datacenter to the public cloud, eventually enabling hybrid computing scenarios via Windows Azure for companies to embrace cloud computing on their terms.

This announcement was made at SAPPHIRE® NOW, being held in Orlando, Florida, May 15-18, 2011 where Microsoft was also named SAP Global Technology Partner of the Year.

Posted by Ted Kummert (http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2011/05/18/sap-and-microsoft-make-app-development-and-cloud-management-easier.aspx)
Senior Vice President, Business Platform Division, Microsoft