UNIT4 Unveils 'Route 66' - Groundbreaking Product Release Strategy for Agresso ERP

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Dec 03, 2010, 08:00 ET

SLIEDRECHT, The Netherlands and BOSTON, December 3, 2010 /PRNewswire/ --

- State-of-the-Art 'Pick and Mix' Upgrade Approach to ERP;

- Delivers Unrivalled User Experience Through Rapid Access to New Functionality, Technologies, User Interfaces and Deployment Options;

- Part of Company's New 'Independence' Strategy for Businesses Living IN Change (BLINC)

UNIT4, the world's leading provider of enterprise resource planning (ERP) and financial management software for fast changing organizations, today announced the availability of the first in a series of groundbreaking Agresso Business World product releases called 'Route 66'. The first release puts Businesses Living IN Change on the starting grid of a state-of-the-art upgrade path to ERP independence. Route 66 incorporates a series of Agresso Business World releases over the next two years, developed to enable clients to 'pick and mix' which releases (or 'milestones') and which modules they want to take. This revolutionary approach lets them benefit from new user experiences, technologies and delivery options to suit them, when they want, rather than the big-bang, 'all or nothing' approach of traditional ERP upgrades. The aim is to enable customers to evolve at their own pace, while protecting their investment.

Agresso Business World Route 66 is a major component in UNIT4's new route to "Independence" for customers, announced earlier this week, which further establishes the company as the ERP market leader in solutions for Businesses Living IN Change. UNIT4 already offers an unrivalled combination of solutions that deliver a powerful interoperability platform (via its Coda Financials line), and ERP post-implementation agility (via Agresso Business World).

"This breakthrough approach to product releases and upgrades will again put 'Big ERP' vendors like Oracle and SAP at a competitive disadvantage against UNIT4's long-term low cost of ownership and do-it-yourself change capabilities," said Ton Dobbe, Vice President, Product Marketing for UNIT4.

"Through economic necessity, the ERP buyer community has become much more educated about the architectural and technological drivers underpinning enterprise software. Businesses no longer automatically default to one of the Big ERP giants based on initial deployment costs or a perceived mega-spectrum of capabilities from one source. CIOs and CFOs in particular have been repeatedly burned by solutions that over time have locked them into spending millions over budget to support unanticipated business change. UNIT4 is well-known as the best choice for companies who face business change. The first Route 66 release marks the first product milestone on the road to independence for Agresso Business World users."

Route 66: Next Generation User, Business and Deployment Agility

The Route 66 milestones will address three categories of independence and agility:

    - User Agility: Redefining the ERP User Experience - following the
      outcomes of the company's ambitious "X2" project which focuses on
      providing end-users with an unparalleled User Interface that allows
      them to perform key tasks fundamentally better and faster.

    - Business Agility: Leveraging and extending the inherent capabilities of
      UNIT4's unique and trademarked Vita Architecture(TM), an ERP backbone
      that is uniquely suited to supporting ongoing data, process and
      delivery methodology change - at the business user level.

    - Deployment Agility: Delivering the newest features and functions across
      any combination - that can be changed as often as desired - of on-
      premises, cloud or hybrid cloud deployments.

"Based on the inherent change capabilities of the Vita architecture, the physical hardware deployment is irrelevant to Agresso Business World software capabilities," said Dobbe. "Our competitors can't come close to the business agility guaranteed by this easy-change design. Route 66 adds two core capabilities: Unparalleled user experience and new levels of deployment agility, making Agresso Business World: Route 66 the next generation of ERP independence for Businesses Living IN Change."

About UNIT4

UNIT4 (http://www.unit4.com/) is a global business software and services company aimed at helping dynamic organizations to embrace change simply, quickly and cost effectively in a market sector it calls 'Businesses Living IN Change' (BLINC)(TM). The Group incorporates a number of the world's leading change embracing software brands including Agresso Business World and Coda financial management software.

Agresso Business World ( http://www.unit4.com/products/agresso-business-world) is our flagship ERP suite for mid-sized services intensive organizations. It is widely acknowledged for delivering ongoing, post-implementation changes without the typical external IT costs and services that cost firms huge sums of money each year. This is achieved thanks to its powerful VITA(TM) architecture which is unmatched in the ERP world.

Coda Financials (http://www.unit4.com/products/coda) is our award-winning suite of best-of-class financial management software designed to integrate with your industry- and company-specific applications. Coda's LINK(TM) architecture sets it apart from ordinary accounting systems by providing a financial information backbone for companies with fast-changing and mixed application environments. It is a global accounting solution for mid-to large sized organizations, offering a "no compromise" approach to financial modeling, process control and application choice.

UNIT4 is a top six mid-market ERP software player globally and the 2nd largest European ERP supplier. With offices in 17 European countries, as well as 7 countries across North America, Asia Pacific and Africa and sales activities in several other countries, a revenue of EUR379.4 million was realized in 2009. UNIT4 is headquartered in Sliedrecht, the Netherlands. The company has 4,160 employees.

UNIT4 is listed on Euronext Amsterdam by NYSE Euronext and is included in the Amsterdam Midcap Index (AMX). For more information on UNIT4 or any of its operating companies, please visit the website at http://www.unit4.com.

    For more information, please visit: http://www.unit4.com, or contact:

    Emma Hoyle
    Group PR Manager
    UNIT4
    +44-1423-537-977
    [email protected]

SOURCE UNIT4