Unit 4 Agresso NV, the mid-market ERP vendor is set to re-enforce its market positioning with fresh branding. Talking to FSN, Dave Turner, Group Marketing Director of Unit 4, said, “We are currently the top 6 globally for mid-market ERP software and Europe’s 2nd largest ERP supplier. Operating under a single brand will help to consolidate this position. Put simply, people often don’t realise how big we are, because we have so many different names!”
CODA and Agresso form the lion’s share of the business yet the scale of the organisation and CODA’s contribution was often overlooked because of the dominance of the Agresso name. As part of the new branding the Agresso ‘tag’ will be dropped and the combined group will be called UNIT 4.
Although UNIT 4 says it is in the top 6 globally for mid-market ERP software and Europe’s 2nd largest ERP supplier the scale of the organisation and its special positioning are not always acknowledged. The new branding will also help to position UNIT 4 more squarely with INFOR in Europe.
Yet CODA and Agresso have been very successfully carving out a distinct positioning relative to traditional ERP solutions such as SAP and Oracle based on their ability to quickly absorb change, such as IFRS, without incurring massive IT or consultancy costs.
Agresso Business World stands out from the competition because of its combined information warehouse, processes and analytics which ensure that changes in any of one of these ‘components’ are automatically propagated throughout the system. CODA on the other hand, with its long track record of handling complex financial requirements has one of the foremost integration capabilities in the industry allowing it to readily leverage vertical market or other specialized applications. These qualities have resonated particularly well in the current market with CFO’s keen to maximize the value of existing systems and reticent to change suppliers.
Building on this positioning underpins the new branding. “It’s more than a name change,” Turner told FSN, “It is this ability to embrace change that will drive the Groups’ philosophy and brand values. In practice, all of our products, services and developments will be geared to supporting these brand values.”
The only exception to the new branding is FinancialForce.com, the group’s joint venture in cloud computing with SalesForce.com. “The company is jointly owned and therefore we cannot change the brand,” added Turner.
The new branding also appears to be providing new stimulus for further acquisitions, although Turner wouldn’t be drawn on specific initiatives. He told FSN, “All future acquisitions will now be able to fit under the UNIT 4 umbrella and we will look to acquire companies that increase our footprint, increase market specialization or give us better geographical coverage.”
