Consona has purchased on-demand ERP (enterprise resource planning) vendor Compiere, a move that gives it a place at the cloud-computing table, it was announced Wednesday. Terms were not disclosed.
Compiere is a bit of an anomaly in the ERP world, being both cloud-based and open-source, although it does have peers such as OpenBravo. Its software mostly focuses on distribution, and will therefore complement Consona’s products for small to mid-sized discrete manufacturers, according to a statement.
Consona plans to maintain and further develop Compiere’s products, which have some 130 customers, and will continue supporting the vendor’s open-source strategy, the statement added.
Compiere’s technology stack and multi-tenant architecture were especially attractive to Consona, according to the statement. Customers can run Compiere either on-premises or with a public cloud service like Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2).
All told, the products enable “a third way” toward running ERP, providing flexible deployment options while retaining the ability to do deep customizations, Consona said.
Consona’s announcement follows Compiere rival NetSuite’s recent move into discrete manufacturing, as well as a general trend by on-premises vendors, such as Epicor, to provide cloud-based offerings.
The key driver for the deal indeed seems to be Compiere’s technology platform, said 451 Group analyst China Martens. Also, while Consona has built up the company via a string of acquisitions, it’s nonetheless “intriguing” that it decided to purchase an open-source player, she added.
Consona will no doubt look to build out a cloud-based ERP product for manufacturing in the future, she said. In addition, the Compiere acquisition will bring Consona global financials capabilities, positioning it to go up against NetSuite’s OneWorld edition, Martens said.
Chris Kanaracus covers enterprise software and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Chris’s e-mail address is Chris_Kanaracus@idg.com.