Simply put, PLM automates some of the processes involved in doing the initial marketing, design, parts supply and other accounting functions that manufacturers have to do when they create products. PLM programs wrap around and integrate with existing ERP systems.
Ceimis is, in fact, a MAPICS partner and the two have worked together to sell the Magik PLM software into OS/400 shops. The financial terms of the acquisition of the Magik product line were not disclosed, but MAPICS did not come out and buy the company. Rather, it acquired the Magik product and will be hiring key development and service people who can help it support the PLM software.
In addition to buying the Magik products, MAPICS said that it is making money, like a number of ERP vendors have also said in recent weeks (if you heard a noise, it was a collective sigh of relief among all the ERP players).
Specifically, MAPICS said that sales in its fiscal second quarter ended March 31 were $43.9m, up 15.5%. Dick Cook, the company’s president and CEO, said that new software license sales in its eponymous OS/400 software suite were up 50% since this time last year; the company’s Windows-based SyteLine suite also showed strong results.
Total software license sales were up 13 percent to $11.7 million in the quarter, and services sales increased by 16% to $32.3m. The amount of deals that MAPICS has in the pipeline at the end of the quarter was $11.3m, up 34% from the second fiscal quarter of 2003.
The company brought $2.4m (9 cents a share) to the bottom line in the quarter, compared to a loss of $1.3m last year. Because things are looking, MAPICS is now estimating that it will have total sales of $170m to $180m for the full fiscal 2004 and will bring between 43 and 48 cents a share to the bottom line. That means sales and profits are accelerating.
This article is based on material originally published by ComputerWire
