Summary abas Customer Forum "Trends 2007"  
     
  About 1.000 participants at abas Customer ForumKarlsruhe, October 04, 2006 - About 1000 participants informed themselves about the innovations regarding the current Version 2006 of the abas Business Software in the Karlsruhe Congress Center on September 21 and 22. During the two-day event lectures on 28 topics were held, from the innovations in financial accounting to managing the complex supply chain with abas ERP/Automotive to the handling of cross-national ERP projects.  
     
  Fixed part of the annual agenda  
     
  The best advertisement is positive "word of mouth advertising", which is often accomplished through own personal experience. An example for this is Werner Fischer, Head of IT at the lifting device manufacturer and longtime abas user Schmalz GmbH: "The abas Customer Forum is a fixed part of my annual agenda. The workshops about innovations and the strategic further development of the abas Business Software are exciting and important, here I am always provided with suggestions and new impetus for my daily work. The possibility to talk personally to the foreign abas Software Partners, which support numerous locations abroad and to talk to the abas developers is also very exciting. I can only recommend to visit this event, everyone can find something useful in this load of information."  
     
  Long-term perspectives using ABAS  
     
  ABAS and users in dialogDynamic - this is how the situation on the German ERP market could be described complaisantly. Numerous mergers, takeovers or inability to pay amongst ERP providers leads to a certain uncertainty among the users of the respective software systems regarding the guaranteed future of their system. That there is also a different way was highlighted during the opening lecture at the abas Customer Forum "Trends 2007". By means of the 25 year company history, abas CEO Werner Strub and abas COO Peter Forscht showed which path ABAS is taking today and will be taking in the future.

"We should be in a museum!" Using this provocative statement Peter Forscht started the lecture about one of the pillars of the abas long-term strategy. This one concerns the technological basis of the system. Here, the co-founder of the company split the world into an "abas world" and the "rest of the world". While ABAS is maintaining an evolutionary system strategy - since the first version in 1985, ABAS has put 15 versions on the market - the "rest of the world systems" generally only have a lifecycle of 7 to 12 years. This evolutionary development strategy provides a further development of the software standard, unlimited by time, to the abas users. If the upgrades are used regularly, the user of the abas Business Software is always able to depict and use new requirements and new business processes in the software in realtime through permanent technology modernizations.

To ensure this over a long development period, a sophisticated quality assurance also has to be a part of the evolutionary concept. At ABAS this takes place for example by reviewing the code and automated tests on the over 70 maintained system architectures. That the quality is right at ABAS can also be proven by the error rate of the system. If on average 5-10 errors can be found per 1000 lines of code in individual software, the abas Business Software only has 0.22 errors.

The further development of the abas Business Software also incorporates new Web technologies. Various applications already have been realized through the use of abas eB, from shop to sales order tracking to warranty processing or the company portal. To get back to the initial provocative statement, many "rest of the world" systems can be admired in a museum, but one will look for the abas Business Software in a museum in vain.

Other important aspects of the abas strategy are internationality and the automotive industry. According to CEO Werner Strub, one could learn something in terms of quality and efficiency from the automotive industry. Despite high taxes and wages in Germany, compared to other countries, the automotive industry is operating successfully worldwide. This competitiveness is achieved through new, innovative organization models such as Just in Time, Just in Sequence or other technologies such as the use of EDI (Electronic Data Interchange). The abas Business Software supports these by constantly incorporating these new organization models or technologies into the system standard.

"Global play is team play," according to Werner Strub. In times of increased competition from low-wage countries, many medium-sized companies only have two options. On the one hand they can open new production locations in low-wage countries or, on the other hand, they can increase efficiency and quality to maintain their competitiveness. Both is supported by the abas Business Software. ABAS has partners and installations in over 25 countries and can be operated in many languages. The stable economic basis of the ABAS Software AG and the independence of banks and investors are further guarantees for the continuity and security of investment.		  
     
  Entering the foreign market successfully with abas ERP  
     
  abas customers increasingly use abas ERP worldwide. This interest was also reflected by the large interest in the lecture "Entering the foreign market successfully with abas ERP". By means of concrete projects, the ABAS Software AG, the Chinese and American Software Partner, as well as the user company Autoform reported on their experiences. In addition to technical aspects, by using the Unicode character set in the abas Business Software it is for example possible to depict Chinese, Arabic and Cyrillic fonts, a coordinate project managment is necessary for the successful development of an international ERP project. In this context the country-specific knowledge of the participating abas Software Partners is also important. Only then is it possible to ensure a comprehensive and competent service on site which remains of the same high quality worldwide, summarized the speakers.  
     
  Comfortable access to the IT world using the abas Web Portal  
     
  Company portals open new channels of communication. Compared to the static Intranet and Extranet, they enable a flexible communication. They have become one of the most importan means of communication in companies. The abas Business Software also has integrated a portal. The lecture demonstrated how the user can create a central, individually tailored access to the IT world, in order to access internal and external information and services. Consistent with this topic, Prof. Dr. Thomas Pleil from the University of Darmstadt gave a lecture on Internet and Social Software in business communication. The World Wide Web today provides tools, making the access to the knowledge and expertise of the employees of other companies during the daily work possible. Popular examples are web logs, wikis or forums.  
     
  abas Business Software Version 2006 innovations  
     
  Version 2006 of the business software contains many innovations and function expansions which were presented in the lectures at the abas Customer Forum. By means of the external sales force connection of the abas Business Software it is possible, to automate and accelerate the communication between the control center and external sales force. In the production area the function "Partial releases" was presented among other things – this procedure results in numerous simplifications in the organization of the work orders. It was also presented how abas ERP supports the combined production and how this new function cooperates with scheduling and costing. In the accounting area innovations in financial accounting, materials valuation, cost accounting and fixed asset accounting were presented.  
     
  Year by year an excellent platform for constructive dialog  
     
  For the further development of the abas Business Software the constructive dialog between users, developers and employees is also very important. Here, the customer forum provides an excellent platform every year. In the lectures and at a total of 27 demonstration points in the foyer of the Congress Center, this option was used extensively. Thus, the year 2006 can also be summarized in a positive way. For ABAS, even in times of the World Wide Web the face-to-face contact is an important and valuable part in the cross-company communication which cannot be replaced. And thus, ABAS and the abas Software Partners are already looking forward when it is again time for the: Customer Forum "Trends 2008"!  
     
  Further information on ABAS:
presse@abas.de (Press and Public Relations)
Phone: +49 (0) 721 96 72 30; Fax: +49 (0) 721 96 72 31 00		  
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