Post # 3
Summary and a discussion of one of Net Shepherd's Board of Directors. I copied this information from NSI's Web Page.
As you read his bio, please keep in mind these interesting bits of information . . .
- The Vanenburg Group owns BAAN Business Systems (BBS). BBS is fully owned by Vanenburg Ventures. BBS (has now changed their names to Vanenberg Business Systems).
- The Vanenburg Group owns over 10% of Net Shepherd.
- Vanenburg Ventures is a capital investment company with subsidiaries worldwide. BBS has corporate headquarters in Barneveld, the Netherlands. The BaanWeb of companies employs over 2,500 professionals in BBS/VBS offices in more than 60 countries. (Note: I pulled this summary from an article from the January 7th 1999 issue of i.t.matters entitled - Toyota chooses BAAN Business Applications).
JD (Jan-Dirk) van de Geer, Director, is a Corporate Ambassador for the Vanenburg Group, head quartered in The Netherlands and has been heavily involved in several investments from the Vanenburg Group. Mr. van de Geer joined Baan Development in 1993 as a product consultant, and was subsequently appointed Director of the Automotive line of Business in the Baan Global Business Centre. Mr. van de Geer then joined the Baan Institute as a Research Director, focusing on Business Networks and Logistics, Supply Chain Infrastructure, Electronic Commerce, Power Shifts in Chains, Internet Based Supply Chain Planning, ECR and Retail Distribution. Since January 1998, Mr. van de Geer has been in his Corporate Ambassador role. Mr. van de Geer studied at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, The Netherlands and holds a Master's degree in Business Economics and Logistics Management and is Certified in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM).
When I called Net Shepherd to verify this information late Friday, I asked if they had recently done any work for, or with, the Vanenburg Group or BAAN. I was told that NSI has just been asked to become a part of Vanenburg's Intranet which links all of their affiliate businesses, and . . . Net Shepherd has been invited to attend the BAAN World Exhibition as well!
So, you could say that I am dreaming in technicolour, but here is what these three posts tell me . . .
1. NSI will be providing Customer Relationship Management Services, and the market is huge.
2. Large ERP companies are scrambling to add Customer Relationship Management services to their suite of products.
3. BAAN is one of the most prominent ERP application providers, and they have a representative sitting on the Board of Directors of Net Shepherd!
4. In the near future Net Shepherd will be taken by the hand by the Vanenburg group and introduced to all of the companies in the BAAN World of business.
Now, please draw your own conclusions about where this company, and Answers.com (the one they plan to take to an IPO) is headed. Answers.com business objective seems to be focused on providing cutting edge customer online support and service to their stable of clients. Here are the links to the Answers.com and the Orbital and Pivotal Press Releases.
Orbital - re: Subject Experts
netshepherd.com
Pivotal - re: Customer Relationship Management Agreement
netshepherd.com
The conclusions I have come to is that this company is extremely focused, superbly positioned, and they have the connections to take them much higher. This is why I have taken every opportunity to add to my holdings.
What was it that Garry Foster, National Director of High Technology at Deloitte & Touche said in a recent interview . . . Net Shepherd has been named as a company to "hit the home run" .
Well folks, we need to get the 3rd Quarter results out of the way. I am not expecting great results, as NSI was still deep in the process of re-structuring their business during this time. But heck, now that the re-structuring seems to be out of the way and they have postponed the Investors' tour because they are deep in negotiations, then I believe very soon we could find out just how exciting their fourth quarter will be!
Heck, all I want to say now is "Batter Up!". <VBG>
Once again, just musings from a . . .
Crazy Canuk |
