Geac Acquires RunTime : System21 and RunTime to Deliver End-to-End
Solutions for the Apparel Industry
TORONTO, ONTARIO--Geac Computer Corporation Limited (TSE:GAC)
announced today that it has acquired RunTime, the Denmark-based
e-Customer Relationship Management (eCRM) solutions provider to
the apparel, footwear, and textile industries. RunTime has over
400 customers including Esprit, Betty Barclay, and Replay.
RunTime's applications focus on the design and pre-production
phases of the manufacturing process, customer relationship
management and salesforce automation. The application has been
tightly integrated with several leading ERP solutions, including
System21 Style.
Bertrand Sciard, Managing Director of Geac Europe, stated:
"RunTime has an extremely exciting and innovative set of products
which have rapidly established a dominant position in their
market. The solution is highly complementary to System21 Style.
It has already been sold and is in joint production at several
companies in Europe."
Douglas Bergeron, President and CEO of Geac, commented: "We are
continuing our aggressive push into the ERP mid-market by
acquiring a powerful eCRM solution. Our customers and prospects
are looking for e-commerce CRM solutions that are proven and can
be implemented immediately. RunTime is a very successful and
profitable company that has been growing at over 30% per year. We
are very proud to welcome them to Geac and see tremendous revenue
synergies with our System21 business."
Michael Kildahl, CEO of RunTime added: "We see tremendous
opportunities to sell our products across Geac's enormous customer
base. Our employees and customers will benefit greatly as we
enter into this new phase of company growth."
The joint System21 Style and RunTime solution will be marketed
globally. Integration between the systems is achieved using
System21's XML-based Application Integration Framework, and
several customers are already experiencing the benefits of using
the combined System21 Style and RunTime applications.
Henning Andersen, Director, Carli Gry A/S, commented: "We chose
RunTime and System21 Style as the basis of our core systems
because together they lead the market, therefore this acquisition
bodes well for us. It will mean further development of both
systems and greater integration between them. That leaves us in a
powerful competitive position to further improve our operational
performance."
RunTime has an impressive customer base and users include:
/T/
* ASICS Europe
* C&A
* ESPRIT
* HEMA
* Betty Barclay
* Hennes & Mauritz
* Tom Tailor
* Lindex
* M&S Mode
* Paul & Shark
* Replay
* S. Oliver
/T/
About RunTime
RunTime A/S is an innovative IT company developing software
solutions for the apparel, footwear and furniture industries.
RunTime aims to become the industry standard in all its areas of
business. These include: advanced PDM solutions, complete CRM
solutions, business-to-business e-commerce, direct marketing,
virtual configuration for store planning and configurable
products, plus high-end apparel design systems. The solutions have
attracted the attention of many major European corporations.
Headquartered in Vejle, Denmark, RunTime also have a branch office
in Amsterdam, Holland.
About System21 Style
System21 Style is an integrated set of enterprise-wide software
applications for the apparel, footwear and textile industries.
The software is completely Web-enabled, allowing companies to
launch themselves as e-businesses, and uses @ctive Enterprise
technology to enable continual process improvement and business
transformation. System21 Style is aimed specifically at
mid-market companies and is based on IBM's AS/400 e-business
servers. With System21 Style, Geac has a leading position as
supplier of enterprise management software to the mid-market
apparel, footwear and textile industries.
About Geac Computer Corporation
Geac Computer Corporation Limited (Toronto Stock Exchange
Symbol:GAC) is a provider of mission critical software and systems
solutions to corporations around the world. Geac solutions include
cross-industry enterprise business applications for financial
administration and human resources functions, and enterprise
resource planning applications for manufacturing, distribution,
and supply chain management. Geac provides several
industry-specific mission critical business applications to the
hospitality, property, banking and publishing marketplaces, as
well as a wide range of applications for libraries and public
safety administration. Headquartered in Toronto, Canada, Geac
ranks as one of the world's largest software companies. Further
information is available on the World Wide Web at
geac.com, or through email at info@geac.com.
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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
Douglas Bergeron
Geac Computer Corporation Limited
Tel: (416) 642-1906
Fax: (416) 642-8454
Email: d.bergeron@geac.com |
