www.baan.com has been redirected tot the ssa homepage where Baan is merely one of many product-lines.

Perhaps the next step is to drop the Baan name... which
might actually be a good thing. And while on the subject
of change, why not port BaanVII to J2EE and introduce
(Business) Model Driven Architecture in BaanVIII. Then
Baan will have a future IMHO. See what SSA thinks/does.

the ssa homepage is awfull......if I were a potential customer wanting information about the Baan product I would give up after going through this mess on this website....

... they must have heard you, the original site has been
restored. www.baan.nl however is still redirected.

With the new Web appearance a clear Indentifikation with the product BaaN is lost. Where are the regional representatives and partner?

Regards

Ralph

Hi,

It was clear during the presentation of Mike G., the CEO of SSA, at the 2003 BWU Fall Workshop in Charlotte, NC last week that the future of the BAAN productline is to be bundled together with other extended ERP solutions SSA has to offer.
That means that functionalities from BAAN, ManMan and other packages will be combined in one new ERP system in the future.
SSA is still in aquisition mode so expect ERP solutions like QAD and IFS to be added to this mix as well.
The consequence of all of this will be that the name BAAN will be gone in the future but personally I have no idea when that will be.
Only Mike G. will be able to tell you.

This will also have an impact on the BWU organization. As SSA will be merging these different ERP solutions into one there will be no need for a BWU Fall Workshop anymore. This can then be combined with the yearly SSA sponsered user meetings.
This may happen sooner than everybody thinks!!!

Regards,

Edwin

HI everybody,

what i heard is that SSA planned to lines of ERP Products in the Moment. There will be a AS/400 Line where Bpics and PRMS and KBM will be combined to one Product Line.
The same will be done with the BAAN and ManMan/(X) and MK Line.

I Think this will be a good opportunity für all of us, and i´m happy with this. The Problem only is that the must announced this asap.

Kind Reagrds

Tinka

Mm, if the name 'Baan' will disappear what will we call our forums then? Any suggestions?

:eek:
Here's the link
http://www.baan.com/solutions/products/index.aspx

But even if you click on SSA Baan, it merely goes to describe what Baan is. It seems like the process of integrating has begun.
This will need a lot of explanation to clients.

This simplifies it for the sales force because they have a set of solutions ready. It will be a nightmare for us implementors, specially in places where integration between products are necessary.

On the upside, that means we have jobs to do:D

Hi patvdv

what do you think about

NAABBOARD

Tinka

Hi Nick,

In the presentation that SSA CEO gave at BWU last week, he mentioned a survey they did between SSA customers. Lots of them said their web site was not easy to use. He said that they invested lots of efforts in improving the site.

I do not know if the site now is the "improved" one or not, since I have not seen it before, but I was impressed the SSA people want to turn the Baan product to one product in their offering. Which is very good.

The Baan name will disappear, this is for sure. It will take some time. It will disappear, like many other great IT names like Digital, Compaq and many others. Many people in the IT industry already think Baan does not exist anymore (Which is not true), but maybe chaning the name will help in future marketing efforts.

- Bader

Originally posted by Tinka9963
Hi patvdv

what do you think about

NAABBOARD

Tinka

Hey Tinka,

I am sure you meant it in a humourous way but I am not quite certain if I get the meaning of it ;)

I think we cannot be happy when the name Baan disappears, but the last offical information was that Baan will survive as product name. But when surfing on the new SSA/Baan homepage the impression is indeed that they want to let Baan diappear as soon as possible. I found the name after hundreds of clicks hidden behind a lot of very generic and general product descriptions where nodbody has an idea reading this as potential customer what product is behind and why you should buy it.
Nearly nobody knows SSA on a decision level in the industry but Baan ist still very well-known as name of an excellent ERP product in a complex high tech manufacturing environment. From my point of view it is a huge marketing mistake not to use this degree of fame.
As Baan users we really should not support this renaming adventure beginning with the name of this board (when ever we would change then I would join the proposal NAAB compared with GASS ;)
Regards
KH

I can assure you that after the work we and all the members of this site have put into baanboard, we will not be eager to change the name. My question was merely directed at stirring up some opinions :)

klhawk said "...Nearly nobody knows SSA on a decision level in the industry but Baan ist still very well-known..."

Ithink it depends on the market your'e in. SSA is verry well known is the AS400 market space. SSA are the people who have been selling BPCS and more recently its competitor PRMS (originally known as RMS) for many years.

I think it would be more correct to say that in the UNIX market they are well known.

Lets hope the "Baan" or at least Triton name continue.

Dear all,

Read the following good analysis about SSA. It sheds some light about this reborn company that is slowly becoming a major player in the ERP world.

http://www.cbronline.com/magazine/5d4a40aa02359ebe80256dc000415ab2

- Bader

The article link posted by bamnsour is very good.

From this and the other pointers we get, It certainly seems that SSA know what they are doing.

A very refreshing change from Baan's approach to marketing and customers.

Terry

Originally posted by patvdv
Mm, if the name 'Baan' will disappear what will we call our forums then? Any suggestions?

Hi Pat,
what do you think about

ESFKAB
(Excellent Software Formerly Known As Baan )

;)

Originally posted by Marc van Kessel
... they must have heard you, the original site has been
restored. www.baan.nl however is still redirected.

Hi,

I tried to open the baan.nl website - and got an error message. So, obviously, SSA is changing the marketing. But what I'm missing is a complete product overview on the Baan-based products. I'm afraid that potential new customers cannot find the information they are looking for.
Maybe, SSA will add this information soon.

Regards.

According to BWU presentations on
the SSA website Gemini will be released
in july 2004 with 26 new modules and a
fancy new interface (the screen-print
is promising).

On the mid-term it looks like they will
merge overlapping products and
consolidate towards the mainstream
J2EE platform (the techies amongst us,
including myself, will have to do some
serious but interesting retraining).

The SSA motto is spot on:

"Keep customers for live"

Perhaps this take-over is the best thing
that could happen to Baan after all (I did
have my doubts). SSA has a clear view
and focussed strategy.

Well, this is what worries me

"Customers pay maintenance because it is an insurance policy that they get product fixes and puts them in a go-forward situation," says Cooksley.

"Now I want to give my customers value. Some want protection and others might want to go forward. What I say to them is 'look you seem to be very loyal we appreciate it, so what say I give you Ironside module X because you're such as loyal customer. As long as you continue to pay me my maintenance, I will let you use that product.'"

SSA is purchasing ERP packages like crazy, but so far they have not done a lot of synergizing or consolidating.
Their revenue is primarily generated by existing service and maintenance contracts.
They can promise all they want, but seeing is believing. Until they show some real progress, I will assume that they will simply milk the existing Baan contracts until the well runs dry.