Consona Corporation acquired a cloud-based open source ERP provider, Compiere Inc.

Indianapolis, June 16, 2010 - Consona Corporation, a privately owned company jointly owned by Battery Ventures VI LP and Thoma Bravo LLC and worldwide leader in providing customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) software and services for corporations of different sizes, announced today that it has closed its purchase of Compiere Inc, a premium supplier of cloud-based, open-source ERP and CRM software in a stock deal. Details on the price of the exchange weren't revealed.

According to Jeff Tognoni, Chairperson of Consona Corporation, the deal positions Consona to become a big supplier of enterprise-class, cloud-based business solutions, as well as supplies the company with an entry point into the distribution ERP market. “Compiere's modern, model-driven design and cloud-based delivery and upgrade model set the standard for how ERP software will be purchased and maintained in the coming decades”, he revealed. “We’re absolutely thrilled to build on Compiere’s expertise as we expand our investment in cloud computing.”

“The primary market of the Compiere business is in distribution, making it a natural extension to our core competency in discrete manufacturing for small and midsize manufacturers”, declared Scott Malia, general chief of Consona's ERP products, and head of the division that may house Compiere's staff, products and operations.

In addition to remaining committed to supporting, maintaining and augmenting each of Compiere's 3 product versions as they're today for Compiere's 130 clients together with remaining aligned with the Compiere technology plan (including a dedication to the open-source nature of the products), Consona also plans to continue counting on Compiere's extensive, global VAR channel as part of its go-to-market plan for both new system sales and customer service and support.

With the acquisition, Compiere's versions of products, which include the Enterprise, Standard and Professional editions consisting of capacities across financial management, order management, materials management, warehouse management, inventory management, buying, projects, production and CRM would become Consona's first cloud-ready ERP computer applications.

Steve Bailey, Consona's CTO, noted a major driver of the exchange was Compiere's technology system; the application's modern, high-performing, multitenant design. “Compiere is the world’s leading open-source ERP solution and the products are brilliantly architected,” Bailey said. “They run on a fully open-source stack (e.g., Java, Linux, JBOSS, Postgres), utilize a browser-based AJAX UI based on the Google Web Toolkit, and are fully operational either on premise or on a utility cloud platform like Amazon—giving Compiere customers the flexibility to choose one and then port to another should their business conditions change. We believe Compiere has built the reference architecture for cloud computing, providing fast feature development, ease of integration and deep customization, while retaining all the price benefits of traditional SaaS.”
Tognoni seconded this by saying, “Until Compiere, ERP customers had to choose between either deeply customizable on-premise ERP applications that pose upgrade restrictions or generic, lightly configurable SaaS solutions where upgrades are done behind the scenes and on the vendor’s schedule. We believe the Compiere architecture represents a third way: deep customization without the costly and arduous upgrade cycle. Compiere calls this automatic upgrading, and to see it in action brings to mind Arthur C. Clarke’s third law, ‘any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.’”