ERP Software Industry News

INDIANAPOLIS, March 14, 2007 — Consona Corporation (Consona, formerly known as M2M Holdings, Inc.), the privately held holding company jointly owned by Battery Ventures and Thoma Cressey Bravo, today announced it has closed on its acquisition of KNOVA Software, Inc. (KNOVA), a leading provider of knowledge management (KM) and service resolution management (SRM). The all-cash transaction announced in December 2006 was valued at $5.00 per share, or approximately $47 million. With the close of this transaction, KNOVA has completed its transformation to a private company after being publicly traded on the OTC Bulletin Board under the KNVS symbol since May 2005. KNOVA is Consona’s sixth acquisition in the last eighteen months (past acquisitions include Cimnet Systems, Inc., AXIS Computer Systems, Inc., Encompix, Inc., Intuitive Manufacturing Systems, Inc., and Onyx Software Corporation).

The acquisition effectively launches Consona CRM, the new name for the CRM-focused operating division of Consona Corporation, which now houses sister product lines KNOVA and Onyx® CRM. Pete Strom, general manager of Consona CRM, will oversee KNOVA going forward. In his role, Strom will be assisted by members of the KNOVA management team to profitably grow the business. As part of Consona’s proven operating model, the complementary KNOVA and Onyx solutions will retain their brand identity and be sold both separately and together to new customers via a shared sales force. As such, KNOVA’s KM and SRM solutions will continue to be sold, maintained, supported and enhanced to augment all popular CRM platforms, including—but not limited to—the Onyx solution. The model also ensures that existing customers of both products will be served by dedicated, product-specific account management, development, customer support, and professional services teams.

“The combination of Onyx and KNOVA will create the first and only operational and collaborative CRM offering available in the market, and we can’t be more excited about that,” said Strom. “Future releases of KNOVA and Onyx will deliver a completely unique CRM solution to enterprises of all sizes, featuring adaptive but tightly integrated customer relationship management, business process management, business intelligence, and service resolution management functionality.”

Beyond a stronger value proposition for both product lines, Strom cited a number of benefits to operating the Onyx and KNOVA businesses together as Consona CRM. “Once the integration is completed,” said Strom, “numerous cross-selling opportunities will open up—particularly for Onyx customers who are seeking guided selling functionality [from Active Decisions] or strengthened Web self-service and service resolution management functionality. And the advantages don’t stop there. Both businesses now have a broadened worldwide sales and services presence, as well as additional industry, product and process expertise to offer customers.”

Jeff Tognoni, CEO of Consona, stated that KNOVA’s privatization also will bring about a number of advantages for KNOVA and its customers. “As a private company within the Consona family of companies, KNOVA will be free from the constraints of being a public company and have improved access to investment capital for strategic initiatives. And even more compelling is how our aggressive growth strategy for Consona CRM will add to the KNOVA business throughout the year.”

INDIANAPOLIS, March 8, 2007 – After experiencing tremendous growth in 2006, the executive team at M2M Holdings Inc. decided a new name was needed to describe the unified vision behind its growing line of world-class enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) solutions. That’s why today, they will officially rename their holding company Consona Corporation (Consona).

“M2M Holdings was never intended to be a widely-known name,” said Tom Millay, vice president of sales and marketing for Consona. “We started the business with the Made2Manage product and, now, seven acquisitions later, keeping the ‘M2M’ as part of the holding company name has caused confusion in the marketplace. We wanted to find a clearer way to convey the vision behind our various product lines, so we put a team together that would find a name that is not only memorable and unique, but also whose meaning will better reflect what we’re trying to do as a corporation.”

Jeff Tognoni, CEO of Consona, pointed out that nothing is new but the name. “Everything the market has seen from M2M Holdings to date is still completely valid,” he said. “We’re still the same company with the same strategy and vision. We still have the same owners, management team, and personnel working in our existing office locations. And we continue to actively sell, support, maintain and enhance our various ERP and CRM product lines.”

According to Millay, Consona will adopt a branding strategy that is similar to Johnson & Johnson’s, with each product line marketed, sold, and operationally supported separately, but also identified by the master brand. Within Consona Corporation, there will be three major divisions:

Consona CRM

- Onyx® CRM, BPM and BI for the enterprise

Consona ERP

- Intuitive™ ERP for discrete manufacturers
- Made2Manage® ERP for discrete manufacturers
- SupplyWorks® supplier collaboration and supply chain visibility tools

Consona Industry Solutions

- AXIS’s AXIOM® ERP for metals, wire and cable manufacturers
- Cimnet Systems™ ERP for printed circuit board manufacturers
- DTR Plastics™ ERP for plastics processing manufacturers
- Encompix® ERP for project-based, engineer-to-order manufacturers
- Relevant’s INFIMACS II® ERP for aerospace and defense manufacturers

So what does Consona mean? Tognoni said the new name is derived from the concept of “consonance,” which describes the perfect alignment of elements within a single entity.

“We like the meaning because it emphasizes the aspects of our strategy that remain central to each line of business within the company,” he said. “First, we strive to build high-fit software that closely aligns with the business processes of our customers. Second, we encourage our people to be similarly aligned in order to provide excellent service and support. And finally, we try hard to keep our internal processes consonant so that we remain an efficient, profitable vendor for our customers.”

M2M Holdings becomes Consona today. To learn more, visit www.consona.com.

KIRKLAND, WASH. and INDIANAPOLIS, November 16, 2006—Intuitive Manufacturing Systems (Intuitive), a leading provider of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software for discrete mid-market manufacturers and a business unit of M2M Holdings Inc., today announced the achievement of several milestones since being acquired in July, including an increase in the quantity and size of new system sales.

According to Scott Malia, general manager of the Made2Manage-Intuitive business unit, Intuitive’s May 2006 release of Intuitive ERP 8.0—the first and only full-function, integrated, discrete ERP solution built with pure Microsoft .NET-managed technology—is the catalyst for the recent uptick in sales. “Version 8.0 (v8.0) is the culmination of a complete redesign of the Intuitive ERP product using .NET-managed technology,” he said. “With the v8.0 product, all major manufacturing and distribution processes have been converted to Intuitive’s exclusive .NET-managed architecture. This value proposition is attracting larger, technology-driven companies and minimizing pricing issues.”

Indeed, after v8.0 hit the market, Intuitive’s second-quarter software sales were more than 50 percent larger than first-quarter sales, and third-quarter software sales were nearly 20 percent higher than second-quarter sales. Intuitive’s sales executives report their success is due in part to an overall higher average number of seats per deal compared to historical data.

“By using .NET-managed code, Intuitive is able to offer its customers advantages that other ERP packages using .NET wrappers around legacy code cannot,” said Malia. “Although these vendors are able to expose their customers to .NET tools, they are still burdened with spending resources and dollars on developing and supporting their third-party legacy code. With a .NET-managed system in place, we are now a more efficient vendor, which translates into value for our customers. Our customers see better performance and faster, higher-quality development.”

While Intuitive enjoys the inflow of new business, existing customers are already seeing the fruits of the recent Made2Manage-Intuitive merger. On November 1, Intuitive rolled out a new Web site for all customers called Intuitive Expert. Intuitive Expert features user resources and training/support tools modeled after M2M Expert, M2M Holdings’ premier customer portal and three-time winner of the Association of Support Professional’s “Top Ten Best Web Support Sites” award.

“Intuitive is moving forward at full speed as a sister product line to Made2Manage. We review on a daily basis how to implement best practices from both businesses in order to improve the value we offer to our customers,” said Malia.

Thomas Duff, president of Granite Power and one of several new customers to go live on v8.0 since the acquisition, said, “We’ve had a great experience working with Intuitive. Our transition to live operations was very smooth, and our parent company is pleased that we are getting the expected results from the project. They’re already planning to implement Intuitive ERP in five other divisions of the business.”

Intuitive ERP Version 8.0 Availability and Demonstrations

Live demonstrations of the Intuitive ERP 8.0 product are available at bi-monthly webcasts. Event registration is available on the Intuitive Web site at www.intuitivemfg.com.

Kirkland, Washington – May 26, 2006 – Intuitive Manufacturing Systems, a leading provider of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software for discrete manufacturers, is very happy to report the results of Synergy 06, the second Intuitive ERP customer conference. Over 250 people convened in San Diego, California for the May 1st-5th event, which represents huge attendance growth over the 2004 inaugural conference. The attendees represented over 100 companies from as far away as Australia and Turkey.

“Synergy 06 was an outstanding conference,” said Intuitive Vice President of Sales, Ed Doris. “This interaction with our customers was a great opportunity to learn from each other and share ideas.”

The success of the conference was validated by the results of the written conference evaluations where 95 percent of attendees responded that the overall value of the conference “exceeded expectations” or was “outstanding.”

“Great information here,” said Sandra Ross, Materials Manager for Bigfoot Industries. “Even reviews of older functionality were a great reminder of functionality we should be using.”

The conference kicked off with a general session presentation by Intuitive CEO Chuck Gillam, where he communicated the company’s roadmap for the future, giving the Intuitive user and partner community a better understanding of who Intuitive is t

day, as well as the direction the company and the Intuitive ERP product are headed.
From there, attendees divided their time between six simultaneous tracks with more than 60 sessions presented over the next four days. Attendee’s highlights include:

Ask the Experts –Intuitive’s consulting staff and field product engineers manned the “Ask the Experts” area, where attendees could come at any time throughout the conference with questions or issues and work one-on-one with an expert to get them resolved.
“Day in the Life” series – A new track to Synergy this year, it focused on how to better use the tools that exist in Intuitive ERP to do the daily job of a buyer, planner, scheduler, or in order entry.
.NET modification training – For the developers, this was a popular track, where attendees could learn how to use the development tools Intuitive has created leveraging .NET technology to do their own custom modification projects.
“What’s New in 8.0” series – This series of sessions explored the new features and enhancements of version 8.0 including ECO, AML, MPS, CTP range planning, and more to give attendees the opportunity to learn about new Intuitive ERP functionality that will be released to them later this year.
At the closing ceremony, the locale for the Synergy 07 event was announced. We will be visiting Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida on May 14-18, 2007.

INDIANAPOLIS and SEATTLE, July 14, 2006 – Made2Manage Systems Inc., a leading provider of software and a broad range of services for the enterprise, today announced that it has acquired Seattle-based Intuitive Manufacturing Systems (Intuitive), a leading provider of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software for discrete manufacturers.

The acquisition of Intuitive, backed by investors Battery Ventures and Thoma Cressey Equity Partners, marks Made2Manage Systems’ sixth since being taken private in August 2003. It enhances the company’s portfolio of enterprise resource planning products focused on the manufacturing sector and reaffirms its commitment to the small and midsize manufacturing space.

“I’m thrilled to bring two very strong companies together,” said Jeff Tognoni, CEO of Made2Manage Systems. “The Intuitive product line will become a sister product line to the Made2Manage product line, allowing us to serve an even broader share of discrete manufacturers in the small and midsize enterprise market.”

Tognoni believes that Made2Manage Systems’ strategic initiatives of providing superior product fit and unparalleled industry expertise will be enhanced by growing both the Made2Manage and Intuitive product lines within the same company. “As the companies form synergies and share best practices, we can create new value for our community of customers in discrete manufacturing,” he said.

Made2Manage Systems’ unique technology strategy will allow the two product lines to significantly enhance one another while protecting customers’ investments. “Intuitive’s product line is 95 percent pure Microsoft .NET—and it’s not a .NET wrapper around legacy technology,” said Steve Bailey, chief technology officer for Made2Manage Systems. “We can leverage the expertise and best practices of our new colleagues while we implement an event-driven, Service-Oriented Architecture across our other Microsoft-technology-based product lines.”

Made2Manage Systems will continue to support, maintain, enhance, and sell the Intuitive product line, just as it has with all previous acquisitions, using its proven integration model. The model ensures that customer touch-point roles, including support, service, account management, and development, remain focused on each of their respective product lines. Tognoni added that the primary reason Made2Manage Systems supports and enhances each of its acquired products is the company’s ongoing strategy to be the industry leader in customer care. “In the spirit of customer care,” he said, “we believe in protecting our customers from the disruption of forced upgrades.”

Using the same integration model, Made2Manage Systems also intends to support, maintain and enhance Intuitive’s recently-acquired product lines: SupplyWorks (acquired in March 2006) and Relevant (acquired in April 2006).

Intuitive’s headquarters in Seattle, which will remain open to serve customers, adds a west coast presence to Made2Manage Systems’ existing offices in Indianapolis (headquarters), Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, and Jacksonville.

Kirkland, Washington – May 15, 2006 – Intuitive Manufacturing Systems, a leading provider of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software for discrete manufacturers, announced today the partnership with Shanghai Ying Tai Software Company, who will be doing business as Intuitive China to sell and service the Intuitive ERP software solution in China.

Since 1998, the principals of Intuitive China have been servicing small and medium size companies as well as foreign subsidiaries of multinational companies. They currently have, or will shortly open, offices in Shanghai, Beijing, Guanzhou, and Hangzhou.

Their decision to represent Intuitive ERP was based on the company’s experience in the mid-market, the Intuitive ERP product’s functionality, and the extensive reference list Intuitive already has in China. Intuitive ERP is currently available in both traditional and simplified Chinese. Intuitive China will use the Microsoft tools to further localize and extend the software.

“Intuitive China brings a wealth of knowledge to our sales efforts in China. I strongly believe that their experience and desire to succeed will make Intuitive China a successful business partner,” said Bruce Shamel, Intuitive’s Director of International Sales. “We currently have over 50 installed customers in China and expect that number to increase dramatically with Intuitive China’s involvement.”

Kirkland, Washington – March 2, 2006 – Intuitive Manufacturing Systems, a leading provider of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software for discrete manufacturers, announced today they have added two industry veterans to their sales and marketing management team as part of the company’s aggressive growth strategy for 2006. The forecasted growth is in anticipation of Intuitive’s new release of Intuitive ERP™, its high-function, integrated business applications optimized on Microsoft® .NET technology, scheduled to be released in the first half of 2006.

“Our continued success since the acquisition by Marlin Equity Partners in October 2005 has enabled Intuitive to make major investments in our sales and marketing efforts as we prepare for the completion of the total rewrite of the Intuitive ERP product line in pure Microsoft .NET managed code technology,” said Intuitive President and CEO Chuck Gillam. “The ERP market is poised for considerable growth and now is the time for Intuitive to deliver its unique message.”

International Sales Growth Continues
Bruce Shamel has been named Director of International Sales. He will lead the sales efforts for Intuitive’s international VAR channel. A 16-year veteran in ERP sales, Bruce has specialized in selling to mid-market manufacturers for the past 10 years.

“This is a strategic position for us,” said Ed Doris, Intuitive Vice President of Sales. “The international market represented a large percentage of our new accounts in 2005 and we believe Bruce has the experience to grow international revenue substantially by responding to the area’s requirements for product depth, localization and easy-to-use technology.”

Bruce has previously served in sales and sales management positions for several well-known manufacturing software vendors including Ask, Baan, Made2Manage and, most recently, Exact.

Marketing’s New Mission
Intuitive also announces the appointment of Ray Rebello as Director of Marketing. Ray brings twenty years of manufacturing software marketing and sales experience to Intuitive.

“Ray is an innovative and creative marketing executive with first-rate ERP software experience,” says Gillam. “With his breadth of expertise in marketing, planning, branding and communications, Ray will effectively convey Intuitive’s message to our market.”

Prior to joining Intuitive, Ray served in a number of sales and marketing management positions including Vice President of Industry Marketing as well as Vice President of Product Marketing for J.D. Edwards. He has been selling and marketing to mid-market manufacturers since 1982, is a Professional Engineer and holds a CIRM with APICS.

Kirkland, Washington – March 14, 2006 – Intuitive Manufacturing Systems, a leading provider of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software for discrete manufacturers, announced today they have acquired SupplyWorks as part of the company’s aggressive growth strategy for 2006. SupplyWorks’ platform for multi-location supplier collaboration extends ERP functionality with supply chain management (SCM) features such as supply chain visibility, synchronization, automated replenishment, and performance measurements through a web-based supplier portal.

“The acquisition of SupplyWorks by Intuitive is strategic, timely and very complementary,” said Intuitive President and CEO Chuck Gillam. “ERP customers are realizing tremendous benefits from their systems inside the ‘four walls’ of the enterprise and are now looking to the supply chain for optimization and competitive advantage. The wireless Kanban and Lean manufacturing functionality that SupplyWorks has delivered is exactly what many manufacturers want to implement.”

“Our goal was to acquire a full-function SCM solution that meets the multi-location supplier collaboration requirements for our existing and future customers,” Gillam said. “SupplyWorks has been recognized by industry analysts as a leader in developing this functionality and has consistently delivered measurable ROI to their customers.”

Current Intuitive customers will be able to extend their Intuitive ERP with SupplyWorks functionality, as Intuitive ERP and SupplyWorks are built on the same Microsoft foundations and integration will be seamless. Intuitive is dedicated to .NET and service-oriented architecture (SOA) technology and continues to be well-positioned to leverage the benefits of next generation .NET to provide maximum value to its manufacturing customers.

In addition to actively marketing, selling and supporting the SupplyWorks solution through its existing sales channel, Intuitive is creating new agreements with selected system integrators who are supporting other legacy ERP systems. Since SupplyWorks is not dependent on a specific ERP system and has proven to be easy to integrate, these selected system integrators will be able to provide additional value to their manufacturing clients currently running older systems.

Kirkland, Washington – November 8, 2005 – Intuitive Manufacturing Systems, a leading provider of enterprise resource planning software (ERP) for discrete manufacturers, announced today the acquisition of Intuitive Manufacturing Systems by Marlin Equity Partners, a leading private equity firm based in El Segundo, California.

Chuck Gillam, President and CEO of Intuitive, said “The partnership between Intuitive and Marlin Equity Partners is the first step in aggressively pursuing our growth and market leadership initiatives. In addition to its substantial capital resources, Marlin brings significant experience in growing profitable software businesses. The manufacturing industry is at a critical turning point in the realm of technology, and Intuitive is prepared to lead the way with the next generation of enterprise manufacturing software and services.”

David McGovern, Managing Director of Marlin Equity Partners, said, “The acquisition of Intuitive complements Marlin’s strategy of investing in businesses with strong installed customer bases, proven management teams, and attractive growth prospects. Intuitive is well-positioned for continued growth and success through its market-leading Microsoft .NET technology, its strong customer base and its outstanding management team.”

McGovern stated, “In Chuck and Sara Gillam, we have backed an experienced management team with a track record of success. We see ample opportunity to build on what they have achieved to date, and pursue growth initiatives which will expand their product offering and lead Intuitive successfully into the future.”

Kirkland, Washington – February 7, 2006 – Intuitive Manufacturing Systems, a leading provider of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software for discrete manufacturers, announced today outstanding results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2005. The growth is a direct result of Intuitive’s delivery of high-function integrated business applications optimized on Microsoft .NET technology.

Enterprise license revenue had a quarter-to-quarter increase of 153 percent from third quarter of 2005 to the fourth quarter ending December 31, 2005. This represents an increase of 91 percent when fourth quarter 2004 is compared to fourth quarter of 2005. This significant increase in the fourth quarter is attributed to Intuitive’s signing of forty new-name accounts in addition to sales to the install base.

For overall total year-to-year performance, license fee revenue increased 42 percent from 2004 to 2005. Intuitive’s quarterly EBITDA increased an impressive 430 percent from fourth quarter 2004 to fourth quarter 2005.

“The company is significantly outperforming expectations,” said Intuitive President and CEO Chuck Gillam. “We are especially pleased with the large number of new accounts that we secured in this highly competitive ERP environment.”

Intuitive’s Growth Continues

“We are thrilled with our continued success since the acquisition by Marlin Equity Partners in October 2005. The investment has been seen by our prospects and clients as a validation of the Intuitive business model. This market attitude will continue our rapid growth as we near the ground-breaking completion of the total conversion of the Intuitive ERP product to pure Microsoft .NET managed code technology,” said Gillam. “Our momentum going into 2006 is incredibly strong.”