iCore iNews - december 2007

As Christmas bells will soon be ringing and year 2007 is getting tired, it is time to summarize!

The economy is still booming and there are many projects to conclude before the end of the year.

During the past year, we have tried to follow our own advice. Thus, we have focused on improving, integrating and automating our internal processes. For example, we have implemented new support systems for workflows, customer support, time reports, project management and sales/customer relationship management. Recently, we changed tools for the administration of our web site and intranet/extranet. For more information, see under News. We have also changed offices in Stockholm. The house-warming party was held in connection with our release party in September.

When we close the books for 2007, the growth figures for this year (as turnover) should land somewhere around 20%. The total number of customers has grown even more. The prospects of further growth in 2008 are far more promising than they were when we entered 2007. This is exciting to experience when you are an actor on a market that is still immature and in constant growth.

The iCore system is now physically installed in around 20 countries - all over the world. There are some hundred larger installations with solutions of a more business critical character. Beside the strategic installations, there are hundreds of minor installations of a less critical character. We appreciate that iCore is being used by our customers to integrate business partners, branches, affiliates and subsidiaries in almost a hundred different countries today.

One big and pleasant reason for our growth is our new partner channel. During the past year we have extended the cooperation with a number of existing partners and we have also started new and exciting partnerships. We have often been very successful when we cooperate with companies that are "choosy" in their choice of integration tool.

We have seen that our offer is well suited to the following two categories:

Skilled and practiced system integrators who look for a progressive tool to be able to solve qualitative and time effective integration projects, complete integration solutions or complementary solutions (intelligent adapters for ERP-systems and/or for EDI).
Product (application) developing companies that wish to cooperate in order to facilitate the integration with other applications or to develop their business communication.

Many of our new partnerships are described further on in this news letter.

For integration matters, SOA is still the buzzword. Analyzers in the US and the big IT companies are pushing hard. The magazine Computer Sweden, has run articles about the problems to find synergies between the business, the processes and IT matters. Generally, the IT department is the main obstacle. SOA, of course, sounds like the fantastic solution, with promises of a simpler and better IT architecture, systems that can talk to one another, recycled solutions and a more "industrial2 IT usage. Many are those who preach and run projects with SOA solutions, but there are still very few companies that have done anything IRL (In Real Life). Most projects are still in the pilot or lab stage. For iCore Solutions, SOA is more of a natural development of traditional integration. We follow the "hype" and work actively with the service approach. One of our specialties is to create simple service interfaces towards different types of business systems, for example ERP-systems, via adapters. A positive response to our efforts is that many big actors have wanted to cooperate with us. We have, for example, been appointed certified Oracle partner during the autumn.

Here are some reading tips that may be useful when Santa has left or if you just wish to improve your SOA knowledge. We also recommend some books that are easy to order on the Internet, for example at Amazon,

”What makes SOA different”
Link to eBizq

“SOA for Dummies. Here you can download chapter 1 for free and also buy the good book”
Link to Hurwitz

“SOA for the Business Developer: Concepts, BPEL, and SCA” (Business Developers series) (Paperback). Good book that may be ordered from Amazon.
Link to Amazon

This is a good portal if you wish to improve your SOA knowledge:
Link to eBizq

Certification training - iCore Integration Suite

All in all we have performed five general and a couple of company unique training sessions during 2007. In summary, it has been a very good year with many new certified developers and administrators - end customers as well as partners.

The first certification training in 2008 is planned to take place in Stockholm week 5, 28/1 - 1/2.

Click on the following link to register. If you have any questions about the training,
please do not hesitate to contact us at iCore. You find the contact data at the bottom of this newsletter.

Registration - certification training.

iCore Solutions becomes Oracle Partner

During the autumn, iCore has been appointed and approved as an Oracle Partner. The cooperation is based on the iCore Adapter technology and its capacity to accomplish integrations in a clear, simple and, above all, efficient way. In this case, it is done interactively with Oracle Fusion/Oracle SOA Suite. The cooperation has already resulted in actual business deals.

Flexeurope and iCore establish a strategic cooperation

Flexeurope AB owns, develops, markets and implements Flexite - a complete platform for process automation and document administration. Flexite allows companies to automate their decision-making processes. The Flexite platform has been on the market since 1998 and today it has over a 90.000 licensed users within, for example, municipalities, county councils, service companies and industry.

Through the partnership, Flexite will be able to offer iCore's efficient solutions for intelligent business integration together with the Flexite solutions. Correspondingly, iCore users will be able to take advantage of the cooperation through an iCore Adapter for Flexite.

The Empire automates the business processes

The Empire AB is a fast growing business group that creates, acquires and develops brand names within home and household products for the consumers and commercial markets. The company is divided into three business areas - drinking machines, household products and hair care products. All from well known trademarks as Kenwood - LaPavoni - SodaStream - Babyliss - Meyer - Cuisinart - Saeco - Daalderop - C3 Coffee Center - c3.
The vision is to become market leading supplier of home and household products in the Nordic countries. This will be accomplished by offering the strongest trademarks, best knowledge and excellent service. The Empire is fully represented in Sweden, Norway and Finland and exports products to another five countries.

The Soda Club has recently initiated automated business processes with COOP, ELON and ElGiganten. Now, a whole line of customers are waiting to get connected in order to streamline the business relation. Also the subsidiary Gerby is waiting to integrate its customers.

Strategic cooperation between iCore and Condesign!

The technical consultancy Condesign and iCore has started cooperating. The strategy of Condesign is to cooperate with professional IT companies that can give added value to the services offered by the company. Condesign has decided to cooperate with iCore within the business integration area. The company is now a certified iCore integration partner and possesses the know-how to deliver iCore technology together with Condesign customer solutions.

Among Condesign customers, you find: Volvo Cars, Volvo AB, Saab, BAE Systems, ESAB, Husqvarna, IKEA, SKF, Flexlink and ABB.

Bonnier extends the iCore usage

During the autumn, Bonnier has continued the integration process to further streamline the administration. There have been many minor projects rolling during the last months. Simultaneously, the Bonnier company's BOLD project, concerning EDI towards the supplier Holmen pappersbruk (paper-mill), has continued without interruption. This is an integration project between a prodcut system and an ERP- system.

During the spring, a number of supplier invoice projects will be carried out. The target is to make the buisness processes more efficient and lower the costs of the in-house administration.

D.A.C.S.A sells an iCore solution to the US!

For some years, the iCore partner Dacsa has worked with iCore products for the end customer Dustin. Dacsa is a Swedish product company that develops and markets a business system for distributors and retailers within all business areas. The system effectively supports all core processes; ordering, purchasing, invoicing, inventory and logistics. Dacsa also markets a complete e-business platform. The product is developed to optimize supply flows and to minimize store-keeping through efficient purchasing and supply processes combined with real-time inventory follow-up and full traceability of individual items. Dacsa was established in 1994 and is active on the Swedish and US markets.

During the summer, Dacsa carried out a proof-of-concept with XIT, a company computer accessory company in the US. After a successful pilot, the customer approved the solution and the installation was completed in the early autumn.

Strategic partnership between Stamford and iCore Solutions

During the autumn, the product developing company Stamford in Karlstad and iCore Solutions have initiated a strategic partnership. Stamford develops and delivers, among other things, Market Hero - the market leading business system for real-estate companies and accounting agencies. Stamford has chosen to use iCore for EDI and business communication. The first common end-customer is HSB (real-estate company) in Östergötland.

Extended cooperation with Omnilog - unique packaging for subcontractors

During the year, iCore and Omnilog have completed the vertical package Omnilog Subcontractor, for actors primarily within the automotive business. On the market today, this event-driven and flexible package in combination with Jeeves is unique. It is a complete business system with unequalled automation and flexibility with EDI-handling for the customer as well as the supplier.

The system was exhibited on the Elmia subcontractor fair in November in Jönköping and got a very positive response from potential customers.

Optidev and iCore in cooperation

The specialist company Optidev offers modular mobile solutions for data capture and communication with central systems in real-time. Optidev is focused on companies in the transport and logistics business, manufacturing and retail. Projects within these business areas often require integration with back-end systems and to manage this, Optidev now uses time effective tools from iCore. The first major project at an end-customer's was implemented this autumn.

iCore establishes a partnership with PSA Solutions!

iCore and the Flexite partner PSA Solutions creates added values to the end-customers through a portfolio of partners and systems. PSA delivers solutions, either as simple, fixed solutions or as customer-unique comprehensive solutions adapted to specific demands. PSA provides soultions to all types of companies irrespective of size and line of business.

By systematic and structured procedures that reveal lead-times, bottle necks and areas for improvement, PSA rationalizes automated, established and result-oriented processes, including IT-processes. The target is to improve the output and competitiveness of the customer.

Again, we have chosen to support Rädda Barnen!

As usual, we do not send any Christmas cards or Christmas presents. For several years now we have chosen to donate the money to something important instead. Rädda Barnen is an organization the works for the benefit of children in need all over the world - this we wish to support.

Send e-postcard

New iCore Integration Suite version

The new version is called iCore Integration Suite/iCore Process Server version 2.62 and is available for distribution. Those of you who have access to our download area are welcome to fetch it whenever you want - application as well as documentation. Partners and end-customers with a valid service agreement are welcome to contact us in order to get the new version.

More about the new version: click here!

A selection of new and extended iCore Integration Suite customers

A sample of new customers in Sweden:
Lindorff, Egmont, Direkt Chark, Elkraftbyggarna, Levi Pettersson, OnOff, and HSB Östergötland

A sample of new customers/licenses abroad:
XIT USA, Johnson Controls Belgium, Thomas Beton Germany and Inpac Norway.

The Empire, Fåddman, ELON, MEDA, Bonnier, Bergsala, Cardo and Hagmans Kemi are examples of existing customers who have extended their use of iCore iCore lately.

We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!