ITWALES.COM - Profile: CGram Software

Posted: Mon, June 20, 2005

Profile: CGram Software

by Sali Earls

CGram is an innovative Swansea based Business software company operating at the leading edge of Linux business technology. A pioneer in Linux business software development since the late 1990s, CGram's solutions enable customers to run all of their business functions via one powerful and integrated system.

Sali Earls spoke to founder and Managing Director, Dr Emrys Jones, and the company's Head of Commercial Development, Paul Davies to find out more about CGram Software, it's products and plans.

What's the history of your company?
CGram started in 1982, developing software specifically for the manufacturing industry. It was an exciting time, as many businesses were automating what they did for the first time, and we built up an impressive client list including companies such as Abbey National, St Ivel and Ikeda Hoover.

In 1998, we saw a definite need for a business management system specifically designed for SMEs, so we began a process of re-developing our suite of products. Our change in direction re-positioned us in the marketplace as a software solutions provider able to offer flexible and affordable products to meet the business management needs of almost any sized company.

What unique products/services does your company provide?
Enterprise or Business Management systems, such as ours, allow companies to manage critical aspects of their business and operations such as production planning, purchasing, inventory, accounts and sales/order tracking. We had good experience in the larger business sector and felt that this was something our future and (perhaps smaller) customers would benefit from, but there were few solutions on the market specifically for SMEs, so around 5 years ago we began developing a new suite of solutions on the Linux platform. Some of our product and marketing development was assisted by funding provided by the WDA and the first new system went live around 4 years ago.

Fortunately there are a few things that help us really stand out in what has become a very busy marketplace, which is now led in the UK by people like Sage and SAP.

Firstly, our Enterprise suite includes facilities to assist all facets of a business, from CRM to supply chain management, and allows companies to use just one or as few software systems as possible as they run their operations. This cuts down on cost, confusion and time. Secondly, our systems are simply more affordable than many of our major competitors, and this has been made possible by our decision to deploy on Linux.

Linux is growing faster than any other operating system in the world, and recent reports have indicated that more than one in seven ERP servers will run Linux by 2007. It offers us cost and technical advantages and we are happy to pass these on to our customers. our products are developed to work on a Linux server, users see no difference at the business end - they can access the server via our browser which works on Linux, Windows and even Mac desktops.

What's been the key to your success?
At CGram we believe that businesses should be able to afford and use software that meets their needs. Key to this belief is that effective systems need to be flexible systems - and as result, we deliver systems that can change and grow inexpensively with our customers needs.

We also have a great team of people who are able to offer our customers the experience of having worked for some of the world's leading academic, hardware and software organisations, including IBM, Nortel, Silicon Graphics and Cray Supercomputing. Our hands on approach means that we work with our customers to get the best out of their software and that their software fits exactly what they want to do.

What one piece of outside technology has benefited your company most?
The answer to this has to be the increase in popularity of the Linux operating system. Many small companies are realizing that that there are alternatives to the traditional way of doing things and there's a real buzz and air of excitement around at the moment, and this looks set to continue as the major players like IBM, Sun and Novell continue to invest heavily in growing the Linux movement.

What one piece of advice would you give to start-up companies in your field?
Every company is different and every company needs different advice but the one thing we'd probably say is get to know your customers as well as you can. You can have great products but if you don't really know who you're selling to, you'll struggle. Products are important but so is effective marketing - persevere.

Where do you see your company going in the future?
We are pretty positive about where we're going. During the last year we've more than doubled our customer base, recruited over a hundred re-sellers in the UK and are planning to move into North America and Canada. We're a Welsh company proving than it is possible to compete, we're launching new products and building our team.

It's not easy, but it is rewarding!

Find out more about CGram Software at www.cgram.com.

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