Pronto Software Launches ERP, BI Platform

The platform integrates features targeting international markets and customers servicing international markets.

Business management software developer Pronto Software has introduced the new Pronto-Xi Dimensions, a product that brings together enterprise resource planning (ERP) transactions and businesses intelligence (BI) analytics in a unified, out-of-the-box solution aimed at small to medium-size businesses.

Embedding the IBM Cognos BI suite, Pronto-Xi Dimensions is designed to enable midmarket businesses to manage large volumes of data and access real-time analytics to understand business drivers and influence business outcomes. The platform also integrates new features specifically targeting international markets and customers servicing international markets, including a new Multi-tier tax engine designed to meet the compliance needs of globally diverse tax regimes.

"When planning for this release more than 18 months ago, we envisioned a product that's not just a logical extension of the success we've built so far, but a game-changing solution that will make our ERP engine smarter and create greater access to knowledge, to enable customers to innovate and differentiate," said Pronto Software Managing Director David Jackman. "Pronto-Xi Dimensions offers unparalleled ease of use, with personalization capabilities to help our customers be agile and gain end-to-end business process excellence. This in turn reduces costs and returns the business a healthier profit."

Other features include multifactory costing to optimize manufacturing in multiple locations and countries; multicurrency point of sale (POS) for retailers located in areas frequented by international travelers and tourists, including Duty Free and Airport Specialty Retail stores, to conduct sales using currencies from varying countries; a shipment processing feature to track real-time, consolidated shipments from local and international suppliers; and a French language pack to service the French, African and Canadian markets.

"Pronto-Xi Dimensions, through its integration with IBM Cognos 10, will revolutionize the way you think about information. Pronto Software has brought a previously unthought-of presentation of Business Intelligence to the midmarket," said Patrick Reiser, CEO of Business Computer Technologies. "By exposing the information layers of the Pronto-Xi Dimensions database, through IBM Cognos 10, users now have the freedom to utilize information to effect real business results."

In late 2009, Pronto Software researched the markets for BI solutions that were user-friendly, scalable and had the ability to cope with the complexities of large underlying data structures and present the data in an intuitive and simplified format for easy reporting.

"We undertook an assessment of the best BI products in the world," explained Jackman. "We selected IBM Cognos BI as our platform as it was the only one that met and exceeded our requirements in terms of both our business and the needs of our customers going forward. Up until now, the midmarket has been underserved as BI has been perceived by many of our clients as a little out of reach and the deployment for end users challenging. Through this innovative integration with IBM Cognos 10, we will be able to differentiate our solution in the midmarket and deliver out-of-the-box BI to our customers worldwide in one hit."