55
RENTAL IT
IRN SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2013
The right vocabulary
A reseller
Ardent Solutions in the UK is one of Annata’s
resellers. Based in Birmingham and founded in
1996 it became a Microsoft partner in 2004, and
then one of Microsoft’s AX partners in 2009.
The company is now focuses on implementing
Annata’s version of the Microsoft AX solution
for the equipment industry, targeting the
automotive, construction equipment and
agricultural equipment sectors,
Roger Fleury, a director at Ardent, says the
Annata solution has 40-50000 users worldwide,
but had been under-represented in the UK;
“which is why we started focusing on it.”
He says the type of system marketed by Annata
– one developed for a particular vertical, in this
case equipment distribution and rental – is part
of a wider trend towards vertical ERP solutions,
exploiting the massive investments made by
Microsoft into the Dynamics AX platform, but
tailoring it to specific industries.
Annata is an Icelandic company marketing globally
a version of Microsoft Dynamcs AX targeted at
companies in the equipment distribution and rental
sectors.
IRN
spoke to director Birgir Ragnarsson.
The company is also now targeting customers
in major western European markets – the Speedy
contract being a good example.
Annata retains its Icelandic flavour by locating
its development centre there, but now also has
implementation offices in Sweden, the UK and
Denmark, plus a regional office in Malaysia.
The implementation offices support its resellers, of
whom there are now around 30-35 worldwide. One of
these is Ardent Solutions in Birmingham, UK, which is
involved in implementing the Speedy solution.
Annata aims to grow, with the next priority a
regional office in North America, where there are
currently three resellers. He says the US office could
be up and running within a year, and acknowledges
that North America will be a challenge.
Again, the target will be mid to large sized
companies; “We‘re not targeting mom and pops“, he
says, “We do have some small clients, but we would
not recommend Dynamics AX as a platform for small
companies.“
“We focus on equipment and automotive, including
rental“, says Mr Ragnarsson, “So we know the
processes, we know the vocabulary.“
IRN
L
ike many, Annata is a software company
that has moved into rental as a response to
changes in the market.
With its roots in Iceland and operating as a certified
Microsoft Dynamics AX partner, the company has
traditionally been strong in Iceland and Nordic
markets for automotive and distribution software.
However Birgir Ragnarsson, one of the company‘s
three senior directors – alongside CEO Johann
Jonsson and fellow director Björn Gunnar Karlsson
– tells
IRN
that the focus on rental was given a
push following the financial crash when some of its
customers started to expand rental activities as their
traditional sales business shrank.
That, and the need to expand beyond its domestic
market, led the company to establish itself worldwide,
offering an ERP system tailored to mid- and large-
sized companies engaged in the entire supply
chain for product distribition, spanning importing,
sales/distribution, servicing and rental.
Around 40% of its business is in the automotive
sector – a Dollar Thrifty franchise in Iceland was an
early rental customer – with a similar proportion in
the distribution and rental of construction machinery.
Big name customers
Its customers now include Volvo Construction
Equipment in Europe – some of its independent and
company owned dealers are using the system - and
Speedy Hire in the UK. The latter shows that Annata‘s
solution is finding customers who are pure rental
players and not just distributors with an element of
rental in their business.
Mr Ragnarsson, based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
and with responsibility for Annata‘s business in Asia
Pacific, says that the breadth of applications of its
Annata Dynamics IDMS system is one of the reasons
for its international growth; “Rental is only one part
of what we can do – import, dealership, service
companies, rental fleets.
“Sometimes individual companies focus on
one part of the value chain, or it‘s a dealer with a
workshop, or you have companies doing the whole
thing. We have functionality for all processes, not
just one part.
“That model [integrated supply chain] is one you
see in some markets, like Scandinavia. We found
that it wasn‘t just Scandinavia using that vertical
integration, but also South America and Asia Pacific.
It is a common model in some smaller markets.“
Some Volvo Construction Equipment
dealers in Europe are using Annata’s
Dynamics IDMS ERP system.
The rental solution within Annata‘s software includes an
analytics package.
