Midrange Stuff, OS/400 Edition

With the acquisition of Oasis 400 Software, which was announced last week, SoftLanding Systems has effectively opened a European branch office, a move that indicates that the Peterborough, New Hampshire, company is serious about expanding its international business.

Oasis, which has been a SoftLanding reseller in the United Kingdom and several other European countries for the past nine years, has a reputation for providing software management solutions for companies that are involved with multiplatform development projects. It has been the most successful reseller of SoftLanding products in the European market. Oasis also sells other products, many of which SoftLanding sells as well, such as those from Tango/04, PowerTech Group, Original Software, Merant, and Business Computer Design Int'l. Oasis, which becomes SoftLanding Europe, will continue to sell those products, continue custom development work, and provide training.

Through the purchase of Oasis, SoftLanding has increased its customer base as it gained access to companies that worked with Oasis on product purchases outside the SoftLanding offerings. Oasis has a significant BCD customer base, says Paul Schlieben, president and CEO of SoftLanding. A change management product that incorporates the BCD WebSmart environment is expected in the first quarter of 2003.

SoftLanding has been developing change management products--tools designed to manage the process of developing and maintaining iSeries and AS/400 applications--since 1989. In recent years its software management products and strategic alliances have been developed with an eye toward multiplatform projects.

"They [Oasis personnel] are very strong technically and in the area reselling products," Schlieben says. "They have a high degree of skill in software management and really good experience in the field, with face-to-face customer contact. We expect to expand the SoftLanding set of services [worldwide] related to managing software as a result of acquiring Oasis."

Oasis also has experience developing PC applications and applications on other platforms. It produced CRM and automated sales force applications, which were sold and then custom developed for several customers in the U.K. Oasis has ongoing relationships with these customers. Schlieben sees these skills as being useful because the scope of Oasis' past development projects goes outside SoftLanding's existing environment. That experience is expected to add diversity to future SoftLanding product development and customer service.

"Having a presence in Europe and having a company called SoftLanding Europe, which is more than a desk--it has 12 very experienced and highly skilled people--will bring increased credibility to our company," Schlieben says. "The geographic issue is important. Their presence in Europe provides us with a lot more flexibility in terms of supporting people."

One of the more immediate effects, Schlieben says, would be a positive effect on sales and building a stronger sales pipeline. He estimates that 15 percent of SoftLanding's business was generated in Europe in 2002, and if that could be increased to 25 percent or more, the acquisition would be well worth it.