IBS Signs Contracts with Three Caterpillar Dealers

April 20, 2010 Alex Woodie

International Business Systems (IBS), the Swedish developer of ERP software that runs on IBM Power Systems and X64 platforms, last week announced it has signed deals with three Caterpillar dealers in Latin America.

IBS announced three dealers have selected its IBS Distribution Financials, including TRACSA, which serves Mexico from 15 locations; MATRA, which serves Costa Rica from seven locations; and NIMAC, which serves Nicaragua from its central location. Each of the dealerships provides a range of Caterpillar equipment for use in construction, mining, agriculture, forestry, and road building and maintenance.

IBS employees from the U.S., Mexico, and Columbia assisted the ERP implementation for TRASCA last year. It took about six months to get the system running on a new Power Systems server, which replaced a “legacy” system and went live in November.

Miguel Romero Arellano, TRACSA’s chief information officer, explained the decision to adopt IBS to replace a “legacy” dealer management system that had been custom developed to serve the Caterpillar network, but which was no longer supported.

“We considered several solutions, but IBS Distribution Financials was more adapted to our business requirements out-of-the-box than other options,” Arellano says in a press release. “Because it was industry-specific and included IBS Integrator, we enjoyed a very fast implementation into our existing systems and databases.”

While IBS still has demand for i/OS and Power Systems software, as is evidenced by TRACSA’s installation, the company is gradually moving to support its software on other platforms. In July 2009, the company announced the availability of IBS Enterprise for Windows, a Java-based version of the RPG-based ERP suite that had previously only run on the i/OS platform. The vendor is also moving to offer its software via the software as a service (SaaS) business model.

It was unknown what versions of the IBS software MATRA and NIMAC are running. IBS did not respond to a request for additional information before this newsletter went to press.