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Business process integration solutions result in operating advantage

by Kathy Hagood
Brevard Technical Journal

Glyn Davies, American Presence Chairman and CEO (left) and Dale Phillips, Director of Channel Sales. Photo by Craig Bailey, © 2004.

American Presence Inc., a business-process-integration software development and support company located in Melbourne, is a subsidiary of International Presence PLC.

The holding company also has an operating company based in the outskirts of London in Kingston-upon-Thames, European Presence Ltd.

The two companies employ 22 employees, seven of whom work out of the Melbourne office. The key product of the company is a software product called Presence. The software allows a business to access and integrate all of its data so that all business activity can be monitored and managed real time. Report generation and other functions are easily automated.

"Rather than being limited to responding to problems after they happen, a business using Presence is able to anticipate problems and solve them before they happen," said said Glyn Davies, chairman and chief operating officer of International Presence.

The product can be applied to a small business with one location or to a huge corporation with branches across the globe.

 

Glyn Davies, Presence Chairman and CEO discusses software installation specifications with Lauris Cady, Office Manager at American Presence in Melbourne. Photo by Craig Bailey, © 2004.

The Presence interface features a flow chart that can be built and modified through simple drag and drop actions.

"Most companies use software programs that often don't work with each other. Presence brings everything together," Davies said.

Davies lives in England, but also owns a home on the Space Coast. He periodically travels here to attend to the Melbourne operating company.

He opened the Melbourne and Kingston-upon-Thames offices simultaneously in 1999 because he believed Presence would appeal to both European and American markets. The software has been adopted somewhat more quickly in this country than in Europe or his other target, the Pacific Rim.

About 60 percent of the company's customers are U.S. companies.

After a lengthy development process, Presence was first installed in January 2002. Since then, companies like Newport Corp. and Banco de America Central have signed on.

Installations have quadrupled in the last 18 months, according to the company.

"Presence is beginning to catch on, but we've got a long way to go in my personal view. The technology can be applied to any business," he said.

While the technology faced some resistance when it was first introduced, market leaders like Wal-Mart have perked up interest in Presence by adopting comprehensive business process integration solutions. Wal-Mart has achieved a 22 percent operating advantage because of its data integration. Now other businesses are following its lead, Davies said.

Through using Presence companies are better able to access data, automate communication processes, reduce manual processes, and improve customer relations. While other business integration software solutions are on the market, Presence stands out because it offers one simple solution vs. multiple solution modules, Davies said.

Another difference is that customers can pilot the software in one business area through a subscription service, enabling them to show the return on investment (ROI) before fully adopting the product.

"Rather than buying a license for $20,000 with a 18 percent service contract, they can use the software on a limited basis for as little as $300 a month," Davies said.

The company is offering the subscription option because Davies and other company leaders know that once an organization tries Presence, they are going to want to use it for more and more applications. It quickly provides an ROI.

 

Rolland McDonald, Senior Technical Analyst, assists a customer with a problem at American Presence in Melbourne. Photo by Craig Rubadoux, © 2004.

Because some companies have gotten burned by purchasing costly software before it was proven, the subscription option eases their fears.

"Companies are being more careful about major purchases these days," Davies said.

Davies, who began his career as a computer programmer, also founded cma-ettworth, a communications software company. He created a partnership with IBM in 1988 to distribute Tele/Fax/400, computer fax software that allowed companies to mass fax items including invoices. About 6,000 licenses for the software have been sold worldwide.

After Davies opened a cma-ettworth office in Orlando in 1992, he soon was attracted to Brevard County and moved the office.

"Orlando is a lonely place for a Brit because everyone assumes you're a tourist. It's a different environment over here," he said.

Davies was also impressed by such Brevard resources as Florida Institute of Technology and its yearly crop of top-notch graduates.

After Davies sold cma-ettworth in 1997, he thought he'd never own another software company. But during the year he served as a business consultant to the new owners he was intro-duced to the concept of "zero latency"in business processes. IBM later called it "on demand."

Davies realized that companies needed a way to better integrate their computer systems, software and databases to allow for real time business activity monitoring. He soon formed a new company to create software to address the issue.

"Data integration is essential for staying competitive in today's business world," Davies said.

For more information on International Presence, visit www.international-presence.com