If you’re going to cap off your 40th Anniversary in business in style…you might as well end the celebration on a high note. That’s exactly what the crew at B&L Information Systems of Bridgman did at the annual Partner Conference with Progress Software last month in Orlando, Florida.
B&L Information Systems is the global leader in ERP software for metalcasters, and they put a wrap on their 40th Anniversary year by taking home Progress Software’s 2016 SaaS Excellence Award. That’s an award that goes to just one of the more than 2,500 Progress Global Business partners that demonstrate technology-forward, cloud-based and industry leading software solutions.
With 2016 being the Bridgman tech firm’s 40th year in business, they set the gold standard in providing ERP systems to the metalcasting industry. Also in 2016, B&L announced the general availability of the Odyssey ERP in a completely new Web UI (User Interface) available in the Cloud. It was ten years ago, in 2007, that B&L made the decision to switch to a Cloud-based, subscription model of software deployment; a model often called Software as a Service (SaaS).
In an internal statement, Philip Laney, CEO and President of B&L Information Systems, said, in part: “This award is a testament to B&L employees who have demonstrated their ability to embrace change and find a way to excel while others maintain the status quo. We completely transformed this company from an on-premise, traditional software model to a Cloud-based, subscription model, a.k.a. Software as a Service or SaaS. This journey began around 2007 and wasn’t without its challenges.”
Laney says that every department contributed to the company-wide business change, noting, “The Research & Development team developed a new, browser-based user interface; the Technology group built B&L’s Cloud data center whose reliability is superior to the likes of Amazon and Microsoft; the Support team created a self-help system which enables new Cloud users to learn, implement and succeed; the Administration group adopted new business processes for tracking, billing and collecting customer payments; and the Business Development group led the way by learning about SaaS and then educating our base markets to this new world of Cloud computing with its benefits and cost effectiveness.”
Laney tells his team, “Most people think that Charles Darwin said ‘the strong survive’. Actually, he said ’It’s not the strong of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.’ The team at B&L has responded to the challenge of the Cloud; and the results speak for themselves, with increasing adoption from our base markets and recognition among some of the leading tech companies in the field.”
This is B&L Information Systems’ second SaaS Excellence Award from Progress Software, inasmuch as they also won four years ago in 2013.
B&L Information Systems is a global leader in providing integrated enterprise resource planning (ERP) for metalcasters. Since 1976, B&L has used their deep understanding of the specific challenges and problems of foundries and die casters to create an ERP solution which matches the way metalcasters operate, making it easier to learn and use. B&L leaders say that with Odyssey, metalcasters will maximize their resources, minimize costs, and make better decisions faster.
