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Simplicity from Sweden’s Best Kept Secret

Nov, 7th 2008

ComActivity challenge traditional ERP systems by being more open, more flexible and more user-friendly.

Dropping out of high school might not be the best move towards entrepreneurship but for Peter Björkman it has worked out very well. 32 years ago he left high school in Luleå, Sweden, to work and develop procurement and receiving routines for Stålverk 80, a large government steel project.

The work for Stålverk 80 did not continue any further but it became the starting point for the development of the ERP system called Movex. Peter Björkman was production manager for Movex until around 1999.

His experience from the years as a product managers for Movex turned out to be a advantage in 2001 when he launched the new ERP system company, ComActivity, together with Håkan Wahlberg.

There are a number of things that make ComActivity different from the more well known names in the ERP sector but the most significant feature is to make everything as simple as possible says Peter Björkman, who today works with business and product development for ComActivity.

“When I started working in this branch I could discuss with the customers what they required, deliver the solutions and educate the staff on my own. Today everything is so much more complex dealing with business system. I believe we need to get back to the simplicity we use to have” he says.

To get back into a simple way of doing things is a “mantra” within ComActivity and the key to doing so is to use new technology like SOA, web 2.0, model based development and open standards. So under the bonnet there is a modern and advanced software technology that enables more effective and more flexible systems.

Peter Björkman believes the traditional ERP systems are monolithic systems with complicated codebases which make it hard to develop solutions that are suited to the specific requirements of a specific company. You cannot pick a single improvement you want from an upgrade and forget about the rest. It’s all or nothing. ComActivity decided that a different approach was required.

“Our method is that new solutions can be implemented step-by-step in relatively limited projects that deliver value for the business immediately”, Peter says.

With this approach, companies can pick the exact function required to improve. You don’t need to throw out your existing system to use ComActivity, it works together with older systems. It’s possible to move selected functions with ComActivity and leave the rest to run as usual in the old system.

Another important improvement is the implementation of workflow; which doesn’t exist in most old systems. ComActivity’s ability to visualize everything that is possible together with the workflow functions makes a big different according to Peter Björkman.

“Someone asked if the “only” thing we do is to optimize the user interface and streamline business processes. I had to ask him if that was so ‘only’ ” he says. “Speed and simplicity is the basis for effectiveness. It’s the lack of efficiencies in old systems that have created the demand and our ability to deliver improved efficiency is the reason why our customers invest in us.”

The more traditional vendors still argue that they are also working on making it easier for the users. But Peter Björkman says they are stuck in old architecture and therefore cannot use the latest in technology to deliver the most efficient processes for their customers.

“We are the first company in 15 years that has an ambition to offer more effective solutions for manufacturing and distribution companies core business processes. Our goal is to help our customers to be faster, more effective, more flexible and therefore more profitable”