An Introduction to Baan ERP

8/10/2019 An Introduction to Baan ERP

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The Baan Corporation was created by Jan Baanin 1978 inBarneveld,Netherlands, to providefinancial and administrative consulting services !ith the development of his first softwarepac"age, #an Baan and his brother $aul Baan entered what was to become the %&$ industry TheBaan company focused on the creation of enterprise resource planning '%&$( software

#an Baan developed his first computer program on )urango *+8computers in B-./C language/n the early 08s, Baan Company began to develop application on 2ni3 computers with C andself+developed Baan+C language, whose synta3 was very similar to B-./C language415Baan gained its popularity in the early nineties Baan software is famous for its )ynamic%nterprise 6odeler')%6(, technical architecture and its language Baan and Toolsnowadays is still considered to be one of the most efficient and productive database applicationdevelopment platforms Baan became a real threat to mar"et leader .-$after winning a largeBoeingdeal in 199 /t went /$: in 199 and became a public listed company in -msterdam and2. Nasda; .everal large consulting firms throughout the world partnered to implement Baan /owever the fall of the Baan Company began in 1998 The management e3aggerated companyrevenue by boo"ing ?sales? of software licenses that were actually transferred to a relateddistributor The discovery of this ?creative? revenue manipulation led to a sharp decline of Baan0sstoc" price at the end of 19984@5

/n #une @, facing worsening financial difficulties, law suits and reporting seven consecutive;uarterly losses and blea" prospects, Baan was sold at a price of 2.A7 million to /nvensys,45a2 automation, controls, and process solutions group to become a unit of its .oftware and.ervices )ivision aurens van der Tang was the president of this unit !ith the ac;uisition of

Baan, /nvensys0s C%: -llen Dur"o began to offer ?.ensor to Boardroom? solutions to customers

/n #une @, after -llen Dur"o stepped down, /nvensys sold its Baan unit to ..- lobalTechnologiesfor 2.A1 million

2pon ac;uiring the Baan software, ..- renamed Baan as ..- %&$ n /n -ugust @, ..-lobal released a new version of Baan, named ..- %&$ N E1 /n 6ay @E, ..- wasac;uired by /nfor lobal .olutions of -tlanta, which was a maFor %&$ consolidator in themar"et

Today Baan %&$ software is still used by thousands of companies in the world, the maFority on

version Baan/


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Baan 'last version of Baan/< is Baan/$+2J, -.':bsolete(, :.9 ':bsolete(

Database:

:racle, )B@, /nformi3, 6. .K .erver, 6y.K 'version E1 only(, Bisam ':bsolete(

Standard Modules

Baan IV modules:

Common 'tc(, *inance 'tf(, $roFect 'tp(,6anufacturing 'ti(,)istribution 'td(,$rocess'ps(,Transportation 'tr(,.ervice 'ts(,%nterprise 6odeler 'tg(,Constraint $lanning 'cp(,Tools'tt(,2tilities 'tu(

ERP n !"# modules:

%nterprise 6odeler 'tg(, Common,Ta3ation 'tc(,$eople'bp(, *inancials 'tf(,$roFect 'tp(,%nterprise$lanning 'cp(,:rder 6anagement 'td(, %lectronic Commerce 'ec(,Central /nvoicing'ci(,6anufacturing 'ti(,!arehouse 6anagement 'wh(,*reight 6anagement 'fm(, .ervice 'ts(,Kuality 6anagement ';m(, :bFect )ata 6anagement 'dm(, Tools 'tt(

Baan Virtual Mac$ine % bs$ell


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Bshell is the core component of Baan application server /t is a process virtual machine to runBaan language Bshell were ported to different server platforms and ma"e Baan programscripts platform indepedent *or e3ample, a Baan session developed on !indows platform canbe copied to inu3 platform without re+compiling the application code Bshell is similar tonowaday0s #ava


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The Fall of Baan

&o' ineffective manaement and bad luc brou$t do'n

t$e Dutc$ soft'are superstar


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Barneveld is an out-of-the-way stop, a Dutch country town of 48,000

known for its chicken farms, egg auctions, and the brothers Baan.

t!s here that "an and #aul Baan created their own rare bird$

software maker Baan %o., one of the great success stories of the

&''0s. Baan, a maker of software for running corporations! internal

operations, was among the (rst )uropean tech companies to bebacked by *.+. venture capital. t oered hope that ld orld

companies could operate as nimbly--and soar as high--as their

+ilicon /alley brethren. +ure enough, sales setupled between

&''4 and &''1, and the Baan brothers, both members of the

conservative Dutch 2eformed %hurch, 3ew in their et between

Barneveld, +ilicon /alley, and a host of charities they sponsored

around the world. "an boasted to reporters that it was easier to

make money than to give it


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5hat wasn!t true for long. #ummeled by 6uestions about its (nances,

blindsided by an industry downturn, and undermined by poor

management, Baan!s stock collapsed in &''8, and the company

limped along without much hope of recovery. 5he Baan brothers

departed two years ago and pocketed most of their pro(ts before

the (nal cave-in. 7ot so many of Baan!s investors$ 5hose whobought shares at the peak in early &''8 have suered a '9

tumble, representing more than :&0 billion in value. n class

actions, thousands of shareholders in the *.+. allege the Baan

brothers and other company o;cials bene(ted from inside

information to dump shares before the bad news spread.

5he end of this saga came on 00 employees, for a mere :100 million.


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ownership structure, plow it into good works, such as building

orphanages in ndonesia. n the end, the brothers couldn!t have it

both ways. 5heir enterprise could not be both commercial and

religious, public and secretive.

or those who had faith in Baan, its demise takes a psychologicaltoll. !!y emotional reactionA Disappointment. thought things

would have turned out better,!! says illiam . Crabe, a partner in

venture-capital (rm Ceneral


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manufacturing processes, and Baan was a (nalist facing +


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arrived as the enterprise market was eploding. 5he industry was

growing 409 a year. 5here was plenty of opportunity for Baan,

which was enoying G09 to '09 growth. !!)veryone was going

gangbusters,!! recalls Bob illiams, who headed the Baan team at

7oblestar, consultants in ashington, D.%.

or Baan, the key was gaining market share. nce customers

bought the (rst round of its software, Baan was betting they would

sign up for more programs, since swapping out computer systems

could be costly and complicated. +o Baan focused almost entirely

on landing new accounts--and skimped on customer service. !!

don!t think we were ever told directly to f--- the customer, but that

was the message,!! says one former account manager at Baan.

+@##7C +#2)).


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Baan!s numbers couldn!t withstand the internal con3icts. *nder

etreme pressure to keep revenues growing fast, the company

transferred :4> million worth of licenses to the Baan private

distribution company and booked them as sales to outside

companies. n


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though, it wasn!t voluntary.


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crucial +ilicon /alley lesson from his odyssey$ how to pro(t from

failures.

*+pe: $ublic Company,ddress: alvanistraat 9, $: Bo3 @, E71 B %de*elep$one: '1( 18+E91E91-a.: '1( 18+E91E9/eb:httpLHHwwwbaancomEmplo+ees: ,Sales: 2.A E8 million '1997(Stoc E.c$anes:N-.)-KM -msterdam*icer S+mbol: B--N*Incorporated: 1978 as *inancieel 6anagement BegeleidingsbureauSI0: 77@ $repac"aged .oftwareM E719 >olding Companies Nec

The Baan Company is one of the world0s top producers of enterprise business management andclientHserver software systems, with more than , customers at , sites around the world*rom its dual head;uarters in The Netherlands and in &eston,


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wor" for a building materials supply firm /n 197@, after the death of his supervisor, Baan wasappointed head of the company0s administrative services department -t that time, the companywas automating its systems, and Baan0s position introduced him to emerging computertechnology, as he became responsible for automating the company0sboo""eepingfunctions

By the mid+197s, Baan had begun wor"ing as a management consultant to an accounting firm,where he gained new e3perience that would prove central to his later career /t was then thatBaan, with a family of five children, decided to set out on his own /n 1978, Baan formed hisown management consulting firm, *inancieel 6anagement Begeleidingsbureau Baan '*6BB(,renting an office in Barneveld *6BB0s original focus was on providing models to assistcompanies in their financial planningM Baan sought to provide tools, in the form of information,to enable companies to ma"e calculated decisions 2sing a programmable calculator, Baanwor"ed on refining his models

- year later, Baan had succeeded in building up a list of clients, and had hired his first employee,Centinus van >aberden Baan0s wor" had shown him that there was a need among small

businesses for better record+"eeping tools - turning point for the company came when one of*6BB0s clients, a computer importer, paid Baan with an early computer, a )urango, one of thefirst small computers to be based on the /ntel 8E processor No )utch+language software yete3isted for the )urango, so Baan decided to design the software himself, hiring programmers towrite software that would enable him to offer record+"eeping and other administrative services tohis clients as well /n this way, *6BB e3panded its services beyond consulting toward an earlysystems management approach By late 198, Baan had brought in his own programmer to createprograms tailor+made for each of the firm0s clients

Baan was determined to offer a complete automation solution to his customers, which by thenincluded a growing number of administrative services firms *6BB became an authoriIed dealer

for )urango computers in the NetherlandsM thus, in addition to the company0s consulting andadministrative services, *6BB could offer its clients tailor+made computer hardware andsoftware solutions The )urango sales ;uic"ly too" on a central role for the company, and Baansold off *6BB0s administrative services activities to van >aberden, who was then starting out onhis own The changing focus of the company led to the adoption of a new nameL Baan-utomation The company also moved its offices to a farm in Terschuur, which also served as theBaan family home

Computer software of the period remained hardware+specific 6ost programs were written for aparticular brand of computer, in that computer0s specific language, and would wor" only on thatcomputer $rograms tended to be created from the ground up and tailored to a single client0sneeds Baan0s insight was to see the need for what he referred to as an 0industrial0 approach tosoftware programming /nstead of ta"ing the tailor+made approach, Baan instead sought to createa standard program that could then be easily adapted to each client0s re;uirements The resultingsoftware would be less e3pensive to produce, and less e3pensive to the company0s clients Theoff+the+shelf concept would continue to mar" the Baan Company0s products through the 199s

By the summer of 1981, Baan had determined to develop his company into a full+fledged systemhouse -t this time, he brought in two new partners++his younger brother, $aul Baan, and Tom
http://www.answers.com/topic/bookkeepinghttp://www.answers.com/topic/bookkeeping


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Ba""er, a former colleague from the building materials supply firm %ach of the three set up anoffice, with #an Baan remaining in Terschuur, $aul Baan opening an office in &iFssen, andBa""er setting up an office in 6iddelburg /n that way, Baan established itself as a nationalcompany in The Netherlands $aul Baan became his brother0s partner, with each man owning percent of the company, and serving as co+directors, a relationship that would continue up until

the company0s 199 public offering

The three Baan branches ;uic"ly developed particular areas of e3pertise, with the Terschuuroffice specialiIing in accounting and production firms, &iFssen focused on the building andconstruction mar"et, and 6iddelburg on the trade industry The company0s client list++chieflysmall and mid+siIed companies++was growing rapidly, and achieving a national scale By 198,Baan decided to group its activities into a single location, centraliIing the firm in Terschuur -year later, the company0s growing number of employees led Baan to construct a new building inBarneveld By 198, the company employed more than 1@ people

/n the early 198s, Baan0s software, as with most of the computer industry at the time, remained

dependent on a single platform This system, however, was soon feeling the strain of rapiddevelopments being made in computing technology++particularly the introduction of what wouldbecome the first personal computers :n a trip to California in 1981, Baan had discovered anemerging operating system, called 2ni3, which promised platform+independence++that is, thecapability to run on any type of computer hardware 2ni3, moreover, offered the ability tocontrol several computer+clients from a central computer, the server, which lin"ed the system toshare resources, such as printers and other networ" operations !hile this latter ability would notta"e on its full importance until the early 199s, Baan was attracted to the possibilities ofplatform+independence, and became among the first to bring 2ni3 to the Netherlands

!or"ing with 2ni3 re;uired Baan to convert all of its software from the )urango0s proprietary

language to the 2ni30s code The company created its own set of tools, computeriIing theconversion process Baan, meanwhile, continued to supply )urango+based systems to a clientbase reluctant to embrace the new operating system But Baan0s early interest in 2ni3 positionedthe company to become the Netherlands0 premier 2ni3 systems provider in the second half of thedecade The company also found itself perfectly positioned to bridge the demise of the )urangoand other proprietary hardware systems

By the mid+198s, Baan, now "nown as Baan /nfo .ystems, had succeeded in building a stronglibrary of tools, including its own 2ni3 shell, that the company could implement for its clients0needs !hile the company had successfully bro"en the 0built+to+order0 mold, its softwarenevertheless represented an evolutionary process++the software would be e3panded, andotherwise adapted, for each new client0s needs The company0s three areas of specialiIation had,in fact, led to the development of three separate software systems, each with its own architecture,ma"ing it impossible for the company to offer a fully integrated pac"age The fact that thecompany had become the Netherland0s premier 2ni3 systems supplier did not prevent Baan fromrecogniIing its own limited future The Netherlands remained a small mar"et, and the company0ssoftware++despite being translated into %nglish and erman during the 198s++was not suited foran international mar"et composed of large+scale and increasingly global businesses !hile thecompany managed to score several successes++including an implementation order from /taly0s
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:livetti in 1988, and a similar :%6 agreement with *rance0s Bull in 1989++Baan loo"ed forwardto a scenario of continuing to sell its 6&$ 'manufacturing resource planning( software foranother couple of years, then abandoning software development to become a third+party vendorfor other systems

/nstead, in 198 Baan decided to ris" stepping bac"wards !hile continuing to develop itse3isting pac"age, the company set to wor" developing a new software system, beginning fromscratch The new system, dubbed Triton, would not be ready until 1989 The new product0slaunch would also coincidewith adrasticreorganiIation of the company

/n 1989, Baan suffered a dramatic drop+off in new orders The company0s relianceon its first+generation software had meant that it had fallen behind its competitors The company had beenattempting an aggressive domestic and international e3pansion, opening a series of sales offices++including 2. offices in rand &apids, 6ichigan and in 6enlo $ar", California The stoc"mar"et crash of :ctober 1987 and the longslumpof the high technology industry through muchof the 198s, however, provided limited perspective for the type of financial bac"ing Baan

re;uired for its e3pansion The company, forced to fund itself, had meanwhile become bloatedwith a variety of additional services and activities, including technical maintenance, and eventools supplies The company became determined to regrouparound its core softwaredevelopment operations The 1989 reorganiIation slashed the company0s payroll++from downto @1++and e3posed Baan to a great deal of criticism in the Netherlands

%merging from its reorganiIation, Baan had now become a holding company for two operationsLBaan /nfo .ystems was placed under $aul Baan0s leadership, and focused on distributionactivities to the company0s domestic mar"et, while Baan /nternational was led by #an Baan, andcontinued the company0s software development while serving its distribution needs on theinternational front Through the first half of the 199s, Baan continued to e3perience revenue

losses, as customers proved reluctant to return

By the end of 199, Baan showed signs that it had weathered the crisis -iding the company wasa new policy of see"ing :%6 agreements providing Baan software to companies to sell undertheir own name -greements with companies including /B6 and -. Computer .ystems in theearly 199s helped add some A1 million to Baan0s till The company also began to develop aninternational distribution networ", this time turning to third+party and other partnerships, insteadof developing a more capital+intensive, company+owned networ" The distribution networ"++which the company would later graduallydismantle in favor of direct ownership++helped thecompany survive the early years of the 199s The company remained e3tremely small /n 1991,it0s revenues amounted to Fust 2. A million

Baan0s turning point came with the 1991 introduction of its Triton software /f the company hadbeen laggingthe competition, Triton now gave Baan an advance of several years over itscompetitors Triton also represented the fulfillment of Baan0s 0industrial0 vision *eaturing a trulymodular concept, Triton customers could purchase a system tailored to their needs from among ahundred or more components, all designed to wor" interactively !ith a modular system,moreover, the client discovered a new fle3ibilityL where competing systems re;uired clients todetermine the current and future needs at the time of the purchase contract, Triton would enable
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clients to add+on and otherwise evolve their systems processes as their needs evolved orchanged

Baan0s system ;uic"ly attracted the attention of the investment firm eneral -tlantic $artners,which foresaw the coming boom in clientHserver technology rapidly becoming an essential

component in the increasingly globaliIed economy eneral -tlantic $artners offered to invest inBaan++an offer #an Baan initially reFected Det Baan0s international customers were increasinglydemanding worldwide support directly from Baan, re;uiring the company to develop a company+owned distribution and support networ" /n 199, Baan agreed to sell percent of the companyto eneral -tlantic $artners, in e3change for their investment of A18 million !ith this capital,Baan was able to begin building a new direct sales and distribution networ", includingestablishing a second 2. head;uarters in California0s .ilicon


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An Introduction to Baan ERP

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