Great Plains buys UK HR specialist

Great Plains is hoping to attract more partners to help it penetrate new markets, as it continues to grow through acquisitions.

Great Plains is hoping to attract more partners to help it penetrate new markets, as it continues to grow through acquisitions. The company's latest purchase was UK human resources specialist PWA Group, which it bought for $9.5m (£6m) and 407,000 shares.

PWA is the third acquisition for Great Plains this year. The company also bought financial reporting specialist FRx Software and accounting software firm RealWorld.

The PWA product range, which includes the e-hr offering and payroll solutions, will eventually be offered through the vendor's 1,800 VARs worldwide, according to Don Nelson, front office general manager at Great Plains.

Nelson also suggested that Great Plains solutions could be sold to PWA's 1,500 customers.

Nelson said: "The PWA buy will help us punch up into a higher market segment and access a complementary customer base. PWA is also geared up in areas that Great Plains is not, such as consultancy, so this represents a great opportunity for our channel."

Great Plains has also been growing through partnerships with vendors, such as Siebel. The Siebel deal, which was signed in September, moved Great Plains into the front-office market, which is where the company will continue to grow, according to Nelson.

Although 200 Great Plains VARs have already been trained on the front-office product, the company is still looking for more partners in the customer relationship management (CRM) market.

Nathaniel Harvatt, marketing executive at Great Plains VAR C Cat, said the demand in the CRM market justified the need for more partners. "CRM seems to be the next big thing and the deal with Siebel came at a critical time, as customers began to look seriously at CRM. The move showed that Great Plains is a forward-thinking company."

Nelson predicted that the next focus for customers will be integration of front- and back-office systems. He said: "We have changed our focus to push through the front-office products, but we do expect it to come full circle and generate pull through for the back-office range that we offer."

Nelson also revealed the vendor is still on the look-out for acquisitions, especially in Europe.