ECi Software Solutions

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ECi Software Solutions is a business management and e-commerce software publisher, primarily serving small and medium-sized businesses in the office products and furniture, construction supplies, hardware, sanitation, manufacturing, and distribution industries. ECi is a subsidiary of eCommerce Industries, Inc.

ECi was founded in 1999, and is based in Fort Worth, Texas.

ECi holds a 'Connect Conference', a national meeting for its software users and strategic partners. The company also uses 'customer advisory councils' made up of users which provide feedback to help develop, test and adapt products.

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History

In January 2010, Bowen & Groves Pty Ltd changed its name to ECi Solutions Pty Ltd. and continued to market, support and enhance the M1 ERP software under the new name.

In July 2010, Trevor Gruenewald was appointed Chief Operating Officer for ECi Software Solutions. Gruenewald joined the ECi team in January 2009 as Senior Vice President and General Manager for DDMS and the Office Equipment divisions. His list of responsible business units grew to include Britannia, Team Design, OMD and La Crosse.

In September 2010, ECi acquired substantially all the assets of Acsellerate, a subscription-based sales intelligence service. Acsellerate's suite of web-based analytics, advanced reporting and integrated CRM applications provides interactive information that provides businesses with insights into their customer relationships.

In March 2011, ECi acquired FMAudit, LLC, based in Jefferson City, MO. FMAudit's suite of print assessment, remote meter, supply and service data applications provide real-time information that enables organizations to automate labor-intensive business processes.

In April 2012, ECi acquired BlueSky Systems Solutions Ltd (BlueSky), a leading back office systems supplier for the European office products industry located in Derbyshire, England. BlueSky became part of ECi's Office Products Division, which includes the Horizon, Horizon Web, Office2Net, Vision, NGV, EasyOrder, Progress and Prolink Web products. With this acquisition, ECi further established its position as the most comprehensive office products software provider in Europe.

In June 2013, ECi acquired the assets of Red Cheetah Software, LP. This acquisition allowed both companies to better serve the needs of dealers in the office products and adjacent industries. Red Cheetah's products and services became part of ECi's office supplies portfolio. In November 2014, Red Cheetah was re-engineered and released as Red Falcon(TM) software, a business system for the office products industry that provides an affordable combination of robust ERP and e-commerce. Red Falcon serves independent dealers in office supplies, furniture and equipment that want to grow their businesses by continued expansion into e-commerce and other business verticals. The software integrates with ECi's Acsellerate®, Profitability Manager(TM), e-automate® and TeamDesign® software systems.

In March 2014, ECi was acquired by global alternative asset manager The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG). Carlyle had a long history of successful investments in leading middle market, industry-specific application software solutions companies, including Compusearch, serving the government sector; Gemcom, serving the mining sector; Primatics, serving the financial services sector; Quorum, serving the energy sector; RMI, serving the rail sector; and SchoolNet, serving the education sector. Equity for the investment came from Carlyle U.S. Equity Opportunity Fund, which is a Carlyle fund focused on middle market investments.

In January 2015, ECi acquired Spruce Computer Systems, an Albany, New York based lumber and building materials software company. As part of the acquisition, Rob Fitzpatrick, the president of Spruce at the time, took over as president of ECi's lumber, building materials and hardlines (LBMH) division.

In April 2015, ECi acquired Naverisk Limited. Naverisk is the developer of a SaaS-based Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) and Service Desk solution designed to help managed services providers (MSPs) and other IT service professionals support their customers more effectively. This acquisition furthered ECi's objective of supporting the profitable growth of small to medium sized businesses worldwide.

In August 2015, ECi acquired the JumpTrack(TM) Proof Of Delivery (POD) solution from Jump Technologies, Inc. JumpTrack is a market-leading POD solution that helps drive savings through improved fleet efficiency and the replacement of paper-based proof-of-delivery systems with electronic signature. It improves customer service through the ability to furnish real-time order information, even from the field. The acquisition of JumpTrack supports the profitable growth of small to medium sized businesses by enabling them to expand their services.

In March 2017, ECi acquired American Management Enterprises, Inc. d/b/a Mark Systems of Mt. Holly, New Jersey. Mark Systems is a leader in software solutions for the residential home construction industry with a suite of products that service every aspect of the residential home building process: Integrated Homebuilder Management System^(TM) (IHMS), Internet TookKit^(TM) (ITK) and LotVue^(TM). Scott Duman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Mark Systems, was named President of ECi's Residential Construction Group under its Building & Construction Division. Through the addition of Mark Systems (later renamed MarkSystems), ECi added 3,200 customers in the lumber, building and construction, and hardware industries.

In August 2017, funds advised by Apax Partners ("Apax Funds") reached an agreement to acquire ECi Software Solutions. Concurrent with this transaction, the Macola, JobBOSS and MAX businesses of Exact Software (a current Apax Funds portfolio company) were combined with ECi. These businesses are based in the U.S. and provide ERP software applications to a wide range of SMB manufacturers.

The combination of Exact's Macola, JobBOSS and MAX businesses with ECi is a diversified SMB-focused business offering end-to-end technology solutions.

As of August 2017, the ECi senior management team, including Chief Executive Officer Ron Books, leads the combined company known as ECi Software Solutions. It remains headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas. Carlyle retains a minority ownership position in the combined company.

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Products

DDMS is an ERP targeted at office products, office furniture, and office equipment retailers. La Crosse and OMD focus on the office machines industry, as well as e-automate, which is owned by Digital Gateway, Inc., and TeamDesign on the contract furniture business. FMAudit provides remote meter readings and solutions for the managed print services industry. Acsellerate is an on-demand sales and business intelligence product.

ECi M1, which provides ERP software for manufacturers, was acquired from Bowen and Groves by ECi in 2009.

In April 2012, ECi announced that it acquired Derbyshire, England based BlueSky Systems Solutions, Ltd., a back office systems supplier for the European office products industry. BlueSky joins the list of other solutions for the European market that includes EasyOrder, NGV, Horizon, Horizon Web, and Atomic.

JobBOSS Shop Management Solutions is a full ISO/AS9100 quality offering with customizeable add-on CRM/HRM/Workflow management modules to provide a complete ERP solution. With 30 years of history serving job shops and custom manufacturers, JobBOSS' 12.0 iteration includes quote processing, order processing, and scheduling/shop floor control. It is available as an on-premise solution or a hosted, cloud-based solution.

Macola is ERP and business software that manufacturers and distributors use to automate, manage and grow their businesses. Macola's newest 10.0 iteration is used to manage core business functions such as project management, finance, HR and CRM. It is also used to streamline business process management, including automation, workflows and document management. Macola 10 offers cloud-based access through web services and mobile applications.

MAX ERP software for manufacturers helps small to medium sized discrete firms increase efficiency, manage supppy chains, maintain compliance, streamline processes, solve issues, and grow their businesses. The solution includes modules for IT, customer service, production, engineering, and materials. MAX is an on-premise solution, while MAX Anywhere is its cloud-based version.