Extol Acquisition Cuts Curve
As the demand grows for technology that better enables e-business, companies are increasingly looking to mergers and acquisitions to cut the development curve. In keeping with this trend Extol Inc. (Franklin Lakes, N.J.) announced that it acquired Fischer EDI, the Naples, Fla.-based provider of electronic commerce solutions.
Extol, especially interested in Fischer EDI's EDI/comm, wasted no time taking over on the product. The company already released an upgraded version of EDI/comm to the AS/400 market this spring.
Extol is able to enhance the EDI/comm offering through it's professional services outsourcing group, Expert EDI, says Dennis Bonagura, VP of sales and marketing for Extol. "In the EDI market, companies are looking for resources to help them with their EDI," he explains.
Bonagura acknowledges that there is a trend in the electronic commerce market toward the acquisition of technology to remain competitive. He sees Extol as using acquisition to remain competitive in a market where larger companies feed off smaller software providers.