Geac fields new CTO

Computerworld - Business applications vendor Geac Computer Corp. has appointed a new chief technology officer as part of its plan to prop up sagging revenue and woo new business with a fully integrated front-to-back office suite that enables business performance management.
This week, the Markham, Ontario-based software maker announced that Timothy Wright is taking over as the company's CTO and CIO. Wright, who most recently held similar posts at Internet service provider Terra Lycos, boasts extensive expertise in integration projects. He will be Geac's first CTO.
"There is a huge opportunity for Geac to exploit the very high-quality installed base they have today -- if we can put together the right collection of offerings [for] complete financial or operational performance management, and if we can integrate them with existing back-end solutions," Wright said in an interview.

As part of its effort to rebound, the company also is buying Extensity Inc., an Emeryville, Calif.-based vendor of employee expense, procurement and billing software, in a deal that was announced last August and is due to be completed next month.
Wright said Geac plans to more tightly couple Extensity's software with its own applications, building on a lower level of integration that's already in place. The move is intended to let Extensity users access data in Geac's back-office software, as well as data in rival applications from vendors such as PeopleSoft Inc. and Oracle Corp.
Geac is now expanding its product focus, said Jim Travers, president of Geac Americas. Once ailing, the company has been profitable for the past year and a half, partially as the result of a restructuring that included laying off employees and consolidating facilities.
It will be Wright's task to help formulate and execute Geac's strategy. For instance, as part of the evolution of its product line, Geac is evaluating how to provide a middleware and Web services framework.
"We will obviously be looking for best-in-class solutions," Wright said. "It may be a combination of internally developed technology or some of the stuff out of Extensity and getting additional functionality through partnering or a buyout."
Geac indeed appears to be changing direction by hiring Wright, said John Hagerty, an analyst at Boston-based AMR Research Inc. Historically, the company would buy up rival software firms without bothering to exploit the inherited technology as much as it could have, he said. Hagerty said it appears the company will try to become more aggressive in the breadth of its technology offerings and marketing message.
Geac also announced that it's shipping a new billing productthat can connect with its back-end accounts receivable module.