Jeeves Hosts Circle of Friends at Jeeves Live in Ystad

admin May 2010

The Swedish town of Ystad (well-known from the Kurt Wallander mystery novels by Henning Mankell) recently hosted Jeeves’s annual partner conference. The Jeeves Circle of Friends met May 6–8, and more than 300 people from around the world participated – networking, exchanging the latest news about and developments in Jeeves, and celebrating new customers in various countries.

This year’s meeting of the international Jeeves network had the motto “Circle of Friends of Jeeves – Jeeves Live.” Some 300 participants came together at the Ystad Saltsjöbad conference hotel and spa on the southern coast of Sweden. About one-third came from outside Scandinavia. The agenda included numerous lectures on the ERP products Jeeves Universal and Jeeves Selected, opportunities to share knowledge, and networking with new partners from different countries. In daily sessions, IT consultants, software specialists, sales managers, and newcomers discussed technical innovations, new features, and localization strategies for their successful business with Jeeves. Jeeves partners all over the world sell and implement Jeeves, with the support of Jeeves’s experienced international consulting team. For international roll-outs, in particular, it makes sense to work closely together.

The focus of the presentations was on Jeeves Universal and Jeeves Selected versions 2.0, with the new Jeeves Apps Builder. This tool allows users to extract vertical solutions or small extensions – similar to commercial application services for mobile phones – which are then implemented worldwide in installations for customers in other countries. In other words, Jeeves Apps Builder enables partners and customers to exchange applications and modifications. In the near future, Jeeves will offer its own internal library of applications for partners and customers from which the desired applications can be downloaded.

The conference featured an activity like “speed dating.” Participants got the opportunity to have one-on-one detailed discussions with Jeeves specialists. In addition, the partners took the opportunity to get together for informal meetings, to get to know one another better and explore possibilities for project cooperation.

In his opening speech, Jeeves CEO Bengt-Åke Älgevik complimented the partners and thanked them for the successful collaboration. Jeeves has expanded its network steadily in recent years. In 2006, the company had 10 international subsidiaries and partners, mostly in France, Poland, and Scandinavia. Since then, five new subsidiaries and 25 new distribution partners have been established – in Germany, Britain, Norway, and North America in 2009 alone. In Asia, Jeeves has also succeeded in penetrating the market with localized ERP solutions and plans to continue expanding.