Dec 2009, Chippenham, UK.

Preactor continues to buck the downward slump in Manufacturing IT as manufacturers increasingly invest in production planning and scheduling solutions

Preactor International, the world’s leading specialist planning and scheduling Software Company, has announced a continuation of its sustained growth with strong sales figures for Q3, 2009. Like for like sales figures show a 13% increase in sales over 2008 with Q3 itself showing a 17% increase over Q2 2009. While the total number of companies buying Preactor in Q3 is slightly lower than for Q3 of 2008, there has been a strong increase in revenues during this quarter.

The company has seen a trend towards larger projects as multinational businesses look to replicate the benefits achieved by Preactor in individual sites across the entire enterprise. Revenues have increased also on account of growing sales in Europe combined with a favourable exchange rate while maintenance and consultancy figures are also up – 300% in the case of consultancy.

Mike Novels, CEO of Preactor comments on the company’s Q3 success. “These figures bear out two recent Manufacturing IT surveys which both identified that Production Planning and Scheduling solutions have been either the most heavily or second most heavily invested in area of technology in 2009. This is consistent with Preactor’s proven capabilities of providing a quick yet significant Return on Investment (ROI) with a minimum disruption to ongoing business.”

Gregory Quinn, VP of North America adds: ““The surge in interest on the execution side has been long awaited by the MES community. Hand in glove with that surge is the recognition that scheduling is the integral connection between the ERP and the MES. Reactive, efficient operations management is the name of the game in this uncertain economic cycle, and Preactor is playing a major role in companies in their growth during a down period.”

Valerie Goulevitch is EMEA Director of Marketing. “We have seen in Q3 the start of a recovery in most European countries even if these have not yet returned to their normal levels of activity. This has positively encouraged companies to invest in order to maximize their production planning and scheduling capabilities for the beginning of 2010 and beyond. Competition remains intense in the majority of industrial sectors with customers becoming more demanding about delivery dates. Manufacturers therefore need to have consistent control over their supply chains as well as being able to plan and schedule their internal production efficiently to deliver the right products at the right time. Throughout the recession, the positive sales success of Preactor has demonstrated that it can be quickly and easily implemented to deliver rapid results for both Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) as well as global, multinational businesses.”