This week saw news of a partnership between US based software-as-a-service CRM vendor Salesforce.com and accounting systems vendor Coda. Why should I be interested? Well, Coda – since January 2008 part of Dutch ERP vendor Unit 4 Agresso NV – is also the parent of UK construction collaboration technology provider Business Collaborator.
At the time of the merger, I did wonder how relevant Business Collaborator (BC) was to Coda’s core business and, having had a fresh look at the Coda website today, BC hardly registers (just a handful of mentions in old financial results), its corporate profile probably in line with its c. 5% contribution to group turnover. However, it could be that the developing Coda relationship with Salesforce.com – adding financials to CRM – might also be matched by similar developments with respect to BC (maybe document collaboration + financials, or even collaboration + financials + CRM). On its own, it has in recent years enjoyed steady growth and is profitable (why dispose of something that is generating revenues?). On the other hand, maybe BC might move towards another change of ownership?
