The strategy, unveiled at Navision´s annual resellers conference here, last month, calls for the vendor to:

Increase its North American sales channel by 30 percent;

Expand the development of vertical industry applications of its products;

Build brand awareness through advertising; and,

Acquire other technology vendors. Officials from the company´s international headquarters in Denmark and Navision U.S., its North American operations post in Atlanta, identified Microsoft/Great Plains Business Solutions as the vendor that they want to unseat in their battle for middle-market supremacy.

"Great Plains is bigger in the U.S., but we are generating more license revenue than they are [worldwide]," said Preben Damgaard, chief executive, who came from Denmark to attend the show. "We´ll really be trying to tell the market that we are a natural alternative, that whenever they consider changing software, we are on their short list."

The battle pits Navision´s Attain and Axapta, which each integrates financial management software with several other key enterprise functions, vs. MS/Great Plains´ e-Enterprise.

The "conquer North America" strategy is the latest byproduct of the business combination that created Navision - the December 2000 merger of the former Damgaard and the former Navision Software. Like the combined entity, both companies, prior to the merger, were headquartered in Denmark, with North American operations based in Atlanta.

"Last summer, we said the merger is completed and successful, and we are now in the second phase in which we are ready to leverage our merged operation," Damgaard said in a press briefing before announcing the strategy in the conference´s general session. The plans were applauded by the audience of about 400, mostly executives and key staff from Navision Solution Centers, the local market consulting firms that resell and service the company´s products.

Among the solution center executives who left the meeting very encouraged was Larry Schiff, president of New York-based Business Management International, which generated about $9 million in revenue last year. "This was absolutely the most encouraging Navision conference I ever attended," he said, adding, "There was a new level of sophistication from the company and the people in attendance."

Navision U.S. president John Fredericksen predicted a 400-percent gain in revenue by the company over the next three years. Navision´s worldwide revenues increased 19 percent, to $179 million in its most recently completed fiscal year. The company did not break out revenues for North America but, according to Damgaard, its share of the North American ERP market increased by 15 percent last year.

Competitive numbers for North America´s middle market were unavailable for this story. AMR Research reports that, based on 2000 ERP sales worldwide, MS/Great Plains ranked No. 12 among all vendors and Navision was at No. 16. That ranking includes sales to high-end companies, a market where neither Navision or MS/Great Plains compete.

Fredericksen said that rapid growth can be attained as Navision increases public awareness of its brand. "We are not now getting invited to enough deals, but we can achieve that by getting our brand name out there."

The growth plan´s technological linchpin will be the increased development of programs that tailor Navision products for use by specific vertical industries. NSCs have developed a total of about 12 industry applications and the number of other potential vertical applications is very high.

"We want to take advantage of the markets we are already in by empowering our partners to add value to our solutions," Damgaard said. "We´re telling our partners to pursue vertical development and become the Ôtrue vendor´ of the applications used by their clients."

Navision verticals that are now marketed include a non-profit industry program developed by Serenic Software, a Lakewood, Colo., NSC founded by Jay Malik, the former chief executive of nonprofit industry software specialist American Fundware. Serenic, which is recruiting other NSCs as resellers, boasts 26 end users, including the Baltimore Zoo, the Fuller Foundation and Idaho Public Television.

Damgaard said that Navision´s products are far easier than rivals´ products for resellers to customize for vertical use. He noted that Attain has 260,000 lines of source code, and Axapta has 900,000, while e-Enterprise has 22 million. MS/Great Plains officials denied Navision´s claim.

Technology industry analysts have roundly praised Navision´s technology and business plan. "Its Solution Center ecosystem is the key - letting end users partner with local representatives to meet specific functionality, unlike many of Navision´s competitors. This is especially important when time to market is critical," said AMR Research.

In a presentation at last month´s conference, the Gartner Group´s research director Yvonne Genovese praised Navision as a middle-market leader in ERP II, a development trend toward enabling companies´ internal ERP systems to collaborate with outside interests, such as vendors, suppliers customers and distribution networks.

Other technology initiatives Navision advanced at the conference included an Internet portal that it is building to help solution centers work more closely with clients and product integration with Microsoft´s BizTalk Server, which allows disparate companies to communicate and transact business with each other over the Internet.

Navision´s brand awareness strategy includes increased advertising in national business publications, such as The Wall Street Journal and Fortune and in industry trade journals. The company also expects its sales channel to help.

The vendor has some 200 Navision Solution Centers across the United States and hopes to add 60 more by year´s end. And it´s gotten off to a fast start: Two weeks after the conference, national accounting firm BDO Seidman joined the channel as a Navision Solution Center.

Other large accounting firms that are Navision Solution Centers include regional firms Elliott Davis & Co., of Greenville, S.C.; Springfield, Mo.-based BKD; and Pannell, Kerr Forster, of Texas.

Navision also has a Navision Certified Professionals program, which i