Focus Softnet Launches Focus 8 At GITEX Technology Week 2014


DUBAI: Focus Softnet, the leading software development company, announced the launch of its much-awaited next generation ERP solution – Focus 8 at GITEX Technology Week 2014. Built on Microsoft technologies - Windows Presentation Foundation and Windows Communication Foundation – Focus 8 will offer customers superior features, greater flexibility and scalability.

Focus 8 is a comprehensive ERP, designed to give 24X7 accessibility to decision makers through its smart device interface, while keeping the total cost of ownership low. It gives organizations the opportunity to synchronize offline sites, add users and adopt greater functionality as their businesses grow, and offers built-in support for multiple languages and multicurrency transactions where they can comfortably do business across the globe.

“We are extremely proud to launch Focus 8, our flagship ERP solution that breaks the mould in Business Governance, Business Intelligence and Information Control. It has been the culmination of our development team’s efforts and innovation over the last five years wherein we listened to our customers’ feedback, learned from market trends and developed a highly flexible and scalable business governance suite, which will provide our customers unparalleled capabilities,” says Mir Hasnain Ali Khan, Chairman and CTO of Focus Softnet.

Focus 8 is a new generation ERP that fully integrates a comprehensive BI tool, provides real-time, multi-dimensional posting of transactions which result in real-time reports. The solution offers customers a broad range of industry-specific processes and gives them the power and tools to see their business in a new way, which in turn will help them improve productivity, plan and visualize the roadmap to success and accelerate growth.

“Every organization has a vision that is distinct and different from that of other organizations, which flows into the DNA of the company. ‘Enabling Customer Vision’ has always been Focus’ USP. We have developed Focus 8 to enable companies to achieve their long-term vision and growth plans, increase their profitability by improving efficiency and help them scale up their global business by offering them access to the system from multiple locations thus resulting in satisfied stake holders within the organization,” Ali Khan adds.

Over the years, Focus Softnet has been developing and upgrading its solutions by taking customer feedback into consideration. With Focus 8, the company has ensured that the features were developed based on existing customers’ feedback and recommendations. One of the major factors that was considered while designing Focus 8 was to overcome the structural restriction that customers faced with earlier versions of its ERP.

“With the launch of Focus 8, we are assuring our existing and new customers that Focus Softnet is a company that has been continuously in R&D mode, delivering version after version based only on the latest technologies. Not many companies across the globe can showcase such a consistent series of software versions built on platforms ranging from DOS, to Windows, .Net, Web, Mobile and Cloud. Moreover, Focus has always ensured that while retaining the user flexibilities, it has also added features based on customer feedback thus fulfilling our promise of being a true solution provider for the customer,” explains Ali Hyder, Group CEO of Focus Softnet.

“This is the first time in many years especially after the upgrade from DOS to Windows that we have developed a product that has been fully redesigned both at the user interface level and the database structure. The Focus 8 product design helped Focus overcome many of the user-level restrictions that created a few limitations during earlier implementations. For example the Authorization in the previous version was restricted to three levels and this has been overcome with Focus 8. Similarly the dashboard/BI of the previous ERP had lots of limitations but with the new solution, it is now more elaborate and flexible,” Hyder adds.

For all its solutions, Focus Softnet has always maintained a distinct mix of user-friendliness and flexibility yet giving control in the hands of users. Focus 8 retains the same mix. The software is available on three different platforms i.e. Windows, Web and mobile devices (Smartphones/Tablets). Over the last year, the beta version of Focus 8 was deployed at several customers’ sites.

“At Focus Softnet, we have developed a significant number of powerful vertical solutions, and yet, maintained the generic nature of our core ERP solutions. Focus 8 comes with business-vertical-ready modules for Retail, Restaurant Management, and Property Management to name a few. The solution is fully integrated with Focus CRM Ver-2 and the HRMS system,” Hyder explains. 

Focus 8 is positioned as a high-end ERP product for mid-to-large sized enterprises and corporates.  Focus Softnet plans to offer its existing customers an easy option to upgrade. With this launch, the company is looking to capture a sizeable market share within the Tier-1 ERP market segment.

Existing Focus ERP customers can easily upgrade to Focus 8 owing to the provision of seamless data migration from previous versions. In keeping with the trends and demands observed, Focus 8 is cloud-friendly, mobility-friendly and provides a tremendous amount of flexibility to cater to more and more innovative client organizations. Available in Standard, Advanced and Premium editions, Focus 8 will provide the company greater flexibility in catering to the entire spectrum of SMB to enterprise clients.