Apero Upgrades its OpenEdge-Powered Platform to Continue Delivering Effective Software Solutions

Apero Solutions is an Edmonton, Alberta-based software developer that specializes in supplying wholesale distributors with adaptable ERP cloud-based solutions. Their most noteworthy one is Latitude ERP, which is made up of a suite of character-based applications that help distributors and manufacturers manage their businesses more efficiently.

The company has also been a Progress® OpenEdge® customer for more than 30 years and has used the product as a backbone for many of its products, including Latitude. Apero has been able to take care of customers’ needs, especially when it comes to managing databases. Over the last three decades, the company is proud to say that no matter how severe a crash could be, Apero can recover the database and have it up-and-running thanks to secure company backups.

As time went on, Apero saw an opportunity. The company’s CEO Sophy Nathanali realized that, in order to drive the company towards a more present-day direction, and give them a competitive edge, a modernization initiative would need to be implemented within their technology stack. The most crucial goals of this project were to leverage existing business logic into more of a service platform and improve the overall user experience.

Apero wanted to continue to use OpenEdge as part of this project since the company was already familiar with it. The development team also appreciated how effective it was over the past three decades of using it. The idea was to migrate Latitude business logic into an unfamiliar environment and make it more of a service platform, creating a richer user experience with a browser-based UI while retaining the same extensive feature set as the previous versions.

First, Apero upgraded to OpenEdge version 12.2, giving them access to features they found ideal for this project. Then, the development team started creating a demo environment of an Apero customer website and started testing certain aspects of its UI to make sure the implementation went smoothly.

Oscar Perez, Apero’s Director of Software Development, has extensive experience with the OpenEdge platform since he started at Apero, but knowing this was a new version, he understood that his team would experience challenges during the implementation phase.

“OpenEdge has always been a development environment that allows for a faster time to market,” said Perez. “One of the challenges we’ve faced with introducing a browser-based UI and new development tools is understanding that time to market is not as fast as we were used to when we just had Progress development as the only component of a finished product.”

As Perez and his development team finished implementing the new latest OpenEdge features into Latitude ERP, users were presented with an interface that allowed for a better user experience. The team was able to accomplish this and created a new browser-based UI for customers.

“From an OpenEdge perspective, we’ve always tried to stay current with Progress releases,” said Sophy Nathanali, CEO, Apero Solutions. “Moving to OpenEdge 12.2 was something that we would have done regardless, but one of the drivers for us is that we have, in our modernization process, moved a lot of our business logic to more of a service platform."

Thirty years is a long time to be a customer, but it is also a good sign of how they utilize a product. Apero absolutely fits in this description, but that is not to say their long-time use of OpenEdge is the only key to their success. Looking ahead, it is safe to predict that Apero will still be developing valuable software ERP solutions, along with being first in line for whenever the next iteration of OpenEdge is rolled out.

About Apero Solutions

Apero Solutions Inc. is a dynamic company specializing in ERP & WMS technology solutions for the hard goods distribution industry. We are committed to our products which provide you with integrated solutions designed to fit the ever-changing needs of the wholesale distributor. Apero delivers what customers expect from technology. We partner with our clients in determining & advising the most effective setup for our Latitude ERP software, RF warehouse, web and mobility solutions that ultimately delivers a fully integrated complete business package. To learn more visit: www.aperosolutions.com