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by Erin Callaway, Contributing Editor Posted on Saturday, March 22, 2008 4:58:37 PM   As the only vendor of note providing planning tools and systems to process manufacturers-its 1,000+ customers include 46 of the top 50 chemical companies, 22 of the top 25 petroleum companies, and 16 of the top 20 life sciences companies-Aspen Technology Corp. (Cambridge, MA) has it pretty easy. While the vendors serving discrete industries wrangle to become the leading e-business platform providers, Aspen Tech stands alone in its niche unaffected by platform wars. Trading exchange platforms will be important to process manufacturers, says Larry Evans, founder, chairman, and CEO of Aspen Technology. That's why late last year Aspen released the Aspen Marketplace. But planning, for the most part, won't take place in the marketplaces, Evans says. In the process industry, "each company needs to customize its own planning and scheduling for its plants," Evans says. As a result, Aspen Tech's customers say it is easier for them to do planning outside an exchange. [Click to continue] |