SSA Gets New CEO, Adds Sales Analysis

System Software Associates Inc. (SSA) , which continues to suffer from a lack of profitability, this month named Robert R. Carpenter, former president and CEO of Origin Americas, a consulting and outsourcing firm, as chairman and CEO. Carpenter succeeds William Stuek, who retired. Carpenter is the Chicago-based software firm's third chairman in two years. Carpenter, who engineered a profit turnaround at Origin's Americas unit, has a breadth of technology industry experience. Prior to Joining Origin, he was at AT&T Corp.'s NCR division, responsible for its services operation. From 1988 to 1992 he was corporate vice president of Square D Co. He began his career with the Boston Consulting Group. SSA also announced a development arrangement with Silvon Software Inc., a provider of business intelligence systems. Using Silvon's online analytical processing (OLAP) system, SSA's new eBPCS package now includes sales, profitability, and open order analysis. Called eBPCS Discover: Sales, the system enables sales executives to view sales activity at any level, by product, customer, retail outlet, or geographic region. "eBPCS Discover: Sales and its underlying technology from Silvon provides our clients a vital, totally integrated solution for answering critical business questions," says Robert Nussbaum, vice president for solutions management and marketing at SSA.