TROY, MI--Following recent investments from Francisco Partners and Accel Partners, Plex Systems, a cloud-based ERP for manufacturers, announced the appointment of technology industry veteran Jason Blessing as the company’s chief executive officer. The appointment comes at a time when the company is entering its next growth phase, resulting from small and medium-sized manufacturers making the critical business decision to embrace cloud-based ERP systems.
“Manufacturing ERP is, by far, the most complex enterprise software to design and build,” Blessing says.“Plex Systems is the first company to build a cloud-based manufacturing ERP solution and has a significant lead over its competitors in this space. The company has built the most complete cloud offering for manufacturing at precisely the time when manufacturers have become comfortable moving this critical component of their business to the cloud.”
Blessing joins Plex Systems from Oracle, where he was senior vice president of application development. Previously, he held a variety of executive roles at Taleo, including general manager of its small and medium-sized business unit and, most recently, executive vice president of products and technology. Taleo, a pioneer in cloud-based talent management solutions, was acquired by Oracle last year.
Blessing has also held a variety of executive positions at PeopleSoft, Oracle and Price Waterhouse during his 20-year career in enterprise software. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan.
Blessing will direct the expansion of Plex Systems as the company continues to invest in its expanding sales force and its award-winning “shop floor to top floor” technology for ERP, manufacturing execution, quality management, supply chain management and business intelligence.
“With its recent $30 million investment from Accel and by naming Jason Blessing as its CEO, Plex Systems is showing a continuing commitment to driving cloud technology in manufacturing organizations,” says Nick Castellina, an enterprise applications research analyst at Aberdeen. “Aberdeen’s research indicates growing acceptance of cloud ERP in manufacturing, and Plex Online is positioned to meet those needs.”
Aberdeen further cited that while trends in cloud and SaaS ERP adoption have more than doubled since 2009, trends in the adoption of on-premise solutions have decreased by more than 25%. Plex Systems’ cloud-based technology addresses the needs for today’s global, fast-paced manufacturers in all industries to be increasingly transparent, nimble and cost-efficient.
“Francisco Partners acquired Plex Systems last year on the belief that there is a long-term, value creation opportunity in cloud-based ERP, and we expect a greater and greater percentage of the ERP market to move to SaaS offerings like those offered by Plex Systems,” said Petri Oksanen, a principal at Francisco Partners. “Jason brings a tremendous breadth and depth of operational expertise that will accelerate Plex Systems’ product development and business growth. His experience in scaling cloud solutions like Taleo and his years with PeopleSoft and Oracle make him the ideal leader to guide the existing management team and take Plex Systems to the next level.”
