The ongoing cost is very predictable, because it’s a monthly subscription for the service itself. So we can plan ahead and know what that’s going to cost as we ramp up this business over the coming months.

AW: You said you’ve got six U.S. locations and one in Mexico. Do you think ByDesign or a cloud-based solution could potentially be used for the whole company?
Lubowicz: We’ve had R/3 in place for a long time, so its very mature, our business is accustomed to using it, and we’ve made a number of customizations in it. So I don’t think today that the [BBD] solution would be ready to plug into the rest of the business. But as I step back from the detailed requirements that we have here in North America, and kind of look at it, the Software-as-a-Service model is terrific. And I could see that expanding out, as the product grows and matures, to service the rest of the organization.

On The Web: To listen to the complete interview with Excel Polymers’ Steven Lubowicz, please visit http://www.automationworld.com/podcast-7197.

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