By Ron Coates, 12 February 2001 12:32
NEWS Kalido was set up by Shell to develop a data management system for the Shell group's 150 major and 1,000 other subsidiaries. Andy Haylor, CEO of the new company, said: "It was developed to solve real business problems. It wasn't designed by an academic who built it and then said, 'What can we do with this?'" Haylor claims that the software is unique in its ability to assume change and to cope with the disparate systems needed to meet the differing legal requirements of the 130 countries in which Shell operates. He also pointed out that ERP systems and data warehouses take so long to build or to change they rarely reflect the current business reality of medium or large companies. Kalido has already been taken up by another Anglo-Dutch conglomerate, Unilever, and has been sold to a clutch of companies. The software cost Shell $20m to develop over four years, through six releases. The oil group has invested a further $11m in the spin-off and is in talks with potential shareholders. The subsidiary is aiming for an IPO within three years. Kalido made $3.3m in sales last year and expects to be in profit by the end of 2002.
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