MBS Partner Tectura Continues Buyout Spree

Kent, Wash.-based Sensible Solutions specializes in Great Plains manufacturing and distribution solutions and thus fits nicely with Tectura's own Great Plains focus, said Terry Petrzelka, president of Tectura, Tempe, Ariz.

"Our strategy is to strengthen where we already are and become more dominant in each of those areas," Petrzelka said. Sensible Solutions brings with it more than 200 customers and a good employee base, he added.

A year ago Tectura bought Peak Data Systems, an Axapta ERP specialist. In September 2002, Tectura brought itself up to speed on Solomon apps with the acquisition of Select Systems and its expertise in Solomon accounting and financial applications.

The Sensible Solutions purchase, the terms of which were not disclosed, represents Tectura's eighth acquisition in the past 24 months, Petrzelka said.

In some ways, Tectura and other MBS partners who are also buying to get bigger, mirror Microsoft itself, which has bought its way into small-business financial applications by first purchasing Great Plains in 2001 and Navisionin May the following year. By the time Microsoft bought Great Plains, that company had already acquired Solomon Software.

Tectura said it will likely combine staff from Sensible Solutions with that of its own existing Bellevue, Wash.-based office.