Aston has utilized a similar "toe-in-the-water" approach in opening most of its 17 other offices in North America. Aston seems confident the trio assigned to Houston can market a full suite of Microsoft-based solutions to professional services firms and manufacturing and distribution clients from the One Riverway base.

With the entire Aston support network behind them, the Texas team will be equipped to handle regional, national and international accounts, according to George Brown, president and CEO of Aston Group. "For us, Texas represents a major population center that has received insufficient coverage in the past. Aston Group, with our host of international experts and high performance standards, will provide the quality of service and support that this region deserves," he says.

Aston's global network of service and support covers Canada, the UK, Europe and Australia. Aston Group had decided to enter Texas when a local reseller recently closed its operations. Seizing the opportunity to be of service to the reseller's abandoned customers, Aston hired a multilingual core staff of Navision certified experts, including a developer and two implementers.