Aston has utilized a similar "toe-in-the-water" approach inopening most of its 17 other offices in North America. Aston seemsconfident the trio assigned to Houston can market a full suite ofMicrosoft-based solutions to professional services firms andmanufacturing and distribution clients from the One Riverwaybase.

With the entire Aston support network behind them, the Texasteam will be equipped to handle regional, national andinternational accounts, according to George Brown, president andCEO of Aston Group. "For us, Texas represents a major populationcenter that has received insufficient coverage in the past. AstonGroup, with our host of international experts and high performancestandards, will provide the quality of service and support thatthis region deserves," he says.

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