ERP market is becoming more and more competitive and in the current scenario only the ERP providers which can provide the best solution at a cheap price are getting clients. After recession many midsized companies are not in a position to spend heavily on maintenance of software and small companies are reluctant to spend on anything which can restrict production cycles, even for a short duration.
Due to recession many ERP providers have reduced the price of software and buyers are getting a number of choices for each and every feature. Surprisingly, the new ERP software are more featured as compared to enterprise resource planning packages delivered in 1990s but still the price of software has reduced.
ERP companies and cost
Success rate in ERP implementation is not more than half. During enterprise resource planning implementation the company buying the software should estimate the cost by finding out the total cost of ownership which includes the cost of implementation and customization.
Generally, the cost of ERP should be around 7% -10% of the annual revenue of the company and the implementation time should not be more than 2 years. The cost of enterprise resource planning should not be more than the planned budget. The cost of implementation also includes the expense on human resources when the employees are not doing any productive work. The expense includes the up gradations and hardware changes.
With the changes in technologies most of the software products are compared for online features, wireless features, scalability, integrity, speed, ease of use and support for open technologies. Today's consultants can directly get connected to user's computer through internet and view the functionalities of the software and also find out a solution in case of any problem.
The new ERP solution - Saas claims to provide solution in least time but it has been found that sometimes it fail to deliver the required results.
The number of ERP providers has increased but some of the providers are still leading the market:
Microsoft: Microsoft provides four packages Navision, Great Plains, Solomon and Axapta. Microsoft's various products provide solution even to vertical market client's but it is not suitable for all kind of companies. The software suits the requirements of small and midsized companies but many local small businesses prefer to invest in packages which can provide localized solution at cheap cost as compared to Microsoft's products.
Oracle: Oracle is a famous provider known for strong database capabilities and it joined PeopleSoft to increase its client base. It also has ties up with Sun Microsystems.
SAP: SAP is one of the oldest and famous providers of ERP and it aims to give easy solutions to the clients. To use SAP one does not requires technical knowledge. SAP provides secure and customized solution to its users, and it also assists a company to bring up change in functioning to adopt the easy way. SAP's product mySAP provides transparent and secure solution and it can be used to take decisions but the cost of SAP implementation is very high and many small and mid-sized companies cannot afford it.
