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Top
Tier ERP Vendors
Think Smaller
Top
tier Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) vendors have set
their sites on small enterprises with under 500 employees,
but their early efforts don't seem to have paid off. So
they may have to look at their second-tier competitors
to find a way to get into this market, a new research
report from Cahners In-Stat says.
"We
see that smaller firms are more apt to purchase the products
of second-tier vendors (Lawson, J.D. Edwards, Great Plains,
etc.)," says Kneko Brunei, manager of Markets and Opportunities
for Cahners In-Stat. "These smaller firms place greater
emphasis on cost containment, so they'll gravitate to
the vendors who keep costs down."
Time ERP
product has been in use
Source: Cahners In-Stat Group
"The
surprising result of our research was that a significant
number of respondents using products six years or more
were customers of the 'other' vendors," Burney notes.
"These companies have much smaller market shares than
the SAPs and other leaders. And yet they seem to have
greater brand loyalty."
The
top tier ERP vendors have come to a quiet period largely
because corporations are preoccupied with the last minute
details of the Year 2000, Cahners In-Stat notes. They
may resume their hot pace after the turn of the calendar
page, but when it comes to businesses with under 500 employees,
they obviously are going to have to do more than wait.
Cahners
In-Stat Group surveyed executives at 229 companies to
evaluate their perceptions of SAP, Oracle, PeopleSoft
and "other" vendors. The research suggests that top tier
vendors will make progress with smaller companies as they:
- Web-enable
their products
- Cut
costs of products
- Make
ERP a more out of the box experience with reduced installation
requirements
- Make
partnerships with channel specialists
As
the SAPs and PeopleSofts adjust their marketing and press
again for the down-market, Cahners In-Stat expects the
smaller ERP players will follow in their wake and use
their experience with small companies as a marketing ploy.
Only time will tell whether deeper pockets will win out
over market knowledge.
Report
Information
The
Cahners In-Stat Group report, ERP Software: Market
Requirements, evaluates the ERP marketplace and customer
perception of specific ERP products, feature sets, vendors,
and service. Based on primary research conducted among
more than 225 professionals, the report analyzes buyer
motivations, satisfaction of pre-purchase expectations,
product selection criteria, user satisfaction and the
demographic profile of users. Vendor evaluations are included
for products produced by SAP, Oracle, PeopleSoft and "other"
vendors.
How
to buy this report
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