Welcome to ERP and More!

Here is a very informative article on the issues surrounding SAAS deployment. The one thing they didn’t mention is that a traditional purchase hits the capital budget, a SAAS deployment hits operating capital. Here is the snippet:

Not surprisingly, SaaS vendors have decided there’s no time like the present to make a full court sales press. In a down economy with slashed IT budgets, when there’s no tolerance for 18-month software implementations and the price tags of on-premise software from Oracle and maintenance fees for SAP applications are not falling, software-as-a-service and cloud computing offerings become more attractive options for businesses. Read More here…

DUBLIN, Ireland, Oct 31, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Research and Markets ( http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/7ec7b3/erm_software_app) has announced the addition of the “ERM Software & Application Management Services Market 2007-2010 - Bundled Report” report to their offering.
Enterprise Resource Management (ERM) applications integrate content value chain and business support processes providing insight into critical business data. Stiff competition and rising costs are forcing companies to realign their processes, resources, financials etc, obtain a single view of spending levels and maximize usage of people and assets ensuring positive return on investment.
The SMB segment is expected to account for significant share of the ERM market, over the period 2008-2010. With the advent of on-demand or the SaaS (Software as a Service) model of ERP and other ERM applications, it has become affordable for a large number of companies. Further, the vendors have acquired the expertise and initiated channel programs to tap this segment.
Read more…

The software industry seems to be confronting large-scale challenges as new models, including on-demand software-as-a-service (SaaS) and platform-as-a-service (PaaS), are having an increasingly disruptive impact on the traditional, licensed software models. Use of SaaS is gaining ground with business process and applications professionals to outsource their key processes. According to Gartner, 25% of all software will be deployed with the SaaS model by 2011. Deutsche Bank predicts 50% by 2013. Does the SaaS model spell the end for the traditional perpetual license model in software? If so, will the established software vendors weather the transition? What are the implications for software innovation, the VC community and the entrepreneurs? Will the end customers have more bargaining power over the vendors or less going forward? What can the IT organization expect in quality and service of software? Join Marc Benioff, founder, chairman & CEO of salesforce.com, the world’s leading independent SaaS provider, and Hasso Plattner, co-founder, ex-CEO and chairman of SAP, the world’s largest business software company, as they face off on the future of enterprise software. Moderated by Quentin Hardy of Forbes. Churchill Club Great Debate on The Future of Enterprise Software ()04/03/08) with Marc Benioff, Hasso Plattner, Quentin Hardy

Watch more Enterprise Software Videos here

With the drive to being more environmentally responsible, corporate management is (or will be) setting initiatives to reduce carbon emissions. While moving towards Green and reducing the carbon footprint, the question becomes, how do we manage this? Should ERP be modified to include the tracking of carbon emissions?

ERP systems are essentially large accounting systems that capture oodles of data and summarize it in a report to management. Traditionally, they are focused on financial, operational, human resources, and other resource data reporting. It would seem that the next logical step would be to begin tracking and reporting on carbon footprint data. It is surprising though that major ERP vendors have not yet announced this sort of system module or functionality.

With efforts in reducing the carbon footprint focused on the data center, such as reducing power consumption of the server farms, management may be missing the point. FedEx, for example, has reduced fuel bills by up to 30 per cent through better route planning for its trucks. That justifies a lot of server power.

Without the tracking of this sort of key data, management may be focused in the wrong direction. With proper information and analysis, companies can make better decisions and reduce emissions where it gives the most added value. It seems that an ERP system would be perfect in tracking, analyzing and notifying management on the results of their green strategic initiatives.

What do you think?

One of the main struggles that many companies go through is finding the right software for their business. Often, the owner simply picks one because he knows a vendor, or met someone at a trade show. This is simply not the way to choose software.

More often than not, the manager responsible does not know where to even begin to look for the right software, be it Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), or even Warehouse Management Systems (WMS). Sure you can Google it, but there are simply too many options and they are not focused.

ERPandMore.com has released their Enterprise Software Directory to help people begin the search for a software provider. Organized by category of system, such as ERP or CRM, someone seeking a starting point for their business software search can begin looking for the ideal solution to meet the needs of their business.

Additionally, people can read the reviews of different software. And, if a software is not listed, readers can submit their favorite business software.

We hope that this directory will continue to grow and become an essential tool for anyone doing research into the varying software systems on the market today. You can find it at:

http://www.erpandmore.com/directory/