ERP Software

ERP Software, Houston

Of all the American cities that can be expected to understand how a business can be made or broken by the right ERP software, Houston may rank close to the top. In the early history of ERP software, Houston large enterprise level businesses, like those of many cities, began implementing enterprise resource planning solutions in the early 1990s. With the very first ERP software, Houston manufacturing firms could gain the ability to schedule complex work and distribution orders and coordinate the delivery of timed raw material to the shop floor. As manufactures began using other business tools like HR, accounting and payroll programs that were components of ERP software, Houston businesses outside of manufacturing began taking an interest in implementing ERP solutions for their own purposes.

As the millennium approached and the demand and popularity surged for ERP software, Houston saw the effects and the rise of jobs in businesses related to the process of freeing large companies from legacy software systems.  The benefits soon became clear and the return on ERP investments began to encourage other business in all industry sectors to follow suit. ERP software allowed a huge number of new business functions and improved asset management and efficiency controls across the board, and by the mid 2000s, a large number of Houston business managers and CIOs had purchased software suites and put the implementation process into effect.

Most businesses found the transition successful from old software to new, and as these businesses have continued to evolve and grow, their ERP platforms and software suites have been able to grow with them. Now that relative market saturation has occurred at the large enterprise level, the major vendors and providers have begun to turn their attention to potential clients at the small and mid-sized level. Meanwhile, small business owners and CIOs have taken an interest in ERP platforms after seeing two decades of effects. Vendors now face the challenge of customizing their systems and software suites to accommodate the restrictions of smaller budgets. They also face competition from other providers of ERP software services, like, for example, hosting solutions that allow small businesses the opportunity to rent rather than buy space on a shared server. As hosting solutions partner with large vendors, small business can take advantages of ERP solutions without incurring the financial cost of buying and maintaining their own complete server architectures and IT staffs to support them. Some forms of ERP based business tools like accounting and customer relationship management are now available as freeware or open source solutions that can be downloaded for free over the internet. In Houston as in many American cities, the future looks bright for the ever-evolving relationship between business and technology.

Written by :

tracey boxer