ERP Solutions

Is the ERP Market Saturated?

The software boom in the 1990s brought many software startups to the market.  Software of all kinds emerged including several ERP or Enterprise Resource Planning software solutions.  As the economy began to decline in the 2000s some of these ERP companies survived while others went under.  Some Enterprise Resource Planning companies were bought by others.  Most notably is PeopleSoft’s acquisition of J.D. Edwards and Oracle’s hostile takeover of PeopleSoft.  As technology continued to evolve in the 2000s a whole other type of ERP solution started to take form.  This type of Enterprise Resource Planning solution is called SaaS or Software as a Service ERP.  Software as a service ERP solutions are an alternative to on-site proprietary applications.  And, SaaS Enterprise Resource Planning solutions cost less and are quicker to implement than on-site proprietary Enterprise Resource Planning solutions.  Software as a service ERP solutions came about at a time when the ERP market was pretty much saturated with on-site proprietary Enterprise Resource Planning solutions.  Software as a Service Enterprise Resource Planning solutions suit today’s market quite well and offer a great alternative.  While the ERP market continues to be saturated with on-site proprietary ERP solutions, it is not yet saturated with SaaS Enterprise Resource Planning solutions.  Because there is lots of business out there for SaaS Enterprise Resource Planning vendors, the SaaS Enterprise Resource Planning market is growing.  Another type of Enterprise Resource Planning market that is evolving and taking off is the open source ERP market.  Open source Enterprise Resource Planning solutions are free ERP solutions that are making a big splash in the Enterprise Resource Planning market.  Both SaaS and open source Enterprise Resource Planning solutions came about at a time when the economy was plugging into an economic recession.  Today, the economy is still attempting to recover from that recession and these two offerings (SaaS and open source) are the inexpensive answer for many companies.  It’s likely that we’ll continue to see growth in these ERP sectors until some other form of Enterprise Resource Planning solution comes along.  Having a saturated Enterprise Resource Planning market isn’t a bad thing for potential Enterprise Resource Planning customers.  A saturated Enterprise Resource Planning market creates a buyer’s market enabling customers to wheel and deal with ERP vendors.  Enterprise Resource Planning vendors have to work harder than ever to grow their customer base.

Written by :

kristine H