ERP Software

Comparison of ERP Software

ERP means Enterprise Resource Planning. An enterprise can be defined as the scope of the business processes involved in a particular company, while inventory, machinery, employees, and production materials that can be planned for and organized are considered the resource. ERP software is an application software system applied to run, supervise, and synchronize, and store all the resources, information, and functions of a business.

Potential ERP customers are always asking for a comparison of ERP software. Unfortunately, that is not easy to do because this comparison is not a simple task. ERP Software is differentiated by industry, size of industry, cost, implementation time, etc. and those difference are what a comparison such a complicated undertaking.

In an attempt to ease the assignment, CAmagazine runs an annual survey.  Their survey is divided into tiers although they do not necessarily use the same qualifiers every year.  For example, the 2008 survey used three tiers instead of 5.  They were based on product cost, revenue, and number of employees.  2008 was also the year they separated out CRM and BI/CPM and made them individual categories. In 2009, CAmagazine added a section on human resources. And, in an attempt to make what can only be an imperfect system a bit better, in 2010 they added an online survey.  This new feature allowed companies to fill in their requirements and then view the 10 best ERP systems that fit their needs based on percentage fit calculations. The percentage fit calculation is based on the weight given to every requirement (user-defined fields, security, etc.) and every category (industry, technology or financial requirements).

While the information contained in this and other surveys is useful, it does not answer an important question many customers ask when doing a comparison of erp softwares: What will the Return on Investment be?

In order to figure out ROI-how much and how soon, there are many points businesses need to consider. To name just two: 1. pay attention to the methods involved in implementing the software system instead of just the functionality and architecture of the ERP. Implementation problems are what most often lead to breakdowns of the goals intended to be achieved by the software; 2. a business should also examine the ability of the vendor to help change their business processes in a way that can allow them to reach the established goals. One universal stumble of businesses is to continue with previous methodologies. In such cases, real change is not being made and the ERP software purchase will not add any value to the company.

Written by :

Amy Cruz