ERP and Cloud Computing Trends

The ERP and Cloud Computing landscape has been changing dramatically over the last decade, but even more so over the last several years.  Given the unprecedented economic drivers of the global financial meltdown and subsequent global recession, companies of every industry and size are scrambling to meet the challenges of the marketplace with ERP applications and solutions.  In this scramble, ERP Cloud Computing applications have been getting tremendous following and demand for companies battling the formidable business challenges of the day which include revenue shortfalls and uncertainty, increasing competition, higher customer expectations and turnover, and changing market dynamics.

Because of tightening budgets IT manager are looking for more affordable, high powered enterprise systems and ERP software solutions such as the web based ERP applications.  IT managers in many cases are finding cloud computing applications easier to use and deploy thus further reducing the time and cost of meeting specific business needs with robust, on demand ERP Cloud Computing technologies. 

In a nutshell, the key benefits delivered by Cloud Computing ERP applications are a faster time to value, minimal to zero capital outlays, minimal operational and maintenance costs, fewer required IT resources (both on the front end and the back end), and an easier implementation and integration.  These significant benefits are driving CEOs, CIOs and CFOs to reconsider the way they are doing business to not only save costs but to stay competitive in the marketplace.

For companies considering changing their ERP application from on-premise to an open source or web based application, they should make sure they are set up properly to integrate the Cloud Computing application or web based ERP solution that best fits their organization. 

First, the cloud computing application should have a user friendly, easy to use standards oriented development code that will simplify the integration within disparate applications and legacy applications throughout the organization. 

Given the increasingly stringent regulatory constraints regarding data security and privacy acts, the open source application should have a secure and reliable development environment to ensure that the company’s data security and privacy standards are met.

Lastly it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of the new open source technologies that promise to deliver significant benefits to your organization.  IT managers and CIOs may get lost in the fantasies of what these web based applications can bring with respect to cost savings and competitive advantage.  However, it’s important to look beyond the shiny bells and whistles of the latest ERP web based technologies on the market and dig into who the vendor is and get a good understanding of track record and long term viability of the application.  The solution may deliver the benefits you are looking for, but if the vendor is not going to be around in a couple of years for upgrades and maintenance, this could be a significant business disruption blow to your organization down the road, despite  how low the initial cost of entry was.