Attention started to focus back on ERP software and ERP vendors around 5-7 years ago, on a wave that is analogous to the evolution of the automobile industry when it made the shift from being a luxury item for people with deep pocketbooks and cash flows to a vehicle used by the masses

ERP Software and ERP Vendors

Enterprise systems, ERP software solutions and ERP vendors have been around for over four decades now. The evolution of ERP solutions has been impressive during this timeline especially in the last decade. During this 90s, ERP vendors were on the front page news as a solution for companies who were freaking out about the Y2K data meltdown that was anticipated to happen at the turn of the century. This was a roaring time for enterprise systems and the ERP industry in general. ERP software sales, ERP integration services reached a pinnacle as companies prepared for the triple zero impact on their data records and servers. Anticlimactically, there was not a global IT data meltdown when the year 2000 came and went and the spotlight on ERP vendors and enterprise solutions dissipated over the next 5 years (along with most tech companies during this internet bubble bursting period). ERP software and ERP systems sort of lost its shine as the tech news shifted to wireless technologies, mobile applications and social networking startups. Attention started to focus back on ERP software and ERP vendors around 5-7 years ago, on a wave that is analogous to the evolution of the automobile industry when it made the shift from being a luxury item for people with deep pocketbooks and cash flows to a vehicle used by the masses. When the model T Ford came out, the transportation vehicles were now affordable to the masses. The same phenomenon analogy can be applied to ERP software solutions and ERP modules. Historically, ERP vendors developed applications for the largest Fortune 500 organizations with a hefty price tag that were impossible for SMBs to afford. The large companies further increase their competitive advantage with the benefits that were afforded to them with their ERP software solutions. However, around 7 years ago the price barrier to entry was removed with the advent of web based ERP applications via the internet. Software on demand, open source, and other web based applications ignited the ERP market with robust open source applications and communities that enabled small and medium companies to play in the ERP systems arena and capitalize on ERP software benefits The market for ERP vendors and ERP applications are pretty much all businesses and this has started a new host of opportunities for vendors and developers to service every type of business with a very customized app. The market is flooding with ERP solutions for SMBs looking for ERP applications to increase productivity and profits to better compete. This surge of new enterprise software innovations is almost too much of a good thing, as businesses have almost too many solutions and ERP vendors to choose from. Finding the best fitting ERP application is no easy task. The solutions to filter through are not only full ERP software apps, but applications focusing on subsets of ERP systems like CRM and HRMIS software solutions. Although the application selection process is more complicated now, it still beats the alternative of not having any affordable solution available. For help with ERP software selection, use the software finder tool at ERP.com, www.erp.com .