Today, there is no manufacturing cloud ERP provider with the size or scale of Salesforce.com or Workday. Contrary to popular belief, this is not because the opportunity is small. Manufacturing still comprises a large percentage of US companies and is an enormous opportunity for cloud ERP. This post outlines the challenges that cloud ERP providers face and what it will take for them to dominate the market for manufacturing systems.
Small business doesn’t always mean simple business. Like larger companies, small and midsize businesses (SMBs) need to reach new markets, develop new products, satisfy customers, and control costs. The main difference is that SMBs need to do these things with fewer resources. In recent years, software vendors have announced new products to address the challenges facing small businesses. This post outlines two of them.
Oracle took another step in its strategy of growth by acquisition by announcing a bid for NetSuite. But apart from helping Oracle in its race with Salesforce.com to get to $10 billion in cloud revenues, what are the benefits of the deal to Oracle? How does it help NetSuite, and what does it mean to the broader marketplace? Looking at the big picture, there are certainly benefits, but there are also several concerns.
Sage is one of the world’s largest providers of business applications for small and midsize organizations. Now in the cloud it has taken a big step forward, launching Sage Live, a built-from-scratch accounting system on the Salesforce.com platform. This post outlines key features of Sage Live, the challenges it faces, and recommendations for potential buyers.
FinancialForce continues to show strong momentum in the cloud ERP market, and it is building out its product capabilities in interesting ways. In this post, we provide an update on FinancialForce, based on interviews we conducted with its executives at Dreamforce, the annual conference for users of Salesforce.com. We also provide recommendations for buyers considering FinancialForce.
Rootstock Software is an up-and-coming manufacturing cloud ERP provider, built on the Salesforce.com platform. This post provides an update on Rootstock’s progress over the past year in building out its capabilities, including a new initiative for its own native financial applications. We conclude with recommendations for buyers considering Rootstock.
Salesforce.com is proving to be a popular platform for developing ERP systems. In this post, we review the latest developments with Kenandy, one of five ERP providers building on the Salesforce platform. Kenandy stands out as taking a different strategy for selling into large companies, while continuing to target the SMB market as a complete ERP solution. We also provide recommendations for where Kenandy is a good fit for ERP buyers.
Software as a service is more than just another deployment option, another way to consume software. SaaS is a business model. It not only affects the product: it should drive the nature of how the provider does business, from how the product is developed and maintained to how it is sold, implemented, and supported. It should permeate the very culture of the provider’s organization.
What do ERP customers choose when they can freely choose between traditional on-premises deployment under a perpetual license and cloud deployment under a subscription agreement? How are these preferences changing? One vendor’s experience shows that customers are turning more and more to cloud deployment and, especially, subscription pricing.
Like the Oklahoma land rush of 1889, cloud vendors today are rushing into new territory to stake their claims. One provider that has joined the land rush is FinancialForce.com, which recently announced new branding to signal its claim in cloud ERP. This post provides an overview of the cloud ERP landscape and the latest vendor to stake a claim.