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What are some other quality ERP systems aside from Microsoft?
Are there any smaller companies that offer a good ERP product that can compete with Microsoft? Are they more cost effective?
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7 Answers
Jill,
Can you give us a few details about the company that would be buying the ERP system? Do they do manufacturing? How do they sell to their customers? How big is the company in terms of sales (maybe provide a range)?
The three biggest ERP companies in terms of dollars of ERP sales are SAP, Infor, and Oracle. Checking into these three vendors is a good place to start.
If you would like to contact me directly at jeff@brentwoodconsulting.net, I can talk you through some of the steps you ought to take when you begin this ERP search process.
Good luck in your search.
I believe you should look at the ERP systems that align with your vertical business industry focus and narrow that matrix down to approx. 8 ERP solutions and do some GAP analysis and demo 3 from the list with a tier 1 solution, tier 2 solution, and 1 other that is soley industry focused. Look at the solutions for application cost vs. implementation costs and whether or not you get the source code. Find a solution that can handle a million $ company as well as a billion $ company but doesn't try to be everything to everyone.
If you are willing to consider open source applications, you can take a look at OpenERP and OpenBravo. :)
Today smaller companies are going for Open source applications because there are no strings attached in terms of Licensing cost or User up-gradation.Also they are cost effective because it saves 30 to 40% of your cost in a proprietary software which mostly is the licensing fees. As Lu said OpenERP and other open source solutions today are designed keeping in mind small and medium sized businesses. Also community support helps in localization and translation in terms of country to country
SAP has a very strong ERP offering and I would certainly suggest in looking into their offering. Its robust, easy to use, and implement, however, depending on the organization size their offerings are geared towards mid market and large enterprise businesses. Here's a link to their site, if you'd like to do some further reading.
http://www.sap.com/usa/index.epx
Our company went with Epicor and are very pleased. It is incredibly easy to use, and looks a lot like our Microsoft Outlook. We are in fabrication and found that it fit our vertical perfectly. Every ERP has strengths and weaknesses, I would look at the Aberdeen Report. It breaks ERP vendors down by Price, Company Viability, Functionality, Implementation, and Technology. Best of luck on the search!
Infor, MSFT Dynamics, Epicor, SAP are just some of the ERP solutions in the broad ERP market. Then there are a number of specialty or vertically-oriented ERP solutions available that offer general ERP functionality (GL, AR, AP, HR, etc..) along with the industry-specific functionality. Just some examples of these are QAD in manufacturing and JDA in retail.
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