Who are the best SMB ERP vendors to shortlist?

Great question. Where Oracle and SAP the leaders for big business/fortune 500/1000, the SMB marketplace has much more choice. I believe the last number I saw as that there were over 1000 erp systems that cover the midmarket; however 73% of all manufacturers are dissatisfied with their current ERP system. Many consultants would hate that I say it, but a small part of the reason is RFP's. A monolithic tome of all your companies requirements that can be interpreted in any way and answered affirmatively by "stretching the truth". The RFP process also places a high burden on the manufafacturer and wastes valuable time in the selection process.

I firmly believe that the most important factor in selecting a new ERP system is not ensuring that it can meet 100 - 1000 items in a list, but that your specific company will be succesful and "make money" with the new ERP system.

Since that's the case I typically recommend 3 steps:
1) Define the "critical" requirements that are unique to your company and match to your vendors on your short list. This is critical requirements only, most systems that have a large customer base will obviously have a "aged trial balance" and other items that are typically found in large RFPs. The critical requirements should be around 1 to 2 pages.

2) Visit more then 1 company using the systems on your short list AND make sure they are running the latest version of the software (at least not more then 1 version behind). Phone calls are not sufficient as I have heard stories of friends of the sales guys "pretending" to be a reference over the phone.

3) Also, ask the vendor if you can meet the lead consultant(s) that will be implementing that package at your site. Trainers/Implementers have to work with you after the sale, they will be less willing to "stretch the truth". Make sure the consultant is within driving distance as travel expenses can certainly add up to 33% to the cost of your system. Again, if you fail to implement the system, what does the RFP and all it's requirements do for you? Nothing!

As for the shortlist it really depends on what your company wants to get out of the system, what are your critical business issues? What kind of company are you, mts/mto/eto/cto/ato/fts,etc.

As far as my recommendations go, I usually recommend shortlisting:

Infor Visual
IFS
Consona Intuitive
And a few other industry specific depending on the needs.

Hope this helps!

SaaS Solutions are ideal for SMBs because they limit large upfront payments so its better for cash flow and liquidity, put the onus on the vendor for you to be a satisfied renewing customer, minimize IT costs and complexity related to hardware, upgrades, and maintenance, tend to be user to use, and have much faster implementation time frames. However, for a system as important as accounting and ERP, I would only consider vendors who have been operating a SaaS system for 5-10 years+ and have strong customer references who can talk to you about their experience with the system.

Rob

In order to answer your question precisely, I would need to understand your definition of SMB... and it doesn't necessarily have to do with any particular metric, such as sales or number or users. However, I'll list a couple of the obvious choices to those of us in the business, and hope that it gets you started.

1. For the smallest of businesses, QuickBooks is an obvious one that needs your attention. It's inexpensive, easy to install, and has a lot of user-friendly features that even the most expensive software suites don't include. BUT... you'll find that your ability to tailor QuickBooks to different scenarios is limited. Also, as the number of users increases (2+?) it has been my experience that you will notice performance issues.

2. For larger businesses (5 users of more?), or those that have unique requirements, I would like to suggest Microsoft Dynamics GP. (I'm biased since I'm a Microsoft Dynamics GP consultant.) Performance won't degrade nearly as much with Dynamics GP, and your ability to modify it using various tools is almost unlimited. Your investment will be higher, but you will be buying into a system that can really grow as your requirements get more complex (i.e. warehouses, sales reps, bills of material, EDI, bar code scanners, financial statement formats, unique user-security definitions, different price points, interaction with other programs, etc.)

Here's a link to some whitepapers that might be useful.

http://www.ceoteams.com/resources/white-papers.html

Kirk Alexander
CEO Teams, Inc.
http://www.ceoteams.com

Hi Chris

It really depends as has already been commented on what you are looking for the system to do, if you are a growing business, or a business looking to grow then a Cloud or Saas solution has to be seriously looked at, the biggest player in this market is Netsuite, however the new kid on the block is SAP Business ByDesign which offers greater coverage in it's standard product than Netsuite. If you want a discussion or require anymore info please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Damian Patchell
Cloudster Foundation

Ability 585 is a new-state-of-the-art mid-market ERP that does not require capital investment for the software. It is not a Saas or cloud application and has a truly different feel to the software packages such as Sage, Dynamics, or SAP. Easy to use and intuitive, implementation efficency is key.

Functionality includes PLM, Operational Planning, Full Accounting, Quality System, Value Stream Fleability and more! New to the public domain, 585 has been serving the need of companies in the aerospace market requiring significant traceability and accountability.

Scott Curnel

Hi Chris,

It depends on a couple really important considerations:

1. What modules and key feature/functions do you need to meet your company's overall requirements - Some vendors offer great breadth (accounting, fulfillment, crm, etc.) and don't go too deep whereas others go really deep in some areas (manufacturing, project management, etc.)

2. How much of the implementation/support are you willing to take on yourself - It boils down to how much experience and time do you have to invest in the project. If it's not a lot, then you are going to need a strong value added reseller. In my experience, partnering with a quality technology vendor can greatly increase the odds of having a successful implementation.

3. How much money do you want to spend - It's a reality that needs to be considered. There are a couple of pricing breaking points that help stratify the solutions: less than $50k, $50k - $100k, and greater. Once you pick your range, the list of vendors narrows significantly.

With all that said, here's a good list of general SMB apps I recommend my clients take a look at, in no particular order: Netsuite; SAP Business One; Sage MAS 200 or 500; MS Dynamics AX, SL, NV, GP; Oracle JD Edwards. I usually pull one or two industry focused solutions (i.e. Consona for manufacturing ) into the RFP process as well.

Good luck with your process!
Shawn

Chris,

I think you should also add some open source alternatives to the list.

Recent research from both Forrester and IDC find out that open source applications (including ERPs) have above 10% adoption rates. This happens indepently of company size, encompassing corporations and SMEs.

The company I represent, Openbravo (see http://www.openbravo.com ) is an alternative you might want to consider.

Regards,
Josep

I would also add Infor VISUAL ERP, great deep functional product with large customer base.

Hi Chris,

You have got quite a lot of reviews on your question. Actually, this is a question to which all are trying to find answers to :-).

I would agree to what other consultants have said. It is important for you to identify the exact needs of that SMB organisation and the pain areas that they are trying to address through an ERP. Usually, an SMB has a pain area not in accounts (as it is the first department in any company to get computerized) but in departments like SCM and production. Since all known and unknown players offer an integrated package with accounts, it becomes imperative for the SMB company to redo account department as well, which at time becomes a pain.

we understood this dilemma of the SMB's and hence have developed an ERP solution addressing all the needs of an organisation except for finance. We offer to integrate the existing finance package with our ERP.

In case you feel that we would be able to add any value, please do let us know.

regards,

Ayush Agarwal

Adding to the comprehensive answers already posted, the question is far too general. Similar to asking "What kind of house should I build?" or "Which is the best car to buy?" Situational information needs to be shared so that a meaningful short list can be recommended.

Regards,

Neil Swanson

myERP.com should be on your shortlist. It was designed specifically from the start for SMBs: full ERP (accounting, CRM, purchasing, supply chain...), 100% cloud, an easy to use graphical user interface, free (up to 2 users), integrated with Google Apps and now available right from your Gmail account, using Google Apps Marketplace.