The State Of ERP 2009: Market Forces Drive Specialization, Consolidation, And Innovation

As the enterprise resource planning (ERP) software market struggles against an unprecedented tide of economic woes, strategic opportunities are surfacing for customers. Soft market conditions mean fewer deals for vendors and better deals for buyers of ERP applications. In the long term, forces of change are apparent — market consolidation continues, shaped by customer expectations of deeper industry functionality. New technology is reshaping the product offerings, enriching the user experience, increasing flexibility, and providing better insight. Software-as-a-service (SaaS) is starting to gain traction as a viable deployment option in some ERP market segments, riding on the success of best-of-breed customer relationship management (CRM) and human capital management (HCM) applications. The sluggish economy has resulted in an unprecedented decline in license revenues and vendor services, the impact of which will be felt through 2010. Among this turmoil, vendor consolidation will accelerate, leaving large vendors with increased market leverage — and more complicated product portfolios. Business process and applications (BP&A) professionals should use the soft market conditions to their advantage by stabilizing ownership costs and building a leaner and more sustainable applications portfolio.