The State Of ERP In 2011: Customers Have More Options In Spite Of Market Consolidation

Now is the perfect time for business process professionals to revisit their current enterprise resource planning (ERP) application commitments and future ERP plans. As the global economy gradually recovers, IT budgets will start to free up, enabling organizations to begin thinking about significantly reinvesting in their administrative and operational apps. Companies investigating the pros and cons of such decisions will face a wider choice of ERP offerings than previously available — particularly in terms of deployment models, where there's a notable uptick in the number of software-as-a-service (SaaS) options and managed cloud offerings. The ERP market recovered fairly well in 2010 from the midrecession activity levels of 2009; the market will continue to grow in 2011, but will gradually shift from a licensed to a subscription model over the next five years. Vendor consolidation, industry specialization, and the introduction of newer technologies that improve business process flexibility will further change the vendor landscape.