What to Look for in ERP Software? Well, It’s up to You!

Now that your business is growing and you are starting to feel the pains of that growth, you need to take the time to step back, identify your pain points and determine what decisions can move your activities toward your strategic objectives. You likely want to get a better handle on all operations of the business by allowing for complete integration and visibility, while also automating certain processes to ensure business continuity as you grow.

To meet these needs, you need to implement enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. Now that this decision has been made, you need to figure out what you should look for in such a platform – the good news is that it is truly up to you.

The Implementation Argument: SaaS versus On Premise

The staggering economic downturn that occurred in 2009 sent riveting effects throughout the global industry as enterprises and SMBs put a halt on spending and scrambled to streamline operations to ensure a reduce in waste. What is emerging, however, is an increased look at ERP solutions, both on-premise and in the cloud through SaaS (software-as-a-service) solutions that enable organizations to remain competitive, without shelling out capital their budgets won’t allow.

Saas ERP

SaaS is playing a major role in the ERP space, helping to shift the focus in spending and re-writing the rules for those involved in the game. According to an IDC survey, 9 percent of participants have already made open source enterprise applications a priority in the back office and 7 percent are running an open source CRM application. The elimination of upfront license payments and the overall low cost of ownership is helping to drive adoption in this space, although users still doubt the availability of robust support. At the same time, on-premise solutions don’t have the subscription-based licensing plans and required payments over time.

It is safe to assume that ERP will continue to evolve and change in the cloud as vendors in this space are still trying to best align their offerings and customers like you are still trying to determine what they need from the end provider. The business model is strong from the provider’s side as they can secure subscription-based pricing for a company that cannot afford to lose access to mission-critical data. As the customer, on the other hand, you gain access to robust, enterprise-grade ERP that enables your company to become much more competitive in your markets.

What is likely to occur next is a standards body to address the way information is captured, managed, stored and delivered in the cloud. There are many regulations now that do apply to this data, but certain practices are still dictated by the vendors and the customers. As ERP in the cloud continues to evolve, so will the guidelines that need to be put in place to protect all players and ensure you have access to the robust platform you need.

On-Premise ERP