Sunny days ahead for ERM firms
ERM solutions are top priority in companies' investment agendas in Asia Pacific, International Data Corporation Asia Pacific (IDC) reported.
The finding was based on a survey from over 900 IT professionals in Asia Pacific between 2000 and 2001.
According to the study, over 30 percent of the respondents placed ERM as their No 1 priority while more than 10 percent said ERM was their second most important application. About 15 percent said ERM was their third priority.
Overall, about 63 percent noted that ERM is of importance to their companies' investment.
"The attractiveness of ERM solutions lies in their ability to automate and optimize the management of corporate resources such as people, finances, materials facilities and intellectual capital required to meet business objectives," IDC senior analyst for Investment & Strategy Research Robin Giang said in a statement.
Corporations' objectives are met by "tracking, routing and analyzing information on companies' assets," she noted.
Systems infrastructure was rated the second most important IT solutions investment, and was on the minds of more than 45 percent of those surveyed. About 11 percent placed systems infrastructure as No 1 priority while over 20 percent said it was second. Close to 15 percent rated the solution as third priority.
Collaborative technologies were the third favorite among the respondents. In total, close to 45 percent of the interviewees had the solutions in mind, of which slightly less than 10 percent cited collaborative technologies as their companies' top priority in IT solutions investments.
A little off the pace was customer relationship management (CRM), which ranked fourth amongst the top IT solution investment priorities. Slightly under 45 percent of IT professionals said they had CRM on their investment agenda. About 7 percent gave it top priority.
"In Asia Pacific, CRM has been on the radar screen of many enterprises (in) the past couple of years," Giang noted.
"Despite the strong awareness…many enterprises still need to be convinced of the value-add and rapid return on investment," she added.
Meanwhile, industry specific solutions were ranked number five while business-to-business (B2B) applications stood at sixth position and business intelligence software was next. Supply chain solutions were at eighth position, which had less than 10 percent of the votes.
Towards the end of the list was business-to-consumer (B2C) application, which has lost it steam since the dot-com bust. Only 7 percent of respondents' voted for B2C.