The survey findings aren?t really surprising, Joe. Past trends in ERP have dictated that companies have spent a lot of time and money implementing ?big? all encompassing systems. They?re not about to rip those out and replace them with SaaS and nor should they. At UNIT4 we are finding that large multi-nationals are taking a hybrid approach, where they hook a multi-tenant SaaS accounting solution like FinancialForce.com into new franchises or operating divisions which then feed into a head office ERP/finance system like Agresso Business World, SAP etc. At the mid-level, companies are still mostly choosing on-premise but are demanding more flexibility in the software and how it is delivered, including hosted or 'private cloud' options. Vendors that can?t deliver that will find themselves in trouble.
We are seeing a lot of smaller organisations, depending how specialist their requirements are, choosing a cloud platform approach, where they build their own tailor-made, 'best of class' ERP in the cloud on a single platform. What is clear in the area of ERP is that companies are rebelling against the typical ?big, inflexible ERP? that had become commonplace and realising that there are other, more agile options available to them.
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