ERP Supplier Comparison, 2009
The following 2009 ERP Supplier Comparison was prepared by IT Business Edge contributor Dennis Byron. This was originally published on December 31, 2008.
Infor Over 20 brands with widely diverse functionality With its many brands, probably third largest but heavily maintenancerevenue- and AS/400-based Microsoft Four basic brands; all but AX with basic functionality Oracle Four primary brands, two with deep functionality Gaining on SAP, especially in North America, but still significantly behind SAP in ERP market share Large lead over SAP in standalone applications market share, primarily through acquisition About 4500 middleware partnerships that should be transferable to applications SAP Two brands, one with the deepest functionality available Holds wide lead in ERP market share (SAP is also gaining in middleware behind IBM, Microsoft and Oracle) Other
ERP Functionality
LawsonTwo SageMultiple IntuitOne
Market penetration/ activity, ERP
Would rank somewhere between Infor and Lawson
Sage and Intuit in particular have many more installations than Infor, Microsoft, Oracle and SAP but are aimed totally at small- and medium-size enterprises
Market penetration/ activity, standalone
Also has a widely diverse mix of standalone application brands
Leads based on Office; also actively pushing CRM capability as a service; will use the experience to market ERP as a service Partners heavily with Microsoft developer community; looking for 100,000
SAP does not really compete in standalone Thousands of examples applications market but has a few offerings
ERP Partnership strategy
Partners heavily with IBM and IBM distributors
Has been trying unsuccessfully for 10 years to build a program; looking for over 1,000 Integrated industry centricity of its ERP offering in 25 major codes is key to SAP success in ERP Solid modern middleware base for both brands Will take another run at NetWeaverbased SaaS, probably under the BusinessOne brand (given the failure of the Business By Demand service).
Tend to partner with IBM and Microsoft (but rarely both); many newer ERP suppliers partner within open source community Thousands of examples from companies such as Agresso, Compiere, HotWax, IFS, OpenBravo and XTuple mentioned in accompanying articles Primarily use IBM or Microsoft middleware or LAMP/WAMP stack
ERP Industry applications strategy
A lot of Covers breadth of Wide span but standalone, the industry primarily product unintegrated classification supply chain industry-centric codes point products Heavily AS/400based Different platform under each brand Not a major market goal of Oracles according to public statements; may be counting on NetSuite off the books
ERP Platform
.NET
ERP/SaaS Strategy
Trying to build Through partners into major delivery method
Others have shied away from direct SaaS, most notably Lawson (whose CEO was not shy about it)
