Top 10 Manufacturing ERP Software Predictions For 2013

What can manufacturers expect in the new year?

An article on the Panorama Consulting Solutions website outlines the firm’s top 10 global ERP industry predictions for 2013.

1. Consolidation of top ERP vendors: With a shaky global economy and volatile business capital spending, ERP software revenue growth may not continue at such a feverish pace. Panorama Consulting Solutions expects high-growth SaaS and cloud ERP vendors to erode the market share of Tier 1 ERP vendors like SAP and Oracle.
2. Niche and best-of-breed ERP systems will dominate: More companies are moving away from big, single-system ERP deployments for their manufacturing ERP software. Look for niche and best-of-breed solutions to dominate the market, with even larger ERP vendors providing niche solutions to compete with smaller cloud providers.
3. Solution architecture and integration will be important: The increase in the above ERP systems will require better system integration and the elimination of data silos. Solution architecture and integration will support ERP implementations.
4. More adoption of mobile and BI solutions: With the increase in ERP software there should be a greater investment in mobile solutions and business intelligence software. Companies will realize this brings the greatest return on their existing ERP systems.
5. Hype will subside around SaaS and cloud: Some say that SaaS and the cloud killed traditional ERP. Yet still, large multi-national companies aren’t comfortable with the flexibility and security of SaaS ERP solutions. ERP vendors instead will naturally integrate SaaS and cloud options.
6. Leaders will be risk averse: Considering the uncertain economic environment, IT budgets will be tighter and ERP project teams will focus on high-value projects.
7. Chasm between ERP implementation successes and failures: There will be a growing dichotomy between smart ERP system implementations and losing scenarios. The biggest failures will be for those companies that try a do-it-yourself approach and start ERP implementation projects without independent help, the Panorama Consulting Solutions article explains.
8. Bigger ERP failures and lawsuits: With ERP’s growing popularity, there will be more ill-advised implementation strategies (see the above do-it-yourself crowd).
9. More companies will say no to ERP systems: Economic uncertainty and the fear of risk means that more companies won’t start large-scale ERP projects. Instead, they’ll focus on other improvement measures.
10. Focus on competitive edge, not on ERP best practices: Cost-cutting has been common in this economy and many organizations have ignored best practices because of it. Businesses will try to gain a competitive advantage by reengineering their business processes and changing their organization management.

Source: Panorama Consulting Solutions, November 2012