The ERP and Cloud Computing landscape is constantly changing, and moreso over the last few years. The unprecedented economic drivers of the global financial meltdown and subsequent global recession have brought companies of every industry and size to scramble to meet the challenges of the marketplace with ERP applications and solutions in an effort to improve cost, functionality and scalability. ERP Cloud Computing applications have been getting tremendous following and demand for companies battling the formidable business challenges of the day which include revenue shortfalls and uncertainty, increasing competition, higher customer expectations and turnover, and changing market dynamics.
With tightening budgets, IT departments are looking for more affordable, high powered enterprise systems and ERP software solutions such as the web based ERP applications. IT managers in many cases are finding cloud computing applications easier to use and deploy thus further reducing the time and cost of meeting specific business needs with robust, on demand ERP Cloud Computing technologies.
The key benefits delivered by Cloud Computing ERP applications are:
a faster time to value, minimal to zero capital outlays,
minimal operational and maintenance costs,
fewer required IT resources (both on the front end and the back end)
easier implementation and integration.
For companies that are considering changing their ERP application from on-premise to open source or web based applications, keep in mind the following:
Make sure infrastructure is set up properly to integrate the Cloud Computing application or web based ERP solution that best fits their organization.
The cloud computing application should have a user friendly, easy to use standards oriented development code that will simplify the integration within disparate applications and legacy applications throughout the organization.
The open source application should have a secure and reliable development environment to ensure that the company’s data security and privacy standards are met given the increasingly stringent regulatory constraints regarding data security and privacy acts,
When deciding on and hosting your ERP system, make sure to do your research on your vendor and get a good understanding of track record and long term viability of the application. The solution may deliver the benefits you are looking for, but if the vendor is not going to be around in a couple of years for upgrades and maintenance, this could be a significant business disruption blow to your organization down the road, despite how low the initial cost of entry was. Some recommended ERP services and providers include Netsuite, Salesforce, Microsoft, SAP, IBM, Sage, JDE services from Syntax, and many others. Submit your experiences and recommendations here.
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Originally posted 2011-12-05 17:24:00. Republished by Blog Post Promoter