Increasing number of ERP vendors are growing service options to the consumers but ERP solutions are no one-size-fits-all. Therefore, ERP vendor solution is generally classified into: Tier I, Tier II or Tier III vendor. Selecting appropriate tier solution as the business grows and matures is very crucial.
Tier I: (SAP, Oracle, IFS North America, Infor., Microsoft Dynamics)
These solutions are generally for- large and complex businesses with many departments and global locations having revenues in billions. They are built to handle large enterprise complexities. Whereas this is necessary for a billion dollar company, a smaller company would be overwhelmed by the general complexity.
Tier II: (IBS, NetSuite, QAD, Sage, Microsoft Dynamics NAV)
These offers a step down in complexity and cost from Tier 1 and fit well with mid-size companies. Need for complexity in this group may vary quite a bit, hence, there are several vertical market vendors that have focus on the complexity of just one specialized industry.
Tier III: (Quickbooks, Cincom, Deacom)
Tier III have very limited feature and complexity, hence are cheapest. Generally you get basic accounting abilities, therefore, small businesses having less demanding needs or businesses running a vertical line of business application with weak accounting benefits using a Tier 3 solution.