Over the last decade there has been a dramatic shift in the way enterprise software was deployed and implemented by businesses. The cloud is something of a buzzword in Silicon Valley. It gets tossed around often, referring to from everything to personal data storage on your iPhone, to large complex systems from computing systems like IBM’s Watson. It is also used to describe software hosted as a service of SaaS. Software being offered via the cloud is not a new concept with companies like Salesforce.com reaching over a decade of operation. However there has been on sector of cloud computing that has been slower to adopt than other facets, and its cloud Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) applications. Large companies have been weary to adopt these cloud ERP offerings for a number of reasons. In particular security of the critical data was a large issue. However as cloud computing is becoming more widely adopted and more accepted as secure as traditional on-premise ERP systems. It is this adoption of the new ERP systems by large corporations that will shape the market in 2017. The current state, and near future for companies small and large is SaaS. This will open the door to many new trends that have not traditionally been seen.
- All enterprise level companies will soon have their ERP system hosted in the cloud. Security issues will be addressed and enterprise organizations will realize the value of simplification of their IT environment. Traditional on-premise applications will be phased out of these organizations all together.
- Small to medium businesses will adopt cloud ERP systems instead of disparate systems as solutions mature and prices for a full ERP suite are drive down by competition. As more cloud ERP vendors enter the market price will allow even local mom and pop shops to run full ERP suites for their business.
- The adoption of cloud ERP will decrease the need for large IT staffs in organizations. Updates and but fixes will be done seamlessly through the cloud from the vendor allowing companies to downsize their IT staff and allow existing IT professionals to focus their attention from maintenance of these systems to helping solve other problems in their respective organizations.
- Finally, the cloud ERP market will grow larger and larger. As large enterprise organizations begin to shift over to the cloud the market will boom. I believe that a few major players will dominate the market. The ERP vendors that can best design ERP systems that will easily integrate with other areas of companies IT infrastructure will win. ERP might even begin to be offered as a package with other software and database packages. Vendors who can offer customers everything from hardware to the software as one package will gain the largest share of the market.
The shift of these systems to the cloud opens an exiting world of possibilities for companies large to small. The flexibility and ease of implementation will transform IT making it simpler than ever to run a company.