In 2012, Aberdeen Group conducted a benchmark survey among small-midsize companies to better understand the state of ERP, and what is preferred amongst this type of company. What they found was not surprising, in that, the majority of those small-midsize enterprises running ERP (as shown at right), were running such on-premise. However, what was surprising was the massive uptick in these same companies' interest in looking to the cloud as their next strategic move.
With the above graphic in mind, it is becoming very clear that these discrepancies are a thing of the past. For example, according to Aberdeen, as well as those signing on with Navigator & SAP, there has been at least a 53% increase in the adoption of SaaS in small organizations. This is countered by a decrease from 71% to 59% in on-premise deployments. While many small companies are still buying their first ERP system, all signs point to this trend continuing, making the split between on-premise and cloud even, or potentially lopsided towards SaaS/Cloud going forward.
The infographic to the right provides even more proof that ERP deployments are trending towards the cloud. From 2009 to 2011, the willingness of small companies to look at SaaS/Cloud software steadily increased. In particular, SaaS ERP saw exceptionally large gains. Again, over that same period, those looking at on-premise steadily decreased.
So, what factors do you need to consider to determine if SaaS/Cloud ERP is right for your company? If an ERP solution is not going to help your business standardize processes, contain costs, and provide visibility to decision-makers, it doesn't matter how it is deployed. In light of this, Aberdeen goes on to discuss the top ERP selection criteria of the Best-in-Class.
Most importantly were the functionality and ease of use. Truly, an ERP application, must deliver the functionality and feature sets to support the business now and in the future. Beyond that, employees need to be able to easily access, and use the system, as well as see their productivity increase. Otherwise, your company will never be able to recognize the full benefits of the ERP system. It is only after these three (3) areas that cost even becomes a consideration.
To learn more about how a cloud solution, and more specifically, a world-class cloud solution, built on over 40 years of best business practices can benefit your business, visit http://nbs-us.com/sap_cloud, or call us today @ 877.395.4SAP.
