Erp for Smes
| ERP for SMEs | [Type the document subtitle] | | | |
1. Introduction
For the modern day corporate firms, Enterprisewide Resource Planning (ERP) systems have become an inherent necessity that cannot be obviated. With the increasing acceptance of ERP systems and the development of multiple ERP vendors with quality systems integrating all the functions of an organization in a central database, ERP adoption has increased beyond 70% among large enterprises. With impending saturation in the ERP market for large enterprises, most of the ERP vendors have turned to catering to the SME sector with customized solutions that tackle the problems of high cost of ERP selection and implementation and the inherent complexity involved in such systems. By means of offering cheaper and simplified solutions, flexible pricing policies, specialized functionalities and pre-configured systems based on best practices and cut down implementation times, ERP vendors have renewed their focus towards small and medium enterprises (SMEs) tremendously in order to capture a large pie of the huge untapped SME market the world over. Specifically, in the Indian context, SMEs have faced tough challenges post the economic liberalization which eased trade barriers and promoted disinvestments and deregulation. Before the economic liberalization in India in the 1990s, SMEs in India faced little competition and operated under a highly regulated business environment. However, following the economic liberalization, the Indian economy was opened up to foreign corporate and hence, Indian SMEs have been left with little choice but to adopt modern business practices and strategies to stay afloat to tackle renewed business challenges of compressed product development cycles, cut throat domestic and foreign competition and rapidly changing customer demands. ERP systems are a way ahead to create and sustain a competitive advantage not least because the custom packages designed by ERP vendors for
1. Introduction
For the modern day corporate firms, Enterprisewide Resource Planning (ERP) systems have become an inherent necessity that cannot be obviated. With the increasing acceptance of ERP systems and the development of multiple ERP vendors with quality systems integrating all the functions of an organization in a central database, ERP adoption has increased beyond 70% among large enterprises. With impending saturation in the ERP market for large enterprises, most of the ERP vendors have turned to catering to the SME sector with customized solutions that tackle the problems of high cost of ERP selection and implementation and the inherent complexity involved in such systems. By means of offering cheaper and simplified solutions, flexible pricing policies, specialized functionalities and pre-configured systems based on best practices and cut down implementation times, ERP vendors have renewed their focus towards small and medium enterprises (SMEs) tremendously in order to capture a large pie of the huge untapped SME market the world over. Specifically, in the Indian context, SMEs have faced tough challenges post the economic liberalization which eased trade barriers and promoted disinvestments and deregulation. Before the economic liberalization in India in the 1990s, SMEs in India faced little competition and operated under a highly regulated business environment. However, following the economic liberalization, the Indian economy was opened up to foreign corporate and hence, Indian SMEs have been left with little choice but to adopt modern business practices and strategies to stay afloat to tackle renewed business challenges of compressed product development cycles, cut throat domestic and foreign competition and rapidly changing customer demands. ERP systems are a way ahead to create and sustain a competitive advantage not least because the custom packages designed by ERP vendors for
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